The life of Luther : with special reference to its earlier periods and the opening scenes of the Reformation

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Part I. From Luther’s Birth Till The Beginning Of The Reformation In 1517

\WUTHER’S BOYHOOD TO THE FOURTEENTICT YRAR OF HIS AGE WHEN HE LEFT HIS FAPHER’S HOUSE.

Srcrion I.—Luther’s Birth-place and Parentage.

Muu, OME twenty | n S five mile a Mi INS north-west 0 tin Leipsic is situ ated the ol town of Halk on the Saal _ From thi | town, the roa { running to th west, afte crossing a fet tile plain,lead to a romaati eee spot, at a dis a miles, where the hills of south-western Saxony be gin to rise, and the flat lands, extending all th way from the Baltic Sea, reach their termination Mere the road, passing between two beautifu sheets of water, the one fresh and the other salt enters a vale, with ranges of vine-clad hills on eithe: side, which becomes wider and wider, till at the dis tance of nearly ten miles, it contracts again, and thé heights that bounded it converge and form the varie¢ i and pleasant scenery of Hisleben, once the capital of the county of Mansfeld. As the traveller enters this tewn, he leaves, on the left, before proceeding very far, the house where Luther was born, now converted into an edifice for the accommodation of an orphan school. In the same quarter of the city, a - few rods to the east, is St. Peter’s Church, where, according to the custom of the times, the boy was, on the very next day after his birth, baptized, and christened Martin, as that happened to be St. Martin’s day: This circumstance is highly characteristic of the religious sentiments of thatage. The senses and _ the imagination were employed, more perhaps than _ the heart, in the service of religion. The infant ghild was to be brought at once, in imagination at least, into connection with a saint; and it was believed that an association of the name would be adapted to awaken in him a corresponding association of ideas. The font which was used on that occagion is still shown to the curious traveller. ~~ Leaving these places and passing directly on, - * half-way through the town, the visiter will _. noint where a broad street, coming from a _ sat right-angles with the one he is in. min, that direction he will see most of the city lying vefore him, on a rising eminence. Ata ~ little distance stands, on the left, the old and somewhat stately house in which Luther died. On the _ other side of the street, a few rods above, is to be seen the church in which he preached his last sers ~- - mon, the very pulpit in which he stood being stil] preserved.

Let us now look for that district in Thuringia, 0 Western Saxony, where the ancestors of Luther 1 sided. We will imagine ourselves at the castle of Wartburg, about seventy-five miles south-west of Kisleben, and about twenty-five west of Hrfurt. Before us, as we face the east, we shall have Hisenach, in a valley, almost at our feet, and along the hills and dales beyond, Gotha, Erfurt, Weimar and Jena, lying respectively at distances of about twelve or fourteen miles from each other.

To the left, towards Hisleben, we look directly across four or five ranges of hills, which run parallel with the Thuringian Forest, with long narrow vales between them. ‘To the right, or in a south-easterly direction, lies the Thuringian Forest itself—a romantic range of hills or mountains, extending about forty.

miles. ‘Through all this tract of country were scattered different branches of the family which bore the name of Luther. .

Directly south from Wartburg, on the south-western declivity of the forest, on the way to Salzungen, lies the hamlet of Mora, where was the homestead of ‘that branch of the family from which Martin Luther sprung. Here the grandfather, Heine Luther, had a small farm, which iv he seems to have left to his eldest son Heinz.

or Henry Luther, the uncle of Martin. While Heinz received the small estate and assumed the maintenance of his parents, Hans or John, Martin

Luther’s father, appears to have been dependent upon his own industry for his livelihood. The most probable opinion is, that not long after his marriage he removed to Hisleben, in order to engage in the business of mining. rom the Hartz Mountains, lying to the north-west, between Hisleben and

Hanover, there runs a vein of coppér with a small

| : ; i b> a ie ingredient of silver, passing through Mansfeld and extending to Hisleben. At this last place, Hans Luther, Martin’s father, took up his first residence after leaving Mora; and during this residence Martin Luther was born, November 10, 1483.

The story to which Seckendorf gave currency, on the authority of a writer too late by a century to be a witness, namely, that Luther was born while his parents, yet residents of Mora, were attending a fair at Hisleben, is not only improbable in itself, as D’ Aubigné well remarks, but has been proved to be untrue from the fact, that fairs were never held at Hisleben in the month of November. Melancthon, the best authority on this subject, says: “The pa-- rents of Luther first dwelt in the town of Hisleben, where Luther was born, and afterwards they went to Mansfeld.” This view is confirmed by Ratzeberger’s Manuscript, which says: “Forasmuch as the mining business had for many years been in a prosperous state in the county of Mansfeld, Hans Luther, with his wife Margaret, betook himself to that place, and gave himself, according to his best

_ ability, to mining, till he became owner of a share in the mines and of a foundry. There, in the town of Hisleben, in the year 1483, was his son Martin Luther born, .... but the elder Luther, Hans, removed with his household to Mansfeld and was, on account of his knowledge and industry in mining, much beloved of the old Count Gunther.”

The report that Luther’s father fled to Hisleben in consequence of haying killed a person at Mora, was undoubtedly got up at a later period by the Papists, in order to throw discredit upon the Reformation. Hisleben, which has now a population of about seven

.

&. 1-13.) BIRTH-PLACE. es 15 thousand, was, at that time, the largest town of the territory of the Counts of Mansfeld.*

As Luther passed only about half a year of his earliest infancy in Hisleben, it was only the associations of his mind and subsequent connections with this place that could have any influence upon him. Indeed, it may be said that Hisleben owes more to Luther, than Luther to Eisleben. He always cherished an affection for the place, and had warm and intimate friends there; and the very last act of his life was, to make arrangements for establishing a Latin high-school in Hisleben, which soon numbered seven hundred pupils, and has not only existed, but flourished from that time to the present.

After about six months’ residence at Hisleben from the time of Luther’s birth, his parents removed to Mansfeld, six miles to the north-west, of which the present population is about twelve hundred and fifty. Though this was a much smaller place than the former, it was the residence of the various branches of the family of the Counts of Mansfeld. The castle, now in ruins, stood upon a rocky eminence on the south, and overlooked the vale in which the town was situated. The scenery, in and around the place where Luther spent the first thirteen years of his life, was rather wild and romantic. The country, though not mountainous, is elevated and hilly; partly cultivated, partly covered with pine forests, and partly a bald and sterile rock. The pits and slag lying on the

* The independent county of Mansfeld was a small irregular tract,lying between Halle and Nordhausen, not extending forty miles in any direction; and yet D’Aubigné says Mora was in it, whereas it was more than sixty miles from its nearest boundary. Si .

ie 7H surface indicate at once that it is a mining district. To the south-east, towards Hisleben, an extensive, varied and smiling landscape meets the eye. In the time of Luther’s childhood, Mansfeld was a place of active business.. Money, in considerable quantities, was coined from the silver ore; and the copper worked in those mines led to commercial intercourse with the larger places of trade in the south of Germany, and with Venice. It was undoubtedly the prospect of doing better in his business that induced the miner, Hans Luther, to leave Hisleben, and settle at Mansfeld; and the result justified his

. expectation. For we find him at a later period rising, if not to affluence, to a state of comfort and respectability. He became the owner of a house and two furnaces, and left, at his death, besides these, about one thousand dollars in money. He was so much esteemed, that he was made a member of the town council.

Section 11.—Character of Luther's Parents, and their Condition during his Boyhood.

Lurner always spoke of himself and of his aneestors as belonging to the peasantry. “I am a peasant’s son. My father, my grandfather, and my

» forefathers were all true peasants. Afterwards my father went to Mansfeld, and became an ore-digger.”’ _. Asit has been already intimated, Luther’s father, after he became a miner, rose by industry and effort from the condition of a peasant to that of a burgher or free citizen. He commenced his career at Mansfeld in penury, but with a force of character that could not leave him in that state. ‘My parents,’ says

Hi. 1-13.] PARENTAGE. 17

Luther, “were, in the beginning, right poor. My father was a poor mine-digger,* and my mother did carry her wood on her shoulders; «and after this sort did they support us, their children. They hada sharp, bitter experience of it; no one would do like- Wise now.” |

Tt was not till about seventeen years afterwards, when Luther was a member of the university, that his father had the means of paying the expenses of his education.+ His honesty, good sense, energy and decision of character won for him the respect of his fellow-citizens. He was open-hearted and frank, and was wont to follow the convictions of his undeastanding, fearless of consequences. His firmness was characterized by severity, sometimes approaching to obstinacy. In his actions which are known to us, he.appears clear-headed and decided, going right forward to his object. His son’s bold and unwavering course after committing himself to the work of reform, was just to his mind. - In the very Ok A Ga nT "ann acne ee eee ne

* Hauer, a word which has‘often been misunderstood as meaning & wood-cutter. It is time this mistake was corrected in the English and American writers on Luther.

7 Michelet is evidently in an error when he speaks of the parents being ‘‘in the enjoyment of a small property, for which they were no doubt indebted to their son.” The position of the father in society at Mansfeld, long before Luther’s celebrity, the liberal support which he is known _to have given his son while at the university, his appearance with an attendance of twenty horsemen at the time of Martin’s consecration as priest, the present of thirty guidens then made, and Luther’s own poverty up to the time of the father’s death, all forbid such a conjecture. Besides, the early biographers of Luther, who were his intimate friends, testify dineoti to the contrary.

midst of the Peasants’ War, which the enemies of Luther said was caused by him, his father advised him to take the bold, and, at that time, even hazardous step of trampling on the vow of celibacy, and, in that way, bearing his most decided testimony against the pretended sanctity of a monastic life.

Hans Luther was strictly religious in his character, but, at the same time, had the good sense, (so rare in that age, ) to distinguish religion from monasticism, upon which he looked with suspicion and aversion. Hence he was highly displeased when his son became a monk, and it was two years before a reconciliation was effected, and even then his opinion remained unchanged. When Martin left the monastic life, as he afterward says, “My father was heartily glad, for that he well knew the wicked cunning of the monks.” Melancthon describes him as being “a magistrate at Mansfeld, beloved of all for the honesty of his character.” Mathesius, who had lived in the family of Luther, represents the father as ‘patterning the widow of Sarepta, and training up his son in the fear of the Lord.”

Of the history of Luther’s mother less is known. Her maiden name was Margaret Lindemann. She was born at Neustadt, a small town directly south of Hisenach, and west of Gotha. Her father, who had been a burgher there, had removed from that place to Hisenach. It was, no doubt, here that Luther’s father formed an acquaintance with her. The circumstance that three of her brothers were liberally educated would seem to indicate that she belonged to an in« telligent family. Melancthon says, “She had many virtues agreeing to her sex; and was especially notable for her chaste conversation, godly fear, and

HH. 1-13.] DOMESTIC EDUCATION. 19 diligent prayer, insomuch that other honourable women looked upon her as a model of virtue and honesty.” That her piety was strongly tinged with the superstitions of the times and had a monastic severity, is proved by a variety of incidental remarks found in the writings of Luther. On one occasion he says, ‘My mother’s strait and rigorous carriage toward me served afterward to make me fly to a cloister and become a monk.”

As one of the most important objects aimed at in this biography is to trace out the causes that operated in the formation of Luther’s character; and as the incidents of his early life have been very sparingly handed down to us, it will be requisite to direct attention successively to the character of the various influences that acted upon him; and then to collect from the scenes of common life, in the time and places of his education, and from his own frequent allusion to them in his later writings, as many collateral rays of light as possible, and concentrate them on the points in question. In this way, we can, in no small degree, fill up the chasm which has so long existed in respect to his early history.

Section ILl.—Juther’s Domestic Education.

LutuHeEr’s parents bestowed great care upon his early training. In the strictest sense, he was brought up in the fear of God, and with reverence for the then existing institutions of religion. The intentions of his parents were of the most laudable character; the faults of their discipline were those of the age in which they lived. They were highly conscientious, earnest and zealous in the discharge of their parental duties. But the age was one of rudeness and severity, and they themselves had more talent than culture, more force and sternness of character than skill in awakening and fostering the generous impulses of childhood. ‘Their discipline was, almost exclusively, one of law and authority. The consequence was, that Martin, instead of feeling at ease and gamboling joyfully in their presence, became timid and shy, and was kept in a state of alarm, which closed up the avenues of his warm and naturally confiding heart. “Once,” says he, “ did my father beat me so sharply, that I fled away from him, and-was angry against him, till, by diligent endeayour, he gained me back.’ “Once did my mother, for a small nut, beat me till the blood came forth.” ‘Their intent and purpose were of the best sort; but they knew not how to put a difference between dispositions, and to order their discipline accordingly ; for that it should be exercised in a way that the apple might be put with the rod.”

To this rigid domestic discipline is to be traced, in a measure, his being long subject to sudden alarms, or being harsh and violent when. he rose aboye them. Though in later life he was fully aware that many errors had been committed in his domestic training ; and though, as he himself says, he tried in vain to remove all the effects of it upon his feelings and habits, still he found in it much more to approve than to condemn. Alluding to his own case, and that of others of his age, he says: “Children should not be entreated too tenderly of their parents, but | should be forced to order and to submission, as were their parents before them.”

The fact that, from three or four brothers, Martin alone was designated for a liberal education, is suffian

HH. 1-13.) AT SCHOOL. 21 cient proof that he gave some early indications of talent. It is also evident that the father took a religious view of this subject and desired for his gon something higher and better than mere worldly distinction. An early writer states, that he had heard from the relations of Luther at Mansfeld, that the

_ father was often known to pray earnestly at the bed-side of his son, that God would bless him and make him useful. Mathesius says, that Luther’s father, not only for his own gratification, but especially for the benefit of his son, frequently invited the clergymen and school-teachers of the place to his house. Thus were domestic influences brought in aid, in every suitable way, to form a taste for moral and intellectual culture. Well would it be for the world, if others, in more eligible circumstances, and in more enlightened times, would bestow similar care and attention upon training up a son of special promise in such a way that he may become a public benefactor. This is what Monica did for Augustine ; Arethusa for Chrysostom, and Basil’s and Gregory Nazianzen’s parents for them, and, through them, for the world.

Section IV.—Luther in the School at Mansfeld.

MANSFELD was situated in a narrow valley along the brook Thalbach, skirted by hills on both sides. From that part of the town where Luther’s father resided, it was some distance to the school-house, which was situated on a hill. The house is still standing, and the first story of it remains unaltered. One writer says, (on what authority we do not know,) that Luther commenced going to‘Sehool at the age of seven. Certainly he was so young that

“oe he was carried thither by older persons. When forty-four years old, two years before his death, he wrote on the blank: leaf in the Bible of Nicholas Oemler, who had married one of his sisters, the twenty-fourth verse of the fourteenth chapter of John, and under it: ‘To my good old friend, Nicho- Jas Oemler, who more than once did carry me in his arms to school and back again, when I was a small dad, neither of us then knowing that one brother-inlaw was carrying another in his arms.” In this school, though its teachers were frequently guests at his father’s house, he was brought under a much harsher discipline than he had been subject to at home. It was not without allusion to his own experience, that he afterwards speaks of a class of teachers, “who hurt noble minds by their vehement storming, beating and pounding, wherein they’treat children as a jailer doth convicts.”” He somewhere says, that he was once flogged fifteen times in a single forenoon at school. Again, he says, “I have seen, when I was a boy, divers teachers who found their pleasure in beating their pupils.’ ‘The schools were purgatories, and the teachers were tyrants and task-masters.”’

The injurious manner in which such treatment acted upon his fears is illustrated by an anecdote related by Luther in his Commentary on Genesis. “When I was a lad, I was wont té go out with my companions begging food for our sustentation while we were at the school. At Christmas, during divine service, we went around among the small villages, singing from house to house, in four parts as we were wont, the hymn on the child Jesus born at Bethlehem. We came by chance before the hut of a peasant who lived apart at the end of the village ; and when he heard us singing, he came out’ and, after the coarse and harsh manner of the pea-’ sants, said, ‘Where are you, boys?’ at the same time bringing us a few sausages in his hand. But we were so terrified at these words, that we all scampered off, though we knew no good reason why, save that from the daily threats and tyranny practised by the. teachers toward their pupils at that time, we had’ learned to be timid.’’ This incident, which has commonly been referred to the time when Luther was at Magdeburg, probably belongs to the period of his’ earlier childhood at Mansfeld. For it was when he’ was “a small boy,’ and was under severe teachers, which seems not to have been the case except at Mansfeld. The circumstance that Luther was then living at his father’s house will be no objection, if’ we consider the customs of the times and the poverty’ of the family at that early period. We are elsewhere informed that Luther was-then accustomed to attend funeral processions as a singer, for which he | received a groschen, (about three cents,) each time. —

The school at Mansfeld, at that time, was taught’ by one master, assisted by two members of the

CENCE oe were all taught by a master, assisted by theological students and candidates for some of the lower clerical offices. But as nearly all the offices of state at that time were in the hands of the clergy, there was a general rush to the schools on the part of all who were seeking to rise above the common walks of life. The great mass of the youth were wholly destitute of education. All the others, except a few from the sons of the rich, went through a clerical or ecclesiastical course of instruction. No matter to what offices they were aspiring, they must study under the direction of the church and under the tuition of monks and priests, or candidates for the priestly office. The character, however, both of pupils and of teachers in these schools, was as unclerical as could well be conceived. The schools were properly in the charge either of the bishop and the canons of his chapter, or of the monks; and hence they formed two classes, | and were called cathedral and monastic schools. But these ecclesiastics and friars became indolent, and employed cheap substitutes as teachers, and lived in ease and in plenty. ‘The drones,’ says Luther, when speaking on this point, “drove the honey-bees out of the hive; and monk and canon divided the pay with the poor schoolmaster, as the beggar did, who promised to share equally with the church the half of what he received, and gave the outward half of nuts and the inner half of dates for pious uses, and consumed the residue himself.” |

The arrangements of the schools were these> The teachers, and the pupils who were from abroad, occupied large buildings with gloomy cells. A sombre monastic dress distinguished them both from — other persons. A large portion of the forenoon of each day was devoted to the church. At high mast all must be present. ‘The boys were educated to perform church ceremonies, while but little attention was given to what is now commonly taught in schools.

The assistant teachers, candidates for the clerical.

office, generally taught a few hours in the-day, and performed, at the same time, some daily inferior church service, for both of which they received but a trifling reward.

Thus the schools were but a part and parcel of the church. ‘The assistants were commonly taken from those strolling young men who infested the country, going from place to »lace either as advanced students, and changing their place at pleasure, or seeking some subordinate employment in the schools or in the church. When they failed to find employ, they resorted to begging and even to theft to provide for their subsistence. The older students would generally seck out each a young boy as his ward, and initiate him into the mysteries of this: vagrant mode of life, receiving in turn his services. in begging articles of food, and in performing other menial offices.

We have a living picture of the manners we habits which prevailed in these schools, in the auto. biography of Thomas Platter, a contemporary |

Luther and a native of Switzerland. aes: at time,”’ that is, in his tenth year, he says in his biography, ‘“‘came a cousin of mine, who had been at the schools [to become a priest] in Ulm and Munich in Bavaria. My friends spake to him of me, and he promised to take me with him to the schools in Germany; for I had learned of the village priest to sing a few of the church hymns. ‘When Paul (for that was my cousin’s name) was ready to go on his way, my uncle gave mea guides, [sixty-three cents, ] wrcy.

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I put into the hands of Paul. I must promise that I would do the begging, and give what I got to him, my bacchant, (protector,) for his disposal. (We journeyed to Zurich, where Paul would wait till he should be joined by some companions. Then we determined to set out for Misnia, [in the present kingdom of Saxony.] Meanwhile I went a-begging, and thus furnished the sustentation of Paul. After tarrying eight or nine weeks, we left Zurich and went on our way to Misnia, in a company of eight, whereof three of us were young schiitze, [wards;] the rest were large bacchantes, as they are called. Of all the wards I was the youngest. When I was so weary that I could hardly go, my cousin Paul would go behind me and scourge me on my bare legs, for I had no hose and only poor shoes. While on the way, I heard the bacchantes tell how that in Misnia and Silesia the scholars were wont to steal geese and ducks and other things for food, and that no other notice was taken thereof, if one could but only escape from the owners. Then said I to my companions, ‘When shall we come to Misnia, where I may go out stealing geese?’ They replied, ‘We are already NMI alia. coh 90 We went to Halle in Saxony, and there we joined ourselves to the school of St. Ulrich. But as our bacchantes entreated us roughly, some of ‘us communed on the matter with my cousin Paul, and we agreed together that we would run away from them, and depart to Dresden. Here we found no good school, and the houses, moreover, were infested with vermin. Wherefore we went from that place to Breslau. We suffered much in the way from hunger, having on certain days nothing to eat but raw onions _ with salt. We slept oftentimes in the open air, be-

cause we could not get an entrance into the houses, .

but were driven off, and sometimes the dogs were set upon us. When we came to Breslau we found abundant stores, and food was so cheap that some of our company surfeited themselves and fell sick. We went at the first into the school at the dome [eathedral] of the Holy Cross; but learning that there were some Switzer youth in the parish of St. Hlizabeth, we removed thither. The city of Breslau hath seven parishes, with a school in each. No scholar is suffered to go around singing in another parish; and if any one taketh upon him to do so, he getteth a round beating. Sometimes, it is said, sundry thousands of scholars are found in Breslau, who get their living by begging. Some bacchantes abide in the schools twenty and even thirty years, having their sustentation from what their wards beg. I have oftentimes borne five or six loads home to the school the selfsame evening for my bacchantes; for being '

small, and a Switzer besides, I was kindly received by the people. . . . In the winter, the small boys were wont to sleep on the floor of the school-house, the bacchantes in the mean season sleeping in the cells, whereof there are not a few hundreds at the school of St. Elizabeth. In the warm parts of the year, we were wont to lie on the ground in the churchyard; and when it rained, to run into the school-house, and if it stormed vehemently to sing responses and other pieces the whole night long with the sub-chanter. Ofttimes after supper, in the summer evenings, did we go into the beer-houses to buy beer, and sometimes would drink so much that we could not find our way back. ‘To be short, there was plenty of food, but not much studying here. At St. Elizabeth’s, nine bachelors did teach every day, one hour each in the selfsame room. The Greek tongue was not studied at all. No printed books did the students have of their own. ‘The preceptor alone had an imprinted Terence. What should be read was at the first dictated and eopied, and then construed and explicated, so that the bacchantes bore away great heaps of manuscripts.”

It was from such strolling bacchantes as are here portrayed to the life, by Platter, that the assistant teachers were taken, who assumed the name of Jocati (located or settled) when they obtained a place. Their education consisted of aknowledge of the church service, of church music, of a little Latin, and of writing and arithmetic. Their character corresponded to that of the church at large in that rude and licentious age. They were, for the most part, mere adventurers and vagabonds, neither loving nor understanding the art of teaching any better than they did the nature of true religion, whose servants they professed to be. They remained but a short time in a place, never pretended to study the character and disposition of their pupils, taught mechanically, and ruled not by affection but by brute and brutal force. The greater part of what they taught was nearly useless. Study was a mere exercise of the memory.