Martin Luther: student, monk, reformer

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Preface

A GREAT Epoch in the history of the German nation, powerfully affecting- and shaping the history c£ the civilised world, was, humanly speaking, created by Martin Luther. .

With the force and beauty of a Heavenly Benediction, Luther came amongst his brethren, the long-enslaved and spiritless victims of a daring religious despotism. The unchallenged purity of his personal character, and the impelling influence of the inspired doctrines he proclaimed, arrested and fixed the attention of his countrymen, directing them with power and authority to a nobler service and a higher Master. The dying embers of a lingering Faith were fanned into new and active life by the strong breath of one man : Martin Luther.

Despite that subjugating policy which dwarfed and

Vlll. PREFACE.

stunted its spiritual intelligence, mankind had outgrown the Papacy. Christendom, ruled unwisely and faithlessly, halted. The " Holy Roman Empire," that giant conception of Temporal and Spiritual domination, like a colossus of evil-omen, shadowed the nations of Europe. The world's Christianity, except in remote and obscure regions where Gospel Truth had been miraculously preserved, was not the Christianity of Christ. The system of Rome was the anthithesis of that of the meek and lowly Saviour, whose worship, to quote the language of a modern writer, " unlike all other systems of worship, is bloodless, boundlessly beneficent, inexpressibly pure, and — most marvellous of all — tends to break all bonds of body and soul, and to cast down every temporal and spiritual tyranny."

As the divinely inspired Prophet of Germany, Luther came with his mission of light and renewal. Spiritual Freedom,

"The unfettered use of all the powers Which God for use hath given,"

is the right and glory of man. He took this doctrine for his initial text, and never throughout his life swerved from its enforcement. Essentially the champion of rational, pure, and holy living ; the Apostle of free thought and free judgment ; this bold, rugged Reformer, utterly without fear,

PREFACE. . IX.

denounced the corrupt teaching of the Priest at Rome; and dealt blow upon blow at that system of superstition and ignorance which for ages had been imposed upon the world.

One part, at least, of his appointed work, was wholly accomplished; and this alone immortalises the name of the Saxon Reformer. He gave to the German people, and, by swiftly-spreading example, to the aroused nations surrounding him, a free and open Bible, intelligible to all, as the one true and sure Guide on the road leading to Eternity and Christ.

Luther lived long enough to see a little of the fruits of the conflict with Rome ; but the grand and abiding results of the movement initiated by him, are, to this hour, in process of revelation. The Liberator of Germany from the yoke of the Papacy, lifted that same spiritual thraldom from the necks of many of the nations of Christendom. The Protestantism of the German Reformation contains great progressive principles. Human conclusions and human errors are fearlessly assailed. Truth is sought only in the Fountain of all Truth, in God himself, and in His Word. " Truth is God. To love God, and to love Truth, are one and the same." The positive contributions

X. PREFACE.

of true Protestantism to the sum of human happiness are, civil and religious liberty, advanced intelligence and morality, cheerful industry, enlarged usefulness, increasing wealth, assured prosperity. The history of all nations which have cast off the rule of the Papacy, and become Protestant, is one unbroken history of vitality and progression. This truth is both remarkable and conclusive ; and it is upon the substantial structure of unexhausted and accumulative blessing, that the enduring and world-wide fame of Luther, the Pioneer of Spiritual Freedom in Germany, is based and established.

One important reflection fills the mind in considering God's method of Selection for all His great purposes. Moses, the foundling of the Nile, was destined to be the Law-giver and Leader of the specially chosen people. Luther, the peasant-born son of the miner, was the appointed Chieftain of the great Reform in our Modern World. " Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."

In compiling this work, I have availed myself largely of

the works of Mathesius, Seckendorf, Shenkel, Jiirgen,

D'Aubigne, Sears, Waddington, and many other able

and trustwortny writers, to whose labours most ample

PREFACE. XI.

acknowledgments are now made. The main instructive features in the life and character of Germany's chief Reformer, are given with the earnest desire that the sublime Truths which stirred his devotion, and ennobled his calling-, may inspire us with the spirit of emulation, and enable us to realise and embody what is undoubtedly taught by his history, that great deeds are immortal. " We cannot look," says Carlyle, " upon a great man, without gaining something by him. He is the living light-fountain, which it is good and pleasant to be near ; the light which enlightens, which has enlightened the darkness of the world ; and this, not as a kindled lamp only, but rather as a natural luminary, shining by the light of heaven; a flowing light-fountain, as I say, of native original insight, of manhood and heroic nobleness, in whose radiance all souls feel that it is well with them.,,

John Rae.

Chiskhurst, 1884.

Chapter I. Parentage And Early Life

AT THE time when Luther was born, there was in all directions something that announced the Reformation. Warnings and events were hastening on which threatened to destroy the work of ages of darkness, and to make all things new. The hierarchical rule, which the efforts of many centuries had imposed upon the world, was shaken, and its fall drew nigh. The Latin Bible, the first complete printed book known, commonly called the Mazarin Bible, from the fact of its discovery in the library of Cardinal Mazarin, was issued by Gutenberg and Fust, at Mentz, about the year 1455. * Our own Caxton printed his first book at Cologne in the year 1471, and in course of a few years the new art, the pioneer of intellectual and spiritual emancipation, penetrated every country in civilized Europe; The long night of Ignorance and Apathy was passing away, and the dawn of the day of Knowledge, synonym of freedom and progress, was at hand. The old Apostolic Faith, long hidden from the people, crept from its priestly prison-house, and re-appeared almost as a new Revelation; In every grade of society a fresh life was in motion,

1 A very fine copy of this treasure is in the British Museum. . -

B

Martin Luther.

" What an age ! " exclaimed Hutten, " studies flourish : minds are awakening : it is a joy merely to be alive I " Minds that had lain dormant for so many generations, seemed desirous of redeeming by their activity the time they had lost. To leave them unemployed, and without food, or to present them only with such as had long supported their languishing existence, would have betrayed ignorance Of man's nature. Already did the human mind clearly perceive what was and what should be, and surveyed with a daring glance the immense gulf which separated these two worlds. Great princes filled the thrones : the time-worn colossus of Rome was tottering under its own weight : the ancient spirit of chivalry was dead, and its place supplied by a new spirit which breathed at once from the sanctuaries of learning, and from the homes of the lowly. The printed Word had taken wings that carried it, as the wind wafts the light seed, even to the most distant places. The discoveries of the two Indies extended the boundaries of the world. Everything announced a great revolution.

But whence is to proceed the blow that shall throw down the ancient building, and raise a new one from its ruins ? No one could tell. Who possessed greater wisdom than Frederick, more learning than Reuchlin, greater talents than Erasmus, more wit and energy than Hutten, greater valour than Sickingen, or was more virtuous than Cronberg ? And yet none of these able and illustrious men overthrew the tottering and mouldering edifice ! Scholars, princes, warriors, the Church itself, had weakened the foundation ; but there they had stopped. In no direction could be seen the

Hans Luther of Mohra.

powerful hand that was to be the instrument of God. And yet all men had a presentiment that it would soon appear. Many pretended to have discovered in the stars unerring* indications of its approach. Some, as they looked upon the miserable state of religion, foretold the near advent of Antichrist. Others, on the contrary, predicted a revolution to be close at hand. The world waited anxiously.

Luther appeared.

All was ready. God, who prepares his work through ages, can accomplish it by the weakest instruments, when His time is come. To effect great results by the smallest means — such is the law of God. This law, which prevails everywhere in Nature, is found also in History. God selected the reformers of the Church from a class not unlike the class from whence he had taken the Apostles. He chose them from among that lower rank, which does not reach to the level of the middle classes. Everything* was thus designed to manifest to the world that the work was not of man but of God. The reformer, Zwingle, emerged from an Alpine shepherd's hut ; Melanchthon, the theologian of the Reformation, from an armourer's shop and LUTHER, from the cottage of a poor miner.1

In the hamlet of Mohra,3 or Mora, situated in Upper Saxony, in the vicinity of the Thuringian forest, and close to Eisenach, there lived a peasant named Hans (John) Luther, who followed the occupation of a miner, a similar calling to that of his father and grandfather before him.

* Shenkel's Ref, 15.

* See Mayhew's German Life, pp. 1 — 13, for a very full description of Mohra, the village on the Saxon Moors.

Martin Luther.

He was not the eldest son, but one of several others who, according to the custom of the Thuringian peasants, were compelled to leave the eldest in possession of the paternal property, and to gain elsewhere a livelihood for themselves. In the village of Neustadt, in the district of Wiirzburg, south of Eisenach, and west of Gotha, there dwelt Gretha (or Margaret) Ziegler, the eldest daughter of a thriving tradesman of that place. She held a high character as a diligent, virtuous, and God-fearing maiden, and was the pride of the village. An acquaintance sprang up between young Hans and Margaret which resulted in their marriage. The first fruit of the union was Martin, who was born at eleven o'clock in the evening of the ioth of November, 1483, at Eisleben, whither they had removed from the village of their first home. The house where the Reformer was born stands at the top of the street which bears his name, not far on the left as you enter the town. The old house, partly burnt years ago, was restored in J817, and the lower portion remains unaltered. The entrance is surmounted by a badly executed bust, enclosed in a frame with the following inscription :— *" In this house Dr. Martin Luther was born, the ioth of November, 1483. God's Word is Luther's lore ; which abides for evermore." The child was taken by his father and baptized at St. Peter's Church the next day, receiving the name of the Saint whose festival was being then celebrated. Jt was for a long time asserted that a fair was in progress at Eisleben at the time of Luther's birth ; but this has been shown to be incorrect.

Schliisselburg states: "He had heard from Luther's

Birth. 5

relations that his father would often pray aloud and fer-; veritly, by the cradle of his boy, that God would grant him His grace ; so that bearing in mind his name (Laufer, pure) he might labour for the propagation of pure doctrine; This bears the marks of a story modified at least by sub-* sequent events, but agrees well with what we know of Hans Luther's character." >

Hans and his wife did not remain long at Eisleben : the place did not present opportunities for the prosecution of his business : so in less than six months from the birth of the child Hans Luther removed to Mansfeld, a town situated near the banks of the Wipper, and some six miles distant from Eisleben to the North-West, where he lived and died;

In Ratzeberger's manuscript we read : " 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 Eisleben, in the year 1483, was his son Martin Luther born . . . but his father removed with his household to Mansfeld, and was, on account of his knowledge and industry in mining, much beloved of the old Count Gunther.,>

Although the neighbourhood of Mansfeld was at that time rich in materials favorable for mining pursuits, poor Hans at first was not successful in obtaining profitable employment in the calling to which his early manhood was devoted'. The struggle for existence was a very hard one.

"My* parents," says Martin in a letter written some

Martin Luther.

years afterwards, "were very poor. My lather was a poor miner (homer— <t comma* mrner), and my mother has often carried wood upon her back, that she might procure the means of bringing up her children. They both endured the severest labour for our sakes."

But in spite of the pinch of German peasant poverty, the child grew stout and sturdy, blessed with fine exuberance of spirits and the promise of a vigorous constitution ; which was apparently unaffected by exposure and many and severe privations.

The work of education was commenced by has parents in his earliest childhood. The cares attendant on their struggle for bread for the family, did not cause them to neglect their duty in the cultivation of the mind of their first-born. In their lowly vray they endeavoured to lay the foundation of instruction. When little Martin had readied the age of six years he could read and write with ease. From the teaching at home he was suit to the free school at MansfeW, where he rapidry learned the catechism, the ten commandments, the creed, and the Lord's Prayer. Instruction in the rudiments of the Latin grammar followed, and the proficiency soon gained by die boy in this humble seminary of learning was very considerable.

Mansf eld lies in a narrow valley along the Tnalbach, (Valley-brook), skirted by hills on both sides, on the borders of the Hartx country, Ftom that part of the town where Luther's father reeled* it was same distance to die school, which stood on a hilK The house is stffl standing, and the first story of it remains unaltered.

Harsh Treatment*

One writer says that Luther commenced going to school at the age of seven. Certainly he was so young that he was carried thither by older persons. Years afterwards he wrote upon the blank leaf in the bible of Nicholas Emler, 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 Nicholas Emler, who did, more than once, carry me in his arms to school and back again, when I was a little boy, neither of us then knowing that one brother-in-law was carrying another in his arms."

The discipline of the school, in accordance with the general character of these institutions, was of the severest kind. Punishments needlessly harsh and indiscriminate were inflicted for the most trivial faults, and poor Martin was frequently subject to chastisements which dwelt in his memory and provoked many bitter reflections in after years.

His parents' idea of correction was more thai! strict, u My parents used me harshly, so that I became very timid. My mother one day chastised me so severely about a nut, that the blood came. They seriously thought they were doing right; but they could not distinguish character, which, however, is very necessary, in order to know when, or where, or how, chastisement should be inflicted. It is necessary to punish ; but the apple should be placed beside the rod."

In this respect matters were not mended at school. The high spirit and impetuosity of the poor boy often brought him within reach of the master's rod. The least deviation from the rigid path of study, the least indulgence! in the harmless and irrepressible outbursts of buoyant youth, brought upon the hapless boy the lash of punishment. Fifteen timies successively in one morning did he receive a flogging at the hands of his tyrant mentor. To subdue and rule by terror and the infliction of painful bodily suffering upon boys of the tenderest age was the prevailing practice of this and like schools for the young"; Love and Christian charity formed no element of their system, and the cold, harsh course of instruction could not reach the hearts of those whose young lives were forced into subjection by such unwise and persistent sternness. l

The school was in charge of the monks ; but they, without the permission or knowledge of the bishop, or their superiors, employed inferior teachers, while they, neglectful of their duties, lived in indolence and luxury.

"The drones," said Luther in after years, " 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."

These were the arrangements of the school. The teachers, and the pupils from a long distance occupied

■ x Luther himself says, " My religious instruction was imparted with the same severity as my secular ; I turned pale and was terrified at the very name of Christ. I regarded Christ as nothing more than a strict and wrathful judge."— Jiirgen's Luther s Leben, 1.59.

Teachers and their Students.

large 'buildings with gloomy cells. A sombre monastic dress distinguished them from other persons. A large portion of the forenoon of each day was devoted to the Church, and all must attend High Mass. The boys were educated to perform Church ceremonies, while but little attention was given to what is now usually taught in schools. The assistant teachers, candidates for the clerical office, generally taught k few hours in the day, and performed, at the same time, some daily inferior* Church service ; for both of which they received but very trifling reward.

Thus the school was an integral part of the Church. The assistants were commonly taken from strolling young men who infested the country, going from place to place either as advanced students, and changing their abode at pleasure, or seeking some subordinate employment in the schools or in the Church. When they failed to find employment they resorted to begging, and even to theft, to provide for their subsistence. The older students would generally choose their younger companions as wards, and initiate them into the mysteries of this vagrant mode of life, receiving in turn their services in begging articles of food, and in performing menial offices.

But notwithstanding the objectionable treatment which supplemented the education imparted, Martin was no dull or inapt scholar. His desire for knowledge was remarkable, and before long he had mastered* all that Could be acquired from his teachers at Mansfeld.

Few, indeed, of the comforting associations generally inseparable from childhood clustered about this period of io Martin Luther.

his life. No tender, fond indulgences of a loving- home ; no long pleasant wanderings and enchanting frolics with companions of his own age, that bring to the heart a delicious sense of happiness which never seems to come when childhood is past; no kindly and sympathetic encouragement from his teachers, calculated and intended to make the acquisition of learning a pleasure and a delight. Nothing of this. The childhood of the Reformer was not nurtured tenderly, however studiously it may have been intended to prepare it for a future great fruition. The soft hand of encouragement was never laid upon his head ; no loving cheek was pressed against his ; and no sympathetic tears mingled with those of the young student; as he travelled upon, and essayed with faltering and wearied and bruised feet to climb, the steep ascent of knowledge. The natural wayward impulses of the child were not checked and overcome by the bright loving counsel of those whose hands were unused to severity. The dread of punishment was the weapon used to overawe, and no place was given to the large-hearted and loving Gospel of Christ, then unknown, untaught, and undesired.

And so the early childhood of Martin Luther passed away; his body too often smitten by the rod of the preceptor, and his mind uncheered, and his soul untouched by any of the vital and inspiring teachings of the christian religion.

About this time, the common belief in witches was at its height. Of the very celebrated work entitled the "Maul for Witches," instructing priests and magistrates

Witches. 1 1 what rules to observe in their proceedings against witches, and circulated with both the Papal and Imperial sanction, three editions were printed while Luther was a boy residing in his father's house at Mansfeld. He tells the story of a witch that lived near, and who used to trouble his mother very much ; also, of an attempt of the devil, in human form, to separate husband and wife; and, another story, of an instance where the devil actually entered the pulpit and preached for a minister !

Some of these stories he seems to believe, others he ridicules. " I myself," he says, " have seen monks, shameless and wicked fellows, who feigned to cast out the devil and then to sport with him as with a child."

During this period the circumstances of the family had somewhat improved.

Hans Luther was a man of hard inflexible character, honestly and doggedly working to maintain those dependent upon him to the utmost of his ability. Hard work and determination gradually, yet surely, met their reward.

He had established two smelting furnaces at Mansfeld, and the people of the place, learning to appreciate the force and honesty of his character, had marked their sense of his worth by appointing him one of their councillors. Hans had no desire that his son Martin should follow his occupation. His intention was that his son should continue his studies in a new and larger sphere. The educational means of Mansfeld being exhausted, the Franciscan School at Magdeburg was chosen as the theatre for the continuation and enlargement of his scholastic career. To Magdeburg, a large and famous town, at the age of fourteen,

Luther was sent, accompanied by a fellow-student, John Reinecke.

In the month of May, 1497, two students, with the German Reisesack (knapsack) on their backs, wended their way along the high road from Mansfeld to Bernburg. They were despondent and sorrowful, having just quitted the paternal roof, and were proceeding on foot to Magdeburg, to avail themselves of the Currendsckulat, celebrated seminaries in the middle ages.1

Here he remained for more than twelve months, during which time the hardships of his life were in no way abated. Although his father had sent him to Magdeburg for the purpose of the better prosecution of his studies, he did scarcely anything in providing him with the means of subsistence. The family had increased in Mansfeld, and the worthy man had doubtless a difficult task to meet his growing home expenses ; and he does not seem to have made any considerable endeavour to place his eldest son beyond the reach of privation and want. These were frequently of the most severe kind, and poor Luther, often in absolute need of bread, was glad to join other students, who, like himself, were thrown upon the cold charity of the world, in singing through the streets to supply the common necessaries of life. Possessing a sweet contralto voice, and having some knowledge of music, for a considerable time he obtained in this precarious way his daily bread*

* The Currmd^kuidh where choral boys. Dot unlike the choristers of our Inns of Court, were both educated aud trained in music, and, at times, went in procession singing plain chants.

Poverty. '13

" I used to beg with my companions for a little food, that we might have the means of providing for our wants. One day, at the time the Church celebrates th6 festival of Christ's nativity, we went wandering together through the neighbouring villages, going from house to house, and singing, in four parts, the carols of the infant Jesus, born at Bethlehem. We stopped before a peasant's house that stood by itself at the extremity of the village*. The farmer, hearing us sing our Christmas hymns, came out with some victuals which he intended to give to us, and called in a loud voice, and with a harsh tone, ' Boys, where are you ? ' Frightened at these words, we ran off -as fast as our legs would carry us. We had no reason to be alarmed, for the farmer offered us assistance with great kindness ; but our hearts, no doubt, were rendered timorous by the menaces and tyranny with which the teachers were then accustomed to rule over their pupils, so that a panic quickly seized us. At last, however, as the farmer -continued calling after usr we stopped, forgot our fears, ran back to him, and received from his hands the food intended for us. It is thus/' continues Luther, "that we are accustomed to tremble and fear, when the conscience is guilty and alarmed. In such a case we are afraid even of the assistance that is offered us, and of those who are our friends, and who would willingly do us every good."

Of course, there was then little of the odium attached to the practice of singing from house to house which is now generally supposed to be associated with it ; and yet it was even then only used as the last means of gaining a living by the very humblest in ability and condition.

Luther, in telling this story of his early needs, begs the grace and mercy of the charitable in favor of the sons and daughters of poverty, who are forced to appeal to the benevolence implanted in the hearts of those called by God, and blessed with means to be the almoners of His all-compassionate care for his needy creatures, and without whose benign permission not even a sparrow "shall fall on the ground. "

" Let no one before me speak contemptuously of the poor * companions ' who go from door to door, singing and crying * Bread, for God's sake ! ' (Panem propter Deum !) You know the psalm which says

' Princes and Kings have sung/

I, myself, was once a poor mendicant, begging my bread at people's houses, particularly at Eisenach ; my own dear Eisenach."

This precarious mode of life continued the whole time he remained at Magdeburg, although he contrived, amid biting poverty, to persevere in the cultivation of all possible methods for gaining knowledge.

"The Franciscans/' says Dr. Barnas Sears, "wore a gray robe with black scapularies, and were especially employed in attending on the sick, and in the burial of the dead. The boy in whose heart was a sealed fountain of fervent and joyous passion, found nothing under his new masters and in his new mode of life to satisfy his internal wants." The few incidents which he records, from his recollections of this period, are strikingly characteristic of the Order, and indeed of the Church at large. " I have seen," says he, " with these eyes, in my fourteenth year,

The Emblem of the Ship. 1 5

when I was at school at Magdeburg", a Prince of Anhalt, brother of Adolphus, Bishop of Merseburg, going- about the street in a cowl, begging bread with a sack upon his shoulders, like a beast of burden, insomuch that he stooped to the ground ... He had fasted and watched and mortified his flesh till he appeared like an image of death, with only skin and bones, and died soon after."

Luther, also, speaks of a painting symbolical of the teaching imparted by the Church. "A great ship was painted, representing the Church wherein there was no layman, not even a King or Prince. There was none but the Pope with his cardinals and bishops in the prow, the Holy Ghost hovering over them. The priests and monks with their oars at the side ; and thus they were sailing on heavenward. The laymen were swimming along in the water, around the ship. Some of them were drowning ; some were drawing themselves up to the ship by means of ropes, which the monks, moved by pity and making over their own good works, did cast out to them, to save them from drowning, and to enable them to cleave to the vessel, and so reach Heaven with the others. There was no Pope, nor cardinal, nor bishop, nor priest, nor monk in the water, but laymen only. This painting was an index and summary of their doctrine. I was once one of them, and helped to teach such things, believing them and knowing no better." This picture made a deep impression on his mind.