The History of Protestantism

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6000887882
- -
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HARININ
Liceul RE
HEBE
LE
.
Frontispicco .
ATWORMS
DIET
THE
BEFORE
LUTHER .se3,pvSeeBookVICitey35piap
THE HISTORY
OF
PROTESTANTIS M .
BY THE
Rev. J. A . WYLIE, LL . D .,
Author of " The Papacy,” “ Daybreak in Spain ," & c.
ILLUSTRATED.
“ PROTESTANTISM , THE SACRED CAUSE OF God ' s LIGHT AND TRUTH AGAINST THE DEVIL 's FALSITY AND
DARKNESS.” — Carlyle.
VOLUME I.
CASSELL PETTER & GALPIN :

LONDON, PARIS & NEW YORK.
110 . l . 211
CASSE
L
CO N T E N T S .
Book First
PROGRESS FROM THE FIRST TO THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
CHAPTER PAGE
I.- PROTESTANTISM . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
II. - DECLENSION OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH .
III. - DEVELOPMENT OF THE PAPACT FROM THE TIMES OF CONSTANTINE TO THOSE OF HILDEBRAND . . 8
· · · · · · · · · ·
IV . — DEVELOPMENT OF THE PAPACY FROM GREGORY VII. to Boniface VIII. .
.. ·
V . - MEDIEVAL PROTESTANT WITNESSES . .
11. - THE WALDENSES — THEIR VALLEYS . . .
VII.— THE WALDENSES — Their Missions and MARTYRDOM -
·
VIII.— THE PAULICIANS
IX . - CRUSADES AGAINST THE ALBIGENSES .
X .- ERECTION OF TRIBUNAL OF INQUISITION
XI.— PROTESTANTS BEFORE PROTESTANTISM .
· ·
XII. - ABELARD, AND RISE OF MODERN SCEPTICISI
Book Second .
WICLIFFE AND HIS TIMES, OR ADVENT OF PROTESTANTISM .
I. — WICLIFFE : His Birtii AND EDUCATION . 58
· · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
II. - WiCLIFFE, AND THE Pore's ESCROACHIMENTS ON ENGLAND .

III. - WICLIFFE'S BATTLE WITH ROME FOR ENGLAND 'S INDEPENDENCE
IV . - WiCLIFFe's BATTLE WITH THE MENDICANT FRIARS . .
1 . - THE FRIARS VERSU'S THE GOSPEL IN ENGLAND . .
VI. - THE BATTLE OF THE PARLIAMENT WITH THE POPE . .
VII. - PERSECUTION OF WICLIFFE BY THE POPE AND THE HIERARCHIT .
VIII. - HIERARCHICAL PERSECUTION or WiCLIFFE RESUMED
IX . - WICLIFFE's Views on Church PROPERTY AND CHURCH REFORM .
X . THE TRANSLATION OF THE SCRIPTURES, OR THE ENGLISH BIBLE .
XI. - WICLIFFE AND TRAxst BSTANTIATION . . .
XII.- WiCLIFFE's APPEAL TO PARLIAMENT .
XIII. - WiCLIFFE BEFORE CoxroCATION IN PERSON, AND BEFORE THE ROMAN (URIA BY LETTER
XIV.- WiCLIFFE's Last Days 124
XV . - WICLIFFE'S THEOLOGICAL AND CHURCH System 127
HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM .
Book Third.
CHAPTER
JOHN HUSS AND THE HUSSITE WARS.
PAGE:
1. - BIRTH, EDUCATION, AND FIRST LABOURS OF Huss . 130
II.- Huss BEGINS HIS WARFARE AGAINST Rome . . . 135
·
III. - GROWING OPPOSITION OF Huss to Rome . . 141
IV . - PREPARATIONS FOR THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE 144
V . - DEPOSITION OF THE RIVAL POPES . . 149
· · ·
VI.- IMPRISONMENT AND EXAMINATION OF Huss .
VII. - CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM OF Huss . . 161
VIII. - WICLIFFE AND Huss COMPARED IN THEIR THEOLOGY, THEIR CHARACTER, AND THEIR LABOURS 165
IX . - TRIAL AND TEMPTATION OF JEROME . .

X.– Tue Trial of JEROME . . .
XI. - CONDEMNATION AND BURNING OF JEROME . .
XII.— WICLIFFE, Huss, AND JEROME, OR THE THREE FIRST WITNESSES OF MODERN CHRISTENDOM 176
XIII. — THE Hussite Wars . . . . 78
XIV. - COMMENCEMENT OF THE HUSSITE WANS 184
XV. – Marvellous GENILS OF ZISKA AS A GENERAL 189
XVI. - Second CRUSADE AGAINST BOHEMIA . . 190
XVII. - BRILLIANT SUCCESSES OF THE HUSSITES . 19
XVIII.— The Council or Basle

XIX . - Last SCENES OF THE BOHEMIAN REFORMATION . . . . . . . . 207
Book Fourth.
CHRISTENDOM AT THE OPENING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
1.- PROTESTANTISM AND MEDJÆVALISM . . 213
II. — THE EMPIRE . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 .
III. - THE PAPACY, OR CHRISTENDOM UNDER THE TIARA . . 220
Book Fifth
HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM IN GERMANY TO THE LEIPSIC DISPUTATION, 1519.
I. - LUTHER'S BIRTH , CHILDHOOD, AND SCHOOL-DAYS .
II. - LUTHER'S COLLEGE-LIFE
III. - Luther's LIFE IN THE CONTENT .
·
IV .- LUTHER THE Moxk BECOMES LUTHER THE REFORMEN

·
V .- LUTHER AS Priest, PROFESSOR, AND PREACHER

·
VI.- Luthen's JOURNEY TO Rome .

·
VII. - LUTHER IN ROME . .

·
VIII. – TETZEL PREACHES INDULGENCES

·
IX . - The “ Theses " . .

·
X. - LUTHER ATTACKED BY Tetzel, PRIERIO, AND ECK .

·
XI.- LUTHER'S JOURNEY TO AUGSBURG . . . . . . . .

CONTENTS vii
CHAPTER TAGE
XII. - LUTHER'S APPEARANCE BEFORE CARDINAL CAJETAN . . . . . . . 275
XIII. - Luther's Return To WITTEMBERG AND LABOURS THERE . 281
XIV.- Miltitz - CARLSTADT — DR. ECK . . .
XV. - THE LEIPsic DISPUTATION . . . . . . . . . 293
Book Sirth,
FROM THE LEIPSIC DISPUTATION TO THE DIET AT WORJS, 1521.
1. - PROTESTANTISM AND IMPERIALISM ; OR, THE MONK AND THE Voxnc . . . . . 302
II. - Pope Leo' s BuLL . . . . . . . . 310
III.— INTERVIEWS AND NEGOTIATIONS . . . . . 317
IV. - LUTHEN SUMMONED TO THE DIET AT WORMS 326
1 . - LUTHER 'S JOURNEY AND ARRIVAL AT WORS . . . . 529
VI. - LUTHER BEFORE THE Diet At Worms . 335
VII.- LUTHER PUT UNDER THE BAN OF THE EMPIRE 3
---- -- -- - - --
· Book Seventh .
PROTESTANTISM IN ENGLAND FROM THE TIMES OF WICLIFFE TO THOSE OF HENRY VIII.
1.— The First ProTESTANT MARTYRS IN ENGLAND . . . . : 350
II.— THE THEOLOGY OF THE Early English PROTESTANTS . . . . .. . . 356
III. - GROWTH OF ENGLISH PROTESTANTISM . . . 362
·
IV.- EFFORTS FOR THE REDISTRIBUTION OF ECCLESIASTICAL PROPERTY .

·
V. - TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF Sir John OLDCASTLE (LORD COBHAM )

·
VI.- LOLLARDISM DexounCED As Treason

·
VII. - MARTYRDOM OF LORD COBHAM

·
VIII. - LOLLARDISH Under HENRY V. AND HENRY VI. .

·
IX .— Roue's ATTEMPT TO RrGaix DOMINANCY IN ENGLAND

·
X.- RESISTANCE TO PAPAL ENCROACHMENTS . .

·
XI. - INFLUENCE OF THE WARS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY ON THE PROGRESS OF PROTESTANTISU . .
Book Eighth .
HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM IN SWITZERLAND FROM A . D . 15:16 TO ITS ESTABLISHMENT
AT ZURICH , 1525 .
1.- SWITZERLAND – THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE . . . 408
.
II. - CONDITION OF SWITZERLAND PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION .

.
III.- CORRUPTION OF THE Swiss CHURCH . .

.
IV. - ZWINGLE'S BIRTH AND SCHOOL-DAYS . .

.
V. - ZWINGLE'S PROGRESS TOWARDS EMANCIPATION

.
VI.— ZWINGLE IN PRESENCE OF THE BIBLE

. .
VII. - EINSIEDELS AND ZURICH . .

VIII.– Tue PARDON-MCSGER AND THE PLAGUE . . .
.
IX .--EXTENSION OF THE REFORMATION TO BERN AND OTHER Swiss Towns

.
viii HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM .
CHAPTER PAGE
X . - SPREAD OF PROTESTASTISY IS EASTERN SWITZERLAND . . . . 446
XI. - The Question of FORBIDDEN Meats . . . . 450
XII. - PUBLIC DISPUTATION AT ZURICH :
XIII. - DISSOLUTION OF CONTEXTUAL AND MOxastic ESTABLISHMENTS . . . . 460
XIV. - DISCUSSION ON IMAGES AND THE Mass . . . . . 404
XV. - ESTABLISHMENT OF PROTESTANTISM IN ZURICHI .. . . . . 468
Book Ninth .
HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM FROM THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521, TO THE AUGSBURG
CONFESSION , 1530 .
I. - The GERMAN New TESTAMENT . . . . 473
II.---THE ABOLITION OF THE MASS 479
· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
III.-- POPE ADRIAN AND HIS SCHEME OF Reroru .
IV . - POPE CLEMENT AND THE NUREMBERG DIET .
1 . - NUREMBERG . . . . . . 195
VI. - THE RATISBON LEAGUE AND REFORMATION . .. 502
VII. - LUTHER's Views ON THE SACRAMENT AND IMAGE -WORSHIP . 506

VIII. - WAR OF THE PEASANTS . . . . · 512
· IX . -- The BATTLE OF PAVIA AND ITS INFLUENCE ON PROTESTANTISM . 519
X .---Diet of SPIRES, 1526, AND LEAGUE AGAINST THE EMPEROR · 523
XI.-- The Sack or Rome . . . . . · 527
XII. - ORGANISATION OF THE LITERAN CHURCH
XIII. - CONSTITUTION or the Church of Hesse 537
XIV . - Politics AND PRODIGIES 543

XV. - THE GREAT PROTEST . . 318
XVI. --CONFERENCE AT MARBURG - 554
XVII. — THE MARBURG ConfessioN . 502

XVIII. - THE EMPEROR, THE TURK , AND THE RIFORMATION . 564
XIX .- MEETING BETWEEN THE EMPEROR AND Pope at BOLOGNA .

XX .- PREPARATIONS FOR THE AUGSBURG DIET . . . 580
XXI. - ARRIVAL OF THE EMPEROR AT AUGSBURG AND OPENING OF THE DIET 585
IXII. - LUTHER IN THE COBURG, AND MELANCTHON AT THE Duet . . 590
XXIII.-- READING OF THE AUGSBURG CoxrEsSION 594
IXIV. - AFTER THE Diet or AUGSBURG
. . . . .
. . . . . .
XXV. - ATTEMPTED REFUTATION OF THE CONFESSION
XXVI. — End Of The Diet of ArGSBURG
XXVII. - A RETROSPECT - 1517 -1530 - PROGRESS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Luther before the Diet at Worms . Irontispicce.
. .
. . . . . .
Illustrated front page . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
· · · · ·
The Emperor Constantine the Great
View of Constantinople . .
. . . . . . . .
Visit of Charlemagneto the Pope 12
Penance of Henry IV . of Germany 13
View in Milan . . 18
View of Turin .. 19
The Valley of Angrogna · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
. . .
Monte Castelluzzo and New Waldensian Temple 25
Waldensian Missionaries in Guise of Pedlars 30
The Martyrdom of Constantine of Samosata .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Troubadour and Barbs . . .
.
Dominican Monk and Inquisitioner

View of Toulouse .
.
. . . . . . .
View in Rome: the Island of the Tiber
. . . . . . . . . . .
Albigensian Worshippers on the Banks ofthe Rhone

The Orleans Martyrs
. . . . . . .
Brescia . . .
.
Arnold of Brescia Preaching

Tomb of Abelard . . . . . .
. . .
60
John Wicliffe , 61
Canterbury Cathedral from the East End

. . .
King John and the Pope's Legate

Balliol College, Oxford (about the timeof Wicliffe)
. . .
. . .
The Coliseum . · · ·
View in the Campagna .
" His eyes burning with a strange fire,he [St. Francis] wandered about the country
. .
.
Group ofMendicant Friars

.
84
The Belfry at Bruges . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . .
8.
.
John ofGaunt . . 90
. . . . . . .
Altercation between John of Gaunt and the Bishop of London .

. . . . . . .
91
The Lollards' Tower, Lambeth Palace : 96
.
Popular Demonstration at Lambeth Palace in favour of Wicliffe . 97

Avignon , a sometime Residence of the Popes · 102
. .
Wicliffe and the Monks : Scene in the Bed -chamber . . · 103

· · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
Interior of the Vatican Library . 108

Wayside Preaching from the Bible (time of Wicliffe) . : 109
Lutterworth Church : 117
. . . . . . . . . . .
Trial of Wicliffe 115

. . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . .
High Street of Oxford (timeof Wicliffe)

.
120
Wicliffe before the Convocation at Oxford . 21
John Huss 1:26
View of Prague . . . . . . . 1:27
. . .
Soldiers Searching for Bohemian Protestants

. . . . .
132
The Miracle at Wilsnach : People flocking to the Church · 133
Destruction of the Works of Wicliffe at Prague . 138
. 139
.
Jerome of Prague .
PAGE
View of the City of Constance . . . 144
145
. . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . .
View in the Tyrol - Innspruck . .
. . . . . . . . .
Entry of Pope John into Constance
Reception of John Huss at Nuremberg .
Nuromberg . .
Bishop of Lodi Preaching at the Trial of Huss
. .
Trial of Huss : Degrading the Martyr .
Recantation of Jerome . . 153
View on the Rhine : Schaffhausen 168
169
. .
Jerome Speaking at his Trial .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Trial of Jerome: Waiting for the Sentence · 174
" As they were leading him ont of the church . . . . he began to sing, “Credo in unum Deum . 175
Alap of Bohemia , Moravia, and Bavaria . • 180
Departure of Pope Martin V. for Rome . · 181
The Outrage at Prague . 186
C'elebration of the Eucharist by the Hussites in a Field near Prague : 187
Dresden 192
.
Mechlin · 193
Hussite Shield . . 196
Portrait of Procopius . 198
. . . . . . .
Arrival of the Hussite Deputies at Basle 199
Seal of the Council of Basle . . 203
Cathedral of Baslo 201
Æneas Sylvius (Pope Pius II.), John Ziska,George Podiobrad ,Archbishop Rochyzana
Taborites Selecting a Pastor 210
Taborites Worshipping in a Cave
.
211
View in Frankfort-on -the-Maine . . . . . . . . . . . . · 216
View in Ghent . . 217
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Liege . . . 222
Martin Luther . . . . 923
Vicw of Eisnach . . 228
John Luther taking his Son to School . . : 229
Luther Singing in the Streets of Eisnach . 234
The Cathedral of Erfurt . . . - 235
Luther Entering the Augustinian Convent : 240
The Ordination of Luther to the Priesthood . . . 241
Luther Preaching in the Old Wooden Church at Wittemberg 216
View of Bologna , . 217
View of Florence . : 252
. . . . . . . . .
The Schloss-kirk, or Castle -church , at Wittemberg • 253

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Tetzel's Procession . . . . . 259

Luther Nailing his “ Theses" to the Door of the Schloss-kirk at Wittemberg . 264
Luther's House at Wittemberg . . · 265
Pope Leo X. . . . · 270
·
In the Market-place of Wittemberg : People Discussing the “ Theses” of Luther : 271

View of Augsburg . . • 276
· ·
The Old Castle at Weimar · 277

Frederick III., Elector of Saxony, surnamed “ The Wiso 282
. .
Luther Escaping from Augsburg . . . . .

. . . . . . .
283
·
· ·
. .
Luther's Pamphlet : Scene at the Printing -house · 288

View of Mainz . . . . . · 289
· · · · ·
Arrival ofthe Wittemberg Theologians at Leipsic • 295

· · · · ·
. . . . . .
Philip Melancthon . 300

View in Aix -la -Chapelle . 301
. . .
Charles V., Emperor of Germany 306

The Conclave Electing the Emperor ofGerma 307
View of Trèves . . . . . . .
. .
. . , 312
· ·
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
View of Coburg, a Residence of Luther during the Diet of Augsburg . 313
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Desiderius Erasmus . 318
. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
Luther Burning the Pope's Bull . 319
. . . . . . . .
View of Cologne · · · 324
The Cathedral ofWorms . 325
The Princes Summoned before the Emperor
. . . . .
330
Leo X . pronouncing the “ Bull of the Lord's Supper ” 331
Luther's House at Frankfort . 33 +
Luther at the Casement . . 336
View in Wittemberg 337
View ofWorms . . · 342
Luther Attacked by Masked Horsemen in the Thuringian Forest
. .
313
. . . . . . . . . . .
George Spalatin , of the Ecclesiastical Council of Saxony 318
Dr. Justus Jonas, Professor of Theology at Wittemberg 349
Water-spout on Luther's House at Eisnach
.
352
Interior of the Wartburg . . . 354
Conference between Thorpe and Arundel
. . .
355
Old St. Paul's and Neighbourhood in 1510 360
The Cathedral and Leaning Tower of Pisa 361
Archbishop Arundel at Oxford . . 366
367
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chamber in the Lollards' Tower, Lambeth Palace, where the Reformers were Confined
Facsimile of Part of a Page of Wicliffe's Bible . 369
Lord Cobham at a Lollard Preaching . . . 372
. . . . . . . . . . .
View of the Tower of London from the River Thames (1700) . · 373
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Friar Preaching from a Movable Pulpit (Royal HS., 14E, 3) . •, 376
Lord Cobham before the Bishops . . · 378
Henry V .'s Attack upon a Lollard Conventicle . 379
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Sir John Oldcastle, afterwards Lord Cobham .. 384
Instruments of Torture . . . 385
Henry V. and his Parliament (from the Harleian Uss. atthe British Iuseum ) 389
King Henry V . . . . . 390
Lollards making Abjuration of their Faith 391
View of Canterbury 396
Preaching at St. Paul's Cross in the Fifteenth Century 397
The Archbishops of York and Canterbury before the Parliamentat Westminster Abbey 402
. . . . . . .
Cardinal Beaufort's Chantry, Winchester Cathedral ..

. . . . .
403
. . . . . . . .
View of Westminster Abbey from the Mall, St. James's Park . 408
View in Lucerne . 409
View in Lausanne . . • 414
. . . . . . . . . . .
Ulric Zwingle . 415

. . . . . . . . .
A Swiss Peasant Family . 420

View in Zwich . .
. . .
421
Zwingle among his Friends 426
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Ecolampadius . 427
Francis I. of France 432
Zwingle Preaching in Zurich Cathedral
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
.
433
Henry Bullinger . . 438

Cathedral of Milan . 9
Samson Selling Indulgences • 445

414
. . . . . . . . .
A Swiss Reformer Preaching to his Flock in the Open Field .

View of Einsiedeln Abbey
. .
Map of Switzerland . . · 456

The Councillors Dissolving the Augustine Order of Monksin Zurich .. . 457
Hottinger Destroying the Image . · 462
Crypt of the Cathedral of Basle (1505) . 463
. .
View of Lake Zug . 468

. . .
Celebration of the Lord's Supper in the Protestant Form by the Zurichers • 409
хіі HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM .
PAGE
Henry VIII. of England . .
. . .
• i .
View in Thuringia : the Wartburg in the Distance . 475
View of Luther's Room in the Wartburg , showing the Ink-stain on the Wall . 480
John Bugenhagen (Pomeranus) . . · 481
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Little Gate of a Parish Church, Nuremberg . 486
. . . . . .
Balcony of the Armoury, Nuremberg . . .
. . .
486
Part of the City Walls,Nuremberg . 486
A Wittemberg Student Preaching in Lime-tree Meadow 487
The Papal Nuncio Chicregato in Nuremberg . 492
493
. . . . . . . . . .
A Gala -day in Nuremberg (time, Sixteenth Century ) .
The River Pegnitz ,intersecting the City of Nuremberg . 498
St. Sebald 's Church, Nuremberg . · 499
. . . . . .
Albert Dürer . . . . . . : 504
View of Burgos, showing the Cathedral . . · 50.5
Luther Challenging Carlstadt to Write against him . . 511
Death of Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony 516
The Chartreuse of Pavia . · 517
Cardinal Wolsey . . .522
) 22
· 523
. .
The Reformed Princes on their way to the Diet at Spires
.
The Cathedral of Spires . . . . . : 529
. .
The Castle of St. Angelo, Rome . . · 5:20
. . . . . . . . .
John Frederick , Elector of Saxony, surnamed “ The Steadfast ” · 134
Francis Lambert Preaching . . . . . 33 .7
. . . .
.
View in Barcelona 311
King Ferdinand,afterwards Emperor of Germany . . 546
Arrival of King Ferdinand at Spires 517
The Elector of Saxony Reading the Protest at the Diet ofSpires 532
View of Marburg .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. • 558
Portrait of Martin Bucer . . · 558
. . . . . .
Luther and Zwingle Discussing at Marburg • 5. .)

Interior of the Courtyard of a Bolognese House . . · 56.5
Portrait of Cardinal Campeggio . . · 570
The Three Protestant Ambassadors before the Emperor Charles · 571
Entrance to the Imperial Castle, Nuremberg . : 576
. . . . .
A Street in Coburg . . . . . 577

· 583
. .
Luther in Coburg Castle : the Diet of Jackdaws

Meeting of the Emperor Charles and the Protestant Princes : 538
The Protestant Princes Signing their Confession · 59.53
· 000
. .
The Protestant Princes Presenting their Confession to Charles .

View in Strasburg · 601
. . . . . i
The Deputies from the Imperial Cities Awaiting an Audience of Charles · 007
Charles secs the Play of theMasks · 612
The Peller Courtat Nuremberg . · 613
. . .
Portrait of Philip of Hesse . 618

Escape of Philip of Hesse from Augsburg 619
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CHAPTER I.
PROTESTANTISM.
ProtestantismHisto
&Huma
c. - nity aSeed
Its -- ATheryGreat
GranCreatArts ,aLette
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ItsOrigin Statedes,
Revived Christianity. ive Power - Protestantism
History of Protesthistory
THEwrite, antism , whichdogmas we propose
toteachi ngs is
of no mere
Christ are the of
seeds; the .modernThe
, with fromits newthemlife,. Weis theshallgoodlyspeaktreeof
Christehasndomsprung
which
FREE
SWAIA SA the seed and also of the tree, small at first, still
growing,and destined one day to cover the earth.
' 2 HIST OF PROT .
ORY ESTA
NTIS
How that seed was deposited in the soil; how is the proof thatM at the bottom of this protestwas a
the tree grew up and flourished despite the furious great principle which it has pleased Providence to
tempests that warred around it ; how , century after fertilise, and make the seed of those grand, bene
century, it lifted its top higher in heaven, and ficent,and enduring achievements which have made
spread its boughs wider around, sheltering liberty , the past three centuries in many respects the
nursing letters, fostering art, and gathering a fra- most eventful and wonderful in history. The men
ternity of prosperous and powerful nations around who handed in this protest did not wish to create a
it, it will be our business in the following pages to mere void . If they disowned the creed and threw
show . Meanwhile we wish it to be noted that this off the yoke of Rome, it was that they might plant
is what we understand by the Protestantism on the a purer faith and restore the government of a
history of which we are now entering. Viewed higher Law . They replaced the authority of the
thus — and any narrower view would be untrue Infallibility with the authority of the Word of
alike to philosophy and to fact — the History of God. The long and dismal obscuration of centuries
Protestantism is the record of one of the grandest they dispelled, that the twin stars of liberty and
dramas of all time. knowledge might shine forth , and that, conscience
It is true, no doubt, that Protestantism , strictly being unbound, the intellect might awake from its
viewed, is simply a principle. It is not a policy. deep somnolency , and human society, renewing its
It is not an empire, having its fleets and armies, youth, might, after its halt of a thousand years,
its officers and tribunals , wherewith to extend its resume its march towards its high goal.
dominion and make its authority be obeyed . It is We repeat our question — Whence came this
not even a Church with its hierarchies , and synods principle ? And we ask our readers to mark well
and edicts ; it is simply a principle. But it is our answer, for it is the key -note to the whole of
the greatest of all principles. It is a creative our vast subject, and places us, at the very outset,
power. Its plastic influence is all-embracing. It at the springs of that long narration on which we
penetrates into the heart and renews the indi- are now entering.
vidual. It goes down to the depths and, by its Protestantism is not solely the outcome of human
omnipotent but noiseless energy, vivifies and re- progress ; it is no mere principle of perfectibility
generates society . It thus becomes the creator of inherent in humanity, and ranking as one of its
all that is true, and lovely, and great ; the founder native powers, in virtue of which when society
of free kingdoms, and themother of pure churches. becomes corrupt it can purify itself, and when it
The globe itself it claims as a stage not too wide is arrested in its course by some external force , or
for the manifestation of its beneficent action ; and stops from exhaustion , it can recruit its energies
the whole domain of terrestrial affairs it deems a and set forward anew on its path. It is neither
sphere not too vast to fill with its spirit, and rule the product of the individual reason, nor the result
by its law . of the
of the joint thought and energies of the species.
Whence came this principle ? The name Pro Protestantism is a principle which has its origin
testantism is very recent: the thing itself is very outside human society : it is a Divine graft an
ancient. The term Protestantism is scarcely older the intellectual and moral nature ofman, whereby
than 300 years. It dates from the PROTEST which new vitalities and forces are introduced into it, and
the Lutheran princes gave in to the Diet of Spires the human stem yields henceforth a nobler fruit.
in 1529. Restricted to its historical signification , It is the descent of a heaven -born influence which
Protestantism is purely negative. It only defines allies itself with all the instincts and powers of
the attitude taken up , at a great historical era , by the individual, with all the laws and cravings of
one party in Christendom with reference to another society, and which , quickening both the individual
party. But had this been all, Protestantism would and the social being into a new life, and directing
have had no history. Had it been purely negative, their efforts to nobler objects, permits the highest
it would have begun and ended with the men who development of which humanity is capable , and the
assembled at the German town in the year alroady fullest possible accomplishment ofall its grand ends.
specified. The new world that has come out of it In a word, Protestantism is revived Christianity.
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT,
cho HE wide-spread popularity which has attended CASSELL'S
DE MAGAZINE , throughout its issue of the last six years, has
secured for it a highly-favoured place amongst the popular
A Serial Publications of the present daw . . - - - --
odelled on the
tion of Pagan
: Gospel in its
uiform testi
NEW ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. h which had
In Weekly Numbers, price 14d ., and Monthly Parts, price 7d . the humble
rst age, and
CASSELL'S ILLUSTRATED rs, became
pus temples
History of the United States favour had
(Uniform with " Cassell's Illustrated History of England"). ons of the
No. 1 ready Nov. 18th , price 11d. ; Part I. ready Nov. 26th , price 7d. arked and
PROSPECTUS . idden from
IVHILST no one can fail to be impressed with the present importance of the ght, which
great Republic of the United States among the nations of the earth, in rithdrawn,
respect not only of its political organisation , but also of its commercial activity
and vast territorial extent, there are few persons who have an adequate concep . embers of
tion of the romantic character of its rise and the absorbing interest of its re put in
progress. We propose, therefore , in this work to narrate the marvellons aith ; and
history of that great nation's life, going back to those early days when a few dations of
heroic Englishmen landed on the coast of an almost unknown continent, whoso
primeval forests covered the laud upon which now stands the capital of the great nations to
Republic of the West. We shall see these brave islanders left almost entirely nication.”
to their own resources in a distant and savage land ; cutting down forests ; turn .
ing barren plains into fruitful corn -fields ; building rough towns along the titles of
solitary coasts ; now treating with the aborigines, now in conflict with them ; jurisdic
battling with cold, with tempest, and with hunger ; forming little communities of
self- reliant men ; and , under every discouragement which can fall to the lot of an office
human beings, laying the bases of new commonwealths and new churches, which · highest
now are ruling powers in the world . 2ct when
We shall also see the pioneers of Christianity going out amongst the heathen , sincerely
and converting many by the brightness of their example and the energy of their
faith . We shall find great principles of government debated and applied . Wo
shall recount the rise and progress of prosperous States , and the birth and rapid innocent
growth of a distinct national feeling . Thon we come to the period of the War ir tribu
of Independence to that heroic struggle, fruitful in great deeds and perilons rbitrate
'ch , and
uch de
hutting
le civil
• paus , we next
ty of the Church
vernment. Four
· Roman Empire
megavici proui OL ius divinity . It rose from the "as asked , should
stakes and massacres of Domitian , to begin a new not a similar arrangement be introduced into the
career, in which it was destined to triumph over the Church ? Accordingly the Christian world was
empire which thought that it had crushed it. divided into four great dioceses ; over each diocese
Di
nities and wealth now flowed in upon its ministergs · Eusebius, De Vita Const., lib iv ., cap. 27. Dupin
Eccles. Hist., vol.1., p. 162 ; Dublin., 1723. ,
HISTORY OP PROTESTANTISM .
28 set a patriarch wło governs the whole clergs The Churches of the West, and especially that of
of Lis do ad thus aruse four great thrones or Rome, kes Easter on the Sabbath following the
pri iz the House of God Where there 14:h day of Visan Victor, Biskop of Rome, re
has been a batherbood, there was now a hierarchy ; solved to put an end to the cultroversy, and
and from the lofty chair of the Patriarch, a grada- accordingly, suszining himself sole judge in this
tion of rank, and a subordination of authority and weighty point, he comarried all the Churches to
offio , ran down to the lowly state and contracted otserve the feast on the same day with himself.
sphere of the Presbyter.' It was splendour of The Churches of the East.not aware that the Bishop
rank, rather than the faine of learning and the of Rome lead authority to command their obedience
lustre of virtue, that benceforward conferred dis- in this or in any other thatter, kept Easter as
tinction on the ministers of the Church. before ; and for this ta Tat contempt, as Victor
Such an arrangement was not fitted to nourish accounted it, of his legatinate authority , he excom
spirituality of mind, or humility of disposition , or municated them . They refused to obey a human
preacefulness of temper. The enmity and violence ordinance, and they were shut out from the king
of the persecutor, the clergy had no longer cause to dom of the Gospel. This was the first peal of those
dread ; but the spirit of faction which now took thunders which were in after times to roll so often
possession of the dignitaries of the Church and so terribly from the Seven Hills
awakened vehement disputes and fierce conten - Riches , flattery, deference, continued to wait
tions, which disparaged the authority and sullied upon the Bishop of Pome. The emperor saluted
the glory of the sacred office. The emperor him - him as Father ; foreign Churches sustained him as
velf was witness to these unseemly spectacles. “ I judge in their disputes ; heresiarchs sometimes fled
entreat you," we find him pathetically saying to to him for sanctuary ; those who had favours to
the fathers of the Council of Nice, " beloved minis- beg extolled his piety, or affected to follow his
ters of God, and servants of our Saviour Jesus customs ; and it is not surprising that his pride
Christ, take away the cause of our dissension and and ambition , fed by continual incense, continued
disagreement, establish peace among yourselves." 2 to grow , till at last the presbyter of Rome, from
While the “ living oracles ” were neglected , the being a vigilant pastor of a single congregation,
zeal of the clergy began to spend itself upon rites before whom he went in and out, teaching them
and ceremonies borrowed from the pagans. These from house to house, preaching to them the Word
were multiplied to such a degree , that Augustine of Life, serving the Lord with all humility in
complained that they were “ less tolerable than the many tears and temptations that befel him , raised
yoke of the Jews under the law .” 3 At this period his seat above his equals, mounted the throne of
the Bishops of Rome wore costly attire, gave sump- the patriarch , and exercised lordship over the
tuous banquets, and when they went abroad were heritage of Christ.
carried in litters.4 They now began to speak with The gates of the sanctuary once forced , the
an authoritative voice, and to demand obedience stream of corruption continued to flow with ever
from all the Churches. Of this the dispute between deepening volume. The declensions in doctrine
the Eastern and Western Churches respecting Easter and worship already introduced had changed the
is an instance in point. The Eastern Church , fol- brightness of the Church 's morning into twilight ;
lowing the Jews, kept the feast on the 14th day of the descent of the Northern nations, which, be
the month Nisan '— the day of the Jewish Passover. ginning in the fifth , continued through several
successive centuries, converted that twilight into
1 Eusebius, De Vita Const., lib . iv., cap. 24 . Mosheim , night. The new tribes had changed their country,
Eccles. Hist., vol. i., cent. 4, p . 94 ; Glasgow , 1831. but not their superstitions ; and, unhappily , there
. Eusebius, Eccles . Hist., lib. iii., cap . 12 , p. 490 ; - --- - - --
Parisiis , 1659. Dupin , Eccles. Hist., vol. ij., p. 14 ;
Lond ., 1693. 6 The Council of Nicæa, A. D. 325, enacted that the 21st
* Baronius admits that many things have been laudably of March shculd thenceforward be accounted the vernal
translated from Gentile superstition into the Christian equinox, that the Lord 's Day following the full moon next
religion (Annal., ad An. 58). And Binnius, extolling the after the 21st of March should be kept as Easter Day,but
mnunificence of Constantine towards the Church , speaks that if the full moon happened on a Sabbath , Easter Day
of his superstitionis gentiliæ justa æmulatio (“ just emula - should be the Sabbath following. This is the canon that
tion of the Gentile superstition " ). - Concil., tom . 7, notæ regulates the observance of Easter in the Church of
in Donat. Constan . England. “ Easter Day," says the Common Prayer Book ,
* Aminian. Marcel., lib. xxvii., cap. 3. Mosheim , vol.i., “ is always the first Sunday after the full moon which
cent. 4, p. 95. happens upon or next after the 21st day of March ; and if
6 Nisan corresponds with the latter half of our March the full moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter Day is the
and the first half of our April. Sunday after."
GROWTH OF SUPERSTITIOUS RITES.
was neither real nor vigour in the Christianity next, the Supper was celebrated beside their
of the age to effect their instruction and their graves ; next, prayers were offered for them and to
genuine conversion. The Bible had been with them ;' next, paintings and images began to dis
drawn ; in the pulpit fable had usurped the place figure the walls, and corpses to pollute the floors of
of truth ; holy lives, whose silent cloquence might the churches. Baptism , which apostles required
have won upon the barbarians, were rarely exempli- water only to dispense, could not be celebrated
fied ; and thus, instead of the Church dissipating the without white robes and chrism , milk , honey, and
superstitions that now encompassed her like a cloud, salt, Then came a crowd of church officers whose
these superstitions all but quenched her own light. names and numbers are in striking contrast to the
She opened her gates to receive the new peoples as few and simple orders of men who were employed
they were. She sprinkled them with the baptismal in the first propagation of Christianity . There
water ; she inscribed their names in her registers ; were sub-deacons, acolytes, exorcists,readers, choris
she taught them in their invocations to repeat the ters, and porters ; and as work must be found for
titles of the Trinity ; but the doctrines of the this motley host of labourers,there came to be fasts
Gospel, which alone can enlighten the understand and exorcisms; there were lamps to be lighted,
ing, purify the heart, and enrich the life with vir - altars to be arranged, and churches to be conse
tue, she was little careful to inculcate upon them . crated ; there was the eucharist to be carried to the
She folded them within her pale , but they were dying ; and there were the dead to be buried, for
scarcely more Christian than before , while she was which a special order ofmen was set apart. When
greatly less so . From the sixth century down - one looked back to the simplicity of early times, it
wards Christianity was a mongrel system ,made up could not but amaze him to think what a cumbrous
of pagan rites revived from classic times , of super- array of curious machinery and costly furniture was
stitions imported from the forests of Northern now needed for the service of Christianity. Not
Germany, and of Christian beliefs and observances more stinging than true was the remark that
which continued to linger in the Church from “ when the Church had golden chalices she had
primitive and purer times. The inward power of wooden priests."
religion was lost ; and it was in vain that men So far, and through these various stages, had the
strove to supply its place by the outward form . declension of the Church proceeded . The point
They nourished their piety not at the living foun- she had now reached may be termed an epochal one.
tains of truth ,but with the “ beggarly elements ” of From the line on which she stood there was no
ceremonies and relics,of consecrated lights and holy going back ; she must advance into the new and
vestments. Nor was it Divine knowledge only unknown regions before her, though every step
that was contemned ; men forbore to cultivate would carry her farther from the simple form and
letters, or practise virtue. Baronius confesses that vigorous life of her early days. She had received
in the sixth century few in Italy were skilled in a new impregnation from an alien principle, the
both Greek and Latin . Nay, even Gregory the same, in fact, from which had sprung the great
Great acknowledged that he was ignorant of Greek. systems that covered the earth before Christianity
“ The main qualifications of the clergy were , that arose. This principle could not be summarily
they should be able to read well, sing their matins, extirpated ; it must run its course, it must de
know the Lord 's Prayer , psalter, forms of exorcism , velop itself logically ; and having, in the course
and understand how to compute the times of the of centuries, brought its fruits to maturity , it
sacred festivals . Nor were they very sufficient for would then, but not till then , perish and pass
this, if wemay believe the account some have given away.
of them . Musculus says that many of them never Looking back at this stage to the change which
saw the Scriptures in all their lives. It would seem had come over the Church, we cannot fail to see
incredible ,but it is delivered by no less an authority that its deepest originating cause must be sought
than Amama, thatan Archbishop of Mainz, lighting
upon a Bible and looking into it, expressed himself ? These customs began thus. In times of persecution,
thus : ‘ Of a truth I do not know what book this is, assemblies often met in churchyards as the place of
out us.'"
but I perceive everything in it is against and? greatest safety, and the “ elements ” were placed on the
tombstones. It became usual to pray that the dead might
Apostacy is like the descent of heavy bodies, it be made partakers in the " first resurrection .” This was
proceeds with ever-accelerating velocity . First, grounded on the idea which the primitive Christians
lamps were lighted at the tombs of the martyrs ; entertained respecting the millennium . After Gregory I .,
prayers for the dead regarded their deliverance from
purgatory
1 Bennet's Memorial of the Reformation ,p . 20 ; Edin., 1748. 8 Dupin , Eccles. Hist., vol. i., cent. 3.
in the inability of the world to receive the Gospel an eclipse has passed upon the exceeding glory
in all its greatness. It was a boon too mighty and of the Gospel. As we pass from Paul to Clement,
too free to be easily understood or credited by man. and from Clement to the Fathers that succeeded
The angels in their midnight song in the vale of him , we find the Gospel becoming less of graco
Bethlehem had defined it briefly as sublimely , " good - and more of merit. The light wanes as we travel
will to man." Its greatest preacher, the Apostle down the Patristic road , and remove ourselves
Paul, had no other definition to give of it. It was farther from the Apostolic dawn. It continues
not only a rule of life but “ grace,” the “ grace of for some time at least to be the same Gospel,
God," and therefore sovereign , and boundless. To but its glory is shorn , its mighty force is abated ;
man fallen and undone the Gospel offered a full and we are reminded of the change that seems to
T I N A
N
e
l
e
9
900
THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. (From the Mueće de Sculpture, by M . Clarac.)
forgiveness, and a complete spiritual renovation , pass upon the sun, when after contemplating him
issuing at length in the inconceivable and infinite in a tropical hemisphere, we see him in a northern
felicity of the Life Eternal. But man's narrow sky, where his beams, having to force their way
heart could not enlargo itself to God's vast bene- through mists and vapours , are robbed of half their
ficence. A good so immense, so complete in its splendour. Seen through the fogs of the Patristic
nature, and so boundless in its extent, he could age, the Gospel scarcely looks the same which had
not believe that God would bestow without money burst upon the world without a cloud but a few
and without price ; there must be conditions or centuries beforz.
dthat sciphred mmen
qualifications. So he reasoned . And hence it is
their diinspired
ouce -themenmoment en ccease
e to address
This disposition — that of making God less frco
in his gift, and man less dependent in the reception
us, and that their disciples and scholars take their of it : the desire to introduce the element of merit
place — men of apostolic spirit and doctrine, no on the side of man, and the element of condition
doubt, but without the direct knowledge of their on the side of God — operated at last in opening the
predecessors — we become sensible of a change; door for the pagan principle to creep back into the
Laser ww
DA
NU
.
OFCONSTANTINOPLE
VIEV
Church . A change of a deadly and subtle kind the blessings with which it stood connected . This
passed upon the worship. Instead of being the was the moment when the pagan virus inoculated
spontaneous thanksgiving and joy of the soul, that the Christian institution.
no more evoked or repaid the blessings which This change brought a multitude of others in its
awakened that joy than the odours which the train . Worship being transformed into sacrifice
flowers exhale are the cause of their growth , or sacrifice in which was the element of expiation and
the joy that kindles in the heart of man when purification — the “ teaching ministry ” was of
the sun rises is the cause of his rising — worship , course converted into a “ sacrificing priesthood.”
we say, from being the expression of the soul's When this had been done, there was no retreating ;
emotions, was changed into a rite, a rite akin to a boundary had been reached which could not be
those of the Jewish temples , and still more akin recrossed till centuries had rolled away, and trans
to those of the Greek mythology, a rite in which formations of a more portentous kind than any
lay couched a certain amount of human merit and which had yet taken place liad passed upon the
inherent efficacy, that partly created , partly applied Church.
CHAPTER III.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PAPACY FROM THE TIMES OF CONSTANTINE TO THOSE OF HILDEBRAND.
Imperial Edicts - Prestige of Rome - Fall of the Western Empire - The Papacy seeks and finds a New Basis of Power
- Christ's Vicar - Conversion of Gothic Nations- Pepin and Charlemagne-- The Lombards and the Saracens
Forgeries and False Decretals - Election of the Roman Pontiff.
BEFORE opening our great theme it may be needful be overtaken by the spirit of the ages that lay
to sketch the rise and development of the Papacy behind her . There camean after-growth of Jewish
as a politico -ecclesiastical power. The history on ritualism , of Greek philosophy, and of Pagan cere
which we are entering, and which we must rapidly monialism and idolatry ; and, as the consequence of
traverse , is one of the most wonderful in the world . this threefold action, the clergy began to be gradu
It is scarcely possible to imagine humbler begin - ally changed, as already mentioned, from a “ teach
nings than those from which the Papacy arose, and ing ministry ” to a “ sacrificing priesthood.” This
certainly it is not possible to imagine a loftier made them no longer ministers or servants of their
height than that to which it eventually climbed . fellow -Christians ; they took the position of a caste,
Hewho was seen in the first century presiding as claiming to be superior to the laity, invested with
the humble pastor over a single congregation, and mysterious powers, the channels of grace, and the
claiming no rank above his brethren, is beheld in mediators with God . Thus there arose a hierarchy ,
the twelfth century occupying a seat from which assuming to mediate between God and men.
he looks down on all the thrones temporal and The hierarchical polity was the natural concomi
spiritual of Christendom . How , we ask with tant of the hierarchical doctrine. That polity was
amazement, was the Papacy able to traverse the so consolidated by the time that the empire became
mighty space that divided the humble pastor from Christian, and Constantine ascended the throne
the mitred king ? (311), that the Church now stood out as a body
We traced in the foregoing chapter the decay of distinct from the State ; and her new organisation ,
doctrine and manners within the Church . Among subsequently received, in imitation of that of the
the causes which contributed to the exaltation of empire, as stated in the previous chapter, helped
the Papacy this declension may be ranked as funda- still further to defineand strengthen her hierarchical
mental, seeing it opened the door for other deterio government. Still, the primacy of Romewas then
rating influences,and mightily favoured their opera - a thing unheard of. Manifestly the 300 Fathers
tion. Instead of “ reaching forth to what was who assembled (A . D . 325) at Nicæa knew nothing
before," the Christian Church permitted herself to of it, for in their sixth and seventh canons they
THE POPE CLAIMS TO BE CHRISTS VICAR.
expressly recognise the authority of the Churches of Antioch, Alexandria , Jerusalem , Constantinople,
Alexandria , Antioch, Jerusalem , and others, each and Rome— the question at issue being the same as
within its own boundaries, even as Rome had that which provoked the contention among the dis
jurisdiction within its limits ; and enact that the ciples of old , “ which was the greatest,” was now
jurisdiction and privileges of these Churches shall restricted to the last two. The city on the Bos
be retained.' Under Leo the Great (440 — 461) a phorus was the seat of government, and the abodu
forward step was taken. The Church of Rome of the emperor ; this gave her patriarch powerful
assumed the form and exercised the sway of an claims. But the city on the banks of the Tibex
ecclesiastical principality, while her head, in virtue wielded a mysterious and potent charm over the
of an imperial manifesto (445) of Valentinian III., imagination, as the heir of her who had been
which recognised the Bishop of Rome as supreme the possessor of all the power, of all the glory,
over the Western Church, affected the authority and of all the dominion of the past ; and this vast
and pomp of a spiritual sovereign . prestige enabled her patriarch to carry the day.
Still farther, the ascent of the Bishop of Rome As Rome was the one city in the earth , so lier
to the supremacy was silently yet powerfully aided bishop was the one bishop in the Church . A
by that mysterious and subtle influence which ap- century and a half later (606), this pre-eminence
peared to be indigenous to the soil on which his was decreed to the Roman Bishop in an imperial
chair was placed. In an age when the rank of the edict of Phocas.
city determined the rank of its pastor, it was natural Thus, before the Empire of the West fell, the
that the Bishop of Rome should hold something of Bishop of Rome had established substantially his
that pre-eminence among the clergy which Rome spiritual supremacy. An influence of a manifold
held among cities. Gradually the reverence and kind, of which not the least part was the prestige
awe with which men had regarded the old mistress of the city and the empire, had lifted him to this
of the world , began to gather round the person and fatal pre -eminence. But now the time has come
the chair of her bishop. It was an age of factions when the empire must fall, and we expect to see
and strifes, and the eyes of the contending parties that supremacy which it had so largely helped to
naturally turned to the pastor of the Tiber. They build up fall with it. But no ! The wave of bar
craved his advice , or they submitted their differences barism which rolled in from the North, overwhelm
to his judgment. These applications the Roman ing society and sweeping away the empire, broke
Bishop was careful to register as acknowledgments harmlessly at the feet of the Bishop of Rome. The
of his superiority , and on fitting occasions he was shocks that overturned dynasties and blotted out
not forgetful to make them the basis of new and nationalities, left his power untouched, his seat un
higher claims. The Latin race, moreover, retained shaken. Nay, it was at that very hour, when
the practical habits for which it had so long been society was perishing around him , that the Bishop
renowned ; and while the Easter .3, giving way to of Rome laid anew the foundations of his power,
their speculative genius, were expending their and placed them where they might remain in
energies in controversy, the Western Church was movable for all time. He now cast himself on a
steadily pursuing her onward path, and skilfully far stronger element than any the revolution had
availing herself of everything that could tend to swept away. He now claimed to be the successor
enhance her influence and extend her jurisdiction. of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and the Vicar
The removal of the seat of empire from Rome to of Christ.
the splendid city on the Bosphorus, Constantinople, The canons of Councils, as recorded in Hardouin ,
which the emperor had built with becoming mag- show a stream of decisions from Pope Celestine, in
nificence for his residence, also tended to enhance the middle of the fifth century, to Pope Boniface II.
the power of the Papal chair. It removed from the in the middle of the sixth , claiming, directly or
side of the Pope a functionary by whom he was
r o r B i d i r ectly,indirectly , this august prerogative. When the
f the old or empe had aethe old
eclipsed , and left him the first person in the old
capital of the world. The emperor had departed,
Bishop of Rome placed his chair, with all the
prerogatives and dignities vested in it, upon this
but the prestige of the old city -- the fruit of count ground, he stood no longer upon a merely imperial
less victories, and of ages of dominion — had not foundation. Henceforward he held neither of Cæsar
departed . The contest which had been going on nor of Rome ; he held immediately of Heaven .
for some time among the five great patriarchates — What one emperor had given , another emperor
-- - . might take away. It did not suit the Pope to hold
1 Hardouin , Acta Concil., tom . i., col. 325 ; Parisiis, 1715.
Dupin , Eccles. Hist., vol. i., p . 600 ; Dublin edition . 2 Hard. i. 1477 ; ii. 787, 886 . Baron. vi. 235.
10 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM .
his office by so uncertain a tenure. Hemade haste , could impress a sense of the awfulness of the rite
therefore, to place his supremacy where no future on the minds of its rude proselytes. Three thou
decree of emperor , no lapse of years, and no com - sand of his warlike subjects were baptised along
ing revolution could overturn it. He claimed to with him . ' The Pope styled him “ the eldest son
rest it upon a Divine foundation ; he claimed to of the Church,” a title which the Kings of France,
be not merely the chief of bishops and the first of his successors, have worn these 1,400 years. When
patriarchs, but the vicar of the Most High God. Clovis ascended from the baptismal font he was the
With the assertion of this dogma the system of only as well as the eldest son of the Church , for he
the Papacy was completed essentially and doctrin - alone, of all the new chiefs that now governed the
ally , but not as yet practically. It had to wait the West, had as yet submitted to the baptismal rite.
full development of the idea of vicarship , which The threshold once crossed, others were not slow
was not till the days of Gregory VII. But here to follow . In the next century , the sixth , the
have we the embryotic seed — the vicarship to wit Burgundians of Southern Gaul, the Visigoths of
- out of which the vast structure of the Papacy Spain , the Suevi of Portugal, and the Anglo-Saxons
has sprung. This it is that plants at the centre of Britain entered the pale of Rome. In the
of the system a pseudo-divine jurisdiction, and seventh century the disposition was still growing
places the Pope above all bishops with their flocks, among the princes of Western Europe to submit
above all kings with their subjects. This it is themselves and refer their disputes to the Pontiff
that gives the Pope two swords. This it is that as their spiritual father. National assemblies were
gives him three crowns. The day when this dogma held twice a year, under the sanction of the bishops.
was proclaimed was the true birthday of the The prelates made use of these gatherings to pro
Popedom . The Bishop of Rome had till now sat cure enactments favourable to the propagation of
in the seat of Cæsar ; henceforward he was to sit the faith as held by Rome. These assemblies were
in the seat of God. desce first encouraged, then enjoined by the Pope, who
From this
From ad ofndithe
leed.timeThethe hgrowth versPopedom
al bar was came in this way to be regarded as a sort of Father
rapid indeed . The state of society favoured its or protector of the states of the West. Accordingly
development. Night had descended upon the world we find Sigismund, King of Burgundy, ordering
from the North ; and in the universal barbarism , (554 ) that an assembly should be held for the
the more prodigious any pretensions were , the more future on the 6th of September every year, “ at
likely were they to find both belief and submission which time the ecclesiastics are not so much ene
The Goths, on arriving in their rew settlements, grossed with the worldly cares of husbandry." ?
beheld a religion which was served by magnificent The ecclesiastical conquest of Germany was in this
cathedrals, imposing rites, and wealthy and power- century completed,and thus thespiritual dominions
ful prelates, presided over by a chief priest, in of the Pope were still further extended .
whose reputed sanctity and ghostly authority they I n the eighth century there came a moment of
found again their own chief Druid . These rude supreme peril to Rome. At almost one and the
warriors, who had overturned the throne of the same time she wasmenaced by two dangers, which
Cæsars, bowed down before the chair of the Popes. threatened to sweep her out of existence, but which,
The evangelisation of these tribes was a task of in their issue, contributed to strengthen her do
easy accomplishment. The “ Catholic faith ,” which minion . On the west the victorious Saracens,
they began to exchange for their Paganism or having crossed the Pyrenees and overrun the south
Arianism , consisted chiefly in their being able to of France, were watering their steeds at the Loire,
recite the names of the objects of their worship , and threatening to descend upon Italy and plant
which they were left to adore with much the same the Crescent in the room of the Cross. On the
rites as they had practised in their native forests. north , the Lombards — who, under Alboin, had
They did not much concern themselves with the study established themselves in Central Italy two cen
of Christian doctrine, or the practice of Christian turies before— had burst the barrier of the Apen
virtue. The age furnished but few manuals of the nines, and were brandishing their swords at the
one, and still fewer models of the other. gates of Rome. They were on the point of re
The first of the Gothic princes to enter the placing Catholic orthodoxy with the creed of
Roman communion was Clovis, King of the Franks. Arianism . Having taken advantage of the icono
In fulfilment of a vow which he had made on the clast disputes to throw off the imperial yoke, the
field of Tolbiac,where he vanquished the Allemanni,
Clovis was baptised in the Cathedral of Rheims Müller, Univ . History, vol. i ., p . 21 ; Lond., 1818.
(496), with every circumstance of solemnity which ? Müller, vol. ii., p. 23.
PHE wide-spread popularity which has attended CASSELL'S
Bi MAGAZINE, throughout its issue of the last six years, has
2
Serial Publications of the present day.
odelled on the
tion of Pagan
e Gospel in its
niform testi
th which had
NEW ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. the humble
irst age, and
In Weekly Numbers, price 1fd ., and Monthly Parts, price 7d. ors, became
CASSELL'S ILLUSTRATED eous temples
1 favour had
History of the United States tions of the
(Uniform with " Cassell's Illustrated History of England ").
marked and
No. 1 ready Nov. 18th , price 13d. ; Part I. ready Nov . 26th , price 7d. hidden from
PROSPECTUS . light, which
IVHILST no one can fail to be impressed with the present importance of the withdrawn ,
great Republic of the United States among the nations of the earth , in members of
respect not only of its political organisation , but also of its commercial activity were put in
and vast territorial extent, there are few persons who have an adequate concep .
tion of the romantic character of its rise and the absorbing interest of its Faith ; and
progress. We propose, therefore, in this Work to narrate the marvellous undations of
history of that great nation ' s life, going back to those early days when a few ll nations to
heroic Englishmen landed on the coast of an almost unknown continent, whose fornication ."
primeval forests covered the land upon which now stands the capital of the great
Republic of the West. We shall see these brave islanders left almost entirely ect titles of
to their own resources in a distant and savage land ; cutting down forests ; turn . .nd jurisdic
ing barren plains into fruitful corn-fields ; building rough towns along the at an office
solitary coasts ; now treating with the aborigines, now in conflict with them ;
battling with cold, with tempest, and with hunger ; forming little communities of the highest
self-reliant men ; and , under every discouragement which can fall to the lot of espect when
human beings, laying the bases of new commonwealths and new churches, which
now are ruling powers in the world . r, sincerely
We shall also see the pioneers of Christianity going out amongst the heathen ,
and converting many by the brightness of their example and the energy of their ed innocent
faith . Weshall find great principles of government debated and applied . Wo
shall recount the rise and progress of prosperous States, and the birth and rapid •cular tribu
growth of a distinct national feeling. Thon we come to the period of the War to arbitrate
of Independence to that heroic struggle, fruitful in great deeds and perilons Church , and
ll such de
nd shutting
Ý the civil
1, the next
the Church
vernment. Four
· Roman Empire
as asked, should
mugauti prout OL 108 avinity . 10 rose from the not a similar arrangement be introduced into the
stakes and massacres of Domitian , to begin a new Church ? Accordingly the Christian world was
para
career, inminito doctined toto triumph over the divided into four great dioceses ; over each diocese
in which it was destined
empire which thought that it had crushed it . Dig - Eusebius. De Vita Const., lib . iv ., cap . 27.
nities and wealth now flowed in upon its ministers Dupin ,
Eccles. Hist., vol. 1., p . 162 ; Dublin , 1723 .
How that seed was deposited in the soil ; how is the proof that at the bottom of this protest was a
the tree grew up and flourished despite the furious great principle which it has pleased Providence to
tempests that warred around it ; how , century after fertilise , and make the seed of those grand , bene
century, it lifted its top higher in heaven, and ficent, and enduring achievements which have made
spread its boughs wider around, sheltering liberty , the past three centuries in many respects the
nursing letters, fostering art, and gathering a fra- most eventful and wonderful in history. Themen
ternity of prosperous and powerful nations around who handed in this protest did not wish to create a
it, it will be our business in the following pages to mere void . If they disowned the creed and threw
show . Meanwhile we wish it to be noted that this off the yoke of Rome, it was that they might plant
is what we understand by the Protestantism on the a purer faith and restore the government of a
history of which we are now entering. Viewed higher Law . They replaced the authority of the
thus — and any narrower view would be untrue Infallibility with the authority of the Word of
alike to philosophy and to fact — the History of God . The long and dismal obscuration of centuries
Protestantism is the record of one of the grandest they dispelled , that the twin stars of liberty and
dramas of all time. knowledge might shine forth, and that, conscience
It is true, no doubt, that Protestantism , strictly being unbound, the intellect might awake from its
viewed, is simply a principle. It is not a policy. deep somnolency , and human society , renewing its
It is not an empire, having its fleets and armies, youth , might, after its halt of a thousand years,
its officers and tribunals , wherewith to extend its resume its march towards its high goal.
dominion and make its authority be obeyed. It is We repeat our question - Whence came this
not even a Church with its hierarchies, and synods principle ? And we ask our readers to mark well
and edicts ; it is simply a principle. But it is our answer , for it is the key-note to the whole of
the greatest of all principles. It is a 'creative our vast subject , and places us, at the very outset,
power. Its plastic influence is all-embracing. It at the springs of that long narration on which we
penetrates into the heart and renews the indi- are now entering.
vidual. It goes down to the depths and, by its Protestantism is not solely the outcome of human
omnipotent but noiseless energy, vivifies and re- progress ; it is no mere principle of perfectibility
generates society. It thus becomes the creator of inherent in humanity , and ranking as one of its
all that is truc, and lovely , and great ; the founder native powers, in virtue of which when society
of freekingdoms, and the mother of pure churches. becomes corrupt it can purify itself, and when it
The globe itself it claims as a stage not too wide is arrested in its course by some external force , or
for the manifestation of its beneficent action ; and stops from exhaustion , it can recruit its energies
the whole domain of terrestrial affairs it deems a and set forward anew on its path. It is neither
sphere not too vast to fill with its spirit, and rule the product of the individual reason, nor the result
by its law . of the joint thought and energies of the species.
Whence came this principle ? The name Pro- Protestantism is a principle which has its origin
testantism is very recent : the thing itself is very outside human society : it is a Divine graft an
ancient. The term Protestantism is scarcely older the intellectual and moral nature ofman , whereby
than 300 years. It dates from the PROTEST which new vitalities and forces are introduced into it, and
the Lutheran princes gave in to the Diet of Spires the human stem yields henceforth a nobler fruit.
in 1529. Restricted to its historical signification , It is the descent of a heaven -born influence which
Protestantism is purely negative. It only defines allies itself with all the instincts and powers of
the attitude taken up, at a great historical era , by the individual, with all the laws and cravings of
one party in Christendom with reference to another society, and which, quickening both the individual
party. But had this been all, Protestantism would and the social being into a new life, and directing
have had no history. Had it been purely negative, their efforts to nobler objects, permits the highest
it would have begun and ended with the men who development of which humanity is capable , and the
assembled at the German town in the year already fullest possible accomplishment of all its grand ends.
specified. The new world that has come out of it In a word, Protestantism is revived Christianity.
AHE wide-spread popularity which has attended CASSELL'S
MAGAZINE, throughout its issue of the last six years, has
Serial Publications of the present day.
Writers of acknowledged eminence have discoursed in it i remodelled on the
upon the numerous interesting subjects on which they have earned a croduction of Pagan
right to speak with authority. Some of our greatest authors of ive the Gospel in its
fiction have contributed serial stories to its pages. The aid of the
most talented artists and engravers has been employed in its pictorial he uniform testi
embellishment. le faith which had
It is now felt that, in order to keep pace with the growing demands of r in the humble
! practical usefulness, the time has arrived when it is due to the readers of the first age, and
this Magazine to add fresh features, chiefly of domestic interest, to its pages. secutors, became
So important has the introduction of these domestic features been felt gorgeous temples
į to be, that it has been decided to publish the Magazine in future under perial favour had
| the title of
orruptions of the
CASSELL'S FAMILY MAGAZINE, lake marked and
to be hidden from
These fresh features will not in any way shut out those leading and į the light, which
attractive characteristics which have in the past so successfully contributed , was withdrawn,
to the popularity of the Magazine, but will extend its range over such · the members of
useful and entertaining subjects as are calculated to make it indispensable acils were put in
to EVERY HOME. le of Faith ; and
Of all the thousand and one things which are going on in the world he foundations of
around us, those in particular which touch closely upon our own homes ade all nations to
and affect ourselves personally are the subjects which really interest us her fornication .”
the most. “ OUR HOMES, AND THOSE WHO MAKE THEM ,” o affect titles of
will furnish an inexhaustible variety of topics , teeming with interest. The rity and jurisdic
charm of these papers will consist in the personal and practical form in ul that an office
which they will be written. Everymember of the family - Father, Mother, e to the highest
Son, and Daughter - will in turn realise the pleasure of being personally of respect when
addressed , in a style and upon subjects which will at once engage special tracter, sincerely
attention . ies.
Another new valuable feature will be introduced into the Magazine, seemed innocent
under the title of The GATHERER. This will embrace “ Gatherings” of a the secular tribu
pithy character - literary , scientific, social, and humorous — the cream , that sked to arbitrate
is to say, of all that is new in the social and scientific world , with enter the Church, and
taining notes upon the remarkable facts so continually being brought into ing all such de
public notice. rgy,and shutting
es by the civil
P . T. o . 1 path, the next
ty of the Church
vernment. Four
Roman Empire
ras asked , should
mguuci pruus viius wvinity. 10 rose from the not a similar arrangement be introduced into the
career, in which it was destined to triumph over the divided into four great dioceses ; over each diocese
empire which thought that it had crushed it. Dig - Eusebius . De Vita Const., lib . iv ., cap. 27. Dupin ,
nities and wealth now flowed in upon its ministers Eccles. Hist., vol. 1., p . 162 ; Dublin , 1723 .
THE SERIAL STORIES will be by the most eminent Authors of
How that seed the day, those pens being enlisted which are not only powerful, but from
the tree grew up : which flows that pure, sterling fiction which has distinguished so many of
tempests that warı the leading writers of England.
century, it lifted There will be SHORT COMPLETE STORIES in each Number of
spread its boughs the Magazine, special pains being taken to supply in this department a
nursing letters, fos large and unceasing fund of lively reading.
ternity of p
it, it will be Stirring recitals of TRAVEL and ADVENTURE - of whatmen and
show . Meai women have dared, and endured, and achieved in all parts of the world
is what we u wiil be included under " SOMETHING DONE."
history of w Under " DRAWN FROM THE LIFE ” will be given an abundant
thus — and : variety of those realistic sketches which , taken literally from every-day life,
alike to ph present points ofinterest never approached in fiction.
Protestantis The PICTORIAL element, which has always been a prominent feature in
dramas of a CASSELL'S MAGAZINE, will assume even greater importance in the new
It is true issue. Not only will the general excellence of the Illustrations be main
viewed, is tained, but they will be more profusely interspersed among its pages, so as
It is not a to render CASSELL'S FAMILY MAGAZINE THE MOST LIBERALLY
its officers ILLUSTRATED as well as the best SERIAL ever offered to the reader
dominion a essentially the Magazine for Every Home in the Land.
not even a
and edicts This enlargement of the area over which it is proposed to cater for
the greate readers of all classes, renders desirable a corresponding change in the form
power. It and issue of the Magazine. In order to provide proportionate accommo
penetrates dation for the variety of subjects with which it is proposed to deal, and for
vidual. I their adequate treatment, it has been decided to issue
omnipoten CASSELL'S FAMILY MAGAZINE IN AN ENLARGED FORM ,
generates
all that is In Monthly Parts only, price Sevenpence.
of free ki: It remains to mention that “ PRETTY MISS BELLEW ” will be the
The globe title of the leading Story, TO BE COMMENCED IN THE FIRST MONTHLY PART
for the m of the New Series. It will be from the pen of a writer whose pure and
the whole domestic stories have secured for the Author a high place among the best
sphere nc Novelists of modern times.
by its las
When
testantis e Part I. of CASSELL 'S FAMILY MAGAZINE will be
ancient. published on November 26 , and a HANDSOME STEEL
than 30 ENGRAVING, " THE REVERIE ," after a Painting by JOHN
the Lut EVERETT MILLAIS, R .A ., will be issued, without extra
in 1529
Protesta charge, with each copy of Part 1.
the atti CASSELL, PETTER & CALPIN, BELLE SAUVAGE YARD, LUDCATE HILI, LONDOV, E.C .
one par
party .
have had no histo
it would have beş
assembled at the
specified . The ne
HE wide-spread popularity which has attended CASSELL' S
MAGAZINE, throughout its issue of the last six years, has
secured for it a highly -favoured place amongst the popular
V Serial Publications of the present day.
Writers of acknowledged eminence have discoursed in it i remodelled on the
es upon the numerous interesting subjects on which they have earned a zroduction of Pagan
right to speak with authority. Some of our greatest authors of ive the Gospel in its
fiction have contributed serial stories to its pages. The aid of the
most talented artists and engravers has been employed in its pictorial he uniform testi
embellishment. le faith which had
It is now felt that, in order to keep pace with the growing demands of r in the humble
practical usefulness , the time has arrived when it is due to the readers of the first age, and
this Magazine to add fresh features, chiefly of domestic interest, to its pages. 'secutors, became
So important has the introduction of these domestic features been felt gorgeous temples
to be, that it has been decided to publish the Magazine in future under perial favour had
the title of
orruptions of the
CASSELL'S FAMILY MAGAZINE. lake marked and
to be hidden from
These fresh features will not in any way shut out those leading and the light, which
attractive characteristics which have in the past so successfully contributed , was withdrawn,
to the popularity of the Magazine, but will extend its range over such · the members of
useful and entertaining subjects as are calculated to make it indispensable acils were put in
to EVERY HOME. le of Faith ; and
Of all the thousand and one things which are going on in the world he foundations of
around us, those in particular which touch closely upon our own homes ade all nations to
and affect ourselves personally are the subjects which really interest us her fornication.”
the most. “ OUR HOMES, AND THOSE WHO MAKE THEM ,” o affect titles of
will furnish an inexhaustible variety of topics, teeming with interest. The rity and jurisdic
charm of these papers will consist in the personal and practical form in ul that an office
which they will be written . Every member of the family - Father, Mother, e to the highest
Son, and Daughter - -will in turn realise the pleasure of being personally of respect when
addressed, in a style and upon subjects which will at once engage special tracter, sincerely
attention. ies.
Another new valuable feature will be introduced into the Magazine, seemed innocent
under the title of The GATHERER. This will embrace “ Gatherings " of a the secular tribu
pithy character - literary, scientific, social, and humorous — the cream , that sked to arbitrate
is to say, of all that is new in the social and scientific world, with enter the Church, and
taining notes upon the remarkable facts so continually being brought into ing all such de
public notice. rgy,and shutting
es by the civil
P . T. 0 .
1 path , the next
ty of the Church
vernment. Four
· Roman Empire
as asked, should
mguuiti proui un ius divinity . It rose from the not a similar arrangement be introduced into the
career, in which itwas destined to triumph over the divided into four great dioceses ; over each diocese
empire which thought that it had crushed it. Dig
Dig
nities and wealth now flowed in upon its ministers · Eusebius,
Eccles. De1.,Vita
Hist., vol. p. 162Const., lib. iv1723.
; Dublin, ., cap. 27. Dupin,
was set a patriarch, who governed the whole clergy The Churches of the West, and especially that of
of his domain , and thus arose four great thrones or Rome, kept Easter on the Sabbath following the
princedoms in the House of God. Where there 14th day of Nisan . Victor, Bishop of Rome, re
had been a brotherhood , there was now a hierarchy ; solved to put an end to the controversy, and
and from the lofty chair of the Patriarch, a grada- accordingly, sustaining himself sole judge in this
tion of rank, and a subordination of authority and weighty point, he commanded all the Churches to
office , ran down to the lowly state and contracted observe the feast on the same day with himself.
sphere of the Presbyter.' It was splendour of The Churches of the East,not aware that the Bishop
rank, rather than the fame of learning and the of Rome had authority to command their obedience
lustre of virtue, that henceforward conferred dis - in this or in any other matter, kept Easter as
tinction on the ministers of the Church. before ; and for this flagrant contempt, as Victor
Such an arrangement was not fitted to nourish accounted it, of his legitimate authority, he excom
spirituality of mind, or humility of disposition , or municated them . They refused to obey a human
peacefulness of temper. The enmity and violence ordinance , and they were shut out from the king
of the persecutor, the clergy had no longer cause to dom of the Gospel. This was the first peal of those
dread ; but the spirit of faction which now took thunders which were in after times to roll so often
possession of the dignitaries of the Church and so terribly from the Seven Hills.
awakened vehement disputes and fierce conten- Riches, flattery, deference, continued to wait
tions, which disparaged the authority and sullied upon the Bishop of Rome. The emperor saluted
the glory of the sacred office. The emperor him him as Father ; foreign Churches sustained him as
self was witness to these unseemly spectacles. “ I judge in their disputes ; heresiarchs sometimes fled
entreat you,” we find him pathetically saying to to him for sanctuary ; those who had favours to
the fathers of the Council of Nice, “ beloved minis - beg extolled his piety, or affected to follow his
ters of God, and servants of our Saviour Jesus customs; and it is not surprising that his pride
Christ, take away the cause of our dissension and and ambition, fed by continual incense, continued
disagreement, establish peace among yourselves." ; to grow , till at last the presbyter of Rome, from
While the “ living oracles " were neglected, the being a vigilant pastor of a single congregation ,
zeal of the clergy began to spend itself upon rites before whom he went in and out, teaching them
and ceremonies borrowed from the pagans. These from house to house, preaching to them the Word
were multiplied to such a degree, that Augustine of Life, serving the Lord with all humility in
complained that they were “ less tolerable than the many tears and temptations that befel him , raised
yoke of the Jews under the law .” 3 At this period his seat above his equals, mounted the throne of
the Bishops of Rome wore costly attire, gave sump- the patriarch , and exercised lordship over the
tuous banquets, and when they went abroad were heritage of Christ. .
carried in litters. 4 They now began to speak with The gates of the sanctuary once forced , the
an authoritative voice, and to demand obedience stream of corruption continued to flow with ever
from all the Churches. Of this the dispute between deepening volume. The declensions in doctrine
the Eastern and Western Churches respecting Easter and worship already introduced had changed the
is an instance in point. The Eastern Church, fol- brightness of the Church's morning into twilight ;
lowing the Jews, kept the feast on the 14th day of the descent of the Northern nations, which , be
the month Nisan — the day of the Jewish Passover. ginning in the fifth , continued through several
successive centuries , converted that twilight into
1 Eusebius, De Vita Const., lib . iv., cap. 24. Mosheim , night. The new tribes had changed their country,
Eccles. Hist., vol. i., cent. 4, p. 94 ; Glasgow , 1831. but not their superstitions ; and, unhappily , there
2 Eusebius, Eccles. Hist., lib. ii., cap. 12, p . 490 ;
Parisiis , 1659. Dupin , Eccles. Hist., vol. ii., p . 14 ;
Lond ., 1693. 6 The Council of Nicæa, A.D . 325, enacted that the 21st
3 Baronius admits that many things have been laudably of March should thenceforward be accounted the vernal
translated from Gentile superstition into the Christian equinox, that the Lord's Day following the full moon next
religion ( Annal., ad An. 58). And Binnius, extolling the after the 21st of March should be kept as Easter Day, but
munificence of Constantine towards the Church , speaks that if the full moon happened on a Sabbath , Easter Day
of his superstitionis gentiliæ justa omulatio (“ just emula . should be the Sabbath following. This is the canon that
tion of the Gentile superstition " ). - Concil., tom . 7, notæ regulates the observance of Easter in the Church of
in Donat. Constan . England . “ Easter Day," says the Common Prayer Book ,
* Ammian . Marcel., lib . Ixvii., cap . 3. Mosheim , vol. i., “ is always the first Sunday after the full moon which
cent. 4, p. 95. happens upon or next after the 21st day of March ; and if
5 Nisan corresponds with the latter half of our March the full moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter Day is the
and the first half of our April. Sunday after."
GROWTH OF SUPERSTITIOUS RITES.
was neither zeal nor vigour in the Christianity next, the Supper was celebrated beside their
of the age to effect their instruction and their graves ; next, prayers were offered for them and to
genuine conversion. The Bible had been with them ;? next, paintings and images began to dis
drawn ; in the pulpit fable had usurped the place figure the walls, and corpses to pollute the floors of
of truth ; holy lives, whose silent eloquence might the churches. Baptism , which apostles required
have won upon the barbarians, were rarely exempli- water only to dispense , could not be celebrated
fied ; and thus, instead of the Church dissipating the without white robes and chrism , milk , honey, and
superstitions that now encompassed her like a cloud , salt, ' Then came a crowd of church officers whose
these superstitions all but quenched her own light names and numbers are in striking contrast to the
She opened her gates to receive the new peoples as few and simple orders of men who were employed
they were. She sprinkled them with the baptismal in the first propagation of Christianity . There
water ; she inscribed their names in her registers ; were sub -deacons, acolytes, exorcists , readers, choris
she taught them in their invocations to repeat the ters, and porters ; and as work must be found for
titles of the Trinity ; but the doctrines of the this motley host of labourers,there came to be fasts
Gospel, which alone can enlighten the understand and exorcisms; there were lamps to be lighted ,
ing, purify the heart, and enrich the life with vir- altars to be arranged , and churches to be conse
tue, she was little careful to inculcate upon them . crated ; there was the eucharist to be carried to the
She folded them within her pale, but they were dying ; and there were the dead to be buried , for
scarcely more Christian than before, while she was which a special order of men was set apart. When
greatly less so. From the sixth century down- one looked back to the simplicity of early times, it
wards Christianity was a mongrel system , made up could not but amaze him to think what a cumbrous
of pagan rites revived from classic times, of super- array of curious machinery and costly furniture was
stitions imported from the forests of Northern now needed for the service of Christianity. Not
Germany , and of Christian beliefs and observances more stinging than true was the remark that
which continued to linger in the Church from “ when the Church had golden chalices she had
primitive and purer times. The inward power of wooden priests."
religion was lost ; and it was in vain that men So far, and through these various stages, had the
strove to supply its place by the outward form . declension of the Church proceeded . The point
They nourished their piety not at the living foun - she had now reached may be termed an epochal one.
tains of truth , but with the " beggarly elements ” of From the line on which she stood there was no
ceremonies and relics,of consecrated lights and holy going back ; she must advance into the new and
vestments. Nor was it Divine knowledge only unknown regions before her, though every step
that was contemned ; men forbore to cultivate would carry her farther from the simple form and
letters , or practise virtue. Baronius confesses that vigorous life of her early days. She had received
in the sixth century few in Italy were skilled in a new impregnation from an alien principle, the
both Greek and Latin . Nay, even Gregory the same, in fact, from which had sprung the great
Great acknowledged that he was ignorant of Greek. systems that covered the earth before Christianity
“ The main qualifications of the clergy were, that arose. This principle could not be summarily
they should be able to read well, sing their matins, extirpated ; it must run its course , it must de
know the Lord 's Prayer, psalter, forms of exorcism , velop itself logically ; and having, in the course
and understand how to compute the times of the of centuries , brought its fruits to maturity, it
sacred festivals. Nor were they very sufficient for would then , but not till then , perish and pass
this, if we may believe the account some have given away.
of them . Musculus says that many of them never Looking back at this stage to the change which
saw the Scriptures in all their lives. Itwould seem had come over the Church , we cannot fail to see
incredible, but it is delivered by no less an authority that its deepest originating cause must be sought
than Amama, thatan Archbishop of Mainz, lighting
upon a Bible and looking into it, expressed himself ? These customsbegan thus. In times of persecution,
thus : Of a truth I do not know what book this is. assemblies often met in churchyards as the place of
?
but I perceive everything in it is against us.'" greatest safety, and the “ elements ” were placed on the
tombstones. It becameusual to pray that the dead might
Apostacy is like the descent of heavy bodies, it be made partakers in the " first resurrection .” This was
proceeds with ever-accelerating velocity . First, grounded on the idea which the primitive Christians
lamps were lighted at the tombs of the martyrs ; entertained respecting the millennium . After Gregory I.,
prayers for the dead regarded their deliverance from
purgatory .
1 Bennet's Memorial of the Reformation ,p .20 ; Edin., 1748. 8 Dupin , Eccles. Hist., vol. i., cent. 3.
in the inability of the world to receive the Gospel an eclipse has passed upon the exceeding glory
in all its greatness. It was a boon too mighty and of the Gospel. Aswe pass from Paul to Clement,
too free to be easily understood or credited by man. and from Clement to the Fathers that succeeded
The angels in their midnight song in the vale of him , we find the Gospel becoming less of grace
Bethlehem had defined it briefly as sublimely , " good - and more of merit. The light wanes as we travel
will to man." Its greatest preacher, the Apostle down the Patristic road, and remove ourselves
Paul, had no other definition to give of it. It was farther from the Apostolic dawn. It continues
not only a rule of life but “ grace," the “ grace of for some time at least to be the same Gospel,
God," and therefore sovereign , and boundless. To but its glory is shorn , its mighty force is abated ;
man fallen and undone the Gospel offered a full and we are reminded of the change that seems to
CONS
IN
CANT
e
s
e
THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. (From the Musco de Sculpture, by M . Clarac.)
forgiveness, and a complete spiritual renovation, pass upon the sun, when after contemplating him
issuing at length in the inconceivable and infinite in a tropical hemisphere, we see him in a northern
felicity of the Life Eternal. But man 's narrow sky, where his beams, having to force their way
heart could not enlarge itself to God's vast bene- through mists and vapours, are robbed of half their
ficence. A good so immense , so complete in its splendoui. Seen through the fogs of the Patristic
nature, and so boundless in its extent, he could age, the Gospel scarcely looks the same which had
not believe that God would bestow without money burst upon the world without a cloud but a few
and without price ; there must be conditions or centuries before.
qualifications. So he reasoned. And hence it is This disposition — that of making God less free
that the moment inspired men cease to address in his gift, and man less dependent in the reception
us, and that their disciples and scholars take their of it : the desire to introduce the element of merit
place — men of apostolic spirit and doctrine, no on the side of man, and the element of condition
doubt, but without the direct knowledge of their on the side of God - operated at last in opening the
predecessors — we become sensible of a change; door for the pagan principle to creep back into the
si
Il
PA
KORING
EL10
TUTTI
WE
NA Swane
Mesas
DV
VIEW
.OFCONSTANTINOPL E
Church . A change of a deadly and subtle kind the blessings with which it stood connected. This
passed upon the worship . Instead of being the was the moment when the pagan virus inoculated
spontaneous thanksgiving and joy of the soul, that the Christian institution.
no more evoked or repaid the blessings which This change brought a multitude of others in its
awakened that joy than the odours which the train . Worship being transformed into sacrifice
flowers exhale are the cause of their growth, or sacrifice in which was the element of expiation and
the joy that kindles in the heart of man when purification — the “ teaching ministry ” was of
the sun rises is the cause of his rising - Worship, course converted into a “ sacrificing priesthood."
we say, from being the expression of the soul's When this had been done, there was no retreating ;
emotions, was changed into a rite, a rite akin to a boundary had been reached which could not be
those of the Jewish temples, and still more akin recrossed till centuries had rolled away, and trans
to those of the Greek mythology, a rite in which formations of a more portentous kind than any
lay couched a certain amount of human merit and which had yet taken place had passed upon the
inherent efficacy, that partly created , partly applied Church.
CHAPTER III.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PAPACY FROM THE TIMES OF CONSTANTINE TO THOSE OF HILDEBRAND.
Imperial Edicts - Prestige of Rome- Fall of the Western Empire-- The Papacy seeks and finds a New Basis of Power
- Christ's Vicar - Conversion of Gothic Nations - Pepin and Charlemagne - The Lombards and the Saracens
Forgeries and False Decretals - Election of the Roman Pontiff.
BEFORE opening our great theme it may be needful be overtaken by the spirit of the ages that lay
to sketch the rise and development of the Papacy behind her. There came an after-growth of Jewish
as a politico-ecclesiastical power. The history on ritualism , of Greek philosophy, and of Pagan cere
which we are entering, and which we must rapidly monialism and idolatry ; and , as the consequence of
traverse, is one of the most wonderful in the world .
this threefold action, the clergy began to be gradu
It is scarcely possible to imagine humbler begin -ally changed , as already mentioned, from a " teach
nings than those from which the Papacy arose , anding ministry ” to a “ sacrificing priesthood.” This
certainly it is not possible to imagine a loftier made them no longer ministers or servants of their
height than that to which it eventually climbed . fellow -Christians ; they took the position of a caste,
He who was seen in the first century presiding as claiming to be superior to the laity, invested with
the humblo pastor over a single congregation, and mysterious powers, the channels of grace, and the
claiming no rank above his brethren , is beheld in mediators with God. Thus there arose a hierarchy,
the twelfth century occupying a seat from which assuming to mediate between God and men.
he looks down on all the thrones temporal and The hierarchical polity was the natural concomi
spiritual of Christendom . How , we ask with tant of the hierarchical doctrine. That polity was
amazement, was the Papacy able to traverse the so consolidated by the time that the empire became
mighty space that divided the humble pastor from Christian, and Constantine ascended the throne
the mitred king ? (311), that the Church now stood out as a body
We traced in the foregoing chapter the decay of distinct from the State ; and her new organisation ,
doctrine and manners within the Church . Among subsequently received , in imitation of that of the
the causes which contributed to the exaltation of empire , as stated in the previous chapter, helped
the Papacy this declension may be ranked as funda- still further to define and strengthen her hierarchical
mental, seeing it opened the door for other deterio government. Still, the primacy of Romewas then
rating influences, and mightily favoured their opera- a thing unheard of. Manifestly the 300 Fathers
tion . Instead of “ reaching forth to what was who assembled (A .D . 325 ) at Nicæa knew nothing
before," the Christian Church permitted herself to of it, for in their sixth and seventh canons they
THE POPE CLAIMS TO BE CHRISTS VICAR.
expressly recognise the authority of the Churches of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem , Constantinople,
Alexandria, Antioch , Jerusalem , and others, each and Rome — the question at issue being the same as
within its own boundaries, even as Rome had that which provoked the contention among the dis
jurisdiction within its limits ; and enact that the ciples of old , “ which was the greatest," was now
jurisdiction and privileges of these Churches shall restricted to the last two. The city on the Bos
be retained .' Under Leo the Great (440 — 461) a phorus was the seat of government, and the abode
forward step was taken . The Church of Rome of the emperor ; this gave her patriarch powerfu )
assumed the form and exercised the sway of an claims. But the city on the banks of the Tibe:
ecclesiastical principality, while her head, in virtue wielded a mysterious and potent charm over the
of an imperial manifesto (445 ) of Valentinian III., imagination, as the heir of her who had been
which recognised the Bishop of Rome as supreme the possessor of all the power, of all the glory,
over the Western Church, affected the authority and of all the dominion of the past ; and this vast
and pomp of a spiritual sovereign. prestige enabled her patriarch to carry the day.
Still farther, the ascent of the Bishop of Rome As Rome was the one city in the earth , so her
to the supremacy was silently yet powerfully aided bishop was the one bishop in the Church. A
by that mysterious and subtle influence which ap- century and a half later (606), this pre-eminence
peared to be indigenous to the soil on which his was decreed to the Roman Bishop in an imperial
chair was placed. In an age when the rank of the edict of Phocas.
city determined the rank of its pastor, it was natural Thus, before the Empire of the West fell, the
that the Bishop of Rome should hold something of Bishop of Rome had established substantially his
that pre-eminence among the clergy which Rome spiritual supremacy. An influence of a manifold
held among cities. Gradually the reverence and kind, of which not the least part was the prestige
awe with which men had regarded the old mistress of the city and the empire , had lifted him to this
of the world , began to gather round the person and fatal pre-eminence. But now the time has come
the chair of her bishop. It was an age of factions when the empire must fall, and we expect to see
and strifes, and the eyes of the contending parties that supremacy which it had so largely helped to
naturally turned to the pastor of the Tiber. They build up fall with it. But no ! The wave of bar
craved his advice , or they submitted their differences barism which rolled in from the North, overwhelm
to his judgment. These applications the Roman ing society and sweeping away the empire, broke
Bishop was careful to register as acknowledgments harmlessly at the feet of the Bishop of Rome. The
of his superiority, and on fitting occasions he was shocks that overturned dynasties and blotted out
not forgetful to make them the basis of new and nationalities, left his power untouched , his seat un
higher claims. The Latin race, moreover, retained shaken. Nay, it was at that very hour, when
the practical habits for which it had so long been society was perishing around him , that the Bishop
renowned ; and while the Easterus, giving way to of Rome laid anew the foundations of his power,
their speculative genius, were expending their and placed them where they might remain im
energies in controversy , the Western Church was movable for all time. He now cast himself on a
steadily pursuing her onward path , and skilfully far stronger element than any the revolution had
availing herself of everything that could tend to swept away. He now claimed to be the successor
enhance her influence and extend her jurisdiction. of Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and the Vicar
The removal of the seat of empire from Rome to of Christ.
the splendid city on the Bosphorus, Constantinople , The canons of Councils, as recorded in Hardouin,
which the emperor had built with becoming mag- show a stream of decisions from Pope Celestine, in
nificence for his residence, also tended to enhance the middle of the fifth century, to Pope Boniface II.
the power of the Papal chair. It removed from the in the middle of the sixth, claiming, directly or
side of the Pope a functionary by whom he was indirectly , this august prerogative. When the
eclipsed, and left him the first person in the old Bishop of Rome placed his chair, with all the
capital of the world . The emperor had departed , prerogatives and dignities vested in it, upon this
but the prestige of the old city - the fruit of count ground, he stood no longer upon a merely imperial
less victories , and of ages of dominion — had not foundation . Henceforward he held neither of Cæsar
departed . The contest which had been going on nor of Rome ; he held immediately of Heaven .
for some time among the five great patriarchates — What one emperor had given, another emperor
might take away. It did not suit the Pope to hold
1 Hardouin , Acta Concil., tom . i., col. 325 ; Parisiis,1715.
Dupin , Eccles . Hist., vol. i., p. 600 ; Dublin edition . 2 Hard. i. 1477; ii. 787, 886. Baron . vi. 235 .
his office byso uncertain a tenure. He made haste, could impress a sense of the awfulness of the rite
therefore, to place his supremacy where no future on the minds of its rude proselytes. Three thou
decree of emperor, no lapse of years, and no com - sand of his warlike subjects were baptised along
ing revolution could overturn it. He claimed to with him . ' The Pope styled him “ the eldest son
rest it upon a Divine foundation ; he claimed to of the Church,” a title which the Kings of France,
be not merely the chief of bishops and the first of his successors, have worn these 1,400 years. When
patriarchs, but the vicar of the Most High God . Clovis ascended from the baptismal font he was the
With the assertion of this dogma the system of only aswell as the eldest son of the Church, for he
the Papacy was completed essentially and doctrin- alone, of all the new chiefs that now governed the
ally , but not as yet practically. It had to wait the West, had as yet submitted to the baptismal rite.
full development of the idea of vicarship , which The threshold once crossed , others were not slow
was not till the days of Gregory VII. But here to follow . In the next century, the sixth , the
have we the embryotic seed — the vicarship to wit Burgundians of Southern Gaul, the Visigoths of
- out of which the vast structure of the Papacy Spain , the Suevi of Portugal, and the Anglo-Saxons
has sprung. This it is that plants at the centre of Britain entered the pale of Rome. In the
of the system a pseudo-divine jurisdiction , and seventh century the disposition was still growing
places the Pope above all bishops with their flocks, among the princes of Western Europe to submit
above all kings with their subjects. This it is themselves and refer their disputes to the Pontiff
that gives the Pope two swords. This it is that as their spiritual father. National assemblies were
gives him three crowns. The day when this dogma held twice a year, under the sanction of the bishops.
was proclaimed was the true birthday of the The prelates made use of these gatherings to pro
Popedom . The Bishop of Rome had till now sat cure enactments favourable to the propagation of
in the seat of Cæsar ; henceforward he was to sit the faith as held by Rome. These assemblies were
in the seat of God. first encouraged, then enjoined by the Pope, who
From this time the growth of the Popedom was came in this way to be regarded as a sort of Father
rapid indeed. The state of society favoured its or protector of the states of the West. Accordingly
development. Night had descended upon the world we find Sigismund, King of Burgundy, ordering
from the North ; and in the universal barbarism , (554) that an assembly should be held for the
the more prodigious any pretensions were, the more future on the 6th of September every year, “ at
likely were they to find both belief and submission. which time the ecclesiastics are not so much en
The Goths, on arriving in their rew settlements , grossed with the worldly cares of husbandry." .
beheld a religion which was served bymagnificent The ecclesiastical conquest of Germany was in this
cathedrals, imposing rites, and wealthy and power- century completed ,and thus the spiritual dominions
ful prelates, presided over by a chief priest, in of the Pope were still further extended .
whose reputed sanctity and ghostly authority they In the eighth century there came a moment of
found again their own chief Druid . These rude supreme peril to Rome. At almost one and the
warriors, who had overturned the throne of the same time she was menaced by two dangers, which
Cæsars, bowed down before the chair of the Popes. threatened to sweep her out of existence , but which ,
The evangelisation of these tribes was a task of in their issue, contributed to strengthen her do
easy accomplishment. The “ Catholic faith," which minion. On the west the victorious Saracens,
they began to exchange for their Paganism or having crossed the Pyrenees and overrun the south
Arianism , consisted chiefly in their being able to of France, were watering their steeds at the Loire,
recite the names of the objects of their worship, and threatening to descend upon Italy and plant
which they were left to adore with much the same the Crescent in the room of the Cross. On the
rites as they had practised in their native forests. north , the Lombards — who, under Alboin , had
They did notmuch concern themselves with the study established themselves in Central Italy two cen
of Christian doctrine, or the practice of Christian turies before — had burst the barrier of the Apen
virtue. The age furnished but few manuals of the nines, and were brandishing their swords at the
one, and still fewer models of the other. gates of Rome. They were on the point of re
The first of the Gothic princes to enter the placing Catholic orthodoxy with the creed of
Roman communion was Clovis, King of the Franks. Arianism . Having taken advantage of the icono
In fulfilment of a vow which he had made on the clast disputes to throw off the imperial yoke, the
field of Tolbiac,where he vanquished the Allemanni,
Clovis was baptised in the Cathedral of Rheims " Müller, Univ. History, vol. ij., p . 21 ; Lond., 1818.
(496 ), with every circumstance of solemnity which ? Müller, vol. ii., p . 23.
THE “ DONATION ” OF THE EMPEROR CONSTANTINE. 11
Pope could expect no aid from the Emperor of Con- rein ,and walking all the way on foot, the emperor
stantinople. He turned his eyes to France . The conducted Sylvester to Rome, and placed him upon
prompt and powerful interposition of the Frankish the Papal throne. But this was as nothing com
arms saved the Papal chair , now in extreme pared with the vast and splendid inheritance which
jeopardy. The intrepid Charles Martel drove Constantine conferred on him , as the following
back the Saracens (732), and Pepin , the Mayor of quotation from the deed of gift to which we have
the palace , son of Charles Martel, who had just referred will show :- -
seized the throne, and needed the Papal sanction “ We attribute to the See of Peter all the
to colour his usurpation, with equal promptitude dignity , all the glory, all the authority of the
hastened to the Pope's help (Stephen II.) against imperial power. Furthermore, we give to Sylvester
the Lombards (754). Having vanquished them , he and to his successors our palace of the Lateran ,
placed the keys of their towns upon the altar of St. which is incontestably the finest palace on the
Peter, and so laid the first foundation of the Pope's earth ; we give him our crown , our mitre, our
temporal sovereignty. The yet more illustrious diadem , and all our imperial vestments ; we trans
son of Pepin , Charlemagne, had to repeat this fer to him the imperial dignity. We bestow on
service in the Pope's behalf. The Lombards be- the holy Pontiff in free gift the city of Rome, and
coming again troublesome, Charlemagne subdued all the western cities of Italy. To cede precedence
them a second time. After his campaign he visited to him , we divest ourselves of our authority over
Rome (774 ). The youth of the city , bearing olive all those provinces, and we withdraw from Rome,
and palm branches , met him at the gates, the Pope transferring the seat of our empire to Byzantium ;
and the clergy received him in the vestibule of St. inasmuch as it is not proper that an earthly
Peter's, and entering " into the sepulchre where the emperor should preserve the least authority, where
bones of the apostles lie ," he finally ceded to the God hath established the head of his religion." .
pontiff the territories of the conquered tribes. A rare piece of modesty this on the part of the
It was in this way that Peter obtained his “ patri Popes, to keep this invaluable document beside
mony," the Church her dowry, and the Pope his them for 400 years, and never say a word about
triple crown. it ; and equally admirable the policy of selecting
The Pope had now attained two of the three the darkness of the eighth century as the fittest
grades of power that constitute his stupendous time for its publication. To quote it is to re
dignity. He had made himself a bishop of bishops, fute it. It was probably forged a little before
head of the Church, and he had become a crowned A. D . 754. It was composed to repel the Longobards
monarch. Did this content him ? No ! He said , on the one side, and the Greeks on the other, and
" I will ascend the sides of the mount ; I will plant to influence the mind of Pepin . In it, Constan
my throne above the stars ; I will be as God.” Not tine is made to speak in the Latin of the eighth
content with being a bishop of bishops, and so century , and to address Bishop Sylvester as Prince
governing the whole spiritual affairs of Christendom , of the Apostles, Vicar of Christ, and as having
he aimed at becoming a king of kings, and so of authority over the four great thrones, not yet set
governing the whole temporal affairs of the world . up, of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem , and Con
He aspired to supremacy, sole , absolute , and un - stantinople. It was probably written by a priest
limited . This alone was wanting to complete that of the Lateran Church , and it gained its object
colossal fabric of power, the Popedom , and towards that is, it led Pepin to bestow on the Pope the
this the pontiff now began to strive. Exarchate of Ravenna, with twenty towns to fur
Some of the arts had recourse to in order to nish oil for the lamps in the Roman churches.
grasp the coveted dignity were of an extraordinary During more than 600 years Rome impressively
kind. An astounding document, purporting to cited this deed of gift, inserted it in her codes, per
have been written in the fourth century, although mitted none to question its genuineness, and burned
unheard of till now , was in the year 776 brought those who refused to believe in it. The first dawn
out of the darkness in which it had been so long of light in the sixteenth century sufficed to discover
suffered to remain . It was the “ Donation ” or the cheat.
Testament of the Emperor Constantine. Con ? We quote from the copy of the document in Pope
Le
stantine, says the legend, found Sylvester in one Leo's letter in Hardouin 's Collection . Epistola I., Leonis
of the monasteries on Mount Soracte , and having Papæ IX .; Acta Conciliorum et Epistolo Decretales, tom .
mounted him on a mule, he took hold of his bridle vi., pp. 934 , 936 ; Parisiis, 1714 . The English reader will
find a copy of the pretended original document in full in
Historical Essay on the Power of the Popes, vol. ii., Ape
· Müller , vol. ii., p. 74. pendix, tr. from French ; London , 1838 .
A09 R
CTE
CHRIST
010 .0
,TOPE
TOTHE
OFCHARLEXACE
VISIT
“ DECRETALS OF ISIDORE.” 13
In the following century another document of a Greeks havereproachfully termed " the native home
like extraordinary character was given to the world of inventions and falsifications of documents.” The
We refer to the “ Decretals of Isidore.” These writer , who professed to be living in the first cen
were concocted about the year 845. They pro- tury, painted the Church of Rome in the magnifi
fessed to be a collection of the letters, rescripts, and cence which she attained only in the ninth ; and
Home
PENANCE OP HENRY IV . OF GERMANY.
bulls of the early pastors of the Church of Rome— made the pastors of the first age speak in the
Anacletus, Clement,and others, down to Sylvester pompous words of the Popes of the Middle Ages.
- the very men to whom the terms “ rescript” and Abounding in absurdities, contradictions, and ana
“ bull " were unknown. The burden of this com - chronisms, it affords a measure of the intelligence
pilation was the pontifical supremacy, which it of the age that accepted it as authentic. It was
affirmed had existed from the first age. It was eagerly laid hold of by Nicholas I. to prop up and
the clumsiest, but the most successful, of all the extend the fabric of his power. His successors
forgeries which have emanated from what the made it the arsenal from which they drew their
weapons of attack against both bishops and kings. people or on the side of the kings. In early times
It became the foundation of the canon law , and the bishops were elected by the people. By-and
continues to be so, although there is not now a by they came to be elected by the clergy, with con
Popish writer who does not acknowledge it to be sent of the people ; but gradually the people were
a piece of imposture. “ Never,” says Father de excluded from all share in the matter , first in the
Rignon, “ was there seen a forgery so audacious, Eastern Church ,and then in the Western, although
so extensive, so solemn, so persevering." 1 Yet the traces of popular election are found at Milan so late
discovery of the fraud has not shaken the system , as the eleventh century. The election of the Bishop
The learned Dupin supposes that these decretals of Rome in early times was in no way different from
were fabricated by Benedict, a deacon of Mentz , that of other bishops — that is, he was chosen by the
who was the first to publish them , and that, to give people. Next, the consent of the emperor came to
them greater currency, he prefixed to them the be necessary to the validity of the popular choice.
name of Isidore, a bishop who flourished in Seville Then, the emperor alone elected the Pope. Next,
in the seventh century. “ Without the pseudo- the cardinals claimed a voice in the matter ; they
Isidore,” says Janus, “ there could have been no elected and presented the object of their choice to
Gregory VII. The Isidorian forgeries were the the emperor for confirmation. Last of all, the
broad foundation which the Gregorians built upon.". cardinals took the business entirely into their own
All the while the Papacy was working on an- hands. Thus gradually was the way paved for the
other line for the emancipation of its chief from full emancipation and absolute supremacy of the
interference and control,whether on the side of the Popedom .
CHAPTER IV .
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PAPACY FROM GREGORY VII. TO BONIFACE VIII.
The War of Investitures - Gregory VII. and Henry IV. - The Mitre Triumphs over the Empire – Noon of the Papacy
under Innocent III. - Continued to Boniface VIII. - First and Last Estate of the Roman Pastors Contrasted
Seven Centuries of Continuous Success - Interpreted by Some as a Proof that the Papacy is Divine - Reasons
explaining this Marvellous Success - Eclipsed by the Gospel's Progress .
We come now to the last great struggle. There as astute as Lucifer's with a dissimulation as pro
lacked one grade of power to complete and crown found, this power advanced at first with noiseless
this stupendous fabric of dominion. The spiritual steps, and stole upon the world as night steals upon
supremacy was achieved in the seventh century , it ; but as it neared the goal its strides grew longer
the temporal sovereignty was attained in the and swifter, till at last it vaulted over the throne
eighth ; it wanted only the pontifical supremacy - of monarchs into the seat of God.
sometimes, although improperly, styled the tempo- This great war we shall now proceed to consider .
ral supremacy - ' to make the Pope supreme over When the Popes, at an early stage, claimed to
kings, as he had already become over peoples and be the vicars of Christ, they virtually challenged
bishops, and to vest in him a jurisdiction that has that boundless jurisdiction of which their proudest
not its like on earth — a jurisdiction that is unique, era beheld them in actual possession . But they
inasmuch as it arrogates all powers , absorbs all knew that it would be imprudent, indeed impossible ,
rights, and spurns all limits. Destined , before
terminating its career, to crush beneath its iron 8 The above statement regarding the mode of electing
foot thrones and nations, and masking an ambition bishops during the first three centuries rests on the
authority of Clement, Bishop of Rome, in the first cen
tury ; Cyprian , Bishop of Carthage, in the third century ;
, Etudes Religieuses, November, 1866 . and of Gregory Nazianzen . See also De Dominis, De
2 The Pope and the Council, by " Janus,” p . 105 ; Repub . Eccles .; Blondel, Apologia ; Dean Waddington ;
Bondon , 1860. Barrow , Supremacy ; and Mogheim , Eccl. Hist., cent.1 .
TRIUMPH OF THE MITRE OVER THE EMPIRE. 15
as yet to assert it in actual fact. Their motto was The age was superstitious to the core , and though
Spes messis in semine. Discerning “ the harvest in in no wise spiritual, it was very thoroughly ecclesi
the seed,” they were contentmeanwhile to lodge the astical. The crusades, too, broke the spirit and
principle of supremacy in their creed , and in the drained the wealth of the princes, while the grow
general mind of Europe, knowing that future ages ing power and augmenting riches of the clergy
would fructify and ripen it. Towards this they cast the balance ever more and more against the
began to work quietly, yet skilfully and perse- State .
veringly . At length came overt and open mea ; For a brief space Gregory VII. tasted in his own
sures. It was now the year 1073. The Papal case the luxury ofwielding this more than mortal
chair was filled by perhaps the greatest of all the power. There came a gleam through the awful
Popes, Gregory VII., the noted Hildebrand. darkness of the tempest he had raised — not final
Daring and ambitious beyond all who had pre- victory, which was yet a century distant, but its
ceded , and beyond most of those who have presage. He had the satisfaction of seeing the
followed him on the Papal throne, Gregory fully emperor, Henry IV . of Germany — whom he had
grasped the great idea of THEOCRACY. He held smitten with excommunication - barefooted , and in
that the reign of the Pope was but another name raiment of sackcloth , waiting three days and nights
for the reign of God , and he resolved never to at the castle-gates of Canossa , amid the winter
rest till that idea had been realised in the sub - drifts, suing for forgiveness. But it was for a mo
jection of all authority and power, spiritual and ment only that Hildebrand stood on this dazzling
temporal, to the chair of Peter. “ When he drew pinnacle. The fortune of war very quickly turned .
out,” says Janus, " the whole system of Papal omni- Henry, the man whom the Pope had so sorely
potence in twenty-seven theses in his “ Dictatus, humiliated, became victor in his turn. Gregory
these theses were partly mere repetitions or corol- died , an exile , on the promontory of Salerno ; but
laries of the Isidorian decretals ; partly he and his his successors espoused his project, and strove by
friends sought to give them the appearance of tri - wiles, by arms, and by anathemas, to reduce the
dition and antiquity by new fictions." ? Wemay world under the sceptre of the Papal Theocracy.
take the following as samples . The eleventh maxim For well-nigh two dismal centuries the conflict
says, “ the Pope's name is the chief name in the was maintained . How truly melancholy the re
world ;" the twelfth teaches that “ it is lawful for cord of these times ! It exhibits to our sorrowing
him to depose emperors;" the eighteenth affirmsthat gaze many a stricken field, many an empty throne,
“ his decision is to be withstood by none, but he many a city sacked , many a spot deluged with
alone may annul those of all men.” The nineteenth blood !
declares that “ he can be judged by no one." The But through all this confusion and misery the
twenty -fifth vests in him the absolute power of idea of Gregory was perseveringly pursued, till at
deposing and restoring bishops, and the twenty - last it was realised , and the mitre was beheld trium
seventh the power of annulling the allegiance of phant over the empire. It was the fortune or the
subjects. Such was the gage that Gregory flung calamity of Innocent III. (1198 — 1216 ) to celebrate
down to the kings and nations of the world — this great victory. Now it was that the pontifical
we say of the world, for the pontifical supremacy supremacy reached its full development. One man ,
embraces all who dwell upon the earth . one will again governed the world. It is with a
Now began the war between the mitre and the sort of stupefied awe that we look back to the
empire ; Gregory's object in this war being to wrest thirteenth century, and see in the foreground of
from the emperors the power of appointing the the receding storm this Colossus, upre
bishops and the clergy generally, and to assume in the person of Innocent III., on its head all the
into his own sole and irresponsible hands the whole mitres of the Church, and in its hand all the
of that intellectualand spiritual machinery by which sceptres of the State.
Christendom was governed. The strife was a bloody “ In each of the three leading objects which
one. The mitre, though sustaining occasional re- Rome has pursued,” says Hallam — “ independent
verses, continued nevertheless to gain steadily upon sovereignty, supremacy over the Christian Church ,
the empire. The spirit of the times helped the control over the princes of the earth — it was the
priesthood in their struggle with the civil power. fortune of this pontiff to conquer.”; “ Rome," he
- says again , " inspired during this age all the terror
i The Pope and the Council, p. 107. of her ancient name; she was once more mistress of
? Binnius, Concilia , vol. iii, pars. 2., p . 297 ; Col.
Agrip., 1618. 3 Hallam , ii. 276.
HISTOR OF PROTEST Y . ANTISM
16
the world , and kings were her vassals.” ? She had astray, it must be judged by the spiritual." 5 Such
fought a great fight, and now she celebrated an un- are a few of the “ great words” which were heard
equalled triumph. Innocent appointed all bishops; to issue from the Vatican Mount, that new Sinai,
he summoned to his tribunal all causes, from the which , like the old, encompassed by fiery terrors ,
gravest affairs of mighty kingdoms to the private had upreared itself in the midst of the astonished
concerns of the humble citizen. Ho claimed all and affrighted nations of Christendom .
kingdoms as his fiefs, all monarchs as his vassals ; What a contrast between the first and the last
and launched with unsparing hand the bolts of estate of the pastors of the Roman Church !- be
excommunication against all who withstood his tween the humility and poverty of the first century,
pontifical will. Hildebrand's idea was now fully and the splendour and power in which the
realised. The pontifical supremacy was beheld in thirteenth saw them enthroned ! This contrast has
its plenitude — the plenitude of spiritual power, and not escaped the notice of the greatest of Italian
that of temporal power. It was the noon of the poets. Dante, in one of his lightning flashes, has
Papacy ; but the noon of the Papacy was the mid- brought it before us. He describes the first pastors
night of the world . of the Church as coming
The grandeurwhich the Papacy now enjoyed,and - “ barefoot and lean ,
the jurisdiction it wielded , have received dogmatic Eating their bread , as chanced , at the first table."
expression, and one or two selections will enable
it to paint itself as it was seen in its noon . And addressing Peter, he says :
Pope Innocent III. affirmed “ that the pontifical “ E 'en thou went'st forth in poverty and hunger
authority so much exceeded the royal power as the To set the goodly plant that, from the Vine
sun doth the moon .” ? Nor could he find words It once was, now is grown unsightly bramble ." 6
fitly to describe his own formidable functions,
save those of Jehovah to his prophet Jeremiah : Petrarch dwells repeatedly and with more amplifi
“ See, I have set thee over the nations and over the cation on the same theme. We quote only the first
kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to and last stanzas of his sonnet on the Church of
destroy, and to throw down.” “ The Church my Rome :
spouse,” we find the same Pope saying, “ is not “ The fire of wrathful heaven alight,
married to me without bringing me something. And all thy harlot tresses smite,
Base city ! Thou from humble fare,
She hath given me a dowry of a price beyond all Thy acorns and thy water, rose
price, the plenitude of spiritual things, and the To greatness, rich with others' woes,
extent of things temporal ;' the greatness and Rejoicing in the ruin thou didst bear.
abundance of both. She hath given me the mitre
in token of things spiritual, the crown in token of “ In former days thou wast not laid
the temporal ; the mitre for the priesthood, and On down, nor under cooling shade ;
the crown for the kingdom ; making me the lieu Thou naked to the winds wast given ,
tenant of him who hath written upon his vesture , And through the sharp and thorny road
Thy feet without the sandals trod ;
and on his thigh, ' the King of kings and the Lord Butnow thy life is such it smells to heaven .”
of lords.' I enjoy alone the plenitude of power,
that others may say ofme, next to God, ‘and out of There is something here out of the ordinary course.
his fulness have we received .'” . “ We declare,” We have no desire to detract from the worldly
says Boniface VIII. (1294 — 1303), in his bull wisdom of the Popes ; they were, in that respect,
Unam Sanctam , “ define, pronounce it to be neces- the ablest race of rulers the world ever saw . Their
sary to salvation for every human creature to be enterprise soared as high above the vastest scheme of
subject to the Roman Pontiff.” This subjection is other potentates and conquerors, as their ostensible
declared in the bull to extend to all affairs. “ One means of achieving it fell below theirs. To build
sword ,” says the Pope, “ must be under another, such a fabric of dominion upon the Gospel, every
and the temporal authority must be subject to the
spiritual power ; whence, if the earthly power go
5 " Oportet gladium esse sub gladio , et temporalem
authoritatem spirituali subjici potestati. Ergo, si deviat
1 Hallam , ii. 284. terrena potestas judicabitur a potestate spirituali."
2 P. Innocent III. in Decret. Greg., lib . i., tit. 33. (Corp. Jur. Can . a Pithæo, tom . II., Extrav., lib . I., tit.
3 “ Spiritualium plenitudinem , et latitudinem tempo . viii., cap. 1 ; Paris, 1671.)
ralium ." 6 Paradiso, canto xxiv.
* Itinerar. Ital., part ii., De Coron. Rom . Pont. 7 Le Rimedel Petrarca, tome i., p. 325. od . La
PROGRESS OF POPERY AND THE GOSPEL COMPARED. 17
line of which repudiates and condemns it ! to impose humbly approach the cottage of the fisher , the
it upon the world without an army and without a Church ofRome herself, offering not only gifts out
fleet ! to bow the necks notof ignorant peoples only, of their treasures, but bringing even kingdoms to
but ofmighty potentates to it ! nay, to persuade the her, and asking kingdoms from her. Whoso is
latter to assist in establishing a power which they wise, and will record these things, even he shall
could hardly but foresee would crush themselves ! to understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.” 1
pursue this scheme through a succession of cen - But the success of the Papacy, when closely ex
turies without once meeting any serious check or amined, is not so surprising as it looks. It cannot be
repulse -- for of the 130 Popes between Boniface justly pronounced legitimate , or fairly won . Rome
III. (606 ), who, in partnership with Phocas, laid has ever been swimming with the tide. The evils
the foundations of the Papal grandeur, and Gregory and passions of society, which a true benefactress
VII., who first realised it, onward through other would have made it her business to cure— at least,
two centuries to Innocent III. (1216 ) and Boniface to alleviate — Rome has studied rather to foster
VIII. (1303), who at last put the top-stone upon into strength , that she might be borne to power on
it, not one lost an inch of ground which his prede- the foul current which she herself had created .
cessor had gained !— to do all this is, we repeat, Amid battles, bloodshed, and confusion, has her
something out of the ordinary course. There is path lain . The edicts of subservient Councils, the
nothing like it again in the whole history of the forgeries of hireling priests , the arms of craven
world . monarchs, and the thunderbolts of excommuni
This success , continued through seven centuries, cation have never been wanting to open her path .
was audaciously interpreted into a proof of the Exploits won by weapons of this sort are what her
divinity of the Papacy. Behold , it has been said , historians delight to chronicle. These are the
when the throne of Cæsar was overturned , how victories that constitute her glory ! And then,
the chair of Peter stood erect ! Behold , when there remains yet another and great deduction
the barbarous nations rushed like a torrent into from the apparent grandeur of her success, in that,
Italy, overwhelming laws, extinguishing know - after all, it is the success of only a few - a caste
ledge, and dissolving society itself, how the ark the clergy. For although, during her early career,
of the Church rode in safety on the flood ! Be- the Roman Church rendered certain important
hold , when the victorious hosts of the Saracen services to society of which it will delight us to
approached the gates of Italy, how they were turned make mention in fitting place when she grew to
back ! Behold , when the mitre waged its great maturity , and was able to develop her real genius,
contest with the empire, how it triumphed ! Behold . it was felt and acknowledged by all that her
when the Reformation broke out, and it seemed as principles implied the ruin of all interests save her
if the kingdom of the Pope was numbered and own, and that there was room in the world for
finished, how three centuries have been added to none but herself. If her march ,as shown in history
its sway ! Behold , in fine, when revolution broke down to the sixteenth century, is ever onwards,
out in France , and swept like a whirlwind over it is not less true that behind, on her path , lie the
Europe, bearing ter outliv
Europe , bearing down thrones and dynasties, how wrecks of nations, and the ashes of literature, of
the bark of Peter outlived the storm , and rode liberty , and of civilisation .
triumphant above the waves that engulfed appa - Nor can we help observing that the career of
rently stronger structures ! Is not this the Church Rome, with all the fictitious brilliance that encom
of which Christ said , “ The gates of hell shall not passes it, is utterly eclipsed when placed beside the
prerail against it ?” silent and sublime progress of the Gospel. The
What else do the words of Cardinal Baronius latter we see winning its way over mighty obstacles
mean ? Boasting of a supposed donation of the solely by the force and sweetness of its own truth .
kingdom of Hungary to the Roman See by Stephen , It touches the deep wounds of society only to heal
he says, “ It fell out by a wonderful providence of them . It speaks not to awaken but to hush the
God, that at the very time when the Roman Church rough voice of strife and war. It enlightens,purifies ,
might appear ready to fall and perish , even then and blesses men wherever it comes, and it does all
distant kings approach the Apostolic See , which this so gently and unboastingly ! Reviled , it re
they acknowledge and venerate as the only temple viles not again . For curses it returns blessings.
of the universe , the sanctuary of piety , the pillar It unsheathes no sword ; it spills no blood. Cast
of truth , the immovable rock. Behold , kings — not
from the East, as of old they came to the cradle of Baronius, Annal., ann . 1000, tom . I., col. 963 ; Col.
Christ, but from the North - led by faith , they Agrip., 1609.
into chains, its victories are as many as when — as different, in fact,as the thunder-cloud which
free, and more glorious; dragged to the stake and comes onward, mantling the skies in gloom and
burned , from the ashes of the martyr there start scathing the earth with fiery bolts, is different from
up a thousand confessors, to speed on its career and the morning descending from the mountain-tops,
swell the glory of its triumph. Compared with scattering around it the silvery light, and awaken
this how different has been the career of Rome – ing at its presence songs of joy.
T !
ad
baita
HUB
DA DETE
VIEW IN MILAN .
CHAPTER V .
MEDIÆVAL PROTESTANT WITNESSES.
Ambrose of Milan - His Diocese - His Theology - Rufinus, Presbyter of Aquileia - Laurentius of Milan - The Bishops
of the Grisons - Churches of Lombardy in Seventh and Eighth Centuries--Claude in the Ninth Century – His
Labours - Outline of his Theology - His Doctrine of the Eucharist - His Battle against Images , His Views on the
Roman Primacy - Proof thence arising – Councils in France approve his Views - Question of the Services of the
Roman Church to the Western Nations.
The apostacy was not universal. At no time did which , in some country or other of Christendom ,
God leave his ancient Gospel without witnesses. public testimony was not borne against the errors
When one body of confessors yielded to the dark of Rome, and in behalf of the Gospel which she
ness, or was cut off by violence, another arose in sought to destroy.
some other land, so that there was no age in The country in which we find the earliest of
AMBROSE OF MILAN. 19
these Protesters is Italy. The See of Rome, in the eleventh century, he admits that “ for 200
those days, embraced only the capital and the years together the Church of Milan had been
surrounding provinces. The diocese of Milan, separated from the Church of Rome.” Even then,
which included the plain of Lombardy, the Alps of though on the very eve of the Hildebrandine
Piedmont, and the southern provinces of France, era, the destruction of the independence of the
greatly exceeded it in extent. It is an undoubted diocese was not accomplished without a protest on
historical fact that this powerful diocese was not the part of its clergy, and a tumult on the part
then tributary to the Papal chair. “ The Bishops of the people. The former affirmed that “ the
of Milan,” says Pope Pelagius I. (555), “ do not Ambrosian Church was not subject to the laws of
OUT
ASTUCE nu
HERB
AL
inn
11
VIEW OF TURIN .
come to Rome for ordination.” He farther in - Rome; that it had been always free, and could not,
forms us that this “ was an ancient custom of with honour, surrender its liberties." The latter
theirs." ? Pope Pelagius, however, attempted to broke out into clamour, and threatened violence to
subvert this “ ancient custom ," but his efforts Damianus, the deputy sent to receive their sub
resulted only in a wider estrangement between mission. “ The people grew into higher ferment,"
the two dioceses of Milan and Rome. For when says Baronius ;* “ the bells were rung ; the episco
Platina speaks of the subjection of Milan to pal palace beset ; and the legate threatened with
the Pope under Stephen IX .,' in the middle of death.” Traces of its early independence remain
to this day in the Rito or Culto Ambrogiano,
1 Allix, Ancient Churches of Piedmont, chap. 1; Lond., - - - - - -- -- - - -
1690. M 'Crie, Italy, p. 1 ; Edin ., 1833. Platina's words are : - “ Che ( chiesa di Milano ] era forse
? " Is mos antiquus fuit.” (Labbei et Gab. Cossartii ducento anni stata dalla chiesa di Roma separata .” (His
Concil., tom . vi., col.482 ; Venetiis, 1729.) toria delle Vite dei Sommi Pontefici, p . 128 ; Venetia , 1600.)
3 A mistake of the historian . It was under Nicholas II. Baronius, Annal., ann . 1059, tom . xi., col. 277 ; Col.
(1059) that the independence of Milan was extinguished . Agrip., 1609.
20 HISTOR OF PROTEST .
Y ANTISM
still in use throughout the whole of the ancient Liturgy, which , as we have said, continues to be
Archbishopric of Milan. used in the diocese of Milan, is a monument to the
One consequence of this ecclesiastical independ comparative purity of the faith and worship of the
ence of Northern Italy was, that the corruptions early Churches of Lombardy.
of which Rome was the source were late in being In the eighth century we find Paulinus, Bishop
introduced into Milan and its diocese. The evan - of Aquileia , declaring that “ we feed upon the
gelical light shone there some centuries after the divine nature of Jesus Christ, which cannot be
darkness had gathered in the southern part of the said but only with respect to believers, and must
peninsula . Ambrose, who died A .D. 397, was be understood metaphorically .” Thus manifest is
Bishop of Milan for twenty-three years. His it that he rejected the corporalmanducation of the
theology, and that of his diocese , was in no essen- Church of Rome. He also warns men against
tial respects different from that which Protestants approaching God through any other mediator or
hold at this day. The Bible alone was his rule of advocate than Jesus Christ, affirming that he
faith ; Christ alone was the foundation of the alone was conceived without sin ; that he is the
Church ; the justification of the sinner and the only Redeemer, and that he is the one founda
remission of sins were not of human merit, but tion of the Church. “ If any one," says Allix ,
by the expiatory sacrifice of the Cross ; there “ will take the pains to examine the opinions
were but two Sacraments , Baptism and the Lord's of this bishop , he will find it a hard thing not
Supper, and in the latter Christ was held to be to take notice that he denies what the Church of
present only figuratively . Such is a summary Rome affirms with relation to all these articles,
of the faith professed and taught by the chief and that he affirms what the Church of Rome
bishop of the north of Italy in the end of the denies.” 5
fourth century." It must be acknowledged that these men , de
Rufinus, of Aquileia , first metropolitan in the spite their great talents and their ardent piety, had
diocese of Milan, taught substantially the same not entirely escaped the degeneracy of their age.
doctrine in the fifth century. His treatise on the The light that was in them was partly mixed with
Creed no more agrees with the catechism of the darkness. Even the great Ambrose was touched
Council of Trent than does the catechism of with a veneration for relics , and a weakness for
Protestants. His successors at Aquileia , so far other superstitions of his times. But as regards
as can be gathered from the writings which they the cardinal doctrines of salvation , the faith of
have left behind them , shared the sentiments of these men was essentially Protestant, and stood
Rufinus. out in bold antagonism to the leading principles of
To come to the sixth century , we find Lauren- the Roman creed . And such , with more or less of
tius, Bishop of Milan , holding that the penitence clearness, must be held to have been the profession
of the heart, without the absolution of a priest of the pastors over whom they presided. And the
suffices for pardon ; and in the end of the same Churches they ruled and taught were numerous
century (A.D. 590) we find the bishops of Italy and widely planted . They flourished in the towns
and of the Grisons, to the number of nine, reject and villages which dot the vast plain that
ing the communion of the Pope, as a heretic, so stretches like a garden for 200 miles along the
little then was the infallibility believed in , or the foot of the Alps ; they existed in those romantic
Roman supremacy acknowledged. In the seventh and fertile valleys over which the great mountains
century we find Mansuetus, Bishop of Milan , hang their pine forests and snows, and, passing the
declaring that the whole faith of the Church is summit, they extended into the southern provinces
contained in the Apostle's Creed ; from which it is of France, even as far as to the Rhone, on the
evident that he did not regard as necessary to banks of which Polycarp , the disciple of John, in
salvation the additions which Rome had then early times had planted the Gospel, to be watered
begun to make, and the many she has since in the succeeding centuries by the blood of thou
appended to the apostolic doctrine. The Ambrosian sands of martyrs.
Darkness gives relief to the light, and error
necessitates a fuller development and a clearer
1 Allis, Churches of Piedmont, chap. 3 .
? “ This is not bodily but spiritual food ,” says St. definition of truth. On this principle the ninth
Ambrose, in his Book of Mysteries and Sacraments, " for the century produced the most remarkable perhaps
body of the Lord is spiritual.” (Dupin , Eccles. Hist., of all those great champions who strove to set
vol. ii., cent. 4 .)
3 Allix , Churches of Piedmont, chap.4.
* Toid ., chap . 5. 5 Allis, Churches of Piedmont, chap. 8.
CLAUDIUS OF TURIN . 21
limits to the growing superstition , and to preserve, Of the Eucharist, he writes in his commentary
pure and undefiled, the faith which apostles had on Matthew (A.D. 815 ) in a way which shows that
preached. The mantle of Ambrose descended on he stood at the greatest distance from the opinions
Claudius, Archbishop of Turin . This man beheld which Paschasius Radbertus broached eighteen
with dismay the stealthy approaches of a power years afterwards. Paschasius Radbertus, a monk ,
which, putting out the eyes of men, bowed their afterwards Abbot of Corbei, pretended to explain
necks to its yoke, and bent their knees to idols. with precision the manner in which the body and
He grasped the sword of the Spirit, which is the blood of Christ are present in the Eucharist. He
Word of God, and the battle which he so courage published (831) a treatise, “ Concerning the Sacra
ously waged , delayed, though it could not prevent, ment of the Body and Blood of Christ.” His doc
the fall of his Church's independence, and for two trine amounted to the two following propositions :
centuries longer the light continued to shine at the - 1. Of the bread and wine nothing remains after
foot of the Alps. Claudius was an earnest and consecration but the outward figure, under which
indefatigable student of Holy Scripture. That the body and blood of Christ are really and locally
Book carried him back to the first age, and set him present. 2. This body present in the Eucharist is
down at the feet of apostles, at the feet of One the same body that was born of the Virgin , that
greater than apostles ; and, while darkness was suffered upon the cross, and was raised from the
descending on the earth, around Claude still shone grave. This new doctrine excited the astonishment
the day. of not a few , and called forth several powerful
The truth , drawn from its primeval fountains, he opponents — amongst others, Johannes Scotus.?
proclaimed throughout his diocese, which included Claudius, on the contrary, thought that the Supper
the valleys of the Waldenses. Where his voice was a memorial of Christ's death , and not a repeti
could not reach, he laboured to convey instruction tion of it, and that the elements of bread and wine
by his pen. He wrote commentaries on the were only symbols of the flesh and blood of the
Gospels ; he published expositions of almost all the Saviour.' It is clear from this that transubstan
epistles of Paul, and several books of the Old Tes - tiation was unknown in the ninth century to the
tament ; and thus he furnished his contemporaries Churches at the foot of the Alps. Nor was it the
with the means of judging how far it became them Bishop of Turin only who held this doctrine of
to submit to a jurisdiction so manifestly usurped the Eucharist ; we are entitled to infer that the
as that of Rome, or to embrace tenets so undeniably bishops of neighbouring dioceses, both north and
novel as those which she was now foisting upon the south of the Alps, shared the opinion of Claude.
world. The sum of what Claude maintained was For though they differed from him on some other
that there is but one Sovereign in the Church , and points, and did not conceal their difference, they
he is not on earth ; that Peter had no superiority expressed no dissent from his views respecting the
over the other apostles, save in this, that he was Sacrament, and in proof of their concurrence in his
the first who preached the Gospel to both Jews and general policy, strongly urged him to continue his
Gentiles ; that human merit is of no avail for sal- expositions of the Sacred Scriptures. Specially was
vation, and that faith alone saves us. On this car- this the case as regards two leading ecclesiastics of
dinal point he insists with a clearness and breadth that day, Jonas, Bishop of Orleans, and the Abbot
which remind one of Luther. The authority of Theodemirus. Even in the century following, we
tradition he repudiates, prayers for the dead he find certain bishops of the north of Italy saying
condemns, as also the notion that the Church cannot that “ wicked men eat the goat and not the lamb,”
err. As regards relics, instead of holiness he can language wholly incomprehensible from the lips of
find in them nothing but rottenness, and advises men who believe in transubstantiation.*
that they be instantly returned to the grave, from The worship of images was then making rapid
which they ought never to have been taken . strides. The Bishop of Rome was the great advo
cate of this ominous innovation ; it was on this
1 “ Of all these works there is nothing printed ,” says point that Claude fought his great battle. He
Allix (p.60 ),“ but his commentary upon theEpistle to the resisted
Galatians. The monks of St. Germain have his commen -
it with all the logic of his pen and all the
force of his eloquence : he condemned the practice
tary upon all the epistles in MS., in two volumes, which
were found in the library of the Abbey of Fleury, near
Orleans. They have also his MS. commentaries on Levi. 2 See Mosheim , Eccles. Hist., cent. ?.
ticus, which formerly belonged to the library of St. Remy 3 “ Hic (panis] ad corpus Christi mystice, illud
at Rheims. As for his commentary on St. Matthew , (vinum ] refertur ad sanguinem .” (MS. of Com . on
there are several MS. copies of it in England, as well as Matthew .)
elsewhere." See also list of his works in Dupin . i 4 Allix, chap. 10.
as idolatrous, and he purged those churches in his belongs to all the true superintendents and pastors
diocese which had begun to admit representations of the Church, who discharge the same as long as
of saints and divine persons within their walls, they are in this world ; and when they have paid
not even sparing the cross itself. It is instructive the debt of death, others succeed in their places,
to mark that the advocates of images in the ninth who enjoy the same authority and power. Know
century justified their use of them by the very same thou that he only is apostolic who is the keeper
arguments which Romanists employ at this day ; and guardian of the apostle's doctrine, and not he
and that Claude refutes them on the same ground who boasts himself to be seated in the chair of the
taken by Protestant writers still. We do not apostle, and in the meantime doth not acquit
worship the image, say the former, we use it himself of the charge of the apostle." 3
simply as the medium through which our worship We have dwelt the longer on Claude, and the
ascends to him whom the image represents ; and if doctrines which he so powerfully advocated by both
we kiss the cross, we do so in adoration of him who voice and pen, because, although the picture of his
died upon it. But, replied Claude — as the Protestant times — a luxurious clergy but an ignorant people,
polemic at this hour replies — in kneeling to the Churches growing in magnificence but declining in
image, or kissing the cross, you do what the second piety, images adored but the true God forsaken
commandment forbids, and what the Scripture con- is not a pleasant one, yet it establishes two points
demns as idolatry. Your worship terminates in of great importance. The first is that the Bishop
the image, and is the worship not of God , but of Rome had not yet succeeded in compelling
simply of the image. With his argument the universal submission to his jurisdiction ; and the
Bishop of Turin mingles at times a little raillery . second that he had not yet been able to persuade
“ God commands one thing," says he, " and these all the Churches of Christendom to adopt his novel
people do quite the contrary. God commands us doctrines, and follow his peculiar customs. Claude
to bear our cross, and not to worship it ; but these was not left to fight that battle alone, nor was he
are all for worshipping it, whereas they do not bear crushed as he inevitably would have been , had
it at all. To serve God after this manner is to go Rome been the dominant power it came soon
away from him . For if we ought to adore the thereafter to be. On the contrary, this Protestant
cross because Christ was fastened to it, how many of the ninth century received a large amount of
other things are there which touched Jesus Christ ! sympathy and support both from bishops and from
Why don't they adore mangers and old clothes, synods of his time. Agobardus, the Bishop of
because he was laid in a manger and wrapped Lyons, fought by the side of his brother of Turin .“
in swaddling clothes ? Let them adore asses, In fact, he was as great an iconoclast as Claude
because he entered into Jerusalem upon the foal himself." The emperor, Louis the Pious (le
of an ass." ? Débonnaire), summoned a Council (824 ) of " the
On the subject of the Roman primacy, he leaves most learned and judicious bishops of his realm ,”
it in no wise doubtful what his sentiments were. says Dupin, to discuss this question. For in that
“ Weknow very well,” says he, “ that this passage age the emperors summoned synods and appointed
of the Gospel is very ill understood — “ Thou art bishops. And when the Council had assembled ,
Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church : did it wait till Peter should speak , or a Papal
and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom allocution had decided the point? “ It knew no
of heaven,' under pretence of which words the other way,” says Dupin , “ to settle the question,
stupid and ignorant common people, destitute of than by determining what they should find upon
all spiritual knowledge, betake themselves to Rome the most impartial examination to be true, by plain
in hopes of acquiring eternal life. The ministry text of Holy Scripture, and the judgment of the
Fathers." This Council at Paris justified most of
the principles for which Claude had contended , as
1 Dupin , Eccles. Hist., cent. 9 . The worship of images
was decreed by the second Council of Nice ; but that the great Council at Frankfort (794) had done be
decree was rejected by France, Spain , Germany, and the fore it. It is worthy of notice further, as bearing
diocese of Milan . The worship of images was moreover on this point, that only two men stood up publicly
condemned by the Council of Frankfort, 794. Claude, in to oppose Claude during the twenty years he was
his letter to Theodemir, says :- " Appointed bishop by
Louis , I came to Turin . I found all the churches full of
the filth of abominations and images. . . . . . If 3 Allix, pp. 76, 77.
Christians venerate the images of saints, they have not 4 Dupin , Eccles. Hist., cent. 9 .
abandoned idols, but only changed their names." (Mag. 6 Allix, chap. 9.
Bib ., tome iv ., part 2 , p . 149.) 6 Dupin , vol. vii., p. 2; Lond., 1695.
? Allix , chap . 9 . 7 Allix, cent. 9.
CLAIM OF THE CHURCH OF ROME AS A CÍVILISER. 23
incessantly occupied in this controversy. The first out our conclusion. The Church of Rome was not
was Dungulas, a recluse of the Abbey of St. Denis, then the Church, but only one of many Churches.
an Italian, it is believed , and biassed naturally in The slow but beneficent and laborious work of
favour of the opinions of the Pope ; and the second evangelising and civilising the Northern nations,
was Jonas, Bishop of Orleans, who differed from was the joint result of the action of all the Churches
Claude on but the one question of images, and only of Northern Italy , of France , of Spain , of Ger
to the extent oftolerating their use, but condemning many, of Britain and each performed its part in
as idolatrous their worship — a distinction which it this great work with a measure of success exactly
is easy to maintain in theory, but impossible to corresponding to the degree in which it retained
observe,as experience has demonstrated, in practice . the pure principles of primitive Christianity. The
And here let us interpose an observation. We Churches would have done their task much more
speak at times of the signal benefits which the effectually and speedily but for the adverse influence
" Church ” conferred upon theGothic nations during of Rome. She hung upon their rear,by her perpetual
the Middle Ages. She put herself in the place of a attempts to bow them to her yoke, and to seduce
mother to those barbarous tribes ; she weaned them them from their first purity to her thinly disguised
from the savage usages of their original homes ; she paganisms. Emphatically, the power that moulded
bowed their stubborn necks to the authority of law ; the Gothic nations, and planted among them the
she opened their minds to the charms of knowledge seeds of religion and virtue, was CHRISTIANITY
and art ; and thus laid the foundation of those that same Christianity which apostles preached to
civilised and prosperous communities which have men in the first age, which all the ignorance and
since arisen in the West. But when we so speak it superstition of subsequent times had not quite extin
behoves us to specify with some distinctness what guished, and which, with immense toil and suffering
we mean by the “ Church ” to which we ascribe the dug up from under the heaps of rubbish that had
glory of this service. Is it the Church of Rome, or been piled above it, was anew , in the sixteenth
is it the Church universal of Christendom ? If we century, given to the world under the name of
mean the former , the facts of history do not bear PROTESTANTISM .
CHAPTER VI.
THE WALDENSES — THEIR VALLEYS.
Submission of the Churches of Lombardy to Rome- The Old Faith maintained in the Mountains - The Waldensian
Churches - Question of their Antiquity - Approach to their Mountains - Arrangement of their Valleys – Picture of
blended Beauty and Grandeur.
WHEN Claude died it can hardly be said that his successful." Petrus Damianus, Bishop of Ostia,
mantle was taken up by any one. The buttle, and Anselm , Bishop of Lucca , were dispatched by
although not altogether dropped, was henceforward the Pontiff to receive the submission of the Lombard
languidly maintained. Before this time not a few Churches, and the popular tumults amid which that
Churches beyond the Alps had submitted to the submission was extorted sufficiently show that the
yoke of Rome, and that arrogant power must have spirit of Claude still lingered at the foot of the
felt it not a little humiliating to find her authority Alps. Nor did the clergy conceal the regret with
withstood on what she might regard as her own which they laid their ancient liberties at the feet of
territory. Shewas venerated abroad but contemned a power before which the whole earth was then
at home. Attempts were renewed to induce the bowing down ; for the Papal legate , Damianus,
Bishops of Milan to accept the episcopal pall, the informsus that the clergy of Milan maintained in
badge of spiritual vassalage, from the Pope ; but it his presence,“ Thatthe Ambrosian Church ,according
was not till the middle of the eleventh century
(1059), under Nicholas II., that these attempts were - Baronius, Annal., ann. 1059, tom . xi., cols. 276, 277. ,
to the ancient institutions of the Fathers,wasalways
free, without being subject to the laws of Rome,
and that the Pope of Rome had no jurisdiction
over their Church as to the government or con
stitution of it."
But if the plains were conquered, not so the
mountains. A considerable body of Protesters
stood out against this deed of submission . Of these
some crossed the Alps, descended the Rhine, and
raised the standard of opposition in the diocese of
Cologne, where they were branded as Manicheans,
and rewarded with the stake. Others retired into
the valleys of the Piedmontese Alps, and there
maintained their scriptural faith and their ancient
independence. What we have just related respect
ing the dioceses of Milan and Turin settles the
question, in our opinion , of the apostolicity of the
Churches of the Waldensian valleys. It is not
necessary to show that missionaries were sent from
Rome in the first age to plant Christianity in these
valleys, nor is it necessary to show that these
Churches have existed as distinct and separate com
munities from early days ; enough that they formed
a part, as unquestionably they did , of the grert
1 Petrus Damianus, Opusc., p . 5. Allix, Churches oj
Piedmont, p. 113 . M 'Crie, Hist. of Reform . in Italy , p . 2 .
SU
crisi
THE VALLEY OF ANGROGNA .
ANTIQUITY OF THE WALDENSES. 25
evangelical Church of the north of Italy. This is on Christendom . There is a singular concurrence
the proof at once of their apostolicity and their in- of evidence in favour of their high antiquity.
dependence. It attests their descent from apostolic Their traditions invariably point to an unbroken
men, if doctrine be the life of Churches. When descent from the earliest times, as regards their
their co-religionists on the plains entered within religious belief. The Nobla Leyçon, which dates
the pale of the Roman jurisdiction , they retired from the year 1100,' goes to prove that the Wal
within the mountains, and, spurning alike the denses of Piedmont did not owe their rise to Peter
tyrannical yoke and the corrupt tenets of the
Church of the Seven Hills, they preserved in its Waldo of Lyons, who did not appear till the latter
half of that century (1160). The Nobla Leyçon ,
Jul
LE
OS
SU
info
MONTE CASTELLUZZO AND NEW WALDEYSIAN TEMPLE.

purity and simplicity the faith their fathers had though a poem , is in reality a confession of faith ,
handed down to them . Rome manifestly was the and could have been composed only after some
schismatic, she it was that had abandoned what considerable study of the system of Christianity, in
was once the common faith of Christendom , leaving contradistinction to the errors of Rome. How
by that step to all who remained on the old ground could a Church have arisen with such a docu
the indisputably valid title of the True Church. ment in her hands ? Or how could these herdsmen
Behind this rampart of mountains, which Pro- and vine-dressers, shut up in their mountains,
vidence, foreseeing the approach of evil days, would have detected the errors against which they bore
almost seem to have reared on purpose, did the
remnant of the early apostolic Church of Italy IR German criticism refers the Nobla Leycon
kindle their lamp, and here did that lamp continue to aRecent
more recent date, but still one anterior to the
to burn all through the long nightwhich descended Reformation .
testimony, and found their way to the truths of It is indissolubly linked with martyr-memories,
which they made open profession in times of dark and borrows a halo from the achievements of the
ness like these ? If we grant that their religious past. How often, in days of old, was the con
beliefs were the heritage of former ages, handed fessor hurled sheer down its awful steep and dashed
clown from an evangelical ancestry, all is plain ; on the rocks at its foot ! And there , commingled
but if we maintain that they were the discovery of in one ghastly heap, growing ever the bigger and
the men of those days, we assert what approaches ghastlier as another and yet another victim was
almost to a miracle. Their greatest enemies, added to it, lay the mangled bodies of pastor and
Claude Seyssel of Turin (1517), and Reynerius peasant, ofmother and child ! It was the tragedies
the Jesuit (1250 ), have admitted their antiquity, connected with this mountain mainly that called
and stigmatised them as “ the most dangerous of forth Milton 's well-known sonnet :
all heretics, because the most ancient. "
“ Avenge, O Lord, Thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones
Rorenco, Prior of St. Roch, Turin (1640), was Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold .
employed to investigate the origin and antiquity of * * * in Thy book record their groans
the Waldenses, and of course had access to all the Who were Thy sheep, and in their ancient fold,
Waldensian documents in the ducal archives, and Siain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roll' d
Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans
being their bitter enemy he may be presumed to The vales redoubled to the hills, and they
have made his report not more favourable than he To heaven.”
could help . Yet he states that “ they were not a
new sect in the ninth and tenth centuries, and that The new and elegant temple of the Waldenses
Claude of Turin must have detached them from the now rises near the foot of the Castelluzzo.
Church in the ninth century." . The Waldensian valleys are seven in number ;
Within the limits of her own land did God pro- they were more in ancient times, but the limits of
vide a dwelling for this venerable Church . Let us the Vaudois territory have undergone repeated
bestow a glance upon the region. As one comes curtailment, and now only the number we have
from the south , across the level plain of Piedmont, stated remain , lying between Pignerollo on the east
while yet nearly a hundred miles off, he sees the and Monte Viso on the west — that pyramidal hill
Alps rise before him , stretching like a great wall which forms so prominent an object from every
along the horizon . From the gates of the morning part of the plain of Piedmont, towering as it does
to those of the setting sun, themountains run on in above the surrounding mountains, and, like a horn
a line of towering magnificence. Pasturages and of silver, cutting the ebon of the firmament.
chestnut-forests clothe their base ; eternal snows The first three valleys run out somewhat like
crown their summits . How varied are their forms ! the spokes of a wheel, the spot on which we
Some rise strong and massy as castles ; others shoot stand — the gateway, namely — being the nave. The
up tall and tapering like needles ;while others again first is Luserna, or Valley of Light. It runs right
run along in serrated lines, their summits torn and out in a grand gorge of some twelve miles in
cleft by the storms of many thousand winters. length by about two in width . It wears a carpet
At the hour of sunrise, what a glory kindles along ing of meadows, which the waters of the Pelice
the crest of that snowy rampart ! At sunset the keep ever fresh and bright. A profusion of vines,
spectacle is again renewed, and a line of pyres is acacias, and mulberry-trees fleck it with their
seen to burn in the evening sky. shadows ; and a wall of lofty mountains encloses it
Drawing nearer the hills, on a line about thirty on either hand. The second is Rora, or Valley of
miles west of Turin , there opens before one what Dews. It is a vast cup, some fifty miles in cir
seems a great mountain portal. This is the entrance cumference, its sides luxuriantly clothed with
to the Waldensian territory. A low hill drawn meadow and corn-field , with fruit and forest trees,
along in front serves as a defence against all who and its rim formed of craggy and spiky mountains,
may come with hostile intent, as but too frequently many of them snow -clad. The third is Angrogna,
happened in times gone by, while a stupendous or Valley of Groans. Of it we shall speak more
monolith - the Castelluzzo - shoots up to the clouds, particularly afterwards. Beyond the extremity of
and stands sentinel at the gate of this renowned the first three valleys are the remaining four,
region . As one approaches La Torre the Castel- forming, as it were , the rim of the wheel. These
luzzo rises higher and higher, and irresistibly fixes and are
last gy wed inin ththeir
cragenclosed eir tuturnrn bbyy a line of lofty
the eye by the perfect beauty
form . But to this mountainntain aa ofhihigher
its
gherPipillar-like
r-like
lainterest and craggy mountains, which form a wall of
defence around the entire territory. Each valley
belongs than any that mere symmetry can give it. is a fortress, having its own gate of ingress and
PICTURE OF THE WALDENSIAN VALLEYS. 27
egress , with its caves, and rocks, and mighty trained , and, after ordination, were sent forth to
chestnut-trees, forming places of retreat and sow the good seed , as opportunity offered, in other
shelter , so that the highest engineering skill could lands. Let us visit this valley . We ascend to
not have better adapted each several valley to its it by the long, narrow , and winding Angrogna.
end. It is not less remarkable that, taking all Bright meadows enliven its entrance. The moun
these valleys together, each is so related to each, tains on either hand are clothed with the vine, the
and the one opens so into the other, that they may mulberry, and the chestnut. Anon the valley
be said to form one fortress of amazing and match- contracts. It becomes rough with projecting
less strength — wholly impregnable, in fact. All rocks, and shady with great trees. A few paces
the fortresses of Europe, though combined , would farther, and it expands into a circular basin ,
not form a citadel so enormously strong, and so feathery with birches, musical with falling waters ,
dazzlingly magnificent, as the mountain dwelling environed atop by naked crags, fringed with dark
of the Vaudois. “ The Eternal, our God," says pines, while the white peak looks down upon one
Leger, “ having destined this land to be the out of heaven . A little in advance the valley
theatre of his marvels, and the bulwark of his seems shut in by a mountainous wall, drawn right
ark, has, by natural means, most marvellously across it ; and beyond, towering sublimely upward,
fortified it.” The battle begun in one valley could is seen an assemblage of snow -clad Alps, amid
be continued in another, and carried round the which is placed the valley we are in quest of,
entire territory, till at last the invading foe , over - where burned of old the candle of the Waldenses.
powered by the rocks rolled upon him from the Some terrible convulsion has rent this mountain
mountains, or assailed by enemies which would from top to bottom , opening a path through it to
start suddenly out of the mist or issue from some the valley beyond . We enter the dark chasm , and
unsuspected cave, found retreat impossible, and, cut proceed along on a narrow ledge in the mountain 's
off in detail, left his bones to whiten the moun- side, hung half-way between the torrent, which
tains he had come to subdue. is heard thundering in the abyss below , and the
These valleys are lovely and fertile, as well as summits which lean over us above. Journeying
strong. They are watered by numerous torrents, thus for about two miles, we find the pass begin
which descend from the snows of the summits. ning to widen, the light to break in , and now we
The grassy carpet of their bottom ; the mantling arrive at the gate of the Pra.
vine and the golden grain of their lower slopes ; There opens before us a noble circular valley , its
the châlets that dot their sides, sweetly embowered grassy bottom watered by torrents , its sides dotted
amid fruit-trees ; and , higher up, the great chestnut with dwellings and clothed with corn -fields and
forests and the pasture-lands, where the herdsmen pasturages, while a ring of white peaks guards it
keep watch over their flocks all through the sum - above. This was the inner sanctuary of the
mer days and the starlit nights : the nodding Waldensian temple. The rest of Italy had turned
crags, from which the torrent leaps into the light ; aside to idols, the Waldensian territory alone had
the rivulet, singing with quiet gladness in the been reserved fortheworship ofthe true God. And
shady nook ; the mists, moving grandly among was it not meet that on its native soil a remnant
the mountains, now veiling, now revealing their of the apostolic Church of Italy should be main
majesty ; and the far-off summits, tipped with sil- tained, that Rome and all Christendom might have
ver, to be changed at eve into gleaming gold — make before their eyes a perpetual monument of what
up a picture of blended beauty and grandeur, not they themselves had once been , and a living
equalled perhaps, and certainly not surpassed , in witness to testify how far they had departed from
any other region of the earth . their first faith ? '
In the heart of their mountains is situated the 1 This short description of the Waldensian valleys is
most interesting, perhaps, of all their valleys. It drawn from the author's personal observations. Wemay
was in this retreat, walled round by “ hills whose here be permitted to state that he has, in successive
heads touch heaven ,” that their barbes or pastors, journeys, continued at intervals during the past twenty
five years, travelled over Christendom , and visited all
from all their several parishes, were wont to meet the countries, Popish and Protestant, of which he will
in annual synod . It was here that their college have occasion particularly to speak in the course of this
stood , and it was here that their missionaries were history.
CHAPTER VII.
THE WALDENSES — THEIR MISSIONS AND MARTYRDOMS.
Their Synod and College– Their Theological Tenets - Romaunt Version of the New Testament – The Constitution of
their Church - Their Missionary Labours - Wide Diffusion of their Tenets - The Stone Smiting the Image .
ONE would like to have a near view of the barbes If doubt there were regarding the tenets of the
or pastors, who presided over the school of early Waldenses, the charges which their enemies have
Protestant theology that existed here, and to know preferred against them would set that doubt at
how it fared with evangelical Christianity in the rest, and make it tolerably certain that they held
ages that preceded the Reformation . But the time substantially what the apostles before their day,
is remote , and the events are dim . We can but and the Reformers after it, taught. The indict
doubtfully glean from a variety of sources the ment against the Waldenses included a formidable
facts necessary to form a picture of this venerable list of “ heresies.” They held that there had been
Church , and even then the picture is not complete. no true Pope since the days of Sylvester ; that
The theology of which this was one of the fountain - temporal offices and dignities were not meet for
heads was not the clear, well-defined , and com - preachers of the Gospel ; that the Pope's pardons
prehensive system which the sixteenth century gave were a cheat ; that purgatory was a fable ; that
us ; it was only what the faithful men of the relics were simply rotten bones which had belonged
Lombard Churches had been able to save from the to one knew not whom ; that to go on pilgrimage
wreck of primitive Christianity. True religion , served no end, save to empty one's purse ; that
being a revelation, was from the beginning com - flesh might be eaten any day if one's appetite
plete and perfect ; nevertheless, in this as in every served him ; that holy water was not a whit more
other branch of knowledge, it is only by patient efficacious than rain -water ; and that prayer in a
labour that man is able to extricate and arrange barn was just as effectual as if offered in a church .
all its parts, and to come into the full possession of They were accused , moreover, of having scoffed at
truth . The theology taught in former ages, in the the doctrine of transubstantiation, and of having
peak-environed valley in which we have in imagi- spoken blasphemously of Rome, as the harlot of
nation placed ourselves, was drawn from the Bible. the Apocalypse.“
The atoning death and justifying righteousness of There is reason to believe, from recent historical
Christ was its cardinal truth. This, the Nobla researches , that the Waldenses possessed the New
Leyçon and other ancient documents abundantly Testament in the vernacular. The “ Lingua Ro
testify . The Nobla Leyçon sets forth with toler- mana ” or Romaunt tongue was the common lan
able clearness the doctrine of the Trinity , the guage of the south of Europe from the eighth to
fall of man, the incarnation of the Son, the per- the fourteenth century. It was the language of
petual authority of the Decalogue as given by the troubadours and of men of letters in the Dark
God, the need of Divine grace in order to good Ages. Into this tongue -- the Romaunt — was
works, the necessity of holiness, the institution of the first translation of the whole of the New
the ministry, the resurrection of the body, and the Testament made so early as the twelfth century.
eternal bliss of heaven.' This creed, its professors This fact Dr.Gilly has been at great pains to prove
exemplified in lives of evangelical virtue. The in his work , The Romaunt Versions of the Gospel
blamelessness of the Waldenses passed into a pro
verb , so that one more than ordinarily exempt Jesus Christ, who will neither slander, nor swear, nor lie,
from the vices of his time was sure to be suspected nor commit adultery, nor kill, nor steal, nor avenge him .
of being a Vaudés. self of his enemies, they presently say of such a one he is
a Vaudés, and worthy of death ."
+ See a list of numerous heresies and blasphemies
i This disproves the charge of Manicheism brought charged upon the Waldenses by the Jesuit Reynerius,
against them by their enemies. who wrote about the year 1250, and extracted by Allix
* Sir Samuel Morland gives the Nobla Leycon in full (chap . 22) .
in his History of the Churches of the Waldenses. Allix 5 The Romaunt Version of the Gospel according to John ,
(chap. 18 ) gives a summary of it. from MS. preserved in Trinity College, Dublin , and in the
3 The Nobla Leycon has the following passage : - “ If Bibliothèque du Roi, Paris. ByWilliam Stephen Gilly, D .D .,
there be an honest man ,who desires to love God and fear , Canon of Durham , and Vicar of Norham . Lond., 1848.
COLLEGE AND SYNODS OF THE WALDENSES. 29
according 10 John. The sum of what Dr.Gilly, may be on the grassy slopes of the valley — a vene
by a patient investigation into facts, and a great rable company of humble, learned , earnest men ,
array of historic documents, maintains, is that all presided over by a simple moderator (for higher
the books of the New Testament were translated office or authority was unknown amongst them ),
from the Latin Vulgate into the Romaunt, that and intermitting their deliberations respecting the
this was the first literal version since the fall of affairs of their Churches, and the condition of their
the empire, that it was made in the twelfth cen - flocks, only to offer their prayers and praises to the
tury , and was the first translation available for Eternal, while the majestic snow -clad peaks looked
popular use. There were numerous earlier trans- down upon them from the silent firmament. There
lations, but only of parts of the Word of God ,and needed , verily, no magnificent fane, no blazonry of
many of these were rather paraphrases or digests of mystic rites to make their assembly august.
Scripture than translations, and, moreover, they The youth who here sat at the feet of the more
were so bulky, and by consequence so costly, as to venerable and learned of their barbes used as their
be utterly beyond the reach of the common people. text-book the Holy Scriptures. And not only did
This Romaunt version was the first complete and they study the sacred volume ; they were required
literal translation of the New Testament of Holy to commit to memory , and be able accurately to
Scripture ; it was made, as Dr. Gilly, by a chain recite, whole Gospels and Epistles. This was a
of proofs, shows, most probably under the super necessary accomplishment on the part of public
intendenoe and at the expense of Peter Waldo of instructors , in those ages when printing was un
Lyons, not later than 1180 , and so is older than known, and copies of the Word of God were rare.
any complete version in German, French, Italian, Part of their time was occupied in transcribing the
Spanish , or English. This version was widely Holy Scriptures, or portions of them , which they
spread in the south of France, and in the cities of were to distribute when they went forth as mission
Lombardy. It was in common use among the aries. By this, and by other agencies,'the seed of
Waldenses of Piedmont, and it was no small part, the Divine Word was scattered throughout Europe
doubtless, of the testimony borne to truth by these more widely than is commonly supposed. To this !
mountaineers to preserve and circulate it. Of the a variety of causes contributed . There was then a
Romaunt New Testament six copies have come general impression that the world was soon to end .
down to our day. A copy is preserved at each of Men thought that they saw the prognostications of
the four following places : Lyons,Grenoble, Zurich, its dissolution in the disorder into which all things
ing wiare
f the These
Dublin ; and two copies at Paris. mall,' had fallen . The pride, luxury, and profligacy of
th ssmall,
plain , and portable volumes, contrasting with those the clergy led not a few laymen to ask if better and
splendid and ponderous folios of the Latin Vulgate , more certain guides were not to be had . Many of
penned in characters of gold and silver, richly the troubadours were religious men, whose lays
illuminated , their bindings decorated with gems, were sermons. The hour of deep and universal
inviting admiration rather than study, and unfitted slumber had passed ; the serf was contending with
by their size and splendour for the use of the his seigneur for personal freedom , and the city was
people . waging war with the baronial castle for civic and
The Church of the Alps, in the simplicity of its corporate independence. The New Testament ,
constitution , may be held to have been a reflection and, as we learn from incidental notices, portions
of the Church of the first centuries. The entire of the Old — coming at this juncture, in a language
territory included in the Waldensian limits was understood alike in the court as in the camp, in
divided into parishes. In each parish was placed the city as in the rural hamlet, was welcome to
a pastor, who led his flock to the living waters of many, and its truths obtained a wider promulgation
the Word of God . He preached , he dispensed the than perhaps had taken place since the publication
Sacraments , he visited the sick, and catechised the of the Vulgate by Jerome.
young. With him was associated in the govern After passing a certain time in the school of the
ment of his congregation a consistory of laymen. barbes, it was not uncommon for the Waldensian
The synod met once a year. It was composed of youth to prooeed to the seminaries in the great
all the pastors, with an equal number of laymen, cities of Lombardy, or to the Sorbonne at Paris.
and its most frequent place of meeting was the There they saw other customs, were initiated into
secluded mountain -engirdled valley at the head of other studies , and had a wider horizon around
Angrogna. Sometimes as many as a hundred and them than in the seclusion of their native valleys.
fifty barbes, with the same number of lay members . Many of them became expert dialecticians, and
would assemble. We can imagine them seated — it often made converts of the rich merchants with
M
Y TANTIS
30 HISTOR OF PROTES .
whom they traded , and the landlords in whose The ocean they did not cross. Their mission field
houses they lodged. The priests seldom cared to was the realms that lay outspread at the foot of
meet in argument the Waldensian missionary. their own mountains. They went forth two and
To maintain the truth in their own mountains two, concealing their real character under the
was not the only object of this people. They felt guise of a secular profession, most commonly that
their relations to the rest of Christendom . They of merchants or pedlars. They carried silks,
WALDENSIAN MISSIONARIES IN GUISE OF PEDLARS.
sought to drive back the darkness , and re-conquer jewellery, and other articles, at that time not
the kingdoms which Rome had overwhelmed . easily purchasable save at distant marts, and they
They were an evangelistic as well as an evangelical were welcomed as merchants where they would
Church. It was an old law among them that all have been spurned as missionaries. The door
who took orders in their Church should , before of the cottage and the portal of the baron 's
being eligible to a home charge, serve three years castle stood equally open to them . But their
in the mission field. The youth on whose head the address was mainly shown in vending, without
assembled barbes laid their hands, saw in prospect money and without price, rarer and more valuable
not a rich benefice, but a possible martyrdom . merchandise than the gems and silks which had
BI
SOR
10
BEACH
22
EXP
CH
OFSAMOSATA
CONSTANTINE
.THEMARTYRDOM
32 HISTOR OF PROTES .
Y TANTIS
procured them entrance. They took care to carry was discovered,Mas sometimes chanced , the rulers of
with them , concealed among their wares or about Christendom took care to further , in their own
their persons, portions of the Word of God , their way, the springing of the seed , by watering it with
own transcription commonly ,and to this they would the blood of the men who had sowed it.?
draw the attention of the inmates. When they saw Thus did the Bible in those ages, veiling its
a desire to possess it, they would freely make a gift majesty and its mission, travel silently through
of it where the means to purchase were absent. Christendom , entering homes and hearts , and there
There was no kingdom of Southern and Central making its abode. From her lofty seat Rome
Europe to which these missionaries did not find looked down with contempt upon the Book and its
their way, and where they did not leave traces of humble bearers. She aimed at bowing the necks
their visit in the disciples whom they made. On of kings, thinking if they were obedient meaner
the west they penetrated into Spain. In Southern men would not dare revolt, and so she took little
France they found congenial fellow -labourers in the heed of a power which, weak as it seemed , was des.
Albigenses, by whom the seeds of truth were plenti- tined at a future day to break in pieces the fabric of
fully scattered over Dauphiné and Languedoc. On her dominion . By-and-by she began to be uneasy ,
the east, descending the Rhine and the Danube, and to have a boding of calamity. The penetrating
they leavened Germany, Bohemia, and Poland ? eye of Innocent III. detected the quarter whence
with their doctrines, their track being marked with danger was to arise. He saw in the labours of
the edifices for worship and the stakes of martyrdom these humble men the beginning of a movement
that arose around their steps. Even the Seven - which , if permitted to go on and gather strength ,
hilled City they feared not to enter, scattering the would one day sweep away all that it had taken
seed on ungenial soil, if perchance some of it might the toils and intrigues of centuries to achieve. He
take root and grow . Their naked feet and coarse straightway commenced those terrible crusades
woollen garments made them somewhat marked which wasted the sowers but watered the seed, and
figures, in the streets of a city that clothed itself in helped to bring on, at its appointed hour, the cata
purple and fine linen ; and when their real errand strophe which he sought to avert."
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PAULICIANS.
The Paulicians the Protesters against the Eastern , as the Waldenses against the Western Apostacy - Their Rise in
A .D . 653 _ Constantine of Samosata -- Their Tenets Scriptural - Constantine Stoned to Death - Simeon Succeeds
Is put to Death - Sergius - His Missionary Travels - Terrible Persecutions- The Paulicians Rise in Arms - Civil
War - The Government Triumphs - Dispersion of the Paulicians over the West - They Blend with the Waldenses
- Movement in the South of Europe - The Troubadour, the Barbe, and the Bible, the Three Missionaries -
Innocent III. - The Crusades.
BESIDES this central and main body of opposi- dom , other communities and individuals arose,
tionists to Rome- Protestants before Protestantism and maintained a continuous line of Protestant
- placed here as in an impregnable fortress, upreared testimony all along to the sixteenth century. These
on purpose , in the very centre of Roman Christen - we shall compendiously group and rapidly describe.
- First, there are the Paulicians. They occupy an
· Stranski, apud Lenfant's Concile de Constance, quoted - - - -- - - - - -- - - - -
by Count Valerian Krasinski in his History of the Rise, Pro ? M 'Crie, Hist. Ref. in Italy, p. 4.
gress , and Decline ofthe Reformation in Poland ,vol. i., p . 53 ; Those who wish to know more of this interesting
Lond ., 1838 . Illyricus Flaccius, in his Catalogus Testium people than is contained in the above rapid sketch may
Veritatis (Amstelodami, 1679), says : “ Pars Valdensium consult Leger, Des Eglises Evangéliques ; Perrin , Hist. de
in Germaniam transiit atque apud Bohemos, in Polonia Vaudois ; Reynerius, Cont. Waldens. ; Sir S. Morland ,
ac Livonia sedem fixit.” Leger says that the Waldenses History of the Evangelical Churches of Piedmont ; Jones,
had , about the year 1210, Churches in Slavonia, Sarmatia , Hist. Waldenses ; Rorenco, Narrative ; besides a host of
and Livonia . (HistoireGénérale des Eglises Evangéliques des more modern writers — Gilly , Waldensian Researches ;
Pallées du Piedmentou Vaudois, vol.ii., pp. 336 , 337 ; 1669.) Muston , Israel of the Alps ; Monastier, & c. & c.
PAULICIAN MISSIONARIES AND MARTYRS. 33
analogous place in the East to that which the he would teach, and they should learn, was that
Waldenses held in the West. Some obscurity rests of Paul ; hence the name of Paulicians, a designa
upon their origin , and additional mystery has on tion they would not have been ambitious to wear
purpose been cast upon it, but a fair and impartial had their doctrine been Manichean.
examination of the matter leaves no doubt that the These disciples multiplied . A congenial soil
Paulicians are the remnant that escaped the apos- favoured their increase, for in these same moun
tacy of the Eastern Church, even as the Waldenses tains,where are placed the sources of the Euphrates ,
are the remnant saved from the apostacy of the the Nestorian remnant had found a refuge. The
Western Church. Doubt, too, has been thrown attention of the Government at Constantinople was
upon their religious opinions ; they have been at length turned to them ; persecution followed.
painted as a confederacy of Manicheans, just as the Constantine, whose zeal, constancy, and piety had
Waldenses were branded as a synagogue of heretics ; been amply tested by the labours of twenty-seven
but in the former case , as in the latter, an exami- years, was stoned to death. From his ashes arose
nation of the matter satisfies us that these imputa- a leader still more powerful. Simeon , an officer of
tions had no sufficientfoundation, thatthe Paulicians the palace who had been sent with a body of troops
repudiated the errors imputed to them , and that as to superintend his execution, was converted by his
a body their opinions were in substantialagreement martyrdom , and like another Paul after the stoning
with the doctrine of Holy Writ. Nearly all the of Stephen ,began to preach the Paulician faith ,which
information we have of them is that which Petrus he had once persecuted. Simeon ended his career ,
Siculus, their bitter enemy, has communicated. He as Constantine had done, by sealing his testimony
visited them when they were in their most flourish - with his blood ; the stake being planted beside the
ing condition, and the account he has given of their heap of stones piled above the ashes of Constantine.
distinguishing doctrines sufficiently proves that the Still the Paulicians multiplied ; other leaders
Paulicians had rejected the leading errors of the arose to fill the place of those who had fallen , and
Greek and Roman Churches ; but it fails to show neither the anathemas of the hierarchy nor the
that they had embraced the doctrine of Manes,' or sword of the State could check their growth . All
were justly liable to be styled Manicheans. through the eighth century they continued to
In A.D . 653, a deacon returning from captivity in flourish. The worship of images was now the
Syria rested a night in the house of an Armenian fashionable superstition in the Eastern Church, and
named Constantine, who lived in the neighbourhood the Paulicians rendered themselves still more ob
of Samosata . On the morrow , before taking his noxious to the Greek authorities, lay and clerical,
departure, he presented his host with a copy of the by the strenuous opposition which they offered to
New Testament. Constantine studied the sacred that idolatry of which the Greeks were the great
volume. A new light broke upon his mind : the advocates and patrons. This drew upon them yet
errors of the Greek Church stood clearly revealed, sorer persecution. It was now , in the end of the
and he instantly resolved to separate himself from eighth century , that the most remarkable perhaps
s0 corrupt a communion . He drew others to the of all their leaders, Sergius, rose to head them , a
study of the Scriptures , and the same light shone man of truly missionary spirit and of indomitable
into their minds which had irradiated his. Sharing energy. Petrus Siculus has given us an account of
his views, they shared with him his secession from the conversion of Sergius. We should take it for a
the established Church of the Empire. It was the satire, were it not for the manifest earnestness and
boast of this new party, now grown to consider
able numbers , that they adhered to the Scriptures ,
and especially to the writings of Paul. “ I am ? “ Among the prominent charges urged against the
Paulicians before the Patriarch of Constantinople in the
Sylvanus,” said Constantine, “ and ye are Macedo eighth century , and by Photius and Petrus Siculus in
nians,” intimating thereby that the Gospel which the ninth , we find the following -- that they dishonoured
the Virgin Mary, and rejected her worship ; denied the
life -giving efficacy of the cross, and refused it worship ;
1 Manes taught that there were two principles, or gods, and gainsaid the awful mystery of the conversion of the
the one good and the other evil ; and that the evil prin blood of Christ in the Eucharist ; while by others they
ciple was the creator of this world, and the good of the are branded as the originators of the Iconoclastic heresy
world to come. Manicheism was employed as a term of and the war against the sacred images. In the first
compendious condemnation in the East, as Heresy was in notice of the sectaries in Western Europe, I mean at
the West . It was easier to calumniate these men than to Orleans, they were similarly accused of treating with con
refute them . For such aspersions a very ancient pre tempt the worship of martyrs and saints, the sign of the
cedent might be pleaded . “ He hath a devil and is mad ,” holy cross, and mystery of transnbstantiation ; and much
it was said of the Master. The disciple is not above his the same too at Arras." (Elliott, Hore Apocalyptica ,
Lord . 3rd ed ., vol. ii., p . 277.)
24 HISTO O P .
RY F ROTESTANTI
to theancientSinstitutions
M of the Fathers, was always
free, without being subject to the laws of Rome,
and that the Pope of Rome had no jurisdiction
NOPI
over their Church as to the government or con
MA
stitution of it.”
But if the plains were conquered, not so the
mountains. A considerable body of Protesters
stood outagainst this deed of submission . Of these
III
some crossed the Alps, descended the Rhine, and
raised the standard of opposition in the diocese of
Cologne, where they were branded as Manicheans,
and rewarded with the stake. Others retired into
the valleys of the Piedmontese Alps, and there
maintained their scriptural faith and their ancient
independence. What we have just related respect
ing the dioceses of Milan and Turin settles the
question, in our opinion , of the apostolicity of the
Churches of the Waldensian valleys. It is not
necessary to show that missionaries were sent from
Rome in the first age to plant Christianity in these
valleys, nor is it necessary to show that these
Churches have existed as distinct and separate com
munities from early days ; enough that they formed
a part, as unquestionably they did , of the great
1 Petrus Damianus, Opusc., p. 5. Allis, Churches of
Piedmont, p. 113. M ‘Crie, Hist. of Reform . in Italy, p . 2.
OS
C EPHE Uhr
ES
NE
DUHET
20
re
wa
T
S )
TIES
THE VALLEY OF ANGROGNA.
ANTIQUITY OF THE WALDENSES. 25
evangelical Church of the north of Italy. This is on Christendom . There is a singular concurrence
the proof at once of their apostolicity and their in- of evidence in favour of their high antiquity.
dependence. It attests their descent from apostolic Their traditions invariably point to an unbroken
men, if doctrine be the life of Churches. When descent from the earliest times, as regards their
their co-religionists on the plains entered within religious belief. The Nobla Leyçon , which dates
the pale of the Roman jurisdiction , they retired from the year 1100,' goes to prove that the Wal
within the mountains, and, spurning alike the denses of Piedmont did not owe their rise to Peter
tyrannical yoke and the corrupt tenets of the Waldo of Lyons, who did not appear till the latter
Church of the Seven Hills, they preserved in its half of that century (1160). The Nobla Leyçon ,
ALUD
PIA
WP
C
EV E
HUB
ENTE
CA
US
319 Ting!
RELATI
FOTO
ON
UM
MONTE CASTELLUZZO AND NEW WALDENSIAS TEMPLE.

purity and simplicity the faith their fathers had though a poem , is in reality a confession of faith ,
handed down to them . Rome manifestly was the and could have been composed only after some
schismatic, she it was that had abandoned what considerable study of the system of Christianity, in
was once the common faith of Christendom , leaving contradistinction to the errors of Rome. How
by that step to all who remained on the old ground could a Church have arisen with such a docu
weseeinvalid reamoofstthe . ment in her hands ? Or how could these herdsmen
the Rindisputably
ebind this
Behind g are title
rampart o True Church
of mountains, which Pro and vine-dressers, shut up in their mountains,
vidence, foreseeing the approach of evil days, would have detected the errors against which they bore
almost seem to have reared on purpose, did the
remnant of the early apostolic Church of Italy Recent German criticism refers the Nobla Leycon
kindle their lamp, and here did that lamp continue to a more recent date, but still one anterior to the
to burn all through the long night which descended Reformation .
NTISM
26 HISTORY OF PROTESTA .
testimony, and found their way to the truths of It is indissolubly linked with martyr-memories,
which they made open profession in times of dark - and borrows a halo from the achievements of the
ness like these ? If we grant that their religious past. How often, in days of old, was the con
beliefs were the heritage of former ages , handed fessor hurled sheer down its awful steep and dashed
down from an evangelical ancestry, all is plain ; on the rocks at its foot! And there, commingled
but if we maintain that they were the discovery of in one ghastly heap, growing ever the bigger and
the men of those days, we assert what approaches ghastlier as another and yet another victim was
almost to a miracle. Their greatest enemies, added to it , lay the mangled bodies of pastor and
Claude Seyssel of Turin ( 1517), and Reynerius peasant, of mother and child ! It was the tragedies
the Jesuit (1250 ), have admitted their antiquity, connected with this mountain mainly that called
and stigmatised them as “ the most dangerous of forth Milton 's well-known sonnet :
all heretics, because the most ancient.” “ Avenge, O Lord , Thy slaughter'd saints, whose bones
Rorenco , Prior of St. Roch, Turin (1640), was Lie scatter'd on the Alpine mountains cold .
employed to investigate the origin and antiquity of * * * in Thy book record their groans
the Waldenses, and of course had access to all the Who were Thy sheep, and in their ancient fold ,
Waldensian documents in the ducal archives, and Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that roll' d
being their bitter enemy he may be presumed to Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans
The vales redoubled to the hills , and they
have made his report not more favourable than he To heaven ."
could help . Yet he states that “ they were not a
new sect in the ninth and tenth centuries , and that The new and elegant temple of the Waldenses
Claude of Turin must have detached them from the now rises near the foot of the Castelluzzo .
Church in the ninth century.” The Waldensian valleys are seven in number ;
Within the limits of her own land did God pro- they were more in ancient times, but the limits of
vide a dwelling for this venerable Church . Let us the Vaudois territory have undergone repeated
bestow a glance upon the region . As one comes curtailment, and now only the number we have
from the south , across the level plain of Piedmont, stated remain , lying between Pignerollo on the east
while yet nearly a hundred miles off, he sees the and Monte Viso on the west— that pyramidal hill
Alps rise before him , stretching like a great wall which forms so prominent an object from every
along the horizon . From the gates of the morning part of the plain of Piedmont, towering as it does
to those of the setting sun, themountains run on in above the surrounding mountains, and, like a horn
a line of towering magnificence. Pasturages and of silver, cutting the ebon of the firmament.
chestnut-forests clothe their base ; eternal snows The first three valleys run out somewhat like
crown their summits. How varied are their forms! the spokes of a wheel, the spot on which we
Some rise strong and massy as castles ; others shoot stand - the gateway, namely — being the nave. The
up tall and tapering like needles; while others again first is Luserna, or Valley of Light. It runs right
run along in serrated lines, their summits torn and out in a grand gorge of some twelve miles in
cleft by the storms of many thousand winters. length by about two in width . It wears a carpet
At the hour of sunrise, what a glory kindles along ing of meadows, which the waters of the Pelice
the crest of that snowy rampart ! At sunset the keep ever fresh and bright. A profusion of vines,
spectacle is again renewed , and a line of pyres is acacias, and mulberry -trees fleck it with their
seen to burn in the evening sky. shadows ; and a wall of lofty mountains encloses it
Drawing nearer the hills, on a line about thirty on either hand. The second is Rora , or Valley of
miles west of Turin , there opens before one what Dews. It is a vast cup, some fifty miles in cir
seems a great mountain portal. This is the entrance cumference, its sides luxuriantly clothed with
to the Waldensian territory. A low hill drawn meadow and corn -field, with fruit and forest trees,
along in front serves as a defence against all who and its rim formed of craggy and spiky mountains,
may come with hostile intent, as but too frequently many of them snow -clad. The third is Angrogna ,
happened in times gone by, while a stupendous or Valley of Groans. Of it we shall speak more
monolith - the Castelluzzo-- shoots up to the clouds, particularly afterwards. Beyond the extremity of
and stands sentinel at the gate of this renowned the first three valleys are the remaining four,
region . As one approaches La Torre the Castel- forming, as it were, the rim of the wheel. These
luzzo rises higher and higher, and irresistibly fixes last are enclosed in their turn by a line of lofty
the eye by the perfect beauty of its pillar-like and craggy mountains, which form a wall of
form . But to this mountain a higher interest defence around the entire territory. Each valley
belongs than any that mere symmetry can give it. is a fortress, having its own gate of ingress and
PICTURE OF THE WALDENSIAN VALLEYS. 27
egress, with its caves, and rocks, and mighty trained , and, after ordination , were sent forth to
chestnut-trees, forming places of retreat and sow the good seed, as opportunity offered , in other
shelter, so that the highest engineering skill could lands. Let us visit this valley. We ascend to
not have better adapted each several valley to its it by the long, narrow , and winding Angrogna.
end. It is not less remarkable that, taking all Bright meadows enliven its entrance. The moun
these valleys together, each is so related to each, tains on either hand are clothed with the vine, the
and the one opens so into the other , that they may mulberry, and the chestnut. Anon the valley
be said to form one fortress of amazing and match contracts. It becomes rough with projecting
less strength — wholly impregnable, in fact. All rocks, and shady with great trees. A few paces
the fortresses of Europe, though combined, would farther, and it expands into a circular basin ,
not form a citadel so enormously strong, and so feathery with birches, musical with falling waters,
dazzlingly magnificent, as the mountain dwelling environed atop by naked crags, fringed with dark
of the Vaudois. “ The Eternal, our God," says pines, while the white peak looks down upon one
Leger , “ having destined this land to be the out of heaven . A little in advance the valley
theatre of his marvels, and the bulwark of his seems shut in by a mountainous wall, drawn right
ark , has, by natural means, most marvellously across it ; and beyond, towering sublimely upward,
fortified it.” The battle begun in one valley could is seen an assemblage of snow -clad Alps, amid
be continued in another, and carried round the which is placed the valley we are in quest of,
entire territory, till at last the invading foe , over where burned of old the candle of the Waldenses.
powered by the rocks rolled upon him from the Some terrible convulsion has rent this mountain
mountains, or assailed by enemies which would from top to bottom , opening a path through it to
start suddenly out of the mist or issue from some the valley beyond. Weenter the dark chasm , and
unsuspected cave, found retreat impossible, and, cut proceed along on a narrow ledge in the mountain's
off in detail, left his bones to whiten the moun side, hung half-way between the torrent, which
tains he had come to subdue. is heard thundering in the abyss below , and the
These valleys are lovely and fertile, as well as summits which lean over us above. Journeying
strong. They are watered by numerous torrents, thus for about two miles , we find the pass begin
which descend from the snows of the summits. ning to widen , the light to break in, and now we
The grassy carpet of their bottom ; the mantling arrive at the gate of the Pra.
vine and the golden grain of their lower slopes ; There opens before us a noble circular valley, its
the châlets that dot their sides, sweetly embowered grassy bottom watered by torrents, its sides dotted
amid fruit- trees ; and, higher up, the great chestnut with dwellings and clothed with corn-fields and
forests and the pasture-lands, where the herdsmen pasturages, while a ring of white peaks guards it
keep watch over their flocks all through the sum - above. This was the inner sanctuary of the
mer days and the starlit nights : the nodding Waldensian temple. The rest of Italy had turned
crags, from which the torrent leaps into the light; aside to idols, the Waldensian territory alone had
the rivulet, singing with quiet gladness in the been reserved for the worship ofthe true God. And
shady nook ; the mists, moving grandly among was it not meet that on its native soil a remnant
the mountains, now veiling, now revealing their of the apostolic Church of Italy should be main
majesty ; and the far-off summits, tipped with sil- tained , that Rome and all Christendom might have
ver, to be changed at eve into gleaming gold - make before their eyes a perpetual monument of what
up a picture of blended beauty and grandeur, not they themselves had once been , and a living
equalled perhaps, and certainly not surpassed, in witness to testify how far they had departed from
any other region of the earth . their first faith ? ?
In the heart of their mountains is situated the
1 This short description of the Waldensian valleys is
most interesting, perhaps, of all their valleys. It drawn from the author's personal observations. Wemay
was in this retreat, walled round by “ hills whose here be permitted to state that he has, in successive
heads touch heaven ," that their barbes or pastors, journeys, continued at intervals during the past twenty
five years, travelled over Christendom , and visited all
from all their several parishes, were wont to meet the countries , Popish and Protestant, of which he will
in annual synod. It was here that their college have occasion particularly to speak in the course of this
stood, and it was here that their missionaries were history.
CHAPTER VII.
THE WALDENSES — THEIR MISSIONS AND MARTYRDOMS.
Their Synod and College - Their Theological Tenets - Romaunt Version of the New Testament – The Constitution of
their Church - Their Missionary Labourg - Wide Diffusion of their Tenets - The Stone Smiting the Image.
ONE would like to have a near view of the barbes If doubt there were regarding the tenets of the
or pastors, who presided over the school of early Waldenses , the charges which their enemies have
Protestant theology that existed here, and to know preferred against them would set that doubt at
how it fared with evangelical Christianity in the rest, and make it tolerably certain that they held
ages that preceded the Reformation. But the time substantially what the apostles before their day,
is remote, and the events are dim . We can but and the Reformers after it, taught. The indict
doubtfully glean from a variety of sources the ment against the Waldenses included a formidable
facts necessary to form a picture of this venerable list of “ heresies.” They held that there had been
Church , and even then the picture is not complete. no true Pope since the days of Sylvester ; that
The theology of which this was one of the fountain - temporal offices and dignities were not meet for
heads was not the clear, well-defined , and com - preachers of the Gospel; that the Pope's pardons
prehensive system which the sixteenth century gave were a cheat ; that purgatory was a fable ; that
us; it was only what the faithful men of the relics were simply rotten bones which had belonged
Lombard Churches had been able to save from the to one knew not whom ; that to go on pilgrimage
wreck of primitive Christianity . True religion, served no end, save to empty one's purse ; that
being a revelation , was from the beginning com - flesh might be eaten any day if one's appetite
plete and perfect ; nevertheless , in this as in every served him ; that holy water was not a whit more
other branch of knowledge, it is only by patient efficacious than rain -water ; and that prayer in a
labour that man is able to extricate and arrange barn was just as effectual as if offered in a church.
all its parts, and to come into the full possession of They were accused , moreover , of having scoffed at
truth . The theology taught in former ages, in the the doctrine of transubstantiation, and of having
peak -environed valley in which we have in imagi- spoken blasphemously of Rome, as the harlot of
nation placed ourselves, was drawn from the Bible. the Apocalypse.“
The atoning death and justifying righteousness of There is reason to believe, from recent historical
Christ was its cardinal truth. This , the Nobla researches, that the Waldenses possessed the New
Leyçon and other ancient documents abundantly Testament in the vernacular. The “ Lingua Ro
testify . The Nobla Leyçon sets forth with toler - mana ” or Romaunt tongue was the common lan
able clearness the doctrine of the Trinity , the guage of the south of Europe from the eighth to
fall of man, the incarnation of the Son , the per- the fourteenth century. It was the language of
petual authority of the Decalogue as given by the troubadours and of men of letters in the Dark
God, the need of Divine grace in order to good Ages. Into this tongue — the Romaunt - was
works, the necessity of holiness, the institution of the first translation of the whole of the New
the ministry, the resurrection of the body, and the Testament made so early as the twelfth century.
eternal bliss of heaven. This creed, its professors This fact Dr.Gilly has been at great pains to prove
exemplified in lives of evangelical virtue. The in his work, The Romaunt Versions of the Gospel
blamelessness of the Waldenses passed into a pro
verb, so that one more than ordinarily exempt Jesus Christ, who will neither slander, nor swear, nor lie,
from the vices of his time was sure to be suspected nor commit adultery, nor kill, nor steal, nor avenge him
of being a Vaudés. self of his enemies, they presently say of such a one he is
a Vaudés , and worthy of death .” .
4 See a list of numerous heresies and blasphemies
This disproves the charge of Manicheism brought charged upon the Waldenses by the Jesuit Reynerius,
against them by their enemies. who wrote about the year 1250, and extracted by Allir
? Sir Samuel Morland gives the Nobla Leycon in full (chap. 22) .
in his History of the Churches of the Waldenses. Allix 5 The Romaunt Version of the Gospel according to John,
( chap. 18) gives a summary of it . from MS. preserved in Trinity College, Dublin , and in the
3 The Nobla Leycon has the following passage : - “ If Bibliothèque du Roi, Paris. ByWilliam Stephen Gilly, D .D .,
there be an honest man ,who desires to love God and fear , Canon of Durham , and Vicar of Norham . Lond., 1848.
COLLEGE AND SYNODS OF THE WALDENSES. 29
accoriling 10 John. The sum of what Dr. Gilly , may be on the grassy slopes of the valley — a vene
by a patient investigation into facts, and a great rable company of humble , learned , earnest men ,
array of historic documents, maintains, is that all presided over by a simple moderator (for higher
the books of the New Testament were translated office or authority was unknown amongst them ),
from the Latin Vulgate into the Romaunt, that and intermitting their deliberations respecting the
this was the first literal version since the fall of affairs of their Churches, and the condition of their
the empire, that it was made in the twelfth cen- flocks, only to offer their prayers and praises to the
tury, and was the first translation available for Eternal, while the majestic snow -clad peaks looked
popular use . There were numerous earlier trans- down upon them from the silent firmament. There
lations, but only of parts of the Word of God, and needed , verily , no magnificent fane, no blazonry of
many of these were rather paraphrases or digests of mystic rites to make their assembly august.
Scripture than translations, and, moreover, they The youth who here sat at the feet of the more
were so bulky, and by consequence so costly, as to venerable and learned of their barbes used as their
be utterly beyond the reach of the common people. text-book the Holy Scriptures. And not only did
This Romaunt version was the first complete and they study the sacred volume; they were required
literal translation of the New Testament of Holy to commit to memory, and be able accurately to
Scripture ; it was made, as Dr. Gilly , by a chain recite, whole Gospels and Epistles. This was a
of proofs, shows, most probably under the super- necessary accomplishment on the part of public
intendence and at the expense of Peter Waldo of instructors , in those ages when printing was un
Lyons, not later than 1180, and so is older than known , and copies of the Word of God were rare.
any complete version in German , French , Italian, Part of their time was occupied in transcribing the
Spanish , or English . This version was widely Holy Scriptures, or portions of them , which they
spread in the south of France, and in the cities of were to distribute when they went forth as mission
Lombardy. It was in common use among the aries. By this, and by other agencies, the seed of
Waldenses of Piedmont, and it was no small part, the Divine Word was scattered throughout Europe
doubtless, of the testimony borne to truth by these more widely than is commonly supposed. To this
mountaineers to preserve and circulate it. Of the a variety of causes contributed. There was then a
Romaunt New Testament six copies have come general impression that the world was soon to end.
down to our day. A copy is preserved at each of Men thought that they saw the prognostications of
the four following places : Lyons, Grenoble , Zurich, its dissolution in the disorder into which all things
Dublin ; and two copies at Paris. These are small, had fallen . The pride, luxury, and profligacy of
plain , and portable volumes, contrasting with those the clergy led not a few laymen to ask if better and
splendid and ponderous folios of the Latin Vulgate , more certain guides were not to be had. Many of
penned in characters of gold and silver, richly the troubadours were religious men, whose lays
illuminated , their bindings decorated with gems, were sermons. The hour of deep and universal
inviting admiration rather than study, and unfitted slumber had passed ; the serf was contending with
by their size and splendour for the use of the his seigneur for personal freedom , and the city was
people. waging war with the baronial castle for civic and
The Church of the Alps, in the simplicity of its corporate independence . The New Testament,
constitution , may be held to have been a reflection and, as we learn from incidental notices, portions
of the Church of the first centuries. The entire of the Old - coming at this juncture, in a language
territory included in the Waldensian limits was understood alike in the court as in the camp, in
divided into parishes. In each parish was placed the city as in the rural hamlet, was welcome to
a pastor, who led his flock to the living waters of many, and its truths obtained a wider promulgation
the Word of God. Hepreached , he dispensed the than perhaps had taken place since the publication
Sacraments , he visited the sick, and catechised the of the Vulgate by Jerome.
young. With him was associated in the govern- After passing a certain time in the school of the
ment of his congregation a consistory of laymen. barbes, it was not uncommon for the Waldensian
The synod met once a year. It was composed of youth to proceed to the seminaries in the great
all the pastors, with an equal number of laymen, cities of Lombardy, or to the Sorbonne at Paris.
and its most frequent place of meeting was the There they saw other customs, were initiated into
secluded mountain -engirdled valley at the head of other studies, and had a wider horizon around
Angrogna. Sometimes as many as a hundred and them than in the seclusion of their native valleys.
fifty barbes, with the same number of lay members . Many of them became expert dialecticians, and
would assemble. We can imagine them seated — it often made converts of the rich merchants with
whom they traded , and the landlords in whose The ocean they did not cross. Their mission field
houses they lodged . The priests seldom cared to was the realms that lay outspread at the foot of
meet in argument the Waldensian missionary. their own mountains. They went forth two and
To maintain the truth in their own mountains two, concealing their real character under the
was not the only object of this people. They felt guise of a secular profession, most commonly that
their relations to the rest of Christendom . They of merchants or pedlars. They carried silks,
WALDEXSIAN MISSIONARIES IN GUISE OF L'EDLARS.
sought to drive back the darkness , and re-conquer jewellery, and other articles, at that time not
the kingdoms which Rome had overwhelmed. easily purchasable save at distant marts, and they
They were an evangelistic as well as an evangelical were welcomed as merchants where they would
Church. It was an old law among them that all have been spurned as missionaries. The door
who took orders in their Church should , before of the cottage and the portal of the baron's
being eligible to a home charge, serve three years castle stood equally open to them . But their
in the mission field . The youth on whose head the address was mainly shown in vending, without
assembled barbes laid their hands, saw in prospect money and without price , rarer and more valuable
not a rich benefice, but a possible martyrdom . merchandise than the gems and silks which had
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procured them entrance. They took care to carry was discovered , as sometimes chanced , the rulers of
with them , concealed among their wares or about Christendom took care to further , in their own
their persons, portions of the Word of God , their way, the springing of the seed, by watering it with
own transcription commonly, and to this they would the blood of themen who had sowed it.”
draw the attention of the inmates. When they saw Thus did the Bible in those ages, veiling its
a desire to possess it, they would freely make a gift majesty and its mission, travel silently through
of it where the means to purchase were absent. Christendom , entering homes and hearts, and there
There was no kingdom of Southern and Central making its abode. From her lofty seat Rome
Europe to which these missionaries did not find looked down with contempt upon the Book and its
their way, and where they did not leave traces of humble bearers. She aimed at bowing the necks
their visit in the disciples whom they made. On of kings, thinking if they were obedient meaner
the west they penetrated into Spain . In Southern men would not dare revolt, and so she took little
France they found congenial fellow -labourers in the heed of a power which, weak as it seemed , was des.
Albigenses, by whom the seeds of truth were plenti- tined at a future day to break in pieces the fabric of
fully scattered over Dauphiné and Languedoc. On her dominion. By-and-by she began to be uneasy,
the east, descending the Rhine and the Danube, and to have a boding of calamity. The penetrating
they leavened Germany, Bohemia , and Poland ' eye of Innocent III. detected the quarter whence
with their doctrines, their track being marked with danger was to arise. He saw in the labours of
the edifices for worship and the stakes of martyrdom these humble men the beginning of a movement
that arose around their steps. Even the Seven- which, if permitted to go on and gather strength ,
hilled City they feared not to enter, scattering the would one day sweep away all that it had taken
seed on ungenial soil, if perchance some of it might the toils and intrigues of centuries to achieve. He
take root and grow . Their naked feet and coarse straightway commenced those terrible crusades
woollen garments made them somewhat marked which wasted the sowers but watered the seed, and
figures, in the streets of a city that clothed itself in helped to bring on, at its appointed hour, the cata
purple and fine linen ; and when their real errand strophe which he sought to avert,
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PAULICIANS .
The Paulicians the Protesters against the Eastern , as the Waldenses against the Western Apostacy - Their Rise in
A .D . 653 – Constantine of Samosata – Their Tenets Scriptural - Constantine Stoned to Death - Simeon Succeeds
Is put to Death - Sergius - His Missionary Travels - Terrible Persecutions- The Paulicians Rise in Arms - Civil
War - The Government Triumphs - Dispersion of the Paulicians over the West - They Blend with the Waldenses
- Movement in the South of Europe - The Troubadour, the Barbe, and the Bible, the Three Missionaries
Innocent III.-- The Crusades.
BESIDES this central and main body of opposi- dom , other communities and individuals arose,
tionists to Rome- Protestants before Protestantism and maintained a continuous line of Protestant
- - placed here as in an impregnable fortress, upreared testimony all along to the sixteenth century. These
on purpose, in the very centre of Roman Christen - we shall compendiously group and rapidly describe.
- First, there are the Paulicians. They occupy an
1 Stranski, apud Lenfant's Concile de Constance, quoted
by Count Valerian Krasinski in his History of the Rise, Pro- ? M 'Crie, Hist. Ref. in Italy, p. 4 .
gress, and Decline of the Reformation in Poland , vol.i., p . 53 ; 3 Those who wish to know more of this interesting
Lond., 1838 . Illyricus Flaccius, in his Catalogus Testiun people than is contained in the above rapid sketch may
Veritatis (Amstelodami, 1679), says : “ Pars Valdensium consult Leger, Des Eglises Evangéliques ; Perrin , Hist. de
in Germaniam transiit atque apud Bohemos, in Polonia Vaudois ; Reynerius, Cont. Waldens. ; Sir S . Morland ,
ac Livonia sedem fixit." Leger says that the Waldenses History of the Evangelical Churches of Piedmont ; Jones,
had , about the year 1210, Churches in Slavonia , Sarmatia , Hist. Waldenses ; Rorenco, Narrative ; besides a host of
and Livonia . (HistoireGénérale des Eglises Evangéliques des more modern writers - Gilly, Waldensian Researches ;
Mallies du Piedmont ou Vaudois, vol. ij., pp . 336, 337 ; 1669.) Muston , Israel of the Alps ; Monastier, & c. & c .
PAULICIAN MISSIONARIES AND MARTYRS. 33
analogous place in the East to that which the he would teach, and they should learn, was that
Waldenses held in the West. Some obscurity rests of Paul ; hence the name of Paulicians, a designa
upon their origin , and additional mystery has on tion they would not have been ambitious to wear
purpose been cast upon it, but a fair and impartial had their doctrine been Manichean .
examination of the matter leaves no doubt that the These disciples multiplied. A congenial soil
Paulicians are the remnant that escaped the apos- favoured their increase, for in these same moun
tacy of the Eastern Church , even as the Waldenses tains,where are placed the sources of the Euphrates,
are the remnant saved from the apostacy of the the Nestorian remnant had found a refuge. The
Western Church. Doubt, too, has been thrown attention of the Government at Constantinople was
upon their religious opinions ; they have been at length turned to them ; persecution followed .
painted as a confederacy of Manicheans, just as the Constantine, whose zeal, constancy, and piety had
Waldenses were branded as a synagogueof heretics ; been amply tested by the labours of twenty-seven
but in the former case, as in the latter, an exami- years , was stoned to death . From his ashes arose
nation of the matter satisfies us that these imputa - a leader still more powerful. Simeon , an officer of
tions had no sufficient foundation,that the Paulicians the palace who had been sent with a body of troops
repudiated the errors imputed to them , and that as to superintend his execution , was converted by his
a body their opinions were in substantialagreement martyrdom , and like another Paul after the stoning
with the doctrine of Holy Writ. Nearly all the ofStephen,began to preach the Paulician faith ,which
information we have of them is that which Petrus he had once persecuted . Simeon ended his career,
Siculus, their bitter enemy, has communicated . He as Constantine had done, by sealing his testimony
visited them when they were in their most flourish - with his blood ; the stake being planted beside the
ing condition , and the account he has given of their heap of stones piled above the ashes of Constantine.
distinguishing doctrines sufficiently proves that the Still the Paulicians multiplied ; other leaders
Paulicians had rejected the leading errors of the arose to fill the place of those who had fallen , and
Greek and Roman Churches ; but it fails to show neither the anathemas of the hierarchy nor the
that they had embraced the doctrine of Manes,' or sword of the State could check their growth. All
were justly liable to be styled Manicheans. through the eighth century they continued to
In A. D. 653, a deacon returning from captivity in flourish . The worship of images was now the
Syria rested a night in the house of an Armenian fashionable superstition in the Eastern Church, and
named Constantine,who lived in the neighbourhood the Paulicians rendered themselves still more ob
of Samosata. On the morrow , before taking his noxious to the Greek authorities, lay and clerical,
departure , he presented his host with a copy of the by the strenuous opposition which they offered to
New Testament. Constantine studied the sacred that idolatry of which the Greeks were the great
volume. A new light broke upon his mind : the advocates and patrons. This drew upon them yet
errors of the Greek Church stood clearly revealed, sorer persecution. It was now , in the end of the
and he instantly resolved to separate himself from eighth century, that the most remarkable perhaps
so corrupt a communion. He drew others to the of all their leaders, Sergius, rose to lead them , a
study of the Scriptures, and the same light shone man of truly missionary spirit and of indomitable
into their minds which had irradiated his. Sharing energy. Petrus Siculus has given us an account of
his views, they shared with him his secession from the conversion of Sergius. We should take it for a
the established Church of the Empire. It was the satire, were it not for the manifest earnestness and
boast of this new party, now grown to consider
able numbers , that they adhered to the Scriptures,
and especially to the writings of Paul. “ I am ? “ Among the prominent charges urged against the
Paulicians before the Patriarch of Constantinople in the
Sylvanus,” said Constantine, “ and ye are Macedo eighth century , and by Photius and Petrus Siculus in
nians,” intimating thereby that the Gospel which the ninth , we find the following — that they dishonoured
the Virgin Mary, and rejected her worship ; denied the
life-giving efficacy of the cross, and refused it worship ;
1 Manes taught that there were two principles, or gods, and gainsaid the awful mystery of the conversion of the
the one good and the other evil ; and that the evil prin blood of Christ in the Eucharist ; while by others they
ciple was the creator of this world, and the good of the are branded as the originators of the Iconoclastic heresy
world to come. Manicheism was employed as a term of and the war against the sacred images. In the first
compendious condemnation in the East, as Heresy was in notice of the sectaries in Western Europe, I mean at
the West. It was easier to calumniate these men than to Orleans, they were similarly accused of treating with con
refute them . For such aspersions a very ancient pre- tempt the worship of martyrs and saints, the sign of the
cedent might be pleaded. “ He hath a devil and is mad ," holy cross, and mystery of transubstantiation ; and much
it was said of the Master. The disciple is not above his the same too at Arras.” (Elliott, Hore Apocalypticæ ,
Lord . 3rd ed., vol. ii., p . 277.)
simplicity of the writer. Siculus tells us that Satan independence, and maintained the profession of
appeared to Sergius in the shape of an old woman, their religious faith .
and asked him why he did not read the New Testa- After this ,the Paulicianswere transported across
ment? The tempter proceeded farther to recite the Bosphorus,and settled in Thrace. This removal
portions of Holy Writ,whereby Sergius was seduced was begun by the Emperor Constantine Coprony
to read the Scripture, and so perverted to heresy ; mus in the middle of the eighth century, was
and “ from sheep,” says Siculus, " turned numbers continued in successive colonies in the ninth, and
into wolves, and by their means ravaged the sheep- completed about the end of the tenth . The shadow
folds of Christ.1 of the Saracenic woe was already blackening over
During thirty - four years, and in the course of the Eastern Empire, and God removed his witnesses
innumerable journeys, he preached the Gospel from betimes from the destined scene of judgment. The
East to West, and converted great numbers of his arrival of the Paulicians in Europe was regarded
countrymen. The result was more terrible perse with favour rather than disapproval. Rome was
cutions, which were continued through successive becoming by her tyranny the terror and by her
reigns. Foremost in this work we find the Emperor profligacy the scandal of the West, and men were
Leo, the Patriarch Nicephorus, and notably the disposed to welcome whatever promised to throw
Empress Theodora . Under the latter it was affirmed, additional weight into the opposing scale. The
says Gibbon, “ that one hundred thousand Pauli- Paulicians soon spread themselves over Europe,
cians were extirpated by the sword , the gibbet, or and though no chronicle records their dispersion,
the flames." It is admitted by the same historian the fact is attested by the sudden and simultaneous
that the chief guilt of many of those who were thus outbreak of their opinions in many of the Western
destroyed lay in their being Iconoclasts.? countries. They mingled with the hosts of the
The sanguinary zeal of Theodora kindled a flame Crusaders returning from the Holy Land through
which had'well-nigh consumed the Empire of the Hungary and Germany ; they joined themselves to
East. The Paulicians, stung by these cruel injuries, the caravans of merchants who entered the harbour
now prolonged for two centuries , at last took up of Venice and the gates of Lombardy ; or they
arms, as the Waldenses of Piedmont, the Hussites followed the Byzantine standard into Southern
of Bohemia , and the Huguenots of France did in Italy , and by these various routes settled themselves
similar circumstances. They placed their camp in in the West. They incorporated with the pre
the mountains between Sewas and Trebizond , and existing bodies of oppositionists, and from this time
för thirty-five years (A.D. 845 — 880) the Empire of a new life is seen to animate the efforts of the Wal
Constantinople was afflicted with the calamities of denses of Piedmont, the Albigenses of Southern
civil war. Repeated victories, won over the troops France, and of others who, in other parts of Europe,
of the emperor, crowned the arms of the Paulicians, revolted by the growing superstitions, had begun
and at length the insurgents were joined by the to retrace their steps towards the primeval fountains
Saracens, who hung on the frontier of the Empire. of truth. “ Their opinions,” says Gibbon , “ were
The flames of battle extended into the heart of silently propagated in Rome, Milan, and the king
Asia ; and as it is impossible to restrain the ravages doms beyond the Alps. It was soon discovered
of the sword when once unsheathed , the Paulicians thatmany thousand Catholics of every rank, and of
passed from a righteous defence to an inexcusable either sex, had embraced the Manichean heresy." $
revenge. Entire provinces were wasted , opulent
cities were sacked, ancient and famous churches
were turned into stables, and troops of captives 3 Pet. Sic ., p. 814 .
* Emericus, in his Directory for Inquisitors, gives us the
were held to ransom ordelivered to the executioner. followin piece of news, namely , that the founder of
following
But it must not be forgotten that the original cause theManicheans was a person called Manes, who lived in
of these manifold miseries was the bigotry of the the diocese of Milan ! (Allix , p. 134.)
government and the zeal of the clergy for image 6 Mosheim , Eccl. Hist., cent. 11, part ii., chap. 5.
worship . 6 Gibbon , Decline and Fall, vol. x ., p . 186 . In perusirg
The fortune of war at last declared in the chapter (54 ) which this historian has devoted to an
favour of the troops of the emperor, and the insur account of the Paulicians, one hardly knowswhether to
gents were driven back into their mountains, where be more delighted with his eloquence or amazed at his
inconsistency. At one time he speaks of them as the
for a century afterwards they enjoyed a partial “ votaries of St. Paul and of Christ,” and at another as
the disciples of Manes. And though he says that " the
1 “ Multos ex ovibus lupos fecit, et per eos Christi ovilia Paulicians sincerely condemned the memory and opinions
dissipavit." (Pet. Sic., Hist. Bib . Patr., vol. xvi., p. 761.) of the Manichean sect," he goes on to write of them as
? Gibbon, vol. I., p. 177 ; Edin ., 1832. Sharon Turner, Manicheans. The historian has too slavishly followed
Hist. of England , vol. V., p . 125 ; Lond., 1830. his chief authority and their bitter enemy, Petrus Siculus.
BEGUN DECADENCE OF ROME. 35
From this point the Paulician stream becomes forces might quicken and make to spring up. Such
blended with that of the other early confessors of a force did now begin to act.
the Truth . To these we now return . It was,moreover, on this spot, and among these
When we cast our eyes over Europe in the peoples - the best prepared of all the nations of the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, our attention is West— that the Word of God was first published in
irresistibly riveted on the south of France. There the vernacular. When the Romance version of the
a great movement is on the eve of breaking out. New Testament was issued, the people that sat in
Cities and provinces are seen rising in revolt against darkness saw a great light. This was in fact a
the Church of Rome. Judging from the aspect of second giving of Divine Revelation to the nations
things on the surface, one would have inferred of Europe ; for the early Saxon renderings of
that all opposition to Rome had died out. Every portions of Holy Writ had fallen aside and gone
succeeding century was deepening the foundations utterly into disuse ; and though Jerome's transla
and widening the limits of the Romish Church, tion, the Vulgate, was still known , it was in Latin ,
and it seemed now as if there awaited her ages now a dead language, and its use was confined to
of quiet and unchallenged dominion. It is at the priests , who though they possessed it cannot be
this moment that her power begins to totter ; and said to have known it ; for the reverence paid it lay
though she will rise higher ere terminating her in the rich illuminations of its writing, in the gold
career, her decadence has already begun, and her and gems of its binding, and the curiously-carved
fall may be postponed, but cannot be averted. But and costly cabinets in which it was locked up, and
how do we account for the powerful movement not in the earnestness with which its pages were
that begins to show itself at the foot of the Alps, studied . Now the nations of Southern Europe
at a moment when , as it seems, every enemy has could read, each in “ the tongue wherein he was
been vanquished , and Rome has won the battle ? born ," the wonderful works of God .
To attack her now , seated as we behold her amid This inestimable boon they owed to Peter Valdes
oling trouting to som the suddead been
vassal kings, obedient nations, and entrenched be- or Waldo, a rich merchant in Lyons, who had been
hind a triple rampart of darkness, is surely to invite awakened to serious thought by the sudden death
destruction . of a companion, according to some, by the chance
The causes of this movement had been long in lay of a travelling troubadour according to others.
silent operation . In fact, this was the very quarter We can imagine the wonder and joy of these people
of Christendom where opposition to the growing when this light broke upon them through the
tyranny and superstitions of Rome might be ex- clouds that environed them . But we must not picture
pected first to show itself. Here it was that to ourselves a diffusion of the Bible, in those ages,
Polycarp and Irenæus had laboured . Over all at all so wide and rapid as would take place in our
those goodly plains which the Rhone waters, and day when copies can be so easily multiplied by the
in those numerous cities and villages over which printing press. Each copy was laboriously pro
the Alps stretch their shadows, these apostolic men duced by the pen ; its price corresponded to the
had planted Christianity. Hundreds of thousands timeand labour expended in its production ; it had
of martyrs had here watered it with their blood to be carried long distances, often by slow and un
and though a thousand years well-nigh had passed certain conveyances; and, last of all, it had to
since that day, the story of their terrible torments encounter the frowns and ultimately the prohibitory
and heroic deaths had not been altogether for- edicts of a hostile hierarchy. But there were com
gotten . In the Cottian Alps and the province pensatory advantages. Difficulties but tended to
of Languedoc, Vigilantius had raised his powerful whet the desire of the people to obtain the Book,
protest against the errors of his times. This region and when once their eyes lighted on its page, its
was included , as we have seen, in the diocese of truths made the deeper an impression on their
Milan, and, as a consequence, it enjoyed the light minds. It stood out in its sublimity from the
which shone on the south of the Alps long after fables on which they had been fed . The conscience
Churches not a few on the north of these mountains felt that a greater than man was addressing it from
were plunged in darkness. In the ninth century its page. Each copy served scores and hundreds
Claude of Turin had found in the Archbishop of of readers.
Lyons, Agobardus, a man willing to entertain his Besides, if the mechanicalappliances were lacking
views and to share his conflicts. Since that time to those ages, which the progress of invention has
the night had deepened here as everywhere else. conferred on ours, there existed a living machinery
But still, as may be conceived,there werememories which worked indefatigably. The Bible was sung
of the past, there were seeds in the soil, which new in the lays of troubadours and minnesingers. It
ISM
36 HISTORY OF PROTESTANT .
was recited in the sermons of barbes. And these order, is her yoke, to induce them to join universally
efforts reacted on the Book from which they had in the struggle to break it.
sprung, by leading men to the yet more earnest Besides, it happened, as has often been seen at
perusal and the yet wider diffusion of it. The historic crises of the Papacy, that a Pope equal to
Troubadour, the Barbe, and, mightiest of all, the the occasion filled the Papal throne. Of remark
TROUBADOUR AND BARBE.
BIBLE, were the three missionaries that traversed able vigour, of dauntless spirit, and of sanguinary
the south of Europe. Disciples were multiplied : temper, Innocent III. but too truly guessed the
congregations were formed : barons, cities, pro- character and divined the issue of the movement.
vinces, joined the movement. It seemed as if the He sounded the tocsin of persecution . Mail-clad
Reformation was come. Not yet. Rome had not abbots, lordly prelates, “ who wielded by turns the
filled up her cup ; nor had the nations of Europe crosier , the sceptre, and the sword ;" 1 barons and
that full and woeful demonstration they have since - -
received , how crushing to liberty, to knowledge, to 1 Gibbon , vol. x., p. 185.
· INNOCENT THE THIRD'S PERSECUTIONS. 37
counts ambitious of enlarging their domains, and one perished by the racks of the other. In one of
mobs eager to wreak their savage fanaticism on those dismal tragedies not fewer than a hundred
their neighbours, whose persons they hated and thousand persons are said to have been destroyed."
whose goods they coveted, assembled at the Pontiff's Over wide areas not a living thing was left : all
summons. Fire and sword speedily did the work were given to the sword . Mounds of ruins and
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of extermination. Where before had been seen ashes alone marked the spot where cities and vil
smiling provinces, flourishing cities, and a numerous, lages had formerly stood. Butthis violence recoiled
virtuous, and orderly population, there was now a in the end on the power which had employed it.
blackened and silent desert. That nothing might It did not extinguish the movement : it but mado
be lacking to carry on this terrible work, Inno- it strike its roots deeper, to spring up again and
cent III. set up the tribunal of the Inquisition .
Behind the soldiers of the Cross marched themonks Gerdesius, Historia Evangelii Renovati, tom . i., p. 39 ;
of St. Dominic, and what escaped the sword of the Groningæ , 1744.
again , and each time with greater vigour and over with the early history of Protestantism , and they
a wider area, till at last it was seen that Rome by too truly depict the genius and policy of that
these deeds was only preparing for Protestantism power against which Protestantism found it so hard
a more glorious triumph, and for herself a more a matter to struggle into existence, to be passed
signal overthrow . over in silence, or dismissed with a mere general
But these events are too intimately connected description. Wemust go a little into detail.
CHAPTER IX .
CRUSADES AGAINST THE ALBIGENSES.
Rome founded on the Dogma of Persecution - Begins to act upon it - Territory of the Albigenses - Innocent III.
Persecuting Edicts of Councils - Crusade preached by the Monks of Citeaur - First Crusade launched - Paradise
Simon deMontfort - Raymond of Toulouse - His Territories Overrun and Devastated - Crusade against Raymond
Roger of Beziers - Burning of his Towns - Massacre of their Inhabitants - Destruction of the Albigenses.
The torch of persecution was fairly kindled in the But now the fervour of the crusades had begun
beginning of the thirteenth century. Those baleful sensibly to abate . The result had not responded
fires, which had smouldered since the fall of the either to the expectations of the Church that
Empire, were now re-lighted, but it must be noted had planned them , or to the masses that had
that this was the act not of the State but of the carried them out. The golden crowns of Paradise
Church . Rome had founded her dominion upon had been all duly bestowed , doubtless, but of
the dogma of persecution. She sustained herself course on those of the crusaders only who had
“ Lord of the conscience.” Out of this prolific but fallen ; the survivors had as yet inherited little
pestiferous root came a whole century of fulminat save wounds, poverty, and disease. The Church,
ing edicts, to be followed by centuries of blazing too, began to see that the zeal and blood which
piles. were being so freely expended on the shores of Asia
It could not be but that this maxim , placed at might be turned to better account nearer home.
the foundation of her system , should inspire and The Albigenses and other sects springing up at her
mould the whole policy of the Church of Rome. door were more dangerous foes of the Papacy than
Divine mistress of the conscience and of the faith, the Saracens of the distant East. For a while
she claimed the exclusive right to prescribe to the Popes saw with comparative indifference the
every human being what he was to believe, and growth of these religious communities ; they dreaded
to pursue with temporal and spiritual terrors every no harm from bodies apparently so insignificant ;
form of worship different from her own, till she and even entertained at times the thought of graft
had chased it out of the world . The first exeni- ing them on their own system as separate orders,
plification, on a great scale, of her office which or as resuscitating and purifying forces. With the
she gave mankind was the crusades. As the advent of Innocent III., however, came a new
professors of an impure creed , she pronounced policy. He perceived that the principles of these
sentence of extermination on the Saracens of the communities were wholly alien in their nature to
Holy Land ; she sent thither some millions of those of the Papacy, that they never could be made
crusaders to execute her ban ; and the lands, cities, to work in concert with it, and that if left to de
and wealth of the slaughtered infidels she bestowed velop themselves they would most surely effect its
upon her orthodox sons. If it was right to apply overthrow . Accordingly the cloud of exterminating
this principle to one pagan country, we do not see vengeance which rolled hither and thither in the
what should hinder Rome— unless indeed lack of skies of the world as he was pleased to command , he
power — sending her crossed missionaries to every ordered to halt, to return westward, and discharge
land where infidelity and heresy prevailed , emptying its chastisement on the south of Europe.
them of their evil creed and their evil inhabitants Let us take a glance at the region which this
together, and re-peopling them anew with a pure dreadful tempest is about to smite. The France of
lace from within her own orthodox pale . those days, instead of forming an entire monarchy,
PERSECUTING EDICTS OF COUNCILS. 39
was parted into four grand divisions. It is the of a great revolt against Rome appeared to be near.
most southerly of the four, or Narbonne-Gaul, to Surrounded by the fostering influences of art, in
which our attention is now to be turned. This was telligence, and liberty, primitive Christianity was
an ample and goodly territory, stretching from the here powerfully developing itself. It seemed verily
Dauphinese Alps on the east to the Pyrenees on that the thirteenth and not the sixteenth century
the south -west, and comprising the modern pro - would be the date of the Reformation , and that its
vinces of Dauphiné, Provence, Languedoc or Gas- cradle would be placed not in Germany but in the
cogne. It was watered throughout by the Rhone, south of France.
which descended upon it from the north, and it The penetrating and far-seeing eye of Innocent
was washed along its southern boundary by the III. saw all this very clearly. Not at the foot of
Mediterranean. Occupied by an intelligent popu - the Alps and the Pyrenees only did he detect a
lation, it had become under their skilful husbandry new life : in other countries of Europe, in Italy ,
one vast expanse of corn -land and vineyard, of fruit in Spain , in Flanders, in Hungary - wherever, in
and forest tree. To the riches of the soil were short, dispersion had driven the sectaries, he dis
added the wealth of commerce, in which the in - covered the same fermentation below the sur
habitants were tempted to engage by the proximity face, the same incipient revolt against the Papal
of the sea and the neighbourhood of the Italian power. He resolved without loss of time to grapple
republics. Above all, its people were addicted to with and crush the movement. He issued an edict
the pursuits of art and poetry . It was the land enjoining the extermination of all heretics. Cities
of the troubadour. It was farther embellished by would be drowned in blood, kingdoms would be
the numerous castles of a powerful nobility, who laid waste , art and civilisation would perish, and
spent their time in elegant festivities and gay the progress of the world would be rolled back for
tournaments. centuries ; but not otherwise could the movement
But better things than poetry and feats of be arrested, and Rome saved .
mimic war flourished here. The towns, formed A long series of persecuting edicts and canons
into communes , and placed under municipal insti- paved the way for these horrible butcheries. The
tutions, enjoyed no small measure of freedom . The Council of Toulouse, in 1119, presided over by Pope
lively and poetic genius of the people had enabled Calixtus II., pronounced a general excommunication
them to form a language of their own — namely, the upon all who held the sentiments of the Albigenses,
Provençal. In richness of vocables, softness of cast them out of the Church, delivered them to the
cadence, and picturesquenessof idiom , the Provençal sword of the State to be punished , and included in
excelled all the languages of Europe, and promised the same condemnation all who should afford them
to become the universal tongue of Christendom . defence or protection . This canon was renewed
Best of all, a pure Christianity was developing in in the second General Council of Lateran , 1139,
the region . It was here , on the banks of the under Innocent II. Each succeeding Council
Rhone, that Irenæus and the other early apostles strove to excel its predecessor in its sanguinary
of Gaul had laboured , and the seeds which their and pitiless spirit. The Council of Tours , 1163,
hands had deposited in its soil, watered by the under Alexander III., stripped the heretics of their
blood of martyrs who had fought in the first ranks goods, forbade, under peril of excommunication, any
in the terrible combats of those days, had never to relieve them , and left them to perish without
wholly perished. Influences of recent birth had succour. The third General Council of Lateran ,
helped to quicken these seeds into a second growth . 1 Hardouin , Concil. Avenion . (1209) , tom . vi., pars. 2,
Foremost among these was the translation of the col. 1986. This edict enjoins bishops, counts, governors of
New Testament into the Provençal, the earliest, as castles, and all men -at-arms to give their aid to enforce
we have shown, of all our modern versions of the spiritual censures against heretics . “ Si opus fuerit,"
continues the edict, " jurare compellat sicut illi de
Scriptures. The barons protected the people in Montepessulano juraverunt, præcipue circa exterminan
their evangelical sentiments , some because they dos hæreticos.”
shared their opinions, others because they found ?" Tanquam hæreticos ab ecclesia Dei pellimus et dam .
them to be industrious and skilful cultivators of namus : et per potestates exteras coërceri præcipimus,
their lands. A cordial welcomeawaited the trou defensores quoque ipsorum ejusdem damnationis vinculo
donec resipuerint, mancipamus." (Concilium Tolosanum
badour at their castle-gates ; he departed loaded - Hardouin , Acta Concil. et Epistola Decretales, tom . vi.,
with gifts : and he enjoyed the baron 's protection as pars. 2 , p . 1979 ; Parisiis, 1714.)
he passed on through the cities and villages, con - 3 Acta Concil., tom . vi., pars. 2, p. 1212.
4 Ubi cogniti fuerint illius hæresis sectatores, ne re
cealing, not unfrequently, the colporteur and mis - ceptaculum quisquam eis in terra sua præbere, aut præ
sionary under the guise of the songster. The hour sidium impertire præsumat. Sed nec in venditione aut
HISTOR
Y OF PROTESTANTISM .
40
1179, under Alexander III., enjoined princes to faithful transcripts, both in spirit and letter, of
make war upon them , to take their possessions for these ecclesiastical enactments. Meanwhile, we
a spoil, to reduce their persons to slavery, and to must note that it is out of the chair of the Pope
withhold from them Christian burial.' The fourth out of the dogma that the Church is mistress of the
General Council of Lateran bears the stern and conscience — that this river of blood is seen to flow .
comprehensive stamp of the man under whom it Three years was this storm in gathering. Its
was held . The Council commanded princes to take first heraldswere the monks of Citeaux, sentabroad
an oath to extirpate heretios from their dominions. by Innocent III. in 1206 to preach the crusade
Fearing that some, from motives of self-interest, throughout France and the adjoining kingdoms.
might hesitate to destroy the more industrious of There followed St. Dominic and his band, who
their subjects, the Council sought to quicken their travelled on foot, two and two, with full powers
obedience by appealing to their avarice. It made from the Pope to search out heretics , dispute with
over the heritages of the excommunicated to those them , and set a mark on those who were to
who should carry out the sentence pronounced be burned when opportunity should offer. In
upon them . Still further to stimulate to this pious this mission of inquisition we see the first begin
work , the Council rewarded a service of forty days nings of a tribunalwhich came afterwards to bear
in it with the same ample indulgences which had the terrible name of the “ Inquisition.” These gave
aforetime been bestowed on those who served in the themselves to the work with an ardour which had
distant and dangerous crusades of Syria . If any not been equalled since the times of Peter the
prince should still hold back , he was himself, after Hermit. The fiery orators of the Vatican but too
a year's grace, to be smitten with excommunication, easily succeeded in kindling the fanaticism of the
his vassals were to be loosed from their allegiance , masses. War was at all times the delight of the
and his lands given to whoever had the will or the peoples among whom this mission was discharged ;
power to seize them , after having first purged them but to engage in this war what dazzling tempta
of heresy. That this work of extirpation might tions were held out! The foes they were to march
be thoroughly done, the bishops were empowered to against were accursed of God and the Church. To
make an annual visitation of their dioceses, to insti- shed their blood was to wash away their own sins
tute a very close search for heretics, and to extract - it was to atone for all the vices and crimes of a
an oath from the leading inhabitants that they would lifetime. And then to think of the dwellings of the
delate to the ecclesiastics from time to time those Albigenses, replenished with elegances and stored
among their neighbours and acquaintances who had with wealth , and of their fields blooming with the
strayed from the faith. It is hardly necessary to richest cultivation , all to become the lawful spoil
say that it is Innocent III. who speaks in this of the crossed invader ! But this was only a first
Council. It was assembled in his palace of the instalment of a great and brilliant recompense in
Lateran in 1215 ; it was one of the most brilliant the future. They had the word of the Pope that
Councils that ever were convened , being composed at the moment of death they should find the angels
of 800 abbots and priors, 400 bishops, besides patri-
prepared to carry them aloft, the gates of Paradise
archs, deputies, and ambassadors from all nations. open for their entrance, and the crowns and de
It was opened by Innocent in person, with a dis - lights of the upper world waiting their choice.
course from the words, “ With desire have I desired The crusader of the previous century had to buy
to eat this passover with you .” forgiveness with a great sum : he had to cross the
We cannot pursue farther this series of terrific sea , to face the Saracen, to linger out years amid
edicts, which runs on till the end of the century unknown toils and perils, and to return — if he
and into the next. Each is like that which went should ever return — with broken health and ruined
before it, save only that it surpasses it in cruelty fortune. But now a campaign of forty days in one's
and terror. The fearful pillagings and massacrings own country , involving no hardship and very little
which instantly followed in the south of France, risk , was all that was demanded for one's eternal sal
and which were re -enacted in following centuries in vation. Never before had Paradise been so cheap !
all the countries of Christendom , were but too The preparations for this war of extermination
went on throughout the years 1207 and 1208.
emptione aliqua cum eis omnino commercium habeatur : Like the mutterings of the distant thunder or the
ut solatio saltem humanitatis amisso , ab errore viæ suæ hoarse roar of ocean when the tempe
resipiscere compellantur.” — Hardouin , Acta Concil., tom . the dreadful sounds filled Europe, and their echoes
vi., p . 1597.
1 Ibid ., can . 27 , De Hæreticis, p . 1684 . reached the doomed provinces, where they were
? Ibid ., tom . vii., can . 3, pp. 19 - 23. heard with terror. In the spring of 1209 these
CRUSADE AGAINST THE ALBIGENSES. -41
armed fanatics were ready to march . One body his territories. Stung by these humiliations and
had assembled at Lyons. Led by Arnold , Abbot of calamities, he again changed sides. But his resolu
Citeaux and legate of the Pope, it descended by tion to brave the Papal wrath came too late. He
the valley of the Rhone. A second army gathered was again smitten with interdict ; his possessions
in the Agenois under the Archbishop of Bordeaux. were given to Simon de Montfort, and in the end
A third horde of militant pilgrims marshalled in he saw himself reft of all."
the north , the subjects of Philip Augustus, and at Among the princes of the region now visited
their head marched the Bishop of Puy. The near with this devastating scourge, the next in rank and
neighbours of the Albigenses rose in a body, and influence to the Count of Toulouse was the young
swelled this already overgrown host The chief Raymond Roger, Viscount of Beziers. Every day
director of this sacred war was the Papal legate, the this horde of murderers drew nearer and nearer
Abbot of Citeaux. Its chief military commander to his territories. Submission would only invite
was Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, a French destruction. He hastened to put his kingdom into
nobleman , who had practised war and learned a posture of defence. His vassals were numerous
cruelty in the crusades of the Holy Land. In and valiant, their fortified castles covered the face
putting himself at the head of these crossed and of the country ; of his towns, two, Beziers and
fanaticised hordes he was influenced, it is believed, Carcassonne,were of great size and strength ,and he
quite as much by a covetous greed of the ample judged that in these circumstances it was not too
and rich territories of Raymond, Count of Toulouse, rash to hope to turn the brunt of the impending
as by hatred of the heresy that Raymond was sus- tempest. He called round him his armed knights,
pected of protecting. The number of crusaders and told them that his purpose was to fight : many
who now put themselves in motion is variously of them were Papists, as he himself was ; but he
estimated at from 50,000 to 500,000. The former pointed to the character of the hordes that were
is the reckoning of the Abbot of Vaux Cernay, the approaching, who made it their sole business to
Popish chronicler of the war ; but his calculation , drown the earth in blood, without much distinction
says Sismondi, does not include “ the ignorant and whether it was Catholic or Albigensian blood that
fanatical multitude which followed each preacher, they spilled. His knights applauded the resolution
armed with scythes and clubs, and promised to of their young and brave liege lord.
themselves that if they were not in a condition to The castles were garrisoned and provisioned, the
combat the knights of Languedoc, they might, at peasantry of the surrounding districts gathered
least, be able to murder the women and children into them , and the cities were provided against a
of the heretics." siege. Placing in Beziers a number of valiant
This overwhelming host precipitated itself upon knights, and telling the inhabitants that their
the estates of Raymond VI., Count of Toulouse. only hope of safety lay in making a stout defence,
Seeing the storm approach , he was seized with Raymond shut himself up in Carcassonne, and waited
dread , wrote submissive letters to Rome, and the approach of the army of crusaders. Onward
offered to accept whatever terms the Papal legate came the host : before them a smiling country, in
might please to dictate. As the price of his recon their rear a piteous picture of devastation - battered
ciliation, he had to deliver up to the Pope seven castles, the blackened walls and towers of silent
of his strongest towns, to appear at the door of the cities , homesteads in ashes, and a desert scathed
Church, where the dead body of the legate Castel- with fire and stained with blood .
neau , who had been murdered in his dominions. In the middle of July , 1209, the three bodies of
lay, and to be there beaten with rods.* Next, a crusaders arrived, and sat down under the walls
rope was put about his neck, and he was dragged of Beziers. The stoutest heart among its citizens
by the legate to the tomb of the friar, in the quailed , as they surveyed from the ramparts this
presence of several bishops and an immense multi- host that seemed to cover the face of the earth .
tude of spectators. After all this, he was obliged " So great was the assemblage," says the old
to take the cross, and join with those who were chronicle, “ both of tents and pavilions, that it
seizing and plundering his cities, massacring his appeared as if all the world was collected there."6
subjects, and carrying fire and sword throughout Astonished but not daunted, the men of Beziers
made a rush upon the pilgrims before they should
1 Sismondi, Hist. of Crusades, p. 28. have time to fortify their encampment. It was all
: Petri Vallis, Cern. Hist. Albigens., cap. 16, p. 571.
Sismondi, p . 30. 5 Hardouin , Concil. Lateran. iv., tom . vii., p. 79.
3 Sismondi, p . 29. 6 Historia de los Faicts d' Armas de Tolosa, pp. 9, 10 ;
• Hardouin , Concil. Montil., tom . vi., pars. 2, p. col.1980. quoted by Sismondi, p . 35 ,
in vain . The assault was repelled ,and thecrusaders, assassins.
mingling with the citizens
c r o w as
e n they t h hurried
h a n o
backf t
toh e
inch ur
a ch Th
trice. ei r de ad b o d i e s co
The wrotched citizens were slaughtered
Their dead bodies covered the floor
with them , and Beziers
d
the town in broken crowds,s, entered
was in s in their handtes along
t e their
they had even formed the planlegate,of attack.
e i r
the
hands
d
gatess along altar ; their blood
before
T h
The e
of
“ S
the
e
Seven
church ; they were piled
flowed in
in heaps round the
torrents
thousand dead bodies,"alone.
at the door.
says Sismondi,
knights inquired of the Papal the Abbot of “ were counted in the Magdalen
werecounter in theed andalentalonecome When the
Citeaux, how they might distinguish cut the Catholics crusaders had massacred the last living creature in
from the heretics. Arnold at once the knot Beziers, and had pillaged the houses of all that
which time did not suffice to loose by the following they thought worth carrying off, they set fire to
WO
H
WIT
Hibit
la di
BEBE
.
SE D LENS
24
-
enim
RUTERE 113
SER
LP
am
G EC
PODN
ST
ASI
WHERE
HAL
VIEW OF TOULOUSE.
reply, which has since become famous : “ Kill all ! the city in every part at once, and reduced it to a
killTheall !bloody
The Lord willnowknowbegan.
his own."} vast funeral pile. Not a house remained standing,
not theonenumber
work The ;ordinary humanofbeing alive.TheHistorians differ as
population of Beziers was some 15,000 at this tofeeling victims. Abbot of Citeaux,
moment it could not be less than four times its usual some shame for the butchery which he had
number, for being the capital of the province,and
a place of great strength, the inhabitants of the
ordered,
to 15 ,000in; others
his letter
maketoit Innocent
amount toIII.60,000."!
reduces it
country
into it. andThe the open villages
multitude, when had
they been
saw collected
that the inandThe terribleconverted
onesilentas
day fate which
into hada mound
overtaken
of Beziers
ruins dreary
city was taken, fled to the churches, and began to any on the plain of Chaldea — told the
toll soonerdrew
the the bells byuponway themselves
of supplication. Theyof butthe
the swords other towns and villages the destiny that awaited
de Languedoc, lib . xxi., cap. 57. p. 169.
Hist. Gen . Faicts
i Cæsar, Hiesterbachiensis, lib . v., cap. 21. In Bibliotheca Historia de los d'Armas de Tolosa, p . 10. Sismondi,
Patrum Cisterciensium , tom . ii., p . 139. Sismondi, p. 36 . p. 37.
SORTE
TE
al
BAN
uti
.
Pro
LEGO
NOK
See
-
EE
IS
HE
BE
LET
:TRIVIEWNHEOME
OFTHEISLAND
.TIBER
SM .
44 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTI
them . The inhabitants, terror-stricken , fled to tent. “ The latter," says Sismondi, “ profoundly
the woods and caves. Even the strong castles penetrated with the maxim of Innocent III., that
were left tenantless, their defenders deeming it to keep faith with those that have it not is an
vain to think of opposing so furious and over - offence against the faith ,' caused the young viscount
whelming a host. Pillaging, burning, and massa - to be arrested ,with all theknightswho had followed
cring as they had a mind, the crusaders advanced him .”
to Carcassonne, where they arrived on the 1st of When the garrison saw that their leader had
August. The city stood on the right bank of the been imprisoned, they resolved , along with the
Aude ; its fortifications were strong, its garrison inhabitants, to make their escape overnight by a
numerous and brave,and the young count, Raymond secret passage known only to themselves— a cavern
Roger, was at their head. The assailants advanced three leagues in length , extending from Carcassonne
to the walls, but met a stout resistance. The de- to the towers of Cabardes. The crusaders were as
fenders poured upon them streams of boiling water tonished on the morrow , when not a man could be
and oil, and crushed them with great stones and seen upon the walls ; and still more mortified was
projectiles. The attack was again and again re- the Papal legate to find that his prey had escaped
newed, but was as often repulsed. Meanwhile the him , for his purpose was to make a bonfire of the
forty days' service was drawing to an end, and city , with every man , woman , and child within it.
bands of crusaders, having fulfilled their term But if this greater revenge was now out of his
and earned heaven , were departing to their homes. reach , he did not disdain a smaller one still in
The Papal legate, seeing the host melting away, his power. He collected a body of some 450
judged it perfectly right to call wiles to the aid of persons, partly fugitives from Carcassonne whom
his arms. Holding out to Raymond Roger the he had captured , and partly the 300 knights
hope of an honourable capitulation , and swearing who had accompanied the viscount, and of these
to respect his liberty , Arnold induced the viscount, he burned 400 alive and the remaining 50 he
with 300 of his knights, to present himself at his hanged.'
CHAPTER X.
ERECTION OF TRIBUNAL OF INQUISITION .
The Crusades still continued in the Albigensian Territory - Council of Toulouse, 1229 — Organises the Inquisition
Condemns the Reading of the Bible in the Vernacular- Gregory IX ., 1233, further perfects the Organisation of the
Inquisition , and commits it to the Dominicans - The Crusades continued under the form of the Inquisition - These
Butcheries the deliberate Act of Rome- Revived and Sanctioned by her in our own day - Protestantism of
Thirteenth Century Crushed - Not alone - Final Ends.
The main object of the crusades was now accom - The twenty years that followed were devoted to the
plished. The principalities of Raymond VI., cruel work of rooting out any seeds of heresy that
Count of Toulouse , and Raymond Roger, Viscount might possibly yet remain in the soil. Every year
of Beziers, had been " purged ” and made over to a cloud of monks issued from the convents of
that faithful son of the Church, Simon de Montfort. Citeaux, and, taking possession of the pulpits ,
The lands of the Count of Foix were likewise over- preached a new crusade. For the same easy ser
run , and joined with the neighbouring provinces in vice they offered the same prodigious reward —
a common desolation . The Viscount of Narbonne Paradise — and the consequence was, that every
contrived to avoid a visit of the crusaders, butat year a new wave of fanatics gathered and rolled
the price of becoming himself the Grand Inquisi- toward the devoted provinces. The villages and
tor of his dominions, and purging them with laws the woods were searched , and some gleanings, left
even more rigorous than the Church demanded. from the harvests of previous years, were found
1 Histoire de Languedoc, lih . xxi., cap. 58, p. 169. Sismondi, History of the Crusades against the Albigenses,
Sismondi, p. 43. pp . 40 – 43,
ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE INQUISITION. 45
and made food for the gibbets and stakes that in quickened their diligence. A last will and testa
such dismal array covered the face of the country. ment was of no validity unless a priest had been
The first instigators of these terrible proceedings by when it was made. A physician suspected
Innocent III., Simon de Montfort, the Abbot of was forbidden to practise . All above the age of
Citeaux - soon passed from the scene, but the fourteen were required on oath to abjure heresy,
tragedies they had begun went on. In the lands and to aid in the search for heretics. As a fitting
which the Albigenses — now all but extinct— had appendage to those tyrannical acts, and a sure and
once peopled , and which they had so greatly en - lasting evidence of the real source whence that
riched by their industry and adorned by their art, thing called heresy, on the extirpation of which
blood never ceased to flow nor the flames to devour they were so intent, was derived , the same Council
their victims. condemned the reading of the Holy Scriptures.
It would be remote from the object of our history “ We prohibit,” says the fourteenth canon , “ the
to enter here into details, but we must dwell a laics from having the books of the Old and New
little on the events of 1229. This year a Council Testament, unless it be at most that any one wishes
was held at Toulouse , under the Papal legate , the to have, from devotion , a psalter, a breviary for the
Cardinal of St. Angelo. The foundation of the Divine offices , or the hours of the blessed Mary ;
Inquisition had already been laid . Innocent III. but we forbid them in the most express manner to
and St. Dominic share between them the merit of have the above books translated into the vulgar
this good work . In the year of the fourth Lateran, tongue.”
1215 , St. Dominic received the Pontiff's commission In 1233, Pope Gregory IX . issued a bull, by
to judge and deliver to punishment apostate and which he confided the working of the Inquisition
relapsed and obstinate heretics. This was the to the Dominicans. He appointed his legate, the
Inquisition , though lacking as yet its full organisa - Bishop of Tournay, to carry out the bull in the
tion and equipment. That St. Dominic died before way of completing the organisation of that tribunal
it was completed alters not the question touching which has since become the terror of Christendom ,
his connection with its authorship , though of late and which has caused to perish such a prodigious
a vindication of him has been attempted on this number of human beings. In discharge of his
ground, only by shifting the guilt to his Church commission the bishop named two Dominicans in
The fact remains that St. Dominic accompanied Toulouse, and two in each city of the province, to
the armies of Simon de Montfort, that he delivered form the Tribunal of the Faith ;' and soon, under
the Albigenses to the secular judge to be put to the warm patronage of Saint Louis (Louis IX .) of
death - in short, worked the Inquisition so far as France , this court was extended to the whole
it had received shape and form in his day. But kingdom . An instruction was at the same time
the Council of Toulouse still further perfected the furnished to the Inquisitors, in which the bishop
organisation and developed the working of this enumerated the errors of the heretics. The docu
terrible tribunal. It erected in every city a council ment bears undesigned testimony to the Scriptural
of Inquisitors consisting of one priest and three faith of the men whom the newly -erected court was
laymen ,' whose business it was to search for heretics meant to root out. “ In the exposition made by
in towns, houses, cellars, and other lurking-places, the Bishop of Tournay, of the errors of the Albi
as also in caves, woods, and fields, and to denounce genses,” says Sismondi, “ we find nearly all the
them to the bishops, lords, or their bailiffs. Once principles upon which Luther and Calvin founded
discovered, a summary but dreadful ordealconducted the Reformation of the sixteenth century.” 8
them to the stake. The houses of heretics were to If the crusades were now at an end as hitherto
be razed to their foundations, and the ground on waged , they were continued under the more dread
which they stood condemned and confiscated — for ful form of the Inquisition . Wesay more dreadful
heresy, like the leprosy, polluted the very stones, form , for not so terrible was the crusader's sword
and timber, and soil. Lords were held responsible as the Inquisitor's rack, and to die fighting in the
for the orthodoxy of their estates, and so far also open field or on the ramparts of the beleaguered
for those of their neighbours. If remiss in their
search , the sharp admonition of the Church soon 4 Concilium Tolosanum , cap. 1 , p . 428. Sismondi, 220.
5 Labbe, Concil. Tolosan ., tom . xi., p . 427. Fleury, Hist.
Eccles., lib. lxxix., n . 58 .
Concil. Lateran . IV., can. 8, De Inquisitionibus. 6 Percini, Historia Inquisit. Tholosana . Mosheim ,vol.i.,
Hardouin , tom . vii., col. 26 . p. 344 ; Glas. edit., 1831.
· Malvenda, ann. 1215 ; Alb. Butler,76 . Turner, Hist. ( 7 Hist. de Languedoc, lib. xxiv., cap. 87, p. 394 .
Eng., vol. v., p. 103 ; ed . 1830. Sismondi, 243.
3 Hardouin , Concilia , tom . vii., p. 175. 8 Hist.Of Crusades against the Albigenses, p. 243.
city, was a fate less horrible than to expire amid no need to wait for the coming of the lights of
prolonged and excruciating tortures in the dun- philosophy and science. Her sun is always in the
geons of the “ Holy Office .” The tempests of zenith. The thirteenth and the nineteenth century
the crusades, however terrible, had yet their in - are the same to her, for she is just as infalliblo in
termissions ; they burst, passed away, and left a the one as in the other.
breathing-space between their explosions. Not so So fell, smitten down by this terrible blow , to
the Inquisition. It worked on and on, day and rise no more in the same age and among the same
night, century after century , with a regularity that people, the Protestantism of the thirteenth century.
was appalling. With steady march it extended its It did not perish alone. All the regenerative
area, till at last it embraced almost all the countries forces of a social and intellectual kind which Pro
of Europe, and kept piling up its dead year by testantism even at that early stage had evoked
year in ever larger and ghastlier heaps. were rooted out along with it. Letters had begun
These awful tragedies were the sole and deliberate to refine, liberty to emancipate, art to beautify,
acts of the Church of Rome. She planned them in and commerce to enrich the region , but all were
solemn council, she enunciated them in dogma swept away by a vengeful power that was regard
and canon, and in executing them she claimed to less of what it destroyed , provided only it reached
act as the vicegerent of Heaven , who had power its end in the extirpation of Protestantism . How
to save or to destroy nations. Never can that changed the region from what it once was ! There
Church be in fairer circumstances than she was the song of the troubadour was heard no more. No
then for displaying her true genius, and showing more was the gallant knight seen riding forth to
what she holds to be her real rights. She was in display his prowess in the gay tournament; no more
the noon of her power ; she was free from all were the cheerful voices of the reaper and grape
coercion whether of force or of fear ; she could gatherer heard in the fields. The rich harvests
afford to be magnanimous and tolerant were it of the region were trodden into the dust, its fruit
possible she ever could be so ; yet the sword was ful vines and flourishing olive-trees were torn up ;
the only argument she condescended to employ. hamlet and city were swept away ; ruins, blood, and
She blew the trumpet of vengeance , summoned ashes covered the face of this now purified land.
to arms the half of Europe, and crushed the rising But Rome was not able , with all her violence, to
forces of reason and religion under an avalanche arrest the movement of the human mind. So far
of savage fanaticism . In our own day all these as it was religious, she but scattered the sparks to
horrible deeds have been reviewed , ratified, and break out on a wider area at a future day ; and
sanctioned by the same Church that six centuries so far as it was intellectual, she but forced it
ago enacted them : first in the Syllabus of 1864, into another channel. Instead of Albigensianism ,
which expressly vindicates the ground on which Scholasticism now arose in France , which, after
these crusades were done— namely, that the Church flourishing for some centuries in the schools of
of Rome possesses the supremacy of both powers, Paris, passed into the Sceptical Philosophy, and
the spiritual and the temporal ; that she has the that again , in our day, into Atheistic Communism .
right to employ both swords in the extirpation It will be curious if in the future the progeny
of heresy ; that in the exercise of this right in should cross the path of the parent.
the past she never exceeded by a hair's breadth It turned out that this enforced halt of three
her just prerogatives, and that what she has done centuries, after all, resulted only in the goal being
aforetime she may do in time to come, as often more quickly reached . While the movement
as occasion shall require and opportunity may paused , instrumentalities of prodigious power, un
serve. And , secondly , they have been indorsed known to that age, were being prepared to give
over again by the decree of Infallibility , which quicker transmission and wider diffusion to the
declares that the Popes who planned, ordered , Divine principle when next it should show itself.
and by their bishops and monks executed all these And, further, a more robust and capable stock than
crimes, were in these , as in all their other official the Romanesque — namely, the Teutonic — was si
acts, infallibly guided by inspiration. The plea lently growing up, destined to receive the heavenly
that it was the thirteenth century when these hor- graft, and to shoot forth on every side larger
rible butcheries were committed, every one sees to boughs, to cover Christendom with their shadow
be wholly inadmissible. An infallible Church has and solace it with their fruits.
THE DOGMA OF TRANSUBSTANTIATION .
CHAPTER XI.
PROTESTANTS BEFORE PROTESTANTISM .
Berengarius - The First Opponent of Transubstantiation - Numerous Councils Condemn him - His Recantation - The
Martyrs of Orleans - Their Confession - Their Condemnation and Martyrdom - Peter de Bruys and the Petro
brusians - Henry - Effects of his Eloquence - St. Bernard sent to Oppose him - Henry Apprehended - His Fate
unknown - Arnold of Brescia - Birth and Education - His Picture of his Times - His Scheme of Reform - Inveighs
against the Wealth of the Hierarchy-- His Popularity - Condemned by Innocent II. and Banished from Italy --
Returns on the Pope's Death - Labours Ten Years in Rome- Demands the Separation of the Temporal and
Spiritual Authority - Adrian IV .- He Suppresses the Movement- Arnold is Burned .
Ix pursuing to an end the history of the Albigensian Ambrose, of Augustine, and of Jerome. There
crusades, we have been carried somewhat beyond followed a succession of Councils : at Paris, 1050 ;
the point of time at which we had arrived . We at Tours, 1055 ; at Rome, 1059 ; at Rouen , 1063;
now return . A succession of lights which shine at Poictiers, 1075 ; and again at Rome, 1078 :
out at intervals amid the darkness of the ages at all of which the opinions of Berengarius were
guide our eye onward . In the middle of the discussed and condemned . This shows us how
eleventh century appears Berengarius of Tours in eager Rome was to establish the fiction of Pascha
France. He is the first public opponent of tran- sius, and the alarm she felt lest the adherents of
substantiation . A century had now passed since Berengarius should multiply, and her dogma be
the monk , Paschasius Radbertus, had hatched that extinguished before it had time to establish itself.
astounding dogma. In an age of knowledge such a Twice did Berengarius appear before the famous
tenet would have subjected its author to the sus Hildebrand : first in the Council of Tours , where
picion of lunacy, but in times of darkness like Hildebrand filled the post of Papal legate ; and
those in which this opinion first issued from the secondly at the Council of Rome, where he presided
convent of Corbei, the more mysterious the doc- as Gregory VII.
trine the more likely was it to find believers. The piety of Berengarius was admitted , his
The words of Scripture, “ this is my body," torn eloquence was great, but his courage was not equal
from their context and held up before the eyes to his genius and convictions. When brought face
of ignorant men, seemed to give some countenance to face with the stake he shrunk from the fire. A
to the tenet. Besides, it was the interest of the second and a third time did he recant his opinions ;
priesthood to believe it, and to make others believe he even sealed his recantation, according to Dupin ,
it too ; for the gift of working a prodigy like with his subscription and oath . But no sooner
this invested them with a superhuman power, and was he back again in France than he began pub
gave them immense reverence in the eyes of the lishing his old opinions anew . Numbers in all
people. The battle that Berengarius now opened the countries of Christendom , who had not accepted
enables us to judge of the wide extent which the the fiction of Paschasius, broke silence , emboldened
belief in transubstantiation had already acquired by the stand made by Berengarius, and declared
Everywhere in France , in Germany, in Italy, we themselves of the same sentiments. Matthew of
find a commotion arising on the appearance of Westminster (1087) says, “ that Berengarius of
its opponent. We see bishops bestirring them - Tours, being fallen into heresy, had already almost
selves to oppose his “ impious and sacrilegious” corrupted all the French, Italians, and English .” '
heresy, and numerous Councils convoked to con- His great opponent was Lanfranc, Archbishop of
demn it. The Council of Vercelli in 1049, under Canterbury, who attacked him not on the head
Leo IX ., which was attended by many foreign of transubstantiation only, but as guilty of all the
prelates, condenined it, and in doing so condemned heresies of the Waldenses, and as maintaining
also, as Berengarius maintained , the doctrine of with them that the Church remained with them
alone, and that Romewas “ the congregation of the
" John Duns Scotus had previously published his book -
attacking and refuting the then comparatively new and ? Dupin, Eccl. Hist., cent. 11. Concil., tom . X . ; edit.
strange idea of Paschasius, even that by the words of Lab ., p. 379 .
consecration the bread and wine in the Eucharist became 3 Dupin , Eccl. Hist., cent. 11, chap. i., p . 9.
the real and veritable flesh and blood of Christ. 4 Allis, p . 122.
METRO
W
ENSIAN
ALBIO
WORSHIPPERS
ON
BANKS
OF
RHONE
.THE
THE MARTYRS OF ORLEANS. 49
wicked,and the seat of Satan."1 Berengarius died by a feigned disciplenamed Arefaste. Craving to be
inweakness deep sorrow
, expressingwhich
his bed and(1088)dissimulation had for the notinstructed
tarnished with in thethings
the ear only, ofGod,he
but with seemed
the heart toalso,listenas
his testimony for the truth. “ His followers," says the two canonsdiscoursed to him of the corruption
trious." , “ were numerous, as his famewas
Mosheim illus- ofhuman nature and the renewal of the Spirit, of
We come to a nobler band. AtOrleans there the vanity of praying to the saints, and the folly
of thinking to find salvation in baptism , or the
UMO
HUBA
BA
HT
A
BIDEA
C
BE
SA
ALES
ALLA
AV
KA
AVENE
UNI
THE ORLEANS MARTYRS.
flourished, in the be- literal flesh of Christ
ginning of theeleventh in the Eucharist. His
century, two canons, earnestness seemed to
Stephen and Lesoie, become yet greater
WIDE .
distinguished by their when they promised

Bitlis
rank, revered for their him that if , forsaking

learning,
for theirandnumerous
beloved these
terns," “hebroken
would cis
come
ofthe Spirit and the Word, alms-givings.
these men Taughtin
cherished to theshouldSaviour
hebread havehimself,
living water to drink, and celestial
secret the faith of the first ages. They werebetrayed to eat, and, filled with “ the treasures of
1 Amongon other
mentary the works Berengarius
Apocalypse; this may published
perhaps a com -
explain bread and wine are only symbols :- " The true body of
Christ is set forth in the Supper ; but spiritual to the
his phraseology . inner man. The incorruptible, uncontaminated, and
. aMosheim
Indecisive , Eccl.
foot-note Hist., cent.
Mosheim 11, the
quotes part following
i ., chap. words
3, sec. 18.as indestructible body of Christ is to be spiritually eaten
of Berengarius'
isonly spiritually presentinsentiments, that Christ's
the Sacrament, and thatbody
the of(spiritualiter
Christ.” manducari]
(Berengarius'by Letter
those only who are members
to Almannus in Mar.
tene's Thesaur., tom . ii., p. 109.)
ANTISM
50 HISTORY OF PROTEST .
wisdom and knowledge," would never know want kindled to consume them . They entered the flames
again . Arefaste heard these things, and returned with a smile upon their faces. Together this little
with his report to those who had sent him . A company of fourteen stood at the stake, and when
Council of the bishops of Orleans was immediately the fire had set them free, together they mounted
summoned , presided over by King Robert of France. into the sky ; and if they smiled when they entered
The two canons were brought before it. The pre the flames, how much more when they passed in at
tended disciple now became the accuser. The the eternal gates ! They were burned in the year
canons confessed boldly the truth which they had 1022. So far as the light of history serves us,
longheld ; the arguments and threats of the Council theirs were the first stakes planted in France since
were alike powerless to change their belief, or to the era of primitive persecutions. Illustrious
shake their resolution . “ As to the burning pioneers ! They go, but they leave their inefface
threatened ,” says one, “ they made light of it even able traces on the road, that the hundreds and
as if persuaded that they would come out of it thousands of their countrymen who are to follow
unhurt.” ? Wearied, it would seem , with the futile may not faint, when called to pass through the
reasonings of their enemies, and desirous of bring- same torments to the same everlasting joys.
ing the matter to an issue, they gave their final We next mention Peter de Bruys, who appeared
answer thus — “ You may say these things to those in the following century (the twelfth ), because it
whose taste is earthly, and who believe the figments enables us to indicate the rise of, and explain the
of men written on parchment. But to us who name borne by, the Petrobrussians. Their founder,
have the law written on the inner man by the who laboured in the provinces of Dauphiné, Pro
Holy Spirit, and savour nothing but what we vence, and Languedoc, taught no novelties of
learn from God, the Creator of all, ye speak doctrine ; he trod, touching the faith , in the steps
things vain and unworthy of the Deity . Put of apostolic men , even as Felix Neff, five centuries
therefore an end to your words ! Do with us even later , followed in his . After twenty years of mis
as you wish . Even now we see our King reigning sionary labours, Peter de Bruys was seized and
in the heavenly places, who with his right hand is burned to death (1126 )8 in the town of St. Giles,
conducting us to immortal triumphs and heavenly near Toulouse. The leading tenets professed by
joys." 3 his followers, the Petrobrussians, as we learn from
They were condemned as Manicheans. Had the accusations of their enemies, were — that bap
they been so indeed, Rome would have visited them tism avails not without faith ; that Christ is only
with contempt, not with persecution. She was too spiritually present in the Sacrament ; that prayers
wise to pursue with fire and sword a thing so and alms profit not dead men ; that purgatory is a
shadowy as Manicheism , which she knew could do mere invention ; and that the Church is not made
her no manner of harm . The power that confronted up of cemented stones, but of believingmen. This
her in these two canons and their disciples came identifies them , in their religious creed , with the
from another sphere, hence the rage with which Waldenses ; and if further evidence were wanted of
she assailed it. These two martyrs were not alone this, we have it in the treatise which Peter de
in their death. Of the citizens of Orleans there Clugny published against them , in which he accuses
were ten,* some say twelve, who shared their faith, them of having fallen into those errors which have
and who were willing to share their stake. They
were first stripped of their clerical vestments, then
buffeted like their Master, then smitten with rods ; 6 “ Ridentes in medio ignis ." (Hard ., Acta Concil., tom .
vi., p . 822.)
the queen , who was present, setting the example 7 Gibbon has mistakenly recorded their martyrdom
in these acts of violence by striking one of them , as that of Manicheans. Of the trial and deaths of these
and putting out his eye. Finally, they were led martyrs, four contemporaneous accounts have comedown
to us. In addition to the one referred to above, there is
outside the city , where a great fire had been the biographical relation of Arefaste, their betrayer, &
knight of Rouen ; there is the chronicle of Ademar, a
I Dupin , Eccles. Hist., cent. 11, chap . 13. monk of St. Martial,who lived at the timeof the Council ;
• Rodulphus Glaber, a monk of Dijon , who wrote a and there is the narrative of John, a monk of Fleury ,
history of the occurrence . near Orleans, written probably within a few weeks of
3 “ Jam Regem nostrum in coelestibus regnantem vide- the transaction . Accounts, taken from these original
mus; quiad immortales triumphos dextrâ guâ nos suble documents, are given in Baronius' Annals (tom . xi., col.
vat, dans suporna gaudia.” (Chartulary of St. Pierre en 60, 61 ; Colon . ed .) and Hardouin' s Councils .
Vallée at Chartres.) & Mosheim says 1130. Bossuet, Faber, and others have
4 Hard., Acta Concil., tom . vi., p. 822. assigned to Peter de Bruys a Paulician or Eastern origin .
5 Mosheim , Eccles. Hist., vol. i., p. 270. Dupin , Eccles. We are inclined to connect him with the Western or
Hist., cent. 11, chap. 13. Waldensian confessors.
ARNOLD OF BRESCIA . 51
shown such an inveterate tendency to spring up amid seized, carried before Pope Eugenius III., who pre
the perpetual snows and icy torrents of the Alps. sided at a Council then assembled at Rheims, con
When Peter de Bruys had finished his course he demned and imprisoned. From that time we hear
was succeeded by a preacher of the name of Henri, no more of him ,and his fate can only be guessed at.*
an Italian by birth, who also gave his name to his It pleased God to raise up, in the middle of the
followers — the Henricians. Henri, who enjoyed a twelfth century, a yet more famous champion to do
high repute for sanctity, wielded a most command- battle for the truth . This was Arnold of Brescia ,
ing eloquence . The enchantment of his voice was whose stormy but brilliant career we must briefly
enough, said his enemies, a little envious, to melt sketch. His scheme of reform was bolder and
the very stones. It performed what may perhaps more comprehensive than that of any who had
be accounted a still greater feat ; it brought, accord- preceded him . His pioneers had called for a puri
ing to an eye-witness, the very priests to his feet, fication of the faith of the Church, Arnold demanded
dissolved in tears . Beginning at Lausanne, Henri a rectification of her constitution. Hewas a simple
traversed the south of France, the entire population reader in the Church of his native town, and pos
gathering round him wherever he came, and listen - sessed no advantages of birth ; but, fired with the
ing to his sermons. “ His orations were powerful love of learning, he travelled into France that he
but noxious,” said his foes, “ as if a whole legion might sit at the feet of Abelard , whose fame was
of demons had been speaking through his mouth .” then filling Christendom . Admitted a pupil of the
St. Bernard was sent to check the spiritual pesti- great scholastic, he drank in the wisdom he im
lence that was desolating the region ,and he arrived parted without imbibing along with it his mysticism .
not a moment too soon, if we may judge from his The scholar in some respects was greater than the
picture of the state of things which he found master, and was destined to leave traces more
there. The orator was carrying all before him ; lasting behind him . In subtlety of genius and
nor need we wonder if, as his enemies alleged , scholastic lore he made no pretensions to rival
a legion of preachers spoke in this one. The Abelard ; but in a burning eloquence, in practical
churches were emptied , the priests were without piety , in resoluteness, and in entire devotion to the
flocks, and the time-honoured and edifying customs great cause of the emancipation of his fellow -men
of pilgrimages, of fasts, of invocations of the saints, from a tyranny that was oppressing both their
and oblations for the dead were all neglected. minds and bodies, he far excelled him .
“ How many disorders," says St. Bernard, writing From the school of Abelard , Arnold returned to
to the Count of Toulouse, “ do we every day hear Italy — not, as one might have feared , a mystic, to
that Henri commits in the Church of God ! That spend his life in scholastic hair-splittingsand wordy
ravenous wolf is within your dominions, clothed conflicts, but to wage an arduous and hazardous
with a sheep's skin , butwe know him by his works. war for great and much-needed reforms. One
The churches are like synagogues, the sanctuary cannot but wish that the times had been more
despoiled of its holiness ,the Sacraments looked upon propitious. A frightful confusion he saw had
as profane institutions, the feast days have lost their mingled in one anomalous system the spiritual and
solemnity, men grow up in sin , and every day souls the temporal. The clergy, from their head down
are borneaway before the terrible tribunal of Christ wards, were engrossed in secularities . They filled
without first being reconciled to and fortified by the the offices of State , they presided in the cabinets of
Holy Communion. In refusing Christians baptism princes, they led armies, they imposed taxes, they
they are denied the life of Jesus Christ.” . owned lordly domains, they were attended by
Such was the condition in which , as he himself sumptuous retinues, and they sat at luxurious
records in his letters, St. Bernard found the popu - tables. Here, said Arnold, is the source of a thou
lations in the south of France. He set to work , sand evils — the Church is drowned in riches ; from
stemmed the tide of apostacy, and brought back this immense wealth flow the corruption , the profli
the wanderers from the Roman fold ; but whether gacy, the ignorance, the wickedness, the intrigues,
this result was solely owing to the eloquence of his the wars and bloodshed which have overwhelmed
sermons may be fairly questioned , for we find the Church and State , and are ruining the world .
civil arm operating along with him . Henri was A century earlier, Cardinal Damiani had congra
tulated the clergy of primitive times on the simple
Peter de Clugny's accountof them will be found in lives which they led , contrasting their happier lot
Bibliotheca P . Max . xxii., pp . 1034, 1035.
? Baron ., Annal., ann . 1147, tom . xii., col. 350, 351 3 Baron ., Annal., ann . 1148, tom . xii., col. 356 .
Dupin , Eccles. Hist., cent. 12, chap . 4. 4 Mosheim , cent. 12 , part ii., chap . 5, sec. 8 .
with that of the prelates of those latter ages, who welcome, even to those who were not prepared to
had to endure dignities which would have been sympathise in the more exclusively spiritual views
but little to the taste of their first predecessors. of the Waldenses and Albigenses. The suddenness
“ What would the bishops of old have done,” he and boldness of the assault seem to have stunned
asked, concurring by anticipation in the censure of the ecclesiastical authorities ; and it was not till the
the eloquent Brescian, “ had they to endure the Bishop of Brescia found his entire flock , deserting
torments that now attend the episcopate ? To ride the cathedral, were assembling daily in the market
forth constantly attended by troops of soldiers, place, crowding round the eloquent preacher, and
with swords and lances ; to be girt about by armed listening with applause to his fierce philippics, that
men like a heathen general ! Not amid the gentle he bestirred himself to silence the courageous monk .
music of hymns, but the din and clash of arms! Arnold kept his course, however, and continued
Every day royal banquets, every day parade ! The to launch his bolts, not against his diocesan , for to
table loaded with delicacies, not for the poor, but strike at one mitre was not worth his while, but
for voluptuous guests ! while the poor, to whom against that lordly hierarchy which , finding its
the property of right belongs, are shut out, and centre on the Seven Hills, had stretched its cir
pine away with famine.” cumference to the extremities of Christendom .
Arnold based his scheme of reform on a great Hedemanded nothing less than that this hierarchy,
principle. The Church of Christ, said he, is not which had crowned itself with temporal dignities,
of this world. This shows us that he had sat and which sustained itself by temporal arms,
at the feet of a greater than Abelard, and had should retrace its steps, and become the lowly and
drawn his knowledge from diviner fountains than purely spiritual institute it had been in the first
those of the scholastic philosophy. The Church of century. It was not very likely to do so at the
Christ is not of this world ; therefore, said Arnold , bidding of one man, however eloquent, but Arnold
its ministers ought not to fill temporal offices, and hoped to rouse the populations of Italy, and to
discharge temporal employments. Let these be bring such a pressure to bear upon the Vatican as
left to the men whose duty it is to see to them , would compel the chiefs of the Church to institute
even kings and statesmen . Nor do the ministers this most necessary and most just reform . Nor
of Christ need , in order to the discharge of their was he without the countenance of some persons
spiritual functions, the enormous revenues which of consequence. Maifredus, the Consul of Brescia ,
are continually flowing into their coffers. Let all at the first supported his movement.S
this wealth , those lands, palaces, and hoards, be The bishop, deeming it hopeless to contend
surrendered to the rulers of the State , and let the against Arnold on the spot, in the midst of his
ministers of religion henceforward be maintained numerous followers , complained of him to the
by the frugal yet competent provision of the tithes , Pope. Innocent II. convoked a General Council in
and the voluntary offerings of their flocks. Set free the Vatican , and summoned Arnold to Rome. The
from occupations which consumetheir time, degrade summons was obeyed . The crime of the monk was
their office, and corrupt their heart, the clergy will of all others the most heinous in the eyes of the
lead their flocks to the pastures of the Gospel, and hierarchy. He had attacked the authority, riches,
knowledge and piety will again revisit the earth. and pleasures of the priesthood ; but other pretexts
Attired in his monk 's cloak , his countenance must be found on which to condemn him . “ Be
stamped with courage, but already wearing traces sides this , it was said of him that he was unsound
of care, Arnold took his stand in the streets in his judgment about the Sacrament of the altar
of his native Brescia, and began to thunder and infant baptism .” “ We find that St. Bernard
forth his scheme of reform . His townsmen sending to Pope Innocent II. a catalogue of the
gathered round him . For spiritual Christianity errors of Abelardus," whose scholar Arnold had
the men of that age had little value, still been, “ accuseth him of teaching, concerning the
Arnold had touched a chord in their hearts, to Eucharist, that the accidents existed in the air, but
which they were able to respond. The pomp, not without a subject ; and that when a rat doth
profligacy, and power of Churchmen had scan - eat the Sacrament, God withdraweth whither he
dalised all classes, and made a reformation so far pleaseth, and preserves where he pleases the body
of Jesus Christ.” . The sum of this is that Arnold
1 Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. xii., p. 264.
· The original picture of Arnold is by an opponent - 3 Otho Frisingensis, quoted by Allix, p. 171.
Otho, Bishop of Frisingen (Chron . de Gestibus, Frederici I., 4 Allix, pp . 171, 174. See also summary of St. Ber.
lib. i., cap. 27, and lib. ii., cap. 21). pard' s letters in Dupin , cent. 12, chap . 4 .
ARNOLD IN ROME. 53
rejected transubstantiation, and did not believe in patriots of classic ages, the sufferings of the first
baptismal regeneration ; and on these grounds the Christian martyrs, and the humble and holy lives
Council found it convenient to rest their sentence, of the first Christian bishops. Might it not be
condemning him to perpetual silence. possible to bring back these glorious times ? He
Arnold now retired from Italy , and, passing the called on the Romans to arise and unite with him
Alps, “ he settled himself,” Otho tells us, “ in a in an attempt to do so . Let us drive out the
place of Germany called Turego, or Zurich, belong- buyers and sellers who have entered the Temple,
ing to the diocese of Constance, where he continued let us separate between the spiritual and the
to disseminate his doctrine," the seeds of which, it temporal jurisdiction, let us give to the Pope the
may be presumed, continued to vegetate until the things of the Pope, the government of the Church
times of Zuinglius. even , and let us give to the emperor the things
Hearing that Innocent II. was dead , Arnold re- of the emperor - namely, the government of the
turned to Rome in the beginning of the Pontificate State ; let us relieve the clergy from the wealth
of Eugenius III. (1144 — 45). One feels surprise, that burdens them , and the dignities that disfigure
bordering on astonishment, to see a man with them , and with the simplicity and virtue of former
the condemnation of a Pope and Council resting times will return the lofty characters and the
on his head , deliberately marching in at the gates heroic deeds that gave to those times their renown.
of Rome, and throwing down the gage of battle Rome will become once more the capital of the
to the Vatican — " the desperate measure,” as world . “ He propounded to the multitude," says
och ner his
Gibbon calls it, “ of erecting his standard
standard inin Bishop Otho, “ the examples of the ancient Romans,
Rome itself, in the face of the successor of St. who by the maturity of their senators' counsels, and
Peter.” But the action was not so desperate as the value and integrity of their youth , made the
it looks. The Italy of those days was perhaps whole world their own. Wherefore he persuaded
the least Papal of all the countries of Europe. them to rebuild the Capitol, to restore the dignity of
“ The Italians," says M 'Crie, “ could not, indeed , the senate, to reform the order of knights. He main
be said to feel at this period ” (the fifteenth cen - tained that nothing of the government of the city
tury , but the remark is equally applicable to the did belong to the Pope, who ought to content himself
twelfth ) “ a superstitious devotion to the See of only with his ecclesiastical.” Thus did the monk of
Rome. This did not originally form a discrimi- Brescia raise the cry for separation of the spiritual
nating feature of their national character ; it was from the temporal at the very foot of the Vatican.
superinduced , and the formation of it can be dis- For about ten years (1145 – 55 ) Arnold con
tinctly traced to causes,which produced their full tinued to prosecute his mission in Rome. The
effect subsequently to the era of the Reformation . city all that time may be said to have been in
The republics of Italy in the Middle Ages gave a state of insurrection. The Pontifical chair was
many proofs of religious independence, and singly repeatedly emptied . The Popes of that era were
braved the menaces and excommunications of the short-lived ; their reigns were full of tumult, and
Vatican at a time when all Europe trembled at the their lives of care . Seldom did they reside at
sound of its thunder."? In truth , nowhere was Rome; more frequently they lived at Viterbo, or
sedition and tumult more common than at the retired to a foreign country ; and when they did
gates of the Vatican ; in no city did rebellion so venture within the walls of their capital, they en
often break out as in Rome, and no rulers were so trusted the safety of their persons rather to the
frequently chased ignominiously from their capital gates and bars of their stronghold of St. Angelo
as the Popes. than to the loyalty of their subjects. The influence
Arnold , in fact, found Rome on entering it in of Arnold meanwhile was great, his party numerous,
revolt. He strove to direct the agitation into a and had there been virtue enough among the Romans
wholesome channel. He essayed , if it were possible, they might during these ten favourable years,when
to revive from its ashes the flame of ancient liberty, Romewas, so to speak , in their hands, have founded
and to restore, by cleansing it from its many cor- a movement which would have had important re
ruptions, the bright form of primitive Christianity . sults for the cause of liberty and the Gospel. But
With an eloquence worthy of the times he spoke Arnold strove in vain to recall a spirit that was fled
of, he dwelt on the achievements of the heroes and for centuries. Rome was a sepulchre. Her citizens
could be stirred into tumult, not awakened into life.
1 Gibbon, Hist., vol. xii., p. 266 . The opportunity passed. And then cameAdrian
: M 'Crie , Progress and Suppression of the Reformation IV ., Nicholas Breakspear, the only Englishman
in Italy, p . 41 ; 2nd edit., 1833. who ever ascended the throne of the Vatican.
Adrian addressed himself with vigour to quell the theless, seven centuries afterwards, to receive the
tempests which for ten years had warred around the favourable and all but unanimous verdict of
Papal chair. Hesmote the Romanswith interdict. Europe. Every succeeding Reformer and patriot
They were vanquished by the ghostly terror. They took up his cry for a separation between the
banished Arnold , and the portals of the churches , spiritual and temporal, seeing in the union of the
to them the gates of heaven , were re-opened to the two in the Roman princedom one cause of the cor
penitent citizens. But the exile of Arnold did not ruption and tyranny which afflicted both Church
suffice to appease the anger of Adrian. The Pontiff

bargained with Frederic Barbarossa, who was then
soliciting from the Pope coronation as emperor,
that the monk should be given up. Arnold was
seized, sent to Rome under a strong escort, and
burned alive. We are able to infer that his fol
lowers in Rome were numerous to the last, from BRESCIA
the reason given for the order to throw his ashes
into the Tiber, “ to prevent the foolish rabble from
expressing any veneration for his body." 1 and State. Wicliffe made this demand in the four
Arnold had been burned to ashes, but the teenth century ; Savonarola in the fifteenth ; and
movement he had inaugurated was not extin the Reformers in the sixteenth . Political men
guished by his martyrdom . The men of his times inclaimedthe following centuries reiterated and pro
, with ever-growing emphasis, the doctrine
had condemned his cause ; it was destined , never of Arnold . At last, on the 20th of September,
1 Allix , p . 172. We find St. Bernard writing letters to 1870, it obtained its crowning victory. On that
the Bishop of Constance and the Papal legate, urging the day the Italians entered Rome, the temporal sove
day
persecution of Arnold . (See Dupin , Life of St. Bernard , reignty of the Pope came to an end, the sceptre
cent. 12 , chap .4.) Mosheim has touched the history of was disjoined from the mitre, and the movement
Arnold of Brescia, but not with discriminating judg .
ment, nor sympathetic spirit. This remark applies to his celebrated its triumph on the same spot where
accounts of all these early confessors. its first champion had been burned.
LAN ENA
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ARNOLD
CHAPTER XII.
ABELARD, AND RISE OF MODERN SCEPTICISM .
Number and Variety of Sects - One Faith - Who gave us the Bible ? - Abelard of Paris - His Fame - Father of Modern
Scepticism - The Parting of the Ways--Since Abelard three currents in Christendom - The Evangelical, the
Ultramontane, the Sceptical.
One is apt, from a cursory survey of the Christen - and to build herself up by the enlightening and
dom of those days, to conceive of it as speckled renewing of souls, and to give to herself outward
with an almost endless variety of opinions and visibility and form by her ordinances, institutions,
doctrines, and dotted all over with numerous and and assemblies, that as a universal spiritual empire
diverse religious sects. We read of the Waldenses she might subjugate all nations to the obedience of
on the south of the Alps, and the Albigenses on the evangelical law and the practice of evangelical
the north of these mountains. We are told of the virtue.
Petrobrussians appearing in this year, and the It is idle in Rome to say, “ I gave you the
Henricians rising in that. We see a company Bible, and therefore you must believe in me before
of Manicheans burned in one city , and a body of you can believe in it.” The facts we have already
Paulicians martyred in another. We find the narrated conclusively dispose of this claim . Rome
Peterini planting themselves in this province, and did not give us the Bible — she did all in her power
the Cathari spreading themselves over that other. to keep it from us ; she retained it under the seal
We figure to ourselves as many conflicting creeds of a dead language ; and when others broke that
as there are rival standards ; and we are on the seal, and threw open its pages to all, she stood
point, perhaps, of bewailing this supposed diver - over the book , and , unsheathing her fiery sword ,
sity of opinion as a consequence of breaking loose would permit none to read the message of life,
from the “ centre of unity ” in Rome. Some even save at the peril of eternal anathema.
of our religious historians seem haunted by the We owe the Bible — that is, the transmission of
idea that each one of these many bodies is repre- it — to those persecuted communities which we
sentative of a different dogma, and that dogma an have so rapidly passed in review . They received
error. The impression is a natural one, we own, it from the primitive Church , and carried it down
but it is entirely erroneous. In this diversity to us. They translated it into the mother tongues
there was a grand unity. It was substantially of the nations. They colported it over Christen
the same creed that was professed by all these dom , singing it in their lays as troubadours, preach
bodies. They were all agreed in drawing their ing it in their sermons as missionaries, and living
theology from the same Divine fountain . The it out as Christians. They fought the battle of
Bible was their one infallible rule and authority . the Word of God against tradition, which sought
Its cardinal doctrines they embodied in their creed to bury it. They sealed their testimony for it at
and exemplified in their lives. the stake. But for them , so far as human agency
Individuals doubtless there were among them of is concerned, the Bible would , ere this day, have
erroneous belief and of immoral character. It is disappeared from the world . Their care to keep
of the general body that we speak. That body, this torch burning is one of the marks which
though dispersed over many kingdoms, and known indubitably certify them as forming part of that
by various names, found a common centre in the one true Catholic Church , which God called into
“ one Lord ," and a common bond in the “ one existence at first by his Word, and which , by the
faith .” Through one Mediator did they all offer same instrumentality, he has, in the conversion of
their worship , and on one foundation did they all souls, perpetuated from age to age.
rest for forgiveness and the life eternal. They But although under great variety of names there
were in short the Church — the one Church doing is found substantial identity of doctrine among
over again what she did in the first ages. Over these numerous bodies, it is clear that a host of
whelmed by a second irruption of Paganism , renew , contradictory, and most heterogeneous opinions
inforced by a flood of Gothic superstitions, she was began to spring up in the age we speak of. The
essaying to lay her foundations anew in the truth, opponents of the Albigenses and the Waldenses
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 57
more especially Alanus, in his little book against ing ages. But that he did sow the seeds which
heretics ; and Reynerius, the opponent of the future labourers took pains to cultivate, cannot be
Waldenses - have massed together all these dis- doubted by those who weigh carefully his teach
cordant sentiments, and charged them upon the ings on the head of the Trinity, of the person of
evangelical communities. Their controversial trac- Christ, of the power of the human will, of the
tates, in which they enumerate and confute the doctrine of sin , and other subjects.
errors of the sectaries, have this value even , that And these seeds he sowed widely. He was a
they present a picture of their times, and show man of vast erudition, keen wit, and elegant rhe
us the mental fermentation that began to cha- toric, and the novelty of his views and the fame
racterise the age. But are we to infer that the of his genius attracted crowds of students from
Albigenses and their allies held all the opinions all countries to his lectures. Dazzled by the elo
which their enemies impute to them ? that they at quence of their teacher, and completely captivated
one and the same time believed that God did and by the originality and subtlety of his daring genius,
did not exist ; that the world had been created, these scholars carried back to their homes the
and yet that it had existed from eternity ; that views of Abelard, and diffused them , from England
an atonement had been made for the sin of man by on the one side to Sicily on the other. Had Rome
Christ, and yet that the cross was a fable ; that possessed the infallibility she boasts, she would
the joys of Paradise were reserved for the righteous, have foreseen to what this would grow , and pro
and yet that there was neither soul nor spirit, hell vided an effectual remedy before the movement had
nor heaven ? No. This were to impute to them gone beyond control.
an impossible creed. Did these philosophical and She did indeed divine, to some extent, the true
sceptical opinions, then, exist only in the imagina- character of the principles which the renowned
tions of their accusers ? No. What manifestly but unfortunate teacher was so freely scattering
we are to infer is that outside the Albigensian on the opening mind of Christendom . She as
and evangelical pale there was a large growth sembled a Council, and condemned them as erro
of sceptical and atheistical sentiment, more or neous. But Abelard went on as before, the
less developed , and that the superstition and greaterin Ho evalo s
laurel round his brow , the thorn at his breast ,
tyranny of the Church of Rome had even then, in es . n to ld , he
propounding to yet greater crowds of scholars his
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, impelled peculiar opinions and doctrines . Rome has always
the rising intellect of Christendom into a channel been more lenient to sceptical than to evangelical
dangerous at once to her own power and to the views. And thus, whilst she burned Arnold , she
existence of Christianity. Her champions, partly permitted Abelard to die a monk and canon in
from lack of discrimination, partly from a desire her communion .
to paint in odious colours those whom they denomi- But here, in the twelfth century, at the chair of
nated heretics ,mingled in one the doctrines drawn Abelard , we stand at the parting of the ways.
from Scripture and the speculations and impieties From this time we find three great parties and
of an infidel philosophy, and , compounding them three great schools of thought in Europe. First,
into one creed, laid the monstrous thing at the door there is the Protestant, in which we behold
of the Albigenses, just as in our own day we have the Divine principle struggling to disentangle it
seen Popes and Popish writers include in the same self from Pagan and Gothic corruptions. Secondly ,
category, and confound in the same condemnation , there is the Superstitious, which had now come to
the professors of Protestantism and the disciples of make all doctrine to consist in a belief of “ the
Pantheism . Church 's" inspiration , and all duty in an obedience
From the twelfth century and the times of Peter to her authority. And thirdly , there is the Intellec
Abelard, we can discover three currents of thought tual, which was just the reason of man endeavouring
in Christendom . Peter Abelard was the first and to shake off the trammels of Roman authority , and
in some respects the greatest of modern sceptics.
He was the first person in Christendom to attack P . Bayle , Dictionary, Historical and Critical, vol. i.,
publicly the doctrine of the Church of Rome from arts. Abelard , Berenger, Amboise ; 2nd edit., Lond., 1734.
See also Dupin , Eccl. Hist., cent. 12, chap. 4 , Life of
the side of free-thinking. His scepticism was not Bernard. As also Mosheim , Eccl. Hist., cent. 12 , chap . 2,
the avowed and fully-formed infidelity of later secs. 18, 22 ; chap . 3, secs. 6 – 12 .
times : he but sowed the seeds ; he but started the ? The moralweakness that is the frequent accompani.
mind of Europe— then just beginning to awake ment of philosophic scepticism has very often been re
marked . The case of Abelard was no exception . What
on the path of doubt and of philosophic scepticism , a melancholy interest invests his story, as related by
leaving the movement to gather way in the follow - Bayle !
go forth and expatiate in the fields of free inquiry. Nevertheless, this movement, of which Peter Abe
It did right to assert this freedom , but, unhap- lard was the pioneer, went on deepening and
pily, it altogether ignored the existence of the widening its current century after century, till at
spiritual faculty in man , by which the things of last it grew to be strong enough to change the face
the spiritual world are to be apprehended, and by of kingdoms, and to threaten not only the existence
which the intellect itself has often to be controlled of the Roman Church ,' but of Christianity itself.
Book Second.
WICLIFFE AND HIS TIMES, OR ADVENT OF PROTESTANTISM .
CHAPTER I.
WICLIFFE : HIS BIRTH AND EDUCATION.
The Principle and the Rite - Rapid Growth of the One - Slow Progress and ultimate Triumph of the Other
England - Wicliffe - His Birthplace - His Education Goes to Oxford - Enters Merton College - Its Fame - The
Evangelical Bradwardine- His Renown - Pioneers theWay for Wicliffe - The Philosophy of those Days - Wicliffe's
Eminence as a Scholastic - Studies also the Canon and Civil Laws - His Conversion - Theological Studies
The Black Death - Ravages Greece, Italy, & c. - Enters England - Its awful Desolations - Its Impression on
Wicliffe - Stands Face to Face with Eternal Death - Taught not to Fear the Death of the Body.
With the revolving centuries we behold the world have abandoned the field to its antagonist. Not so ,
slowly emerging into the light. The fifth century however. If it had hidden itself from the eyes of
brought with it a signal blessing to Christianity men, it was that it might build up from the very
in the guise of a disaster. Like a tree that was foundation, piling truth upon truth , and prepare
growing too rapidly , it was cut down to its roots in silence those mighty spiritual forces by which it
that it might escape a luxuriance which would have was in due time to emancipate the world . Its
been its ruin . From a Principle that has its seat progress was consequently less marked , but was far
in the heart, and the fruit of which is an en - more real than that of its antagonist. Every error
lightened understanding and a holy life, Religion, which the one pressed into its service was a cause
under the corrupting influences of power and riches, of weakness ; every truth which the other added
was being transformed into a Rite, which , having to its creed was a source of strength. The un
its sphere solely in the senses, leaves the soul in instructed and superstitious hordes which the one
darkness and the life in bondage. received into its communion were dangerous allies.
These two, the Principle and the Rite , began They might follow it in the day of its prosperity,
so early as the fourth and fifth centuries to draw but they would desert it and become its foes when
apart, and to develop each after its own kind. ever the tide of popular favour turned against it.
The rite rapidly progressed, and seemed far to Not so the adherents of the other. With purified
outstrip its rival. It built for itself gorgeous hearts and enlightened understandings, they were
temples, it enlisted in its service a powerful hier- prepared to follow it at all hazards. The number
archy, it added year by year to the number and
magnificence of its ceremonies, it expressed itself Lord Macaulay, in his essay on the Church of Rome,
has characterised the Waldensian and Albigensian move
in canons and constitutions ; and , seduced by this ments as the revolt of the human intellect against
imposing show , nations bowed down before it, and Catholicism . We would apply that epithet rather to the
puissant kings lent their swords for its defence and great scholastic and pantheistic movementwhich Abelard
propagation . inaugurated ; that was the revolt of the intellect strictly
viewed . The other was the revolt of the conscience
Far otherwise was it with its rival. With quickened by the Spirit of God . It was the revival of
drawing into the spiritual sphere, it appeared to the Divine principle.
BIRTH AND EDUCATION OF WICLIFFE. 59
of its disciples, small at first, continually multi- awaken surprise, but it is to be taken into
plied . The purity of their lives, the meekness account that many of the halls were no better
with which they bore the injuries inflicted on than upper schools. The college which Wicliffe
them , and the heroism with which their death was joined was the most distinguished at that seat of
endured , augmented from age to age the moral learning. The fame, unrivalled in their own day,
power and the spiritual glory of their cause. And which two of its scholars, William Occam and
thus, while the one reached its fall through its Duns Scotus, had attained, shed a lustre upon it.
very success, the other marched on through oppres- One of its chairs had been filled by the celebrated
sion and proscription to triumph . Bradwardine," who was closing his career at
am arrived
We are amived atatthe
the bevinning of the
beginning of the fourteenth
fourteenth Merton about
Merton about the
the time that the
time that the young Wicliffe
century. We have had no occasion hitherto to was opening his in Oxford . Bradwardine was one
speak of the British Isles, but now our attention of the first mathematicians and astronomers of his
must be turned to them . Here a greater light is day ; but having been drawn to the study of the
about to appear than any that had illumined the Word of God, he embraced the doctrines of free
darkness of the ages that had gone before. grace, and his chair became a fountain of higher
In the North Riding of Yorkshire, watered by the knowledge than that of natural science. While
Tees, lies the parish of Wicliffe. In the manor- most of his contemporaries, by the aid of a subtle
house of this parish, in the year 1324,' was born a scholasticism , were endeavouring to penetrate into
child , who was named John. Here his ancestors the essence of things, and to explain all mysteries,
had lived since the time of the Conquest, and, Bradwardine was content to accept what God had
according to the manner of the times, they took revealed in his Word, and this humility was re
their surname from the place of their residence, warded by his finding the path which others missed.
and the son now born to them was known as John Lifting the veil, he unfolded to his students, who
de Wicliffe. Of his boyhood nothing is recorded . crowded round him with eager attention and
Hewas destined from an early age for the Church , admiring reverence, the way of life, warning them
which gives us ground to conclude that even then especially against that Pelagianism which was
he discovered that penetrating intelligence which rapidly substituting a worship of externals for a
marked his maturer years, and that loving sym - religion of the heart, and teaching men to trust in
pathy which drew him so often in after life to the their power of will for a salvation which can come
homesteads and the sick -beds of his parish of Lut only from the sovereign grace ofGod. Bradwardine
terworth . Schools for rudimental instruction were was greater as a theologian than he had been as a
even then pretty thickly planted over England, in philosopher. The fame of his lectures filled Europe,
connection with the cathedral towns and the re- and his evangelical views, diffused by his scholars ,
ligious houses ; and it is probable that the young helped to prepare the way for Wicliffe and others
Wicliffe received his first training at one of these who were to come after him . It was around his
seminaries in his own neighbourhood.? chair that the new day was seen first to break.
At the age of sixteen or thereabouts, Wicliffe A quick apprehension, a penetrating intellect,
was sent to Oxford Here he became first a and a retentive memory, enabled the young scholar
scholar, and next a fellow of Merton College, the of Merton to make rapid progress in the learning
oldest foundation save one in Oxford . The of those days. Philosophy then lay in guesses
youth of England, athirst for knowledge, the rather than in facts. Whatever could be known
fountains of which had long been sealed up , were from having been put before man in the facts of
then crowding to the universities , and when Nature or the doctrines of Revelation , was deemed
Wicliffe entered Merton there were not fewer not worth further investigation . It was too
than 30 ,000 students at Oxford. These numbers humble an occupation to observe and to deduce.
Lewis, Life of Wiclif, p. 1 ; Oxford ed., 1820 . In the pride of his genius, man turned away from
: Lechler thinks that “ probably it was the pastor of a field lying at his feet, and plunged boldly into
the same- named village who was his first teacher.” a region where, having no data to guide him and
(Johann von Wiclif, und die Vorgeschichte der Reformatiori, no ground for solid footing, he could learn really
vol.i., p. 271 ; Leipzig , 1873.)
* Of the twenty and more colleges that now constitute nothing. From this region of vague speculation
Orford University, only five then existed, viz. Merton the explorer brought back only the images of his
(1274), Balliol (1260 — 82 ), Exeter (1314 ), Oriel ( 1324), and own creating, and, dressing up these fancies as
University College (1332 ). These foundations were origi. facts, he passed them off as knowledge.
nally intended for the support of poor scholars,who were
under the rule of a superior, and received both board and
instruction . 4 Lewis, Life of Wiclif, p.2.
ISM
Such was the philosophy that invited the study fied. To his knowledge of scholastics he added
of Wicliffe. There was scarce enough in it to great proficiency in both the canon and civil laws.
reward his labour, but he thirsted for knowledge. This was a branch of knowledge which stood him
and giving himself to it “ with his might,” he in more stead in after years than the other and
soon became a master in the scholastic philosophy, more fashionable science. By these studies he
and did not fear to encounter the subtlest of all becameversed in the constitution and laws of his
the subtle disputants in the schools of Oxford. native country, and was fitted for taking an in
He was “ famously reputed,” says Fox, “ for a telligent part in the battle which soon thereafter
great clerk, a deep schoolman, and no less expert arose between the usurpations of the Pontiff and
MOR
HT
HIRE
hannel
HETER
• TOMB OF ABELARD .
of the crown of England. “ He had
in all kinds of philosophy.” Walden, his bitter the rights themost
enemy, writing to Pope Martin V. respecting him , an eye for differentthings,” says Lechler,
says that he was “ wonderfully astonished ” at the speaking of Wicliffe, “ and took a lively interest
“ vehemency and force of his reasonings," and the in the most multifarious questions." 3
“ places of authority " with which they were forti- But the foundation of Wicliffe's greatness was
laid in a higher teaching than any thatman can give.
1 The study of the artes liberales, from which the It was the illumination of his mind and the re
Faculty of Arts takes its name were, first, Trivium , com newal of his heart by the instrumentality of the
prehending grammar, dialectics, and rhetoric ; then Bible that made him the Reformer - certainly , the
Quadrivium , comprehending arithmetic, geometry, astro greatest of all the Reformers who appeared before
nomy, and music. It was not uncommon to study ten the era of Luther. Without this, he might have
years at the university - four in the Faculty of Arts, and been remembered as an eminent scholastic of the
seven , or at least five, in theology. If Wicliffe entered
the university in 1335, he probably ended his studies in
1345. He became successively Bachelor of Arts, Master ? Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 554 ; Lond., 1641.
of Arts,and,after an interval of several years, Bachelor 3 Lechler, Johann von Wiclif, vol. i., p. 726 .
of Theology, or as they then expressed it, Sacra Pagina.
WICLIFFE IS LED TO THE BIBLE. 61
fourteenth century, whose fame has been luminous D'Aubigné informs us, one of the scholars of the
enough to transmit a few feeble rays to our own evangelical Bradwardine. As he heard the great
age ; but he never would have been known as the master discourse day by day on the sovereignty
first to bear the axe into the wilderness of Papal of grace and the freeness of salvation , a new light
abuses, and to strike at the roots of that great would begin to break upon themind of the young
tree of which others had been content to lop off scholastic. He would turn to a diviner page than
a few of the branches. The honour would not that of Plato. But for this Wicliffe might have
JOHN WICLIFFE.
have been his to be the first to raise that GREAT entered the priesthood without ever having studied
PROTEST, which nations will bear onwards till it a single chapter of the Bible, for instruction in
shall have made the circuit of the earth, pro - theology formed no part of preparation for the
claiming, “ Fallen is every idol, razed is every sacred office in those days.
stronghold of darkness and tyranny, and now is No doubt theology, after a fashion , was studied,
come salvation, and the kingdom of our Lord and yet not a theology whose substance was drawn
of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever." from the Bible, but a man -invented system . The
How Wicliffe came to the knowledge of the
truth it is not difficult to guess. He was, i D 'Aubigné, Hist. of Reform ., vol. v., p. 110 .
62 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM . .
Bachelors of Theology of the lowest grade held ashore, they were found to be freighted with none
readings in the Bible.
mi Not so, however,
sententhe but the dead.
of the ddle and bon the
Bachelors of the middle and highest grades : ces
On the 1st of August the plague touched the
these founded their prelections upon the Sentences shores of England. “ Beginning at Dorchester,"
shoresfor every day twen
of Peter Lombard . Puffed up with the conceit says Fox, “ every day twenty , some days forty,
dtheir ously Bitobliexpound
of their mystical lore, they regarded it beneath some fifty, and more, dead corpses , were brought
esigudignity ciste.Thesoforelementary
mer mary aa bbook
ook aas and laid together in one deep pit.” On the 1st
the Holy Scriptures. The former were named con- day of November it reached London , " where,” says
temptuously Biblicists ; the latter were honourably the same chronicler, “ the vehement rage thereof
designated Sententiarii, or Men of the Sentences.' was so hot, and did increase so much , that from the
“ There was no mention,” says Fox, describing 1st day of February till about the beginning of
the early days of Wicliffe , “ nor almost any word May, in a church-yard then newly made by Smith
spoken of Scripture. Instead of Peter and Paul, field [Charterhouse), about two hundred dead corpses
men occupied their time in studying Aquinas and every day were buried, besides those which in other
Scotus, and the Master of Sentences.". “ Scarcely church -yards of the city were laid also .”
any other thing was seen in the temples or “ In those days," says another old chronicler,
churches, or taught or spoken of in sermons, or Caxton , “ was death without sorrow , weddings
finally intended or gone about in their whole life, without friendship , flying without succour ; scarcely
but only heaping up of certain shadowed cere- were there left living folk for to bury honestly
monies upon ceremonies ; neither was there any them that were dead.” Of the citizens of London
end of their heaping. The people were taught to not fewer than 100,000 perished . The ravages of
worship no other thing but that which they did the plague were spread over all England, and a full
see, and they did see almost nothing which they half of the nation was struck down . From men
did not worship ." ! the pestilence passed to the lower animals. Putrid
In the midst of these grovelling superstitions, carcases covered the fields ; the labours of the hus
men were startled by the approach of a terrible bandman were suspended ; the soil ceased to be
visitant. The year 1348 was fatally signalised by ploughed , and the harvest to be reaped ; the courts
the outbreak of a fearful pestilence , one of the most of law were closed , and Parliament did not meet ;
destructive in history. Appearing first in Asia , it everywhere reigned terror, mourning, and death .
took a westerly course , traversing the globe like the This dispensation was the harbinger of a very
pale horse and his rider in the Apocalypse, terror different one. The tempest that scathed the earth ,
marching before it, and death following in its rear. opened the way for the shower which was to fer
It ravaged the shores of the Levant, it desolated tilise it. The plague was not without its influence
Greece, and going on still toward thewest, it struck on that great movement which , beginning with
Italy with terrible severity . Florence, the lovely Wicliffe , was continued in a line of confessors and
capital of Etruria , it turned into a charnel-house . martyrs, till it issued in the Reformation of Luther
The genius of Boccaccio painted its horrors , and the and Calvin . Wicliffe had been a witness of the
muse of Petrarch bewailed its desolations. The passage of the destroyer ; he had seen the human
latter had cause, for Laura was among its victims. race fading from off the earth as if the ages
Passing the Alps it entered Northern Europe, had completed their cycle, and the end of the
leaving, say some contemporary historians, only a world was at hand. He was then in his twenty
tenth of the human race alive. This we know is fifth year, and could not but be deeply impressed
an exaggeration ; but it expresses the popular im - by the awful events passing around him . “ This
pression, and sufficiently indicates the awful cha- visitation of the Almighty," says D 'Aubigné,
racter of those ravages , in which all men heard, “ sounded like the trumpet of the judgment-day in
as it were, the footsteps of coming death . The sea the heart of Wicliffe." ' Bradwardine had already
as well as the land wasmarked with its devastating broughthim to the Bible, the plague brought him to
prints. Ships voyaging afar on the ocean were it a second time; and now , doubtless, he searched
overtaken by it, and when the winds wafted them its page more earnestly than ever. He came to
— it, not as the theologian, seeking in it a deeper
i Lechler, Johann von Wiclif, und die Vorgeschichte der wisdom than any mystery which the scholastic
Reformation , vol. i., p . 284 ; Leipzig, 1873 . philosophy could open to him ; nor as the scholar,
? Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p . 555 . After the Sen .
tences of Peter Lombard , in the study of theology, came
the patristic and scholastic divines, and especially the 3 Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 507.
Summa of Thomas Aquinas. 4 D 'Aubigné, Hist. of Reform ., vol. v., p. 110.
THE PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF WICLIFFE. 63
to refine his taste by its pure models , and enrich fetters they seek to break , and give them courage
his understanding by the sublimity of its doctrines; to brave the oppressors from whose cruelty they
nor even as the polemic, in search of weapons labour to rescue them . This agony of soul did
wherewith to assail the dominant superstitions ; Luther and Calvin undergo ; and a distress and
he now came to the Bible as a lost sinner , seeking torment similar in character, though perhaps
how he might be saved . Nearer every day came not so great in degree , did Wicliffe endure before
the messenger of the Almighty . The shadow beginning his work . His sins, doubtless, were
that messenger cast before him was hourly made a heavy burden to him — so heavy that he
deepening ; and we can hear the young student could not lift up his head. Standing on the brink
who doubtless in that hour felt the barrenness and of the pit, he says, he felt how awful it was to go
insufficiency of the philosophy of the schools, lifting down into the eternal night, “ and inhabit ever
up with increasing vehemency the cry, “ Who shall lasting burnings.” The joy of escape from a doom
deliver me from the wrath to come? ” so terrible made him feel how small a matter is the
It would seem to be a law that all who are to be life of the body, and how little to be regarded are
reformers of their age shall first undergo a con- the torments which the tyrants of earth have it in
flict of soul. They must feel in their own case the their power to inflict, compared with the wrath of
strength of error, the bitterness of the bondage in the Ever-living God. It is in these fires that the
which it holds men , and stand face to face with reformers have been hardened. It is in this school
the Omnipotent Judge, before they can become that they have learned to defy death and to sing
the deliverers of others. This only can inspire at the stake. In this armour was Wicliffe clad
them with pity for the wretched captives whose before he was sent forth into the battle .
CHAPTER II.
WICLIFFE , AND THE POPE 'S ENCROACHMENTS ON ENGLAND .
Personal Appearance of Wicliffe - His Academic Career - Bachelor of Theology - Lectures on the Bible - England
Quarrels with the Pope – Wicliffe Defends the King's Prerogative - Innocent III . - The Pope Appoints
to the Soe of Canterbury - King John Resists – England Smitten with Interdict - Terrors of the Sentence - The
Pope Deposes the King - Invites the French King to Conquer England - John becomes the Pope's Vassal — The
Barons extort Magna Charta - The Pope Excommunicates the Barons- Annuls the Charter - The Courage of
the Barons Saves England - Demand of Urban V .- Growth of England - National Opposition to Papal Usurpations
- Papal Abuses - Statutes of Provisors and Præmunire.
Of the merely personal incidents of Wicliffe's life the man. He must have been a person of noble .
almost nothing is recorded. The services done for aspect and commanding attitude. The dark
his own times, and for the ages thatwere to follow , piercing eye, the aquiline features, and firm -set
occupy his historians to the exclusion of all strictly lips, with the sarcastic smile that mantles over
personalmatters. Few have acted so large a part, them , exactly agree with all we know of the bold
and filled so conspicuous a place in the eyes of the and unsparing character of the Reformer.”
world , of whom so few private reminiscences and A few sentences will suffice to trace the various
details have been preserved . The charm of a stages of Wicliffe's academic career. He passed
singular sweetness, and the grace of a rare humility twenty years at Merton College, Oxford - first as a
and modesty, appear to have characterised him . scholar, and next as a fellow . In 1360 he was
These qualities were blended with a fine dignity, appointed to the Mastership of Balliol College.
which he wore easily, as those nobly born do the This preferment he owed to the fame he had
insignia of their rank. Not blameless merely acquired as a scholastic.
but holy , was the life he lived in an age of unex- Having become a Bachelor of Theology, Wicliffe
ampled degeneracy. “ From his portrait,” says the
younger M ‘Crie, “ which has been preserved , some Thomas M 'Crie, D.D ., LL.D., Annals of English
idea may be formed of the personal appearance of Presbytery, p. 36 ; Lond., 1872.
had now the privilege s of Scpublic
tha Boofokgiving ripture.lectures ld, anandd wiwithout
He wains Reveryginanight, thout aanyny congé d'elire, elected
the higher field of He was Reginald, theu bure
the university on the Books of Scripture. He was Reginald , their sub -prior, Archbishop of Canter
forbidden to enter the higher field of the Sen - bury, and installed him in the archiepiscopal
tences of Peter of Lombardy — if, indeed , he was throne before midnight.“ By the next dawn Regi
desirous of doing so. This belonged exclusively to nald was on his way to Rome, whither he had
the higher grade of Bachelors and Doctors in Theo - been dispatched by his brethren to solicit the
logy. But the expositions he now gave of the Pope's confirmation of his election. When the
Books of Holy Writ proved of great use to him - king came to the knowledge of the transaction , he
self. He became more profoundly versed in the was enraged at its temerity , and set about pro
knowledge of divine things ; and thus was the curing the election of the Bishop of Norwich to
professor unwittingly prepared for the great work the primacy. Both parties — the king and the
of reforming the Church, to which the labours of canons- sent agents to Rome to plead their cause
his after-life were to be directed." before the Pope.
He was soon thereafter appointed (1365) to be The man who then filled the chair of Peter,
head of Canterbury Hall. This was a new college, Innocent III., was vigorously prosecuting the
founded by Simon de Islip, Archbishop of Can- audacious project of Gregory VII., of subordi
terbury. The constitution of this college ordained nating the rights and power of princes to the
that its fellowships should be held by four monks Papal See , and of taking into his own hands the
and eight secular priests. The rivalship existing appointment to all the episcopal sees of Chris
between the two orders was speedily productive tendom , that through the bishops and priests, now
of broils, and finally led to a conflict with the reduced to an absolute monarchy entirely de
university authorities ; and the founder , finding pendent upon the Vatican , he might govern at his
the plan unworkable, dismissed the four monks, will all the kingdoms of Europe. No Pope ever
replaced them with seculars, and appointed Wicliffe was more successful in this ambitious policy than
as Master or Warden . Within a year Islip died , the man before whom the King of England on the
and was succeeded in the primacy by Langham , one hand, and the canons of Canterbury on the
who, himself a monk, restored the expelled regu . other, now carried their cause. Innocent annulled
lars, and , displacing Wicliffe from his Wardenship , both elections — that of the canons and that of
appointed a new head to the college. Wicliffe the king — and made his own nominee, Cardinal
then appealed to the Pope ; but Langham had the Langton, be chosen to the See of Canterbury.'
greater influence at Rome, and after a long delay, But this was not all. The king had appealed to
in 1370, the cause was given against Wicliffe. the Pope ; and Innocent saw in this a precedent,
It was pending this decision that events hap - not to be let slip, for putting in the gift of the
pened which opened to Wicliffe a wider arena than Pontiff in all time coming what, after the Papal
the halls of Oxford . Henceforth , it was not throne, was the most important dignity in the
against the monks of Canterbury Hall, or even the Roman Church.
Primate of England it was against the Prince John could not but see the danger , and feel the
Pontiff of Christendom that Wicliffe was to do humiliation implied in the step taken by Innocent.
battle. In order to understand what we are now The See of Canterbury was the first seat of dignity
to relate, we must go back a century . and jurisdiction in England, the throne excepted.
The throne of England was then filled by A foreign power had appointed one to fill that
King John, a vicious, pusillanimous, and despotic august seat. In an age in which the ecclesiastical
monarch, but nevertheless capable by fits and was a more formidable authority than the temporal,
starts of daring and brave dceds. In 1205, this was
this was an
an alarming
al encroachment on the royal
Hubert, the Primate of England, died. The prerogative and the nation's independence. Why
junior canons of Canterbury met clandestinely that should the Pope be content to appoint to the See
of Canterbury ? Why should he not also appoint
1 Lewis, Life of Wiclif, p. 10; Oxford , 1820. Vaughan, to the throne, the one other seat in the realm that
Life of John de Wicliffe, vol. i., pp. 268 — 270 .
* This primate was a good man , but not exempt from rose above it ? The king protested with many
the superstition of his age. Fox tells us that he pre
sented one of his churches with the original vestments 4 Gabriel d 'Emillianne, Hist . ofMonast. Orders, Preface ;
in which St. Peter had celebrated mass. Their sanctity, Lond ., 1693. Hume, Hist. of England , vol. i., chap. 11,
doubtless, had defended these venerable robes from the p. 185 ; Lond., 1826. Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p . 325 ;
moths ! Lond., 1641.
3 Lechler, Johann von Wiclif, vol. i., p .293. Lewis , Life of 5 Gabriel d 'Emillianne, Hist. of Monast. Orders, Preface.
Wiclif , p . 17. Vaughan , Life of John deWicliffe, vol.i., p . 301. Hume, Hist. of Eng., Reign of King John.
KING JOHN 'S QUARREL WITH THE POPE. 65
oaths that the Pope's nominee should never sit was not the interest of Philip to undertake such
in the archiepiscopal chair. He waxed bold for an enterprise, for the same boundless and uncon.
the moment, and began the battle as if he meant trollable power which was tumbling the King of
to win it. He turned the canons of Canterbury England from his throne might the next day, on
out of doors, ordered all the prelates and abbots some ghostly pretence or other, hurl King Philip
to leave the kingdom , and bade defiance to the Augustus from his. But the prize was a tempting
Pope. It was not difficult to foresee what would one, and the monarch of France, collecting a
be the end of a conflict carried on by the weakest mighty armament, prepared to cross the Channel
of England 's monarchs, against the haughtiest and invade England.
and most powerful of Rome's Popes. The Pontiff When King John saw the brink on which he
smote England with interdict ;' the king had stood, his courage or obstinacy forsook him . He
offended, and the whole nation must be punished craved an interview with Pandolf, the Pope's
along with him . Before we can realise the terrors legate, and after a short conference , he promised
of such a sentence, we must forget all that the to submit himself unreservedly to the Papal See.
past three centuries have taught us, and surrender Besides engaging to make full restitution to the
our imaginations to the superstitious beliefs which clergy for the losses they had suffered, he “ resigned
armed the interdict with its tremendous power. England and Ireland to God, to St. Peter, and St.
The men of those times, on whom this doom Paul, and to Pope Innocent, and to his successors
fell, saw the gates of heaven locked by the strong in the apostolic chair ; he agreed to hold these
hand of the Pontiff, so that none might enter who dominions as feudatory of the Church of Rome by
camefrom the unhappy realm lying under the Papal the annual payment of a thousand marks ; and he
ban. All who departed this life must wander for- stipulated that if he or his successors should ever
lorn as disembodied ghosts in some doleful region , presume to revoke or infringe this charter, they
amid unknown sufferings, till it should please him should instantly , except upon admonition they
who carried the keys to open the closed gates. repented of their offence , forfeit all right to their
As the earthly picture of this spiritual doom , all dominions." The transaction was finished by the
the symbols of grace and all the ordinances of king doing homage to Pandolf, as the Pope's
religion were suspended . The church-doors were legate, with all the submissive rites which the
closed ; the lights at the altar were extinguished ; feudal law required of vassals before their liege
the bells ceased to be rung ; the crosses and images lord and superior. Taking off his crown, it is
were taken down and laid on the ground ; infants said , John laid it on the ground ; and the
were baptised in the church -porch ; marriages were legate, to show the mightiness of his master,
celebrated in the church-yard ; the dead were buried spurning it with his foot, kicked it about like a
in ditches or in the open fields. No one durst worthless bauble ; and then , picking it out of the
rejoice , or eat flesh, or shave his beard, or pay any
decent attention to his person or apparel. It was dusisBeasection took profounder1
dust, placed it on the craven head of the monarch .
This transaction took place on the 15th May, 1213.
meet that only signs of distress and mourning There is no moment of profounder humiliation than
and woe should be visible throughout a land over this in the annals of England.
which there rested the wrath of the Almighty ; But the barons were resolved not to be the
for so did men account the ban of the Pontiff. slaves of a Pope ; their intrepidity and patriotism
King John braved this state of matters for two wiped off the ineffable disgrace which the baseness
whole years. But Pope Innocent was not to be of the monarch had inflicted on the country.
turned from his purpose ; he resolved to visit and Unsheathing their swords, they vowed to maintain
bow the obstinacy of the monarch by a yet more the ancient liberties of England, or die in the
terrible infliction. He pronounced sentence of ex- attempt. Appearing before the king at Oxford,
communication upon John, deposing him from his April, 1215, “ here," said they, “ is the charter
throne, and absolving his subjects from allegiance. which consecrates the liberties confirmed by Henry
To carry out this sentence it needed an armed force, II., and which you also have solemnly sworn to
and Innocent, casting his eyes around him , fixed observe." The king stormed. “ I will not,” said
on Philip Augustus, King of France , as the most he, “ grant you liberties which would make me a
suitable person to deal the blow on John, offering slave." John forgot that he had already become
him the Kingdom of England for his pains. It a slave. But the barons were not to be daunted
Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 327. Hume, Hist.
O 2 Hume, Hist.of Eng., Reign ofKing John,chap . 11, p . 189.
Eng., p. 186, 3 Ibid . Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p . 329.
by haughty: hewordswaswhichodiousthetokinghad
maintain the no power
whole nation to; wretched baronsandthatplacetheythe should
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and on theCHARTA15th atof June,
Magna Runnymede.1215, JohnThissignedwas thein instantly launchedthe glory
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1 Hume,Hist.Hist.of Eng.,
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battle to it. Innocent felt that he must grapple answer before his liege lord , the Pope, for con
now with this hateful and monstrous birth, and tumacy. This was in effect to say to England,
not the Enci, The England one before the Pon,
strangle it in its cradle ; otherwise , should he wait Prostrate yourself a second time before the Pon
till it was grown, it might be too strong for him to tifical chair. The England of Edward III. was
crush. Already it had reft away from him one of not the England of King John ; and this demand ,
the fairest of those realms which he had made as unexpected as it was insulting, stirred the
dependent upon the tiara ; its assaults on the Papal nation to its depths. During the century which
prerogative would not end here ; hemust trample had elapsed since the Great Charter was signed,
it down before its insolence had grown by success , England's growth in all the elements of greatness
and other kingdoms and their rulers, inoculated had been marvellously rapid. She had fused Nor
with the impiety of these audacious barons, had man and Saxon into one people ; she had formed
begun to imitate their example. Accordingly , her language ; she had extended her commerce ; she
fulminating a bull from the plenitude of his apos- had reformed her laws ; she had founded seats of
tolic power, and from the authority of his com - learning, which had already become renowned ;
mission , as set by God over the kingdoms “ to she had fought great battles and won brilliant vic
pluck up and destroy, to build and to plant,” he tories ; her valour was felt and her power feared
annulled and abrogated the Charter, declaring all by the Continental nations ; and when this sum
its obligations and guarantees void. mons to do homage as a vassal of the Pope was
In the signing of the Great Charter we see a heard , the nation hardly knew whether to meet
new force coming into the field , to make war it with indignation or with derision .
against that tyranny which first corrupted the Whatmade the folly of Urban in making such
souls of men before it enslaved thrir bodies. The a demand the more conspicuous, was the fact that
divine or evangelic element came first, political the political battle against the Papacy had been
liberty came after. The former is the true nurse gradually strengthening since the era of Magna
of the latter ; for in no country can liberty endure Charta . Several stringent Acts had been passed
and ripen its fruits where it has not had its begin with the view of vindicating the majesty of the
ning in the moral part of man. Innocent was law , and of guarding the property of the nation
already contending against the evangelical prin - and the liberties of the subject against the per
ciple in the crusades against the Albigenses in the sistent and ambitious encroachments of Rome.
south of France, and now there appeared , among Nor were these Acts unneeded . Swarm after
the hardy nations of the North , another antago- swarm of aliens, chiefly Italians, had invaded the
nist, the product of the first, that had come to kingdom , and were devouring its substance, and
strengthen the battle against a Power, which from subverting its laws. Foreign ecclesiastics were
its seat on the Seven Hills was absorbing all rights nominated by the Pope to rich livings in England ;
and enslaving all nations. and, although they neither resided in the country
The bold attitude of the barons saved the inde- nor performed any duty in it, they received the
pendence of the nation . Innocent went to the revenues of their English livings, and expended
grave ; feebler men succeeded him in the Ponti- them abroad. For instance, in the sixteenth year
fical chair ; the Kings of England mounted the of Edward III., two Italian cardinals were named
throne without taking the oath of fealty to the to two vacancies in the dioceses of Canterbury and
Pope, although they continued to transmit, year by York, worth annually 2 ,000 marks. “ The first
year, the thousand marks which John had agreed fruits and reservations of the Pope," said the men
to pay into the Papal treasury. At last, in the of those times , " are more hurtful to the realm than
reign of Edward II., this annual payment was all the king's wars." ? In a Parliament held in
quietly dropped . No remonstrance against its dis- London in 1246, we find it complained of, among
continuance came from Rome. other grievances, that " the Pope, not content with
But in 1365, after the payment of the thousand Peter's pence, oppressed the kingdom by extorting
marks had been intermitted for thirty-five years, from the clergy great contributions without the
it was suddenly demanded by Pope Urban V . king's consent ; that the English were forced to
The demand was accompanied with an intimation prosecute their rights out of the kingdom , against
that should the king, Edward III., fail to make the customs and written laws thereof ; that oaths,
payment, not only of the annual tribute, but of all statutes, and privileges were enervated ; and that
arrears, he would be summoned to Rome to in the parishes where the Italians were beneficed,
1 Hume, Hist. of Eng., vol. i., p . 196, · Fox , Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p . 551,
PAPAL EXACTIONS. 69
there were no alms, no hospitality, no preaching, By another Act, the revenues of all livings
no divine service, no care of souls, nor any repara - held by foreign ecclesiastics , cardinals, and others,
tions done to the parsonage houses." ? were given to the king during their lives."
A worldly dominion cannot stand without re- It was further enacted — and the statute shows
venues. The ambition and the theology of Rome the extraordinary length to which the abuse
went hand in hand, and supported one another. had gone “ that all such alien enemies as be
Not an article was there in her creed , not a advanced to livings here in England (being
ceremony in her worship , not a department in in their own country shoemakers, tailors, or
her government, that did not tend to advance her chamberlains to cardinals) should depart before
power and increase her gain . Her dogmas, rites, Michaelmas, and their livings be disposed to poor
and orders were so many pretexts for exacting English scholars." 8 The payment of the 2,000
money. Images, purgatory, relics, pilgrimages, in marks to the two cardinals already mentioned
dulgences , jubilees, canonisations, miracles, masses, was stopped . It was “ enacted further, that no
were but taxes under another name. Tithes, Englishman should bring into the realm , to any
annats, investitures, appeals, reservations, expec- bishop, or other, any bull, or any other letters
tatives, bulls, and briefs were so many drains for from Rome, or any alien , unless he show the same
conveying the substance of the nations of Christen to the Chancellor or Warden of the Cinque Ports,
dom to Rome. Every new saint cost the country upon loss of all he hath .” ? One person , not
of his birth 100,000 crowns. A consecrated pall having the fear of this statute before his eyes,
for an English archbishop was bought for £1,200. ventured to bring a Papal bull into England ; but
In the year 1250, Walter Grey, Archbishop of he had nearly paid the forfeit of his life for his
York, paid £10,000 for that mystic ornament, rashness ; he was condemned to the gallows, and
without which he might not presume to call would have been hanged but for the intercession of
councils, make chrism , dedicate churches, or the Chancellor.8
ordain bishops and clerks. According to the pre- We can hardly wonder at the popular indigna
sent value of money , the price of this trifle may tion against these abuses, when we think of the
amount to £100,000 . With good reason might host of evils they brought in their train. The
the Carmelite , Baptista Mantuan , say, “ If Rome power of the king was weakened , the jurisdiction
gives anything, it is trifles only. She takes your of the tribunals was invaded, and the exchequer
gold , but gives nothing more solid in return was impoverished . It was computed that the tax
than words. Alas ! Rome is governed only by paid toto the
paid the Pope
Pope for
to ecclesiastical dignities was
money." ? five-fold that paid to the king from the whole
These and similar usurpations were rapidly con realm . And, further, as the consequence of this
verting the English soil into an Italian glebe. transportation to other countries of the treasure
vas tilled that it might feed foreign of the nation, learning and the arts were dis
monks, and Englishmen were becoming hewers of couraged, hospitals were falling into decay, the
wood and drawers of water to the Roman hier churches were becoming dilapidated, public wor
archy. If the cardinals of Rome must have ship was neglected , the lands were falling out of
sumptuous banquets, and purple robes, and other tillage, and to this cause the Parliament attributed
and more questionable delights, it is not we, said the frequent famines and plagues that had of late
the English people, that ought to be fleeced to visited the country, and which had resulted in a
furnish these things ; we demand that a stop be partial depopulation of England.
put to this ruinous game before we are utterly Two statutes in particular were passed during
beggared by it. To remedy these grievances, this period to set bounds to the Papal usurpations ;
now become intolerable, a series of enactments these were the well-known and famous statutes of
were passed by Parliament. In the twentieth Provisors and Præmunire . The first declared it
year of Edward's reign, all alien monks were illegal to procure any presentations to any benefice
ordered to depart the kingdom by Michaelmas, from the Court of Rome, or to accept any living
and their livings were given to English scholars.*
6 Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 551.
6 Ibid .
* Cobbett, Parl. Hist. Eng.,vol.i., cols.22,23; Lond., 1806. 7 Ibid .
? " Si quid Roma dabit , nugas dabit, accipit aurum , 8 D'Aubigné,Hist. of Reform ., vol. v., p. 103 ; Edin ., 1853.
Verba dat, heu ! Romæ nunc sola pecunia regnat." 9 Cotton 's Abridgment, p. 128, 50 Edw . III., apud Lewis ,
: Hume, Hist. of Eng., Reign of Edw . III., chap . 16. Life of Wiclif, p . 34 ; Oxford , 1820. Fox , Acts and Mon .,
- Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 551. vol. i., p . 552.
otherwise than as the law directed through the courts at Rome, under pain of confiscation of goode
chapters and ordinary electors. All such appoint and imprisonment during the king's pleasure."
ments were to be void , the parties concerned in Such appeals had become very common , but a stop
them were to be punished with fine and imprison was now put to them by the vigorous application
ment, and no appeal was allowed beyond the king's of the statute ; but the law against foreign nomi
court. The second statute , which came three nations to benefices it was not so easy to enforce,
years afterwards, forbade all appeals on questions and the enactment, although it abated, did not
of property from the English tribunals to the abolish the abuse.
CHAPTER III.
WICLIFFE'S BATTLE WITH ROME FOR ENGLAND'S INDEPENDENCE.
Impatience of the King and the Nation - Assembling of Lords and Commons - Shall England Bow to Rome ? — The
Debate - The Pope's Claim Unanimously Repudiated - England on the Road to Protestantism - Wicliffe's
Influence - Wicliffe Attacked by an Anonymous Monk - His Reply - Vindicates the Nation's Independence- A
Momentous Issue- A Greater Victory than Crecy - His Appeal to Rome Lost - Begins to be regarded as the
Centre of a New Age.
WHEN England began to resist the Papacy it advance his insolent demand. How often have
began to grow in power and wealth. Loosening Popes failed to read the signs of the times ! Urban
its neck from the yoke of Rome, it lifted up its had signally failed to do so. The nation , though
head proudly among the nations. Innocent III., still submitting to the spiritual burdens of Rome,
crowning a series of usurpations by the submission was becoming restive under her supremacy and
of King John — an act of baseness that stands pecuniary exactions. The Parliament had entered
alone in the annals of England — had sustained on a course of legislation to set bounds to these
himself master of the kingdom . But the great avaricious encroachments. The king too was
Pontiff was bidden , somewhat gruffly, stand off. getting sore at this “ defacing of the ancient laws,
The themely
The Northern nobles, who how
comenna knew i littlemmer
about and spoiling of his crown," and with the laurels
theology, but cared a great deal for independence, of Crecy fresh on his brow , he was in no mood for
would be masters in their own isle, and they let repairing to Rome as Urban commanded , and
the haughty wearer of the tiara know this when paying down a thousand marks for permission to
they framed Magna Charta. Turning to King wear the crown which he was so well able to
John they told him , in effect, that if he was to be defend with his sword . Edward assembled his
the slave of an Italian priest, he could not be the Parliament in 1366 , and , laying the Pope's letter
master of Norman barons. The tide once turned before it, bade it take counsel and say what
continued to flow ; the two famous statutes of Pro - answer should be returned .
visors and Præmunire were enacted. These were “ Give us," said the estates of the realm , “ a day
a sort of double breast -work : the first was meant to think over the matter.” ? The king willingly
to keep out the flood of usurpations that was granted them that space of time. They assembled
setting in from Rome upon England ; and the again on the morrow - prelates, lords, and com
second was intended to close the door against the mons. Shall England, now becoming mistress of
tithes , revenues, appeals, and obedience , which the seas, bow at the feet of the Pope ? It is a
were flowing in an ever-augmenting stream from great crisis ! We eagerly scan the faces of the
England to the Vatican. Great Britain never per- council, for the future of England hangs on its
formed an act of resistance to the Papacy but there resolve. Shall the nation retrograde to the days
came along with it a quickening of her own energies of John, or shall it go forward to even higher glory
and a strengthening of her liberty. So was it now ;
her soul began to bound upwards. i Hume, Hist. of Eng., vol. i., p. 335 ; Lond., 1826.
This was the moment chosen by Urban V . to * Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p . 552.
THE BARONS OF ENGLAND AND THE POPE'S CLAIM . 71
than it has achieved under Edward ? Wicliffe great dealmore . The Pope, on the same principle ,
was present on that occasion, and has preserved a may declare the throne vacant, and fill it with
summary of the speeches. The record is interest whomsoever he pleases.” “ Pope Urban tells us ” —
ing, as perhaps the carliest reported debate in so spoke another — “ that all kingdoms are Christ's,
Parliament, and still more interesting from the and that he as His vicar holds England for Christ ;
gravity of the issues depending thereon ." but as the Pope is peccable, and may abuse his
A militof England,” said hned by that sw
A military baron is the first to rise. “ The trust, it appears to me that it were better that we
Kingdom of England,” said he, opening the debate, should hold our land directly and alone of Christ.”
" Was won by the sword, and by that sword has “ Let us," said the last speaker, " go at once to
been defended. Let the Pope then gird on his the root of this matter. King John had no right
sword , and come and try to exact this tribute by to gift away the Kingdom of England without the
force, and I for one am ready to resist him .” This consent of the nation . That consent was never
is not spoken like an obedient son of the Church , given . The golden seal of the king, and the seals
but all the more a leal subject of England. Scarcely of the few nobles whom John persuaded or coerced
more encouraging to the supporters of the Papal to join him in this transaction , do not constitute
claim was the speech of the second baron . “ He the national consent. If John gifted his subjects
only,” said he, “ is entitled to secular tribute who to Innocent like so many chattels, Innocent may
legitimately exercises secular rule, and is able to come and take his property if he can . We the
give secular protection . The Pope cannot legiti- people of England had no voice in the matter ;
mately do either ; he is a minister of the Gospel, we hold the bargain null and void from the be
not a temporal ruler. His duty is to give ginning." .
ghostly counsel, not corporal protection. Let So spake the Parliament of Edward III. Not
us see that he abides within the limits of his a voice was raised in support of the arrogant
spiritual office, where we shall obey him ; but if he demand of Urban. Prelate, baron, and com
shall choose to transgress these limits, he must moner united in repudiating it as insulting to
take the consequences.” “ The Pope," said a third, England ; and these men expressed themselves in
following in the line of the second speaker , “ calls that plain , brief, and pithy language which be
himself the servant of the servants of God. Very tokens deep conviction as well as determined reso
well : he can claim recompense only for service lution . If need were, these bold words would be
done. Butwhere are the services which he renders followed by deeds equally bold . The hands of the
to this land ? Does heminister to us in spirituals ? barons were on the hilts of their swords as they
Does he help us in temporals? Does he not uttered them . They were, in the first place, sub
rather greedily drain our treasures, and often for the jects of England ; and , in the second place, members
benefit of our enemies ? I give my voice against of the Church of Rome. The Pope accounts no
this tribute." one a good Catholic who does not reverse this order
“ On what grounds was this tribute originally and put his spiritual above his temporal allegiance
demanded ?" asked another. “ Was it not for his Church before his country. This firm atti
absolving King John , and relieving the kingdom tude of the Parliament put an end to thematter.
from interdict ? But to bestow spiritual benefits The question which Urban had really raised was
for money is sheer simony ; it is a piece of eccle- this, and nothing less than this : Shall the Pope or
siastical swindling. Let the lords spiritual and the king be sovereign of England ? The answer of
temporal wash their hands of a transaction so the Parliament was, Not the Pope, but the king ;
disgraceful. But if it is as feudal superior of the and from that hour the claim of the former was
kingdom that the Pope demands this tribute, why not again advanced , at least in explicit terms.
ask a thousand marks ? why not ask the throne, The decision at which the Parliament arrived
the soil, the people of England ? If his title be was unanimous. It reproduced in brief compass
good for these thousand marks, it is good for a both the argumentand spirit of the speeches. Few
such replies were in those days carried to the foot
i Lechler makes the bold supposition that Wicliffe
of the Papal throne. “ Forasmuch ” _ s0 ran the
was a member of this Parliament. He founds it upon decision of the three estates of the realm — " as
a passage in Wicliffe 's treatise, The Church, to the effect
that the Bishop of Rochester told him (Wicliffe) in public
Parliament, with great vehemence, that conclusions were . These speeches are reported by Wicliffe in a treatise
condemned by the Roman Curia . He thinks it probable preserved in the Selden MSS., and printed by the Rev .
from this that the Reformer had at one time been in John Lewis in his Life of Wiclif, App . No. 30 , p . 349 ;
Parliament. (Lechler, Johann von Wiclif, vol. i., p. 332.) Oxford , 1820.
72 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.
neither King John, nor any other king, could Thus far had England, in the middle of the
bring his realm and kingdom into such thraldom fourteenth century, advanced on the road to the
and subjection but by common assent of Parlia. Reformation . The estates of the realm had unani
ment, the which was not given, therefore that mously repudiated one of the two great branches
which he did was against his oath at his coronation, ' ofthe Papacy. The dogma of the vicarship binds
HLA
D2
IM
all
TITUT TINCT
LUIS
EL
HE
upin oneanomalous
the spiritual jurisdiction.
and the temporal
land had denied the latter ; Eng. and
VI S
this was a step towards question

W
ing, and finally repudiating, the

former. It was quite natural that
the nation should first discover the
INT
falsity of the temporal supremacy,

A
M
my
O
NE 2
w
before seeing the equal falsity of

the spiritual. Urban had put the
matter in a light in which no one
BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD (ABOUT THE TIME OF WICLIFFE). could possibly mistake it. In de
manding payment of a thousand
besides many other causes. If,therefore,the Pope marks annually he translated, as we say, the
should attempt anything against the king by pro- theory of the temporal supremacy into a palpable
cess, or other matters in deed , the king, with all fact. The theory might have passed a little longer
his subjects, should, with all their force and power, without question, had it not been put into this
resist the same." 1 ungracious form . The halo which encompassed
the Papal fabric during the Middle Ages began to
1 Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 552. Lewis , Life of wane, and men took courage to criticise a system
Wiclif, p. 19. Vaughan, Life of John de Wicliffe, vol. i., whose immense prestige had blinded them hitherto.
p. 266 ; Lond., 1828. Such was the state of mind in which we now find
WICLIFFE'S INFLUENCE ON THE NATION . 73
the English nation. It betokened a reformation at foreign nations, would have made submission im
no very great distance. possible ; butwithoutWicliffe the resistance would
But largely, indeed mainly, had Wicliffe con not have been placed on so intelligible a ground,
tributed to bring about this state of feeling in nor would it have been urged with so resolute a
England. He had been the teacher of the barons patriotism . The firm attitude assumed effectually
WEDDIN
MA
A
1114
LE2
THE COLISEUM .
and commons. He had propounded these doc- extinguished the hopes of the Vatican , and rid
trines from his chair in Oxford before they England ever after of all such irritating and
were proclaimed by the assembled estates of the insolentdemands.
realm . But for the spirit and views with which That Wicliffe's position in this controversy was
he had been quietly leavening the nation, the already a prominent one, and that the sentiments
demand of Urban might have met a different expressed in Parliament were but the echo of his
reception. It would not, we believe, have been teachings in Oxford, is attested by an event which
complied with ; the position England had now now fell out. The Pope found a supporter in
attained in Europe, and the deference paid her by England , though not in Parliament. A monk,
74 HİSTORY OF PROTESTANTISM .
whose name has not comedown to us, stood for- of the Pope. There cannot,” he argues , " be two
ward to demonstrate the righteousness of the claim temporal sovereigns in one country ; either Edward
of Urban V . This controversialist laid down the is king or Urban is king. We make our choice.
fundamental proposition that, as vicar of Christ, We accept Edward of England and refuse Urban
the Pope is the feudal superior of monarchs, and of Rome.” Then he falls back on the debate in
the lord paramount of their kingdoms. Thence he Parliament, and presents a summary of the
deduced the following conclusions : — that all sove- speeches of the spiritual and temporal lords.
reigns owe him obedience and tribute ; that vas- Thus far Wicliffe puts the estates of the realm
salage was specially due from the English monarch in the front, and covers himself with the shield
in consequence of the surrender of the kingdom of their authority : but doubtless the sentiments
to the Pope by John ; that Edward had clearly are his ; the stamp of his individuality and
forfeited his throne by the non-payment of the genius is plainly to be seen upon them . From
annual tribute ; and, in fine, that all ecclesiastics, his bow was the arrow shot by which the tem
regulars and seculars, were exempt from the civil poral power of the Papacy in England was
jurisdiction , and under no obligation to obey the wounded. If his courage was shown in not de
citation or answer before the tribunal of the magis- clining the battle, his prudence and wisdom were
trate. Singling out Wicliffe by name, the monk equally conspicuous in the manner in which he
challenged him to disprove the propositions he conducted it. It was the affair of the king and
had advanced . of the nation, and not his merely ; and it was
Wicliffe took up the challenge which had been masterly tactics to put it so as that it might be
thrown down to him . The task was one which seen to be no contemptible quarrel between an
involved tremendous hazard ; not because Wicliffe 's unknown monk and an Oxford doctor, but a con
logic was weak , or his opponent's unanswerable ; troversy between the King of England and the
but because the power which he attacked could Pontiff of Rome.S
ill brook to have its foundations searched out, And the service now rendered by Wicliffe was
and its hollowness exposed, and because the more great. The eyes of all the European nations were
completely Wicliffe should triumph , the more at that moment on England, watching with no
probable was it that he would feel the heavy dis- little anxiety the issue of the conflict which she
pleasure of the enemy against whom he did battle. was then waging with a power that sought to
He had a cause pending in the Vatican at that reduce the whole earth to vassalage. If England
very moment, and if he vanquished the Pope in should bow herself before the Papal chair, and the
England, how easy would it be for the Pope to victor of Crecy do homage to Urban for his crown,
vanquish him at Rome ! Wicliffe did not con - what monarch could hope to stand erect , and what
ceal from himself this and other greater perils ; nation could expect to rescue its independence
nevertheless, he stepped down into the arena. from the grasp of the tiara ? The submission of
In opening the debate, he styles himself “ the England would bring such an accession of prestige
king's peculiar clerk," from which we infer that and strength to the Papacy, that the days of
the royal eye had already lighted upon him , Innocent III. would return , and a tempest of ex
attracted by his erudition and talents, and that communications and interdicts would again lower
one of the royal chaplaincies had been conferred over every throne, and darken the sky of every
upon him . kingdom , as during the reign of the mightiest of
The controversy was conducted on Wicliffe's the Papal chiefs. The crisis was truly a great one.
side with great moderation. He contents himself It was now to be seen whether the tide was to
with stating the grounds of objection to the tem - advance or to go back . The decision of England
poral power, rather than working out the argu- determined that the waters of Papal tyranny
ment and pressing it home. These are— the natural should henceforth recede, and every nation hailed
rights of men, the laws of the realm of England, the result with joy as a victory won for itself.
and the precepts of Holy Writ. “ Already,” he To England the benefits which accrued from this
says," a third and more of England is in the hands conflict were lasting as well as great. The fruits
reaped from the great battles of Crecy and Poictiers
1 “ But inasmuch as I am the king's peculiar clerk have long since disappeared ; but as regards this
[ peculiaris regis clericus], I the more willingly undertake
the office of defending and counselling that the king
exercises his just rule in the realm of England when he . The same from which we have already quoted .
refuses tribute to the Roman Pontiff.” (Codd . MSS. Joh . 3 See Wicliffe 's Tractate, which Lewis gives in his
Seldeni; Lewis, Life of Wiclif, Appendix, No. 30.) Appendis , Life of Wiclif, p. 349.
WICLIFFE'S MENTAL DELIBERATIONS ON THE PAPACY. 75
victory won over Urban V ., England is enjoying sole possession of Canterbury College. Wicliffe
at this very hour the benefits which resulted from had lost his wardenship , but he had largely con
it. But it must not be forgotten that, though tributed to save the independence of his country .
Edward III. and his Parliament occupied the fore- In winning this fight he had done more for it than
ground, the real champion in this battle was if he had conquered on many battle-fields. He
Wicliffe. had yet greater services to render to England, and
It is hardly necessary to say that Wicliffe was yet greater penalties to pay for his patriotism .
nonsuited at Rome. His wardenship of Canterbury Soon after this he took his degree of Doctor in
Hall, to which he was appointed by the founder, Divinity — a distinction more rare in those days
and from which he had been extruded by Arch- than in ours ; and the chair of theology, to
bishop Langham , was finally lost. His appeal to which he was now raised , extended the circle of
the Pope was made in 1367 ; but a long delay took his influence, and paved the way for the fulfil
place , and it was not till 1370 that the judgment ment of his great mission. From this time
of the court of Rome was pronounced , ratifying Wicliffe began to be regarded as the centre of a
his extrusion , and putting Langham 's monks in new age.
CHAPTER IV .
WICLIFFE'S BATTLE WITH THE MENDICANT FRIARS.
Wicliffe's Mental Conflicts - Rise of the Monastic Orders - Fascinating Pictures of Monks and Monasteries
Early Corruption of the Orders — Testimony of Contemporary Witnesses — The New Monastic Orders - Reason
for their Institution - St. Francis - His Early Life - His Appearance before Innocent III. - Commission to
Found an Order - Rapid Increase of the Franciscans - St. Dominic - His Character- Founds the Dominicans
Preaching Missionaries and Inquisitors - Constitution of the New Orders — The Old and New Monks Compared
- Their Vow of Poverty - How Evaded — Their Garb - Their Vast Wealth - Palatial Edifices — Their Frightful
Degeneracy - Their Swarms Overspread England - Their Illegal Practices — The Battle against them Begun by
Armachanus - He Complains against them to the Pope - His Complaint Disregarded - He Dies .
We come now to relate briefly the second great and had a marked influence on the mind of Wicliffe
battle which our Reformer was called to wage ; in the way of developing his views on the whole
and which , if we have regard to the prior date of subject of the Papacy. From questioning the mere
its origin — for it was begun before the conclusion abuse of the Papal prerogative, he began to ques
of that of which we have just spoken - ought to tion its legitimacy. At every step a new doubt
be called the first. We refer to his contest with presented itself ; this sent him back again to the
the mendicant friars. It was still going on when Scriptures. Every page he read shed new light
his battle against the temporal power was finished ; into his mind, and discovered some new invention
in fact it continued, more or less, to the end of his or error of man , till at last he saw that the system
life. The controversy involved great principles of the Gospel
of the and the
Gospel and system of
the system the Papacy were
of the
utterly and irreconcilably at variance , and that if
i Wieliffe had pioneers who contested the temporal
he would follow the one he must finally renounce
power of the Pope. One of these, we have already the other. This decision, as we gather from Fox,
seen , was Arnold of Brescia . Nearer home he had two was not made without many tears and groans.
notable precursors : the first, Marsilius Patavinus, who “ After he had a long time professed divinity in
in his work , Defensor Pacis, written in defence of the Oxford,” says the chronicler, " and perceiving the
Emperor Lewis, excommunicated by Clement VI., main
tains that “ the Pope hath no superiority above other true doctrine of Christ's Gospel to be adulterate,
bishops, much less above the king ” (Fox, Acts and and defiled with so many filthy inventions of
Mon ., vol. i., p. 509 ); and the second , William Occam , in bishops, sects of monks, and dark errors , and that
England , also a strenuous opponent of the temporal he after long debating and deliberating with him
power. See his eight propositions on the temporal power
of the Papacy, in Fox self (with many secret sighs and bewailings in his
NTISM
76 HISTORY OF PROTESTA .
mind the general ignorance of the whole world them , from the skilful and careful cultivation of
could no longer suffer or abide the same, be at the the brotherhood , smiled like a garden, while the
last determined with himself to help and to remedy rest of the soil, through neglect or barbarism , was
such things as he saw to be wide and out of the sinking into a desert ; here letters were cultivated,
way. But forasmuch as he saw that this dangerous and the arts of civilised life preserved , while the
meddling could not be attempted or stirred without general community , engrossed in war, prosecuted
great trouble, neither that these things, which had but languidly the labours of peace. To the gates
been so long time with use and custom rooted and of the monastery came the halt, the blind, the
grafted in men 's minds, could be suddenly plucked deaf, and the charitable inmates never failed to
up or taken away, he thought with himself that pity their misery and supply their necessities. In
this matter should be done by little and little. fine, while the castle of the neighbouring baron
Wherefore he, taking his original at small occa - resounded with the clang of weapons, or the noise
sions, thereby opened himself a way or mean to of wassail, the holy chimes ascending from the
greater matters. First he assailed his adversaries monastery at morn and eve, told of the devotions,
in logical and metaphysical questions . . . by the humble prayers, and the fervent praises in
these originals the way was made unto greater which the Fathers passed their time.
points, so that at length he came to touch the These pictures are so lovely, and one is so grati
matters of the Sacraments , and other abuses of the fied to think that ages so rude, and so ceaselessly
Church .” buffeted by war, had nevertheless their quiet re
The rise of themonastic orders, and their rapid treats, where the din of arms did not drown the
and prodigious diffusion over all Christendom , and voice of the muses , or silence the song of piety,
even beyond it, are too well known to require that we feel almost as if it were an offence against
minute or lengthy narration. The tombs of Egypt, religion to doubt their truth . But we confess
the deserts of Thebais, the mountains of Sinai, that our faith in them would have been greater
the rocks of Palestine, the islands of the Ægean if they had been painted by contemporary chroni
and Tuscan Seas, were peopled with colonies of clers, instead of being mostly the creation of
hermits and anchorites , who, fleeing from the poets who lived in a later age. We really do
world , devoted themselves to a life of solitude and not know where to look in real history for the
spiritualmeditation . The secularity and corruption originals of these enchanting descriptions. Still,
of the parochial clergy, engendered by the wealth we do not doubt that there is a measure of truth
which flowed in upon the Church in early times , in them ; that, during the early period of their
rendered necessary, it was supposed, a new order, existence, these establishments did in some degree
which might exhibit a great and outstanding shelter piety and preserve art, did dispense alms
example of virtue. Here, in these anchorites , was and teach industry. And we know that even down
the very pattern , it was believed, which the age to nearly the Reformation there were instances of
needed . These men , living in seclusion , or gathered men who, hidden from the world , here lived alone
in little fraternities, had renounced the world , had with Christ, and fed their piety at the fountains of
taken a vow of poverty and obedience, and were the Word of God . These instances were, however,
leading humble, laborious, frugal, chaste , virtuous rare , and suggested comparisons not favourable to
lives, and exemplifying, in a degenerate time, the rest of the Fathers.
the holiness of the Gospel. The austerity and But one thing history leaves in no wise doubtful,
poverty of the monastery redeemed Christianity even that the monastic orders speedily and to a
from the stain which the affluence and pride of fearful degree became corrupt. It would have
the cathedral had brought upon it. So the been a miracle if it had been otherwise. The
world believed , and felt itself edified by the system was in violation of the fundamental laws
spectacle. of nature and of society , as well as of the Bible.
For a while, doubtless, the monastery was the How can virtue be cultivated apart from the exer
asylum of a piety which had been banished from cise of it ? If the world is a theatre of tempta
the world . Fascinating pictures have been drawn tion , it is still more a school of discipline, and a
of the sanctity of these establishments. Within nursery of virtue. " Living in them ,” says a nun
their walls peace made her abode when violence of Cambray, a descendant of Sir Thomas More,
distracted the outer world. The land around “ I can speak by experience, if one be not in a
right course of prayer , and other exercises between
God and our soul, one's nature groweth much worse
i Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p . 556 . than ever it would have been if she had lived in
GROWING CORRUPTION OF THE MONASTIC ORDERS. 77
theworld ." ! It is in society , not in solitude, that plains : “ Our brethren despise God, and having
we can be trained to self-denial, to patience , to passed all shame, eat flesh now all the days of the
loving-kindness and magnanimity. In the cell week except Friday. They run here and there,and,
there is nothing to be borne with or overcome, as kites and vultures, fly with great swiftness where
save cold , or hunger, or the beasts of the de- the most smoke of the kitchen is, and where they
sert, which, however much they may develop the smell the best roast and boiled . Those that will
powers of the body, cannot nourish the virtues not do as the rest, they mock and treat as hypo
of the soul. crites and profane. Beans, cheese, eggs, and even
In point of fact, these monasteries did , we fish itself, can no more please their nice palates ;
know , become eventually more corrupt than the they only relish the flesh-pots of Egypt. Pieces of
world which their inmates had forsaken. By the boiled and roasted pork , good fat veal, otters and
year 1100 one of their advocates says he gives hares, the best geese and pullets, and, in a word ,
them up. The pictures which some Popish writers all sorts of flesh and fowl do now cover the tables
have given us of them in the thirteenth century of our holy monks. But why do I talk ? Those
- Clemangis, for instance — we dare not transfer to things are grown too common, they are cloyed with
our pages. The repute of their piety multiplied the them . They must have something more delicate.
number of their patrons, and swelled the stream They would have got for them kids, harts, board,
of their benefactions. With riches came their too and wild bears. One must forthem beat the bushes
frequent concomitants, luxury and pride. Their with a great number of hunters, and by the help of
voy of poverty was no barrier ; for though , as indi- birds of prey must one chase the pheasants , and
viduals, they could possess no property, they might partridges, and ring-doves, for fear the servants of
as a body corporate own any amount of wealth . God (who are our good monks) should perish with
Lands, houses, hunting-grounds, and forests ; the hunger." S
tithings of tolls, of orchards, of fisheries, of kine, St. Bernard, in the twelfth century, wrote an
and wool, and cloth, formed the dowry of the apology for the monks of Cluny, which he ad
monastery. The vast and miscellaneous inventory dressed to William , Abbot of St. Thierry. The
of goods which formed the common property of work was undertaken on purpose to recommend
the fraternity, included everything that was good the order, and yet the author cannot restrain him .
for food and pleasant to the eye ; curious furniture self from reproving the disorders which had crept
for their apartments , dainty apparel for their per into it; and having broken ground on this field , he
sons ; the choice treasures of the field , of the tree, runs on like one who found it impossible to stop.
and the river, for their tables ; soft-paced mules by “ I can never enough admire,” says he, “ how so
day, and luxurious couches at night. Their head, great a licentiousness of meals, habits, beds, equip
the abbot, equalled princes in wealth , and sur- ages, and horses , can get in and be established
passed them in pride. Such , from the humble as it were, among monks." After enlarging on
beginnings of the cell, with its bed of stone and the sumptuousness of the apparel of the Fathers,
its diet of herbs, had cometo be the condition of the the extent of their stud , the rich trappings of
monastic orders long before the days of Wicliffe. their mules, and the luxurious furniture of their
From being the ornament of Christianity , they chambers, St. Bernard proceeds to speak of their
were now its opprobrium ; and from being the meals, of which he gives a very lively description.
buttress of the Church of Rome, they had now “ Are not theirmouths and ears,” says he, “ equally
become its scandal. filled with victuals and confused voices ? And
We shall quote the testimony of one who was while they thus spin out their immoderate feasts,
not likely to be too severe in reproving themanners is there any one who offers to regulate the debauch ?
of his brethren . Peter, Abbot of Cluny, thus com No, certainly . Dish dances after dish , and for
- abstinence, which they profess, two rows of fat fish
Gertrude More, Confessions, p. 246. appear swimming in sauce upon the table. Are you
? “ One great butt of Wicliffe's sarcasm ,” says Lech . cloyed with these ? the cook has art sufficient to
ler, “ was the monks. Once, in speaking of the prayers prick you others of no less charms. Thus plate is
inducement
of the monks, he remarked , a great
cement
founding of cloisters was the delusion that toto the
the
the prayers devoured after plate, and such natural transitions
of the inmates were of more value than all worldly are made from one to the other, that they fill their
goods,and yet it does not seem as if the prayers of those bellies, but seldom blunt their appetites. And all
cloistered people are so mightily powerful ; nor can we
understand why they should be so, unless God hears
them for their rosy cheeks and fat lips.' " (Lechler, 3 Petrus Abbas Cluniaci, lib. vi., epit. 7 ; apud Gabriel
VOL i., p . 737.) d'Emillianne, p. 92.
this,” exclaimsSt. Bernard, “ in the name of charity, army, or for provisions to travel through a very
because consumed by men who had taken a vow large desert.” !
of poverty , and must needs therefore be denomi But this necessitated a remedy. The damage
nated “ the poor.'” inflicted on the Papacy by the corruption and
From the table of the monastery, where we notorious profligacy of the monks must be re
behold course following course in quick and be paired — but how ? The reformation of the early
wildering succession , St. Bernard takes us next to orders was hopeless ; but new fraternities could
see the pomp with which the monks ride out. “ I be called into existence . This was the method
VIEW IN THE CAMPAGNA.
must always take the liberty,” says he, “ to inquire hit upon. The order
how the salt of the earth comes to be so depraved. of Franciscans was
What occasions men , who in their lives ought to instituted by Inno
be examples of humility , by their practice to give cent III. in the
instructions and examples of vanity ? And to pass year 1215, and the
by many other things, what a proof of humility is Dominicans were
it to see a vast retinue of horses with their equip - sanctioned by his
age, and a confused train of valets and footmen, successor Honorius
so that the retinue of a single abbot outshines III. a few years
that of two bishops ! May I be thought a liar later (1218). The
if it be not true, that I have seen one single object of their in
abbot attended by above sixty horse. Who stitution was to recover, by means of their
could take these men for the fathers of monks, humility, poverty, and apostolic zeal, the credit
and the shepherds of souls ? Or who would which had been lost to the Church through the
not be apt to take them rather for governors of pride, wealth, and indolence of the elder monks.
cities and provinces ? Why, though the master ·Moreover, the new times on which the Church
be four leagues off, must his train of equipage - -
reach to his very doors ? One would take these 1 Dupin , Life of St. Bernard, cent. 12, chap. 4 .
mighty preparations for the subsistence of an ? Dupin , Eccles. Hist.,'cent. 13, chap. 10 .
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felt that she was entering, demanded new services and jeered at the madman, which they believed
Preachers were needed to confute the heretics, and him to be. Being joined by seven disciples, he
this was carefully kept in view in the constitutionmade his way to Rome, to lay his project before
of the newly -created orders. the Pope. On arriving there he found Innocent
The founders of these two orders were very III. airing himself on the terrace of his palace of
unlike in their natural disposition and temper. the Lateran .
St. Francis, the founder of the Franciscans, or What a subject for a painter ! The haughtiest
Minorites, as they came to be termed , was born at of the Pontiffs — the man who, like another Jove,
Assisi, in Umbria , in 1182. His father was a had but to nod and kings were tumbled from their
rich merchant of that town. The historians of St. thrones, and nations were smitten down with inter
Francis relate that certain signs accompanied his dict — was pacing to and fro beneath the pillared
birth, which prognosticated his future greatness. portico of his palace, revolving, doubtless, new
His mother ,when her time had come, was taken in and mightier projects to illustrate the glory and
labour so severe, and her pains were prolonged for strengthen the dominion of the Papal throne. At
so many days, that she was on the point of death . times his eye wanders as far as the Apennines,
At that crisis an angel, in the guise of a pilgrim , so grandly walling in the Campagna, which lies
presented himself at her door, and demanded alms. spread out beneath him - not as now , a blackened
The chariful pilgrino in order
The charity sought was instantly bestowed , and expanse, but a glorious garden, sparkling with
the grateful pilgrim proceeded to tell the inmates villas, and gay with vineyards and olive and fig
what they must do in order that the lady of the trees. If in front of his palace was this goodly
mansion might become the joyful mother of a prospect, behind it was another, forming the obverse
son. They were to take up her couch , carry her of that on which the Pontiff's eye now rested. A
out, and lay her in the stable. The pilgrim 's hideous gap, covered with the fragments of what
instructionswere followed , the pains of labour were had once been temples and palaces,and extending
now speedily ended , and thus it came to pass that from the Lateran to the Coliseum , marred the
the child first saw the light among the “ beasts.” beauty of the Pontifical city . This unsightly spec
“ This was the first prerogative," remarks one of tacla was the memorial of the war of Investitures,
his historians, “ in which St. Francis resembled and would naturally carry the thoughtsof Innocent
Jesus Christ he was born in a stable." back to the times of Hildebrand , and the fierce
Despite these auguries, betokening a more than struggles which his zeal for the exaltation of the
ordinary canctity , Francis grew up “ a debauched Papal chair had provoked in Christendom .
youte,”r,was
youth says dDis’Emillianne,“
inherited, ibut
was disinherited t." and, having robbed his What a tide of prosperous fortune had flowed in
father, he seemed not to be upon Rome, during the century which had elapsed
very much troubled at it.” ? He Hewas it indwith
was fseized uced since Gregory VII. swayed the sceptre that Inno
a malignant fever, and the frenzy that it induced cent now wielded ! Not a Pontificate , not a decade,
appears never to have wholly left him . He lay that had not witnessed an addition to the height
down on his bed of sickness a gay profligate and of that stupendous Babel which the genius and
spendthrift, and he rose up from it entirely en- statesmanship of all the Popes from Gregory to
grossed with the idea that all holiness and virtue Innocent had been continuously and sucoessfully
consisted in poverty. occupied in rearing. And now the fabric stood
He acted out his theory to the letter. He gave complete , for higher it was hardly possible to con
away all his property , he exchanged garments with ceive of its being carried. Rome was now more
a beggar whom he met on the highway ; and , truly mistress of the world than even in the days
squalid , emaciated, covered with dirt and rags, his of the Cæsars. Her sway went deeper into the
eyes burning with a strange fire, he wandered heart and soul of the nations. Again was she
about the country around his native town of sending forth her legates , as of old her pro -consuls,
Assisi, followed by a crowd of boys, who hooted to govern her subject kingdoms; again was she
issuing her edicts, which all the world obeyed ;
i Storia degli Ordini Monastici, Religiosi, e Militari, & c., again were kings and suppliant princes waiting
tradotto dal Franzese del P. Giuseppe Francesco Fon at her gates ; again were her highways crowded
tana , Milanese , tom . vii., cap. 1, p. 2 ; edit. Lucca, 1739, with ambassadors and suitors from every quarter
con licenza de Superiori. of Christendom ; from the most distant regions
2 Gabriel d'Emillianne, History of Monastical Orders,
p. 158 ; Lond., 1693. Francesco Fontana, Storia degli came the pilgrim and the devotee to pray at her
Ordini Monastici, tom . vii., cap . 1, pp . 6, 7. Alban Butler, holy shrines ; night and day, without intermission,
Lives of the Saints, vol. x ., p. 71 ; Lond., 1814 . there flowed from her gates a spiritual stream
ST. FRANCIS' INTERVIEW WITH INNOCENT III. 81
to refresh the world ; crosiers and palls, priestly The enthusiasm that burned so fiercely, in his
offices and mystic virtues, pardons and dispensa- own brain kindled a similar enthusiasm in that
tions, relics and amulets, benedictions and ana of others. Soon St. Francis found a dozen men
themas ; and, in return for this, the tribute of all willing to share his views and take part in his
the earth was being carried into her treasuries. project. The dozen speedily multiplied into a
On these pleasurable subjects, doubtless, rested hundred , and the hundred into thousands, and the
the thoughts of Innocent as Francis of Assisi increase went on at a rate of which history scarcely
drew near. affords another such example. Before his death ,
The eye of the Pontiff lights upon the strange St. Francis had the satisfaction of seeing 5,000 of
figure. Innocent halts to survey more closely the his monks assemble in his convent in Italy to hold
man. His dress is that of a beggar, his looks are a general chapter, and as each convent sent only
haggard , his eye is wild , yet despite these unto two delegates , the convocation represented 2 ,500
ward appearances there is something about him convents. The solitary fanatic had become an
that seems to say, “ I come with a mission , and army ; his disciples filled all the countries of
therefore do I venture into this presence. I am Christendom ; every object and idea they subor
here not to beg, but to give alms to the Popedom ;" dinated to that of their chief ; and, bound together
and few kings have had it in their power to lay by their vow , they prosecuted with indefatigable
greater gifts at the feet of Rome than that which zeal the service to which they had consecrated
this man in rags had come to bestow . Curious themselves. This order has had in it five Popes
to know what he would say, Innocent permitted and forty-five cardinals.5
his strange visitor to address him . Francis St. Dominic, the founder of the Dominicans,
hurriedly described his project ; but the Pope was born in Arragon , 1170. He was cast in a
failed to comprehend its importance, or to credit differentmould from St. Francis. His enthusiasm
Francis with the power of carrying it out ; he was as fiery, his real as intense ;' but to these
ordered the enthusiast to be gone ; and Francis qualities he added a cool judgment, a firm will, a
retired , disappointed and downcast, believing his somewhat stern temper, and great knowledge of
scheme to be nipped in the bud. affairs. Dominic had witnessed the ravages of
The incident, however, had made a deeper im - heresy in the southern provinces of France ; he
pression upon the Pontiff than he was aware . As had also had occasion to mark the futility of those
he lay on his couch by night, the beggar seemed splendidly equipped missions, that Romesent forth
again to stand before him , and to plead his cause. from timeto time to convert the Albigenses. He
A palm -tree - s0 Innocent thought in his sleep — saw that these missionaries left more heretics on
suddenly sprang up at his feet, and waxed into a their departure than they had found on their arrival.
goodly stature. In a second dream Francis seemed Mitred dignitaries, mounted on richly caparisoned
to stretch out his hand to prop up the Lateran, mules , followed by a sumptuous train of priests
which was menaced with overthrow . When the and monks, and other attendants, too proud or too
Pope awoke, he gave orders to seek out the ignorant to preach, and able only to dazzle the
strange man from Umbria , and bring him before gaze of the multitude by the magnificence of their
him . Convening his cardinals, they too had an ceremonies, attested most conclusively the wealth
opportunity of hearing the project. To Innocent of Rome, but did not attest with equal conclusive
and his conclave the idea of Francis appeared to be ness the truth of her tenets. Instead of bishops on
good ; and to whom , thought they, could they better palfreys, Dominic called for monks in wooden soles
commit the carrying of it out than to the enthusiast to preach to the heretics.
who had conceived it ? To this man in rags did Repairing to Rome, he too laid his scheme before
Rome now give her commission . Armed with Innocent, offering to raise an army that would per
the Pontifical sanction , empowering him to found, ambulate Europe in the interests of the Papal See ,
arrange, and set a-working such an order as he organised after a different fashion, and that, he
had sketched out, Francis now left the presence
of the Pope and cardinals, and departed to begin 4 Soria degli Ordini Monastici, tom . vii., cap . 1, p . 19.
his work .3 Gabriel d'Emillianne, Hist. of Monast. Orders, p. 171.
• Alb . Butler, Lives of the Saints, v . 10 , p . 100 .
i Storia degli Ordini Monastici, tom . vii., cap. 1, p . 14. 6 Gabriel d 'Emillianne, Hist. of Monast. Orders. This
' Ibid. Alb . Butler, Lives of the Saints, vol. a., p. 77. author says that the mother of St. Dominic before his
3 Dupin , Eccles . Hist., cent. 13, vol. xi., chap. 10 ; Lond., birth dreamed that she was brought to bed of a dog
1699. Storia degli Ordini Monastici, tom . vii., cap . 1, (some say a wolf) carrying a burning torch in its mouth ,
pp. 14 , 15. wherewith it set the world on fire ( p . 147) .
hoped, would be able to give a better account of their preaching tours. Their sphere was the world ;
the heretics. Their garb as humble, their habits they were to perambulate provinces and cities , and
as austere, and their speech as plain as those of the to address all who were willing to listen to them .
peasants they were to address, these missionaries Preaching had come to be one of the lost arts.
would soon win the heretics from the errors into The secular or parochial clergy seldom entered a
which they had been seduced ; and , living on alms, pulpit ; they were too ignorant to write a sermon ,
they would cost the Papal exchequer nothing. too indolent to preach one even were it prepared
Innocent, for some reason or other, perhaps from to their hand. They instructed their flocks by a
having sanctioned the Franciscans so recently, re- service of ceremonials, and by prayers and litanies,
fused his consent. But Pope Honorius was more in a language which the people did not understand .
compliant ; he confirmed the proposed order of Wicliffe assures us that in his time “ there were
Dominic ; and from beginnings equally small with many unable curates that knew not the ten com
those of the Franciscans, the growth of the Domi. mandments, nor could read their psalter, nor could
nicans in popularity and numbers was equally understand a verse of it." The friars, on the other
rapid . hand, betook themselves to their mother tongue,
The Dominicans were divided into two bands. and, mingling familiarly with all classes of the
The business of the one was to preach, that of the community, they revived the forgotten practice of
other to slay those whom the first were not able to preaching, and plied it assiduously Sabbath and
convert.? The one refuted heresy , the other exter- week -day. They held forth in all places , as well
minated heretics. This happy division of labour, as on all days, erecting their pulpit in the market,
it was thought, would secure the work being at the street-corner, or in the chapel.
thoroughly done. The preachers rapidly multiplied , In one point especially the friars stood out in
and in a few years the sound of their voices was marked and advantageous contrast to the old
heard in almost all the cities of Europe. Their monastic orders. The latter were scandalously
learning was small, but their enthusiasm kindled rich , the former were severely and edifyingly poor.
them into eloquence, and their harangues were They lived on alms, and literally were beggars ;
listened to by admiring crowds. The Franciscans hence their name of Mendicants. Christ and his
and Dominicans did for the Papacy in the centuries apostles, it was affirmed , were mendicants ; the
that preceded the Reformation , what the Jesuits profession , therefore, was an ancient and a holy
have done for it in the centuries that have one. The early monastic orders, it is true, equally
followed it . with the Dominicans and Franciscans, had taken a
Before proceeding to speak of the battle which vow of poverty ; but the difference between the
Wicliffe was called to wage with the new frater - elder and the later monks lay in this, that while
nities, it is necessary to indicate the peculiarities the former could not in their individual capacity
in their constitution and organisation that fitted possess property , in their corporate capacity they
them to cope with the emergencies amid which might and did possess it to an enormous amount;
their career began, and which had madee it neces- the latter, both as individuals and as a body,
lder order
sary to call them into existence. The elder ora to were disqualified by their vow from holding any
prosses whatever.
of monks were recluses. They had no relation to property
the world which they had abandoned , and no
s a P their They could not so much as
possess a penny in the world ; and as there was
duties to perform to it, beyond the example of nothing in their humble garb and frugal diet to
austere piety which they offered for its edification belie their profession of poverty , their repute for
Their sphere was the cell, or the walls of the sanctity was great, and their influence with all
monastery, where their whole time was presumed classes was in proportion. They seemed the very
to be spent in prayer and meditation. men for the times in which their lot was cast, and
The newly-created orders, on the other hand, for the work which had been appointed them .
were not confined to a particular spot. They had They were emphatically the soldiers of the Pope,
convents, it is true, but these were rather hotels or the household troops of the Vatican, traversing
temporary abodes, where they might rest when on Christendom in two bands, yet forming one united
i Gabriel d 'Emillianne, Hist. of Monast. Orders, p. 148 . 3 Lewis, Life of Wiclif, p . 40. By a council held in
2 Ibid . “ A troop of merciless fellows, whom he [St. Oxford , 1222, it was provided that the archdeacons in
Dominic] maintained to cut the throats of heretics when their visitations should " see that the clergy knew how
he was a-preaching ; he called them the Militia of Jesus to pronounce aright the form of baptism , and say the
Christ." words of consecration in the canon of the mass.”
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE MENDICANT ORDERS. . 83
army, which continually increased, and which, way a stream of gold , fed by the piety of their
having no impedimenta to retard its march , admirers, began to flow into them . They did not,
advanced alertly and victoriously to combat like the other monastic fraternities, become landed
heresy, and extended the fame and dominion of proprietors — this kind of property not coming
the Papal See. within the scope of that interpretation by which
If the rise of the Mendicant orders was un- they had so materially qualified their vow - but
exampled in its rapidity, equally unexampled was in other respects they claimed a very ample free
the rapidity of their decline. The rock on which dom . The splendour of their edifices eclipsed those
they split was the same which had proved so fatal of the Benedictines and Augustinians. Churches
to their predecessors -- riches. But how was it pos- which the skill of the architect and the genius of
sible for wealth to enter when the door of the the painter did their utmost to glorify , convents
monastery was so effectually barred by a most and cloisters which monarchs might have been
stringent vow of poverty ? Neither as individuals, proud to inhabit,“ rose in all countries for the
nor as a corporation, could they accept or hold a use of the friars. With this wealth came a multi
penny. Nevertheless, the fact was so ; their riches form corruption - indolence , insolence, a dissolution
increased prodigiously , and their degeneracy , con- of manners , and a grievous abuse of those vast
sequent thereon, was even more rapid than the privileges and powers which the Papal See , find
declension which former ages had witnessed in ing them so useful, had heaped upon them . “ It
the Benedictines and Augustinians. is an awful presage,” exclaims Matthew Paris,
The original constitution of the Mendicant orders only forty years after their institution, “ that in
remained unaltered, their vow of poverty still 300 years , nay, in 400 years and more, the old
stood unrepealed ; they still lived on the alms monastic orders have not so entirely degenerated
of the faithful, and still wore their gown of coarse as these fraternities.”
woollen cloth , white in the case of the Domini. Such was the state in which Wicliffe found the
cans, and girded with a broad sash ; brown in the friars. Nay, we may conclude that in his time
case of the Franciscans, and tied with a cord of the corruption of the Mendicants far exceeded what
three knots : in both cases curiously provided it was in the days of Matthew Paris, a century
with numerous and capacious pouches, in which earlier. He found in fact a plague fallen upon the
little images, square bits of paper, amulets, and kingdom , which was daily spreading and hourly
rosaries, were mixed with bits of bread and cheese , intensifying its ravages. It was in 1360 that he
morsels of flesh, and other victuals collected by began his public opposition to them . The Domi
begging . nican friars entered England in 1321.. In that
But in the midst of all these signs of poverty, year Gilbert de Fresney and twelve of his brethren
and of the professed observance of their vow, their settled at Oxford. The same causes that favoured
hoards grew richer every day. How came this ? their growth on the Continent operated equally in
Among the brothers were some subtle intellects, England, and this little band recruited their ranks
who taught them the happy distinction between so rapidly, that soon they spread their swarms over
proprietors and stewards. In the character of pro- all the kingdom . Forty-three houses of the Domi
prietors they could possess absolutely nothing; in nicans were established in England, where, from
the character of stewards they might hold wealth their black cloak and hood , they were popularly
to any, amount, and dispense it for the ends and termed the Black Friars.
uses of their order. This ingenious distinction Finding themselves now powerful, they attacked
unlocked the gates of their convents, and straight the laws and privileges of the University of Oxford,
? Their habit or dress is described by Chaucer as con 4 No traveller can have passed from Perugia to Terni
sisting of a great hood , a scapleriè , a knotted girdle , without having his attention arrested by the convent of
and a wide cope . (Jack Upland .) St. Francis d 'Assisi, which stands on the lower slope
• The curiously knotted cord with which they gird of the Apennines, overlooking the vale of the Clitumnus.
themselves, " they say, hath virtue to heal the sick , to It is in splendour a palace, and in size it is almost a
chase away the devil and all dangerous temptations, and little town. In this magnificent edifice is the tomb of
serve what turn they please.” (Gabriel d'Emillianne, the man who died under a borrowed cloak .
Hist. of Monast . Orders , p . 174.) 5 Vaughan, Life of Wicliffe, vol. i., pp. 250, 251.
3 This distinction is sanctioned by the Constitution 6 Sharon Turner, Hist. of England , vol. V ., p. 101 ;
issued by Nicholas III. in 1279, explaining and confirming Lond., 1830. " This order hath given to the Church 5
the rule of St. Francis. This Constitution is still extant Popes, 48 cardinals , 23 patriarchs, 1,500 bishops, 600 arch
in the Jus. Canon ., lib. vi., tit. xii., cap. 3, commonly bishops, and a great number of eminent doctors and
called Constitution Exiit, from its commencing, Exiit, & c. writers." (Alban Butler.)
where they had established themselves, claiming the Pontiff were as follow :— That the friars were
independence of its jurisdiction . This drew on a propagating a pestiferous doctrine, subversive of
battle between them and the college authorities . the testament of Jesus Christ ; that, owing to their
The first to oppose their encroachments was Fitz- machinations, the ministers of the Church were
ralph (Armachanus), who had been appointed to decreasing ; that the universities were decaying;
the chancellorship of Oxford in 1333, and in 1347 that students could not find books to carry on their
n'
GROUP OF MENDICANT FRIARS .
becamemenArchbishop of Armagh. Fitzralph de- studies ; that the friars were recruiting their ranks
ceyled d i c i n d c o m p l
ustry,obeis aints lived, in
clared that under this “ pestiferous canker," as he by robbing and circumventing children ; that they
styled mendicancy, everything that was good and cherished ambition under a feigned humility , that
fair - letters, industry,obedience, morals — wasbeing they concealed riches under a simulated poverty ;
blighted. He carried his complaints all the way and crept up by subtle means to be lords, arch
to Avignon , where the Popes then lived , in the bishops, cardinals, chancellors of kingdoms, and
hope of effecting a reformation of this crying evil. privy councillors of monarchs.
The heads of the address which he delivered before Wemust give a specimen of his pleading before
GRIEVANCES AGAINST THE FRIARS. 85
theprivileges,
Pontiff,” says
as FoxArmachanus,
has preserved“ granted
it. “ byBy the
the also themselves.
by the Nofriars
said less riseth
inconvenience
t o the and danger
clergy, forsobe
Popes
Among to the
other friars,
abuses, great enormities
he enumerates do arise. ” much
thethefollowfaces. stolen as laymen, seeing
fromtherefore their children
them in tothesenduniversities thus to
by thestudies,
friars,
ing:- “ Thetrue shepherds do not know do refuse
of their flock. Item , great contention and some- rather willing to keep them at home to their occu them to their
WA
SON
VINA
N A
NAOO S
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ESS2.*2
permesetteha
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plough, than so to
US
circumatvented and defeate d of their

LE
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sons the univers ity, as daily

byappear.
E
experie nce doth manifes

For, whereas, in my time there were
tly
THE BELFRY AT BRUGES. in the university of Oxford 30,000
students,
found 6,000. now there
The are not ofto thisle
occasion
times blows ariseaboutbetween theimpropriations,
friars and andthe than great thedecaycircumvention
is to be ascribed to theno friars
other above
cause
secular curates,
other avails.as Item titles,
, diversfathers'houses,are
youngmen, as well in mentioned. ” only of
universities
craftily by thei n their
friars, their confessors, to allured
enter Asthe
practices ofconsequence
the friars, of thesebranchvery ofextraordinary
every science and
their orders; from
out, thoughandthey whence,also, they cannot get studywas decaying i n England. “ For that these
parents, no lesswould,repentance
to the great
to thegriefyoungof their
men begging friars,” continues
their privileges obtained ofthearchbishop,“through
the Popes, to preach,
to hear confessions, and to bury, and through their for their study, and so they returned to their own
charters of impropriations, did thereby grow to country.” !
such great riches and possessions by their begging, In vain had the archbishop undertaken his long
craving, catching, and intermeddling with Church journey . In vain had he urged these complaints
matters, that no book could stir of any science, before the Pontiff at Avignon. The Pope knew
either of divinity , law , or physic, but they were that these charges were but too well-founded ;
both able and ready to buy it up. So that every but what did that avail ? The friars were indis
convent having a great library, full, stuffed, and pensable to the Pope ; they had been created by
furnished with all sorts of books, and being so many him , they were dependent upon him , they lived for
conrents within the realm , and in every convent him , they were his obsequious tools ; and , weighed
so many friars increasing daily more and more , by against the services they were rendering to the
reason thereof it came to pass that very few books Papal throne, the interests of literature in England
or none at all remain for other students.” were but as dust in the balance. Not a finger
“ He himself sent to the university four of his must be lifted to curtail the privileges or check
own priests or chaplains, who sent him word again the abuses of the Mendicants.· The archbishop ,
that they neither could find the Bible , nor any finding that he had gone on a bootless errand ,
other good profitable book of divinity profitable returned to England, and died three years after.
CHAPTER V.
THE FRIARS VERSUS THE GOSPEL IN ENGLAND.
The Joy of the Friars -Wicliffe Resumes the Battle - Demands the Abolition of the Orders — The Arrogance of the
Friars - Their
touching Luxury - Their Covetousness - Their Oppression of the Poor - The Agitation in England - Questions
touching the content.com
the Gospel raised thereby-- Is it from the Friar or from Christ that Pardon is to be had ? Were Christ
and the Apostles Mendicants ? - Wicliffe 's Tractate , Objections to Friars-- It launches him on his career as a
Reformer - Preaches in this Tractate the Gospel to England - Attack on the Power of the Keys - No Pardon but
from God - Salvation without Money.
THE joy of the friars when they heard that their have been, with the reformation of the order, he
enemy was dead was great ; but it was of short demanded its abolition. The friars, vested in an
duration. The same year in which the arch- independent jurisdiction by the Pope, were over
bishop died (1360) Wicliffe stood up and began riding the canons and regulations of Oxford , where
that opposition to the Mendicants which he main their head -quarters were pitched ; they were setting
tained more or less to the very close of his life. at defiance the laws of the State ; they were in
" John Wicliffe,” says an unknown writer, “ the veigling young children into their “ rotten habit;"
singular ornament of his time, began at Oxford in they were perambulating the country ; and while
the year of our Lord 1360 , in his public lectures, they would allow no one but themselves to preach ,
to correct the abuses of the clergy, and their open their sermons were made up, Wicliffe tells us, " of
wickedness, King Edward III. being living, and fables, chronicles of the world , and stories from the
continued secure a most valiant champion of the siege of Troy."
truth among the tyrants of Sodom ." ! The Pope,moreover, had conferred on them the
Wicliffe saw deeper into the evil than Armacha- right of shriving men ; and they performed their
mus had done. The very institution of the order office with such a hearty good -will, and gave abso
was unscriptural and corrupt, and while it existed , lution on terms so easy , that malefactors of every
nothing, he felt, but abuse could flow from it ; and description flocked to them for pardon, and the
therefore , not content, as his predecessor would consequence was a frightful increase of immorality
-- - - - - - - - - - - - - --- ---- -- - - -- - --- -
1 MS. in Hyper. Bodl., 163 ; apud Lewis, Life of Fox, Acts and Mon., bk. v. See there the story of
Triclif , p. 9. ·Armachanus and his oration against the friars.
BEGINNING OF WICLIFFE'S CAREER AS A REFORMER . 87
and crime." The alms which ought to have been made an unwitting appeal to the right of private
given to the “ bed -rid, the feeble, the crooked,” they judgment, and advertised a book about which ,
intercepted and devoured . In flagrant contempt had they been wise for their own interests, they
of the declared intention of their founder, and would have been profoundly silent. Wicliffe, espe
their own vow of poverty, their hoards daily cially , was led to the yet closer study of the
increased . The wealth thus gathered they ex- Bible. The system of truth in Holy Scripture
pended in palatial buildings , in sumptuous tables , revealed itself more and more to him ; he saw how
or other delights, or they sent it abroad to the widely the Church of Rome had departed from the
impoverishing of the kingdom . Not the money Gospel of Christ, and what a gulf separated salva
only, but the secrets of the nation they were sus- tion by the blood of the Lamb from salvation by ,
pected of discovering to the enemies of the realm . the pardons of the Pope. It was now that the
To obey the Pope, to pray to St. Francis, to give Professor of Divinity in Oxford grew up into the
alms to the friar, was the sum of all piety . This Reformer of England — the great pioneer and
was better than all learning and all virtue, for it founder of the Reformation of Christendom .
could open the gates of heaven. Wicliffe saw About this time he published his Objections to
nothing in the future, provided the Mendicants Friars, which fairly launched him on his career as
were permitted to carry on their trade, but the a Reformer. In this tractate he charges the friars
speedy ruin of both Church and State. with “ fifty heresies and errors, and many moe,
The controversy on which Wicliffe now entered if men wole seke them well out." Let us mark
was eminently wholesome— wholesome to himself that in this tract the Reformer does not so much
and to the nation. It touched the very founda- dispute with the friars as preach the Gospel to his
tions of Christianity , and compelled men to study countrymen . “ There cometh,” says Wicliffe, “ no
the nature of the Gospel. The Mendicants went pardon but of God.” “ The worst abuses of these
through England,selling to men the pardons of the friars consist in their pretended confessions, by
Pope. Can our sins be forgiven for a little money ? means of which they affect, with numberless arti
men were led to ask . Is it with Innocent or with fices of blasphemy, to purify those whom they
God that we have to do ? This led them to the confess , and make them clear from all pollution in
Gospel, to learn from it the ground of the accept the eyes of God , setting aside the commandments
ance of sinners before God. Thus the controversy and satisfaction of our Lord.” “ There is no greater
was no mere quarrel between the regulars and the heresy than for a man to believe that he is absolved
seculars ; it was no mere collision between the from his sins if he give money, or if a priest lay
jurisdiction of the Oxford authorities and the juris- his hand on this head, and say that he absolveth
diction of the Mendicants ; the question was one thee ; for thou must be sorrowful in thy heart,
between the Mendicants and the Gospel. Is it and make amends to God, else God absolveth thee
from the friars or from Jesus Christ that we are not.” “ Many think if they give a penny to a
to obtain the forgiveness of our sins ? This was a pardoner, they shall be forgiven the breaking of all
question which the England of that age eminently the commandments of God , and therefore they take
needed to have stirred . no heed how they keep them . But I say this for
The arguments, too, by which the friars endea- certain , though thou have priests and friars to
voured to cover the lucrative trade they were sing for thee , and though thou , each day, hear
driving, helped to import a salutary element into many masses, and found churches and colleges , and
the controversy. They pleaded the sanction of the go on pilgrimages all thy life, and give all thy
Saviour for their begging. Christ and the apostles, goods to pardoners, this will not bring thy soul to
said they , were mendicants , and lived on alms. heaven .” “ May God of his endless mercy destroy
This led men to look into the New Testament, the pride, covetousness , hypocrisy, and heresy of
to see if this really were so . The friars had this feigned pardoning, and make men busy to
- - - keep his commandments, and to set fully their
1 “ I have in my diocese of Armagh ,” says the Arch - trust in Jesus Christ.”
bishop and Primate of Ireland , Armachanus, “ about “ I confess that the indulgences of the Pope, if
2,000 persons, who stand condemned by the censures of they are what they are said to be, are a manifest
the Church denounced every year against murderers,
thieves, and such -like malefactors, of all which number blasphemy. The friars give a colour to this blas
scarce fourteen have applied to me or to my clergy for phemy by saying that Christ is omnipotent, and
absolution ; yet they all receive the Sacraments, as others
do, because they are absolved, or pretend to be absolved , that the Pope is his plenary vicar, and so possesses
by friars .” (Fox, Acts and Non .)
- Vaughan, Life of John de Wicliffe, vol. ii., p , 288 . 3 Lewis, Life of Wiclif, p. 22.
88 AISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM .
in cverything the same power as Christ in his vast prison -house, they kept immured the souls
humanity. Against this rude blasphemy I have and bodies of men, otherwise than by exploding
elsewhere inveighed . Neither the Pope nor the the false dogma on which it was founded . It was
Lord Jesus Christ can grant dispensations or give this dogma therefore , first of all, which he chal
indulgences to any man, except as the Deity has lenged. Think not, said he, in effect, to his coin
eternally determined by his just counsel.” ? trymen,thatGod has given “ the keys " to Innocent
Thus did John Wicliffe, with the instincts of a of Rome ; think not that the friar carries heaven
trueReformer, strike at that ghostly principle which in his wallet ; think not thatGod sends his pardons
serves the Pope as the foundation -stone of his king- wrapped up in those bits of paper which the Men
dom . Luther's first blows were in like manner dicants carry about with them , and which they sell
aimed at the same principle. He began his career for a piece of silver. Listen to the voice of the
by throwing down the gauntlet to the pardon - Gospel : “ Ye are not redeemed with corruptible
mongers of Rome. It was “ the power of the things such as silver and gold, but with the precious
keys ” which gave to the Pope the lordship of the blood of Christ, the Lamb without blemish and
conscience ; for he who can pardon sin - open or without spot.” God pardons men without money
shut the gate of Paradise - is God to men . Wicliffe and without price. Thus did Wicliffe begin to
perceived that he could not shake into ruin that preach “ the acceptable year of the Lord ," and to
great fabric of spiritual and temporal power which proclaim “ liberty to the captive, and the opening
the Pontiffs had reared , and in which, as within a of the prison to them that are bound.”
CHAPTER VI.
THE BATTLE OF THE PARLIAMENT WITH THE POPE .
Resumé of Political Progress - Foreign Ecclesiastics appointed to English Benefices - Statutes of Provisors and
Præmunire meant to put an End to the Abuse - The Practice still Continued - Instances - Royal Commissioners
sent to Treat with the Pope concerning this Abuse - Wicliffe chosen one of the Commissioners — The Negotiation
a Failure - Nevertheless of Benefit to Wicliffe by the Insight it gave him into the Papacy - Arnold Garnier
The " Good Parliament” - Its Battle with the Pope - A Greater Victory than Crecy - Wicliffe waxes Bolder
-- Rage of the Monks.
We have already spoken of the encroachments of the Statutes of Provisors and Præmunire were
the Papal See on the independence of England in framed with this view . The abuses which these
the thirteenth century ; the cession of the kingdom laws were meant to correct had long been a source
to Innocent III. by King John ; the promise of an of national irritation. There were certain benefices
annual payment to the -'ope of a thousand marks in England which the Pope, in the plenitude of his
by the English king ; the demand preferred by power, reservd to himself. These were generally
Urban V . after payment of this tribute had lapsed the more wealthy livings. But it might be incon
for thirty years ; the spirited reply of the Parliament venient to wait till a vacancy actually occurred ,
of England , and the sha Wicliffe had in the resolu - accordingly the Pope, by whathe termed a provisor,
tion to which the Lords temporal and spiritual came issued an appointment beforehand . The rights of
to refuse the Papal impost. Wehave also said that the chapter, or of the crown, or whoever was
the opposition of Parliament to the encroachments patron , were thus set aside, and the legal presentee
of the Popes on the liberties of the kingdom did not must either buy up the provisor, or permit the
stop at this point, that several stringent laws were Pope's nominee, often a foreigner, to enjoy the
passed to protect the rights of the crown and the benefice. The very best of these dignities and be
property of the subjects, and that more especially nefices were enjoyed by Italians, Frenchmen, and
- other foreigners, who were, says Lewis, “ someof
1 See Lewis, Life of Wiclif, chap . 2. Vaughan , Life of them mere boys ; and not only ignorant of the
John de Wicliffe. Also Wicliffe and the Huguenots, by the English language, but even of Latin , and who never
Rev . Dr. Hanna , pp. 61 - 63 ; Edin ., 1860. so much as saw their churches, but committed the
THE STATUTES OF PROVISORS AND PRÆMUNIRE. 89
care of them to those they could get to serve them LL. D . ; William de Burton, Knight ; Robert
the cheapest ; and had therevenues of them remitted Bealknap, and John de Henyngton.
to them at Rome or elsewhere , by theiš proctors, to The Pope declined receiving the king's ambas
whom they let their tithes.” ? It was to check this sadors at Avignon. The manners of the Papal
abuse that the Statute of Provisor's was passed ; court in that age could not bear close inspection .
and the law of Præmunire, by which it was It was safer that foreign eyes should contemplate
followed , was intended to fortify it, and effectually them from a distance. The Pope made choice of
to close the drain of the nation 's wealth by for- Bruges, in the Netherlands, and thither he sent his
bidding any one to bring into the kingdom any nuncios to confer with the English delegates. The
bull or letter of the Pope appointing to an negotiation dragged on for two years : the result
English benefice. was a compromise ; the Pope engaging, on his part,
The grievances were continued nevertheless, and to desist from the reservation of benefices ; and the
became even more intolerable. The Parliament king promising, on his, nomore to confer them by his
addressed a new remonstrance to the king, setting writ “ quare impedit." This arrangement left the
forth the unbearable nature of these oppressions, power of the Pope over the benefices of the Church of
and the injury they were doing to the royal England at least equal to thatof the sovereign. The
authority , and praying bim to take action on the Pope did not renounce his right,he simply abstained
point. Accordingly, in 1373, the king appointed from the exercise of it - tactics exceedingly common
four commissioners to proceed to Avignon, where and very convenient in the Papal policy — and this
Pope Gregory XI. was residing, and lay the com - was all that could be obtained from a negotiation of
plaints of the English nation before him , and re- two years. The result satisfied no one in England :
quest that for the future he would forbear meddling it was seen to be a hollow truce that could not last ;
with the reservations of benefices. The ambassadors nor indeed did it, for hardly had the commissioners
were courteously received, but they could obtain no returned home, when the Pope began to make as
redress.* The Parliament renewed their complaint free with English benefices and their revenues as
and request that “ remedy be provided against the though he had never tied his hands by promise or
provisions of the Pope, whereby be reaps the first treaty.
fruits of ecclesiastical dignities, the treasure of the There is cause, indeed , to suspect that the inte
realin being thereby conveyed away, which they rests of England were betrayed in this negotiation.
cannot bear.” A Royal Commission was issued in The Bishop of Bangor, on whom the conduct of the
1374 to inquire into the number of ecclesiastical embassy chiefly devolved, on his return home was
benefices and dignities in England held by aliens, immediately translated to the See of Hereford , and
and to estimate their exact value. It was found in 1389 to that of St. David's. His promotion, in
that the number of livings in the hands of Italians, both instances the result of Papal provisors, bore
Frenchmen , and other foreigners was so great that, the appearance of being the reward of subserviency.
says Fox, “ were it all set down, it would fill almost Wicliffe returned home in disgust at the timewhich
half a quire of paper." The clergy of England was had been wasted ,and the little fruit which had been
rapidly becoming an alien and a merely nominal obtained. But these two years were to him far
one. The sums drained from the kingdom were from lost years. Wicliffe had come into communi
immense. cation with the Italian, Spanish , and French digni
The king resolved to make another attempt to taries of the Church, who enjoyed the confidence of
arrange this matter with the Papal court. He the Pope and the cardinals. There was given him
named another commission , and it is an evidence of an insight into a circle which would not have
the growing influence of Wicliffe that his name readily opened to his view in his own country.
stands second on the list of these delegates. The Other lessons too he had been learning, unpleasant
first named is John , Bishop of Bangor, who had no doubt, butmost important. He had not been so
served on the former commission ; the second is John far removed from the Papal court but he could see
de Wicliffe, S. T. P . The names that follow are the principles that reigned there, and the motives
John Guter , Dean of Sechow ; Simon de Moulton,
4 Barnes, Life of King Edward III., p. 866. Lewis, Life i
Lewis, Life of Wiclif, chap. 3, p. 31 . of Wiclif, p . 33.
Barnes, Life of King Edward III., p . 864 . Lewis, Life - 5 Bruges was then a large city of 200,000 inhabitants,
of Wiclif, p . 32. the seat of important industries, trade, wealth , municipal
3 Fox, Acts and Mon., vol. i., p . 561. Fox gives a list of freedom , and political power.
the benefices, with the names of the incumbents and the 6 Lewis, Life of Wiclif, p. 34 . Vaughan, Life of John de
worth of their sees. (See pp . 561, 552.) Wicliffe, vol. i., pp. 326, 327.
that guided its policy. If he had not met the Pope only this proud worldly priest's collector,by process
he had met his representatives, and he had been of time this hill must be spended ; for he taketh
able to read the master in his servants ; and when ever money out of our land, and sendeth nought
he returned to England it was to proclaim on the agen but God's curse for his simony." ! Soon after
house-tops what before he had spoken in the closet. his return from Bruges, Wicliffe was appointed to
Avarice , ambition , hypocrisy, these were the gods the rectorship of Lutterworth , in Leicestershire,
that were worshipped in the Roman curia — these and as this preferment came not from the Pope but
were the virtues that adorned the Papal throne. the king, it may be taken as a sign of the royal
JOHN OF GAUNT. (From a Windonc at Au Souls' College, Oxford.)
So did Wicliffe proclaim . In his public lectures he approval of his conduct as a commissioner, and his
now spoke of the Pope as “ Antichrist, the proud growing influence at the court.
worldly priest of Rome, and the most cursed of The Parliament, finding that the negotiation at
clippers and purse-kervers.” And in one of his Bruges had come to nothing, resolved on more
tracts that remain he thus speaks : “ They (the decisive measures . The Pope took advantage of
Pope and his collectors ) draw out of our land poor the king's remissness in enforcing the statutes
men 's livelihood, and many thousand marks by the directed against the Papal encroachments, and
year, of the king's money, for Sacraments and spiri- promised many things, but performed nothing.
tual things, that is cursed heresie of simony, and He still continued to appoint aliens to English
maketh all Christendom assent and meyntene his --
heresie. And certes though our realm had a huge i Great Sentence of Curse Expounded, c. 21 ; MSS. apud
hill of gold , and never other man took thereof but Lewis, Life of Wiclif.
NAM
WP
.
LONDON
BISHOP
THE
AND
OFGAUNT
JOHN
BETWEEN
ALTERCATION
livings, notwithstanding his treaties to the con - went back to Rome with no inconsiderable sum
trary. If these usurpations were allowed , he of money. He had a royal licence to return to
would soon proceed to greater liberties, and would England , of which he afterwards made use. He
appoint to secular dignities also, and end by appro- was required to swear that in collecting the Papal
priating as his own the sovereignty of the realm . dues he would protect the rights and interests of
It was plain to the Parliament that a battle must the crown and the country. He took the oath in
be fought for the country's independence, and there 1372 in the Palace of Westminster, in presence of
were none but themselves to fight it. They drew the councillors and dignitaries of the crown. The
up a bill of indictment against the Papal usur- fears of patriots were in no way allayed by the
pations. In that document they set forth the mani- ready oath of the Papal agent; and Wicliffe in
fold miseries under which the country was groaning especial wrote a treatise to show that he had sworn
from a foreign üyranny, which had crept into the to do what was a contradiction and an impossibility.'
kingdom under spiritual pretexts, but which was It was Wicliffe who breathed this spirit into the
rapaciously consuming the fruits of the earth and Commons of England, and emboldened them to
the goods of the nation. The Parliament went on fight this battle for the prerogatives of their prince,
to say that the revenue drawn by the Pope from and their own rights as the free subjects of an
the realm was five times that which the king independent realm . We recognise his graphic and
received ; that he contrived to make one and the trenchant style in the document of the Parliament.
same dignity yield him six several taxes ; that to The Pope stormed when he found the gage of battle
increase his gains he frequently shifted bishops thrown down in this bold fashion . With an air of
from one see to another ; that he filled livings with defiance he hastened to take it up, by appointing
ignorant and unworthy persons, while meritorious an Italian to an English benefice. But the Parlia
Englishmen were passed over, to the great dis- ment stood firm ; the temporal Lords sided with the
couragement of learning and virtue ; that every - Commons. “ We will support the crown," said
thing was venal in “ the sinful city of Rome;” and they , “ against the tiara .” The Lords spiritual
that English patrons, corrupted by this pestilential adopted a like course ; reserving their judgment on
example , had learned to practise simony without the ecclesiastical sentences of the Pope, they held
shame or remorse ; that the Pope's collector had that the temporal effects of his sentences were null,
opened an establishment in the capital with a staff and that the Papal power availed nothing in that
of officers , as if it were one of the great courts of point against the royal prerogative.
the nation , “ transporting yearly to the Pope twenty The nation rallied in support of the Estates of the
thousand marks, and most commonly more ; ” that Realm . It pronounced no equivocal opinion when it
the Pope received a richer revenue from England styled the Parliamentwhich had enacted these strin
than any prince in Christendom drew from his gent edicts against the Papal bulls and agents “ the
kingdom ; that this very year hehad taken the first Good Parliament." The Pope languidly maintained
fruits of all benefices ; that he often imposed a the conflict for a few years, but he was compelled
special tax upon the clergy, which he sometimes ultimately to give way before the firm attitude of
expended in subsidising theenemies of the country ; the nation. The statutes no longer remained a dead
that “ God hath given his sheep to the Pope to be letter .. They were enforced against every attempt
pastured, and not shorn and shaven ;" that “ there - to carry out the Papal appointments in England.
fore it would be good to renew all the statutes Thus were the prerogatives of the sovereign and
against provisions from Rome," and that “ no Papal the independence of the country vindicated , and a
collector or proctor should remain in England, victory achieved more truly valuable in itself, and
upon pain of life and limb ; and that no English- more lasting in its consequences, than the renowned
man, on the like pain , should become such collector triumphs of Crecy and Poictiers, which rendered
or proctor, or remain at the court of Rome." 1 illustrious the sameage and the samereign.
In February, 1372, there appeared in England This was the second great defeatwhich Rome had
an agentof the Pope, named Arnold Garnier, who sustained . England had refused to be a fief of the
travelled with a suite of servants and six horses Papal See by withholding the tribute to Urban ;
through England, and after remaining uninter- and now , by repelling the Pontifical jurisdiction, she
ruptedly two and a half years in the country, claimed to be mistress on her own territory. The
clergy divined the quarter whence these rebuffs
| Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 561. Sir Robert Cotton 's
Abridgment, p. 128. Lewis , Life of Wiclif, pp. 34 - 37. Lechler, Johann von Wiclif : MSS . in the Royal
Hume, Edw . III., chap . 16. Library at Vienna, No. 1,337 ; vol. i., p. 341.
THREE BULLS ISSUED AGAINST WICLIFFE. 93
proceeded. The real author of this movement, bates and edicts he inspired ; and the court, whose
which was expanding every day, was at little pains policy he partly moulded. His sentiments were find
to conceal himself. Ever since his return from ing an echo in public opinion. The tide was rising.
Bruges, Wicliffe had felt a new power in his soul, The hierarchy took the alarm . They cried for help ,
propelling him onward in this war. The unscrip - and the Pope took up their cause, which was not
tural constitution and blasphemous assumptions of theirs only, but his as well. “ The whole glutofmonks
the Papacy had been more fully disclosed to him ,and or begging friars,” says Fox, “ were set in a rage or
he began to oppose it with a boldness an eloquence , madness , which (even as hornets with their stings)
and a force of argument which he had not till now did assail this good man on every side, fighting (as
been able to wield . Through many channels was is said ) for their altars , paunches, and bellies. After
he leavening the nation - his chair in Oxford ; his them thepriests,and then after them the archbishop
pulpit in Lutterworth ; the Parliament, whose de- took the matterin hand,being then Simon Sudbury." ?
CHAPTER VII.
PERSECUTION OF WICLIFFE BY THE POPE AND THE HIERARCHY.
Wicliffe's Writings Examined - His Teaching submitted to the Pops - Three Bulls issued against him - Cited to
appear before the Bishop of London - John of Gaunt Accompanies him - Portrait of Wicliffe before his Judges
Tumult - Altercation between Duke of Lancaster and Bishop of London - The Mo' Rushes in - The Court Broken
up - Death of Edwart. III. -Meeting of Parliament- Wicliffe Summoned to its Councils — Question touching the
Papal Revenue from English Sees submitted to him - Its Solution - England coming out of the House of Bondage.
The man who was the mainspring of a movement sentiments, farewell to the temporal power of the
50 formidable tu the Papacy must be struck down. Popes, the better half of their kingdom . The matter
The writings of Wicliffe were examined. It was portended a terrible disaster to Rome, unless pre
no difficult matter to extract from his works doc- vented in time. For broaching a similar doctrine,
trines which militated against the power and wealth Arnold of Brescia had done expiation amid the
of Rome. The Oxford professor had taught that flames. Wicliffe had been too long neglected ; he
the Pope has no more power than ordinary priests must be immediately attended to .
to excommunicate or absolve men ; that neither Three separate bulls were drafted on the same
bishop nor Pope can validly excommunicate any day, May 22nd, 1377," and dispatched to England .
man, unless by sin he has first made himself ob - These bulls hinted surprise at the supineness of the
noxious to God ; that princes cannot give endow . English clergy in not having ere now crushed this
ments in perpetuity to the Church ; that when their formidable heresy which was springing up on their
gifts are abused they have the right to recall them ; soil, and they commanded them no longer to delay,
and that Christ has given no temporal lordship to but to take immediate steps for silencing the author
the Popes, and no supremacy over kings. These of thatheresy. One of the bulls was addressed to
propositions, culled from the tracts of the Reformer, Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Cante -bury, and
were sent to Pope Gregory XI. William Courtenay, Bishop of London ; the second
These doctrines were found to be of peculiarly was addressed to the king, anć the third to the
bad odour at the Papal court. They struck at a University of Oxford . They were all of the same
branch of the Pontifical prerogative on which the tenor. The one addressed to the king dwelt on
holders of the tiara have always put a special the greatness of England, “ as glorious in power
value. If the world should come to be of Wicliffe 's and richness, but more illustrious for the piety of
its faith , and for its using to shine with the bright
? Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p . 557 . Lewis, Life of ness of the sacred page.” * The Scriptures had not
Wiclif, pp. 46 – 48. Wicliffe's adversaries sent nineteen
articles enclosed in a letter to the Pope, extracted from
his letters and sermons. See in Lewis the copy which 2 Fox, Acts and Mon., vol. i., p. 556 .
Sir Henry Spelman has put in his collection of the 3 Lewis, Life of Wiclif, p . 49.
English Courcils . 4 Ibid ., p. 51.
yet been translated into the vernacular tongue, and students in Cambridge and Oxford , with a girdle
the Papal compliment which turns on this point is round the middle ; his face, adorned with a long
scarcely intelligible. thick beard , showed sharp bold features, a clear
The university was commanded to take care that piercing eye, firmly closed lips,which bespoke deci
tares did not spring up among its wheat, and that sion ; his whole appearance full of great earnestness,
from its chairs propositions were not taught “ de- significance, and character." ?
testable and damnable, tending to subvert the state But the three friends had found it no easy matter
of the whole Church, and even of the civil govern - to elbow their way through the crowd. In forcing
ment.” The bull addressed to the bishops was a passage something like an uproar took place,
expressed in terms still more energetic. The Pope which scandalised the court. Percy was the first to
could not help wishing that the Rector of Lutter- make his way into the Chapel of Our Lady, where
worth and Professor of Divinity “ was not a master the clerical judges were assembled in their robes
of errors, and had run into a kind of detestable and insignia of office.
wickedness, not only and openly publishing, but “ Percy,” said Bishop Courtenay, sharply — more
also vomiting out of the filthy dungeon of his offended, it is probable, at seeing the humble Rector
breast divers professions, false and erroneous con - of Lutterworth so powerfully befriended, than at
clusions, and most wicked and damnable heresies, the tumult which their entrance had created — “ if I
whereby he mightdefile the faithful sort, and bring had known whatmasteries you would have kept in
them from the right path headlong into the way of the church , I would have stopped you from coming
perdition." They were therefore to apprehend the in hither.”
said John Wicliffe, to shut him up in prison, to “ He shall keep such masteries,” said John of
sand all proofs and evidence of his heresy to the Gaunt, gruflly , “ though you say nay."
Pope, taking care that the document was securely “ Sit down, Wicliffe,” said Percy, having but
sealed , and entrusted to a faithful messenger, and scant reverence for a court which owed its autho
that meanwhile they should retain the prisoner rity to a foreign power — “ sit down ; you have many
in safe custody, and await further instructions. things to answer to , and have need to repose your
Thus did Pope Gregory throw the wolf's hide over self on a soft seat."
Wicliffe , that he might let slip his Dominicans in “ He must and shall stand," said Courtenay, still
full cry upon his track." more chafed ; “ it is unreasonable that one on his
The zeal of the bishops anticipated the orders of trial before his ordinary should sit.”
the Pope. Before the bulls had arrived in England “ Lord Percy's proposal is but reasonable,” in
the prosecution of Wicliffe was begun. At the terposed the Duke of Lancaster ; " and as for you,”
instance of Courtenay, Bishop of London, Wicliffe said he, addressing Bishop Courtenay, “ who are
was cited to appear on the 19th of February, 1377, grown so arrogant and proud , I will bring down
in Our Lady's Chapel in St. Paul's, to answer for his the pride not of you alone, but that of all the
teaching. The rumour of what was going on got prelacy in England .”
wind in Lonelon, and when the day came a great To this menace the bishop calmly replied “ that
crowd assembled at the door of St. Paul's. Wicliffe, his trust was in no friend on earth, but in God .”
attended by two powerful friends— John, Duke of This answer but the more inflamed the anger of
Lancaster , better known as John of Gaunt, and the duke, and the altercation became yet warmer,
Lord Percy, Earl Marshal of England - appeared at till at last John of Gaunt was heard to say that
the skirts of the assemblage. The Duke of Lan - “ rather than take such words from the bishop , he
caster and Wicliffe had first met , it is probable, at would drag him out of the court by the hair of the
Bruges, where it chanced to both to be on a mission head.”
at the same time. Lancaster held the Reformer It is hard to say what the strife between the
in high esteem , on political if not on religious
grounds. Favouring his opinions, he resolved to go ? Lechler, Johann von Wiclif, vol. i., p. 370. In 1851 a
with him and show him countenance before the remarkable portrait of Wicliffe came to light in possession
tribunal of the bishops. “ Here stood Wicliffe in of a family named Payne, in Leicester. It is a sort of
palimpsest. The original painting ofWicliffe,which seems
the presence of his judges, a meagre form dressed to have come down from the fifteenth century, had been
in a long light mantle of black cloth , similar to painted over before the Reformation , and changed into
those worn at this day by doctor's, masters, and the portrait of an unknown Dr. Robert Langton ; the
- - - - - -
original was discovered beneath it, and this represents
Wicliffe in somewhat earlier years, with fuller and
| Fox, Acts and Mon., vol. i., p . 363. Lewis , Life of Wiclit, stronger features than in the other and commonly known
pp. 50, 51. portraits. (British Quarterly Revieve, Oct., 1858.)
WICLIFFE SUMMONED TO THE COUNCILS OF PARLIAMENT.
duke and the bishop might have grown to , had had in his wisdom and integrity , by submitting the
not other parties suddenly appeared upon the scene. following question to him : “ Whether the Kingdom
The crowd at the door, hearing what was going on of England might not lawfully, in case of necessity,
within , burst the barrier, and precipitated itself detain and keep back the treasure of the Kingdom
en masse into the chapel. The angry contention for its defence, that it be not carried away to
between Lancaster and Courtenay was instantly foreign and strange nations, the Pope himself de
drowned by the louder clamours of the mob . All manding and requiring the same, under pain of
was now confusion and uproar. The bishops had censure.”
pictured to themselves the humble Rector of Lutter- This appears a very plain matter to us, but our
worth standing meekly if not tremblingly at their ancestors of the fourteenth century found it en
bar. It was their turn to tremble. Their citation, compassed with great difficulties. The best and
like a dangerous spell which recoils upon the man bravest of England at that day were scared by the
who uses it, had evoked a tempest which all their ghostly threat with which the Pope accompanied
art and authority were not able to allay. To pro- his demand, and they durst not refuse it till assured
ceed with the trial was out of the question. The by Wicliffe that it was a matter in which the Pope
bishops hastily retreated ; Wicliffe returned home ; had no right to command , and in which they in
" and so ,” says one, “ that council, being broken up curred no sin and no danger by disobedience .
with scolding and brawling, was dissolved before Nothing could better show the thraldom in which
nine o'clock . " ? our fathers were held , and the slow and laborious
The issues of the affair were favourable to the steps by which they found their way out of the
Reformation . The hierarchy had received a check , house of their bondage.
and the cause of Wicliffe began to bemore widely But out of what matter did the question now
discussed and better understood by the nation. At put to Wicliffe arise ? It related to an affair which
this juncture events fell out in high places which must have been peculiarly irritating to Englishmen.
tended to shield the Reformer and his opinions. The Popes were then enduring their “ Babylonish
Edward III.,who had reigned with glory, but lived captivity ,” as they called their residence at Avignon .
too long for his fame, now died (June 21st, 1377). All through the reign of Edward III., the Papacy ,
His yet more renowned son , the Black Prince, had banished from Rome, had made its abode on the
preceded him to the grave, leaving as heir to the banks of the Rhone. One result of this was that
throne a child of eleven years,who succeeded on his each time the Papal chair became vacant it was
grandfather's death, under the title of Richard II. filled with a Frenchman. The sympathies of the
His mother, the dowager Princess of Wales, was French Pope were , of course, with his native coun
a woman of spirit, friendly to the sentiments of try, in the war now waging between France and
Wicliffe , and not afraid , as we shall see , to avow England,and it was natural to suppose that part at
them . The new sovereign , two months after his least of the treasure which the Popes received from
accession, assembled his first Parliament. It was England went to the support of the war on the
composed of nearly the same men as the “ Good French side. Not only was the country drained
Parliament ” which had passed such stringent of its wealth, but that wealth was turned against
clicts against the “ provisions" and other usurpa- the country from which it was taken . Should this
tions of the Pope. The new Parliament was dis- be longer endured ? It was generally believed that
posed to carry the war against the Papacy a step at that moment the Pope's collectors had a large
farther than its predecessor had done. It summoned sum in their hands ready to send to Avignon , to
Wicliffe to its councils. His influence was plainly be employed , like that sent already to the same
growing. The trusted commissioner of princes, the quarter, in paying soldiers to fightagainst England .
counsellor of Parliaments, he had become a power Had they not better keep this gold at home !
in England . We do not wonder that the Pope Wicliffe's reply was in the affirmative, and the
singled him out as the man to be struck down. grounds of his opinion were briefly and plainly
While the bulls which were meant to crush the stated. He did not argue the point on the canon
Reformer were still on their way to England, the law , or on the law of England, but on that of
Parliament unequivocally showed the confidence it nature and the Bible. God , he said , had given to
every society the power of self-preservation ; and
any power given by God to any society or nation
* For, Acts and Mon . Lewis, Life of Wiėlif , pp . 56 - 58. may, without doubt, be used for the end for which
Vaughan , Life of John de Wicliffe, vol. i., pp . 338, 339. it was given. This gold was England's own, and
Hanna, Wicliffe and the Huguenots, p . 83. Hume,
Rich . II., Miscell. Trans. might unquestionably be retained for England's use
and
the defence. But itvice-regent,
Pope,as God's might be supreme
objected,proprietor
Was not England
tribute, butgaveastoalms.
the Papacy she gave
But alms couldnotnotas bea
ofall the temporalities,
corporations in ofall? theIt wason
Christendom sees andthereligious
ground righteouslydemanded
necessitous. Was unless
the Papacywhenso ?theWere
claimantwas
notpoorerits
ofmoney,
his temporal
and challenged England at its perilthisto
supremacy that he demanded coffers overflowing ? Was not England the
of the two? Her necessities were great, occasioned
SIC
LE
A
teLIN
SET
ST
1
HIDE SIL
ISL
NA
THE LOLLARDS' TOWER, LAMBETH PALACE.

ALACE .
retain it. But who, replied the Reformer, gave the
PopeBible.
the this temporal
The supremacy
Apostle Peter I do give
? could not the it in
find Pope
only what he himself possessed ,and Peter possessed
no temporal
must lordship. Pope, argued
choose between theTheapostleship and theWicliffe,
king by a two-fold drain , the exactions of the Popes and
ship ;
nothing i f
should claim
he
of prefers
us i n to
the
he abidethis bymoney,
character of an apo then die mothed in purp
be a king,then
character of
his apostleship, an he can
apostle;
even then
claim
or burdens ofletthewar.
thehome,and
at England, charity,of sending
Letinstead then, beginher
cannot for neither Peter nor anyhe money
clothed toin these
purple poor
and fare of Avignon,every
men sumptuously are
who day,
one of the they
Christians; apostles imposed a tax upon keep her own gold for her own uses. Thus did the
were eversupported by the free-will lead on his countrymen, step by step,as
offerings of those to whom they ministered. What Reformer they were able to follow.
ARRIVAL OF THE THREE BULLS.
CHAPTER VIII.
HIERARCHICAL PERSECUTION OF WICLIFFE RESUMED .
Arrival of the Three Bulls - Wicliffe's Anti-Papal Policy - Entirely Subversive of Romanism - New Citation - Appcars
before the Bishops at Lambeth - The Crowd - Its Reverent Behaviour to Wicliffe - Message from the Queen
Dowager to the Court - Dismay of the Bishops — They abruptly Terminate the Sitting - English Tumults in the
Fourteenth Century compared with French Revolutions in the Nineteenth - Substance of Wicliffe's Defence
The Binding and Loosing Power.
POPULAR DEMONSTRATION AT LAMBETH PALACE

IN FAVOUR OF WICLIFFE . of the
nation
MEANWHILE, the three bulls of the Pope had arrived to dis
in England. The one addressed to the king found pose of
Edward in his grave. That sent to the university its own
was but coldly welcomed. Not in vain had Wicliffe proper
taught so many years in its halls. Oxford,more- ty, in
over, had too great a regard for its own fame to defi.
extinguish the brightest luminary it contained. ance
But the bull addressed to the bishops found them of the
in a different mood. Alarm and rage possessed ghostly
these prelates. Mainly by the instrumentality of terrors
Wicliffe had England been rescued from sheer by which the Popes strove to divert it into their own
Vassalage to the Papal See . It was he, too, who coffers. Thus, guided by his counsel, and fortified
had put an extinguisher upon the Papal nomina- by the sanction of his name, the Parliament was
tions, thereby vindicating the independence of the marching on and adopting one bold measure after
English Church. He had next defended the right another. The penetrating genius of the man, his
in everything the same power as Christ in his vast prison -house , they kept immured the souls.
humanity. Against this rude blasphemy I have and bodies of men , otherwise than by exploding
elsewhere inveighed . Neither the Pope nor the the false dogma on which it was founded. It was
Lord Jesus Christ can grant dispensations or give this dogma therefore, first of all, which he chal
indulgences to any man , except as the Deity has lenged. Think not, said he, in effect, to his coun
eternally determined by his just counsel." ! trymen , thatGod has given “ the keys " to Innocent
Thus did John Wicliffe, with the instincts of a of Rome; think not that the friar carries heaven
True Reformer, strike at that ghostly principle which in his wallet ; think not thatGod sends his pardons
serves the Pope as the foundation-stone of his king- wrapped up in those bits of paper which the Men
dom . Luther's first blows were in like manner dicants carry about with them , and which they sell
aimed at the same principle. He began his career for a piece of silver. Listen to the voice of the
by throwing down the gauntlet to the pardon- Gospel: “ Ye are not redeemed with corruptible
mongers of Rome. It was “ the power of the things such as silver and gold, butwith the precious
keys ” which gave to the Pope the lordship of the blood of Christ, the Lamb without blemish and
conscience ; for he who can pardon sin - open or without spot.” God pardons men without money
shut the gate of Paradise - is God to men. Wicliffe and without price. Thus did Wicliffe begin to
perceived that he could not shake into ruin that preach “ the acceptable year of the Lord," and to
great fabric of spiritual and temporal power which proclaim “ liberty to the captive, and the opening
the Pontiffs had reared , and in which , as within a of the prison to them that are bound.”
CHAPTER VI.
THE BATTLE OF THE PARLIAMENT WITH THE POPE .
Resumé of Political Progress - Foreign Ecclesiastics appointed to English Benefices - Statutes of Provisors and
Præmunire meant to put an End to the Abuse – The Practice still Continued -- Instances - Royal Commissioners
sent to Treat with the Pope concerning this Abuse - Wicliffe chosen one of the Commissioners — The Negotiation
a Failure - Nevertheless of Benefit to Wicliffe by the Insight it gave him into the Papacy - Arnold Garnier
The “ Good Parliament" – Its Battle with the Pope - A Greater Victory than Crecy - Wicliffe waxes Bolder
- Rage of the Monks.
We have already spoken of the encroachments of the Statutes of Provisors and Præmunire were
the Papal See on the independence of England in framed with this view . The abuses which these
the thirteenth century ; the cession of the kingdom laws were meant to correct had long been a source
to Innocent III. by King John ; the promise of an of national irritation. There were certain benefices
annual payment to the -'ope of a thousand marks in England which the Pope, in the plenitude of his
by the English king ; the demand preferred by power, reservod to himself. These were generally
Urban V. after payment of this tribute had lapsed the more wealthy livings. But it might be incon
for thirty years ; the spirited reply of the Parliament venient to wait till a vacancy actually occurred ,
of England,and the sha - Wicliffe had in theresolu - accordingly the Pope, by what he termed a provisor ,
tion to which the Lords temporaland spiritual came issued an appointment beforehand. The rights of
to refuse the Papal impost. Wehave also said that the chapter , or of the crown, or whoever was
the opposition of Parliament to the encroachments patron, were thus set aside, and the legal presentee
of the Popes on the liberties of the kingdom did not must either buy up the provisor, or permit the
stop at this point, that several stringent laws were Pope's nominee, often a foreigner, to enjoy the
passed to protect the rights of the crown and the benefice. The very best of these dignities and be
property of the subjects, and that more especially nefices were enjoyed by Italians, Frenchmen, and
- other foreigners, who were, says Lewis, “ someof
1 See Lewis, Life of Wiclif, chap. 2. Vaughan, Iife of them mere boys ; and not only ignorant of the
John de Wicliffe. Also Wicliffe and the Huguenots, by the English language, but even of Latin , and who never
Rev . Dr. Hanna, pp. 61 - 63 ; Edin ., 1860 . so much as saw their churches , but committed the
THE STATUTES OF PROVISORS AND PRÆMUNIRE. 89
care of them to those they could get to serve them LL. D . ; William de Burton , Knight ; Robert
the cheapest; and had the revenues of them remitted Bealknap, and John de Henyngton.'
to them at Rome or elsewhere, by theis proctors , to The Pope declined receiving the king's ambas
whom they let their tithes." ? It was to check this sadors at Avignon. The manners of the Papal
abuse that the Statute of Provisors was passed ; court in that age could not bear close inspection .
and the law of Præmunire, by which it was It was safer that foreign eyes should contemplate
followed , was intended to fortify it, and effectually them from a distance. The Pope made choice of
to close the drain of the nation's wealth by for- Bruges, in the Netherlands, and thither he sent his
bidding any one to bring into the kingdom any nuncios to confer with the English delegates. The
bull or letter of the Pope appointing to an negotiation dragged on for two years , the result
English benefice. was a compromise ; the Pope engaging, on his party
The grievances were continued nevertheless, and to desist from the reservation of benefices ; and the
became even more intolerable. The Parliament king promising, on his, no more to confer them by his
addressed a new remonstrance to the king, setting writ “ quare impedit.” This arrangement left the
forth the unbearable nature of these oppressions, power of the Pope over the benefices of the Church of
and the injury they were doing to the royal England at least equalto thatof the sovereign . The
authority , and praying him to take action on the Pope did not renounce his right, he simply abstained
point. Accordingly , in 1373, the king appointed from the exercise of it — tactics exceedingly common
four commissioners to proceed to Avignon, where and very convenient in the Papal policy — and this
Pope Gregory XI. was residing, and lay the com - was all that could be obtained from a negotiation of
plaints of the English nation before him , and re- two years. The result satisfied no one in England :
quest that for the future he would forbear meddling it was seen to be a hollow truce that could not last ;
with the reservations of benefices. The ambassadors nor indeed did it, for hardly had the commissioners
were courteously received , but they could obtain no returned home, when the Pope began to make as
redress.* The Parliament renewed their complaint free with English benefices and their revenues as
and request that “ remedy be provided against the though he had never tied his hands by promise or
provisions of the Pope, whereby be reaps the first treaty.
fruits of ecclesiastical dignities, the treasure of the There is cause , indeed, to suspect that the inte
realm being thereby conveyed away, which they rests of England were betrayed in this negotiation
cannot bear.” A Royal Commission was issued in The Bishop of Bangor, on whom the conduct of the
1374 to inquire into the number of ecclesiastical embassy chiefly devolved , on his return home was
benefices and dignities in England held by aliens, immediately translated to the See of Hereford , and
and to estimate their exact value. It was found in 1389 to that of St. David 's. His promotion, in
that the number of livings in the hands of Italians, both instances the result of Papal provisors, bore
Frenchmen, and other foreigners was so great that, the appearance of being the reward of subserviency.
says Fox, “ were it all set down , it would fill almost Wicliffe returned home in disgust at the timewhich
half a quire of paper." 3 The clergy of England was had been wasted ,and the little fruitwhich had been
rapidly becoming an alien and a merely nominal obtained. But these two years were to him far
one. The sums drained from the kingdom were from lost years. Wicliffe had come into communi
immense . cation with the Italian, Spanish , and French digni
The king resolved to make another attempt to taries of the Church, who enjoyed the confidence of
arrange this matter with the Papal court. He the Pope and the cardinals. There was given him
named another commission, and it is an evidence of an insight into a circle which would not have
the growing influence of Wicliffe that his name readily opened to his view in his own country .
stands second on the list of these delegates. The Other lessons too he had been learning, unpleasant.
first named is John , Bishop of Bangor, who had no doubt, but most important. He had not been so
served on the former commission ; the second is John far removed from the Papal court but he could see
de Wicliffe, S. T .P . The names that follow are the principles that reigned there , and the motives
John Guter , Dean of Sechow ; Simon de Moulton ,
4 Barnes, Life of King Edward III., p. 866. Lewis, Life i
" Lewis, Life of Wiclif , chap . 3 , p . 31. of Wiclif, p . 33 .
* Barnes, Life of King Edward III., p . 864. Lewis, Life 5 Bruges was then a large city of 200, 000 inhabitants,
of Wiclif , p . 32. the seat of important industries, trade, wealth , municipal
3 Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 561. Fox gives a list of freedom , and political power.
the benefices, with the names of the incumbents and the 6 Lewis, Life of Wiclif, p. 34 . Vaughan , Life of John de
worth of their sees. (See pp. 561, 592.) Wicliffe, vol. i., pp. 326, 327.
that guided its policy. If he had notmet the Pope only this proud worldly priest's collector, by process
he had met his representatives, and he had been of time this hill must be spended ; for he taketh
able to read the master in his servants ; and when ever money out of our land, and sendeth nought
he returned to England it was to proclaim on the agen but God's curse for his simony." ! Soon after
house-tops what before he had spoken in the closet. his return from Bruges, Wicliffe was appointed to
Avarice, ambition, hypocrisy, these were the gods the rectorship of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire,
that were worshipped in the Roman curia — these and as this preferment came not from the Pope but
were the virtues that adorned the Papal throne. the king, it may be taken as a sign of the royal
JOHN OF GAUNT. ( From a Window at Au Souls' College, Oxford.)

So did Wicliffe proclaim . In his public lectures he approval of his conduct as a commissioner , and his
now spoke of the Pope as “ Antichrist, the proud growing influence at the court.
worldly priest of Rome, and the most cursed of The Parliament, finding that the negotiation at
clippers and purse-kervers.” And in one of his Bruges had come to nothing, resolved on more
tracts that remain he thus speaks :- “ They (the decisive measures . The Pope took advantage of
Pope and his collectors ) draw out of our land poor the king's remissness in enforcing the statutes
men's livelihood , and many thousand marks by the directed against the Papal encroachments, and
year, of the king's money, for Sacraments and spiri- promised many things, but performed nothing.
tual things, that is cursed heresie of simony, and He still continued to appoint aliens to English
maketh all Christendom assent and meyntene his
heresie. And certes though our realm had a huge Great Sentence of Curse Expounded , c. 21 ; MSS. apud
hill of gold , and never other man took thereof but Lewis, Life of Wiclif.
KUHUS
.
LONDON
BISHOP
THE
AND
OFGAUNT
JOHN
BETWEEN
ALTERCATION
92 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM . .
livings, notwithstanding his treaties to the con - went back to Rome with no inconsiderable sum
trary. If these usurpations were allowed , he of money. He had a royal licence to return to
vould soon eroter dignities neignty of the lendur
would soon proceed to greater liberties, and would
appoint to secular dignities also , and end by appro-
England, of which he afterwards made use . He
was required to swear that in collecting the Papal
priating as his own the sovereignty of the realm . dues he would protect the rights and interests of
It was plain to the Parliament that a battle must the crown and the country. He took the oath in
be fought for the country's independence, and there 1372 in the Palace of Westminster, in presence of
were none but themselves to fight it. They drew the councillors and dignitaries of the crown. The
up a bill of indictinent against the Papal usur- fears of patriots were in no way allayed by the
pations. In that document they set forth the mani- ready oath of the Papal agent ; and Wicliffe in
fold miseries under which the country was groaning especial wrote a treatise to show that he had sworn
from a foreign wyranny, which had crept into the to do what was a contradiction and an impossibility .'
kingdom under spiritual pretexts, but which was It was Wicliffe who breathed this spirit into the
rapaciously consuming the fruits of the earth and Commons of England, and emboldened them to
the goods of the nation. The Parliament went on fight this battle for the prerogatives of their prince ,
to say that the revenue drawn by the Pope from and their own rights as the free subjects of an
the realm was five times that which the king independent realm . We recognise his graphic and
received ; that he contrived to make one and the trenchant style in the document of the Parliament
same dignity yield him six several taxes ; that to The Pope stormed when he found the gage of battle
increase his gains he frequently shifted bishops thrown down in this bold fashion. With an air of
from one see to another ; that he filled livings with defiance he hastened to take it up , by appointing
ignorant and unworthy persons, while meritorious an Italian to an English benefice . But the Parlia
Englishmen were passed over, to the great dis - ment stood firm ; the temporal Lords sided with the
couragement of learning and virtue ; that. every - Commons. “ We will support the crown,” said
thing was venal in “ the sinful city of Rome ; " and they, “ against the tiara." The Lords spiritual
that English patrons, corrupted by this pestilential adopted a like course ; reserving their judgment on
example, had learned to practise simony without the ecclesiastical sentences of the Pope, they held
shame or remorse ; that the Pope's collector had that the temporal effects of his sentences were null,
opened an establishment in the capital with a staff and that the Papal power availed nothing in that
of officers, as if it were one of the great courts of point against the royal prerogative.
the nation, “ transporting yearly to the Pope twenty The nation rallied in support of the Estates of the
thousand marks, and most commonly more ; ” that Realm . It pronounced no equivocal opinion when it
the Pope received a richer revenue from England styled the Parliament which had enacted these strin
than any prince in Christendom drew from his gent edicts against the Papal bulls and agents “ the
kingdom ; that this very year he had taken the first Good Parliament." The Pope languidly maintained
fruits of all benefices ; that he often imposed a the conflict for a few years, but he was compelled
special tax upon the clergy, which he sometimes ultimately to give way before the firm attitude of
expended in subsidising the enemies of the country ; the nation. The statutes no longer remained a dead
that “ God hath given his sheep to the Pope to be letter .. They were enforced against every attempt
pastured , and not shorn and shaven ;” that “ there to carry out the Papal appointments in England .
fore it would be good to renew all the statutes Thus were the prerogatives of the sovereign and
against provisions from Rome," and that “ no Papal the independence of the country vindicated , and a
collector or proctor should remain in England, victory achieved more truly valuable in itself, and
upon pain of life and limb ; and that no English- more lasting in its consequences, than the renowned
man , on the like pain , should become such collector triumphs of Crecy and Poictiers , which rendered
or proctor, or remain at the court of Rome." 1 illustrious the same age and the same reign.
In February, 1372, there appeared in England This was the second great defeatwhich Rome had
an agent of the Pope, named Arnold Garnier, who sustained . England had refused to be a fief of the
Papal See by withholding the tribute to Urban ;
travelled with a suite of servants and six horses
through England, and after remaining uninter- and now , by repelling the Pontifical jurisdiction , she
ruptedly two and a half years in the country, claimed to be mistress on her own territory. The
clergy divined the quarter whence these rebuffs
i Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p . 561. Sir Robert Cotton's
Abridgment, p . 128. Lewis, Life of Wiclif, pp . 34 – 37. Lechler, Johann von Wiclif : MSS. in the Royal
Hume, Edw . III., chap. 16. Library at Vienna, No. 1,337 ; vol. i., p. 341.
THREE BULLS ISSUED AGAINST WICLIFFE. 93
proceeded. The real author of this movement, bates and edicts he inspired ; and the court, whose
which was expanding every day, was at little pains policy he partly moulded . His sentiments were find
to conceal himself. Ever since his return from ing an echo in public opinion . The tide was rising.
Bruges, Wicliffe had felt a new power in his soul, The hierarchy took the alarm . They cried for help ,
propelling him onward in this war. The unscrip - and the Pope took up their cause, which was not
tural constitution and blasphemous assumptions of theirsonly,buthis aswell. “ Thewhole glutofmonks
the Papacy had been more fully disclosed to him , and or begging friars ," says Fox, “ were set in a rage or
he began to oppose it with a boldness an eloquence, madness, which (even as hornets with their stings)
and a force of argument which he had not till now did assail this good man on every side, fighting (as
been able to wield . Through many channels was is said ) for their altars,paunches ,and bellies. After
he leavening the nation - his chair in Oxford ; his them the priests, and then after them the archbishop
pulpit in Lutterworth ; the Parliament, whose de- took thematterin hand, being then Simon Sudbury." ?
CHAPTER VII.
PERSECUTION OF WICLIFFE BY THE POPE AND THE HIERARCHY.
Wicliffe's Writings Examined - His Teaching submitted to the Pope - Three Bulls issued against him - Cited to
appear before the Bishop of London - John of Gaunt Accompanies him -- Portrait of Wicliffe before his Judges
Tumult - Altercation between Duke of Lancaster and Bishop of London - The Mo' Rushes in - The Court Broken
up - Death of Edwart. III. - Meeting of Parliament- Wicliffe Summoned to its Councils - Question touching the
Papal Revenue from English Sees submitted to him - Its Solution - England coming out of the House of Bondage.
The man who was the mainspring of a movement sentiments, farewell to the temporal power of the
50 formidable to the Papacy must be struck down. Popes, the better half of their kingdom . The matter
The writings of Wicliffe were examined. It was portended a terrible disaster to Rome, unless pre
no difficult matter to extract from his works doc- vented in time. For broaching a similar doctrine,
trines which militated against the power and wealth Arnold of Brescia had done expiation amid the
of Rome. The Oxford professor had taught that flames. Wicliffe had been too long neglected ; he
the Pope has no more power than ordinary priests must be immediately attended to.
to excommunicate or absolve men ; that neither Three separate bulls were drafted on the same
bishop nor Pope can validly excommunicate any day, May 22nd, 1377, and dispatched to England.
man, unless by sin he has first made himself ob- These bulls hinted surprise at the supineness of the
noxious to God ; that princes cannot give endow . English clergy in not having ere now crushed this
ments in perpetuity to the Church ; that when their formidable heresy which was springing up on their
gifts are abused they have the right to recall them ; soil, and they commanded them no longer to delay,
and that Christ has given no temporal lordship to but to take immediate steps for silencing the author
the Popes, and no supremacy over kings. These of that heresy. One of the bulls was addressed to
propositions, culled from the tracts of the Reformer, Simon Sudbury , Archbishop of Cante hury, and
were sent to Pope Gregory XI. William Courtenay, Bishop of London ; the second
These doctrines were found to be of peculiarly was addressed to the king, anċ the third to the
bad odour at the Papal court. They struck at a University of Oxford. They were all of the same
branch of the Pontifical prerogative on which the tenor. The one addressed to the king dwelt on
holders of the tiara have always put a special the greatness of England, “ as glorious in power
value. If the world should come to be of Wicliffe's and richness, but more illustrious for the piety of
its faith , and for its using to shine with the bright
1 For, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 557. Lewis, Life of ness of the sacred page." The Scriptures had not
Wiclif, pp. 46 – 48. Wicliffe's adversaries sent nineteen
articles enclosed in a letter to the Pope, extracted from
his letters and sermons. See in Lewis the copy which 2 Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 556.
Sir Henry Spelman has put in his collection of the 3 Lewis, Life of Wiclif, p. 49.
English Councils . 4 Ibid., p . 51.
yet been translated into the vernacular tongue, and students in Cambridge and Oxford , with a girdle
the Papal compliment which turns on this point is round the middle ; his face, adorned with a long
scarcely intelligible. thick beard , showed sharp bold features, a clear
The university was commanded to take care that piercing eye, firmly closed lips,which bespoke deci.
tares did not
c spring sion ; his whole appearance full of great earnestness,
P uptamong its wheat, and that
its chairs
fromm its rable, endinwere
hairs propositions civil gov“e de- significance, and character." ;
the taught
g to not
testable and damnable, tending to subvert the state But the three friends had found it no easy matter
of the whole Church, and even of the civil govern- to elbow their way through the crowd. In forcing
ment.” The bull addressed to the bishops was a passage something like an uproar took place,
expressed in terms still more energetic. The Pope which scandalised the court. Percy was the first to
could not help wishing that the Rector of Lutter - make his way into the Chapel of Our Lady , where
worth and Professor of Divinity “ was not a master the clerical judges were assembled in their robes
of errors, and had run into a kind of detestable and insignia of office.
wickedness, not only and openly publishing, but “ Percy,” said Bishop Courtenay, sharply — more
also vomiting out of the filthy dungeon of his offended, it is probable, at seeing the humble Rector
breast divers professions, false and erroneous con- of Lutterworth so powerfully befriended , than at
clusions, and most wicked and damnable heresies, the tumult which their entrance had created — “ if I
whereby he mightdefile the faithful sort, and bring had known whatmasteries you would have kept in
them from the right path headlong into the way of the church, I would have stopped you from coming
perdition.” They were therefore to apprehend the in hither.”
said John Wicliffe, to shut him up in prison, to “ He shall keep such masteries,” said John of
send all proofs and evidence of his heresy to the Gaunt, gruffly, “ though you say nay."
Pope, taking care that the document was securely “ Sit down, Wicliffe,” said Percy, having but
sealed, and entrusted to a faithful messenger, and scant reverence for a court which owed its autho
that meanwhile they should retain the prisoner rity to a foreign power — “ sit down ; you have many
in safe custody, and await further instructions. things to answer to , and have need to repose your
Thus did Pope Gregory throw the wolf's hide over self on a soft seat.”
Wicliffe, that he might let slip his Dominicans in “ Hemust and shall stand,” said Courtenay, still
full cry upon his track." more chafed ; “ it is unreasonable that one on his
The zeal of the bishops anticipated the orders of trial before his ordinary should sit.”
the Pope. Before the bulls had arrived in England “ Lord Percy's proposal is but reasonable," in
the prosecution of Wicliffe was begun. At the terposed the Duke of Lancaster ; " and as for you ,"
instance of Courtenay, Bishop of London , Wicliffe said he, addressing Bishop Courtenay, “ who are
was cited to appear on the 19th of February, 1377, grown so arrogant and proud, I will bring down
in Our Lady's Chapel in St. Paul's, to answer for his the pride not of you alone, but that of all the
teaching. The rumour of what was going on got prelacy in England ."
wind in London, and when the day came a great "To this menace the bishop calmly replied “ that
crowd assembled at the door of St. Paul's. Wicliffe, his trust was in no friend on earth, but in God."
attended by two powerful friends- - John , Duke of This answer but the more inflamed the anger of
Lancaster, better known as John of Gaunt, and the duke, and the altercation became yet warmer,
Lord Percy, Earl Marshal of England - appeared at till at last John of Gaunt was heard to say that
the skirts of the assemblage. The Duke of Lan - “ rather than take such words from the bishop, he
caster and Wicliffe had first met, it is probable, at would drag him out of the court by the hair of the
Bruges, where it chanced to both to be on a mission head.”
at the same time. Lancaster held the Reformer It is hard to say what the strife between the
in high esteem , on political if not on religious
grounds. Favouring his opinions, he resolved to go Lechler, Johann von Wiclif, vol. i., p. 370. In 1851 a
with him and show him countenance before the remarkable portrait of Wicliffe came to light in possession
tribunal of the bishops. “ Here stood Wicliffe in of a family named Payne, in Leicester. It is a sort of
palimpsest. The original painting of Wicliffe,which seems
the presence of his judges, a meagre form dressed to have come down from the fifteenth century, had been
in a long light mantle of black cloth, similar to painted over before the Reformation , and changed into
those worn at this day by doctors, masters , and the portrait of an unknown Dr. Robert Langton ; the
original was discovered beneath it, and this represents
Wicliffe in somewhat earlier years, with fuller and
Fox, Acts and Mon .,vol. i., p. 363. Lewis, Life of Wiclif, stronger features than in the other and commonly known
pp. 50, 51. portraits. (British Quarterly Reviev , Oct., 1858.)
WICLIFFE SUMMONED TO THE COUNCILS OF PARLIAMENT. 93
duke and the bishop might have grown to , had had in his wisdom and integrity, by submitting the
not other parties suddenly appeared upon the scene. following question to him : “ Whether the Kingdom
The crowd at the door, hearing what was going on of England might not lawfully , in case of necessity,
within , burst the barrier, and precipitated itself detain and keep back the treasure of the Kingdom
en masse into the chapel. The angry contention for its defence, that it be not carried away to
between Lancaster and Courtenay was instantly foreign and strange nations, the Pope himself de
drowned by the louder clamours of the mob. All manding and requiring the same, under pain of
was now confusion and uproar. The bishops had censure.”
pictured to themselves the humble Rector of Lutter . This appears a very plain matter to us, but our
worth standing meekly if not tremblingly at their ancestors of the fourteenth century found it en
bar. It was their turn to tremble. Their citation, compassed with great difficulties. The best and
like a dangerous spell which recoils upon theman bravest of England at that day were scared by the
who uses it, had evoked a tempest which all their ghostly threat with which the Pope accompanied
art and authority were not able to allay. To pro - his demand, and they durst not refuse it till assured
ceed with the trial was out of the question. The by Wicliffe that it was a matter in which the Pope
bishops hastily retreated ; Wicliffe returned home; had no right to command, and in which they in
" and so," says one, “ that council, being broken up curred no sin and no danger by disobedience.
with scolding and brawling, was dissolved before Nothing could better show the thrakdom in which
nine o'clock." our fathers were held , and the slow and laborious
The issues of the affair were favourable to the steps by which they found their way out of the
Reformation . The hierarchy had received a check , house of their bondage.
and the cause of Wicliffe began to be more widely But out of what matter did the question now
discussed and better understood by the nation. At put to Wicliffe arise ? It related to an affair which
this juncture events fell out in high places which must have been peculiarly irritating to Englishmen.
tended to shield the Reformer and his opinions. The Popes were then enduring their “ Babylonish
Edward III.,who had reigned with glory, but lived captivity," as they called their residence at Avignon .
too long for his fame, now died (June 21st, 1377). All through the reign of Edward III., the Papacy ,
His yet more renowned son , the Black Prince, had banished from Rome, had made its abode on the
preceded him to the grave, leaving as heir to the banks of the Rhone. One result of this was that
throne a child of eleven years, who succeeded on his each time the Papal chair became vacant it was
grandfather's death , under the title of Richard II. filled with a Frenchman. The sympathies of the
His mother, the dowager Princess of Wales, was French Pope were, of course, with his native coun
a woman of spirit, friendly to the sentiments of try, in the war now waging between France and
Wicliffe, and not afraid , as we shall
montsee , afto avow England,and
En it was natural to suppose that part at
orion, ttwo
them . The new sovereign, ter whisas leastglaofndthewentreasure
hs after
wo months t Not onwhich
ly wathe
s Popes received from
accession, assembled his first Parliament. It was England went to the support of the war on the
composed of nearly the same men as the “ Good French side. Not only was the country drained
Parliament ” which had passed such stringent of its wealth , but that wealth was turned against
edicts against the “ provisions ” and other usurpa- the country from which it was taken . Should this
tions of the Pope. The new Parliament was dis- be longer endured ? It was generally believed that
posed to carry the war against the Papacy a step at that moment the Pope's collectors had a large
farther than its predecessor had done. It summoned sum in their hands ready to send to Avignon, to
Wicliffe to its councils. His influence was plainly be employed, like that sent already to the same
growing. The trusted commissioner of princes, the quarter , in paying soldiers to fightagainst England .
counsellor of Parliaments , he had become a power Had they not better keep this gold at home ?
in England. We do not wonder that the Pope Wicliffe's reply was in the affirmative, and the
singled him out as the man to be struck down. grounds of his opinion were briefly and plainly
While the bulls which were meant to crush the stated. He did not argue the point on the canon
Reformer were still on their way to England, the law , or on the law of England , but on that of
Parliament unequivocally showed the confidence it nature and the Bible. God, he said , had given to
every society the power of self-preservation ; and
any power given by God to any society or nation
? For, Acts and Mon . Lewis, Life of Wiclif , pp. 56 - 58. may, without doubt, be used for the end for which
Vaughan , Life of John de Wicliffe, vol. i., pp. 338 , 339.
Hanna, Wicliffe and the Huguenots, p . 83. Hume, it was given . This gold was England's own, and
Rich. II., Miscell. Trans. might unquestionably be retained for England's use
and Pope,
the defence.as God's
But itvice-regent,
might be supreme
objected,Was not tribute,
proprietor England butgaveastoalms.
the Papacy she gavecouldnotnotasbea
But alms
ofall the temporalities,
corporations i n ofall? theItwasseesonandtheground
Christendom righteouslydemanded
religious necessitous. Was unlesswhen
the Papacy so theclaimantwas
? Werethenotpoorerits
ofmoney,
his temporal supremacy that he demanded this coffers overflowing ? Was not England
and challenged England at its peril to of thetwo ? Her necessities were great, occasioned
SV
AR
TUIN
a
Lo
FULL
LE
SUS
thi
!
RE W im
F
ORTES
P BA
TE
CE
THE LOLLARDS' TOWER, LAMBETH PALACE

retain it. Butwho, replied the Reformer, gave the
Pope this temporal supremacy ? I do not find it in
the Bible.
only whathe Thehimself Peter couldPeter
Apostlepossessed,and Pope
give thepossessed
no temporal
choose between Pope, argued
lordship.theTheapostleship and theWicliffe,
king- by a two-fold drain, the exactionsof the Popesbegin
and
must
ship ; if ofhe usprefers to becharacter burdens ofletthewar.
can claimor atthehome,and
a king, ofthenan heapostle; then, her
Letinsteadcharity,of sending
nothing in the England, of Avignon,everywhoday,are
should by his apostleship,
he abidethis money,
cannot claim for neither Peter nor anyhe money
even then these poorand men
clothed toin purple fare sumptuously
one of the; they
Christians apostles
were ever imposedby athetaxfree-upon
supported w ill keep her own
Reformer lead her own uses.stepThusby step,
goldon hisfor countrymen, did theas
offerings of those to whom they ministered. What they were able to follow.
ARRIVAL OF THE THREE BULLS.
CHAPTER VIII.
HIERARCHICAL PERSECUTION OF WICLIFFE RESUMED.
Arrival of the Three Bulls - Wicliffe's Anti-Papal Policy - Entirely Subversive of Romanism - New Citation - Appcars
before the Bishops at Lambeth - The Crowd - Its Reverent Behaviour to Wicliffe - Message from the Queen
Dowager to the Court - Dismay of the Bishops — They abruptly Terminate the Sitting - English Tumults in the
Fourteenth Century compared with French Revolutions in the Nineteenth - Substance of Wicliffe's Defence---
The Binding and Loosing Power.
N
WI
TUT
s.e AUSMUH
NA
WA
WAS
POPULAR DEMONSTRATION AT LAMBETH PALACE

IN FAVOUR OF WICLIFFE. of the
nation
..
MEANWHILE, the three bullsof the Pope had arrived to dis

in England. The one addressed to the king found pose of
Edward in his grave. That sent to the university its own
was but coldly welcomed. Not in vain had Wicliffe proper
taught so many years in its halls. Oxford, more- ty, in
TUR
over, had too great a regard for its own fame to defi.
N
extinguish the brightest luminary it contained. an ce

W
But the bull addressed to the bishops found them of the

in a different mood. Alarm and rage possessed ghostly
these prelates. Mainly by the instrumentality of terrors
Wicliffe had England been rescued from sheer by which the Popes strove to divert it into their own
Vassalage to the Papal See. It was he, too, who coffers. Thus, guided by his counsel, and fortified
had put an extinguisher upon the Papal nomina- by the sanction of his name, the Parliament was
tions, thereby vindicating the independence of the marching on and adopting one bold measure after
English Church. He had next defended the right another. The penetrating genius of the man , his
sterling uprightness, his cool, cautious, yet fearless sphere, where the stout and valorous baron, having
courage, made the humble Rector of Lutterworth a a salutary dread of heresy, and especially of the
formidable antagonist. Besides, his deep insight into penalties thereunto annexed, feared to follow . God
the Papal system enabled him to lead the Parlia - was training His servant to walk alone, or rather
ment and nation of England, so that they were to lean only upon Himself. But at the gates of
being drawn on unawares to deny not merely the Lambeth , Wicliffe saw enough to convince him
temporal claims, but the spiritual authority also of that if the barons were forsaking him , the people
Rome. The acts of resistance which had been were coming to his side. The crowd opened re
offered to the Papal power were ostensibly limited verently to permit him to pass in , and the citizens,
to the political sphere, but they were done on pressing in after him , filled the chapel, and tes
principles which impinged on the spiritual autho- tified , by gestures and speeches more energetic
rity, and could have no other issue than the total than courtly , their adherence to the cause, and
overthrow of the whole fabric of the Roman power their determination to stand by its champion . It
in England. This was what the hierarchy foresaw ; seemed as if every citation of Wicliffe was destined
the arrival of the Papal bulls, therefore, was hailed to evoke a tempest around the judgment-seat. The
by them with delight, and they lost no time in primate and his peers were consulting how they
acting upon them . might eject or silence the intruders, when a mes
The primate summoned Wicliffe to appear before senger entered , who added to their consternation.
him in April, 1378. The court was to sit in the This was Sir Lewis Clifford, who had been
archbishop's chapel at Lambeth. The substance of dispatched by the queen -mother to forbid the
the Papal bulls on which the prelates acted we have bishops passing sentence upon the Reformer. The
given in the preceding chapter. Following in the dismay of the prelates was complete , and the pro
steps of condemned heresiarchs of ancient times, ceedings were instantly stopped. “ At the wind of
Wicliffe (said the Papal missive) had not only a reed shaken,” says Walsingham , who describes
revived their. errors, but had added new ones of the scene, " their speech became as softas oil, to the
his own, and was to be dealt with as men deal public loss of their own dignity, and the damage of
with a “ common thief.” The latter injunction the the whole Church . They were struck with such a
prelates judged it prudent not to obey. It might dread, that you would think them to be as a man
be safe enough to issue such an order at Avignon, that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no re
or at Rome, but not quite so safe to attempt to proofs.” ! The only calm and self-possessed man in
execute it in England. The friends of the Reformer, all that assembly was Wicliffe. A second time he re
embracing all ranks from the prince downward, turned unhurt and uncondemned from the tribunal
were now too numerous to see with unconcern of his powerful enemies. He had been snatched
Wicliffe seized and incarcerated as an ordinary up and carried away, as it were, by a whirlwind.
caitiff. The prelates, therefore , were content to A formidable list of charges had been handed
cite him before them , in the hope that this would to Wicliffe along with his citation . It were tedious
lead , in regular course, to the dungeon in which to enumerate these ; nor is it necessary to go
they wished to see him immured . When the day with any minuteness into the specific replies which
came, a crowd quite as great as and more friendly he had prepared , and was about to read before the
to the Reformer than that which besieged the doors court when the storm broke over it, which brought
of St. Paul's on occasion of his firstappearance, sur- its proceedings so abruptly to a close. But the
rounded the Palace of Lambeth , on the right bank substance of his defence it is important to note,
of the Thames, opposite Westminster , where several because it enables us to measure the progress of
councils had been held since the times of Anselm the Reformer's own emancipation , and the stages
of Canterbury. Wicliffe now stood high in popular of Wicliffe's enlightenment are just the stages of
favour as a patriot, although his claims as a theo the Reformation . We now stand beside the cradle
logian and Reformer were not yet acknowledged , of Protestantism in England, and we behold the
or indeed understood. Hence this popular demon - nation, roused from its deep sleep by the Reformer's
stration in his favour. voice, making its first essay to find the road of
To the primate this concourse gave anything but liberty . If a little noise accompanies these efforts,
an assuring augury of a quiet termination to the if crowds assemble, and raise fanatical cries, and
trial. But Sudbury had gone too far to retreat. scare prelates on the judgment- seat, this rude
Wicliffe presented himself, but this time no John ness must be laid at the door of those who had
of Gaunt was by his side. The controversy was
now passing out of the political into the spiritual 1 Walsingham , Hist. Angliæ , p. 205.
SUBSTANCE OF WICLIFFE'S DEFENCE. 99
withheld that instruction which would have taught religious houses, in which some priests have vested
the people to reform religion without violating the him , the better to evade the taxes and burdens
laws, and to utter their condemnation of falsehoods which their sovereign for the necessities of the State
without indulging their passions against persons. imposes upon their temporalities ; that no priest is
Would it have been better that England should at liberty to enforce temporal demands by spiritual
have lain still in her chains, than that she should censures ; that the power of the priest in absolving
disturb the repose of dignified ecclesiastics by her or condemning is purely ministerial; that absolution
efforts to break them ? There may be some who will profit no one unless along with it there comes
would have preferred the torpor of slavery. But, the pardon of God, nor will excommunication hurt
after all, how harmless the tumults which accom - any one unless by sin he has exposed himself to the
panied the awakening of the English people in the anger of the great Judge.
fourteenth century, compared with the tragedies, This last is a point on which Wicliffe often in
the revolutions, the massacres, and the wars, amid sists ; it goes very deep, striking as it does at one
which we have seen nations since— which slept on of the main pillars on which the Pope's kingdom
while England awoke- inaugurate their liberties !1 stands, and plucking from his grasp that terrible
The paper handed in by Wicliffe to his judges , trident which enables him to govern the world
the power of anathema. On this important point,
stripped of its scholastic form — for after the manner
of the schools it begins with a few axioms, runs “ the power of the keys," as it has been technically
out in numerous divisions, and reaches its con - designated , the sum of what Wicliffe taught is
clusions through a long series of nice disquisitions expressed in his fourteenth article. “ We ought,”
and distinctions — is in substance as follows :— That says he, “ to believe that then only does a Christian
the Popes have no political dominion, and that priest bind or loose , when he simply obeys the law
their kingdom is one of a spiritual sort only ; that of Christ ; because it is not lawful for him to bind
their spiritual authority is not absolute, so as that or loose but in virtue of that law , and by con
they may be judged of none but God ; on the con - sequence not unless it be in conformity to it.” 3
trary, the Pope may fall into sin like other men , Could Wicliffe have dispelled the belief in the
and when he does so he ought to be reproved, and Pope's binding and loosing power, hewould have
brought back to the path of duty by his cardinals ; completely rent the fetters which enchained the
and if they are remiss in calling him to account, the conscience of his nation . Knowing that the better
inferior clergy and even the laity “ may medicinally half of his country's slavery lay in the thraldom of
reprove him and implead him , and reduce him to its conscience, Wicliffe , in setting free its soul,
lead a better life ;" that the Pope has no supremacy would virtually , by a single stroke, have achieved
over the temporal possessions of the clergy and the the emancipation of England.
CHAPTER IX .
WICLIFFE 'S VIEWS ON CHURCH PROPERTY AND CHURCH REFORM.
An Eternal Inheritance - Overgrown Riches - Mortmain - Its Ruinous Effects — These Pictured and Denounced by
Wicliffe - His Doctrine touching Ecclesiastical Property - Tithes - Novelty of his Views - His Plan of Reform
How he Proposed to carry it out - Rome a Market - Wicliffe's Independence and Courage - His Plan substantially
Proposed in Parliament after his Death - Advance of England - Her Exodus from the Prison -house - Sublimity
of the Spectacle - Ode of Celebration .
THERE was another matter to which Wicliffe often portance to " the power of the keys." This was the
returned, because he held it as second only in im - property of the Church. The Church was already
not only enormously rich , but she had even pro
1 " His [Wicliffe's ] exertions,” says Mr. Sharon Turner,
“ were of a value that has been always highly rated,
but which the late events of European history con ness and depravity ; and happy would it be for the peace
siderably enhance, by showing how much the chances are of European society, if either France,Spain , or Italy could
against such a character arising. Many can demolish the produce them now ." ( Turner, Hist. Eng., vl. v.,pp. 176 ,177.)
superstructure, but where is the skill and the desire to 2 Walsingham , Hist. Angliæ , pp . 206 — 208. Lewis, Life of
rebuild a nobler fabric ? When such men as Wicliffe, Wiclif, chap . 4 .
Huss, or Luther appear, they preserve society from dark . 3 Lewis, Life of Wiclif, chap. 4 , pp. 70 — 75.
claimed a dogma which was an effectual preventive uses ! So was it pleaded . The more that wealth
against that wealth ever being less by so much as a increased , the less sacred the uses to which it was
single penny ; nay, which secured that her accumu- devoted, and the more flagrant the neglect of the
lations should go on while the world stood. What duties which those who possessed it were appointed
is given to the Church, said the canon law , is given to discharge .
to God ; it is a devoted thing, consecrated and set But Wicliffe's own words will best convey to us
apart for ever to a holy use, and never can it be an idea of his feelings on this point, and the height
employed for any secular or worldly end whatever ; to which the evil had grown.
and he who shall withdraw any part thereof from “ Prelates and priests,” says he, “ cry aloud and
the Church robs God, and commits the awful sin write that the king hath no jurisdiction or power
of sacrilege. Over the man , whoever he might be, over the persons and goods of Holy Church .
whether temporal baron or spiritual dignitary, who And when the king and the secular Lords, perceiv
should presume to subtract so much as a single ing that their ancestors' alms are wasted in pomp
acre from her domains or a single penny from her and pride, gluttonyand other vanities, wish to take
coffers, the canon law suspended a curse. This again the superfluity of temporal goods, and to help
wealth could not even be recovered : it was the the land and themselves and their tenants , these
Church's sole, absolute, and eternal inheritance. worldly clerks bawl loudly that they ought to be
This grievance was aggravated by the circum - cursed for intromitting with the goods of Holy
stance that these large possessions were exempt Church , as if secular Lords and Commons were no
from taxes and public burdens. The clergy kept part of Holy Church."
no connection with the country farther than to prey And again he complains that property which was
on it. The third Council of the Lateran forbade all not too holy to be spent in “ gluttony and other
laics, under the usual penalties, to exact any taxes vanities,” was yet accounted too holy to bear the
from the clergy, or lay any contributions upon them burdens of the State, and contribute to the defence
or upon their Churches. If, however, the necessities of the realm .
of the State were great, and the lands of the laity “ By their new law of decretals," says he, “ they
insufficient, the priests might, of their own good have ordained that our clergy shall pay no subsidy
pleasure, grant a voluntary subsidy. The fourth nor tax for keeping of our king and realm , without
General Council of Lateran renewed this canon, leave and assent of the worldly priest of Rome.
hurling excommunication against all who should And yet many times this proud worldly priest is
disregard it, but graciously permitting the clergy an enemy of our land , and secrctly maintains our
to aid in the exigencies of the State if they saw fit enemies in war against us with our own gold . And
and the Pope were willing." Here was “ a kingdom thus they make an alien priest,and he the proudest
of priests,” the owners of half the soil, every inch of all priests, to be the chief lord of the whole of
of which was enclosed within a sacred rail, so that the goods which clerks possess in the realm , and
no one durst lay a finger upon it, unless indeed that is the greatest part thereof."3
their foreign head, the Pontiff, should first give his Wicliffe was not a mere corrector of abuses ; he
consent. was a reformer of institutions, and accordingly he
In these overgrown riches Wicliffe discerned the laid down a principle which menaced the very
source of innumerable evils. The nation was being foundations of this great evil.
beggared and the Government was being weakened . Those acres , now covering half the face of Eng
The lands of the Church were continually growing land, those cathedral and conventual buildings,
wider , and the area which supported the burdens those tithes and revenues which constitute the
of the State and furnished the revenues of the “ goods” of the Church are not, Wicliffe affirmed ,
Crown was constantly growing narrower. Nor was in any legal or strict sense the Church 's property.
the possession of this wealth less hurtful to the She neither bought it, nor did she win it by service
corporation that owned it, than its abstraction was in the field , nor did she receive it as a feudal, un
to that from whom it had been torn. Whence conditional gift. It is the alms of the English
flowed the many corruptions of the Church, the nation. The Church is but the administrator of
pride, the luxury, the indolence of Churchmen ? this property ; the nation is the real proprietor,
Manifestly, from these enormous riches. Sacred and the nation is bound through the king and Par
liament, its representatives, to see that the Church
I Concil. Lateran . iii., cap. 19 - Hard., tom . vi., part 2,
col. 1681. 3 See “ OpinionsofWicliffe ” in Vaughan,Life of Wiclife,
2 Hard., tom .vii., col.51. Vide Decret.Gregory IX., lib . iii. vol. ii., p. 267.
QUESTION OF CHURCH PROPERTY . 101
devotes this wealth to the objects for which it was for the support of the Church under the economy
given to her ; and if it shall find that it is abused of Moses. But that enactment, the Reformer
or diverted to other objects, it may recall it. The taught, was no longer binding. The “ ritual” and
ecclesiastic who becomes immoral and fails to fulfil the “ polity " of that dispensation had passed away,
the duties of his office, forfeits that office with all its and the “ moral” only remained. And that
temporalities, and the same law which applies to “ moral ” Wicliffe summed up in the words of the
the individual applies to the whole corporation apostle, “ Let him that is taught in the word
or Church. Such, in brief, was the doctrine of minister to him that teacheth in all good things.”
Wicliffe. And while strenuously insisting on the duty of the
But farther, the Reformer distinguished between instructed to provide for their spiritual teachers,
the lands of the abbacy or the monastery, and the he did not hesitate to avow that where the priest
acres of the neighbouring baron. The first were notoriously failed in his office the people were under
national property, the second were private ; the first no obligation to support him ; and if he should seek
were held for spiritual uses, the second for secular ; by the promise of Paradise, or the threat of
and by how much the issues depending on the right anathema, to extort a livelihood, for work which
use of the first, as regarded both the temporal and hedid not do and from men whom he never taught,
eternal interests of mankind, exceeded those de- they were to hold the promise and the threat as
pending upon the right use of the second , by so alike empty and futile. “ True men say," wrote
much was the nation bound closely to oversee , and Wicliffe, “ that prelates are more bound to preach
jealously to guard against all perversion and abuse truly the Gospel than their subjects are to pay them
in the case of the former. The baron might feast, dymes [tithes] ; for God chargeth thatmore, and it
hunt, and ride out attended by ever so many men- is more profitable to both parties. Prelates, there
at-arms; he might pass his days in labour or in fore, are more accursed who cease from their
idleness, just as suited him . But the bishop must preaching than are their subjects who cease to pay
eschew these delights and worldly vanities. He tithes, even while their prelates do their office
must give himself to reading, to prayer, to the well."
ministry of the Word ; he must instruct the igno- These were novel and startling opinions in the
rant, and visit the sick, and approve himself in all age of Wicliffe. It required no ordinary inde
things as a faithful minister of Jesus Christ. pendence of mind to embrace such views. They
But while Wicliffe made this most important were at war with the maxims of the age ; they
distinction between ecclesiastical and lay property, were opposed to the opinions on which Churches
he held that as regarded the imposts of the king, and States had acted for a thousand years ; and they
the estates of the bishop and the estates of the went to the razing of the whole ecclesiastical settle
baron were on a level. The sovereign had as good ment of Christendom . If they were to be applied ,
a right to tax the one as the other, and both were all existing religious institutions must be re
equally bound to bear their fair share of the ex- modelled. But if true, why should they not be
pense of defending the country. Farther, Wicliffe carried out ? Wicliffe did not shrink from even
held the decision of the king, in all questions touch this responsibility.
ing ecclesiastical property, to be final. And let He proposed, and not only did he propose, he
no one, said the Reformer in effect, be afraid to earnestly pleaded with the king and Parliament,
embrace these opinions, or be deterred from acting that the whole ecclesiastical estate should be re
on them , by terror of the Papal censures. The formed in accordance with the principles he had
spiritual thunder hurts no one whose cause is good. enunciated. Let the Church surrender all her
Even tithes could not now be claimed , Wicliffe possessions her broad acres, her palatial buildings,
held , on a Divine authority. The tenth of all that her tithes, her multiform dues — and return to the
the soil yielded was, by God 's command, set apart simplicity of her early days, and depend only on
the free-will offerings of the people, as did the
1 See 6th , 16th , and 17th articles of defence as given in
apostles and first preachers of the Gospel. Such
Lewis, Life of Wiclif, chap. 4, compared with the articleswas the plan Wicliffe laid before the men of the
of impeachment in the Pope's bull. Sir James Macintosh ,
in his eloquent work Vindiciæ Gallicæ , claims credit for fourteenth century. We may well imagine the
the philosophic statesman Turgot as the first to deliver amazement with which he was listened to.
this theory of Church -lands in the article “ Fondaticn
of the Encyclopedie.” It was propounded by Wicliffe
four centuries before Turgot flourished . (Vide Vind . 3 MS. of Prelates ; apud Vaughan, vol. ii., p. 286 .
Gall., p. 85 ; Lond ., 1791.) 4 MS. Sentence of the Curse Expounded ; apud Vaughan ,
• Treatise on Clerks and Possessioners. vol. ii., p . 289.
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the eyes of the nation, and laying it at the foot of much gold out of our land to aliens and enemies ;
the throne. and many are thereby slaughtered by the hand of
But Wicliffe,a man of action aswellas of thought, our enemies, to their comfort and our confusion." ?
did not aim at carrying this revolution by a stroke. Elsewhere hedescribes Rome as a market,where
All great changes, he knew , must proceed gradu- the cure of souls was openly sold , and where the
ally. What he proposed was that as benefices fell man who offered the highest price got the fattest
vacant, the new appointments should convey no benefice. In that market, virtue, piety , learning
right to the temporalities, and thus in a short time, were nought. The only coin current was gold .
without injury or hardship to any one, the whole But the men who trafficked there , and came back
face of England would be changed. “ It is well invested with a spiritual office, he thus describes :
known,” says he, “ that the King of England, in “ As much, therefore, as God's Word, and the bliss
virtue of his regalia , on the death of a bishop or of heaven in the souls of men , are better than
abbot, or any one possessing large endowments, earthly goods, so much are these worldly prelates,
takes possession of these endowments as the who withdraw the great debt of holy teaching,
sovereign, and that a new election is not entered worse than thieves ; more accursedly sacrilegious
upon without a new assent ; nor will the tempo - than ordinary plunderers, who break into churches,
ralities in such a case pass from their last occupant and steal thence chalices, and vestments, and never
to his successor without that assent. Let the king, so much gold .” ?
therefore, refuse to continue what has been the Whatever may be the reader's judgment of the
great delinquency of his predecessors, and in a short sentiments of Wicliffe on this point, there can be
time the whole kingdom will be freed from the but one opinion touching his independence of mind,
mischiefs which have flowed from this source." and his fidelity to what he believed to be the
It may perhaps be objected that thus to deprive truth. Looking back on history, and looking
the Church of her property was to injure vitally the around in the world, he could see only a unani
interests of religion and civilisation. With the mous dissent from his doctrine. All the ages were
abstract question we have here nothing to do ; let against him ; all the institutions of Christendom
us look at the matter practically, and as it must were against him . The Bible only, he believed,
have presented itself to Wicliffe. The withdrawal was with him . Supported by it, he bravely held
of the Church 's property from the service of re - and avowed his opinion. His peril was great, for
ligion was already all but complete. So far as he had made the whole hierarchy of Christendom
concerned the religious instruction and the spi- his enemy. He had specially provoked the wrath
ritual interests of the nation, this wealth profited of that spiritual potentate whom few kings in that
about as little as if it did not exist at all. It ‘age could brave with impunity. But he saw by
served but to maintain the pomps of the higher faith Him who is invisible, and therefore he feared
clergy, and the excesses which reigned in the re- not Gregory . The evil this wealth was doing, the
ligious houses. The question then , practically, disorders and weakness with which it was afflicting
was not, Shall this property be withdrawn from the State , the immorality and ignorance with which
religious uses ? but, Shall it be withdrawn from its it was corrupting society, and the eternal ruin in
actual uses, which certainly are not religious, and which it was plunging the souls of men , deeply
be devoted to other objects more profitable to the affected him ; and though the riches which he so
commonwealth ? On that point Wicliffe had a clear earnestly entreated men to surrender had been a
opinion ; he saw a better way of supporting the million of times more than they were, they would
clergy, and he could not, he thought, devise a worse have been in his account but as dust in the balance
than the existing one. “ It is thus,” he says, “ that compared with the infinite damage which it cost to
the wretched beings of this world are estranged keep them , and the infinite good which would be
from faith, and hope, and charity , and become reaped by parting with them .
corrupt in heresy and blasphemy, even worse than Nor even to the men of his own time did the
heathens. Thus it is that a clerk, a mere collector measure of the Reformer appear, it would seem , so
of pence, who can neither read nor understand a very extravagant. Doubtless it took away the
verse in his psalter, nor repeat the commandments breath from those who had touched this gold ; but
of God, bringeth forth a bull of lead, testifying in the more sober and thoughtful in the nation began
opposition to the doom of God, and of manifest
experience, that he is able to govern many souls.
1 MS. Sentence of the Curse Expounded ; apud Vaughan ,
And to act upon this false bull he will incur costs Life of Wicliffe, vol. ii., p. 306.
and labour, and often fight, and get fees, and give Tbid., chap. 14.
ENGLAND'S EXODUS. 105
to see that it was not so impracticable as it looked , liberty that lies before it. What a change since the
and that instead of involving the destruction it was days of King John ! Then Innocent III. stood with
more likely to be the saving of the institutions of his heel on the country. England was his humble
learning and religion . About twenty-four years vassal, fain to buy off his interdicts and curses
after the Reformer's death , a great measure of with its gold , and to bow down even to the dust
Church reform , based on the views of Wicliffe, before his legates ; but now , thanks to John Wicliffe,
was proposed by the Commons. The plan took England stands erect, and meets the haughty Pontifi
shape in a petition which Parliament presented to on at least equal terms.
the king, and which was to the following effect:- And what a fine logical sequence is seen running
That the crown should take possession of all the through the process of the emancipation of the
property of the Church ; that it should appoint a country ! The first step was to cast off its political
body of clergy, fifteen thousand in number, for vassalage to the Papal chair ; the second was to
the religious service of the kingdom ; that it should vindicate the independence of its Church against
assign an annual stipend to each ; and that the her who haughtily styles herself the “ Mother and
surplus of the ecclesiastical property should be Mistress of all Churches ;" the third was to make
devoted to a variety of State purposes, of good the sole and unchallenged use of its own pro
which the building and support of almshouses perty , by forbidding the gold of the nation to be
was one." carried across the sea for the use of the country's
Those who had the power could not or would not foes. And now another step forward is taken. A
see the wisdom of the Reformer. Those who did proposal is heard to abate the power of superstition
see it had not the power to act upon it, and so the within the realm , by curtailing its overgrown re
ch remained ued to grow at last
wealth of the Church remained untouched ; and, sources , heedless of the cry of sacrilege, the only
remaining untouched , it continued to grow , and weapon by which the Church attempted to protect
along with it all the evils it engendered , till at last the wealth that had been acquired by means not
these were no longer bearable. Then even Popish the most honourable , and which was now devoted
governments recognised the wisdom of Wicliffe's to ends not the most useful.
words, and began to act upon his plan. In Ger- England is the first of the European communities
many, under the treaty of Westphalia , in Holland, to flee from that prison -house in which the Crowned
in our own country, many of the richest benefices Priest of the Seven Hills had shut up the nations.
were secularised. When , at a later period, most That cruel taskmaster had decreed an utter and
of the Catholic monarchies suppressed the Jesuits, eternal extinction of all national independence and
the wealth of that opulent body was seized by the of all human rights. But He who “ openeth the
sovereign . In these memorable examples we dis- eyes of the blind,” and “ raiseth them that are
cover no trace of property, but simply the resump- bowed down ,” had pity on those whom their op
tion by the State of the salaries of its public pressor had destined to endless captivity, and
servants, when it deemed their services or the mode opened their prison -doors. We celebrate in songs
of them no longer useful. the Exodus of early times. Wemagnify the might
These examples are the best testimony to the of that Hand and the strength of that Arm which
substantial soundness of Wicliffe's views ; and the broke the power of Pharaoh ; which “ opened the
more we contemplate the times in which he formed gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder ;"
them , the more are we amazed at the sagacity , the which divided the sea , and led the marshalled hosts
comprehensiveness , the courage, and the faith of of the Hebrews out of bondage. Here is the reality
the Reformer. of which the other was but the figure. England
In these events we contemplate the march of comes forth, the first of the nations, led on by
England out of the house of her bondage. Wicliffe Wicliffe, and giving assurance to the world by her
is the one and only leader in this glorious exodus. reappearance that all the captive nationalities
No Aaron marches by the side of this Moses. which have shared her bondage shall, each in its
But the nation follows its heroic guide, and stead - appointed season, share her deliverance.
fastly pursues the sublime path of its emancipation . Rightly understood , is there in all history a
Every year places a greater distance between it and grander spectacle, or a drama more sublime? We
the slavery it is leaving, and brings it nearer the forget the wonders of the first Exodus when we
contemplate the mightier scale and the more en
1Walsingham . Hume, Hist. of England, chap. 18 , pp . during glories of the second. When we think of
366, 367. Cobbett, Parliament. Hist . of England, vol. i., the bitterness and baseness of the slavery which
pp. 295, 296. England left behind her, and the glorious heritage
of freedom and God-given religion to which she emancipation : “ He brought them out of darkness
now began to point her steps, we can find no words and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in
in which to vent our gratitude and praise but those sunder. Oh that men would praise the Lord for
of the Divine Ode written long before , and meant his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the
at once to predict and to commemorate this glorious sons of men .” 1
CHAPTER X .
THE TRANSLATION OF THE SCRIPTURES, OR THE ENGLISH BIBLE.
Peril of Wicliffe - Death ofGregory XI. - Death of Edward III. - Consequent Safety of Wicliffe - Schism in the Papal
Chair - Division in Christendom — Which is the True Pope ? - A Papal Thunderstorm - Wicliffe Retires to Lutter
worth - His Views still Enlarging - Supreme Authority of Scripture - Sickness, and Interview with the Friars,
Resolves to Translate the Bible - Early Translations - Bede, & c . - Wicliffe's Translation - Its Beauty - The Day of
the Reformation has fairly Broken — Transcription and Publication - Impression produced - Right to Read the
Bible -- Denounced by the Priests - Defended by Wicliffe - Transformation accomplished on England .
While Wicliffe was struggling to break first of all The Pope a little while before had returned to
his own fetters, and next the fetters of an enslaved Rome, so terminating the “ Babylonish captivity ;"
nation , God was working in the high places of the but he had returned only to die (1378). But death
earth for his preservation. Every day the number struck a second time : there was a bier at West
of his enemies increased. The shield of John of minsteraswell as at the Vatican. When Courtenay,
Gaunt no longer covered his head. Soon not a Bishop of London, was about to summon Wicliffe
friend would there be by his side, and he would be to his bar, Edward III., whose senility the bishop
left naked and defenceless to the rage of his foes. was likely to take advantage ofagainst theReformer,
But He who said to the patriarch of old, “ Fear not, died also, and John of Gaunt became regent of the
I am thy shield,” protected his own chosen champion. kingdom . So now, when the Papal toils were
Wicliffe had offered inexpiable affront to Gregory ; closing around Wicliffe, death suddenly stiffened
he had plucked England as a prey out of his very the hand that had woven them , and the commission
teeth ; he had driven away his taxgatherers , who of delegates which the now defunct Gregory had
continually hovered like a flock of cormorants round appointed to try, and which he had commanded to
the land. But not content with clipping the talons condemn the Reformer, was dissolved .
of the Papacy and checking her rapacity in time to In another way did the death of the Pope give a
come, he was even now meditating how he might breathing-time to the Reformer and the young Re
make her reckon for the past, and disgorge the formation of England. On the 7th of April, 1378,
wealth which by so many and so questionable the cardinals assembled in the Quirinal to elect a
means she had already devoured , and send forth successor to Gregory. The majority of the sacred
abbot and monk as poor as were the apostles and college being Frenchmen, the Roman populace ,
first preachers. This was not to be borne. For a fearing that they would place one of their own
hundredth part of this , how many men had ere this nation in the vacant chair, and that the Pontifical
done expiation in the fire ! No wonder that Wicliffe court would again retire to Avignon , gathered
was marked out as the man to be struck down. round the palace where the cardinals were met,
Three bulls did Gregory dispatch with this object. and with loud tumult and terrible threats demanded
The university, the hierarchy, the king : on all a Roman for their Pope. Not a cardinal should
were the Pontifical commands laid to arrest and leave the hall alive, so did the rioters threaten,
imprison the heretic — the short road to the stake. unless their request was complied with . An Italian,
Wicliffe was as good as dead ; so doubtless was it the Archbishop of Barì, was chosen ; the mob was
thought at Avignon . soothed , and instead of stoning the cardinals it
Death was about to strike, but it wason Gregory
XI. that the blow was destined to fall. Instead of i Psalm cvii. 14, 15.
a stake at Oxford, there was a bier at the Vatican. · Walsingham , Hist. of Eng., p . 205.
THE SCHISM OF THE POPES. 107
saluted them with “ Vivas.” But the new Pope was the peaceful waters of the Avon, and in the rural
austere, penurious, tyrannical, and selfish ; the car. homesteads of Lutterworth , that Divine seed which
dinals soon became disgusted, and escaping from yields righteousness and peace in this world , and
Rome they met and chose a Frenchman - Robert, eternal life in thatwhich is to come. .
Bishop of Geneva -- for the tiara, declaring the It was now that the Reformer opened the second
former election null on the plea that the choice had part of his great career . Hitherto his efforts had
been made under compulsion. Thus was created the been mainly directed to breaking the political fetters
famous schism in the Papal chair which for a full in which the Papacy had bound his countrymen .
half-century divided and scandalised the Papal world . But stronger fetters held fast their souls. These
Christendom now saw , with feelings bordering on his countrymen needed more to have rent, though
affright, two Popes in the chair of Peter. Which perhaps they galled them less, and to this higher
was the true vicar, and which carried the key object the Reformer now exclusively devoted what
that alone could open and shut the gates of of life and strength remained to him . In this
Paradise ? This became the question of the age, instance, too, his own fuller emancipation preceded
and a most momentous question it was to men who that of his countrymen. The “ schism ,” with the
believed that their eternal salvation hung upon scandals and crimes that flowed from it, helped to
its solution . Consciences were troubled ; council reveal to him yet more clearly the true character of
was divided against council ; bishop battled with the Papacy. He published a tract On the Schism
bishop ; and kings and governments were com - of the Popes, in which he appealed to the nation
pelled to take part in the quarrel. Germany whether those men who were denouncing each other
and England , and some of the smaller States in as the Antichrist were not, in this case, speaking
the centre of Europe, sided with the first-elected the truth , and whether the present was not an
Pope, who took possession of the Vatican under opportunity given them by Providence for grasping
the title of Urban VI. Spain , France, and Scot- those political weapons which he had wrested from
lame Gospel papel
land espoused the cause of the second ,who installed
himself at Avignon under the name of Clement
the hands of the hierarchy, and using them in the
destruction of those oppressive and iniquitous laws
VII. Thus, as the first dawn of the Gospel day and customs under which England had so long
was breaking on Christendom , God clave the Papal groaned . “ The fiend,” he said , “ no longer reigns
head in twain , and divided the Papal world . in one but in two priests, that men may the more
But for this schism Wicliffe,to all human appear- easily , in Christ's name, overcome them both ."8
ance,would have been struck down, and his work in We trace from this time a rapid advance in the
England stamped out. But now the Popes found views of the Reformer. It was now that he pub
other work than to pursue heresy . Fast and furious lished his work on the Truth and Meaning of
from Rome to Avignon , and from Avignon back Scripture. In this work he maintains “ the
again to Rome, flew the Papal bolts. Far above supreme authority of Scripture,” “ the right of
the humble head of the Lutterworth rector flashed private judgment," and that “ Christ's law sufficeth
these lightnings and rolled these thunders. While by itself to rule Christ's Church .” This was to
this storm was raging Wicliffe retired to his country discrown the Pope, and to raze the foundations of
charge, glad doubtless to escape for a little while his kingdom . Here he drops the first hint of his
from the attacks of his enemies, and to solace him - purpose to translate the Bible into the English ver
self in the bosom of his loving flock. He was not nacular — a work which was to be the crown of his
idle however. While the Popes were hurling labours.
curses at each other, and shedding torrents of Wicliffe was now getting old , but the Reformer
blood — for by this time they had drawn the was worn out rather by the harassing attacks of
sword in support of their rival claims to be his foes, and his incessant and ever-growing labours,
Christ's vicar — while flagrant scandals and hideous than with the weight of years, for he was not yet
corruptions were ravaging the Church , and frightful sixty. He fell sick . With unbounded joy the
crimes and disorders were distracting the State (for friars heard that their great enemy was dying. Of
it would take “ another Iliad," ? as Fox says, to
narrate all the miseries and woes that afflicted the 3 MS. of The Church and her Governance, Bib . Reg . 18 ,
world during this schism ), Wicliffe was sowing by B. ix. ; apud Vaughan , Life of Wicliffe, vol. ii., p .6 .
4 De Sensu et Veritate Scripturæe . A copy of this work
was in the possession of Fox the martyrologist. (Fox,
of it are known to be still extant,
Mosheim , cent. 14 , part ii., chap. 2 , sec. 14 . Hume, vol. i.) Two copies Library
Rich . II., Miscell. Trans. one in the Bodleian and the other in the Library
• Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i ., p . 567. of Trinity College, Dublin . (Vaughan, Life, vol. ii., p . 7.)
course he was overwhelmed with horror and remorse friars." The monks rushed in astonishment and
for the evil he had done them , and they would confusion from the chamber.'
hasten to his bedside and receive the expression of As Wicliffe had foretold so it came to pass.
his penitence and sorrow . In a trice a little crowd His sickness left him , and he rose from his bed to
of shaven crowns assembled round the couch of the do the most daring of his impieties as his enemies
CADET
OAFONE
SO
5310
5.C
SIZE
TIITE
INTERIOR OF THE VATICAN LIBRARY.
sick man - delegates from the four orders of friars. accounted it, the most glorious of his services as
“ They began fair," wishing him “ health and restora- the friends of humanity will ever esteem it. The
tion from his distemper;" but speedily changingtheir work of which this very different estimate has been
tone, they exhorted him ,as one on the brink of the formed , was that of giving the Bible to the people
grave, to make full confession , and express his un- of England in their own tongue. True, there were
feigned grief for the injuries he had inflicted on already copies of the Word of God in England, but
their order. Wicliffe lay silent till they should they were in a language the commonalty did not
have made an end, then, making his servant raise understand , and so the revelation of God to man
him a little on his pillow , and fixing his keen eyes
upon them , he said with a loud voice, “ I shall not Lewis, Life of Wiclif, p. 82. Lewis places this occur
die, but live and declare the evil deeds of the rence in thebeginning of the year 1379.
EARLY TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE. 109
was as completely hidden from the people as if God the drama, he wove them into a poem , which,
had never spoken . beginning with the Creation, ran on through the
To this ignorance of the will of God, Wicliffe scenes of patriarchal times, the miracles of the
traced the manifold evils that afflicted the kingdom . Exodus, the journey through the desert, till it ter
I will fill the realm of England with light, said he, minated at the gates of Palestine and the entrance
and the ghostly terrors inspired by the priests, and of the tribes into the Promised Land. Such a book
COM
UN
WAYSIDE PREACHING FROM THE BIBLE : TIMOT WICLIFTL .
the bondage in which they keep the people through was not of much Put
their superstitious fears, will flee away as do the account as an in
phantoms of the night when the sun rises. I will struction in the
re-open the appointed channel of holy influence will of God and
between earth and the skies, and the face of the the way of Life. Others followed with attempts at
world will be renewed. It was a sublime thought. paraphrasing rather than translating portions of
Till the seventh century wemeet with no attempt the Word of God, among whom were Alfric and
to give the Bible to the people of England in their Alfred the Great. The former epitomised several
mother-tongue. Cædmon, an Anglo-Saxon monk, of the books of the Old Testament; the latter
was the first to give the English people a taste in the ninth century summoned a body of learned
of what the Bible contained. We cannot call his men to translate the Scriptures, but scarcely was
performance a translation. Cædmon appears to the task begun when the great prince died , and
have possessed a poetic genius, and deeming the the work was stopped .
opening incidents of inspired history well fitted for The attempt of Bede in the eighth century de
10
serves our notice. He is said to have translated brought beyond the precincts of the cell, or they
into the Anglo -Saxon tongue the Gospel of John . were locked up as curiosities in the library of some
He was seized with a fatal illness after beginning, nobleman at whose expense copies had been made.
but he vehemently longed to finish before breathing They did not come into the hands of the people.
forth his spirit. He toiled at his task day by day, Wicliffe's idea was to give the whole Bible in
although the maiady continued, and his strength the vernacular to the people of England , so that
sank lower and lower. His life and his work were every man in the realm might read in the tongue
destined to end together. At length the morning wherein he was born the wonderful works of God .
of that day dawned which the venerable man felt No one in England had thought of such a thing
would be his last on earth. There remained yet before. As one who turns away from the sun to
one chapter to be translated . He summoned the guide his steps by the light of a taper, so did the
amanuensis to his bed -side. “ Take your pen," men of those days turn to tradition, to the scholastic
said Bede, who felt that every minute was precious philosophy, to Papal infallibility ; but the more
-- " quick, take your pen and write." The ama- they followed these guides, the farther they strayed
nuensis read verse by verse from the Vulgate, from the true path. God was in the world ; the
which , rendered into Anglo-Saxon by Bede, was Divine Light was in the pavilion of the Word ,but
taken down by the swift pen of the writer. As no one thought of drawing aside the curtain and
they pursued their joint labour, they were in - letting that light shine upon the path of men . This
terrupted by the entrance of some officials, who was the achievement Wicliffe now set himself to
came to make arrangements to which the assent do. If he could accomplish this he would do more
of the dying man was required . This over , the to place the liberties of England on an immutable
loving scribe was again at his task. “ Dear master," foundation , and to raise his country to greatness,
said he, “ there is yet one verse.” “ Be quick,” than would a hundred brilliant victories.
said Bede. It was read in Latin, repeated in He had not, however, many years in which to
Anglo-Saxon, and put down in writing. “ It is do his great work. There remained only the
pointellectual
rtioectual vigour was unimpaired , his experience
finished ," said the amanuensis in a tone of exulta- portion of a decade of broken health.
tion. “ Thou hast truly said it is finished ,” re-
But his
sponded in soft and grateful accents the dying and graces were at their ripest. What had the
man . Then gently raising his hands he said , whole of his past life been but a preparation for
“ Glory be to the Father, and to the Son , and to what was to be the glorious task of his evening ?
the Holy Ghost," and expired." He was a good Latin scholar. He set himself down
From the reign of Alfred in the ninth century in his quiet Rectory of Lutterworth . He opened
till the age of Wicliffe there was no attempt— if we the Vulgate Scriptures, that book which all his
except that of Richard Roll, Hermit of Hamprle, life he had studied , and portions of which he had
in the same century with Wicliffe — to give a literal already translated. The world around him was
translation of any portion of the Bible. And even shaken with convulsions ; two Popes were hurling
if the versions of which we have spoken had been their anathemas at one another. Wicliffe pursued
worthier and more complete, they did not serve his sublime work undisturbed by the roar of the
the end their authors sought. They were rarely tempest. Day by day he did his self-appointed
task. As verse after verse was rendered into the
1 Cuthbert, Vita Ven. Bedæ .
English tongue, the Reformer had the consolation
2 Sir Thomas More believed that there existed in MS. of thinking that another ray had been shot into the
an earlier translation of the Scriptures into English than darkness which brooded over his native land, that
Wicliffe's. Thomas James, first librarian of the Bodleian another bolt had been forged to rend the shackles
Library, thought that he had seen an older MS. Bible in which bound the souls of his countrymen . In four
English than the time of Wicliffe. Thomas Wharton ,
editor of the works of Archbishop Ussher, thought he years from beginning his task, the Reformer had
completed it.
was able to show who the writer of these supposed pre- completed The message
it. The message of Heaven was now in
Wicliffite translations was - viz., John von Trevisa , priest
in Cornwall. Wharton afterwards saw cause to change the speech of Englan d. The dawn of the Reforma
his opinion, and was convinced that the MS. which Sir tion had fairly broken :
Thomas More and Thomas James had seen was nothing Wicliffe had assistance in his great work. The
else than copies of the translation of Wicliffe made by whole of the New Testament was translated by
his disciples. If an older translation of the Bible had himself ; but Dr. Nicholas de Hereford , of Oxford ,
existed there must have been some certain traces of it, guns
and the Wicliffites would not have failed to bring it up in isis supposed to have been the translator of the Old
their own justification . They knew nothing of an older Testament, which, however, was partly revised by
translation. (See Lechler, Johann von Wiclif, vol. i., p.431.) Wicliffe. This version is remarkably truthful and
WICLIFFE 'S BIBLE. 111
spirited . The antique Saxon gives a dramatic air Poetry, and not Wicliffe, is generally considered as
to some passages.? Wicliffe's version of the Bible the pioneer of mediæval English literature. But
rendered other services than the religious one, with much more reason have later philologists
though that was pre-eminent and paramount. It assigned that rank to the prose of Wicliffe's Bible.
powerfully contributed to form the English tongue, Chaucer has certainly some rare traits - liveliness
in the way of perfecting its structure and enlarging of description, charming grace of expression,
its vocabulary . The sublimity and purity of the genuine English humour, and masterly power of
doctrines reacted on the language into which they language — but such qualities address themselves
were rendered , communicating to it a simplicity, a more to men of culture. They are not adapted to
beauty, a pathos, a precision , and a force unknown be a form of speech for the mass of the people .
to it till then. Wicliffe has been called the Father That which is to propagate a new language must be
of English Prose, as Chaucer is styled the Father of something on which the weal and woe of mankind
English Poetry. No man in his day wrote so depend, which therefore irresistibly seizes upon all,
much as Wicliffe. Writing for the common people, the highest as well as the lowest, and, as Luther
he studied to be simple and clear. He was in says, ' fills the heart.' It must be a moral, religious
earnest, and the enthusiasm of his soul supplied truth , which , grasped with a new inspiration , finds
him with direct and forcible terms. He wrote on acceptance and diffusion in a new form of speech .
the highest themes, and his style partook of the As Luther opened up in Germany a higher develop
elevation of his subject; it is graphic and trenchant, ment of the Teutonic language , so Wicliffe and his
and entirely free from those conceits and puerilities school have become through his Bible the founders
which disfigure the productions of all the other of the medieval English , in which last lie the
writers of his day. But his version of the Bible fundamental features of the new English since the
surpasses all his other compositions in tenderness, sixteenth century.";
and grace, and dignity . Lechler has well said on The Reformer had done his great work (1382).
this point : “ If we compare, however, Wicliffe's What an epoch in thehistory of England ! What
Bible, not with his own English writings, but with mattered it when a dungeon or a grave might close
the other English literature before and after him , over him ! He had kindled a light which could
a still more important consideration suggests itself. never be put out. He had placed in the hands of
Wicliffe's translation marks in its own way quite his countrymen their true Magna Charta. That
as great an epoch in thedevelopmentof the English which the barons at Runnymede had wrested from
language, as Luther's translation does in the history King John would have been turned to but little
of the German language. Luther's Bible opened account had not this mightier charter come after .
the period of the new high German , Wicliffe's Wicliffe could now see the Saxon people , guided
Bible stands at the top of the medieval English. by this pillar of fire, marching steadily onward to
It is true, Geoffrey Chaucer, the Father of English liberty. It might take one or it might take five
centuries to consummate their emancipation ; but,
1 " Thus, instead of ‘ Paul the servant of Jesus Christ ,' with the Bible in their mother-tongue, no power on
Wicliffe's version gives, ' Paul, the knave of Jesus Christ.' earth could retain them in thraldom . The doors of
For a mightier than I cometh after me, the latchet of the house of their bondage had been flung open .
whose shoes I am not worthy to loose,' his version reads,
* For a stalworthier than I cometh after me, the strings When the work of translating was ended, the
of whose chaucers I am not worthy to unlouse." ' nearly as difficult work of publishing began. In
(M 'Crie, Annals of English Presbytery, p. 41.) those days there was no printing-press to multiply
? Luther translated the Bible out of the originalGreek .
Wicliffe, who did not know Greek , translated out of the copies by the thousand as in our times, and no pub
Latin Vulgate. That the New Testament was translated fishing firm to circulate these thousands over the
by himself is tolerably certain . Lechler says that the kingdom . The author himself had to see to all
translation of the Old Testament, in the original hand - this . The methods of publishing a book in that age
writing , with erasures and alterations, is in the Bodleian
Library ; and that there is also there a MS. copy of this were various. The more common way was to place
translation , with a note saying that it was the work of a copy in the hall of some convent or in the library
Dr. Nicholas de Hereford . Both manuscripts break off
in the middle of a verse of the Book ipts break
Baruch off of some college, where all might come and read ,
, which
strengthens the probability that the translation was by and, if the book pleased , order a copy to be made
Dr. Nicholas, who was suddenly summoned before the for their own use ; much as, at this clay, an artist -
Provincial Synod at London , and did not resume his
work. The translation itself proves that the work from
Baruch onward to the end was by some one else - not im 3 Lechler, Johann von Wiclif , vol. i., pp . 453, 454 . See
probably Wicliffe himself. (See Lechler, Johann von also Friedrich Koch , Historische Grammatik der Englischen
Wiclif , vol. i., p. 448.) Sprache, i., p. 19 ; 1863.
displays his picture in a hall or gallery , where its winning the hearts of the people. They raised a
merits find admirers and often purchasers. Others great cry. Wicliffe had attacked the Church ; he
set up pulpits at cross-ways, and places of public wished to destroy religion itself.
resort, and read portions of their work in the This raised the question of the right of the
hearing of the audiences that gathered round them , people to read the Bible. The question was new
and those who liked what they heard bought copies in England, for the plain reason that till now
for themselves. But Wicliffe did not need to have there had been no Bible to read. And for the
recourse to any of these expedients. The interest same reason there was no law prohibiting the use
taken in the man and in his work enlisted a of the Bible by the people, it being deemed both
hundred expert hands, who, though they toiled to useless and imprudent to enact a law against an
multiply copies , could scarcely supply the many who offence it was then impossible to commit. The
were eager to buy. Some ordered complete copies Romaunt version , the vernacular of the south of
to be made for them ; others were content with por - Europe in the Middle Ages, had been in existence
tions ; the same copy served several families in for two centuries, and the Church of Rome had
many instances, and in a very short time Wicliffe's forbidden its use. The English was the first of the
English Bible had obtained a wide circulation, and modern tongues into which the Word of God was
brought a new life into many an English home. translated , and though this version was to fall
As when the day opens on some weary traveller under the ban of the Church, as the Romaunt
who, all night long, has been groping his way amid had done before it, the hierarchy, taken unawares,
thickets and quagmires, so was it with those of the were not yet ready with their fulmination, and
English people who read the Word of Life now meanwhile the Word of God spread mightily. The
presented to them in their mother tongue. Asthey Waters of Life were flowing through the land, and
were toiling amid the fatal pitfalls of superstition , or spots of verdure were beginning to beautify the
were held fast in the thorny thickets of a sceptical desert of England.
scholasticism , suddenly this great light broke upon But if not a legal, a moral interdict was instantly
them . They rejoiced with an exceeding great joy. promulgated against the reading of the Bible by the
They now saw the open path to the Divine Mercy- people. Henry de Knighton, Canon of Leicester,
seat ; and putting aside the many mediators whom uttered a mingled wail of sorrow and denunciation.
Rome had commissioned to conduct them to it, but “ Christ,” said he, “ delivered his Gospel to the
who in reality had hidden it from them , they clergy and doctors of the Church, that they might
entered boldly by the one Mediator, and stood in administer to the laity and to weaker persons, ac
the presence of Him who sitteth upon the Throne. cording to the state of the times and the wants of
The hierarchy, when they learned what Wicliffe men . But this Master John Wicliffe translated it
had done,were struck with consternation . They had out of Latin into English , and thus laid it more
comforted themselves with the thought that the open to the laity, and to women who could read ,
movement would die with Wicliffe, and that he had than it had formerly been to the most learned of
but a few years to live. They now saw that an - the clergy , even to those of them who had the best
other instrumentality, mightier than even Wicliffe, understanding. And in this way the Gospel pearl
had entered the field ; that another preacher was is cast abroad, and trodden under foot of swine, and
destined to take his place, when the Reformer 's thatwhich was before precious to both clergy and
voice should be silent. This preacher they could laity is rendered,as it were, common jest to both .":
not bind to a stake and burn . With silent foot
he was already traversing the length and breadth 2 In 1408, an English council, with Archbishop Arundel
of England. When head of princely abbot and at its head, enacted and ordained “ that no one hence
lordly prelate reposed on pillow , this preacher, who forth do, by his own authority, translate any text of Holy
“ did not know sleep with his eye day nor night,” ofScripture into the English tongue, or any other, by way
book or treatise, nor let any such book or treatise now
was executing his mission , entering the homes and lately composed in the time of John Wicliffe aforesaid ,
or since, or hereafter to be composed, be read in whole or
in part, in public or in private, under pain of the greater
1 In 1850 an edition of Wicliffe's Bible, the first ever excommunication .” So far as this council could secure
printed , issued from the press of Oxford . It is in four it, not only was the translation of Wicliffe to be taken
octavo volumes, and contains two different texts. The from them , but the people of England were never, in
editors, the Rev . Mr. Forshall and Sir Frederick Madden , any coming age, to have a version of the Word of God in
in preparing it for the press, collated not fewer than 150 their own tongue, or in any living language. (Wilkins,
manuscript copies, the most of which were transcribed , Concilia , iii. 317.)
they had reason to think, within forty years of the first 3 Knighton , De Erent. Angliæ ; apud X. Scriptores, col.
appearance of the translation . 2014 . Lewis, Life of Wiclif, chap. 5, p . 83.
A STEP FORWARD. 113
In short, a great clamour was raised against the danger from this book . How can that be ? . Is it
wehereun-
Reformer by the priests and their followers, not
set upufrom
tic, set thetheBaibBible
p such le thaonly
tasgivathatthwee Blearn
esChurch ionble thetthat Chu?rhas
God
hatearth cIsh,
happily the bulk of the nation. Hewas a heretic, society
a sacrilegious man ; he had committed a crime unit not the Bible that gives all her authority to the
known to former ages ; he had broken into the Church ? Is it not from the Bible that we learn
temple and stolen the sacred vessels ; he had fired who is the Builder and Sovereign of the Church,
the House of God. Such were the terms in which what are the laws by which she is to be governed ,
the man was spoken of,who had given to his country and the rights and privileges of her members ?
the greatest boon England ever received. Without the Bible, what charter has the Church
Wicliffe had to fight the battle alone. No peer to show for all these ? It is you who place the
or great man stood by his side. It would seem as if Church in jeopardy by hiding the Divine warrant,
there must come, in the career of all great reformers the missive royal of her King, for the authority she
---and Wicliffe stands in the first rank - a moment wields and the faith she enjoins.?
when , forsaken of all, and painfully sensible of The circulation of the Scriptures had arrayed
their isolation , they must display the perfection the Protestant movement in the panoply of light.
and sublimity of faith by leaning only on One, Wielding the sword of the Spirit, which is the
even God. Such a moment had come to the Re- Word of God, it was marching on, leaving behind
former of the fourteenth century. Wicliffe stood it, as the monuments of its prowess, in many an
alone in the storm . But he was tranquil ; he English homestead, eyes once blind now opened ;
looked his raging foes calmly in the face. He hearts lately depraved now purified . Majestic as
retorted on them the charges they had hurled the morning when
against himself. You say, said he, that “ it is awalks ogressofof,silent
trachine prsteps
descending from the skies, she
lory oover
that gglory ver the earth, so
heresy to speak of the Holy Scriptures in English.” was the progress of the Book of God. There was
You call me a heretic because I have translated a track of light wherever it had passed in the
the Bible into the common tongue of the people. crowded city, in the lofty baronial hall, in the
Do you know whom you blaspheme ? Did not the peasant's humble cot. Though Wicliffe had lived
Holy Ghost give the Word of God at first in the a thousand years, and occupied himself during all
mother-tongue of the nations to whom it was of them in preaching, he could not have hoped for
addressed ? Why do you speak against the Holy the good which he now saw in course of being ac
Ghost ? You say that the Church of God is in complished by the silent action of the English Bible.
CHAPTER XI.
WICLIFFE AND TRANSUBSTANTIATION .
Wicliffe Old - Continues the War - Attacks Transubstantiation - History of the Dogma - Wicliffe's Doctrine on the
Eucharist - Condemned by the University Court - Wicliffe Appeals to the King and Parliament, and Retires to
Lutterworth - The Insurrection of Wat Tyler- The Primate Sudbury Beheaded - Courtenay elected Primate
He cites Wicliffe before him - The Synod at Blackfriars - An Earthquake- The Primate reassures the Terrified
Bishops - Wicliffe 's Doctrine on the Eucharist Condemned – The Primate gains over the King - The First
Persecuting Edict - Wicliffe' s Friends fall away.
Did the Reformer now rest ? He was old and were wise, and that in this her day she knew the
sickly, and needed repose. His day had been a things that belonged to her peace ! If not, she
stormy one ; sweet it were at its even -tide to taste might have to buy with many tears and much
a little quiet. But no. He panted, if it were pos - blood , through years, and it might be centuries, of
sible and if God were willing, to see his country's conflict, what seemed now so nearly within her
emancipation completed, and England a reformed reach. Wicliffe resolved, therefore, that there
land, before closing his eyes and descending into his should be no pause in the war. He had just
grave. It was, he felt, a day of visitation . That - -
day had come first of all to England. Oh that she See Lewis , Life of Wiclif, pp. 86 – 88.
ended one battle, he now girded himself for an- the ninth century ; it came into England in the
other. He turned to attack the doctrinal system train of William the Conqueror and his Anglo
of the Church of Rome. Norman priests; it was zealously preached by
Hehad come ere this to be of opinion that the Lanfranc, a Benedictine monk and Abbot of St.
system of Rome's doctrines,and the ceremonies of Stephen of Caen in Normandy,' who was raised
her worship, were anti-Christian — a “ new religion, to the See of Canterbury under William ; and from
the time of Lanfranc to the days of Wicliffe this
offounded
JesusofChrist
sinful men,” and opposed to “ the rule
given by him to his apostles ;” but tenet was received by the Anglo-Norman clergy
in beginning this new battle he selected one parti- of England. It was hardly to be expected that
w HOOT
CE
OLU
ES
IN
BE
BVE
F
U
CE
A
ELDEN
CATES
LUTTERWORTH CHURCII.
cular dogma as the object of attack. That dogma they would very narrowly or critically examine
was Transubstantiation. It is here that the super- the foundations of a doctrine which contributed
stition of Rome culminates : it is in this more so greatly to their power ; and as regards the
any otherauthority,
than in prodigious the sources
dogma thatwethefindsprings . Gabriel d 'Emillianne, Preface.
of her and of her
vast influence.
Wicliffe knew In making his blow to fall here,
have ten-fold
woulda less
the strokeagainst
thatif directed the? "Catholic
It had been for nearsaysa Lewis,
doctrine,” thousand" andyearsparticularly
this Church of England,that,asone of our Saxon homilies
after Christof
more effect than
of the system . If he could abolish the sacrifice
vital part expresses
in , and theit,‘Much is betwixtto thehousell
body hallowed body (the
of Christ suffered
Sacrament];
of the priest, back the sacrifice
healonewouldis thebringGospel,because of this lattere being only his ghostly body gatheredlimb,of
many cornes, without blood and bone, without
Christ, which through without soule, andbuttherefore
all is tonothing
it is the “ remission of sins," and the “ life ever (Homily published by Archbishop Parker, with attestation
therein bodily, be ghostly is to beunderstood.
understood' "
lasting." of Archbishop of York and thirteen bishops, and im .
Transubstantiation, as we have already
was invented by themonk Paschasius Radbertus in Martin
shown, printed at London by John Day, Aldersgate beneath St.
's, 1567.)
OFTRIAL E
,WICLIFF
F!
TUD
TITTRE
ITEMUM
WILT
BESTED
laity of those days, it was enough for them if The council, summoned in haste, met, it would
they had the word of the Church that this doctrine seem , in comparative secresy, for Wicliffe knew
was true. nothing of what was going on. He was in his
In the spring of 1381, Wicliffe posted up at class -room , expounding to his students the true
Oxford twelve propositions denying the dogma of nature of the Eucharist, when the door opened,and
transubstantiation , and challenging all of the con - a delegate from the council made his appearance in
trary opinion to debate thematter with him . The the hall. He held in his hand the sentence of the
first of these propositions was as follows :— “ The doctors, which he proceeded to read. It enjoined
consecrated Host, which we see upon the altar, is silence on Wicliffe as regarded his opinions on
neither Christ nor any part of him , but an effica- transubstantiation, under pain of imprisonment,
cious sign of him .” He admitted that the words of suspension from all scholastic functions, and the
consecration invest the elements with a mysterious greater excommunication. This was tantamount
and venerable character, but that they do in nowise to his expulsion from the university. “ But,”
change their substance. The bread and wine are interposed Wicliffe, “ you ought first to have
as really bread and wine after as before their con - shown me that I am in error.” The only re
secration. Christ, he goes on to reason, called the sponse was to be reminded of the sentence of
elements “ bread ” and “ my body ;" they were the court, to which, he was told , he must sub
“ bread ” and they were Christ's “ body," as he mit himself, or take the penalty. “ Then,” said
himself is very man and very God , without any Wicliffe, “ I appeal to the king and the Parlia
commingling of the two natures ; so the elements ment."4
are “ bread ” and “ Christ's body ” — “ bread ” really, But some time was to elapse before Parliament
and “ Christ's body" figuratively and spiritually should meet ; and meanwhile the Reformer,
Such , in brief, is what Wicliffe avowed as his watched and fettered in his chair, thought best to
opinion on the Eucharist at the commencement of withdraw to Lutterworth . The jurisdiction of the
the controversy, and on this ground he continued chancellor of the university could not follow him
to stand all throughout it.” to his parish. He passed a few quiet months
Great was the commotion at Oxford. There were ministering the “ true bread " to his loving flock ;
astonished looks, there was a buzz of talk , heads being all the more anxious, since he could no
were laid close together in earnest and subdued longer make his voice heard at Oxford, to diffuse
conversation ; but no one accepted the challenge of through his pulpit and by his pen those blessed
Wicliffe. All shouted heresy ; on that point there truths which he had drawn from the fountains of
was a clear unanimity of opinion, but no one ven - Revelation. He needed, moreover, this heavenly
tured to prove it to the only man in Oxford who bread for his own support. “ Come aside with me
needed to have it proved to him . The chancellor and rest awhile," was the language of this Provi.
of the university , William de Barton , summoned dence . In communion with his Master he would
a council of twelve — four secular doctors and efface the pain of past conflicts, and arm himself
eight monks. The council unanimously condemned for new ones. His way hitherto had been far from
Wicliffe's opinion as heretical, and threatened smooth , but what remained of it was likely to be
divers heavy penalties against any one who should even rougher. This, however, should be as God
teach it in the university , or listen to the teaching willed ; one thing he knew , and oh, how transport
of it. ing the thought that he should find a quiet home
at the end of it.
I Lewis, Life of Wiclif, chap. 6.
2. Conclusiones J .Wiclefi de Sacramento Altaris - MS. Hyp. skyNew Before
and unexpected cloudsprosecute
Wicliffe could now gathered in thein
his appeal
Bodl. 163. The first proposition is— " Hostia consecrata
quam videmus in Altari nec est Christus nec aliqua sui Parliament, an insurrection broke out in England.
pars , sed efficax ejus signum .” See also Confessio Magistri The causes and the issues of that insurrection do
Johannis Wyclyff - Lewis, Appendix, 323. In this confes
sion he says : “ For we believe that there is a three-fold not here concern us, farther than as they bore on
mode of the subsistence of the body of Christ in the the fate of the Reformer. Wat Tyler, and a profli
consecrated Host, namely , a virtual, a spiritual, and a
sacramental one" (virtualis, spiritualis, et sacramentalis).
gate priest of the name of Ball,populace
rousing the passions
traversedwith
England,
fiery
of the
3 Definitio facta per Cancellarium et Doctores Universitatis
Oxonii, de Sacramento Altaris contra Opiniones Wycliffanas
-- MS. Hyp . Bodl. 163. Vaughan says : “ Sir R . Twisden brought so many to the stake, had not more than a
refers to the above censures in support of this doctrine hundred and forty years ' prescription before Martin
as ' the first plenary determination of the Church of Luther.'” (Vaughan , Life of John de Wicliffe, vol. ii., p.82,
England ' respecting it, and accordingly concludes that foot-note .)
' the opinion of the Church of transubstantiation , that 4 Lewis, Life of Wiclif, chap. 6, pp. 95, 96 .
THE TRIAL OF WICLIFFE.· 117
harangues preached from the text they had written Mendicant friars. They had taken their seats , and
upon their banners : were proceeding to business, when an ominous sound
“ When Adam delved and Eve span , filled the air, and the building in which they were
Who was then the gentleman ? ” assembled began to rock. The monastery and all
These tumults were not confined to England, they the city of London were shaken by an earthquake."
extended to France and other Continentalcountries, Startled and terrified , the members of the court,
and like the sudden yawning of a gulf, they show turning to the president, demanded an adjourn
us the inner condition of society in the fourteenth
ment. It did seem as if “ the stars in their
century. How different from its surface the courses ” were fighting against the primate. On
theatre of wars and pageants , which alone the his-
the first occasion on which he summoned Wicliffe
torian thinks it worth his while to paint. There before him , the populace forced their way into the
was nothing in the teaching of Wicliffe to minister
hall, and the court broke up in confusion. The
stimulus to such ebullitionsof popular wrath , yet it
same thing happened over again on the second occa
suited his enemies to lay them at his door, and to
sion on which Wicliffe came to his bar; a popular
say, “ See what comes of permitting these strangetempest broke over the court, and the judges were
and demoralising doctrines to be taught.” It weredriven from the judgment-seat. A third time
a wholly superfluous task to vindicate Wicliffe or
Wicliffe is summoned, and the court meets in a
the Gospel on this score. place where it was easier to take precautions
But in one way these events did connect them against interference from the populace, when lo !
selves with the Reformer. The mob apprehended the ground is suddenly rocked by an earthquake.
Sudbury the primate , and beheaded him . Courte- But Courtenay had now got his pall from Rome,
nay, the bitter enemy of Wicliffe, was installed in and was above these weak fears. So turning to his
the vacant see. And now we look for more brother judges ,he delivered to them a short homily
decisive measures against him . Yet God, by what on the earthly uses and mystic meanings of earth
seemed an oversight at Rome, shielded the vener- quakes, and bade them beof good courage and go on.
able Reformer. The bull appointing Courtenay to “ This earthquake,” said he, “ portends the purging
the primacy arrived, but the pall did not comewith of the kingdom from heresies. For as there are
it. The pall, it is well known, is the most essen - shut up in the bowels of the earth many noxious
tial of all those badges and insignia by which the spirits, which are expelled in an earthquake, and so
Pope conveys to bishops the authority to act under the earth is cleansed , but not without great vio
him . Courtenay was too obedient a son of the lence : so there are many heresies shut up in the
Pope knowingly to transgress one of the least of hearts of reprobate men, but by the condemnation
his father's commandments. He burned with im - of them the kingdom is to be cleansed , but not
patience to strike the head of heresy in England, but without irksomeness and great commotion.”4 The
his scrupulous conscience would not permit him to court accepting, on the archbishop's authority, the
proceed even against Wicliffe till the pall had given earthquake as a good omen, went on with the trial
him full investiture with office. Hence the refresh - of Wicliffe.
ing quiet and spiritual solace which the Reformer An officer of the court read out twenty-six
continued to enjoy at his country rectory. It was propositions selected from the writings of the
now that Wicliffe shot another bolt — the Wicket. Reformer. The court sat three days in “ good
At last the pall arrived. The primate, in pos- deliberation ” over them . It unanimously con
session of the mysterious and potent symbol, could
now exercise the full powers of his great'office. He
immediately convoked a synod to try the Rector of 3 “ Here is not to be passed over the great miracle of
God 's Divine admonition or warning, for when as the
Lutterworth . The court met on the 17th of May, archbishops and suffragans, with the other doctors of
1382 , in a place of evil augury — when we take into divinity and lawyers, with a great company of babling
account with whom Wicliffe's life-battle had been friars and religious persons, were gathered together to
consult touching John Wicliffe's books, and that whole
waged — the Monastery of Blackfriars, London. sect ; when , as I say, they were gathered together at
The judges were assembled, including eight prelates, theGrayfriars in London , to begin their business, upon
St. Dunstan 's day after dinner, about two of the clock ,
fourteen doctors of the canon and of the civil law , the very hour and instant that they should go forward
six bachelors of divinity, four monks, and fifteen with their business, a wonderful and terrible earthquake
fell throughout all England.” (Fox, Acts and Mon .,
vol. i., p. 570.)
Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 568 . * Lewis, Life of Wiclif, pp. 106, 107 . Fox, Acts and Mon .,
Lewis, Life of Wiclif, p . 97. Vaughan, Life of John de rol. i., p. 570.
Wicliffe, vol. ii., p. 89 . · Vaughan , Life of John de Wicliffe, vol. ii., p . 91.
demned ten of them as heretical,and the remainder The Reformation was advancing, but it appeared
as erroneous. Among those specially branded as at this moment as if the Reformer was on the eve
heresies, were the propositions relating to tran - of being crushed . He had many friends - overy
substantiation, the temporal emoluments of the day was adding to their number — but they lacked
hierarchy, and the supremacy of the Pope, which courage, and remained in the background . His
last Wicliffe admitted might be deduced from the lectures at Oxford had planted the Gospel in the
emperor, but certainly not from Christ. The sen - schools, the Bible which he had translated was
tence of the court was sent to the Bishop of London planting it in the homes of England. But if the
accompanied by the of Lincoln, the Foers of the Reforma
and all his brethren , the suffragans of the diocese
of Canterbury, as also to the Bishop of Lincoln ,
disciples of the Reformation multiplied, so too did
the foes of the Reformer. The hierarchy had all
Wicliffe's diocesan , accompanied by the commands along withstood and persecuted him , now the mailed
of Courtenay, as “ Primate of all England," that hand of the king was raised to strike him .
they should look to it that these pestiferous doc - When this was seen, all his friends fell away
trines were not taught in their dioceses.? from him . John of Gaunt had deserted him at an
Besides these two missives , a third was dis- earlier stage. This prince stood stoutly by Wicliffe
patched to the University of Oxford, which was, in so long as the Reformer occupied himself in simply
the primate's eyes , nothing better than a hot-bed of repelling encroachments of the hierarchy upon
heresy. The chancellor, William de Barton, who the prerogatives of the crown and independence
presided over the court that condemned Wicliffe of the nation . That was a branch of the con
the year before, was dead , and his office was now troversy the duke could understand. But when
filled by Robert Rigge, who was friendly to the it passed into the doctrinal sphere, when the bold
Reformer. Among the professors and students Reformer, not content with cropping off a few
were many who had imbibed the sentiments of excrescences, began to lay the axe to the root
Wicliffe, and needed to be warned against the to deny the Sacrament and abolish the altar — the
“ venomous serpent,” to whose seductions they had valiant prince was alarmed ; he felt that he had
already begun to listen . When the primate saw stepped on ground which he did not know , and that
that his counsel did not find the ready ear which he was in danger of being drawn into a bottomless
he thought it entitled to from that learned body, pit of heresy. John of Gaunt, therefore, made all
but that, on the contrary, they continued to toy haste to draw off. But others too, of whom better
with the danger, be resolved to save them in spite things might have been expected, quailed before the
of themselves. He carried his complaint to the gathering storm , and stood aloof from the Reformer.
young king, Richard II. “ If we permit this Dr. Nicholas Hereford , who had aided him in
heretic,” said he, “ to appeal continually to the translating the Old Testament, and John Ashton,
passions of the people, our destruction is inevit, the most eloquent of those preachers whom Wicliffe
able ; we must silence these lollards.". The king had sent forth to traverse England, consulted their
was gained over. He gave authority " to confine in own safety rather than the defence of their leader,
the prisons of the State any who should maintain and the honour of the cause they had espoused."
the condemned propositions." : This conduct doubtless grieved, but did not dis
may Wicliffe. Not an iota of heart or hope did
Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol.i., p. 569. Knighton , De Event. he abate therefore. Nay, he chose this moment
Angliæ , cols. 2650, 2651. to make a forward movement, and to aim more
? Many derivations have been found for this word ; the
following is the most probable: - " Lollen ,or lullen ,signifies terrible blows at the Papacy than any he had yet
to sing with a low voice. It is yet used in the same sense dealt it.
among the English , who say lull a- sleep , which signifies
to sing any one into a slumber. The word is also used in
the same sense among the Flemings, Swedes, and other vol. v., p. 130 ; Edin., 1853. Cobbett, Parl. Hist., vol. i.,
nations. Among the Germans both the sense and the pro col. 177. Fox calls this the first law for burning the pro
nunciation of it have undergone some alteration , for they fessors of religion . It was made by the clergy without
say lallen , which signifies to pronounce indistinctly or the knowledge or consent of the Commons, in the fifth
stammer. Lolhard therefore is a singer, or one who fre- year of Richard II.
quently sings." (Mosheim , cent. 14, pt. ii., s. 36 , foot-note.) * Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p . 579. Vaughan , Liſe of
3 Lewis, Life of Wiclif, p.113. D'Aubigné, Hist. of Reform ., John de Wicliffe , vol. ii., pp. 109, 110.
WICLÍFFE 'S DEMANDS FOR REFORM . 119
CHAPTER XII.
WICLIFFE'S APPEAL TO PARLIAMENT.
Parliament meets - Wicliffe appears, and demands a Sweeping Reform - His Propositions touching the Monastic
Orders — The Church 's Temporalities — Transubstantiation - His growing Boldness - His Views find an echo in
Parliament – The Persecuting Edict Repealed .
The Parliament met on the 19th November, 1382. ings be on a scale which shall be amply sufficient
Wicliffe could now prosecute his appeal to the king for the support of the recipients in the discharge
against the sentence of the university court, con - of their sacred duties, but not such as to minister
demning his twelve propositions. But the prelates to their luxury and pride ; and if a priest shall be
had been beforehand with him . They had inveigled found to be indolent or vicious, let neither tithe nor
the sovereign into lending them the sword of the offering be given him . “ I demand," he said , “ that
State to wield at will against Wicliffe, and against the poor inhabitants of our towns and villages be
all who should doubt the tremendous mystery of not constrained to furnish a worldly priest, often a
transubstantiation . Well, they might burn him viciousman and a heretic, with the means of satisfy
tomorrow , but he lived to -day, and the doors of ing his ostentation, his gluttony and his licentious
Parliament stood open . Wicliffe made haste to ness — of buying a showy horse , costly saddles,
enter with his appeal and complaint. The hierarchybridles with tinkling bells, rich garments and soft
had secretly accused him to the king, he openly furs, while they see the wives and children of
arraigns them before the Estates of the Realm . their neighbours dying of hunger.”
The complaint presented by Wicliffe touched on The last part of the paper went deeper. It
four heads, and on each it demanded a very sweep- touched on doctrine, and on that doctrine which
ing measure of reform . The first grievance to be occupies a central place in the Romish system
abated or abolished was the monastic orders. The transubstantiation . His own views on the dogma
Reformer demanded that they should be released he did not particularly define in this appeal to
from the unnatural and immoral vow which made Parliament, though he did so a little while after
them the scandal of the Church , and the pests of before the Convocation ; he contented himself with
society. “ Since Jesus Christ shed his blood to free craving liberty to have the true doctrine of the
his Church , " said Wicliffe, “ I demand its Eucharist, as given by Christ and his apostles ,
freedom . I demand that every one may leave taught throughout England. In his Trialogus,
these gloomy walls (the convents within which a which was composed about this time, he takos a
tyrannical law prevails, and embrace a simple and luminous view of the dogma of transubstantiation.
peaceful life under the open vault of heaven ." Its effects, he believed , were peculiarly mischievous
The second part of the complaint had reference and far-extending. Not only was it an error, it
to the temporalities of the Church . The corruption was an error which enfeebled the understanding of
and inefficiency ofthe clergy , Wicliffe traced largely the man who embraced it,and shook his confidence
to their enormous wealth. That the clergy them in the testimony of his senses, and so prepared the
selves would surrender these overgrown revenues way for any absurdity or error, however much in
he did not expect ; he called, therefore, for the opposition to reason or even to sense . The doctrine
interference of the State , holding, despite the oppo-
of the “ real presence," understood in a corporeal
site doctrine promulgated by the priests, that both sense, he declares to be the offspring of Satan, whom
the property and persons of the priesthood were he pictures as reasoning thus while inventing it :
under the jurisdiction of the king. “ Magistracy,” “ Should I once so far beguile the faithful of the
he affirms, is “ God's ordinance ;” and he remarks Church, by the aid of Antichrist my vicegerent,
that the Apostle Paul, “ who putteth all men in as to persuade them to deny that this Sacrament is
subjection to kings, taketh out never a one." And bread , and to induce them to regard it as merely
analogous to this was the third part of the paper, an accident, there will be nothing then which I
which related to tithes and offerings. Let these, will not bring them to receive, since there can
said Wicliffe, be remodelled: Let tithes and offer
• Vaughan , vol. ii., p. 125. A Complaint of John Wicliffe :
1 For, Acts and Mon., vol. i., p. 580. Tracts and Treatises edited by theWicliffe Society, p . 268.
be nothing more opposite to the Scriptures, or to

common discernment. Let the life of a prelate be
then what it may, let him be guilty of luxury,
GLI simony, or murder,the people may be led to believe
that he is really no such man — nay, they may then
be persuaded to admit that the Pope is infallible,
at least with respect to matters of Christian faith ;
and that, inasmuch as he is known by the name
Most Holy Father, he is of course free from sin."
“ It thus appears,” says Dr. Vaughan, comment
ing on the above,“ that the object of Wicliffe wasto
restore the mind of man to the legitimate guidance
of reason and of the senses, in the study of Holy
Writ, and in judging of every Christian institute ;
and that if the doctrine of transubstantiation proved
peculiarly obnoxious to him , it was because that
dogma was seen as in the most direct opposition to
this generous design . To him it appeared that
while the authority of the Church was so far sub
mitted to as to involve the adoption of this
monstrous tenet, no limit could possibly be assigned
to the schemes of clerical imposture and oppression."
The enemies of the Reformer must have been
confounded by this bold attack . They had per
suaded themselves that the hour was come when
Wicliffe must yield. Hereford, Repingdon, Ashton
- all his friends, one after the other, had reconciled
themselves to the hierarchy. The priests waited
to see Wicliffe come forward , last of all, and bow
his majestic head, and then they would lead him
1 Trialogus, lib . iv., cap. 7. Vaughan , Life of John de

Wicliffe, vol. ii., p. 131. " Hoc sacramentum venerabile,"
says Wicliffe, “ est in natura sua verus panis et sacra
mentaliter corpus Christi” (Trialogus, p . 192) - naturally
it is bread , sacramentally it is the body of Christ. " By
this distinction ,” says Sharon Turner, " he removed from
the most venerated part of religious worship the great
provocative to infidelity ; and preserved the English
mind from that absolute rejection of Christianity which
the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation has, since the
thirteenth century, been so fatally producing in every
HIGH STREET OF OXFORD : TIME OF WICLIFFE. country where it predominates, even among many of its
teachers.” (Hist. of Eng., vol. v., pp. 182, 183.)
WICLIFFE
CONVOCATION
BEFORE
THE
OXFORD
.AT
about in chains as a trophy of their victory, and a proclaim in the face of the whole nation the cor
proot'oi the complete suppression of themovement ruption , tyranny, and errors of the hierarchy. His
of Reform . He comes forward , but not to retract, sentiments found an echo in the Commons, and
not even to apologise, but with heart which grows Parliament repealed the persecuting edict which
only the stouter as his years increase and his enemies the priests and the king had surreptitiously passed.
multiply, to reiterate his charges and again to Thus the gain remained with Wicliffe.
CHAPTER XIII.
WICLIFFE BEFORE CONVOCATION IN PERSON, AND BEFORE THE ROMAN CURIA BY LETTER.
Convocation at Oxford – Wicliffe cited - Arraigned on the Question of Transubstantiation - Wicliffe Maintains and
Reiterates the Teaching of his whole Life - He Arraigns his Judges — They are Dismayed - Wicliffe Retires
Unmolested - Returns to Lutterworth - Cited by Urban VI. to Rome - Unable to go- Sends a Letter- A Faithful
Admonition - Scene in the Vatican - Christ' s and Antichrist' s Portraits .
BAFFLED before the Parliament, the primate turned court, he retracts nothing ; he modifies nothing ;
to Convocation. Here he could more easily reckon he reiterates and confirms the whole teaching of
on a subservient court. Courtenay had taken care his life on the question of the Eucharist. His
to assemble a goodly number of clergy to give éclat address abounded in distinctions after the manner
to the trial, and to be the spectators, as he fondly of that scholastic age, but it extorted praise for its
hoped, of the victory that awaited him . There unrivalled acuteness even from those who dissented
were, besides the primate, six bishops, many doctors from it. Throughout it Wicliffe unmistakably
in divinity , and a host of inferior clergy . The con - condemns the tenet of transubstantiation, affirming
course was swelled by the dignitaries and youth of that the bread still continues bread, that there is
Oxford . The scenewhere the trial took place must no fleshly presence of Christ in the Sacrament,
have recalled many memories to Wicliffe which nor other presence save a sacramental and spiritual
could not but deeply stir him . It was now forty one.'
years since he had entered Oxford as a scholar ; Wicliffe had defended himself with a rare acute
these halls had witnessed the toils of his youth and ness, and with a courage yet more rare. But
the labours of his manhood. Here had themost bril- acquittal he will neither crave nor accept from
liant of his achievements been performed ; here had such a court. In one of those transformations
his name been mentioned with honour, and his re- which it is given to only majestic moral natures to
nown as a man of erudition and genius formed not effect, he mounts the judgment-seat and places his
the least constituent in the glory of his university. judges at the bar. Smitten in their consciences,
But this day Oxford opened her venerable gates to they sat chained to their seats, deprived of the
receive him in a new character. He came to be
tried , perchance to be condemned ; and, if his I Vaughan , Life of John de Wicliffe, vol. i ., chap. 4.
judges were able, to be delivered over to the civil Wicliffe gave in two defences or confessions to Conto
power and punished as a heretic . The issue of the cation : one in Latin , suited to the taste of the learned ,
affair might be that that same Oxford which had and characterised by the nice indistinctions and subtle
borrowed a lustre from his name would be lit up to the understandings of the common people. adapted
logic of the schools ; the other English , and
In both
with the flames of his martyrdom . Wicliffe unmistakably repudiates transubstantiation .
The indictment turned specially upon transub Those who have said that Wicliffe before the Convocation
stantiation . Did he affirm or deny that cardinal modified or retracted opinions he had formerly avowed ,
have misrepresented him , or, more probably, have mis
doctrine of the Church ? The Reformer raised his understood his statements and reasonings. He defends
venerable head in presence of the vast assembly ; himself with the subtlety of a schoolman, but he retracts
his eyes sought out Courtenay, the archbishop, on nothing ; on the contrary, he re-asserts the precise doc
whom he fixed a steady and searching gaze, and trine for which William de Berton's court had condemned
him , and in the very terms in which he had formerly
proceeded. In this, his last address before any stated that doctrine. (See Appendix in Vaughan,Nos. 1,2.)
WICLIFFE'S LETTER TO THE POPE . 123
power to rise and go away, although the words of there was no one before whom he could so joyfully
the bold Reformer must have gone like burning appear as before Christ's Vicar, for by no one could
arrows to their heart. “ They were the heretics," he expect Christ's law to be more revered, or
'le said , “ who affirmed that the Sacrament was an Christ's Gospel more loved. Atno tribunal could
accident without a subject. Why did they propa - he expect greater equity than that before which he
gate such errors ? Why, because , like the priests now stood, and therefore if he had strayed from
of Baal, they wanted to vend their masses. With the Gospel, he was sure here to have his error
whom , think you,” he asked in closing, “ are ye proved to him , and the path of truth pointed out.
contending ? with an old man on the brink of the The Vicar of Christ, he quietly assumes, does not
grave ? No ! with Truth _ Truth which is stronger affect the greatness of this world ; oh , no ; he
than you, and will overcome you." i With these leaves its pomps and vanities to worldly men, and
words he turned to leave the court. His enemies contenting himself with the lowly estate of Him
had not power to stop him . “ Like his Divine who while on earth had not where to lay his head ,
Master at Nazareth," says D 'Aubigné, “ he passed he seeks no glory save the glory of resembling his
through the midst of them ." Leaving Oxford, he Master. The “ worldly lordship ” he is compelled
retired to his cure at Lutterworth. to bear is, he is sure, an unwelcome burden , of
Wicliffe must bear testimony at Rome also . It which he is fain to be rid . The Holy Father
was Pope Urban, not knowing what he did , who ceases not, doubtless, to exhort all his priests
arranged that the voice of this great witness, before throughout Christendom to follow herein his own
becoming finally silent, should be heard speaking example, and to feed with the Bread of Life the
from the Seven Hills. One day about this time, flocks committed to their care. The Reformer
as he was toiling with his pen in his quiet rectory closes by reiterating his willingness, if in aught he
- for his activity increased as his infirmities multi- had erred , “ to be meekly amended , if needs be,
plied , and the night drew on in which he could not by death."
work — he received a summons from the Pontiff to We can easily imagine the scowling faces amid
repair to Rome, and answer for his heresy before which this letter was opened and read in the
the Papal See. Had he gone thither he certainly Vatican. Had Wicliffe indulged in vituperative
would never have returned. But that was not the terms, those to whom this epistle was addressed
consideration that weighed with Wicliffe. The would have felt only assailed ; as it was, they were
hand of God had laid an arrest upon him . Hehad arraigned, they felt themselves standing at the bar
had a shock of palsy , and, had he attempted a of the Reformer. With severe and truthful hand
journey so toilsome, would have died on the way Wicliffe draws the portrait of Him whose servants
long before he could have reached the gates of the Urban and his cardinals professed to be, and hold
Pontifical city. But though he could not go to ing it up full in their sight, he asks, “ Is this your
Rome in person , he could go by letter, and thus likeness ? Is this the poverty in which you live ?
the ends of Providence, if not the ends of Urban , Is this the humility you cultivate ? ” With the
would be equally served . The Pontiff and his con - monuments of their pride on every hand — their
clave and, in short, all Christendom were to have palaces, their estates, their gay robes, their magni
another warning — another call to repentance ficent equipages, their luxurious tables — their
addressed to them before the Reformer should tyranny the scourge and their lives the scandal of
descend into the tomb. Christendom — they dared not say, “ This is our
John Wicliffe sat down in his rectory to speak , likeness.” Thus were they condemned : but it
across intervening mountains and seas, to Urban was Christ who had condemned them . This was
of Rome. Than the epistle of the Rector of all that Urban had gained by summoning Wicliffe
Lutterworth to the Pontiff of Christendom nothing before him . He had but erected a pulpit on the
can be imagined keener in its satire, yet nothing Seven Hills, from the lofty elevation of which the
could have been more Christian and faithful in English Reformer was able to proclaim , in the hear
its spirit. Assuming Urban to be what Urban ing of all the nations of Europe, that Rome was
held himself to be, Wicliffe went on to say that the Antichrist.
Confessio Magistri Johannis Wyclyff - Vaughan, Life of 3 Dr. Wicliffe's Letter of Excuse to Urban VI.- Bibl. Bodl.
John de Wicliffe, vol. i., Appendix , No. 6 . MS. - Lewis, Life of Wiclif, Appendix , No. 23. Fox , Acts
. D ' Aubigné, Hist . of Reform ., vol. v., p. 132 ; Edin., 1853. and Mon , vol. i., p. 507 ; edit. 1684.
CHAPTER XIV .
WICLIFFE 'S LAST DAYS.
Anticipation of a Violent Death - Wonderfully Shielded by Events-- Struck with Palsy - Dies December 31st, 1384 –
Estimate of his Position and Work - Completeness of his Scheme of Reform - The Father of the Reformation
- The Founder of England's Liberties.
WHEN Wicliffe had indited and dispatched this that moment the Voice spake to him which said ,
letter, he had “ finished his testimony.” It now “ Come up hither.” As he stood before the earthly
remained only that he should rest a little while on symbols of his Lord's passion , a cloud suddenly
earth , and then go up to his everlasting rest. He descended upon him ; and when its darkness had
himself expected that his death would be by violence passed, and the light had returned, serener and
— that the chariot which should carry him to the more bright than ever was dawn or noon of earthly
skies would be a “ chariot of fire.” The primate, day, it was no memorial or symbol that he saw ;
the king, the Pope, all were working to compass it was his Lord himself, in the august splendour of
his destruction ; he saw the iron circle contracting His glorified humanity . Blessed transition ! The
day by day around him ; a few months, or a few earthly sanctuary, whose gates he had that morn
years , and it would close and crush him . That ing entered , became to him the vestibule of the
a man who defied the whole hierarchy, and who Eternal Temple ; and the Sabbath, whose services
never gave way by so much as a foot-breadth , but he had just commenced, became the dawn of a
was always pressing on in the battle, should die at better Sabbath , to be closed by no evening with
last, not in a dungeon or at a stake, but in his own its shadows, and followed by no week-day with
bed, was truly a marvel. He stood alone ; he did its toils.
not consult for his safety. But his very courage, If we can speak of one centre where the light
in the hand of God, was his shield ; for while which is spreading over the earth , and which is
meaner men were apprehended and compelled to destined one day to illuminate it all, originally
recant, Wicliffe, who would burn but not recant,was arose, that centre is England. And if to one man
left at liberty . “ He that loveth his life shall lose the honour of beginning that movement which is
it.” The political troubles of England, the rivalry renewing the world can be ascribed, that man is
of the two Popes, one event after another came to Wicliffe . He came out of the darkness of the
protect the life and prolong the labours of the Re- Middle Ages— a sort of Melchisedek, without father
former, till his work attained at last a unity, a or mother. He had no predecessor from whom he
completeness , and a grandeur, which the more we borrowed his plan of Church reform , and he had
contemplate it appears the more admirable. That no successor in his office when he died ; for it was
it was the fixed purpose of his enemies to destroy not till more than 100 years that any other stood
him cannot be doubted ; they thought they saw up in England to resume the work broken off by
the opportune moment coming. But while they his death . Wicliffe stands apart, distinctly marked
waiteà for it, and thought that now it was near, off from all the men in Christendom . Bursting
Wicliffe had departed , and was gone whither they suddenly upon a dark age, he stands before it in a
could not follow . light not borrowed from the schools, nor from the
On the last Sunday of the year 1384, he was to doctors of the Church, but from the Bible. He
have dispensed the Eucharist to his beloved flock came preaching a scheme of re-institution and
in the parish church of Lutterworth ; and as he reformation so comprehensive, that no Reformer
was in the act of consecrating the bread and wine, since has been able to add to it any one essential
he was struck with palsy , and fell on the pavement principle. On these solid grounds he is entitled to
This was the third attack of the malady. He was be regarded as the Father of the Reformation.
affectionately borne to the rectory, laid on his bed, With his rise the night of Christendom came to an
and died on the 31st of December, his life and the end, and the day broke which has ever since con
year closing together. How fitting a conclusion to tinued to brighten .
his noble life ! None of its years, scarcely any of Wicliffe possessed that combination of opposite
its days, were passed unprofitably on the bed of qualities which marks the great man . As subtle
sickness. The moment his great work was finished, as any schoolman of them all, he was yet as prac
THE BASIS OF ENGLAND'S LIBERTY. 125
tical as any Englishman of the nineteenth century . which came out of that Divine Magna CHARTA,
With intuitive insight he penetrated to the root that Wicliffe gave her in the fourteenth century,
of all the evils that afflicted England, and with which has been the sheet-anchor of England. The
rare practical sagacity he devised and set agoing the English Bible wrote, not merely upon the page of
true remedies. The evil he saw was ignorance, the the Statute Book, but upon the hearts of the people
remedy with which he sought to cure it was light. of England, the two great commandments : Fear
He translated the Bible, and he organised a body of God ; honour the king. These two sum up the
preachers — simple, pious, earnest men — who knew whole duty of nations, and on these two hangs the
the Gospel, and were willing to preach it at cross - prosperity of States. There is no mysterious or
roads and in market-places, in city and village and latent virtue in our political constitution which, as
rural lane— everywhere, in short. Before he died some seem to think , like a good genius protects us,
he saw that his labours had been successful to a and with invisible hand guides past our shores the
degree he had not dared to hope. “ His doctrine tempests that cover other countries with the me
spread ,” said Knighton, his bitter enemy, “ like morials of their devastating fury. The real secret
suckers from the root of a tree.” Wicliffe himself of England's greatness is her permeation , at the
reckoned that a third of the priests of England very dawn of her history, with the principles of
were of his sentiment on the question of the order and liberty by means of the English Bible ,
Eucharist ; and among the common people his and the capacity for freedom thereby created. This
disciples were innumerable. “ You could not meet has permitted the development, by equal stages, of
two men on the highway,” said his enemies , “ but our love for freedom and our submission to law ; of
one of them is a Wicliffite.” 1 our political constitution and our national genius ;
The political measures which Parliament adopted of our power and our self-control— the two sets of
at Wicliffe's advice, to guard the country against qualities fitting into one another , and growing into
the usurpations of the Popes , show how deeply a well-compacted fabric of political and moral power
he saw into the constitution of the Papacy, as a unexampled on earth . If nowhere else is seen a
political and worldly confederacy, wearing a similar structure, so stable and so lofty, it is be
spiritual guise only the better to conceal its true cause nowhere else has a similar basis been found
character and to gain its real object, which was to for it. It was Wicliffe who laid that basis.
prey on the substance and devour the liberty of But above all his other qualities- above his
nations. Matters were rapidly tending to a sacer- scholastic genius, his intuitive insight into the
dotal autocracy. Christendom was growing into a working of institutions, his statesmanship — was his
kingdom of shorn and anointed men, with laymen fearless submission to the Bible. It was in this
as hewers of wood and drawers of water. Wicliffe that the strength of Wicliffe's wisdom lay. It was
said , “ This shall not be ; " and the best proof of this that made him a Reformer, and that placed
his statesmanship is the fact that since his day all him in the first rank of Reformers. He held the
the other States of Europe, one after the other, have Bible to contain a perfect revelation of the will of
adopted the same measures of defence to which God, a full, plain , and infallible rule of both what
England had recourse in the fourteenth century . man is to believe and what he is to do ; and turn
All of them , following in our wake, have passed ing away from all other teachers , from the prece
laws to guard their throne, to regulate the ap- dents of the thousand years which had gone before ,
pointment of bishops, to prevent the accumulation from all the doctors and Councils of the Church,
of property by religious houses, to restrict the he placed himself before the Word of God, and
introduction of bulls and briefs. They have done, bowed to God 's voice speaking in that Word,with
in short, what we did , though to less advantage, the docility of a child .
because they did it later in the day. England And the authority to which he himself so im
foresaw the evil and took precautions in time; plicitly bowed , he called on all men to submit to .
other countries suffered it to come, and began to His aim was to bring men back to the Bible. The
protect themselves only after it had all but effected Reformer restored to the Church, first of all, the
their undoing. principle of authority . There must be a Divine
It was under Wicliffe that English liberty had . and infallible authority in the Church. That
its beginnings. It is not the political constitution authority cannot be the Church herself, for the
which has come out of the Magna Charta of King guide and those whom he guides cannot be the
John and the barons, but the moral constitution same. The Divine infallible authority which
Wicliffe restored for the guidance of men was the
Knighton, De Eventibus Angliæ , col. 2663, 2665. Bible — God speaking in his Word . And by
setting up this Divine authority he displaced that Thus he taught men to cast off that blind sub
human and fallible authority which the corruption mission to the teaching of mere human authority ,
of the ages had imposed upon the Church . He which is bondage, and to submit their understand
turned the eyes of men from Popes and Councils ings and consciences to God speaking in his Word ,
to the inspired oracles of God.' which alone is liberty.
Wicliffe, by restoring authority to the Church, These are the two first necessities of the Church
restored to her liberty also. While he taught that of God - authority and liberty ; an infallible Guide,
JOHN HUSS.
the Bible was a sufficient and all-perfect rule , he and freedom to follow him . These two must ever
taught also that every man had a right to interpret go together, the one cannot exist without the other.
the Word of God for his own guidance , in a de- Without authority there can be no liberty , for
pendence upon the promised aid of the Holy Spirit. liberty without order becomes anarchy ; and with
out freedom there can be no Divine authority, for
1 " The Bible is the foundation deed of the Church, its if the Church is not at liberty to obey the will of
charter: Wicliffe likes, with allusion to the Magna her Master , authority is overthrown. In the room
Charta , the fundamental deed of the civic liberty of his of the rule of God is put the usurpation of man.
nation , to designate the Bible as the letter of freedom of
the Church , as the deed of grace and promise given by Authority and freedom , like the twins of classic
God .” (Lechler, De Ecclesia.) story ,must together flourish or together die.
SIMPLICITY OF WICLIFFE'S DOCTRINE. 127
CHAPTER XV.
WICLIFFE'S THEOLOGICAL AND CHURCH SYSTEM .
His Inability
Theology- Did
drawnnotfromformulate
the Biblehis solely – His Teaching embraced the following Doctrines: The Fall-Man's
Views into a System - His “ Postils ” - His Views on Church Order and
Government -Apostolic ArrangementshisModel- His Personal Piety - Lechler's Estimate of him as a Reformer.
TH
E
SE PEL
E LA
RE
2
WS
STI
CHU
MUN
VIEW OF PRAGUE.
STANDING before the Bible, Wi. prominence to the free grace
cliffe forgot all the teaching of of God i n the
man. For centuries before his salvation ; in fact,matterhe ofascribed
man's it
day the human mind had been busy entirely to grace. He taught
in the field of theology. Systems had man was fallen through Adam 's that trans
been inventedof Councils,
thebeenedicts glossesof ofPopes
and builtandup ;thethebulls doctors,
had gression ; that he was utterly unable
-of -theWord of God is that instrumentalittoy dowhichthe will
piled one above the other till the structure very
looked to the Wicliffedug
he cameindeed.
it all tillimposing down through
first foundations,
specially serves to the edification of the Church ,because
God's Word
to those seed (Luke
isDivine viii. 11). “Wicliffe,
Oh, astonishing
even which the hands of prophets and apostles had power conquersof the
the seed,”
strong-armed exclaims
man, softens hard “ hearts,
which
laid. Hence theWithapostolic simplicity and puritygaveof become
and renews and changes into godly men those who have
his doctrine. all the early Fathers he distance brutalised
from God !by Evidently
sin, and wandered
no to word
priest's an infinite
could
work such
*Aboveall,Wicliffeholdsup to view that the preaching EternalWord a great wonder, if the Spirit of Life and the
did not co-operate.” (Lechler,vol. i., p.395.)
of God, or to merit Divine favour or forgiveness, by faithful ; he discarded the idea that the clergy
his own power. He taught the eternalGodhead of alone are the Church ; the laity, he held, are
Christ – very God and very man ; his substitution equally an essential part of it ; nor ought there to
in the room of the guilty ; his work of obedience ; be, he held , among its ministers, gradation of rank
his sacrifice upon the cross,and the free justification or official pre -eminence. The indolence, pride, and
of the sinner through faith in that sacrifice. “ Here dissensions which reigned among the clergy of his
we must know ," says he, “ the story of the old day, he viewed as arising from violation of the law
law . . . . As a right looking on that adder of the Gospel, which declares “ it were better for
of brass saved the people from the venom of ser- the clerks to be all of one estate.” “ From the
pents , so a right looking by full belief on Christ faith of the Scriptures," says he in his Trialogus,
saveth his people. Christ died not for his own “ it seems to me to be sufficient that there should
sins as thieves do for theirs, but as our Brother, be presbyters and deacons holding that state and
who himself might not sin , he died for the sins office which Christ has imposed on them , since it
that others had done." appears certain that these degrees and orders have
What Wicliffe did in the field of theology was their origin in the pride of Cæsar.” And again he
not to compile a system , but to give a plain ex- observes, “ I boldly assert one thing, namely, that
position of Scripture ; to restore to the eyes of in the primitive Church, or in the timeof Paul, two
men , from whom they had long been hidden , those orders of the clergy were sufficient — that is, a priest
truths which are for the healing of their souls. and a deacon. In like manner I affirm that in the
He left it for those who should come after him time of Paul, the presbyter and bishop were names
to formulate the doctrines which he deduced from of the same office. This appears from the third
the inspired page. Traversing the field of revela - chapter of the first Epistle to Timothy, and in the
tion, he plucked its flowers all fresh as they grew , first chapter of the Epistle to Titus.” 3
regaling himself and his flock therewith, but be- As regards the claims of the clergy alone to
stowing no pains on their classification form the Church, and to wield ecclesiastical
Of the sermons, or “ postils,” of Wicliffe, some power, Wicliffe thus expresses himself : “ When
300 remain . The most of these have now been men speak of Holy Church, anon , they understand
given to the world through the press, and they prelates and priests , with monks, and canons, and
enable us to estimate with accuracy the depth and friars, and all men who have tonsures , though they
comprehensiveness of the Reformer's views. The live accursedly, and never so contrary to the law of
men of the sixteenth century had not the materials God. But they call not the seculars men of Holy
for judging which we possess ; and their estimate Church , though they live never so truly, according
of Wicliffe as a theologian , we humbly think, did to God's law , and die in perfect charity . . . .
him no little injustice . Melancthon , for instance, Christian men , taught in God's law , call Holy
in a letter to Myconius, declared him to be Church the congregation of just men , for whom
ignorant of the “ righteousness of faith.” This Jesus Christ shed his blood , and not mere stones
judgment is excusable in the circumstances in and timber and earthly dross, which the clerks of
which it was formed ; but it is not the less untrue, Antichrist magnify more than the righteousness
for the passages adduced above make it unques- of God , and the souls of men.” 4 Before Wicliffe
tionable that Wicliffe both knew and taught the could form these opinions he had to forget the age
doctrine of God's grace , and of man's free justifi- in which he lived , and place himself in the midst of
cation through faith in the righteousness of Christ. apostolic times ; he had to emancipate himself from
The early models of Church government and the prestige which a venerable antiquity gave to
order Wicliffe also dug up from underneath the the institutions around him , and seek his model
rubbish of thirteen centuries. Hemaintained that and principles in the Word of God. It was an act
the Church was made up of the whole body of the of stupendous obedience done in faith , but by that
act he became the pioneer of the Reformation , and
the father of all those, in any age or country , who
i Vaughan , Life of John de Wicliffe, vol. ii., p . 356 . confess that, in their efforts after Reformation ,
2 The same excuse cannot be made for Dorner. His they seek a “ City ” which hath its “ foundations ”
brief estimate of the great English Reformer is not made
in the teachings of prophets and apostles , and
with his usual discrimination , scarce with his usual fair .
ness. He says : “ The deeper religious spirit iswanting whose “ Builder and Maker ” is the Spirit of God .
in his ideas of reform .” “ He does not yet know the
nature of justification , and does not yet know the free
grace of God .” (History of Protestant Theology, vol. i., 3 Vaughan , Life of John de Wicliffe , vol. ii., pp . 309, 310 .
p . 66 ; Edin ., 1871.) 4 Sentence of the Curse Expounded , chap. 2 .
WICLIFFE' S PLACE AS A REFORMER . 129
“ Thatwhole circle of questions," says Dr. Hanna, before him , and arrive at a scale of measurement
“ concerning the canon of Scripture, the authority for his own power, the fact is brought before us
of Scripture , and the right of private interpre - that Wicliffe concentratedly represented that move
tation of Scripture , with which the later contro - ment towards reform of the foregoing centuries,
versies of the Reformation have made us so which the degeneracy of the Church, arising from
familiar, received their first treatment in this its secular possessions and simonies, rendered neces
country at Wicliffe's hands. In conducting this sary. That which , in Gregory VII.'s time, Arnold
fundamental controversy, Wicliffe had to lay all of Brescia , and the community of the Waldenses,
the foundations with his own unaided hand. And Francis of Assisi, and the begging orders of the
it is no small praise to render to his work to say Minorites strove after, what the holy Bernard of
that it was even as he laid them , line for line, and Clairvaux longed for, the return of the Church to
stone for stone, that they were relaid by the master apostolic order, that filled Wicliffe's soul specially
builders of the Reformation." at the beginning of his public career. . . . . .
Of his personal piety there can be no doubt. In the collective history of the Church of Christ
There remain , it is true, scarce any memorials, Wicliffe makes an epoch , in so far as he is the
written or traditional, of his private life ; but his first reforming personality . Before him arose, it is
public history is an enduring monument of his per - true, here and there many schemes and active
sonal Christianity. Such a life nothing could have endeavours, which led also to dissensions and colli
sustained save a deep conviction of the truth ,a firm sions, and ultimately to the formation of separate
trust in God , a love to the Saviour, and an ardent communities ; but Wicliffe is the first important
desire for the salvation of men. His private cha- personality who devoted himself to the work of
racter, we know , was singularly pure ; none of the Church reform with the whole bent of his mind ,
vices of the age had touched him ; as a pastor he with all the thinking power of a superior intellect,
was loving and faithful, and as a patriot he was and the full force of will and joyful self-devotion
enlightened , incorruptible, and courageous. His of a man in Christ Jesus. He worked at this his
friends fell away, but the Reformer never hesitated, life long, out of an earnest, conscientious impulse,
never wavered . His views continued to grow , and and in the confident trust that the work is not in
hin
o n H a d v a i
his magnanimity and zeal grew with them . Had vain in the Lord (1 Cor. xv. 58). He did not
en wealth
he sought fame, or romoti ,hhe could conceal from
that he, orha ppromotion, himself that the endeavours of evan
not but have seen that he had taken the wrong gelical men would in the first place be combatted,
road : privation and continual sacrifice only could persecuted, and repressed . Notwithstanding this,
he expect in the path he had chosen . He acted on he consoled himself with the thought that it would
the maxim which he taught to others, that “ if we yet come in the end to a renewing of the Church
look for an earthly reward our hope of eternal life according to the apostolic pattern.”
perisheth." “ How far Wicliffe's thoughts have been, first of
His sermons afford us a glimpse into his study all, rightly understood, faithfully preserved , and
at Lutterworth, and show us how his hours there practically valued , till at last all that was true and
were passed, even in meditation on God's Word, well proved in them deepened and strengthened,
and communion with its Author. These are re- and were finally established in the Reformation of
markable productions, expressed in vigorous rudi- the sixteenth century, must be proved by the
mentary English , with no mystic haze in their history of the following generations." ?
thinking,disencumbered from the phraseology of the Wicliffe, had he lived two centuries later , would
schools, simple and clear as the opening day, and very probably have been to England what Luther
fragrant as the breath of morning. They burst was to Germany, and Knox to Scotland. We do
suddenly upon us like a ray of pure light from the not regret that he came so soon ; he filled what,
very heart of the darkness, telling us that God's in some respects , was a higher office. He was the
Word in all ages is Light, and that the Holy Spirit Forerunner of all the Reformers , and the Father
has ever been present in the Church to discharge of all the Reformations of Christendom .
his office of leading “ into all truth ” those who are
willing to submit their minds to his guidance.
“ Ifwe look from Wicliffe,” says Lechler, “ back 2 Lechler, Johann von Wiclif, vol. ii., pp. 741, 742. We
understand that an English translation of Lechler' s Life
wards, in order to compare him with the men of Wicliffe is in preparation by the Rev . Dr. Lorimer, of
the Presbyterian College , London , a gentleman whose
scholarly acquirements and historic erudition eminently
1 Hanna , Wicliffe and the Huguenots, p . 116. qualify him for this task .
130 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTI3M .
Book Third.
JOHN HUSS AND THE HUSSITE WARS.
CHAPTER I.
BIRTH , EDUCATION , AND FIRST LA BOURS OF HUSS.
Bohemia - Introduction of theGospel - Wicliffe's Writings - Pioneers - Militz, Stiekna, Janovius - Charles IV . - Huss
- Birth and Education - Prague - Bethlehem Chapel.
In spring-time does the husbandman begin to already traced in England. Verily , the Husband
prepare for the harvest. He turns field after field man is wisely busy. In Bohemia the plough is at
with the plough, and when all have been got ready work, and already the sowers have come forth and
for the processes that are to follow , he returns on have begun to scatter the seed .
his steps, scattering as he goes the precious seed I n transferring ourselves to Bohemia we do not
on the open furrows. His next care is to see to change our subject,although we change our country.
the needful operations of weeding and cleaning. It is the same great drama under another sky.
All the while the sun this hour, and the shower Surely the winter is past, and the great spring
avesnext,
wthe ant. The tthehe germination and
time, aarend plpromoting
growth of the plant. The husbandman returns a
time has come, when , in lands lying so widely
apart, we see the flowers beginning to appear, and
third time, and lo ! over all his fields there now the fountains to gush forth.
waves the yellow ripened grain . It is harvest. We read in the Book of the Persecutions of
So was it with the Heavenly Husbandman the Bohemian Church : “ In the year A . D . 1400,
when he began his preparations for the harvest of Jerome of Prague returned from England, bring
Christendom . For while to the ages that came ing with him the writings of Wicliffe.” ] “ A
after it the Reformation was the spring time, it Taborite chronicler of the fifteenth century, Nicho
yet, to the ages that went before it, stood related laus von Pelhrimow , testifies that the books of the
as the harvest. evangelical doctor, Master John Wicliffe , opened
We have witnessed the great Husbandman the eyes of the blessed Master John Huss, as
ploughing one of his fields, England namely, as several reliable men know from his own lips,
early as the fourteenth century. The war that whilst he read and re-read them together with his
broke out in that age with France , the political followers."S
conflicts into which the nation was plunged with Such is the link that binds together Bohemia
the Papacy, the rise of the universities with the and England. Already Protestantism attests its
mental fermentation that followed, broke up the true catholicity. Oceans do not stop its progress.
ground. The soil turned , the Husbandman sent The boundaries of States do not limit its triumphs.
forth a skilful and laborious servant to cast into On every soil is it destined to flourish, and men
the furrows of the ploughed land the seed of the of every tongue will it enroll among its disciples.
translated Bible. So far had the work advanced. The spiritually dead who are in their graves are
At this stage it stopped , or appeared to do so. beginning to hear the voice of Wicliffe — yea,
Alas ! we exclaim , that all this labour should be rather of Christ speaking through Wicliffe — and to
thrown away ! But it is not so . The labourer is come forth.
withdrawn, but the seed is not : it lies in the soil ; . The first drama of Protestantism was acted and
and while it is silently germinating, and working over in Bohemia before it had begun in Germany.
its way hour by hour towards the harvest, the So prolific in tragic incident and heroic character
Husbandman goes elsewhere and proceeds to
plough and sow another of his fields. Let us
1 Comenius, Persecut. Eccles. Bohem ., cap. 8 , 5 ; Lugduni
cast our eyes over wide Christendom . What do Batavorum
we see ? Lo ! yonder in the far-off East is the 2 Hoefler,,Hist.
1647.Hussite Movement,vol. ii., p. 593. Lechler,
same preparatory process begun which we have Johann von Wiclif, vol. ii., p. 140.
FIRST CHRISTIANISATION OF BOHEMIA , 13 !
was this second drama, that it is deserving of more which the people did not understand, in their
attention than it has yet received. It did not last addresses to the Almighty, are such as would not
long, but during its career it shed a resplendent readily occur to ordinary men. He tells his “ dear
lustre upon the little Bohemia. It transformed its son," the King of Bohemia ,that after long study of
people into a nation of heroes. It made their the Word of God, he had come to see that it was
wisdom in council the admiration of Europe, and pleasing to the Omnipotent that his worship should
their prowess on the field the terror of all the be celebrated in an unknown language, and that
neighbouring States. It gave, moreover , a presage many evils and heresies had arisen from not ob
of the elevation to which human character should serving this rule.
attain , and the splendour that would gather round This missive closed in effect every church,
history, what time Protestantism should begin to and every Bible, and left the Bohemians, so far
display its regenerating influence on a wider area as any public instruction was concerned, in total
than that to which until now it had been re- night. The Christianity of the nation would
stricted. have sunk under the blow , but for another
It is probable that Christianity first entered occurrence of an opposite tendency which hap
Bohemia in the wake of the armies of Charlemagne. pened soon afterwards. It was now that the
But the Western missionaries, ignorant of the Waldenses and Albigenses, fleeing from the sword
Slavonic tongue, could effect little beyond a nomi- of persecution in Italy and France, arrived in
nal conversion of the Bohemian people. Accord - Bohemia . Thaunus informs us that Peter Waldo
ingly we find the King of Moravia , a country himself was among the number of these evangelical
whose religious condition was precisely similar to exiles.
that of Bohemia , sending to the Greek emperor, Reynerius, speaking of the middle of the thir
about the year 863, and saying : “ Our land is bap teenth century , says : “ There is hardly any country
tised , but we have no teachers to instruct us, and in which this sect is not to be found.” If the
translate for us the Holy Scriptures. Send us letter of Gregory was like a hot wind to wither
teachers who may explain to us the Bible.” ? Me the Bohemian Church , the Waldensian refugees
thodius and Cyrillus were sent ; the Bible was were a secret dew to revive it. They spread
translated , and Divine worship established in the themselves in small colonies over all the Slavonic
Slavonic language. countries, Poland included ; they made their head
The ritual in both Moravia and Bohemia was quarters at Prague. They were zealous evan
that of the Eastern Church, from which the mis - gelisers, not daring to preach in public, but teaching
sionaries had come. Methodius made the Gospel in private houses, and keeping alive the truth
be preached in Bohemia . There followed a great during the two centuries which were yet to run
harvest of converts ; families of the highest rank before Huss should appear.
crowded to baptism , and churches and schools arose It was not easy enforcing the commands of the
everywhere. Pope in Bohemia, lying as it did remote from
Though practising the Eastern ritual, the Bo- Rome. In many places worship continued to be
hemian Church remained under the jurisdiction of celebrated in the tongue of the people, and the
Rome; for the great schism between the Eastern Sacrament to be dispensed in both kinds. The
and the Western Churches had not yet been con - powerful nobles were in many cases the protectors
summated. TheGreek liturgy, as we may imagine, of the Waldenses and native Christians ; and for
was displeasing to the Pope, and he began to these benefits they received a tenfold recompense
plot its overthrow . Gradually the Latin rite was in the good order and prosperity which reigned on
introduced, and the Greek rite in the same propor- the lands that were occupied by professors of the
tion displaced. At length, in 1079, Gregory VII. evangelical doctrines. All through the fourteenth
(Hildebrand) issued a bull forbidding the Oriental century, these Waldensian exiles continued to
ritual to be longer observed , or public worship cele- sow the seed of a pure Christianity in the soil of
brated in the tongue of the country. The reasons
assigned by the Pontiff for the use of a tongue
3 See the Pontiff's letter in Comenius, Persecut. Eccles .
Bohem ., pp. 16 , 17. The following is an extract : - “ Sæpè
Nestor, Annals, pp.20 – 23 ; St. Petersburg edit., 1767; enim meditantes Scripturam Sacram , comperimus, omni
apud Count Valerian Krasinski, Slavonia , pp . 36, 37. potenti Deo placuisse, et placere, cultum sacrum lingua
? Comenius, Persecut. Eccles. Bohem ., cap . 1, 1. Centu arcana peragi, ne à quibus vis promiscue, præsertim ru
riatores Madgeburgenses, Hist. Eccles ., tom . iii., p . 8 ; dioribus, intelligatur." . . . . Data Romæ , & c .,
Basiliæ , 1624 . Anno 1079.
All great changes prognosticate themselves. The clergy rather than against the false doctrines of the
revolutions that happen in the political sphere Church, and he exhorted the people to Communion
never fail to make their advent felt. Is it wonder. in both kinds. Hewent to Rome, in the hope of
ful that in every country of Christendom there were finding there, in a course of fasting and tears,
men who foretold the approach of a great moral greater rest for his soul. But, alas ! the scandals
and spiritual revolution ? In Bohemia were three of Prague, against which he had thundered in the
men who were the pioneers of Huss ; and who, in pulpit of Hardschin , were forgotten in the greater
I .
GOT
DAH
SOLDIERS SEARCHING FOR BOHEMIAN PROTESTANTS .
terms enormities of the Pontifical city. Shocked at what

more he saw in Rome, he wrote over the door of one of
or less the cardinals, “ Antichrist is now come, and
plain , sitteth in the Church,” 1 and departed . The Pope,
fore- Gregory XI., sent after him a bull, addressed to
told the Archbishop of Prague, commanding him to
in the ad. seize and imprison the bold priest who had
vent affronted the Pope in his own capital, and at
of a greater champion than themselves. The first the very threshold of the Vatican.
of these was John Milicius, or Militz, Archdeacon No sooner had Milicius returned home than the
and Canon of the Archiepiscopal Cathedral of the archbishop proceeded to execute the Papal man
Hardschin , Prague. Hewas a man of rare learn - date. But murmurs began to be heard among the
ing, of holy life, and an eloquent preacher. When citizens, and fearing a popular outbreak the arch
lie appeared in the pulpit of the cathedral church,
where he always used the tongue of the people, 1 “ Antichristus jam venit, et in Ecclesia sedet."
the vast edifice was thronged with a most attentive (Comenius. Persecut. Eccles. Bohem ., p . 21.) Gome say
audience. He inveighed against the abuses of the that the words were written on the portals of St. Peter.
HARDSHIPS OF THE BOHEMIAN PROTESTANTS. 133
bishop opened the prison doors, and Milicius, They durst not openly celebrate the Communion
after a short incarceration, was set at liberty. He in both kinds, and those who desired to partake
survived his eightieth year, and died in peace, of the “ cup,” could enjoy the privilege only in
A.D. 1374.' private dwellings , or in the yet greater conceal
His colleague, Conrad Stiekna — a man of similar ment of woods and caves. It fared hard with
THE MIRACLE AT WILSNACK : PEOPLE FLOCKING TO THE CHURCH .
character and them when their places of retreat were discovered

great elo by the armed bands which were sent upon their
quence, and track. Those who could not manage to escape
whose church were put to the sword , or thrown into rivers.
in Prague was At length the stake was decreed (1376 ) against
so crowded , all who dissented from the established rites.
he was obliged These persecutions were continued till the times
to go outside of Huss. Janovius, who “ taught that salvation
and preach was only to be found by faith in the crucified
in the open Saviour,” when dying (1394) consoled his friends
square - died with the assurance that better times were in store .
before him . “ The rage of the enemies of the truth,” said he,
He was suc- “ now prevails against us, but it will not be for
ceeded by ever ; there shall arise one from among the com
Matthew Ja - mon people, without sword or authority , and
novius, who against him they shall not be able to prevail.” 3
not only thun Politically , too, the country of Bohemia was
dered in the preparing for the great part it was about to act.
wryu
pulpit of the Charles I., better known in Western Europe as

cathedral Charles IV ., Emperor of Germany, and author of
against the theGolden Bull, had some time before ascended the
abuses of the throne. He was an enlightened and patriotic
Church , but ruler. The friend of Petrarch and the protector of
travelled Janovius, he had caught so much of the spirit of
through Bo - the great poet and of the Bohemian pastor, as to
hemia , preaching everywhere against the iniquities desire a reform of the ecclesiastical estate, espe
of the times. This drew the eyes of Rome upon cially in the enormous wealth and overgrown
him . At the instigation of the Pope, persecution power of the clergy. In this, however, he could
was commenced against the confessors in Bohemia . effect nothing ; on the contrary, Romehad the art
Comenius, Persecut. Eccles. Bohem ., p . 21. 2 Comenius, Persecut. Eccles. Bohem ., p.23. 3 Ibid., p. 24 .
12
to gain his concurrence in her persecuting mea- grieved by the misfortune, she knelt down beside
sures . But he had greater success in his efforts her son, and implored upon him the blessing of the
for the political and material amelioration of his Almighty : The prayers of the mother were heard ,
country. He repressed icthe turbulence of
robbthe though the answer came in a way that would have
hways of
nobles ; he cleared the highways ers pierced her heart like a sword , had she lived to
the robbers
of the
witness the
who infested them ; and now the husbandman witness issue
the issue.
young stud
the young
being able to sow and reap in peace , and the The university career ofof the student,
merchant to pass from town to town in safety, the whose excellent talents sharpened and expanded
country began to enjoy great prosperity. Nor did day by day, was one of great brilliance. His
the labours of the sovereign stop here. He face was pale and thin ; his consuming passion
extended the municipal liberties of the towns, and was a desire for knowledge ; blameless in life,
in 1347 he founded a university in Prague, on the sweet and affable in address , he won upon all who
model of those of Bologna and Paris ; filling its came in contact with him . He was made Bachelor
chairs with eminent scholars , and endowing it with of Arts in 1393, Bachelor of Theology in 1394,
ample funds. He specially patronised those authors Master of Arts in 1396 ; Doctor of Theology he
who wrote in the Bohemian tongue, judging that never was, any more than Melancthon. Two
there was no more effectual way of invigorating years after becoming Master of Arts, he began to
the national intellect, than by cultivating the hold lectures in the university . Having finished
national language and literature. Thus, while in his university course, he entered the Church,
other countries the Reformation helped to purify where he rose rapidly into distinction. By-and-by
and ennoble the national language, by making it the his fame reached the court of Wenceslaus, who had
vehicle of the sublimest truths, in Bohemia this succeeded his father, Charles IV ., on the throne of
process was reversed, and the development of the Bohemia . His queen , Sophia of Bavaria , selected
Bohemian tongue prepared the way for the entrance Huss as her confessor.
of Protestantism ." He was at this time a firm believer in the
Although the reign of Charles IV . was an era of Papacy. The philosophical writings of Wicliffe he
peace, and his efforts were mainly directed towards already knew , and had ardently studied ; but his
the intellectualand material prosperity of Bohemia, theological treatises he had not seen. Hewas filled
he took care, nevertheless , that the martial spirit with unlimited devotion for the grace and benefits
of his subjects should not decline ; and thus when of the Roman Church ; for he tells us that he went
the tempest burst in the beginning of the fifteenth at the time of the Prague Jubilee, 1393, to con
century, and the anathemas of Romewere seconded fession in the Church of St. Peter, gave the last
by the armies of Germany, the Bohemian people four groschen that he possessed to the confessor,
were not unprepared for the tremendous struggle and took part in the processions in order to share
which they were called to wage for their political also in the absolution — an efflux of superabundant
and religious liberties. devotion of which he afterwards repented, as he
Before detailing that struggle , we must briefly himself acknowledged from the pulpit.
sketch the career of the man who so powerfully The true career of John Huss dates from about
contributed to create in the breasts of his country - A .D. 1402, when he was appointed preacher to the
men that dauntless spirit which bore them up till Chapel of Bethlehem . This temple had been
victory crowned their arms. John Huss was born founded in the year 1392 by a certain citizen of
on the 6th of July , 1373, in the market town of Prague, Mulhamio by name, who laid great stress
Hussinetz, on the edge of the Bohemian forest near upon the preaching of the Word of God in the
the source of the Moldau river, and the Bavarian mother -tongue of the people. On the death or the
boundary. He took his name from the place of resignation of its first pastor, Stephen of Colonia ,
his birth. His parents were poor, but respectable. Huss was elected his successor. His sermons
His father died when he was young. His mother , formed an epoch in Prague. Themoral condition
when his education was finished at the provincial of that capital was then deplorable. According to
school, took him to Prague, to enter him at the Comenius, all classes wallowed in the most abomi
university of that city. She carried a present to nable vices. The king, the nobles, the prelates, the
the rector, but happening to lose it by the way, and
3 Bonnechose, Reformers before the Reformation , vol. i.,
1 Krasinski, Religious History of the Slavonic Nations, p . 70 ; Edin ., 1844.
pp . 49 , 50 : Edin ., 1849. 4 Chronicon Universitatis Pragensis ; apud Lechler, Johann
• Lechler , Johann von Wiclif, vol. ü ., p. 133. von Wiclif, vol. ii., p . 136 .
THE PREACHER OF BETHLEHEM CHAPEL. 135
clergy, the citizens, indulged without restraint in Already Huss had commenced a movement, the
avarice, pride, drunkenness, lewdness , and every true character of which he did not perceive, and
profligacy. In the midst of this sunken com - the issue of which he little foresaw . He placed the
munity stood up Huss, like an incarnate conscience. Bible above the authority of Pope or Council, and
Now it was against the prelates, now against the thus he had entered , without knowing it, the road
nobles, and now against the ordinary clergy that of Protestantism . But as yet he had no wish to
he launched his bolts. These sermons seem to break with the Church of Rome, nor did he dissent
have benefited the preacher as well as the hearers, from a single dogma of her creed , the one point
for it was in the course of their preparation and of divergence to which we have just referred ex
delivery that Huss became inwardly awakened. cepted ; but he had taken a step which , if he did
A great clamour arose. But the queen and the not retrace it, would lead him in due time far
archbishop protected Huss , and he continued enough from her communion.
preaching with indefatigable zeal in his Chapel of The echoes of a voice which had spoken in
Bethlehem , founding all he said on the Scriptures, England, but was now silent there, had already
and appealing so often to them , that it may be reached the distant country of Bohemia. We have
truly affirmed of him that he restored the Word ofnarrated above the arrival of a young student in
God to the knowledge of his countrymen . Prague, with copies of the works of the great
The minister of Bethlehem Chapel was then English heresiarch. Other causes favoured the
bound to preach on all church days early and afterintroduction ofWieliffe's books. One of these was
dinner (in Advent and fast times only in the morn the marriage of Richard II. of England, with Anne,
ing), to the common people in their own language. sister of the King of Bohemia , and the consequent
Obliged to study the Word of God, and left free intercourse between the two countries. On the
from the performance of liturgical acts and pas- death of that princess, the ladies of her court, on
toral duties, Huss grew rapidly in the knowledge their return to their native land , broughtwith them
of Scripture, and became deeply imbued with its the writings of the great Reformer, whose disciple
spirit. While around him was a daily -increasing their mistress had been. The university had made
devont community , he himself grew in the life of Prague a centre of light, and the resort of men of
faith. By this time he had become acquainted intelligence. Thus, despite the corruption of the
with the theological works of Wicliffe, which he higher classes, the soil was not unprepared for the
earnestly studied, and learned to admire the piety reception and growth of the opinions of the Rector
of their author, and to be not wholly opposed to of Lutterworth, which now found entrance within
the scheme of reform he had promulgated.S the walls of the Bohemian capital.
CHAPTER II.
HUSS BEGINS HIS WARFARE AGAINST ROME.
The Two Frescoes- The University of Prague, Exile of Huss - Return - Arrival of Jerome- The Two Yoke-fellows
The Rival Popes, & c .
An incident which is said to have occurred at this of the Gospel, they had crossed the sea to spread
time (1404) contributed to enlarge the views of on the banks of the Moldau the knowledge they
Huss, and to give strength to the movement he 4 “ Huss copied outWicliffe 's Trialogus for the Margrave
had originated in Bohemia. There cameto Prague Jost of Moravia , and others of noble rank , and translated
two theologians from England, James and Conrad it for the benefit of the laity , and even women , into the
of Canterbury. Graduates of Oxford , and disciples Czech language. A manuscript in Huss's handwriting ,
and embracing five philosophical tractates of Wicliffe,
Comenius, Persecut. Eccles. Bohem ., p . 25. is to be found in the Royal Library at Stockholm , having
* Bethlehem Chapel- the House of Bread , because its been carried away with many others by the Swedes out
founder meant that there the people should be fed upon of Bohemia at the end of the Thirty Years' War. This
the Bread of Life. MS.was finished , as the concluding remark proves, in 1998,
3 Hoefler, Hist. of Hussite Movement ; apud Lechler, the same year in which Jerome of Prague returned from
Johann von Wiclif, vol. ii., p. 140, foot-note. England." (Lechler, Johann von Wiclif, vol. ii., p . 113.)
had learned on those of the Isis. Their plan was New Testament, was a revolution for which,though
to hold public disputations, and selecting the marked alike by its simplicity and its sublimity,
Pope's primacy, they threw down the gage of Huss was not prepared . It may be doubted
battle to its maintainers. The country was hardly whether, even when he came to stand at the stake,
ripe for such a warfare , and the affair coming to Huss's views had attained the breadth and clear
the ears of the authorities, they promptly put a ness of those of Wicliffe.
stop to the discussions. Arrested in their work , Lying miracles helped to open the eyes of Huss
the two visitors cast about to discover by what still farther, and to aid his movement. In the
other way they could carry out their mission. church at Wilsnack, near the lower Elbe, there
They bethought them that they had studied art as was a pretended relic of the blood of Christ.
well as theology, and might now press the pencil Many wonderful cures were reported to have been
into their service. Having obtained their host's done by the holy blood. People flocked thither,
leave, they proceeded to give a specimen of their not only out of the neighbouring countries, but
skill in a drawing in the corridor of the house in also from those at a greater distance , Poland,
which they resided . On the one wall they por- Hungary, and even Scandinavia. In Bohemia
trayed the humble entrance of Christ into Jeru - itself there were not wanting numerous pilgrims
salem , “ meek , and riding upon an ass.” On the who went to Wilsnack to visit the wonderful relic.
other they displayed the more than royal magni- Many doubts were expressed about the efficacy of
ticence of a Pontifical cavalcade. There was seen the blood. The Archbishop of Prague appointed
the Pope, adorned with triple crown, attired in a commission of three masters, among whom was
robes bespangled with gold , and all lustrous with Huss, to investigate the affair, and to inquire into
precious stones. He rode proudly on a richly the truth of the miracles said to have been
caparisoned horse, with trumpeters proclaiming his wrought. The examination of the persons on
approach, and a brilliant crowd of cardinals and whom the alleged miracles had been performed,
bishops following in his rear. proved that they were simply impostures. One
In an age when printing was unknown, and boy was said to have had a sore foot cured by
preaching nearly as much so , this was a sermon , the blood of Wilsnack , but the foot on examina
and a truly eloquent and graphic one. Many came tion was found, instead of being cured , to be worse
to gaze, and to mark the contrast presented be- than before. Two blind women were said to have
tween the lowly estate of the Church's Founder, recovered their sight by the virtue of the blood ;
and the overgrown haughtiness and pride of his but, on being questioned , they confessed that they
pretended vicar. The city of Prague was moved , had had sore eyes , but had never been blind ; and
and the excitement became at last so great, that so as regarded other alleged cures. As the result
the English strangers deemed it prudent to with of the investigation , the archbishop issued a man
draw. But the thoughts they had awakened date in the summer of 1405, in which all preachers
remained to ferment in the minds of the citizens. were enjoined, at least once a month , to publish
Among those who came to gaze at this antithesis to their congregations the episcopal prohibition of
of Christ and Antichrist was John Huss ; and pilgrimages to the blood of Wilsnack, under pain
the effect of it upon him was to lead him to of excommunication.
study more carefully than ever the writings of Huss was able soon after (1409) to render
Wicliffe. He was far from able at first to concur another service to his nation, which , by extending
in the conclusions of the English Reformer. Like his fame and deepening his influence among the
a strong light thrown suddenly upon a weak eye, Bohemian people, paved the way for his great
the bold views of Wicliffe, and the sweeping work. Crowds of foreign youth flocked to the
measure of reform which he advocated , alarmed University of Prague, and their numbers enabled
and shocked Huss. The Bohemian preacher had them to monopolise its emoluments and honours, to
appealed to the Bible, but he had not bowed before the partial exclusion of the Bohemian students.
it with the absolute and unreserved submission of By the original constitution of the university
the English pastor. To overturn the hierarchy, the Bohemians possessed three votes, and the other
and replace it with the simple ministry of the nations united only one. In process of time this
Word ; to sweep away all the teachings of tradi- was reversed ; the Germans usurped three of the
tion, and put in their room the doctrines of the four votes , and the remaining one alone was left to
. -- - --- - -- - -
1 Comenius, Persecut. Eccles. Bohen ., pp. 27, 28. Kra . Hoefler, Hist. of Hussite Movement ; apud Concilia
sinski, Slavonia , p . 60 . Pragensia .
WICLIFFE'S BOOKS BURNED IN PRAGUE. 137
the native youth . Huss protested against this supplication. He went on with the case , con
abuse, and had influence to obtain its correction . demned John Huss in absence, and laid the city
An edict was passed, giving three votes to the of Prague under interdict.
Bohemians, and only one to the Germans. No The Bohemian capital was thrown into perplexity
sooner was this decree published , than the German and alarm . On every side tokens met the eye to
professors and students to the number, say some, which the imagination imparted a fearful signifi
of 40,000 ; but according to Æneas Sylvius, a con- cance. Prague looked like a city stricken with sud
temporary, of 5 ,000 — left Prague, having previously den and terrible calamity . The closed church -door's
bound themselves to this step by oath , under pain — the extinguished altar-lights — the corpses waiting
of having the two first fingers of their right hand burial by the way-side — the images which sanctified
- cut off. Among these students were not a few on and guarded the streets, covered with sackcloth, or
whom had shone, through Huss, the first rays of laid prostrate on the ground, as if in supplication
Divine knowledge,
ip oflight and who were instrumental in for a land on which the impieties of its children
is greateshthe
hspreading er GGermany.
the Wover er Elevated to had brought down a terrible curse — gave emphatic
the rectorship of the university, Huss was now , by and solemn warning that every hour the citizens
his greater popularity and higher position, abler harboured within their walls the man who had
than ever to propagate his doctrines. dared to disobey the Pope's summons, they but
What was going on at Prague could not long increased the heinousness of their guilt, and added
remain unknown at Rome. On being informed of to the vengeance of their doom . Let us cast out
the proceedings in the Bohemian capital, the Pope, the rebel, was the cry of many, before we perish.
Alexander V ., fulminated a bull, in which he com - Tumult was beginning to disturb the peace , and
manded the Archbishop of Prague, Sbinko, with slaughter to dye the streets of Prague. What was
the help of the secular authorities, to proceed Huss to do ? Should he flee before the storm , and
against all who preached in private chapels, and leave a city where he had many friends and not a
who read the writings or taught the opinions of few disciples ? What had his Master said ? “ The
Wicliffe. There followed a great auto da fe, not hireling fleeth because he is an hireling, and careth
of persons but of books. Upwards of 200 not for the sheep.” This seemed to forbid his
volumes , beautifully written, elegantly bound, and departure. His mind was torn with doubts. But
ornamented with precious stones— the works of had not the same Master commanded, “ When they
John Wicliffe — were, by the order of Sbinko, piled persecute you in one city , flee ye to another ” ? His
upon the street of Prague, and, amid the tolling presence could but entail calamity upon his friends ;
bells, publicly burned . Their beauty and costli- so , quitting Prague, he retired to his native village
ness showed that their owners were men of high of Hussinetz.
position ; and their number, collected in one city Here Huss enjoyed the protection of the terri
alone, attests how widely circulated were the writ torial lord , who was his friend. His first thoughts
ings of the English Reformer on the continent of were of those he had left behind in Prague — the
Europe. flock to whom he had so lovingly ministered in his
This act but themore inflamed the zeal of Huss. Chapel of Bethlehem . “ I have retired ,” he wrote
In his sermons he now attacked indulgences as well to them , “ not to deny the truth , for which I am
as the abuses of the hierarchy. A second mandate willing to die, but because impious priests forbid
arrived from Rome. The Pope summoned him to the preaching of it." ! The sincerity of this avowal
answer for his doctrine in person. To obey the was attested by the labours he immediately under
summons would have been to walk into his grave. took. Making Christ his pattern , he journeyed all
The king, the queen , the university, and many of through the surrounding region , preaching in the
the magnates of Bohemia sent a joint embassy towns and villages. He was followed by great
requesting the Pope to dispense with Huss's ap- crowds, who hung upon his words, admiring his
pearance in person, and to hear him by his legal meekness not less than his courage and eloquence.
-counsel. The Pope refused to listen to this “ The Church ,” said his hearers , “ has pronounced
this man a heretic and a demon, yet his life is holy ,
Krasinski. Slavonia, pp. 56. 57. Bonnechose . Res and his doctrine is pure and elevating.”
formers before the Reformation, vol. i., p. 78. Dupin ,
Eccles. Hist., cent. 15, p . 119.
3" Esusta igitur sunt (Æneå Sylvio-teste) supra ducenta 3 Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 776.
volumina, pulcherrimè conscripta, bullis aureis tegumen . Letters of Huss, No. 11 ; Edin ., 1846.
tisque pretiosis ornata .” (Comenius, Persecut. Eccles. 5 Bonnechose, Reformers before the Reformation, vol. i.,
Bohem ., p. 29. Dupin , Eccles. Hist., cent. 15, p. 118.) p . 87.
VA
SEW
A
C
ALL
PRAGUE
WICLIFTE
.ATWORKS
OF
THE
DESTRUCTION
THE ONE INFALLIBLE GUIDE OF MEN . 139
The mind of Huss, at this stage of his career, wicked persons, and were using their lawful
would seem to have been the scene of a painful authority for unlawful ends. This led him to
conflict. Although the Church was seeking to adopt for his own guidance, and to preach to
overwhelm him by her thunderbolts, he had not others for theirs, the maxim that the precepts of
renounced her authority. The Roman Church was Scripture, conveyed through the understanding,
still to him the spouse of Christ, and the Pope was are to rule the conscience ; in other words, that
the representative and vicar of God. What Huss God speaking in the Bible, and not the Church
was warring against was the abuse of authority, speaking through the priesthood, is the one in
not the principle itself. This brought on a terrible fallible guide of men. This was to adopt the
T
D
U
I L
R
W V DIT
H
DR
O
W
110DOU
NA
JEROME OF PRAGUE.
conflict between the convictions of his understand- fundamental principle of Protestantism , and to
ing and the claims of his conscience. If the preach a revolution which Huss himself would have
authority was just and infallible, as he believed it recoiled from , had he been able at that hour to see
to be,how came it that he felt compelled to disobey the length to which it would lead him . The axe
it ? To obey, he saw , was to sin ; but why should which he had grasped was destined to lay low the
obedience to an infallible Church lead to such an principle of human supremacy in matters of con
issue? This was the problem he could not solve ; science, but the fetters yet on his arm did not
this was the doubt that tortured him hour by permit him to deliver such blows as would be dealt
hour. The nearest approximation to a solution, by the champions who were to follow him , and to
which he was able to make, was that it had hap- whom was reserved the honour of extirpating that
pened again, as once before in the days of the bitter root which had yielded its fruits in the cor
Saviour, that the priests of the Church had become ruption of the Church and the slavery of society.
Gradually things quieted in Prague, although it stood around him . And it pleased God to give
:soon became evident that the calm was only on him such : a true yoke-fellow , who brought to the
the surface. Intensely had Huss longed to appear cause he espoused an intellect of great subtlety,
again in his Chapel of Bethlehem — the scene of so and an eloquence of great fervour, combined with
many triumphs — and his wish was granted. Once a fearless courage, and á lofty devotion. This
more he stands in the old pulpit ; once more his friend was Jerome of Faulfish , a Bohemian knight,
loving flock gather round him . With zeal quickened who had returned some time before from Oxford ,
by his banishment, he thunders more courageously where he had imbibed the opinions of Wicliffe.
than ever against the tyranny of the priesthood in As he passed through Paris and Vienna, he chal
forbidding the free preaching of the Gospel. In lenged the learned men of these universities to
proportion as the people grew in knowledge, the dispute with him on matters of faith ; but the
more, says Fox, they “ complained of the court of theses which he maintained with a triumphant
Rome and the bishop's consistory , who plucked logic were held to savour of heresy, and he was
from the sheep of Christ the wool and milk , and thrown into prison. Escaping, however, he came to
did not feed them either with the Word of God or Bohemia to spread with all the enthusiasm of his
good examples.” character, and all the brilliancy of his eloquence,
A great revolution was preparing in Bohemia , the doctrines of the English Reformer.S
and it could not be ushered into the world without With the name of Huss that of Jerome is hence
.evoking a tempest. Huss was perhaps the one forward indissolubly associated . Alike in their
tranquil man in the nation . A powerful party, great qualities and aims, they were yet in minor
«consisting of the doctors of the university and points sufficiently diverse to be the complement
the members of the priesthood , was now formed the one of the other. Huss was the more power
against him . Chief among these were two priests, ful character, Jerome was the more eloquent
Paletz and Causis, who had once been his friends, orator. Greater in genius, and more popular in
but had now become his bitterest foes. This gifts, Jerome maintained nevertheless towards
party would speedily have silenced him and closed Huss the relation of a disciple. It was a beau
the Chapel of Bethlehem , the centre of the move- tiful instance of Christian humility. The calm
ment, had they not feared the people. Every day reason of the master was a salutary restraint upon
the popular indignation against the priests waxed the impetuosity of the disciple. The union of
stronger. Every day the disciples and defenders these two men gave a sensible impulse to the
of the Reformer waxed bolder, and around him cause. While Jerome debated in the schools, and
were now powerful as well as numerous friends. thundered in the popular assemblies, Huss ex
" The queen was on his side ; the lofty character pounded the Scriptures in his chapel, or toiled
and resplendent virtues of Huss had won her with his pen at the refutation of some mani
esteem . Many of the nobles declared for him — festo of the doctors of the university, or some bull
:some of them because they had felt the Divine of the Vatican. Their affection for each other
power of the doctrines which he taught, and others ripened day by day, and continued unbroken till
in the hope of sharing in the spoils which they death came to set its seal upon it, and unite them
foresaw would by-and-by be gleaned in the wake in the bonds of an eternal friendship .
of the movement. The great body of the citizens The drama was no longer confined to the limits
were friendly . Captivated by his eloquence , and of Bohemia . Events were lifting up Huss and
taught by his pure and elevating doctrine, they Jerome to a stage where they would have to act
had learned to detest the pride, the debaucheries, their part in the presence of all Christendom . Let
and the avarice of the priests, and to take part us cast our eyes around and survey the state of
with the man whom so many powerful and un- Europe. There were at that time three Popes
righteous confederacies were seeking to crush . reigning in Christendom . The Italians had elected
But Huss was alone ; he had no fellow -worker ; Balthazar Cossa , who, as John XXIII., had set
and had doubtless his hours of loneliness and me- up his chair at Bologna. The French had chosen
lancholy. One single companion of sympathising Angelo Corario , who lived at Rimini, under the
fpirit, and of like devotion to the same great title of Gregory XII.; and the Spaniards had
cause, would have been to Huss a greater stay and elected Peter de Lune (Benedict XIII. ), who re- ,
A sweeter solace than all the other friends who sided in Arragon. Each claimed to be the legiti
} Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p . 776 . 3 Dupin , Eccles. Hist., cent. 15 , chap. 7 , p. 121. Comenius,
· Ibid ., vol. i., p. 780. Bonnechose, vol.i., p. 97. Persecut. Eccles. Bohem ., p. 27.
THE RIVAL POPES. 141
mate successor of Peter , and the true vicegerent of done without money , they opened a scandalous .
God ,and each strove to make good his claim by the traffic in spiritual things to supply themselves
bitterness and rage with which he hurled his male with the needful gold . Pardons, dispensations,
dictions against his rival. Christendom wasdivided, and places in Paradise they put up to sale, in
each nation naturally supporting the Pope of its order to realise the means of equipping their
choice. The schism suggested some questions which armies for the field . The bishops and inferior
it was not easy to solve. “ If we must obey," said clergy, quick to profit by the example set them by
Huss and his followers , “ to whom is our obedience the Popes, enriched themselves by simony. At
to be paid ? Balthazar Cossa , called John XXIII., times they made war on their own account, attack
is at Bologna ; Angelo Corario , named Gregory ing at the head of armed bands the territory of a
XII., is at Rimini ; Peter de Lune, who calls rival ecclesiastic, or the castle of a temporal baron .
himself Benedict XIII., is in Arragon. If all A bishop newly elected to Hildesheim , having re
three are infallible , why does not their testimony quested to be shown the library of his predecessors ,
agree ? and if only one of them is the Most Holy was led into an arsenal, in which all kinds of arms
Father, why is it that we cannot distinguish him were piled up. “ Those,” said his conductors, “ are
from the rest ?” ? Nor was much help to be got the books which they made use of to defend the
towards a solution by putting the question to the Church ; imitate their example." ? How different
men themselves. If they asked John XXIII. he were the words of St. Ambrose ! “ My arms,”
told them that Gregory XII. was “ a heretic, a said he, as the Goths approached his city , “ are
demon , the Antichrist;" Gregory XII. obligingly my tears ; with other weapons I dare not fight.”
bore the same testimony respecting John XXIII., It is distressing to dwell on this deplorable
and both Gregory and John united in sounding picture. Of the practice of piety nothing remained
in similar fashion , the praises of Benedict XIII.,
whom they stigmatised as " an impostor and schis-
order banishede stitious rites.
save a few superstitious rites. Truth, justice , and
order banished from among men, force was the
with prodiga
matic," while Benedict paid back with prodigal arbiter in all things, and nothing was heard but
interest the compliments of his two opponents. It the clash of arms and the sighings of oppressed
came to this, that if these men were to be be- nations, while above the strife rose the furious
lieved , instead of three Popes there were three voices of the rival Popes frantically hurling
Antichrists in Christendom ; and if they were not anathemas at one another. This was truly a
to be believed , where was the infallibility , and melancholy spectacle ; but it was necessary, perhaps ,
what had become of the apostolic succession ? that the evil should grow to this head, if per
The chroniclers of the time labour to describe adventure the eyes of men might be opened , and
the distractions, calamities, and woes that grew out they might see that it was indeed a “ bitter
of this schism . Europe was plunged into anarchy ; thing ” that they had forsaken the “ easy yoke”
every petty State was a theatre of war and rapine. of the Gospel, and submitted to a power that
The rival Popes sought to crush one another, not set no limits to its usurpations, and which ,
with the spiritual bolts only , but with temporal clothing itself with the prerogatives of God, was
arms also . They went into the market to purchase waging a war of extermination against all the
swords and hire soldiers, and as this could not be rights of man .
CHAPTER III.
GROWING OPPOSITION OF HUSS TO ROME.
The “ Six Errors " - The Pope's Bull against the King of Hungary - Huss on Indulgences and Crusades - Prophetic
Words - Huss closes his career in Prague.
The frightful picture which society now presented compared these with the sad spectacles passing
had a very powerful effect on John Huss. He before his eyes, and he saw more clearly every
studied the Bible, he read the early Fathers, he day that “ the Church ” had departed far from her
1 Bonnechose , vol. i., p. 126 . ? Bonnechose, vol. i., p . 99.
early model, not in practice only , but in doctrine it, or collect funds for its support, the pardon of all
also. A little while ago we saw him levelling his their sins, and immediate admission into Paradise
blows at abuses ; now we find him beginning to should they die in the war — in short, the same
strike at the root on which all these abuses grew , indulgences which were accorded to those who
if haply he might extirpate both root and branch bore arms for the conquest of the Holy Land . This
together. fulmination wrapped Bohemia in flames ; and Huss
It was at this time that he wrote his treatise seized the opportunity of directing the eyes of his
On the Church, a work which enables us to trace countrymen to the contrast, so perfect and striking,
the progress of his emancipation from the shackles between the vicar of Christ and Christ himself ; be
of authority. He establishes in it the principle tween the destroyer and the Saviour ; between the
that the true Church of Christ has not necessarily commands of the bull, which proclaimed war, and
an exterior constitution , but that communion with the precepts of the Gospel, which preached peace.
its invisible Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, is alone A few extracts from his refutation of the Papal
necessary for it : and that the Catholic Church is bull will enable us to measure the progress Huss
the assembly of all the elect. was making in evangelical sentiments , and the
This tractate was followed by another under the light which through his means was breaking upon
title of The Six Errors. The first error was that Bohemia. “ If the disciples of Jesus Christ,” said
of the priests who boasted of making the body of he, “ were not allowed to defend him who is Chief
Jesus Christ in the mass , and of being the creator of the Church , against those who wanted to seize
of their Creator. The second was the confession on him , much more will it not be permissible to a
exacted of themembers of the Church — “ I believe bishop to engage in war for a temporal domination
in the Pope and the saints ” – in opposition to and earthly riches.” “ As the secular body," he
which , Huss taught thatmen are to believe in God continues, " to whom the temporal sword alone is
only . The third error was the priestly pretension suitable, cannot undertake to handle the spiritual
to remit the guilt and punishment of sin . The one, in like manner the ecclesiastics ought to be
fourth was the implicit obedience exacted by ec- content with the spiritual sword, and not make
clesiastical superiors to all their commands. The use of the temporal.” This was flatly to contra
fifth was themaking no distinction between a valid dict a solemn judgment of the Papal chair which
excommunication and one that was not so. The asserted the Church's right to both swords.
sixth error was simony. This Huss designated a Having condemned crusades, the carnage of
heresy, and scarcely, he believed , could a priest be which was doubly iniquitous when done by priestly
found who was not guilty of it. hands, Huss next attacks indulgences. They are
This list of errors was placarded on the door of an affront to the grace of the Gospel. “ God alone
the Bethlehem Chapel. The tract in which they possesses the power to forgive sins in an absolute
were set forth was circulated far and near, and manner.” “ The absolution of Jesus Christ," he
produced an immense impression throughout the says, “ ought to precede that of the priest ; or, in
whole of Bohemia . other words, the priest who absolves and condemns
Another matter which now fell out helped to ought to be certain that the case in question is one
deepen the impression which his tract on The Six which Jesus Christ himself has already absolved or
Errors had made. John XXIII. fulminated a bull condemned." This implies that the power of the
against Ladislaus, King of Hungary, excommuni- keys is limited and conditional, in other words
cating him , and all his children to the third gene- that the priest does not pardon , but only declares
ration . The offence which had drawn upon Ladislaus the pardon of God to the penitent. “ If,” he says
this burst of Pontifical wrath was the support he again, “ the Pope uses his power according toGod 's
had given to Gregory XII., one of the rivals of commands, he cannot be resisted without resisting
John . The Pope commanded all emperors, kings, God himself ; but if he abuses his power lsy en
princes, cardinals, and men of whatever degree , by joining what is contrary to the Divine law , then it
the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, to take is a duty to resist him as should be done to the
up arms against Ladislaus, and utterly to extermi- pale horse of the Apocalypse, to the dragon, to the
nate him and his supporters ; and he promised to all beast, and to the Leviathan.”
who should join the crusade, or who should preach Waxing bolder as his views enlarged, he pro
ceeded to stigmatise many of the ceremonies of the
1 “ Omnium prædestinatorum universitas." (De Eccles. Roman Church as lacking foundation, and as being
- Huss - Hist, et Mon . )
Lenfant, vol. i., p . 37. 3 Huss — Hist. et Mon., tom . i., pp. 215 - 234.
WITHDRAWAL OF HUSS FROM PRAGUE. 143
he meriton
foolish and superstitious. Hedenied the merit of subside into peace. He but deceived himself. It
abstinences ; he ridiculed the credulity of believing was as,to com
was not now in the power of any man , even of
legends, and the grovelling superstition of vene. Huss, to control or to stop that movement. Two
rating relics, bowing before images,and worshipping ages were struggling together, the old and the new .
the dead. “ They
mie dead. They are profuse." tosaidwardhe,s threferring
are profuse,” e saints inThePragReformer, ve village fearing
mathis natihowever, of Hus that his presence
to the latter class of devotees, “ towards the saints in Prague might embarrass his friends, again with
in glory, who want nothing ; they array bones of drew to his native village of Hussinetz.
old and use clothin Christ
the latter with silk and gold and silver , and lodge During his exile he wrote several letters to his
them magnificently ; but they refuse clothing and friends in Prague. The letters discover a mind!
hospitality to the poor members of Jesus Christ full of that calm courage which springs from trust
who are amongst us, at whose expense they feed in God ; and in them occur for the first time those
to repletion, and drink till they are intoxicated .” prophetic words which Huss repeated afterwards at
Friars he no more loved than Wicliffe did , if we more than one important epoch in his career , the
may judge from a treatise which he wrote at this prediction taking each time a more exact and
time, entitled The Abomination of Monks, and definite form . “ If the goose ” (his name in the
which he followed by another, wherein he was Bohemian language signifies goose), “ which is but
scarcely more complimentary to the Pope and his a timid bird , and cannot fly very high, has been
court, styling them the members of Antichrist. able to burst its bonds, there will come afterwards.
Plainer and bolder every day became the speech an eagle, which will soar high into the air and
of Huss ; fiercer grew his invectives and denuncia - draw to it all the other birds.” So he wrote ,
tions. The scandals which multiplied around him adding, “ It is in the nature of truth , that the more
had , doubtless, roused his indignation, and the we obscure it the brighter will it become.” ?
persecutions which he endured may have heated his Huss had closed one career, and was bidden rest
temper. He saw John XXIII., than whom a more awhile before opening his second and sublimest
infamous man never wore the tiara, professing to one. Sweet it was to leave the strifes and clamours.
open and shut the gates of Paradise, and scattering of Prague for the quiet of his birth-place. Here he
simoniacal pardons over Europe that he might could calm his mind in the perusal of the inspired
kindle the flames of war, and extinguish a rival in page, and fortify his soul by communion with
torrents of Christian blood . It was not easy to God. For himself he had no fears ; he dwelt be
witness all this and be calm . In fact, the Pope's neath the shadow of the Almighty . By the teach
bull of crusade had divided Bohemia , and brought ing of the Word and the Spirit he had been wonder--
matters in that country to extremity. The king fully emancipated from the darkness of error. His
and the priesthood were opposed to Ladislaus native country of Bohemia had , too, by his instru
of Hungary, and consequently supported John mentality been rescued partially from the same
XXIII., defending as best they could his indul- darkness. Its reformation could not be completed ,
gences and simonies. On the other hand , many of nor indeed carried much farther, till the rest of
the magnates of Bohemia , and the great body of the Christendom had come to bemore nearly on a level
people, sided with Ladislaus, eondemned the cru - with it in point of spiritual enlightenment. So.
sade which the Pope was preaching against him , now the Reformer is withdrawn. Never again
together with all the infamous means by which he was his voice to be heard in his favourite Chapel
was furthering it, and held the clergy guilty of of Bethlehem . Never more were his living words
the blood which seemed about to flow in torrents. to stir the hearts of his countrymen. There re
The people kept no measure in their talk about the mains but one act more for Huss to do — the:
priests. The latter trembled for their lives . The greatest and most enduring of all. As the
archbishop interfered, but not to throw oil on the preacher of Bethlehem Chapel he had largely con
waters. He placed Prague under interdict, and tributed to emancipate Bohemia , as the martyr of
threatened to continue the sentence so long as John Constance he was largely to contribute to eman
Huss should remain in the city. The archbishop cipate Christendom .
persuaded himself that if Huss should retire the
movement would go down , and the war of factions 1 Letters of Huss, No.6 ; Edin . ed .
CHAPTER IV.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE.
Picture of Europe- The Emperor Sigismund - Pope John XXIII. - Shall a Council be Convoked ? - Assembling of the
Council at Constance - Entry ofthe Pope - Comingof John Huss - Arrivalof the Emperor.
AUDI
A
CROSS
23
TUNITI
HITS
We have now before us HRT
a wider theatre than

Bohemia. It is the year
1413. Sigismund - a
name destined to yo
down to posterity along with that of Huss, though
not with like fame— had a little before mounted
the throne of the Empire. Wherever he cast VIEW OF THE CITY OF CONSTANCE.
his eyes the new emperor saw only spectacles
that distressed him . Christendom was afflicted
with a grievous schism . There were three Popes, bargaining. The bonds of charity were disrupted,
whose personal profligacies and official crimes were
and nation was going to war with nation ; every
the scandal of that Christianity of which each where strife raged and blood was flowing. The
claimed to be the chief teacher, and the scourge Poles and the knights of the Teutonic order were
of that Church of which each claimed to be the waging a war which raged only with the greater
supreme pastor. The most sacred things were fury inasmuch as religion was its pretext. Bohe
put up to sale, and were the subject of simoniacal mia seemed on the point of being rent in pieces
A GENERAL COUNCIL . 145
by intestine commotions ; Germany was convulsed ; graced and torn asunder by its Popes, and under
Italy had as many tyrants as princes ; France was mined and corrupted by its heretics. The emperor
distracted by its factions, and Spain was embroiled gave his mind anxiously to the question how these
by the machinations of Benedict XIII., whose pre- evils were to be cured. The expedient he hit upon
tensions that country had espoused. To complete was not an original one certainly — it had come to
the confusion the Mussulman hordes, encouraged be a stereotyped remedy-- but it possessed a certain
by these dissensions, were gathering on the frontier plausibility that fascinated men, and so Sigismund
ular
AL
HE
VIEW IN THE TYROL : INNSPRUCK .

of Europe and threatening to break in and repress resolved to make trial of it : it was a General
all disorders, in a common subjugation of Christen- Council.
dom to the yoke of the Prophet. To the evils of This plan had been tried at Pisa, and it had
schism , of war,and Turkish invasion,was now added failed . This did not promise much for a second
the worse evil — as Sigismund doubtless accounted attempt ; but the failure had been set down to the
it — of heresy. A sincere devotee, he was moved fact that then the mitre and the Empire were at
even to tears by this spectacle of Christendom dis- war with each other, whereas now the Pope and
" Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., chap. 1. · Dupin, Eccles. Hist., Counc.of Pisa, cent. 15, chap. 1.
13
the emperor were prepared to act in concert. In Among the members of sovereign rank were the
these more advantageous circumstances Sigismund Electors of Palatine, of Mainz, and of Saxony ; the
resolved to convene the whole Church, all its patri. Dukes of Austria ,of Bavaria ,and of Silesia. There
archs, cardinals, bishops, and princes, and to sum - weremargraves, counts,and barons without number.
mon before this august body the three rival Popes, But there were three men who took precedence of
and the leaders of the new opinions, not doubting all others in that brilliant assemblage, though each
that a General Council would have authority on a different ground. These three men were the
enough, more especially when seconded by the Emperor Sigismund, Pope John XXIII., and
imperial power , to compel the Popes to adjust last and greatest of all - John Huss.
their rival claims, and put the heretics to silence . The two anti-Popes had been summoned to the
These were the two objects which the emperor had Council. They appeared , not in person , but by dele
in eye- to heal the schism and to extirpate heresy. gates, some of whom were of cardinalate rank. This
Sigismund now opened negotiations with John raised a weighty question in the Council, whether
XXIII. To the Pope the idea of a Council was these cardinal delegates should be received in their
beyond measure alarming. Nor can one wonder at red hats. To permit the ambassadors to appear in
this, if his conscience was loaded with but half the the insignia of their rank might, it was argued ,be
crimes of which Popish historians have accused him . construed into a tacit admission by the Council of
But he dared not refuse the emperor. John 's the claims of their masters, both of whom had been
crusade against Ladislaus had not prospered. The deposed by the Council of Pisa ; but, for the sake of
King of Hungary was in Romewith his army, and peace , it was agreed to receive the deputies in the
the Pope had been compelled to flee to Bologna ; and usual costume of the cardinalate. In that as
terrible as a Council was to Pope John, he resolved sembly were the illustrious scholar, Poggio ; the
to face it, rather than offend the emperor, whose celebrated Thierry de Niem , secretary to several
assistance he needed against the man whose ire Popes, “ and whom ,” it has been remarked, “ Pro
he had wantonly provoked by his bull of crusade, vidence placed near the source of so many iniqui
and from whose victorious arms he was now fain ties for the purpose of unveiling and stigmatising
to seek a deliverer. Pope John was accused of them ; " Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini, greater as the
opening his way to the tiara by the murder of his elegant historian than as the wearer of the triple
predecessor, Alexander V .,' and he lived in con- crown ; Manuel Chrysoloras, the restorer to the
tinual fear of being hurled from his chair by the world of some of the writings of Demosthenes and
same dreadful means by which he had mounted to of Cicero ; the almost heretic, John Charlier
it. It was finally agreed that a General Council Gerson ; the brilliant disputant, Peter D 'Ailly,
should be convoked for November 1st, 1414, and Cardinal of Cambray, surnamed “ the Eagle of
that it should meet in the city of Constance .S France," and a host of others.
The day came and the Council assembled . From In the train of the Council camea vast concourse
every kingdom and state, and almost from every of pilgrims from all parts of Christendom . Men
city in Europe, came delegates to swell that great from beyond the Alps and the Pyrenees mingled
gathering. All that numbers, and princely rank, here with the natives of the Hungarian and Bohe
and high ecclesiastical dignity ,and fame in learning, mian plains. Room could not be found in Con
could do to make an assembly illustrious, contri- stance for this great multitude, and booths and
buted to give éclat to the Council of Constance .
Thirty cardinals, twenty archbishops, one hundred + Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., p . 83 . Bonne
and fifty bishops,and as many prelates, a multitude chose, Reformers before the Reformation , vol. i., p . 155.
of abbots and doctors, and eighteen hundred priests Fox, Acts and Mon., vol. i., p . 782.
came together in obedience to the joint summons of 5 Dupin , Eccles. Hist., cent. 15, chap. 2, p. 11.
6 There was no more famous Gallican divine than
the emperor and the Pope. Gerson . His treatise on the Ecclesiastical Power which
was read before the Council, and which has been pre
served in an abridged form by Lenfant (vol. ii., bk. V.,
1 Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., chap. 1, p. 6. chap. 10), shows him to have been one of the subtlest
Dupin , Eccles. Hist., cent. 15, chap . 1, p. 9 ; Lond ., 1699. intellects of his age. He draws the line between the
· Alexander V . was a Greek of the island of Candia ; temporal and the spiritual powers with a nicety which
he was taken up by an Italian monk, educated at Oxford , approaches that of modern times, and he drops a hintof
made Bishop of Vicenza, and chosen Pope by the Councila power of direction in the Pope, that may have sug.
of Pisa . (Dupin , Eceles. Hist., cent. 15 .) gested to Le Maistre his famous theory, which resolved
3 Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., p . 7. Dupin , Eccles. the Pope's temporal supremacy into a power of direction,
Hist., cent. 15 , chap. 2, p. 10. For, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., and which continued to be the common opinion till super
p . 781. Mosheim , Eccles.Hist., cent. 15, pt. i ., chap. 2, sec. 4. seded by the dogma of infallibility in 1870.
RECEPTION OF POPE JOHN AT CONSTANCE. 147
wooden erections rose outside the walls. Thea of which the bishops thought they had cause to
trical representations and religious processions complain . Not a stage did John advance without
proceeded together. Here was seen a party of taking precautions for his safety — all the more
revellers and masqueraders busy with their cups that several incidents befel him by the way which
and their pastimes, there knots of cowled and his fears interpreted into auguries of evil. When
hooded devotees devoutly telling their beads. The he had passed through the town of Trent his jester
orison of the monk and the stave of the bacchanal said to him , “ The Pope who passes through Trent
rose blended in one. So great an increase of the is undone." ! In descending the mountains of the
population of the little town — amounting, it is Tyrol, at that point of the road where the city of
supposed , to 100,000 souls — rendered necessary a Constance, with the lake and plain , comes into
corresponding enlargement of its commissariat.' All view , his carriage was overturned . The Pontiff
the highways leading to Constance were crowded was thrown out and rolled on the highway ; he
with vehicles, conveying thither all kinds of pro- was not hurt the least, but the fall brought the
visions and delicacies:: the wines of France , the colour into his face. His attendants crowded round
breadstuffs of Lombardy, the honey and butter of him , anxiously inquiring if he had come by harm :
Switzerland ; the venison of the Alps and the fish “ By the devil,” said he, “ I am down ; I had
of their lakes, the cheese of Holland, and the con- better have stayed at Bologna ;” and casting a sus
fections of Paris and London . picious glance at the city beneath him , “ I see how
The emperor and the Pope, in the matter of the it is,” he said, “ that is the pit where the foxes are
Council, thought only of circumventing one another. snared .” 5 .
Sigismund professed to regard John XXIII. as John XXIII. entered Constance on horseback ,
the valid possessor of the tiara ; nevertheless he the 28th of October, attended by nine cardinals,
had formed the secret purpose of compelling him to several archbishops, bishops, and other prelates, and
renounce it. And the Pope on his part pretended a numerous retinue of courtiers. He was received
to be quite cordial in the calling of the Council, but at the gates with all possible magnificence. “ The
his firm intention was to dissolve it as soon as it body of the clergy," says Lenfant, “ went to meet
had assembled if, after feeling its pulse, he should him in solemn procession , bearing the relics of
find it to be unfriendly to himself. He set out from saints. All the orders of the city assembled also to
Bologna, on the 1st of October, with store of jewels do him honour, and he was conducted to the epis
and money. Some he would corrupt by presents, copal palace by an incredible multitude of people.
others he hoped to dazzle by the splendour of his Four of the chief magistrates rode by his side,
court. All agree in saying that he took this journey supporting a canopy of cloth of gold , and the Count
very much against the grain, and that his heart Radolph de Montfort and the Count Berthold des
misgave him a thousand times on the road. He Ursins held the bridle of his horse. The Sacrament
took care, however, as he went onward to leave the was carried before him upon a white pad, with a
way open behind for his safe retreat. As he passed little bell about its neck ; after the Sacrament a
through the Tyrol he made a secret treaty with great yellow and red hat was carried, with an angel
Frederick, Duke of Austria , to the effect that one of gold at the button of the ribbon . All the cardi
of his strong castles should be at his disposal if he nals followed in cloaksand red hats. Reichenthal,
found it necessary to leave Constance. He made who has described this ceremony, says there was a
friends, likewise, with John , Count of Nassau, great dispute among the Pope's officers who should
Elector of Mainz. When he had arrived within a have his horse, but that Henry of Ulm put an end
league of Constance he prudently conciliated the to it by saying that the horse belonged to him , as
Abbot of St. Ulric, by bestowing the mitre upon he was burgomaster of the town, and that he caused
him . This was a special prerogative of the Popes him to be put into his stables . The city made the
- -- ----- -- --- Presents the Pope that are usual on these occa
presents toto the
The Pope alone had 600 persons in his retinue; the sions ; it gave a silver-gilt cup weighing five marks,
cardinals had fully 1,200 ; the bishops, archbishops, and four small casks of Italian wine, four great vessels
abbots, between 4 ,000 and 5,000 . There were 1,200 scribes, of wine of Alsace, eight great vessels of the country
besides their servants, & c. John Huss alone had eight,
without reckoning his vicar who also accompanied him . wine, and forty measures of oats, all which presents
The retinue of the princes, barons, and ambassadors was were given with great ceremony. Henry of Ulm
numerous in proportion . (Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const.,
vol. i., pp . 83, 84 .)
* Bonnechose, Reformers before the Reformation , vol. i., 4 “ Pater sante qui passo Trenta perdo." (Lenfant,
p. 158. See also note by translator. Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., p . 18.)
3 Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const.,rol. i., p. 17 . Toid .
carried the cup on horseback , accompanied by six At every village and town on his route he was
councillors, who were also on horseback. When met with fresh tokens of the power that attached
the Pope saw them before his palace, he sent an to his name, and the interest his cause had
auditor to know what was coming. Being informed awakened. The inhabitants turned out to welcome
that it was presents from the city to the Pope, the him . Several of the country curés were especially
auditor introduced them , and presented the cup to friendly ; it was their battle which he was fighting,
the Pope in the name of the city. The Pope, on as well as his own , and heartily did they wish him
his part, ordered a robe of black silk to be presented success. At Nuremberg, and other towns through
to the consul.” 1 which he passed , the magistrates formed a guard of
While the Pope was approaching Constance on honour, and escorted him through streets thronged
the one side, John Huss was travelling towards it with spectators eager to catch a glimpse of the man
on the other. He did not conceal from himself the who had begun a movement which was stirring
danger he ran in appearing before such a tribunal. Christendom .: His journey was a triumphal pro
His judges were parties in the cause. What hope cession in a sort. He was enlisting, at every step,
could Huss entertain that they would try him dis- new adherents, and gaining accessions of moral
passionately by the Scriptures to which he had force to his cause. He arrived in Constance on the
appealed ? Where would they be if they allowed 3rd of November, and took up his abode at the
such an authority to speak ? But he must appear ; house of a poor widow , whom he likened to her of
Sigismund had written to King Wenceslaus to send Sarepta .
him thither ; and, conscious of his innocence and The emperor did not reach Constance until
the justice of his cause, thither he went. Christmas Eve. His arrival added a new attrac
In prospect of the dangers before him , he ob- tion to the melodramatic performance proceeding
tained , before setting out, a safe-conduct from his at the little town. The Pope signalised the event
own sovereign ; also a certificate of his orthodoxy by singing a Pontifical mass , the emperor assisting,
from Nicholas, Bishop of Nazareth, Inquisitor of the attired in dalmiatic in his character as deacon , and
Faith in Bohemia ; and a document drawn up by a reading the Gospel — “ There came an edict from
notary, and duly signed by witnesses, setting forth Cæsar Augustus that all the world ,” & c. The
that he had offered to purge himself of heresy before ceremony was ended by John XXIII. presenting
u provincial Synod of Prague, but had been re- a sword to Sigismund, with an exhortation to the
fused audience. He afterwards caused writings man into whose hand he put it to make vigorous
to be affixed to the doors of all the churches and use of it against the enemies of the Church. The
all the palaces of Prague, notifying his departure, Pope, doubtless, had John Huss mainly in his eye.
and inviting all persons to come to Constance who Little did he dream that it was upon himself that
were prepared to testify either to his innocence or its first stroke was destined to descend.
his guilt. To the door of the royal palace even did The Emperor Sigismund, whose presence gave a
he affix such notification, addressed “ to the King, new splendour to the fêtes and a new dignity to the
to the Queen, and to the whole Court." He made Council, was forty -seven years of age. He was
papers of this sort be put up at every place on his noble in person , tall in stature, graceful in man
road to Constance. In the imperial city of Nurem - ners, and insinuating in address. He had a long
berg he gave public notice that he was going to beard, and flaxen hair, which fell in a profusion
the Council to give an account of his faith , and of curls upon his shoulders. His narrow under
invited all who had anything to lay to his charge standing had been improved by study, and he was
to meet him there. He started, not from Prague, accomplished beyond his age. He spoke with
but from Cralowitz. Before setting out he took facility several languages, and was a patron of
farewell of his friends as of those he never again men of letters. Having one day conferred nobility
should see. He expected to find more enemies at upon a scholar, who was desirous of being ranked
the Council than Jesus Christ had at Jerusalem ; among nobles rather than among doctors, Sigis
but he was resolved to endure the last degree of mund laughed at him , and said that “ he could
punishment rather than betray the Gospel by any make a thousand gentlemen in a day, but that he
cowardice. The presentiments with which he began - -
liis journey attended him all the way. He felt it 3 For, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 789. Bonnechose, Re
to be a pilgrimage to the stake.? formers before the Reformation , vol. i., pp . 150 – 152.
4 Palacky informs us that the house in which Huss
lodged is still standing at Constance, with a bust of the
i Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., chap. 1, p. 19. Reformer in its front wall.
: Ibid ., vol. i., pp . 38 - 41. i Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., p. 77.
CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR SIGISMUND. 149
could not make a scholar in a thousand years.” I willingly undertaken in the hope that assembled
The reverses of his maturer years had sobered the Christendom would be able to heal the schism , and
impetuous and fiery spirit of his youth. He com - put an end to the scandals growing out of it.
mitted the error common to almost all the princes The name of Sigismund has come down to pos
of his age, in believing that in order to reign it terity with an eternal blot upon it. How such
was necessary to dissemble , and that craft was an darkness came to encompass a name which , but for
indispensable part of policy. He was a sincere one fatal act, might have been fair, if not illus
devotee ; but just in proportion as he believed in trious, we shall presently show . Meanwhile let
the Church , was he scandalised and grieved at the us rapidly sketch the opening proceedings of the
vices of the clergy. It cost him infinite pains Council, which were but preparatory to the great
to get this Council convoked, but all had been tragedy in which it was destined to culminate.
CHAPTER V.
DEPOSITION OF THE RIVAL POPES.
Canonisation of St. Bridget - A Council Superior to the Pope - Wicliffe's Writings Condemned - Trial of Pope John
- Indictment against him - He Escapes from Constance - His Deposition - Deposition of the Two Anti.Popeg
Vindication of Huss beforehand .
The first act of the Council, after settling how the in the Council which were meant to pave the way
votes were to be taken - namely , by nationsand not for John's dethronement. In the fourth and fifth
by persons — was to enroll the name of St. Bridget sessions it was solemnly decreed that a General
among the saints. This good lady, whose piety Council is superior to the Pope. “ A Synod con
had been abundantly proved by her pilgrimages gregate in the Holy Ghost," so ran the decree,
and the many miracles ascribed to her, was of the “ making a General Council, representing the whole
blood -royal of Sweden, and the foundress of the Catholic Church here militant, hath power of Christ
order of St. Saviour, so called because Christ him - immediately, to the which power every person , of
self, she affirmed, had dictated the rules to her. what state or dignity soever he be, yea, being the
She was canonised first of all by Boniface IX . Pope himself, ought to be obedient in all such
(1391) ; but this was during the schism , and the things as concern the general reformation of the
validity of the act might be held doubtful. To Church, as well in the Head as in the members." :
place St. Bridget's title beyond question, she was, The Council in this decree asserted its absolute and
at the request of the Swedes , canonised a second supreme'authority, and affirmed the subjection of
time by John XXIII. But unhappily, John him - the Pope in matters of faith as well as manners to
self being afterwards deposed , Bridget's saintship its judgment.
became again dubious ; and so she was canonised In the eighth session (May 4th, 1415), John
a third time by Martin V . (1419), to prevent her Wicliffe was summoned from his rest, cited before
being overtaken by a similar calamity with that of the Council, and made answerable to it for his
her patron, and expelled from the ranks of the mortal writings. Forty - five propositions, pre
heavenly deities as John was from the list of the viously culled from his publications were con
Pontifical ones. demned , and this sentence was fittingly followed
While the Pope was assigning to others their by a decree consigning their author to the flames.
place in heaven , his own place on earth had become Wicliffe himself being beyond their reach, his
suddenly insecure. Proceedings were commenced
3 Concilium Constant., Sess. v . - Hardouin , tom . viii.,
1 Maimbourg, Hist. of Western Schism ., tom . ii., pp. 123, col. 258 ; Parisiis.
124 ; Dutch ed . Theobald, Bell. Huss, p . 38 . Æneas Syl. + Natalis Alexander, Ecoles. Hist., sec. 15, dis . 4 . Dupin ,
vius, Hist. Bohem ., p. 45. Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., Eccles. Hist ., cent. 15, chap. 2 , pp . 14, 15. Fox, Acts and
vol. i., pp. 78 , 79 . Mon ., vol. i., p. 782. Mosheim , Eccles. Hist., cent. 15, pt. ii.,
• Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const.,vol.i., pp. 106, 107. chap. 2 , sec. 4.
CONSTANCE
ENTRY
OFPOPE
INTO
JOHN
.
TEG EL
ceeaze i stac are este
See ter
N
INDICTMENT AGAINST POPE JOHN . 151
bones, pursuant to this sentence, were afterwards grievous and heinous crimes,” says Fox, “ were
dug up and burned. The next labour of the objected and proved against him : as that he had
Council was to take the cup from the laity , and to hired Marcillus Permensis, a physician, to poison
decree that Communion should be only in one kind . Alexander V., his predecessor. Further, that he
This prohibition was issued under the penalty of was a heretic, a simoniac, a liar, a hypocrite , a
excommunication .' murderer, an enchanter, a dice-player, and an
These matters dispatched , or rather while they adulterer ; and finally , what crime was it that
were in course of being so, the Council entered he was not infected with ?" 3 When the Pontiff
upon the weightier affair of Pope John XXIII. heard of these accusations he was overwhelmed with
Universally odious, the Pope's deposition had been affright, and talked of resigning ; but recovering
HU
ALIU
SULIN
RECEPTION OF JOHN HUSS AT NUREMBERG .
resolved on beforehand by the emperor and the from his panic, he again grasped firmly the tiara
greatmajority of themembers. At a secret sitting which he had been on the point of letting go, and
a terrible indictmentwas tabled against him . “ It began a struggle for it with the emperor and the
contained ,” says his secretary, Thierry de Niem , Council. Making himself acquainted with every
“ all the mortal sins, and a multitude of others not thing by his spies, he held midnight meetings with
fit to be named.” “ More than forty-three most his friends, bribed the cardinals, and laboured to
sow division among the nations composing the
Council. But all was in vain. His opponents held
i See decree of Pope John against Wicliffe, ordering
the exhumation and burning of his bones, in Hardouin , firmly John
to their purpose. The indictment against
they dared not make public, lest the Pon
Acta Concil., tom . viii., pp. 263 – 303 ; Parisiis. Fox, Acts
and Mon., vol. i., p. 782. Mosheim , Eccles. Hist., cent. 15,
pt. ii., chap. 2, sec. 8. Dupin , Eccles. Hist., cent. 15, chap . 7,
Pp. 121 , 122. 3 Fox, Acts and Mon., vol. i., p. 782. See tenor of cita
? For, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 783. Mosheim , Eccles. tion of Pope John - Hardouin , Acta Concil., tom . viii.,
Hist., cent. 15, pt. ii., chap. 2. p . 291 ; Parisiis.
tificate should be everlastingly disgraced, and end, so every one thought ; the flight of the Pope
occasion given for a triumph to the party of would be followed by the departure of the princes
Wicliffe and Huss ; but the conscience of the and the emperor : the merchants shut their shops
miserable man seconded the efforts of his prosecu- and packed up their wares, only too happy if they
tors. The Pope promised to abdicate ; but repent could escape pillage from the lawless mob into
ing immediately of his promise, he quitted the city whose hands, as they believed , the town had now
by stealth and fled to Schaffhausen . been thrown. After the first moments of conster
We have seen the pomp with which John nation, however , the excitement calmed down. The
XXIII. entered Constance. In striking contrast emperor mounted his horse and rode round the city,
to the ostentatious display of his arrival, was the declaring openly that he would protect the Council,
mean disguise in which he sought to conceal his and maintain order and quiet ; and thus things in
departure. The plan of his escape had been Constance returned to their usual channel.
arranged beforehand between himself and his good Still the Pope's flight was an untoward event.
friend and staunch protector the Duke of Austria . It threatened to disconcert all the plans of the
The duke, on a certain day, was to give a tourna - emperor for healing the schism and restoring peace
ment. The spectacle was to come off late in the to Christendom . Sigismund saw the labours of
afternoon ; and while the whole city should be years on the point of being swept away. He
engrossed with the fête, the lords tilting in the hastily assembled the princes and deputies, and
arena and the citizens gazing at the mimic war, with no little indignation declared it to be his
and oblivious of all else, the Pope would take purpose to reduce the Duke of Austria by force
leave of Constance and of the Council.” of arms, and bring back the fugitive. When the
It was the 20th of March , the eve of St. Bene- Pope learned that a storm was gathering, and
dict, the day fixed upon for the duke's entertain would follow him across the Tyrol, he wrote in
ment, and now the tournament was proceeding. conciliatory terms to the emperor , excusing his
The city was empty, for the inhabitants had flight by saying that he had gone to Schaffhausen
poured out to see the tilting and reward the vic - to enjoy its sweeter air, that of Constance not
tors with their acclamations. The dusk of evening agreeing with him ; moreover, in this quiet retreat,
was already beginning to veil the lake, the plain , and at liberty, he would be able to show the world
and the mountains of the Tyrol in the distance, how freely he acted in fulfilling his promise of
when John XXIII., disguising himself as a groom renouncing the Pontificate.
or postillion , and mounted on a sorry nag, rode John, however, was in no haste, even in the pure
through the crowd and passed on to the south. A air and full freedom of Schaffhausen, to lay down
coarse grey loose coat was Aung over his shoulders, the tiara. He procrastinated and maneuvred ; he
and at his saddlebow hung a crossbow ; no one went farther away every few days, in quest, as
suspected that this homely figure, so poorly suggested , of still sweeter air, though his enemies
mounted , was other than some peasant of the hinted that the Pope's ailment was not a vitiated
mountains, who had been to market with his pro- atmosphere, but a bad conscience. His thought
duce, and was now on his way back . The duke was that his flight would be the signal for the
of Austria was at the moment fighting in the Council to break up, and that he would thus
lists, when a domestic approached him , and whis- checkmate Sigismund, and avoid the humiliation
pered into his ear what had occurred. The duke of deposition . But the emperor was not to be
went on with the tournament as if nothing had baulked. He put his troops in motion against
happened , and the fugitive held on his way till the Duke of Austria ; and the Council, seconding
he had reached Schaffhausen, where, as the town Sigismund with its spiritual weapons, wrested the
belonged to the duke, the Pope deemed himself in infallibility from the Pope, and took that for
safety. Thither he was soon followed by the duke midable engine into its own hands. “ This de
himself.: cision of the Council,” said the celebrated Gallican
When the Pope's flight became known, all was divine, Gerson , in a sermon which he preached be
in commotion at Constance. The Council was at an fore the assembly, “ ought to be engraved in the
most eminent places and in all the churches of the
1 Dupin , Eccles. Hist., cent. 15, chap 2. Bonnechose, world , as a fundamental law to crush the monster
Reformers before the Reformation , vol. i., pp . 180 — 182. of ambition, and to stop the mouths of all flatterers
2 Von der Hardt, tom . i., p. 77. Niem , apud Von der
Hardt, tom . ii., pp. 313 – 398, and tom . iv., p. 60 ; apud
Lenfant, vol. i., p . 129 . 4 Dupin , Eccles.Hist., cent. 15, chap. 2, pp . 12, 13 . Bonne
3 Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., p . 130. chose, Reformers before the Reformation , vol. i., pp. 182 – 184.
THE VINDICATION OF HUSS. 153
who, by virtue of certain glosses, say, bluntly and been condemned by the Council of Pisa , which had
without any regard to the eternal law of the Gospel, put forth an earlier assertion than the Council of
that the Pope is not subject to a General Council, Constance of the supremacy of a Council, and its
and cannot be judged by such.” ! right to deal with heretical and simoniacal Popes.
The way being thus prepared, the Council now Angelus Corario, Gregory XII., voluntarily sent in
proceeded to the trial of the Pope. Public criers his resignation ; and Peter de Lune, Benedict XIII.,
at the door of the church summoned John XXIII. was deposed ; and Otta de Colonna, being unani
to appear and answer to the charges to be brought mously elected by the cardinals, ruled the Church
against him . The criers expended their breath in under the title of Martin V .
vain ; John was on the other side of the Tyrol; Before turning to the more tragic page of the
and even had he been within ear-shot, he was not history of the Council, we have to remark that it
disposed to obey their citation . Three -and-twenty seems almost as if the Fathers at Constance were
commissioners were then nominated for the exami intent on erecting beforehand a monument to the
nations of the witnesses. The indictment contained innocence of John Huss , and to their own guilt in
seventy accusations, but only fifty were read in the terrible fate to which they were about to con
public Council ; the rest were withheld from a sign him . The crimes for which they condemned
regard to the honour of the Pontificate - a super - Balthazar Cossa, John XXIII., were the same,
fluous care, one would think , after what had already only more atrocious and fouler, as those of
been permitted to see the light. Thirty-seven which Huss accused the priesthood , and for which
witnesses were examined , and one of the points to he demanded a reformation. The condemnation of
which they bore testimony, but which the Council Pope John was, therefore, whether the Council
left under a veil, was the poisoning by John of his confessed it or not, the vindication of Huss.
predecessor, Alexander V . The charges were held “ When all the members of the Council shall be
to be proven, and in the twelfth session (May 29th , scattered in the world like storks,” said Huss, in
1415) the Council passed sentence, stripping John a letter which he wrote to a friend at this time,
XXIII. of the Pontificate , and releasing all Chris- “ they will know when winter cometh what they
tians from their oath of obedience to him . did in summer. Consider, I pray you, that they
When the blow fell, Pope John was as abject as have judged their head , the Pope, worthy of death
he had before been arrogant. Heacknowledged the by reason of his horrible crimes. Answer to this,
justice of his sentence, bewailed the day he had you teachers who preach that the Pope is a god
mounted to the Popedom , and wrote cringingly to upon earth ; that he may sell and waste in what
the emperor, if haply his miserable life might be manner he pleaseth the holy things , as the lawyers
spared which no one, by the way, thought of say ; that he is the head of the entire holy Church ,
taking from him . and governeth it well ; that he is the heart of the
The case of the other two Popes was simpler, Church, and quickeneth it spiritually ; that he is
and more easily disposed of. They had already the well-spring from whence floweth all virtue and
goodness ; that he is the sun of the Church , and a
very safe refuge to which every Christian ought to
Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., p . 463.
? Concil. Const., Sess. xii.-- Hardouin , tom . viii., col. fly . Yet, behold now that head, as it were, severed
376, 377; Parisiis. Dupin , Eccles. Hist., cent. 15, chap. 2, by the sword ; this terrestrial god enchained ; his
p . 17. Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p . 782. Mosheim , sins laid bare ; this never failing source dried up ;
Eccles. Hist., cent. 15 , pt. ii., chap . 2, sec. 4. The crimes
proven against Pope John in the Council of Constance this divine sun dimmed ; this heart plucked out,
may be seen in its records. The list fills fourteen long, and branded with reprobation , that no one should
closely-printed columns in Hardouin . History contains seek an asylum in it.” .
no more terrible assemblage of vices, and it exhibits no
blacker character than that of the inculpated Pontiff .
It was not an enemy, but his own friends, the Council 4 Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const ., vol. i., p . 398 ; and Huss' s
over which he presided , that drew this appalling portrait. Letters, No. 47 ; Edin . ed . Some one posted up in the
In the Barbarini Collection , the crime of poisoning his hall of the Council, one day, the following intimation , as
predecessor, and other foul deeds not fit here to be men from the Holy Ghost : “ Aliis rebus occupati nunc non
tioned , are charged against him . (Hardouin , tom . viii., adesse vobis non possumus ; ” that is, “ Being otherwise
pp. 343 – 360.) occupied at this time, we are not able to be present with
3 Hardouin , Acta Concil., tom . viii., pp. 361, 362. you ." (Fox, Acts and Mon., vol. i., p. 782.)
154 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM
CHAPTER VI.
IMPRISONMENT AND EXAMINATION OF HUSS.
The Emperor's Safe-conduct - Imprisonment of Huss - Flame in Bohemia - No Faith to be kept with Heretics - The
Pope and Huss in the same Prison - Huss brought before the Council - His Second Appearance- An Eclipse
Huss's Theological Views - A Protestant at Heart - He Refuses to Retract - His Dream .
WHEN John Huss set out for the Council, he and no man dare molest him . No promise could be
carried with him , as we have already said , several more sacred , no protection apparently more com
important documents. But the most important plete. How that pledge was redeemed we shall
of all Huss's credentials was a safe conduct from see by-and -by.
the Emperor Sigismund. Without this, he would Huss's trust, however, was in One more powerful
hardly have undertaken the journey . We quote than the kings of earth. “ I confide altogether,"
it in full, seeing it has become one of the great wrote he to one of his friends, “ in the all-powerful
documents of history. It was addressed “ to all God, in my Saviour ; he will accord me his Holy
ecclesiastical and secular princes, & c ., and to all Spirit to fortify me in his truth, so that I may face
our subjects.” “ We recommend to you with a full with courage temptations, prison , and if necessary
affection, to all in general and to each in particular, a cruel death ." :
the honourable Master John Huss, Bachelor in Full liberty was accorded him during the first
Divinity, and Master of Arts , the bearer of these days of his stay at Constance. He made his arrival
presents , journeying from Bohemia to the Council of be intimated to the Pope the day after by two
Constance , whom we have taken under our protec- Bohemian noblemen who accompanied him , adding
tion and safeguard , and under that of the Empire , that he carried a safe conduct from the emperor.
enjoining you to receive him and treat him kindly, The Pope received them courteously , and expressed
furnishing him with all that shall be necessary to his determination to protect Huss. The Pope's
speed and assure his journey, as well by water as own position was too precarious, however, to make
by land , without taking anything from him or his promise of any great value. Paletz and Causis,
his at coming in or going out, for any sort of who, of all the ecclesiastics of Prague, were the
duties whatsoever ; and calling on you to allow bitterest enemies of Huss, had preceded him to
him to PASS, SOJOURN, STOP, AND RETURN FREELY Constance, and were working day and night among
AND SECURELY, providing him even , if necessary, the members of the Council to inflame them against
with good passports, for the honour and respect him , and secure his condemnation . Their machina
of the Imperial Majesty . Given at Spiers this tions were not without result. On the twenty
18th day of October of the year 1414, the third of sixth day after his arrival Huss was arrested, in
our reign in Hungary, and the fifth of that of the flagrant violation of the imperial safe -conduct, and
Romans." . In the above document, the emperor carried before the Pope and the cardinals. After
pledges his honour and the power of the Empire a conversation of some hours, he was told that he
for the safety of Huss. He was to go and return , must remain a prisoner, and was entrusted to the
clerk of the Cathedral of Constance . He remained
| These documents are given in full in Fox, Acts and a week at the house of this official under a strong
Mon., vol. i., pp . 786 — 788. guard. Thence he was conducted to the prison of
2 This document is given by all contemporary historians, themonastery of the Dominicans on the banks of
by Von der Hardt, tom . iv., p. 12 ; by Lenfant, Hist . Counc.
Const., vol. i., pp. 61, 62 ; by Fra Paolo ; by Sleidan in his the Rhine. The sewage of the monastery flowed
Commentaries ; and , in short , by all who have written the close to the place where he was confined , and the
history of the Council. The terms are very precise : to damp and pestilential air of his prison brought on
pass freely and to return . The Jesuit Maimbourg , when
writing the history of the period , was compelled to own own aa vaging
bagmg 10fever,which had well-nigh terminated his
the imperial safe-conduct. In truth , it was admitted by
theCouncil when , in its nineteenth session , it defended the
emperor against those “ evil-speakers " who blamed him 3 Hist. et Mon . J. Huss., epist. i.
for violating it . The obvious and better defence would Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., p. 43.
have been that the safe-conduct never existed , could the 5 For, Acts and Mon., vol. i., p . 790. Dupin , Eccles. Hist.
Council in consistency with fact have so affirmed . cent. 15, chap. 7, p. 121.
THE TWO PRISONERS. 155
life. His enemies feared that after all he would the fever with which he had been smitten. This
escape them , and the Pope sent his own physicians request was refused , although the indulgence asked
to him to take care of his health .” was one commonly accorded to even the greatest
When the tidings of his imprisonment reached criminals. At this stage the proceedings against
Huss's native country , they kindled a flame in him were stopped for a little while by an un
Bohemia. Burning words bespoke the indignation expected event, which turned the thoughts of the
that the nation felt at the treachery and cruelty Council in another direction. It was now that
with which their great countryman had been treated . Pope John escaped , as we have already related.
The puissant barons united in a remonstrance to the In the interval, the keepers of his monastic prison
Emperor Sigismund, reminding him of his safe- having fled along with their master the Pope,
conduct, and demanding that he should vindicate Huss was removed to the Castle of Goteleben , on
his own honour, and redress the injustice done to the other side of the Rhine, where he was shut up,
Huss, by ordering his instant liberation. The first heavily loaded with chains."
impulse of Sigismund was to open Huss's prison , While the proceedings against Huss stood still,
but the casuists of the Council found means to keep those against the Pope went forward . The flight
it shut. The emperor was told that he had no of John had brought his affairs to a crisis, and the
right to grant a safe-conduct in the circumstances Council, without more delay, deposed him from the
without the consent of the Council; that the greater Pontificate , as narrated above.
good of the Church must over-rule his promise ; To the delegates whom the Council sent to inti
that the Council by its supreme authority could mate to him his sentence, he delivered up the
release him from his obligation , and that no form - Pontifical seal and the fisherman's ring. Along
ality of this sort could be suffered to obstruct the with these insignia they took possession of his
course of justice against a heretic. The prompt person, brought him back to Constance, and threw
ings of honour and humanity were stifled in the him into the prison of Goteleben , the same strong
emperor's breast by these reasonings. In the voice hold in which Huss was confined . How solemn
of the assembled Church he heard the voice of God, and instructive ! The Reformer and theman who
and delivered up John Huss to the will of his had arrested him are now the inmates of the same
enemies. prison , yet what a gulf divides the Pontiff from
The Council afterwards put its reasonings into the martyr ! The chains of the one are the monu
a decree, to the effect that no faith is to be kept ments of his infamy. The bonds of the other
with heretics to the prejudice of the Church are the badges of his virtue. They invest their
Being now completely in their power, theenemies wearer with a lustre which is lacking to the
of Huss pushed on the process against him . They diadem of Sigismund.
examined his writings, they founded a series of The Council was only the more intent on con
criminatory articles upon them , and proceeding to demning Huss, that it had already condemned Pope
his prison , where they found him still suffering John. It instinctively felt that the deposition of
severely from fever, they read them to him . He the Pontiff was a virtual justification of the Re
craved of them the favour of an advocate to assist former, and that the world would so construe it.
him in framing his defence, enfeebled as he was in It was minded to avenge itself on the man who
body and mind by the foul air of his prison , and had compelled it to lay open its sores to the world .
It felt, moreover, no little pleasure in the exercise
1 Dupin, Eccles. Hist., cent. 15 , chap. 7, p. 121. Bonne of its newly -acquired prerogative of infallibility :
chose , Reformers before the Reformation , vol. i., pp . 170 — 173 . a Pope had fallen beneath its stroke, why should a
? Lenfant, Hist . Counc. Const., vol. i., p. 61.
3 Von der Hardt, tom . iv ., p. 397. simple priest defy its authority ?
4 The precisewords of this decree are as follow : - " Nec The Council, however, delayed bringing John
aliqua sibi fides aut promissio de jure naturali divino et Huss to his trial. His two great opponents, Paletz
humano fuerit in prejudicium Catholicæ fidei obser and Causis — whose enmity was whetted , doubtless,
vanda.” (Concil. Const., Sess. xix. — Hardouin , Acta
Concil., tom . viii., col. 454 ; Parisiis.) The meaning is, by the discomfitures they had sustained from Huss
that by no law natural or divine is faith to be kept with · in Prague - feared the effect of his eloquence upon
heretics to the prejudice of the Catholic faith . This
doctrine was promulgated by the third Lateran Councilinail the members, and took care that he should not
(Alexander III., 1167), decreed by the Council of Con
stance, and virtually confirmed by the Council of Trent.
The words of the third Lateran Council are-- " oaths 5 Dupin , Eecles. Hist., cent. 15, chap. 7, p. 121. Fox, Acts
made against the interest and benefit of the Church are and Mon ., vol. i., p. 793. Bonnechose, Reformers before the
not so much to be considered as oaths, but as perjuries" Reformation , vol. i., pp . 191, 192.
(non quasi juramenta sed quasi perjuria). 6 Bonnechose, vol. i., pp. 243 - 248.
156 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM
appear till they had prepared the Council for his wholly false, imputing to him opinions which he
condemnation. At last, on the 5th of June, 1415, did not hold , and which he had never taught.
he was put on his trial. His books were produced, Huss naturally wished to reply, pointing out what
and he was asked if he acknowledged being the was false, what was perverted , and what was
DI
RU
LLI
UTTI
NUREMBERG
true in the indictment preferred against him , as

signing the grounds and adducing the proofs in
support of those sentiments which he really held,
writer of them . This he readily did. The articles and which he had taught. He had not uttered
of crimination were next read. Some of these were more than a few words when there arose in the hall
fair statements of Huss's opinions; others were ex a clamour so loud as completely to drown his voice.
aggerations or perversions, and others again were Huss stood motionless ; he cast his eyes around on
the excited assembly, surprise and pity rather than
1 Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., p. 322. Dupin , anger visible on his face. Waiting till the tumult
Eccles. Hist., cent. 15, chap. 7, p. 122. had subsided, he again attempted to proceed with
ti
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his defence. He had not gone far till he had unction has been poured , and Councils which the
occasion to appeal to the Scriptures ; the storm was Holy Ghost inspires, keep faith ? But Sigismund,
that moment renewed, and with greater violence though he could not be insensible to the silent re
than before. Some of the Fathers shouted out proach which the chains of Huss cast upon him ,
accusations, others broke into peals of derisive consoled himself with his secret resolve to save the
laughter. Again Huss was silent. “ He is dumb," Reformer from the last extremity. He had per
said his enemies, who forgot that they had come mitted Huss to be deprived of liberty,but he would
there as his judges. “ I am silent," said Huss, not permit him to be deprived of life. But there
“ because I am unable to make myself audible midst were two elements he had not taken into account
so great a noise.” “ All," said Luther , referring in in forming this resolution . The first was the un
his characteristic style to this scene, “ all worked yielding firmness of the Reformer, and the second
themselves into rage like wild boars ; the bristles was the ghostly awe in which he himself stood of
of their back stood on end , they bent their brows the Council ; and so , despite his better intentions,
and gnashed their teeth against John Huss.” he suffered himself to be dragged along on the road
The minds of the Fathers were too perturbed to of perfidy and dishonour, which he had meanly
be able to agree on the course to be followed . It entered , till he came to its tragic end, and the
was found impossible to restore order, and after a imperial safe-conduct and the martyr's stake had
short sitting the assembly broke up. taken their place, side by side, ineffaceably, on
Some Bohemian noblemen , among whom was history's eternal page.
Baron de Chlum , the steady and most affectionate Causis again read the accusation , and a some
friend of the Reformer, had been witnesses of the what desultory debate ensued between Huss and
tumult. They took care to inform Sigismund of several doctors of the Council, especially the
what had passed , and prayed him to be present celebrated Peter d'Ailly , Cardinal of Cambray. The
at the next sitting, in the hope that, though the line of accusation and defence has been sketched
Council did not respect itself, it would yet respect with tolerable fulness by all who have written on
the emperor. the Council. After comparing these statements it
After a day's interval the Council again assem - appears to us that Huss differed from the Church
bled . The morning of that day, the 7th June, was of Rome not so much on dogmas as on great points
a memorable one. An all but total eclipse of the of jurisdiction and policy. These , while they
sun astonished and terrified the venerable Fathers directly attacked certain of the principles of the
and the inhabitants of Constance. The darkness Papacy, tended indirectly to the subversion of the
of Constance the
was great. The city, the lake, and the surrounding whole system - in short, to a far greater revolution
plains were buried in the shadow of portentous than Huss perceived , or perhaps intended . Heap
night. This phenomenon was remembered and pears to have believed in transubstantiation ; s he
spoken of long after in Europe. Till the inauspi- declared so before the Council, although in stating
cious darkness had passed the Fathers did not dare his views he betrays ever and anon a revulsion
to meet. Towards noon the light returned, and the from the grosser form of the dogma. He admitted
Council assembled in the hall of the Franciscans, the Divine institution and office of the Pope and
the emperor taking his seat in it. John Huss was members of the hierarchy, but he made the efficacy
led in by a numerous body of armed men . of their official acts dependent on their spiritual
Sigismund and Huss were now face to face. character. Even to the last he did not abandon
There sat the emperor, his princes , lords, and suite the communion of the Roman Church. Still it
crowding round him ; there , loaded with chains, cannot be doubted that John Huss was essentially
stood the man for whose safety he had put in a Protestant and a Reformer. He held that the
pledge his honour as a prince and his power as supreme rule of faith and practice was the Holy
emperor. The irons that Huss wore were a Scriptures ; that Christ was the Rock on which our
strange commentary, truly , on the imperial safe- Lord said he would build his Church ; that " the
conduct. Is it thus, well might the prisoner have assembly of the Predestinate is the Holy Church,
said , is it thus that princes on whom the oil of which has neither spot nor wrinkle , but is holy
and undefiled ; the which Jesus Christ calleth his
1 Von der Hardt, tom . iv., p . 306 . Lenfant, Hist. Counc. own ; " that the Church needed no one visible head
Const., vol. i., p. 323. Bonnechose, Reformers before the on earth, that it had none such in the days of the
Reformation , vol. ii., chap . 4 . Dupin , Eccles. Hist., cent. 15; apostles ; that nevertheless it was then well
chap. 7. Fox, Acts and Mon., vol. i., p. 792.
? Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., p. 323. Fox, Acts
and Mon ., vol. i., p . 792 . Bonnechose, vol. ii., chap. 4 . ? Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., pp. 323, 324. .
HUSS REFUSES TO ABJURE, 159
governed , and might be so still although it should From these two positions neither sophistry nor
lose its earthly head ; and that the Church was threats could make him swerve. In the judgment
not confined to the clergy, but included all the of the Council he was in rebellion. He had trans
faithful. He maintained the principle of liberty ferred his allegiance from the Church to God speak
of conscience so far as that heresy ought not to ing in his Word . This was his great crime. It
be punished by the magistrate till the heretic had mattered little in the eyes of the assembled Fathers
been convicted out of Holy Scripture. He appears that he still shared in some of their common beliefs ;
to have laid no weight on excommunications and he had broken the great bond of submission ; he
indulgences, unless in cases in which manifestly the had become the worst of all heretics ; he had rent
judgment of God went along with the sentence of from his conscience the shackles of the infallibility ;
the priest. Like Wicliffe he held that tithes were and he must needs, in process of time, become a
simply alms, and that of the vast temporal revenues more avowed and dangerous heretic than he was at
of the clergy that portion only which was needful that moment, and accordingly the mind of the
for their subsistence was rightfully theirs, and that Council was made up — John Huss must undergo
the rest belonged to the poor, or might be other the doom of the heretic.
wise distributed by the civil authorities. His Already enfeebled by illness, and by his long im
theological creed was only in course of formation. prisonment- for “ he was shut up in a tower, with
That it would have taken more definite form — that fetters on his legs, that he could scarce walk in the
the great doctrines of the Reformation would have day-time, and at night he was fastened up to a rack
come out in full light to his gaze , diligent student against the wall hard by his bed " __ the length of
as he was of the Bible — had his career been pro- the sitting, and the attention demanded to rebut
longed , we cannot doubt. The formula of “ justi- the attacks and reasonings of his accusers, left him
fication by faith alone" — the foundation of the exhausted and worn out. At length the Council
teaching of Martin Luther in after days — we do rose, and Huss was led out by his armed escort, and
not find in any of the defences or letters of Huss ; conducted back to prison. His trusty friend, John
but if he did not know the terms he had learned de Chlum , followed him , and embracing him , bade
the doctrine, for when he comes to die, turning him be of good cheer. “ Oh, what a consolation to
away from Church, from saint, from all human me, in the midst of my trials,” said Huss in one of
intervention , he casts himself simply upon the his letters, “ to see that excellent nobleman , John
infinite mercy and love of the Saviour. “ I sub- de Chlum , stretch forth the hand to me,'miserable
mit to the correction of our Divine Master, and I heretic, languishing in chains, and already con
putmy trust in his infinite mercy.” ? “ I commend demned by every one.” s
you," says he, writing to the people of Prague, In the interval between Huss's second appear
" to the merciful Lord Jesus Christ, our true God , ance before the Council, and the third and last
and the Son of the immaculate Virgin Mary, who citation, the emperor made an ineffectual attempt
hath redeemed us by his most bitter death, without to induce the Reformer to retract and abjurg.
all our merits, from eternal pains, from the thral- Sigismund was earnestly desirous of saving his life ,
dom of the devil, and from sin .” 3 no doubt out of regard for Huss, but doubtless also
The members of the Council instinctively felt from a regard to his own honour, deeply at stake in
that Huss was not one of them ; that although the issue. The Council drew up a form of abjura
claiming to belong to the Church which they con - tion and submission . This was communicated to
stituted ,he had in fact abandoned it, and renounced Huss in prison , and the mediation of mutual friends
its authority . The two leading principles which he was employed to prevail with him to sign the paper.
had embraced were subversive of their whole juris- The Reformer declared himself ready to abjure those
diction in both its branches, spiritual and temporal. errors which had been falsely imputed to him , but
The first and great authority with him was Holy as regarded those conclusions which had been faith
Scripture ; this struck at the foundation of the fully deduced from his writings, and which he had
spiritual power of the hierarchy ; and as regards taught, these, by the grace of God, he never would
their temporal power heundermined it by his doctrine
touching ecclesiastical revenues and possessions. 4 Fox , Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p . 793 .
5 Epist. xxxii. It ought also to be mentioned that a
The articles condemned by the Council are given in protest against the execution of Huss was addressed to
full by Hardouin , Acta Concil., tom . viii., pp . 410 - 421. the Council of Constance, and signed by the principal
. Epist. IX. nobles of Bohemia and Moravia . The original of this
• Fox, Acts and Mon., vol. i., p . 824. Lenfant, Hist. protest is preserved in the library of Edinburgh Uni.
Counc. Const., vol. i., bk. iii. versity .
abandon . “ He would rather,” he said ,“ be cast into in the delicious peace of the future life, you will
the sea with a mill-stone about his neck , than offend learn how merciful God has shown himself towards
those little ones to whom he had preached the me— how effectually he has supported me in the
Gospel, by abjuring it." 1 At last the matter was midst of my temptations and trials."' The irrita
brought very much to this point : would he submit tion of the debate into which the Council had
himself implicitly to the Council ? The snare was dragged him was forgotten , and he calmly began to
cunningly set, but Huss had wisdom to see and prepare for death , not disquieted by the terrible
avoid it. “ If the Council should even tell you," form in which he foresaw it would come. The
said a doctor, whose name has not been preserved , martyrs of former ages had passed by this path to
“ that you have but one eye, you would be obliged their glory, and by the help of Him who is mighty
to agree with the Council.” “ But," said Huss, he should be able to travel by the same road to
“ as long as God keeps me in my senses, I would his. He would look the fire in the face, and over
not say such a thing, even though the whole world come the vehemency of its flame by the yet greater
should require it, because I could not say it without vehemency of his love. He already tasted the joys
wounding my conscience." ? What an obstinate, that awaited him within those gates that should
self-opinionated , arrogant man ! said the Fathers open to receive him as soon as the fire should loose
Even the emperor was irritated atwhat he regarded him from the stake, and set free his spirit to begin
as stubbornness , and giving way to a burst of its flight on high. Nay, in his prison he was
passion, declared that such unreasonable obduracy cheered with a prophetic glimpse of the dawn of
was worthy of death . those better days that awaited the Church of God
This was the great crisis of the Reformer's career. on earth , and which his own blood would largely
It was as if the Fathers had said , “ We shall say contribute to hasten . Once as he lay asleep he
nothing of heresy ; we specify no errors , only sub- thought that he was again in his beloved Chapel
mit yourself implicitly to our authority as an of Bethlehem . Envious priests were there trying
infallible Council. Burn this grain of incense on to efface the figures of Jesus Christ which he
the altar in testimony of our corporate divinity. had got painted upon its walls. He was filled
That is asking no great matter surely." This was with sorrow . But next day there came painters
the fiery temptation with which Huss was now who restored the partially obliterated portraits,
tried . How many would have yielded — how many so that they were more brilliant than before.
in similar circumstances have yielded, and been “ Now ,' said these artists, let the bishops and
lost ! Had Huss bowed his head before the infalli- the priests come forth ; let them efface these if
bility, he never could have lifted it up again before they can ;' and the crowd was filled with joy, and
his own conscience , before his countrymen, before I also .” 5
his Saviour. Struck with spiritual paralysis, his “ Occupy your thoughts with your defence, rather
strength would have departed from him . He would than with visions,” said John de Chlum , to whom
have escaped the stake, the agony of which is but he had told his dream . “ And yet,” replied Huss ,
for a moment, but hewould have missed the crown, “ I firmly hope that this life of Christ, which I
the glory of which is eternal. engraved on men 's hearts at Bethlehem when I
From thatmoment Huss had peace - deeper and preached his Word, will not be effaced ; and that
more ecstatic than he had ever before experienced after I have ceased to live it will be still better shown
“ I write this letter," says he to a friend, “ in forth, by mightier preachers, to the great satisfac
prison, and with my fettered hand, expecting my tion of the people , and to my own most sincere joy,
sentence of death to-morrow . . . . When, with when I shall be again permitted to announce his
the assistance of Jesus Christ, we shall meet again Gospel — that is, when I shall rise from the dead."*
i Concil. Const.- Hardouin , tom . viii., p. 423. 4 Epist. x.
2 Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., p . 361. 6 Ibid . xliv.
• 3 Bonnechose, Reformers before the Reformation , ii. 47. 6 Bonnechose, Reformers before the Reformation, ii. 24 .
SENTENCE OF CONDEMNATION PASSED UPON HUSS. 161
CHAPTER VII.
CONDEMNATION AND MARTYRDOM OF HUSS.
Sigismund and Huss face to face- The Bishop of Lodi's Sermon - Degradation of Huss - His Condemnation - His
Prophecy - Procession - His Behaviour at the Stake - Reflections on his Martyrdom .
Tairry days elapsed . Huss had languished in chiefly ' (pointing to John Huss) that OBSTINATE
prison, contending with fetters, fetid air, and sick - HERETIC .'" ?
ness, for about two months. It was now the The sermon ended , the accusations against Huss
6th of July , 1415 — the anniversary of his birth. were again read , as also the depositions of the
This day was to see the wishes of his enemies witnesses ; and then Huss gave his final refusal to
crowned , and his own sorrows terminated. The abjure. This he accompanied with a brief recapitu
hall of the Council was filled with a brilliant lation of his proceedings since the commencement
assemblage. There sat the emperor ; there were of this matter, ending by saying that he had come
the princes, the deputies of the sovereigns, the to this Council of his own free will, " confiding in
patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and priests ; and the safe-conduct of the emperor here present.” . As
there too was a vast concourse which the spectacle he uttered these last words, he looked full at Sigis
that day was to witness had brougl:t together. mund, on whose brow the crimson of a deep blush
It was meet that a stage should be erected worthy was seen by the whole assembly , whose gaze was at
of the act to be done upon it — that when the first the instant turned towards his majesty.S
champion in the great struggle that was just Sentence of condemnation as a heretic was now
opening should yield up his life, all Christendom passed on Huss. There followed the ceremony of
might see and bear witness to the fact. degradation — an ordeal that brought no blush upon
The Archbishop of Riga came to the prison to the brow of the martyr. One after another the
bring Huss to the Council. Mass was being cele- priestly vestments, brought thither for that end,
brated as they arrived at the church door, and Huss were produced and put upon him , and now the
was made to stay outside till it was finished , lest prisoner stood full in the gaze of the Council, sacer
the mysteries should be profaned by the presence dotally apparelled. They next put into his hand
of a man who was not only a heretic , but a leader the chalice, as if he were about to celebrate mass .
of heretics . Being led in , he was bidden take his They asked him it now he were willing to abjure.
seat on a raised platform , where he might be con - “ With what face, then," replied he, “ should
spicuously in the eyes of the whole assembly. On I behold the heavens ? How should I look on
sitting down, he was seen to engage in earnest those multitudes of men to whom I have preached
prayer , but the words were not heard . Near the pure Gospel ? No ; I esteem their salvation more
him rose a pile of clerical vestments, in readiness than this poor body, now appointed unto death ." !
for the ceremonies that were to precede the final Then they took from him the chalice, saying, “ O
tragedy. The sermon , usual on such occasions, was accursed Judas,who, having abandoned the counsels
preached by the Bishop of Lodi. He chose as his of peace, have taken part in that of the Jews, we
text the words, “ That the body of sin might be take from you this cup filled with the blood of
destroyed .” He enlarged on the schism as the Jesus Christ.” 5
source of the heresies, murders, sacrileges, rob Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., p . 413. Op . et
beries, and wars which had for so long a period Mon . Joan . Huss., tom . ii., p . 346.
desolated the Church, and drew , says Lenfant, 3 Dissert.Hist.de Huss, p .90 ; Jenæ , 1711. Von der Hardt,
" such a horrible picture of the schism , that one tom . iv ., p. 393. Lenfant, vol. i., p . 422. The circumstance
would think at first he was exhorting the emperor was long after remembered in Germany. A century after,
to burn the two anti-Popes, and not John Huss. atimportuning
the Diet of Worms, when the enemies of Luther were
Charles V . to have the Reformer seized ,not
Yet the bishop concluded in these terms, addressed withstanding the safe-conduct he had given him — “ No,"
to Sigismund : • Destroy heresies and errors, but replied the emperor, “ I should not like to blush like
Sigismund .” (Lenfant.)
4 Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 820 .
Op. et Mon . Joan . Huss., tom . ii., p . 344 ; Noribergæ , 5 Op. et Mon . Joan . Huss., tom . ii., p . 347. Concil. Const.
1558. Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., p . 412. - Hardouin , tom . viii., p . 423.
“ I hope, by the mercy of God,” replied John arrayed him . And as each bishop performed his
Huss, “ that this very day I shall drink of his cup office, he bestowed his curse upon the martyr.
in his own kingdom ; and in one hundred years Nothing now remained but to erase the marks of
you shall answer before God and before me.” the tonsure .
The seven bishops selected for the purpose now On this there arose a great dispute among the
came round him , and proceeded to remove the prelates whether they should use a razor or scissors.
00
TRIAL OF HUSS : DEGRADING THE MARTYR.
sacerdotal garments — the alb, the stole, and other “ See,” said Huss, turning to the emperor, “ they
pieces of attire — in which in mockery they had cannot agree among themselves how to insult me.”
1 These wordswere noted down ;and soon after the death was struck in the fifteenth century, before the times of
of Huss a medal was struck in Bohemia , on which they Luther and Zwingle . The same thing has been asserted
were inscribed : Centum revolutis annis Deo respondebitis et by Catholic historians - among others, Peter Matthias, in
mihi. Lenfant (lib . c., p. 429, and lib . iv., p. 564 ) says his History of Henry IV., tom . ii., lib. v., p. 46. (Vide
that this medal was to be seen in the royal archives of Sculteti, Annales, p. 7. Gerdesius, Hist. Evang. Renov.,
the King of Borussia , and that in the opinion of the very pp . 51, 52 ; Groningæ , 1744 .) Its date is guaranteed also
leayned Schotti, who was then antiquary to the king , it by M . Bizot, author of Hist, Met, de Hollande.
THE PROCESSION TO THE STAKE. 163
They resolved to use the scissors, which were in - part in the Church of God, we leave with thee,
stantly brought,and his hair was cut cross-wise to delivering him up to the civil judgment and
obliterate the mark of the crown. According to power." Then the emperor, addressing Louis,
the canon law, the priest so dealt with becomes Duke of Bavaria — who, as Vicar of the Empire,was
again a layman, and although the operation does standing before him in his robes, holding in his
not remove the character, which is indelible, it yet hand the golden apple,and the cross — commanded
renders him for ever incapable of exercising the him to deliver over Huss to those whose duty it
functions of the priesthood . was to see the sentence executed. The duke in his
There remained one. other mark of ignominy. turn abandoned him to the chief magistrate of
They put on his head a cap or pyramidal-shaped Constance, and the magistrate finally gave him into
mitre of paper, on which were painted frightful the hands of his officers or city sergeants.
AR
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RECANTATION OF JEROME.
figures of demons, with the word Arch-Heretic The procession was now formed . The martyr
conspicuous in front. “ Most joyfully,” said Huss, walked between four town sergeants. The princes
" will I wear this crown of shame for thy sake, O and deputies, escorted by eight hundred men -at
Jesus,who for me didst wear a crown of thorns."? arms, followed. In the cavalcade,mounted on horse
When thus attired, the prelates said, “ Now, we back, were many bishops and priests delicately clad
devote thy soul to the devil.” “ And I,” said John in robes of silk and velvet. The population of
Huss, lifting up his eyes toward heaven, “ do
commit my spirit into thy hands, O Lord Jesus, for
Constance followed in mass to see the end.
AsHuss passed the episcopal palace,his attention
thou hast redeemed me.” was attracted by a great fire which blazed and
Turning to the emperor, the bishops said, “ This crackled before the gates. He was informed that
man John Huss, who has on more any office or
3 Von der Hardt, tom . iv., p . 440. Lenfant, Hist. Counc,
Op.et Mon . Joan Huss, tom . i ., fol.347. ? [bid. Const., vol. i., pp. 425,426.
164 HIISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM .
on that pile his books were being consumed . He him , and John Huss had now done talking with
smiled at this futile attempt to extinguish the men.
light which he foresaw would one day, and that The fire was applied , the flames blazed upward.
not very distant,enfill alle aChristendom “ John Huss," says Fox, “ began to sing with a
h g rdthe
b .crossed
The procession ridge .aand
en .bbridge m halted in loud voice, “ Jesus, thou Son of David , have mercy
a meadow , between the gardens of the city and the on me.' And when he began to say the same the
gate of Goteleben . Here the execution was to third time, the wind so blew the flame in his face
take place. Being come to the spot where he was that it choked him ." Poggius, who was secretary
to die, the martyr kneeled down , and began re- to the Council, and Æneas Sylvius,who afterwards
citing the penitential psalms. He offered up short became Pope, and whose narratives are not liable
and fervent supplications, and oftentimes repeated , to the suspicion of being coloured , bear even higher
as the by-standers bore witness, the words, “ Lord testimony to the heroic demeanour of both Huss
Jesus, into thy lands I commend my spirit.” “ We and Jerome at their execution. “ Both," says the
know not,” said those who were near him , “ what latter historian, “ bore themselves with constant
his life has been, but verily he prays after a devout mind when their last hour approached. They
and godly fashion." Turning his gaze upward in prepared for the fire as if they were going to a
prayer, the paper crown fell off. One of the soldiers marriage feast. They uttered no cry of pain . When
rushed forward and replaced it, saying that “ he the flames rose they began to sing hymns ; and
must be burned with the devils whom he had scarce could the vehemency of the fire stop their
served." 1 Again the martyr smiled , singing."
The stake was driven deep into the ground. Huss Huss had given up the ghost. When the flames
was tied to it with ropes. He stood facing the east. had subsided , it was found that only the lower
“ This,” cried some, “ is not the right attitude for parts of his body were consumed , and that the
a heretic." He was again unbound, turned to the upper parts, held fast by the chain, hung sus
west, and made fast to the beam by a chain that pended on the stake. The executioners kindled
passed round his neck. “ It is thus," said he, the fire anew , in order to consumewhat remained
“ that you silence the goose, but a hundred years of the martyr. When the flames had a second
hence there will arise a swan whose singing you time subsided, the heart was found still entire
shall not be able to silence." ? amid the ashes. A third time had the fire to
He stood with his feet on the faggots,which were be kindled. At last all was burned . The ashes
mixed with straw that they might the more readily were carefully collected, the very soil was dug
ignite . Wood was piled all round him up to the up , and all was carted away and thrown into the
chin . Before applying the torch , Louis of Bavaria Rhine ; so anxious were his persecutors that not
and the Marshal of the Empire approached ,and for the slightest vestige of John Huss -- not even a
the last time implored him to have a care for his thread of his raiment, for that too was burned
life , and renounce his errors. “ What errors," along with his body ---- should be left upon the
asked Huss , “ shall I renounce ? I know myself earth ."
guilty of none. I call God to witness that all that when the martyr bowed his head at the stake
I have written and preached has been with the it was the infallible Council that was vanquished .
view of rescuing souls from sin and perdition ; and, It was with Huss that the victory remained ; and
therefore, most joyfully will I confirm with my what a victory ! Heap together all the trophies of
blood that truth which I have written and preached.”
At the hearing of these words they departed from
--- - -- -- - - - -- , 3 Æneas Sylvius, Hist. Bohem., cap. 36, p. 54; apud
Gerdesius, Hist. Evang. Renov., vol. i., p . 42.
i Op. et Mon . Joan . Huss., tom . ii., fol. 348. Lenfant, 4 " Finally, all being consumed to cinders in the fire, the
Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., pp. 428 -- 430 . ashes, and the soil, dug up to a great depth , were placed
? In many principalities money was coined with a in wagons,and thrown into the stream of the Rhine,that
reference to this prediction . On one side was the effigy his very namemight utterly perish from among the faith .
of John Huss, with the inscription , Credo unam esse ful." (Op.etMon . Joan . Huss., tom . ii., fol.348 ; Noriberge .)
Ecclesiam Sanctam Catholicam (" I believe in one Holy. The details of Huss's martyrdom are very fully given
Catholic Church " ). On the obverse was seen Huss tied to by Fox, by Lenfant, by Bonnechose, and others. These
the stake and placed on the fire, with the inscription in have been faithfully compiled from the Brunswick , Leip.
the centre, Johannes Huss, anno a Christo nato 1415 con - sic, and Gotha manuscripts, collected by Von der Hardt,
demnatur (“ John Huss, condemned A.D. 1415 " ) ; and on and from the History of Huss's Life, published by an eye
the circumference the inscription already mentioned , witness , and inserted at the beginning of his works.
Centum revolutis annis Deo respondebitis et mihi (“ A These were never contradicted by any of his contem
hundred years hence ye shall answer to God and to poraries. Substantially the same account is given by
me' ) . - Gerdesius, Hist . Evang. Renov., vol. i., pp. 51, 52. Catholic writers.
' WICLIFFE AND HUSS. 165
Alexander and of Cæsar, what are they all when The Rhine has received his ashes, and is bearing
weighed in the balance against this one glorious them on its rushing floods to the ocean, there to
achievement ? From the stake of Huss, what bury them for ever. No : Huss is alive. It is not
blessings have flowed, and are still flowing, to the death , but life, that he has found in the fire ; his
world ! From the moment he expired amid the stake has given him not an entombment, but a
flames, his name became a power, which will con - resurrection . The winds as they blow over Con
tinue to speed on the great cause of truth and stance are wafting the spirit of the confessor and
light, till the last shackle shall be rent from the martyr to all the countries of Christendom .' The
intellect, and the conscience, emancipated from nations are being stirred ; Bohemia is awakening ;
every usurpation, shall be free to obey the au- a hundred years,and Germany and all Christendom
thority of its rightful Lord . What a surprise to will shake off their slumber ; and then will come
his and the Gospel's enemies ! “ Huss is dead,” the great reckoning which the martyr's prophetic
say they, as they retire from the meadow where spirit foretold : “ In the course of a hundred years
they have just seen him expire. Huss is dead. you will answer to God and to me.”
CHAPTER VIII.
WICLIFFE AND HUSS COMPARED IN THEIR THEOLOGY, THEIR CHARACTER , AND THEIR LABOURS.
Wicliffe and Huss, Representatives of their Epoch : the Former the Master, the Latter the Scholar - Both Acknow
ledge the Scriptures to be Supreme Judge and Authority, but Wicliffe more Completely – True Church lies in
the “ Totality of the Elect” - Wicliffe Fully and Huss more Feebly Accept the Truth of the Sole Mediatorship of
Christ - Their Views on the Doctrine of the Sacraments - Lechler's Contrast between Wicliffe and Huss.
BEFORE advancing to the history of Jerome, let possession which another had won. The opinions
us glance back on the two great men, representa - of Wicliffe on the head of the sole authority of
tives of their epoch , who have passed before us, Scripture were sharply defined , and even received
and note the relations in which they stand to each great prominence , while Huss never so clearly
other. These relations are such that the two defined his sentiments nor gave them the same
always come up together. The century that large place in his teaching. Wicliffe, moreover ,
divides them is annihilated. Everywhere in the repudiated the limitary idea that Scripture was to
history - in the hall of the University of Prague, be interpreted according to the unanimous consent
in the pulpit of the Bethlehem Chapel, in the of the Fathers, and held that the Spirit makes
council chamber of Constance these two figures , known the true sense of the Word of God , and
Wicliffe and Huss, are seen standing side by side. that Scripture is to be interpreted by Scripture.
Wicliffe is the master, and Huss the scholar. _
The latter receives his opinions from the former ? “ The pious remembrance of John Huss," says Lechler,
not, however, without investigation and proof — and “ was held sacred by the nation. The day of his death ,
he incorporates them with himself, so to speak, at 6th July, was incontestably considered from that time
onward as the festival of a saint and martyr. It was
the cost of a severe mental struggle. “ Both men,” called ' the day of remembrance of the master John
says Lechler, “ place the Word of God at the Huss, and even at the end of the sixteenth century the
inhabitants of Prague laid such stress on the observances
foundation oftheirsystem ,and acknowledge theHoly of the day, that the abbot of the monastery Emmaus,
Scriptures as the supreme judge and authority. Paul Horsky, was threatened and persecuted in the
Still they differ in many respects. Wicliffe reached worst manner because he had once allowed one to work
his principle gradually , and with laborious effort, in his vineyard on Huss's day, as if it were an ordinary
workday." It was not uncommon to place pictures of
whilst Huss accepted it, and had simply to hold it Huss and Jerome on the altars of the parish churches
fast, and to establish it.' To Wicliffe the principle of Bohemia and Moravia . (Lechler, Johann von Wiclif,
was an independent conquest, to Huss it came as a vol. ii., p. 285.) Even at this day, as the author can
testify from personal observation , there is no portrait
more common in the windows of the print shops of
* Lechler,Johann ron Wiclif,vol. ii.,p. 266. Prague than that of John Huss.
Huss, on the other hand, was willing to receive the revolves around Wicliffe as his sun. Both indeed
Scriptures as the Holy Ghost had given wisdom to circle round the great central Sun , which is Christ
the Fathers to explain them . himself. Farther , Huss is not a character like
“ Both Wicliffe and Huss held that the true Wicliffe, twice tempered and sharp as steel — an
Church lies in nothing else than the totality of inwardly strong nature, going absolutely straight
the elect. His whole conceptions and ideas of the forward , without looking on either side, following
Church, Huss has derived from no other than the only his conviction, and carrying it out logically
great English Reformer. Wicliffe based the whole and energetically to its ultimate consequences,
of his Church system upon the eternalpurposes of sometimes even with a ruggedness and harshness
God respecting the elect, building up from the which wounds and repulses. In comparison with
foundations, and making his whole plan sublimely Wicliffe, Huss is a somewhat soft personality,
accordant with the nature of God, the constitution finely strung, more receptively and passively in
of the universe, and the divine government of all clined than with a vocation for independent power
things. Huss's conception of the Church lay more and heroic conquest. Nevertheless, it is not to be
on the surface, and the relations between God and inferred that he was a weakling, a characterless,
his people were with him those of a disciple to his yielding personality. With softness and tender
teacher, or a servant to his master.” ness of soul it is quite possible to combine a moral
As regards the function of Christ as the one toughness , an immutable faith, an unbending firm
Mediator between God and man, Huss was at one ness , forming a union of qualities which exerts an
with Wicliffe. The English Reformer carried out attractive and winning influence, nay, challenges
his doctrine, with the strength and joy of a full the highest esteem and veneration .
conviction, to its logical issue, in the entire repudia - “ Added to this is the moral purity and unsel.
tion of the veneration and intercession of the saints. fishness of the man who exercised an almost ascetic
Huss, on the other hand , grasping the glorious severity towards himself ; his sincere fear of God ,
truth of Christ's sole mediatorship more feebly, was tender conscientiousness, and heart-felt piety,where
never able to shake himself wholly free from a de- by he cared nothing for himself or his own honour,
pendence on the intercession and good offices of the but before all put the honour of God and his
glorified. Saviour, and next to that the honour of his father
Nor were the views of Huss on the doctrine of land, and the unblemished reputation for orthodox
the Sacraments nearly so well defined or so accord . piety of his countrymen . In honest zeal for the
ant with Scripture as those of Wicliffe ; and, as has cause ofGod and Jesus Christ, both men - Wicliffe
been already said , he believed in transubstantiation and Huss --stand on the same footing. Only in
to the end. On the question of the Pope's authority Wicliffe's case the zeal was of a more fiery, manly,
he more nearly approximated Wicliffe 's views; Huss energetic kind , whilst in Huss it burned with a
denied the divine right of the Bishop of Rome to warm , silent glow , in union with almost feminine
the primacy of the Church , and wished to restore tenderness , and fervent faith and endurance. And
the original equality which he held existed among this heart, with all its gentleness , unappalled by
the bishops of the Church. Wicliffe would have even the most terrible death , this unconquerable,
gone farther ; equality among the priests and not this all-overcoming patience of the man in his con
merely among the bishops would alone have con - fession of evangelical truth, won for him the affec
tented him . tions of his cotemporaries, and made the most
Lechler has drawn with discriminating hand a lasting impression upon his own times and on suc
contrast between these two men . The power of ceeding generations. If Wicliffe was surpassingly
their intellect, the graces of their character, and a man of understanding, Huss was surpassingly a
the achievements of their lives are finely and man of feeling ; not of a genial disposition like
sharply brought out in the contrasted lights of the Luther, but rather of a deep , earnest, gentle nature.
following comparison : Farther, if Wicliffe was endowed with a powerful,
" Huss is indeed not a primitive, creative, origi- resolute, manly, energetic will, Huss was gifted
nal genius like Wicliffe, and as a thinker neither with a true, earnest , enduring will. I might say
speculatively inclined nor of systematic talent. In Wicliffe was a man of God , Huss was a child of
the sphere of theological thinking Wicliffe is a God ; both, however, were heroes in God's host,
kingly spirit, of an inborn power of mind, and each according to the gifts which the Spirit of God
through unwearied mental labour gained the po. had lent them , and in each these gifts of mind were
sition of a leader of thought ; whilst Huss appears used for the good of the whole body. Measured by
as a star of the second magnitude, and planet-like an intellectual standard , Huss was certainly not
RETRACTATION OF JEROME. 167
equal to Wicliffe ; Wicliffe is by far the greater ; and oppression, was in all respects a worthy
he overtops by a head not only other men , but also follower of Wicliffe , a worthy representative
even a Huss. Despite that, however, John Huss, upon the Continent of Europe of the evangelical
as far as his character was concerned, for his true principle, and of Wicliffe's true, fearless idea of
noble personality , his conscientious piety, his con - reform , which so loftily upheld the honour of
quering inviolable faith in the midst of suffering Christ.” 3
CHAPTER IX .
TRIAL AND TEMPTATION OF JEROME.
Jerome - His Arrival in Constance - Flightand Capture --His Fall and Repentance - He Rises again .
We have pursued our narrative uninterruptedly to the dungeon of a tower in the cemetery of St. Paul.
the close of Huss's life. We must now retrace His chains, riveted to a lofty beam , did not permit
our steps a little way, and narrate the fate of his of his sitting down ; and his arms, crossed behind
disciple and fellow -labourer, Jerome. These two on his neck and tied with fetters , bent his head
had received the same baptism of faith , and were downward and occasioned him great suffering. He
to drink of the same cup of martyrdom . When fell ill, and his enemies, fearing that death would
Jerome heard of the arrest of Huss , he flew to snatch him from them , relaxed somewhat the rigour
Constance in the hope of being able to succour, in of his treatment ; nevertheless in that dreadful
some way, his beloved master . When he saw that prison he remained an entire year.“
without doing anything for Huss he had brought Meanwhile a letter was received from the barons
his own life into peril, he attempted to flee. He of Bohemia , which convinced the Council that it
was already far on his way back to Prague when he had deceived itself when it fancied it had done
was arrested , and brought to Constance , which he with Huss when it threw his ashes into the Rhine.
entered in a cart, loaded with chains and guarded A storm was evidently brewing, and should the
by soldiers, as if he had been a malefactor. Fathers plant a second stake, the tempest would
On May 23rd, 1415, he appeared before the be all the more sure to burst, and with the more
Council. The Fathers were thrown into tumult awful fury. Instead of burning Jerome, it were
and uproar as on the occasion of Huss's first ap- better to induce him to recant. To this they now
pearance before them . Jerome's assailants were directed all their efforts , and so far they were
chiefly the doctors, and especially the famous successful. They brought him before them , and
Gerson, with whom he had chanced to dispute in summarily offered him the alternative of retracta ..
Paris and Heidelberg, when attending the univer- tion or death by fire . Ill in body and depressed
sities of these cities. At night he was conducted to in mind from his confinement of four months in a
noisome dungeon, cut off from his friends, the
Bonnechose, Reformers before the Reformation , vol. i., most of whom had left Constance when Huss was
D. 232. burned , Jerome yielded to the solicitation of the
? " He went to England probably about 1396 , studied Council. He shrank from the bitter stake and
some years in Oxford , and brought back copies of several
of Wicliffe's theological books, which he copied there. clung to life.
We know this from his own testimony before the Council But his retractation (September 23rd , 1415 ) was
of Constance, on April 27th , 1416 . In the course of the a very qualified one. He submitted himself to the
trial he answered , among other things, to the accusation Council,and subscribed to the justice of its condem .
that he had published in Bohemia and elsewhere false
doctrines from Wicliffe's books : ' I confess that in my
youth I went out of a desire for learning to England, and
because I heard of Wicliffe as a man of profound and 3 Lechler, Johann von Wiclif, vol. ii., pp. 269, 270 .
extraordinary intellect, copied and brought with me to These particulars are related by Von der Hardt, tom .
Prague his Dialogue and Trialogue, the MSS . of which I iv ., p . 218 ; and quoted by Bonnechose, Reformers before
could obtain .' Jerome was certainly not the first Bo the Reformation , vol. i., pp . 236, 237. The Roman writer
hernian student who went from Prague to Oxford.” Cochlæus also admits the severity of Jerome's imprison .
(Lechler, Johann von Wiclif, vol. ii., p . 112.) ment.
nation of the articles of Wicliffe and Huss, saving follow him no farther ? Huss and Jerome have
and excepting the “ holy truths ” which they had been lovely in their lives; are they to be divided in
taught; and hepromised to liveanddie in the Catholic their deaths ? No ! Jerome has fallen in amoment
faith, and never to preach anything contrary to it. of weakness, buthis Master will lift him up again.
It is as surprising that such an abjuration should And when he is risen the stake will not be able to
have been accepted by the Council, as it is that it stop his following where Huss has gone before.
M
WHI T
SU
A
HA
EN
BUTTER HAT
W 15 . 7
VIEW ON THE RHINE: SCHAFFHAUSEN .

should have been emitted by Jerome. Doubtless To turn for a moment from Jerome to the
the little clause in the middle of it reconciled it to Council : we must remark that the minds of the
his conscience. But one trembles to think of the people were, to some extent, prepared for a re
brink on which Jerome at this moment stood. formation of the Church by the sermons preached
Having come so far after that master whom he has on that subject from time to time by the members
seen pass through the fire to the sky, is he able to of the Council. On September 8th a discourse
was delivered on the text in Jeremiah, “ Where
is the word of the Lord ?” The name of the
i Theod . Urie, apud Von der Hardt, tom . i., pp. 170, preacher has not been preserved. After a long
171. Hardouin , tom . iv., p. 499 ; tom . viii., pp. 454, 455.
Lenfant, Hist. Counc. Const., vol. i., pp. 510 - 512. time spent in inquiring after the Church, she at
A PAPIST SERMON ON CHURCH REFORM . 169
length appeared to the orator in the form of a great habits.” A few days later the Bishop of Lodi,
and beautiful queen , lamenting that there was no preaching from the words " Set thy house in order,
longer any virtue in the world , and ascribing this for thou shalt die and not live,” took occasion to
to the avarice and ambition of the clergy, and inveigh against the Council in similar terms. It
the growth of heresy. “ The Church," exclaimed seemed almost as if it was a voluntary penance
UNI
PARTE
20
HINDI
UM
JEROME SPEAKING AT HIS TRIAL.
the preacher, “ has no greater enemies than the which the Fathers had set themselves when they
clergy. For who are they that are the greatest permitted one after another of their number to
opposers of the Reformation ? Are they the secular mount the pulpit only to draw their likenesses and
princes ? Very far from it, for they are the men to publish their faults. An ugly picture it truly
who desire it with the greatest zeal, and demand was on which they were invited to gaze, and they
and court it with the utmost earnestness. Who are had not even the poor consolation of being able to
they who rend the garment of Jesus Christ but the say that a heretic had painted it.
clergy who may be compared to hungry wolves, The abjuration of Jerome, renouncing the errors
that come into the sheepfolds in lambskins, and
conceal ungodly and wicked souls under religious 1 Lenfant, vol. i., p. 506.
15
but adhering to the truths which Wicliffe and they came from God. There is reason , too, to think
Huss had taught, was not to the mind of the that his enemies spoke truly when they accused
majority of the Council. There were men in it him of showing but scant reverence for relics, and
who were resolved that he should not thus escape. of putting the Virgin 's veil, and the skin of the ass
His master had paid the penalty of his errors with on which Christ sat when he made his trimphal
his life, and it was equally determined to spill entry into Jerusalem , on the same level as regards
the blood of the disciple. New accusations were their claim to the homage of Christians. And be
preferred against him , amounting to the for- yond doubt he was equally guilty with Huss in
midable number of a hundred and seven. It arraigning the priesthood for their avarice, ambition ,
would be extraordinary, indeed , if in so long a tyranny, and licentiousness. Of the truth of this
list the Council should be unable to prove a suffi- charge, Constance itself was a monument. That
cient number to bring Jerome to the stake. The city had become a Sodom , and many said that a
indictment now framed against him had reference shower of fire and brimstone only could cleanse it
mainly to the real presence, indulgences, the from its manifold and indeseribable iniquities. But
worship of images and relics, and the authority of the truth of the charge made the guilt of Jerome
the priests. A charge of disbelief in the Trinity only the more heinous.
was thrown in , perhaps to give an air of greater Meanwhile Jerome had reflected in his prison on
gravity to the inculpation ; but Jerome purged what he had done. We have no record of his
himself of that accusation by reciting the Atha- thoughts, but doubtless the image of Huss , so con
nasian Creed. As regarded transubstantiation , the stant and so courageous in the fire, rose before him .
Fathers had no cause to find fault with the opinions He contrasted , too, the peace of mind which he
of Huss and Jerome. Both were believers in the enjoyed before his retractation , compared with the
real presence. “ It is bread before consecration ," doubts that now darkened his soul and shut out
said Jerome, “ it is the body of Christ after." 1 the light of God's loving-kindness. He could not
Onewould think that this dogma would be the first conceal from himself the yet deeper abjurations that
part of Romanism to be renounced ; experience were before him , before he should finish with the
shows that it is commonly the last ; that there is in Council and reconcile himself to the Church . On
it a strange power to blind, or fascinate , or enthral all this he pondered deeply . He saw that it was
the mind. Even Luther, a century later, was not a gulf that had no bottom , into which he was about
able fully to emancipate himself from it ; and how to throw himself. There thedarkness would shuthim
many others , some of them in almost the first rank in , and he should no more enjoy the society of that
of Reformers, do we find speaking of the Eucharist master whom he had so greatly revered on earth, nor
with a mysticism and awe which show that behold the face of that other Master in heaven, who
neither was their emancipation complete ! It is was the object of his yet higher reverence and love.
one of the greatest marvels in the whole history And for what was he foregoing all these blessed
of Protestantism that Wicliffe, in the fourteenth hopes ? Only to escape a quarter of an hour's
century, should have so completely rid himself of torment at the stake ! “ I am cast out of thy
this enchantment, and from the very midnight of sight," said he, in the words of one in a former
superstition passed all at once into the clear light age, whom danger drove for a time from the path
of reason and Scripture on this point. of duty, “ but I will look again toward thy holy
As regards the other points included in the in - temple." And as he looked , God looked on him .
culpation, there is no doubt that Jerome, like his The love of his Saviour anew filled his soul — that
master John Huss , fell below the standard of the love which is better than life -- and with that love
Roman orthodox faith . He did not believe that a returned strength and courage. “ No," we hear
priest, be he scandalous or be he holy, had power to him say, " although I should stand a hundred ages
anathematise whomsoever he would ; and pardons at the stake, I will not deny my Saviour. Now
and indulgences he held to be worthless unless I am ready to face the Council ; it can kill the
body, but it has no more that it can do.” Thus
1 Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 835. “ Idem Hieronymus Jerome rose stronger from his fall.
de Sacramento altaris et transubstantione panis in corpus
professus est se tenere et credere, quod ecclesia tenet” 2 The articles of accusation are given in full by Lenfant,
that is, “ The same Jerome, touching the Sacrament of in his Hist. Conc., vol. i., book iv ., sec. 75 .
the altar and transubstantiation , professes to hold and 3 Writing from his prison to his friends in Prague,
believe that the bread becomes the body, which the John Huss said that Constance would hardly recover in
Church holds." So says the Council. (Hardouin , tom . thirty years the shock its morality had sustained frovi
viii., p . 565.) the presence of the Council. (Fox.)
JEROME'S DEFENCE AT HIS TRIAL. 171
CHAPTER X .
THE TRIAL OF JEROME.
The Trial of Jerome - Spirit and Eloquence of his Defence - Expresses his Sorrow for his Recantation - Horrors of
his Imprisonment - Admiration awakened by his Appearance - Letter of Secretary Poggio - Interview with the
Cardinalof Florence.
WHEN the accusations were communicated to was false. He varied his oration , now with a
Jerome, he refused to reply to them in prison ; he pleasantry so lively as to make the stern faces
demanded to be heard in public. With this request around him relax into a smile, now with a sar.
his judges deemed it expedient to comply ; and on casm so biting that straightway the smile was
May 23rd , 1416 , he was taken to the cathedral changed into rage, and now with a pathos so
church, where the Council had assembled to pro- melting that something like “ dewy pity " sat upon
ceed with his cause. the faces of his judges. “ Not once,” says Poggio
The Fathers feared exceedingly the effect of the of Florence, the secretary, “ during the whole time
eloquence of their prisoner, and they strove to limit did he express a thought which was unworthy of a
him in his defences to a simple “ Yes ” or “ No.” man of worth .” But it was not for life that he
" What injustice ! What cruelty !” exclaimed appeared to plead ; for life he did not seem to
Jerome. “ You have held me shut up three hun - care. All this eloquence was exerted , not to res
died and forty days in a frightful prison , in the cue himself from the stake, but to defend and
midst of filth, noisomeness, stench, and the utmost exalt his cause .
want of everything. You then bring me out be- Kneeling down in presence of the Council before
fore you, and lending an ear to my mortal enemies, beginning his defence , he earnestly prayed that his
you refuse to hear me. If you be really wise men, heart and mouth might be so guided as that not
and the lights of the world , take care not to sin one false or unworthy word should fall from him .
against justice. As for me, I am only a feeble Then turning to the assembly he reviewed the long
mortal ; my life is but of little importance ; and roll of men who had stood before unrighteous tri
when I exhort you not to deliver an unjust sentence, bunals, and been condemned, though innocent ; the
I speak less for myself than for you.” great benefactors of the pagan world , the heroes
The uproar that followed these words drowned and patriots of the Old Dispensation , the Prince of
his further utterance . The furious tempest by martyrs, Jesus Christ, the confessors of the New
which all around him were shaken left him un - Dispensation — all had yielded up their life in the
touched . As stands the rock amid the weltering cause of righteousness, and by the sentence of mis
waves, so stood Jerome in the midst of this sea of taken or prejudiced judges. He next recounted
passion. His face breathing peace , and lighted his own manner of life from his youth upward ;
up by a noble courage, formed a prominent and reviewed and examined the charges against him ;
pleasant picture amid the darkened and scowling exposed the prevarications of the witnesses , and ,
visages that filled the hall. When the storm had finally, recalled to the minds of his judges how the
subsided it was agreed that he should be fully learned and holy doctors of the primitive Church
heard at the sitting of the 26th of May. had differed in their sentiments on certain points,
On that day he made his defence in an oration and that these differences had tended to the expli
worthy of his cause, worthy of the stage on which cation rather than the ruin of the faith .
he pleaded it, and of the death by which he was The Council was not unmoved by this address ;
to seal it. Even his bitterest enemies could not it awoke in some breasts a sense of justice — we
withhold the tribute of their admiration at the cannot say pity, for pity Jerome did not ask — and
subtlety of his logic, the resources of his memory, not a few expressed their astonishment that a man
the force of his argument, and the marvellous who had been shut up for months in a prison, where
powers of his eloquence. With great presence of he could see neither to read nor to write ,should yet
mind he sifted every accusation preferred against
him , admitting what was true and rebutting what 2 “ There goeth a great rumour of thee,' said one of his
accusers, ' that thou holdest bread to be on the altar ; '
to whom he pleasantly answered , saying that he be
i Fos, Acts and Mon., vol. i., p. 834. lieved bread to be at the bakers. ” (Fos, vol. i., p. 835.)
be able to quote so great a number of authorities Huss, my master and my friend. Yes, I confess
and learned testimonies in support of his opinions.? it from my heart, and declare with horror that I
The Council forgot that it had been promised, disgracefully quailed when, through a dread of
“ When ye are brought before rulers and kings death , I condemned their doctrines. I therefore
for my sake, . . . take no thought beforehand supplicate Almighty God to deign to pardon me
what ye shall speak , neither do ye premeditate : my sins, and this one in particular, the most
but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, heinous of all. You condemned Wicliffe and
that speak ye : for it is not ye that speak, but Huss, not because they shook the faith, but because
the Holy Ghost." . they branded with reprobation the scandals of the
Jerome at his former appearance before the clergy — their pomp, their pride,and their luxurious
Council had subscribed to the justice of Huss's ness.”
condemnation . He bitterly repented of this wrong, These words were the signal for another tumult
done in a moment of cowardice, to a master whom in the assembly. The Fathers shook with anger.
he venerated , and he cannot close without an effort From all sides came passionate exclamations. " He
to atone for it.8 “ I knew him from his childhood,” condemns himself. What need have we of further
said he, speaking of Huss ; " he was a most excel proof? The most obstinate of heretics is before us."
lentman, just and holy . He was condemned not- Lifting up his voice — which, says Poggio, " was
withstanding his innocence. He has ascended to touching, clear, and sonorous, and his gesture full
heaven, like Elias, in the midst of flames, and from of dignity ” — Jerome resumed : “ What ! do you
thence he will summon his judges to the dread think that I fear to die ? You have kept me a
tribunal of Christ. I also — I am ready to die. I whole year in a frightful dungeon, more horrible
will not recoil before the torments which are pre- than death. You have treated me more cruelly
pared for me by my enemies and false witnesses, than Saracen , Turk, Jew , or Pagan, and my flesh
who will one day have to render an account of their has literally rotted off my bones alive ; and yet
impostures before the great God whom nothing can I make no complaint, for lamentation ill becomes
t spirit,but I cannot but express
nand
ito shme at such great barbarity towards
deceive." + a man ofniheart
The Council was visibly agitated.oneSome lluent. amyChastonishment
. Padesired
to save the life of a man so learned and eloquent. a Christian .”
The spectacle truly was a grand one. Pale, en- The clamour burst out anew , and the sitting
feebled by long and rigorous confinement, and closed in confusion. Jerome was carried back to
loaded with fetters, he yet compelled the homage his dungeon , where he experienced more rigorous
of those before whom he stood , by his intellectual treatment than ever. His feet, his hands, his arms
and moral grandeur. He stood in the midst of were loaded with fetters. This severity was not
the Council, greater than it, throwing its assembled needed for his safe-keeping, and could have been
yby their stary his virtues tormented by nothing
magnificence into the shade by his individual glory, prompted by nothing but a wish to add to his
and showing himself more illustrious by his virtues toiments.
and sufferings than they by their stars and mitres. Admiration of his splendid talents made many
Its princes and doctors felt humbled and abashed of the bishops take an interest in his fate. They
in presence of their own prisoner. visited him in his prison , and conjured him to
But in the breast of Jerome there was no feeling retract. “ Prove to me from the Scriptures," was
of self-exaltation. If he speaks of himself it is to Jerome's reply to all these importunities, “ that I
accuse himself. am in error.” The Cardinal of Florence , Zabarella,
“ Of all the sins," he continued, “ that I have sent for him , and had a lengthened conversation
committed since my youth , none weighs so heavily with him . He extolled the choice gifts with which
on my mind, and causes me such poignant remorse, he had been enriched ; he dwelt on the great
as that which I committed in this fatal place ,when services which these gifts might enable him to
I approved of the iniquitous sentence recorded render to the Church , and on the brilliant career
against Wicliffe, and against the holy martyr John open to him , would he only reconcile himself to the
Council ; he said that there was no office of dignity,
i See letter of Poggio of Florence, secretary to Pope and no position of influence , to which he might not
John XXIII., addressed to Leonardo Aretino , given in
full by Lenfant in his Hist . Conc., vol. i., book iv .,
pp . 593 — 599 ; Lond ., 1730 . 6 Hardouin , Collect. Barberin ., tom . viii., pp . 565 , 567.
2 St. Mark xiii. 9, 11. 6 Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p . 836 . Bonnechose, vol. ü .,
3 Lenfant, vol. i., pp . 585, 586. p. 154 .
4 Ibid . i. 590, foot-note. 7 Hardouin , Acta Concil., tom . viii., p . 566 .
JEROME'S LAST SPEECH . 173
aspire, and which he was not sure to win , if he “ The Holy Writings !” scornfully replied the
would but return to his spiritual obedience ; and cardinal; “ is everything then to be judged by
was it not, he asked, the height of folly to throw them ? Who can understand them till the Church
away all these splendid opportunities and pro - has interpreted them ?"
spects by immolating himself on the heretic's pile ? “ What do I hear ?” cried Jerome ; " are the
But Jerome was not moved by the words of the traditions of men more worthy of faith than the
cardinal, nor dazzled by the brilliant offers he Gospel of our Saviour ? Paul did not exhort those
made him . He had debated that matter with to whom he wrote to listen to the traditions of
himself in prison , in tears and agonies, and he men, but said , ' Search the Scriptures.'”
had made up his mind once for all. He had
him and regardineaded so long with Jerome was
“ Heretic," said the cardinal, fixing his eyes upon
chosen the better part. And so he replied to this him and regarding him with looks of anger, “ I
tempter in purple as he had done to those in lawn, repent having pleaded so long with you. I see
" Prove to me from the Holy Writings that I am that you are urged on by the devil.”! Jerome was
in error, and I will abjure it.” remanded to his prison .
CHAPTER XI.
CONDEMNATION AND BURNING OF JEROME,
Jerome Condemned - Apparelled for the Fire - Led away - Sings at the Stake - His Ashes given to the Rhine.
Ox the 30th of May, 1416 , he was brought forth to were already prepared, and that the officers were
receive his sentence. The grandees of the Empire, in attendance to lead him to the pile .
the dignitaries of the Church, and the officials of Jerome mounted on a bench that he might the
the Council filled the cathedral. What a transition better be heard by the whole assembly . All were
from the gloom of his prison to this brilliant as- eager to catch his last words. He again gave
sembly, in their robes of office and their stars of expression to his sorrow at having, in a moment of
rank ! But neither star of prince nor mitre of fear, given his approval of the burning of John
bishop was so truly glorious as the badges which Huss. He declared that the sentence now pro
Jerome wore- his chains. nounced on himself was wicked and unjust, like
The troops were under arms. The townspeople, that inflicted upon that holy man. “ In dying,"
drawn from their homes by-the rumour of what was said he, “ I shall leave a sting in your hearts , and
about to take place , crowded to the cathedral gates, a gnawing worm in your consciences. And I cite
or pressed into the church. you all to answer to me before the most high and
Jerome was asked for the last time whether he just Judge within an hundred years." 3
were willing to retract ; and on intimating his paper mitre was now brought in , with red
refusal he was condemned as a heretic, and de -
livered up to the secular power. This act was Theobald , Bell. Huss., chap. 24 , p . 60 ; apud Bonne
accompanied with a request that the civil judge chose, vol. ii., p. 159. Letter of Poggio to Aretino.
would deal leniently with him , and spare his life, This cardinal died suddenly at the Council (September
a request scarcely intelligible when we think that 26th , 1417). Poggio pronounced his funeral oration. He
extolled his virtue and genius. Had he lived till the
the stake was already planted , that the faggots election of a new Pope, it is said, the choice of the con
clave would have fallen upon him . He is reported to
? Fox, Acts and Mon ., vol. i., p. 837. Lenfant, vol. i., have written a history of the Council of Pisa, and of
p. 591. This was the usual request of the inquisitors when what passed at Constance in his time. These treatises
delivering over their victims to the executioner. No one would possess great interest, but they have never been
would have been more astonished and displeased than discovered . Mayhap they lie buried in the dust of some
themselves to find the request complied with . “ Eundo monastic library.
ligatus per plateas versus locum supplicii in quo com . 3 “ Et cito vos omnes, ut respondeatis mihi coram
bustus fuit , licet prius domini prælati supplicabant altissimo et justissimo Judice post centum annos.” (Fox ,
potestati sæculari, ut ipsi eum tractarent gratiose.” vol. i., p. 836. Op. Huss., tom . ii., fol. 357. Lenfant,
(Collect. Barberin . - Hardouin , tom . viii., p . 567.) vol. i., p. 589.)
17 + HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM .
devils painted upon it. When Jerome saw it he the place he kneeled down and began to pray. He
threw his car on the floor among the cardinals, was still praying when his executioners raised him
and put the mitre upon his head, accompanying up, and with cords and chains bound him to the
the act with the words which Huss had used on a stake, which had been carved into something like
similar occasion : “ As my Lord for me did wear a rude likeness of Huss. When the wood and
a crown of thorn, so I, for him , do wear with joy faggots began to be piled up around him , he again
this crown of ignominy.” The soldiers now closed began to sing, “ Hail, happy day !" When that
TRIAL OF JEROME : WAITING FOR THE SENTENCE .
round him . As they hymn was ended, he sang once more, “ Credo in
were leading him out unum Deum ,” and then he addressed the people,
of the church , “ with speaking to them in the German tongue, and say
a cheerful counte- ing, “ Dearly -beloved children , as I have now
nance," says Fox, sung, so do I believe, and none otherwise ; and
“ and a loud voice, this creed is my whole faith .”
lifting his eyes up The wood was heaped up to his neck, his gar
to heaven, he began ments were then thrown upon the pile, and last
to sing, Credo in of all the torch was brought to light the mass.
SWAIN unum Deum ,' as it His Saviour, who had so graciously supported him
is accustomed
15 W to be amid his dreadful sufferings in prison , was with
sung in the Church.” As he passed along through him at the stake. The courage that sustained his
the streets his voice was still heard, clear and heart, and the peace that filled his soul, were
loud , singing Church canticles. These he finished reflected upon his countenance, and struck the
as he came to the gate of the city leading to beholders. One short, sharp pang, and then the
Goteleben, and then he began a hymn, and con- sorrows of earth will be all behind, and the ever
and it all the way to thesuffer was
tinued singing it all the way to the place of lasting glory will have come. Nay, it was already
already consecrated ground to Jerome, for here
come; for, one who had gotten
execution. The spot where he was to suffer was come; for, as Jerome stood upon the pile, he
looked as one who had gotten the victory over
John Huss had been burned. When he came to death , and was even now tasting the joys to which
SOMTERRANE
H“ASREDO
CHURCH
THE
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OUT
HIM
LEADING
WERE
,CTHEY
TOSING
."BEGAN
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E
he was about to ascend. The executioner was fire. His bedding, his boots, his hood, all were
applying the torch behind, when the martyr thrown upon the still smouldering embers and
checked him . “ Come forward," said he, “ and consumed. The heap of ashes was then carefully
kindle the pile before my face ; for had I been gathered up, and put into a cart, and thrown into
afraid of the fire I should not be here." the Rhine. Now , thought his enemies, there is an
When the faggots began to burn , Jerome with end of the Bohemian heresy. We have seen the
a loud voice began to sing, “ Into thy hands, last of Huss and Jerome. The Council may now
O Lord, I commit my spirit.” As the flame sleep in peace. How short-sighted the men who
waxed fiercer and rose higher, and the martyr so thought and spoke ! Instead of having stamped
felt its scorching heat, he was heard to cry out in out this heresy , they had but scattered its seeds
the Bohemian language, “ O Lord God , Father over the whole face of Christendom ; and, so far
Almighty , have mercy upon me, and be merciful from , having erased the name and memory of
unto mine offences, for thou knowest how sincerely Huss and Jerome, and consigned them to an utter
I have loved thy truth .” oblivion , they had placed them in the eyes of the
Soon after the flame checked his utterance , and whole world , and made them eternal.
his voice ceased to be heard. But the movement We have recorded with some minuteness these
of his head and rapid motion of his lips, which con - two martyrdoms. We have done so not only
tinued for about a quarter of an hour, showed that because of the rare qualities of the men who
he was engaged in prayer. “ So burning in the endured them , the tragic interest that belongs to
fire,” says Fox, " he lived with great pain and mar- their sufferings, and the light which their story
tyrdom whilst one might easily have gone from St. throws upon their lives, but because Providence
Clement's over the bridge unto our Lady Church .” gave their deaths a representative character, and a
When Jerome had breathed his last, the few moulding influence. These two martyr-piles were
things of his which had been left behind in his kindled as beacon-lights in the dawn of modern
prison were brought out and burned in the same history. Let us briefly show why.
CHAPTER XII.
WICLIFFE, HUSS, AND JEROME, OR THE THREE FIRST WITNESSES OF MODERN CHRISTENDOM .
Great Eras and their Heralds - Dispensation for the Approach of which Wicliffe was to Prepare the Way - The Work
that Wicliffe had done - Huss and Jerome follow Wicliffe , the Three Witnesses of Modern Christendom .
Each new era, under the Old Dispensation, was that the ages were passing, that God was “ chang.
ushered in by the ministry of some man of great ing the times and the seasons,” and bringing in a
character and splendid gifts, and the exhibition of new order of things. Gross and brutish , men
miracles of stupendous grandeur. This was needful would otherwise have taken no note of the revo
to arouse and fix the attention of men , to tell them lutions of the moral firmament. Abraham stands
at the head of one dispensation ; Moses at that of
1 Bonnechose, vol. ii. another ; David at the head of a third ; and John
2 Enemies and friends unite in bearing testimony to the Baptist occupies the van in the great army of
the fortitude and joy with which Jerome endured the the preachers, confessors, and martyrs of the
fire. “ In the midst of the scorching flames ," says the
monk Theodoric Urie , “ he sang those words, ' O Lord, Evangelic Dispensation . These are the four
into thy hands I resign my spirit ;' and just as he was was
mighties mightier.
who preceded the advent of One who
saying, thou hast redeemed
' us,' he was suffocatedby yet
the flame and the smoke, and gave up his wretched soul.
Thus did this heretical miscreant resign his miserable And so was it when the timedrew nigh that a great
spirit to be burned everlastingly in the bottomless pit.” moral and spiritual change should pass over the
(Urie, apud Von der Hardt, tom . i., p. 202. Lenfant, world , communicating a new life to Churches, and a
vol. i., p . 593.)
3 Theobald, Bell. Hus., p . 61. Von der Hardt, tom . iv ., liberty till then unknown to nations. When that
p . 772 ; apur Lenfant, vol. i., p. 592. Fox, Acts and Mon., era approached Wicliffe was raised up. Abundantly
vol. i., p . 838. anointed with that Holy Spirit of which Councils
T
E
THE THREE WITNESSES OF MODERN CHRISTENDOM .
S 177
and Popes vainly imagined they had an exclusive speaking in Christendom T,
after ages of silence
monopoly , what a deep insight he had into the must needs be followed by mighty signs - not
Scriptures ; how firmly and clearly was he able to physical, but moral — not changes in the sky, but
lay hold of the scheme of Free Salvation revealed changes still more wonderful in the hearts of men.
in the Bible ; how completely did he emancipate And such was the phenomenon displayed to the
himself from the errors that had caused so many eyes of the men of that age in the testimony of
ages to miss the path which he found , and which Huss and Jerome. All about that testimony was
he found not by a keener subtilty or a more pene- arranged by God with the view of striking the
trating intellect than that of his contemporaries, imagination and, if possible, convincing the un
but simply by his profound submission to the derstandings of those before whom it was borne.
Bible. As John the Baptist emerged from the It was even invested with dramatic effect, that
very bosom of Pharisaical legalism and tradition - nothing might be wanting to gain its end, and
alism to become the preacher of repentance and leave those who resisted it without excuse. A
forgiveness , so Wicliffe came forth from the bosom conspicuous stage was erected for that testimony ;
of a yet more indurated traditionalism , and of a all Christendom was assembled to hear it. The
legalism whose iron yoke was a hundred times witnesses were illustrious for their great intellec
heavier than that of Pharisaism , to preach re - tual powers. These compelled the attention and
pentance to Christendom , and to proclaim the extorted the admiration even of their enemies .
great Bible truth that Christ's merits are perfect Yet more illustrious were they for their spiritual
and cannot be added to ; that God bestows his graces— their purity, their humility, their patience
salvation upon men freely , and that “ he that of suffering, their forgiveness of wrong, their
believeth on the Son hath life.” magnanimity and noble-mindedness — the garlands
So had Wicliffe spoken. Though his living that adorned these victims. And the splendour of
voice was now silent, he was, by his writings, at these virtues was brought out in relief against the
that hour publishing God's re-discovered message dark background of an age woefully corrupt, and
in all the countries of Europe. But witnesses the yet darker background of a Council whose
were needed who should come after Wicliffe, and turpitude rotted the very soil on which it met,
attest his words, and seal with their blood the poisoned the very air, and bequeathed to history
doctrine which he had preached . This was the one of the foulest blots that darken it. And to
office to which Huss and Jerome were appointed . crown all there comes, last and highest, the glory
First came the great preacher ; after him came the of their deaths, tarnished by no dread of suffering,
two great martyrs, attesting that Wicliffe had by no prayer for deliverance , by no tear shed over
spoken the truth, and sealing their testimony with their fate, by no cry wrung from them by pain and
their lives. At the mouth of these Three, Chris- anguish ; but, on the contrary, glorified by their
tendom had admonition tendered to it. They said looks of gladness as they stood at the stake, and
to an age sunk in formalism and legalism , “ Re- the triumphant hallelujahs which they sang amid
pent ye therefore, and be converted , that your sins the fires.
may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing Such was the testimony of these three early wit
shall come from the presence of the Lord .” ? nesses of Christendom , and such the circumstances
Such is the place which these two martyrdoms that adapted it to the great crisis at which it was
occupy, and such is the importance which attaches borne. Could any portent in the sky, could even
to them . If proof of this were needed , we have it a preacher from the dead, have been so emphatic ?
in the proceedings of the Council of Constance. To a sensual age , sunk in unbelief, without faith in
The Fathers, not knowing what they did , first what was inward, trusting only in what it saw or
and with much solemnity condemned the doctrines did , and content with a holiness that was entirely
of Wicliffe ; and in the next place, they burned dissevered from moral excellence and spiritual vir
at the stake Huss and Jerome for adhering tue, how well fitted was this to testify that there
to these doctrines. Yes, the Spirit of God was was a diviner agency than the ghostly power of
present at Constance , guiding the Council in its the priesthood, which could transform the soul and
decisions, but after a different fashion , and to impart a new life to men - in short, that the early
ward another and different end, than the Fathers Gospel had returned to the world , and that with it
dreamed of. was returning the piety , the self-sacrifice, and the
The “ still small voice ," which was now heard heroism of early times.
God, who brings forth the natural day by
1 Acts iii. 19 . gradual stages -- first the morning star, next the
dawn, and next the great luminary whose light while as yet all was dark . With Wicliffe the
brightens as his orb ascends, till from his meri- dawn broke ; souls caught its light in France, in
dian height he sheds upon the earth the splendours Italy , and especially in Bohemia. They in their
of the perfect day — that same God brought in , in turn became light-bearers to others, and thus the
like manner , by almost imperceptible stages , the effulgence continued to spread, till at last, “ centum
evangelical day. Claudius and Berengarius, and revolutis annis,” the day shone out in the ministry
others, were the morning stars ; they appeared of the Reformers of the sixteenth century.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE HUSSITE WARS.
Effect of Huss’s Martyrdom in Bohemia - Spread of Hussism - The New Pope - Formalities of Election - Enthronisa
tion - Bull against the Hussites - Pope's Departure for Rome– Ziska - Tumults in Prague.
Huss had been burned ; his ashes , committed to their sword 's hilt, they said , “ Whoever shall affirm
the Rhine, had been borne away to their dark that heresy is spread abroad in Bohemia , lies in
sepulchre in the ocean ; but his stake had sent a
p o s t o m p l aints o hom o
his throat, and is a traitor to our kingdom ; and,
thrill of indignation and horror through Bohemia . while we leave a to God, tto wwhom dit
vengeance
His death moved the hearts of his countrymen belongs, we shall carry our complaints to the foot
more powerfully than even his living voice had stool of the indubitable apostolic Pontiff, when the
been able to do. The vindicator of his nation's Church shall again be ruled by such an one ; de
wrongs — the reformer of his nation's religion -- in claring, at the same time, that no ordinance of
short, the representative man of Bohemia , had man shall hinder our protecting the humble and
been cruelly , treacherously immolated ; and the faithful preachers of the words of our Lord Jesus,
nation took the humiliation and insult as done to and our defending them fearlessly , even to the
itself. All ranks, from the highest to the lowest, shedding of blood.” In this remonstrance the
were stirred by what had occurred . The Uni- nobles of Moravia concurred.?
versity of Prague issued a manifesto addressed to But deeper feelings were at work among the
all Christendom , vindicating the memory of the Bohemian people than those of anger. The faith
man who had fallen a victim to the hatred of the which had produced so noble a martyr was com
priesthood and the perfidy of the emperor. His pared with the faith which had immolated him ,
death was declared to be murder, and the Fathers and the contrast was found to be in no wise to the
at Constance were styled “ an assembly of the advantage of the latter. The doctrines which
satraps of Antichrist.” Every day the flame of Huss had taught were recalled to memory now
the popular indignation was burning more fiercely that he was dead . The writings of Wicliffe, which
It was evident that a terrible outburst of pent-up had escaped the flames, were read, and compared
wrath was about to be witnessed in Bohemia . with such portions of Holy Writ as were accessible
The barons assumed a bolder tone. When the to the people, and the consequence was a very
tidings of Huss's martyrdom arrived, the magnates general reception of the evangelical doctrines. The
and great nobles held a full council, and, speak - new opinions struck their roots deeper every day,
ing in the name of the Bohemian nation, they and their adherents, who now began to be called
addressed an energetic protest to Constance against Hussites, multiplied one might almost say hourly.
the crime there enacted. They eulogised , in the The throne of Bohemia was at that time filled
highest terms, the man whom the Council had con- by Wenceslaus, the son of the magnanimous and
signed to the flames as a heretic , calling him the patriotic Charles IV . In this grave position of
“ Apostle of Bohemia ; a man innocent, pious, affairs much would of necessity depend on the
holy, and a faithful teacher of the truth ." ! Hold - course the king might adopt. The inheritor of his
ing the pen in one hand , while the other rested on father's dignities and honours, Wenceslaus did not
- - - -- - - - --
i Comenius, Persecut. Eccles . Bohem ., cap . 9, p. 33. 2 Huss. Mon ., vol. i., p. 99.
BREACH BETWEEN BOHEMIA AND ROME. 179
inherit his father's talents and virtues. A tyrant heart. Their distinctive tenet was the cup or
and voluptuary, he had been dethroned first by his chalice ,meaning thereby Communion in both kinds;
nobles, next by his own brother Sigismund, King hence their name, Calixtines. The cup became the
of Hungary ; but, regaining his throne, he dis- national Protestant symbol. It was blazoned on
covered an altered but not improved disposition. their standards and carried in the van of their
Broken in spirit, he was now as supine and le- armies ; it was sculptured on the portals of their
thargic as formerly he had been overbearing and churches, and set up over the gates of their cities.
tyrannical. If his pride was stifled and his vio - It was ever placed in studied contrast to the Roman
lence curbed , he avenged himself by giving the symbol, which was the cross. The latter, the
reins to his low propensities and vices. Shut up Hussites said , recalled scenes of suffering, and so
in his palace, and leading the life of a sensualist, was an emblem of gloom ; the former, the cup, was
the religious opinions of his subjects were to him the sign of an accomplished redemption, and so a
matters of almost supreme indifference. He cared symbol of gladness. This divergence of the two
but little whether they kept the paths of ortho- parties was meanwhile only incipient. It widened
doxy or strayed into those of heresy. He secretly in process of time; but for years the great contest
rejoiced in the progress of Hussism , because he in which the Hussites were engaged with Rome,
hoped the end would be the spoiling of the wealthy and which assembled Taborites and Calixtines on
ecclesiastical corporations and houses, and that the the same battle-field , where they joined their
lion's share would fall to himself. Disliking the prayers as well as their arms, kept them united
priests, whom he called “ the most dangerous of in one body.
all the comedians,” he turned a deaf ear to the We must bestow a glance on what meanwhile
ecclesiastical authorities when they importuned was transacting at Constance. The Council knew
him to forbid the preaching of the new opinions. that a fire was smouldering in Bohemia, and it did
The movement continued to make progress. its best to fan it into a conflagration. The sentence
Within four years from the death of Huss , the of utter extermination, pronounced by old Rome
bulk of the nation had embraced the faith for against Carthage, was renewed by Papal Rome
which he died. His disciples included not a few of against Bohemia , a land yet more accursed than
the higher nobility , many of the wealthy burghers Carthage, overrun by heresy, and peopled by men
of the towns, some of the inferior clergy, and the not worthy to enjoy the light of day. But first
great majority of the peasantry. The accession of the Council must select a new Pope. The con
the latter, whose single-heartedness makes them clave met ; and being put upon “ a thin diet," 4 the
capable of a higher enthusiasm and a more entire cardinals came to an early decision. In their haste
devotion , brought great strength to the cause.. It to announce the great news to the outer world ,
made it truly national. The Bohemians now re - they forced a hole in the wall, and shouted out,
sumed in their churches the practice of Communion “ We have a Pope, and Otho de Colonna is he !"
in both kinds, and the celebration of their worship (November 14th , 1417.)
in the national language. Rome had signalised Acclamations of voices and the pealing of bells
their subjugation by forbidding the cup, and per- followed this announcement, in themidst of which
mitting prayers only in Latin . The Bohemians, the Emperor Sigismund entered the conclave, and ,
by challenging freedom in both points, threw off in the first burst of his joy or superstition, falling
the marks of their Roman vassalage. down before the newly elected Pope, he kissed the
A slight divergence of sentiment was already . feet of the Roman Father.
traceable among the Hussites. One party entirely The doors of the conclave being now thrown open ,
rejected the authority of the Church of Rome, and the cardinals eagerly rushed out, glad to find them
made the Scriptures their only standard . These selves again in the light of day. Their temporary
came to bear the name of Taborites, from the scene prison was so guarded and shut in that even the
of one of their early encampments, which was a hill sun 's rays were excluded , and the Fathers had to
in the neighbourhood of Prague bearing a resem , conduct their business with the light of wax tapers .
blance , it was supposed, to the Scriptural Tabor. They had been shut up only from the 8th to the
The other party remained nominally in the com - 11th of November, but so thin and altered were
munion of Rome, though they had abandoned it in their visages when they emerged , owing to the
? Krasinski, Religious History of the Slavonic Nations, ? Lenfant, vol. ii., p. 240.
p.66 ; Edin., 1849. John von Müller, Universal History, 3 Comenius, Persecut. Eccles. Bohem ., p. 34.
vol. Ü., p. 264 ; Lond., 1818 . 4 Fox, vol. i., p. 847.
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ENTHRONISATION OF POPE MARTIN V . 181
meagre diet on which they were compelled to sub
sist,that their acquaintances had some difficulty in
recognising them . There were fifty -three electors
in all - twenty-three cardinals, and thirty deputies
of the nations — forwhom fifty -three separate cham
bers had been prepared , and distributed by lot.
They were forbidden all intercourse with their
fellow -electors within the conclave, as well as with
their friends outside, and even the dishes which
were handed in to them at a window were carefully
searched, lest they should conceal contraband letters
or missives. Proclamation was made by a herald
that no one was to come within a certain specified
distance of the conclave, and it was forbidden ,
under pain of excommunication, to pillage the
Oy
house of the cardinal who might happen to be
elected Pope. It was a custom at Rome to hold
the goods of the cardinal elect a free booty , on pre
tence that being now arrived at all riches he had no
DEPARTURE
further need of anything. At the gates of the con :
MARTIN
clave the emperor and princes kept watch day and
ROME
.VFPOPE
OFOR
night, singing devoutly the hymn “ Veni Creator,"
but in a low strain, lest the deliberations within
should be disturbed . The election was finished in
less time than is usually required to fill the Papal
chair. The French and Spanish members of the
conclave contended for a Pope of their own nation ,
but the matter was cut short by the German de
CUENT
puties,who united their votes in favour of the Italian

candidate, and so the affair issued in the election
of Otho, of the most noble and ancient house of
Colonna. His election falling on the fête of St.
Martin of Tours, he took the title of Martin V .!
Platina, who is not very lavish of his incense to
Popes, commends his prudence , good-nature, love
of justice, and his dexterity in the management of
affairs and of tempers. Windeck , one of Sigis
mand's privy councillors, says, in his history of the
Lub
emperor, that the Cardinal de Colonna was poor

and modest, but that Pope Martin was very cove
tous and extremely rich.s
A few hours after the election, through the same
streets along which Huss and Jerome had been
led in chains to the stake, there swept another and
very different procession. The Pope was going in
state to be enthroned. He rode on a white horse,
RE
" A decree of Nicholas II. (1059) restricts the franchise

to the college of cardinals ; a decree of Alexander III.
(1159) requires a majority of votes of at least two-thirds ;
and a decree of Gregory X . (1271) requires nine days
between the death of the Pope and the meeting of the
DES
cardinals. The election of Martin V . was somewhat

Sur
an
abnormal.
• Platina, Hist. Som . Pont., 212 ; Venetia , 1600 .
* Von der Hardt, tom . iv., pp . 1479, 1423. Lenfant,
vol. ii., pp. 156 – 167.
16
covered with rich scarlet housings. The abbots its own praises , the Council took no note of the
and bishops, in robes of white silk, and mounted underground mutterings, which in all countries
on horses, followed in his train. The Pontiff's betokened the coming earthquake. On the 18th
bridle-rein was held on the right by the emperor, of April, 1418, the Pope promulgated a bull “ de
and on the left by the Elector of Brandenburg,' claring the Council at an end, and giving every one
these august personages walking on foot. In this liberty to return home.” As a parting gift he be
fashion was he conducted to the cathedral, where stowed upon the members “ the plenary remission
seated on the high altar he was incensed and of all their sins.” If only half of what is reported
received homage under the title of Martin V .? touching the doings of the Fathers at Constance
Bohemia was one of the first cares of the newly be true, this beneficence of Pope Martin must have
anointed Pope. The great movement which had constituted a very large draft indeed on the treasury
Wicliffe for its preacher, and Huss and Jerome for of the Church ; but doubtless it sent the Fathers in
its martyrs, was rapidly advancing. The Pope good spirits to their homes.
hurled excommunication against it, but he knew On the 15th of May the Pope sang his last mass
that he must employ other and more forcible in the cathedral church , and next day set out on
weapons besides spiritual ones hefore he could his return for Italy. · The French prelates prayed
hope to crush it. He summoned the emperor to him to establish his chair at Avignon , a request
give to the Papal See worthier and more sub- that had been made more than once of his pre
stantial proofs of devotion than the gala service of decessors without avail. But the Pope told them
holding his horse's bridle-rein . Pope Martin V., that “ they must yield to reason and necessity ;
addressing himself to Sigismund ,with all the kings, that as he had been acknowledged by the whole
princes, dukes, barons, knights, states, and common - world for St. Peter's successor, it was but just that
wealths of Christendom , adjured them , by “ the he should go and seat himself on the throne of that
wounds of Christ,” to unite their armsand extermi- apostle ; and that as the Church of Rome was the
nate that “ sacrilegious and accursed nation."3 ' A head and mother of all the Churches , it was abso
liberal distribution was promised of the customary lutely necessary that the sovereign Pontiff should
rewards--- crowns and high places in Paradise - reside at Rome, as a good pilot ought to keep at the
to those who should display the most zeal against stern and not at the prow of the vessel.” + Before
the obnoxious heresy, by shedding the greatest turning to the tragic scenes on the threshold of
amount of Bohemian blood. Thus exhorted , the which we stand, let us bestow a moment's glance
Emperor Sigismund and several of the neighbouring on the gaudy yet ambitious pomp that marked the
German states made ready to engage in the crusade. · Pope's departure for Rome. It is thus related by
The Bohemians saw the terrible tempest gathering Reichenthal :
on their borders, but they were not dismayed by it. “ Twelve led horses went first, with scarlet
While this storm is brewing at Prague, we shall housings ; which were followed by four gentlemen
return for the last time to Constance ; and there on horseback , bearing four cardinals' caps upon
we find that considerable self-satisfaction is preva- pikes. After them a priest marched, bearing a
lent among the members of the Council, which cross of gold ; who was followed by another priest,
has concluded its business amid general felici- that carried the Sacrament. Twelve cardinals
tations and loud boastings that it had pacified marched next, adorned with their red hats, and
Christendom . It had extinguished heresy by the followed by a priest riding on a white horse, and
stakes of Huss and Jerome. It had healed the offering the Sacrament to the populace , under a
schism by the deposition of the rival Popes and kind of canopy surrounded by men bearing wax
the election of Martin V . It had shot a bolt at tapers. After him followed John de Susate, a
Bohemian discontent which would save all further divine of Westphalia ,who likewise carried a golden
annoyance on that side ; and now , as the result of cross , and was encompassed by the canons and
these vigorous measures , an era of tranquillity to senators of the city, bearing wax tapers in their
Europe and of grandeur to the Popedom might be hands. At last the Pope appeared in his Pon
expected henceforth to commence. Deafened by tificalibus, riding on a white steed . He had upon
his head a tiara, adorned with a great number of
i Lenfant, vol. ii., p . 174. jewels, and a canopy was held over his head by
2 Bonnechose, vol. ii., p. 196. four counts - viz., Eberhard , Count of Nellenburg ;
3 Comenius, Persecut. Eccles. Bohem ., p. 35 : “ Sacrile
gamque et maledictam gentem exterminare penitus.”
See also Lenfant, vol. ii., bk . vi., chap . 51. Concil. Const.
- Hard ., tom . viii., p . 918. + Platina, Hist. Som . Pont., 213 . Lenfant, vol. ii., p. 274.
BIRTH OF ZISKA , 189
William , Count of Montserrat ; Berthold , Count of grew to manhood , adopted the profession of arms,
Ursins; and John , Count de Thirstein . The em - distinguished himself in the wars of Poland, and
peror held the reins of the Pope's horse on the right returning to his native country, became chamber
hand, being followed by Lewis, Duke of Bavaria of lain to King Wenceslaus. In the palace of the
Ingolstadt, who held up the housing or horse -cloth. jovial monarch there was little from morning to
The Elector of Brandenburg held the reins on the night save feasting and revelry, and Ziska, nothing
left,and behind him Frederick of Austria performed loth , bore his part in all the coarse humours and
the same office as Lewis of Ingolstadt. There were boisterous sports of his master. But his life was
four other princes on both sides, who held up the not destined to close thus ignobly.
horse -cloth . The Pope was followed by a gentle The shock which the martyrdom of Huss gave
man on horseback , who carried an umbrella to the whole nation was not unfelt by Ziska in the
defend him in case of need, either from the rain or palace. The gay courtier suddenly became thought
sun. After him marched all the clergy and all the ful. He might be seen traversing, with pensive
nobility on horseback , in such numbers, that they brow and folded arms, the long corridors of the
who were eye-witnesses reckoned up no less than palace, the windows of which look down on the
forty thousand , besides the multitudes of people broad stream of the Moldau, on the towers of
that followed on foot. When Martin V . came to Prague, and the plains beyond, which stretch out
the gate of the town, he alighted from his horse, towards that quarter of the horizon where the pile
and changed his priest's vestments for a red habit. of Huss had been kindled. One day the monarch
He also took another hat, and put that which he surprised him in this thoughtful mood. “ What is
wore upon the head of a certain prelate who is not this ?" said Wenceslaus, somewhat astonished to
named . Then he took horse again , as did also the see one with a sad countenance in his palace . “ I
emperor and the princes, who accompanied him to cannot brook the insult offered to Bohemia at
Goteleben , where he embarked on the Rhine for Constance by the murder of John Huss," replied
Schaffhausen. The cardinals and the rest of his the chamberlain . “ Where is the use," said the
court followed him by land, and the emperor king, “ of vexing one's self about it ? Neither you
returned to Constance with the other princes.” ! nor I have the means of avenging it. But," con
Leaving Pope Martin to pursue his journey to tinued the king, thinking doubtless that Ziska's
Rome, we shall again turn our attention to Prague. fit would soon pass off, “ if you are able to call
Alas, the poor land of Bohemia ! Woe on woe the emperor and Council to account, you have my
seemed coming upon it. Its two most illustrious permission .” “ Very good , my gracious master,"
sons had expired at the stake ; the Pope had hurled rejoined Ziska, “ will you be pleased to give me
excommunication against it ; the emperor was col your permission in writing ?" Wenceslaus, who
lecting his forces to invade it ; and the craven liked a joke, and deeming that such a document
Wenceslaus had neither heart to feel nor spirit to would be perfectly harmless in the hands of one
resent the affront which had been done his king- who had neither friends, nor money, nor soldiers,
dom . The citizens were distracted , for though on gave Ziska what he asked under the royal seal.3
fire with indignation they had neither counsellor Ziska, who had accepted the authorisation not
nor captain . At that crisis a remarkable man arose in jest but in earnest, watched his opportunity.
to organise the nation and lead its armies. His It soon came. The Pope fulminated his bull of
name was John Trocznowski, but he is better crusade against the Hussites. There followed
known by the sobriquet of Ziska — that is, the one- great excitement throughout Bohemia , and espe
eyed . The circumstances attending his birth were cially in its capital, Prague. The burghers
believed to foreshadow his extraordinary destiny. assembled to deliberate on the measures to be
His mother went one harvest day to visit the adopted for avenging the nation 's insulted honour,
reapers on the paternal estates, and being suddenly and defending its threatened independence. Ziska,
taken with the pains of labour, she was delivered of
a son beneath an oak -tree in the field . The child 3 Theobald, Bell. Huss ., cap. 28, p . 68. Histoire de la
Guerre des Hussites et du Concile de Basle. Par Jacques
Lenfant. Tom . i., livr. vi., p . 91. Amsterdam , 1731.
i Lenfant, vol. ii., pp. 275 — 278 . 4 It did not help to allay that excitement that the
The trunk of this oak stood till the beginning of the Pope's legate, Dominic , Cardinal of Ragusa , who had been
last century. It had wellnigh been wholly carried off sent to Bohemia to ascertain how matters stood, reported
by the blacksmiths of the neighbourhood , who believed to his master that " the tongue and the pen were no
that a splinter taken from its trunk and attached to their longer of any use, and that without any more ado, it was
hammer would give additional weight to its strokes high time to take arms against such obstinate heretics."
(Krasinski, Slavonia , p . 69, foot-note.) (Lenfant, vol. ii , p. 242.)
armed with the royal authorisation, suddenly ap- of the king. The factions became more embittered
peared in the midst of them . The citizens were every day. Tumult and massacre broke out in
emboldened when they saw one who stood so high, Prague. The senators took refuge in the town
as they believed , in the favour of the king, putting house ; they were pursued thither, thrown out at
himself at their head ; they concluded that Wen- the window , and received on the pikes of the
ceslaus also was with them , and would further their insurgents. The king, on receiving the news of
enterprise . In this, however , they were mistaken. the outrage, was so excited, whether from fear or
The liberty accorded their proceedings they owed , anger is not known, that he had a fit of apoplexy,
not to the approbation , but to the pusillanimity and died in a few days."
CHAPTER XIV .
COMMENCEMENT OF THE HUSSITE WARS.
War Breaks out - Celebration in Both Kinds- First Success , The Turk — Ziska's Appeal- Second Hussite Victory
The Emperor Besieges Prague - Repulsed - A Second Repulse - The Crown of Bohemia Refused to the Emperor
- Valour of the Hussites - Influence of their Struggle on the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century.
WENCESLAUS being dead , and the queen espousing Day, 1419, on a great plain not far from Prague,
the side of the Catholics, the tumults burst out and celebrate the Eucharist. On the day appointed
afresh. There was a whole week 's fighting, night some 40,000, it is said , from all the towns and
and day, between the Romanists and the Hussites , villages around, assembled at the place of rendez
on the bridge of the Moldau, leading to the royal vous. Three tables were set, the sacred elements
castle. No little blood was shed ; the churches were brought forth and placed upon them , and a
and convents were pillaged, the monks driven priest officiated at each, and gave the Communion
away, and in some instances massacred. But it in both kinds to the people. The affair was the
was likely to have fared ill with the insurgent simplest possible ; neither were the tables covered,
Bohemians. The Emperor Sigismund, brother of nor did the priests wear their habits, nor had the
the deceased Wenceslaus, now claimed the crown people arms; they came as pilgrims with their
of Bohemia . A bitter partizan of Rome, for whose walking - staves. The affair over, they made a
sake he had incurred the eternal disgrace of burn - collection to indemnify the man on whose ground
the most parte before Martinto assemble
ing the man to whom he had given his solemn they had met ; and agreeing to assemble again for
promise of safety, was not likely to stand on a like purpose before Martinmas, they separated ,
scruples or fear to strike. Hewas marching on the most part taking the road to Prague, where
Prague to quell the insurrection and take posses - they arrived at night with lighted torches. Such
sion of the crown. Perish that crown , said the is the account given by an eye-witness, Benesius
that itit shall on
Bohemians, rather than that the
sit on the m Horzowicki, aarino , ; but,
disciple and friend of Huss but
head of one who has incurred the double odium says the Jesuit Balbinus, “ though a heretic, his
of tyrant and traitor. The Bohemians resolved account of the affair is trustworthy."
on resistance ; and now it was that the tempest The matter got wind ; and the second meeting
burst. But the party to strike the first blow was was not allowed to pass off so quietly as the first.
Sigismund. Several hundreds were already on their way, bear
The campaign, which lasted eighteen years, and ing, as before, not arms but walking-staves, when
which was signalised throughout by the passions they were met by the intelligence that the troops
of the combatants , the carnage of its fields, and the of the emperor , lying in ambuscade, were waiting
marvellous, we had almost said miraculous vic- their approach. They halted on the road , and sent
tories which crowned the arms of the Hussites , messengers to the towns in their rear begging as
owed its commencement to the following incident:- sistance. A small body of soldiers was dispatched
The Hussites had agreed to meet on Michaelmas
2 Lenfant, Hist. Guer. Huss., tom .i., p. 93. Krasinski,
1 Huss- Story of Ziska - Acts and Mon ., tom . i., p. 848. Slavonia , pp . 70 - 74 .
HUSSITE SUCCESSES. 185
to their aid , and in the conflict which followed , the tants rallied to the standard of Ziska, now planted
imperial cavalry, though in superior force , were on Mount Tabor. These hastily assembled masses
put to flight. After the battle, the pilgrims with were but poorly disciplined, and still more poorly
their defenders pursued their way to Prague,which armed ; but the latter defect was about to be sup
they entered amid acclamations of joy. The first plied in a way they little dreamed of.
battle had been fought with the troops of the They had scarce begun their march towards the
emperor , and the victory remained with the capital when they encountered a body of imperial
Bohemians. cavalry. They routed, captured, and disarmed
The Rubicon had been crossed. The Bohemians them . The spoils of the enemy furnished them
must now go forward into the heart of the conflict, with the weapons they so greatly needed , and they
which was destined to assume dimensions that now saw themselves armed . Flushed with this
were not dreamed of by either party. The Turk , second victory , Ziska, at the head of his now
without intending it, came to their help . He numerous host, a following rather than an army,
attacked the Empire of Sigismund on the side entered Prague, where the righteousness of the
opposite to that of Bohemia . This divided the Hussite cause, and the glory of the success that
emperor's forces, and weakened his front against had so far attended it, were tarnished by the
Ziska. But for this apparently fortuitous but in violence committed on their opponents. Many
reality providential occurrence , the Hussite move of the Roman Catholics lost their lives, and the
ment might have been crushed before there was number of churches and convents taken possession
time to organise it. The prompt and patriotic of, according to both Protestant and Catholic his
Hussite leader saw his advantage, and made haste torians, was about 500 . The monks were specially
to rally the whole of Bohemia , before the emperor obnoxious from their opposition to Huss. Their
should have got the Moslem off his hands, and establishments in Prague and throughout Bohemia
before the armed bands of Germany, now muster were pillaged. These were of great magnificence.
ing in obedience to the Papal summons, should Æneas Sylvius, accustomed though he was to the
have had time to bear down upon his little stately edifices of Italy, yet speaks with admira
country. He issued a manifesto , signed “ Ziska of tion of the number and beauty of the Bohemian
the Chalice,” in which he invoked at once the re - monasteries. A very short while saw them utterly
ligion and the patriotism of his countrymen . wrecked , and their treasure, which was immense ,
" Imitate," said he, “ your ancestors the ancient and which consisted in gold and silver and precious
Bohemians, who were always able to defend the stones, went a long way to defray the expenses of
cause of God and their own. . . We are the war.3
collecting troops from all parts, in order to fight That the emperor could be worsted , supported
against the enemies of truth , and the destroyers as he was by the whole forces of the Empire and
of our nation, and I beseech you to inform your the whole influence of the Church, did not enter
preacher that he should exhort, in his sermons into any man's mind. Still it began to be ap
the people to make war on the Antichrist, and parent that the Hussites were not the contemptible
that every one, old and young, should prepare opponents Sigismund had taken them for. He
himself for it . I also desire that when I shall be deemed it prudent to come to terms with the
with you there should be no want of bread, beer , Turk , that he might be at liberty to deal with
victuals, or provender, and that you should provide Ziska.
yourselves with good arms. . . . Remember Assembling an army, contemporary historians
your first encounter, when you were few against say of 100,000 men , of various nationalities,
many, unarmed against well-armed men. The he marched on Prague, now in possession of the
hand of God has not been shortened . Have cou- Hussites, and laid siege to it. An idea may be
rage, and be ready. May God strengthen you ! - formed of the strength of the besieging force from
Ziska of the Chalice : in the hope of God, Chief the rank and number of the commanders. Under
of the Taborites.” ? the emperor, who held of course the supreme com
This appeal was responded to by a burst of mand, were five electors , two dukes , two land
enthusiasm . From all parts of Bohemia , from its graves, and more than fifty German princes. But
towns and villages and rural plains, the inhabi- this great host, so proudly officered , was destined
. . to be ignominiously beaten . The citizens of
Balbinus, Epit. Rer . Bohem ., pp . 435, 436 . Lenfant,
Hist. Guer. Huss., tom . i., livr. vi., p. 93. 3 Lenfant, Hist. Guer. Huss., tom . i., p . 104. Krasinski,
- Krasinski, Slavonia , p. 80 ; apud Lenfant, Slavonia, pp. 80, 81.
Prague, under the brave Ziska , drove them with successes invested the name of Ziska with great
disgrace from before their walls. The imperialists renown, and raised the expectations and courage
avenged themselves for their defeat by the atrocities of his followers to the highest pitch. It is not
they inflicted in their retreat. Burning, rapine, and wonderful if their minds began to be heated , see
slaughter marked their track , seeing as they fancied ing as they did the armies of the Empire fleeing
in every Bohemian a Hussite and enemy." before them . Mount Tabor, where the standard of
IND
THE OUTRAGE AT PRAGUE.
A second attempt did the emperor make on Ziska continued to float, was to become, so they
Prague the same year (1420 ), only to subject him - thought, the head of the earth , more holy than
self and the arms of the Empire to the disgrace of Zion, more invulnerable than the Capitol. It was
a second repulse. Outrages again marked the to be the centre and throne of a universal empire,
retreating steps of the invaders.? These repeated which was to bless the nations with righteous laws,
and civil and religious freedom . The armies of
i Lenfant, Hist.Guer. Huss.,tom . i., livr. viii., pp . 129,130 . Ziska were swelled from another and different
? Ibid., pp. 133, 134. cause. A report was spread throughout Bohemia
CH
- 74
WEES
MV
A
INAFIELD
HUSSITES
BY
EUCHARIST
THE
OF
.CELEBRATION
PRAGUE
NEAR
that all the townsand villages of the country (five native land, and by stirring up the German nation
only excepted) were to be swallowed up by an alities to invade it.5
earthquake, and this prediction obtaining general The war now resumed its course. It was marked
credence, the cities were forsaken, and many of by the usual concomitants of military strife, rapine
their inhabitants crowded to the camp, deeming and siege, fields wasted, cities burned , and the arts
the chance of victory under so brave and fortunate and industries suspended . The conflict was inte.
a leader as Ziska very much preferable to waiting resting as terrible, the odds being so overwhelming.
the certainty of obscure and inglorious entomb- A little nation was seen contending single-handed
ment in the approaching fate of their native against the numerous armies and various nationali
villages. ties of the Empire. Such a conflict the Bohemians
At this stage of the affair the Bohemians held a never could have sustained but for their faith
Diet at Czaslau (1521) to deliberate on their course in God , whose aid would not be wanting, they
for the future. The first matter that occupied them believed , to their righteous cause. Nor can any
was the disposal of their crown. They declared one who surveys the wonderful course of the cam
Sigismund unworthy to wear it, and resolved to paign fail to see that this aid was indeed vouchsafed .
offer it to the King of Poland or to a prince of his Victory invariably declared on the side of the
dynasty. The second question was, on what basis Hussites. Ziska won battle after battle, and apart
should they accept a peace ? The four following from the character of the cause of which he was the
articles they declared indispensable in order to champion, he may be said to have deserved the
this, and they ever after adhered to them in all success that attended him , by the feats of valour
their negotiations, whether with the imperial or which he performed in the field , and the con
with the ecclesiastical authorities. These were as summate ability which he displayed as a general.
follow : - 1. The free preaching of the Gospel. 2. He completely outmanæuvred the armies of the
The celebration of the Sacrament of the Supper in emperor ; he overwhelmed them by surprises, and
both kinds. 3. The secularisation of the eccle- baffled them by new and masterly tactics. His
siastical property, reserving only so much of it as name had now become a tower of strength to his
might yield a comfortable subsistence to the clergy friends, and a terror to his enemies. Every day his
4. The execution of the laws against all crimes, by renown extended,• and in the same proportion did
whomsoever committed , whether laics or clerics, the confidence of his soldiers in him and in them
Further, the Diet established a regency for the selves increase. They forgot the odds arrayed
government of the kingdom , composed of magnates, against them , and with every new day they went
nobles, and burghers, with Ziska as its presidents forth with redoubled courage to meet their enemies
The Emperor Sigismund sent proposals to the Diet, in the field, and to achieve new and more glorious
offering to confirm their liberties and redress all victories.
their just wrongs, provided they would accept him The cause for which they fought had a hallowing
as their king, and threatening them with war in case effect upon their conduct in the camp, and raised
of refusal. The promises and the threats of the them above the fear of death. In their marches
emperor, the Diet held in equal contempt. They they were commonly preceded by their pastors, who
returned for answer an indignant rejection of his bore aloft the Cup, the symbol in which they
propositions, reminding Sigismund that he had conquered. Before joining battle the Sacrament
broken his word in the matter of the safe -conduct, was administered in both kinds to the soldiers,
that he had inculpated himself by participating and , having partaken, they went into action sing
in the murder of Huss and Jerome, and that ing hymns. The spirit with which the Hussites
he had assumed the attitude of an enemy of contended, combining that of confessors with sol
Bohemia by publishing the bull of excommuni- diers, was wholly new in the armies of that age.
cation which the Pope had fulminated against their In the rear of the army came the women , who
tended the sick and wounded , and in cases of
i Krasinski, Slavonia , p . 82 . necessity worked upon the ramparts.
Arts ,
? Lenfant, Hist. Guer. Huss., tom . i., livr.ix ., pp . 161, 162.
3 Ibid ., p . 162. Let us pause a moment in our tragic narration .
nis au grand déshonneur de notre To this day the Hussites have never had justice
patrie qu'on brûlat Maître Jean Hus,quietoit allé à Con - done them . Their cause was branded with every
stance avec un sauf-conduit que vous lui aviez donné.” epithet of condemnation and abhorrence by their
The emperor's pledge and the public faith were equally
violated, they affirm , in the case of Jerome, who went to -- - - -
Constance “ sub simili fide, pari fide publica .” (Lenfant, 5 Krasinski, Slavonia , pp. 83 – 85. Von Müller, Univer.
Hist . Guer. Huss., tom . i., livr . ix ., p . 161.) Hist., vol. ii., p. 326 .
HUSSITE MODE OF FIGHTING . 189
contemporaries. At this we do not wonder. But country by the armies of the emperor, left them no
succeeding ages even have been slow to perceive alternative but arms. But, having reluctantly un
the sublimity of their struggle , and reluctant to sheathed the sword , the Hussites used it to such
acknowledge the great benefits that flowed from it good purpose that their enemies long remembered
to Christendom . It is time to remove the odium the lesson that had been taught them . Their
under which it has long lain . The Hussites pre- struggle paved the way for the quiet entrance of
sent the first instance in history of a nation volun- the Reformation upon the stage of the sixteenth
tarily associating in a holy bond to maintain the century. Had not the Hussites fought and bled , the
right to worship God according to the dictates of men of that era would have had a harder struggle
conscience. True, they maintained that right with before they could have launched their great move
the sword ; but for this they were not to blame. ment. Charles V . long stood with his hand upon
It was not left to them to choose the weapons with his sword before he found courage to draw it, re
which to fight their sacred battle. The fulmi membering the terrible recoil of the Hussite war
nation of the Pope, and the invasion of their on those who had commenced it.
CHAPTER XV .
MARVELLOUS GENIUS OF ZISKA AS A GENERAL.
Blindness of Ziska - Hussite mode of Warfare-- The Wagenburg - The Iron Flail - Successes - Ziska's Death -Grief
of his Countrymen .
OUR space does not permit us to narrate in detail movement. That blind giant, like Samson his eyes
the many battles, in all of which Ziska bore him - put out, but unlike Samson his hands not bound,
self so gallantly. He was one of the most remark - smote his enemies with swift, terrible ,and unerring
able generals that ever led an army. Cochleus, blows, and having overwhelmed them in ruin ,
who bore him no good -will, says, taking all things himself retired from the field victorious.
into account, his blindness, the peasants he had What contributed not a little to this remarkable
to transform into soldiers, and the odds he had to success were the novel methods of defence which
meet, Ziska was the greatest general that ever Ziska employed in the field . He conferred on his
lived . Accident deprived him in his boyhood of soldiers the advantages of men who contend behind
one of his eyes. At the siege of Raby he lost the walls and ramparts, while their enemy is all the
other, and was now entirely blind. But his mar- time exposed. It is a mode of warfare in use
vellous genius for arranging an army and directing among Eastern and nomadic tribes, from whom it
its movements, for foreseeing every emergency and is probable the Poles borrowed it, and Ziska in his
coping with every difficulty, instead of being im - turn may have learned it from them when he
paired by this untoward accident, seemed to be served in their wars. It consisted in the following
strengthened and enlarged , for it was only now contrivance : — The wagons of the commissariat,
that his great abilities as a military leader fully linked one to another by strong iron chains, and
revealed themselves . When an action was about ranged in line, were placed in front of the host.
to take place , he called a few officers around This fortification was termed a Wagenburg ; ranged
him , and made them describe the nature of the in the form of a circle, this wooden wall sometimes
ground and the position of the enemy. His enclosed the whole army. Behind this first ram
arrangement was instantly made as if by intuition . part rose a second, formed: of the long wooden
He saw the course the battle must run , and the shields of the soldiers, stuck in the ground. These
succession of manœuvres by which victory was to movable walls were formidable obstructions to the
be grasped . While the armies were fighting in the German cavalry. Mounted on heavy horses, and
light of day, the great chief who moved them stood armed with pikes and battle-axes, they had to force
apart in a pavilion of darkness. But his inner eye
surveyed the whole field , and watched its every 1 Lenfant, Hist. Guer. Huss., tom . i., livr. X., xi.
their way through this double fortification before attacked by the plague while occupied in the siege
they could close with the Bohemians. All the of Prysbislav, and died on October 11th , 1424."
while that they were hewing at the wagons, the T he grief of his soldiers was great, and for a
Bohemian archers were plying them with their moment they despaired of their cause , thinking
arrows, and it was with thinned ranks and ex- that with the death of their leader all was lost.
hausted strength that the Germans at length were Bohemia laid her great warrior in the tomb with
able to join battle with the foe. a sorrow more universal and profound than that
Even after forcing their way, with great effort with which she had ever buried any of her kings.
and loss, through this double defence , they still Ziska had made the little country great ; he had
found themselves at a disadvantage ; for their filled Europe with the renown of its arms; he had
armour scarce enabled them to contend on equal combatted for the faith which was now that of a
termswith the uncouth but formidable weapons of majority of the Bohemian nation , and by his hand
their adversaries. The Bohemians were armed God had humbled the haughtiness of that power
with long iron flails, which they swung with pro- which had sought to trample their convictions and
digious force. They seldom failed to hit, and when consciences into the dust. He was buried in the
they did so, the flail crashed through brazen helmet, Cathedral of Czaslau, in fulfilment of his own wish .
skull and all. Moreover, they carried long spears His countrymen erected a monument of marble
which had hooks attached, and with which , clutch- over his ashes, with his effigies sculptured on it,
ing the German horseman , they speedily brought and an inscription recording his great qualities and
him to the ground and dispatched him . The the exploits he had performed. Perhaps the most
invaders found that they had penetrated the double touching memorial of all was his strong iron mace,
rampart of their foes only to be dragged from their which hung suspended above his tomb.
horses and helplessly slaughtered. Besides nu - The Bohemian Jesuit Balbinus, who had seen
merous skirmishes and many sieges, Ziska fought numerous portraits of Ziska , speaks of him as a
sixteen pitched battles, from all of which he re- man of middle size, strong chest, broad shoulders,
turned a conqueror. . large round head, and aquiline nose. Hedressed in
The career of this remarkable man terminated the Polish fashion , wore a moustache, and shaved
suddenly. He did not fall by the sword , nor did his head, leaving only a tuft of brown hair, as was
he breathe his last on the field of battle ; he was the manner in Poland.
CHAPTER XVI.
SECOND CRUSADE AGAINST BOHEMIA .
Procopius Elected Leader - The War Resumed - New Invasion of Bohemia - Battle of Aussig - Total Rout and
Fearful Slaughter of the Invaders - Ballad descriptive of the Battle.
The Hussites
the hadcontinued
lost their great leader ; still Procopius was the son of a nobleman of small
the time of success
tide of success to flow
continued to . When dying fortune. Besides an excellent education, which
Ziska had named Procopius as his successor, and
his choice , so amply justified by its results, attests It was said that on his death-bed he gave instructions
that his knowledge of men was not inferior to to make a drum of his skin , believing that its sound
would terrify the enemy. An old drum was wont to be
his skill in the field . When the Bohemians laid shown at Prague as the identical one that Ziska had
Ziska in the grave, they looked around with no ordered to be made. Theobald (Bell. Huss.) rejects the
hope of finding one equally great to fill his place. story as a fable, which doubtless it is.
In Procopius they found a greater, though his 2 A hundred years after, the Emperor Ferdinand, hap
pening to visit this cathedral, was attracted by the sight
fame has been less. Nor is this surprising. A of an enormous mace hanging above a tomb. On making
few great qualities intensely , and it may be dis inquiry whose tomb it was, and being told that it was
Ziska's, and that this was his mace, he exclaimed, “ Fie,
proportionately developed , strike the world even fie,cette mauvaise bête !” and quitted Czaslau thatnight.
more than an assemblage
assemblage of girls harmoniously
Of gifts narmoniously So relates Balbinus.
blended. 3 Lenfant, Hist.Guer. Huss., tom . i., livr. xi., p. 212.
THE BOHEMIANS UNDER PROCOPIUS. i91
his maternal uncle, who had adopted him as his addition to the letter which the Pope caused to be
heir, took care he should receive, he had travelled forwarded to the King of Poland , exhorting him
in many foreign countries, the Holy Land among to extirpate the Bohemian heresy, he sent two
others, and his taste had been refined, and his legates to see after the execution of his wishes.
understanding enlarged, by what he had seen and He also ordered the Archbishop of Lembourg to
learned abroad. On his return he entered the levy in his diocese 20,000 golden ducats, to aid
Church - in compliance with his uncle's solicita - the king in prosecuting the war. The Pontiff
tions, it is said , not from his own bent— and hence wrote to the same effect to the Duke of Lithu
he was sometimes termed the Tonsured . But when ania . There is also a bull of the same Pope,
the war broke out he entered with his whole heart Martin V ., addressed to the Archbishops of
into his country 's quarrel, and, forsaking the Mainz, of Trèves, and of Cologne, confirming the
Church, placed himself under the standard of decree of the Council of Constance against the
Ziska. His devotion to the cause was not less Hussites , and the several parties into which they
than Ziska's. If his spirit was less fiery it was were divided .
not because it was less brave, but because it was At the first mutterings of the distant tempest,
better regulated. Ziska was the soldier and gene- the various sections of the Hussites drew together.
ral ; Procopius was the statesman in addition, On the death of Ziska they had unhappily divided .
The enemies of the Hussites knowing that Ziska There were the Taborites, who acknowledged Pro
was dead , but not knowing that his place was filled copius as leader ; fathe
there were wholthe aOrphans,
poursno who
by a greater, deemed the moment opportune for man
had lost meer a father,r world
lost inin Ziska and would accept , who
one
striking another blow . Victory they confidently in his room ; and there were the Calixtines, whom
hoped would now change sides. They did not re- Coribut, a candidate for the Bohemian crown,
flect that the blood of Huss and Jerome was commanded . But the sword , now so suddenly
weighing upon their swords. The terrible blind displayed above their heads, reminded them that
warrior,before whom they had so often Aed, they they had a common country and a common faith
would never again encounter in battle ; but that to defend . They forgot their differences in pre
righteous Power that had made Ziska its instru - sence of the danger that now menaced them , stood
ment in chastising the perfidy which had torn in side by side, and waited the coming of the foe.
pieces the safe-conduct of Huss, and then burned The Pontiff 's summons had been but too gene
his body at the stake, they should assuredly meet rally responded to . The army now advancing
on every battle-field on Bohemian soil on which against this devoted land numbered not less than
they should draw sword . But this they had yet 70,000 picked men ; some historians say 100,000.3
to learn , and so they resolved to resume the war, They brought with them 3,000 wagons and 180
which from this hour, as they fondly believed , pieces of cannon . On Saturday, June 15th , 1426 ,
would run in a prosperous groove . they entered Bohemia in three columns,marching
The new summons to arms came from Rome. in the direction of Aussig , which the Hussites
The emperor, who was beginning to disrelish being were besieging, and which lies on the great plain
continually beaten, was in no great haste to resume between Dresden and Toplitz, on the confines of
the campaign. To encourage and stimulate him , the Slavonic and German worlds. On Sabbath
the Pope wrote to the princes of Germany and the morning, as they drew near the Hussite camp,
King of Poland, exhorting them to unite their Procopius sent a proposal to the invaders that
arms with those of Sigismund, and deal a blow quarter should be given on both sides. The Ger
which should make an end, once for all, of this mans, who did not expect to need quarter for
troublesome affair. Than the Hussite heretics, the themselves, refused the promise of it to the Hus
Turk himself, he said , was less the foe of Chris- sites, saying that they were under the curse of the
tianity ; and it was a more urgent as well as a Pope, and that to spare them would be to violate
more meritorious work to endeavour to bring about their duty to the Church. “ Let it be so, then ,"
the extirpation of the Bohemian adversary than replied Procopius, " and let no quarter be given on
the overthrow of the Moslem one, either side.”
This letter was speedily followed by a bull, or- On Sabbath forenoon, the 16th of June, the
daining a new crusade against the Hussites. In battle began. The Bohemians were entrenched
- - behind 500 wagons, fastened to one another by
? Lenfant, Hist. Guer. Huss., tom . i., livr. xi., p . 217.
The Pope's letter was dated February 14th , 14:24 - that ? Lenfant, Hist. Guer. Huss., tom . i., livr. xii., p . 232.
is,during the sitting of the Council of Sienna. 3 Ibid., p . 238 .
chains, and forming a somewhat formidable ram - Germans from their horses, they enacted fearful
part. The Germans attacked with great im - slaughter upon them as they lay on the ground.
petuosity . They stormed the first line of defence, Rank after rank of the invaders pressed forward ,
hewing in pieces with their battle-axes the iron only to be blended in the terrible carnage which
fastenings of the wagons, and breaking through was going on, on this fatal spot. The battle raged
them . Pressing onward they threw down the till a late hour of the afternoon. The German
DRESDEN .
second and weaker line, which consisted of the knights contested the action with great valour and
wooden shields stuck into the ground. They ar- obstinacy, on a soil slippery with the blood and
rived in the area within , weary with the labour it cumbered with the corpses of their comrades. But
had cost them to break through into it. The Bo their bravery was in vain . The Bohemian ranks
hemians the while were resting on their arms, and were almost untouched ; the Germans were every
discharging an occasional shot from their swivel moment going down in the fearful tempest of
yet ms and shot
guns on the foe as he struggled with the wagons arrows and shot that beat upon them , and in the
Now that they were face to face with the enemy yet more terrible buffeting of the iron flails, which
*,and their terribl
they raised their war-cry, they swung their terrible crushed the hapless warrior on which they fell.
flails, they plied their long hooks, and pulling the The day closed with the total rout of the invaders,
SLAUGHTER ON THE FIELD OF AUSSIG . 193
who fled from the field in confusion , and sought The loss in killed of the Germans, according to
refuge in the mountains and woods around the Palacky, whose history of Bohemia is based upon
scene of action.' original documents, and the accuracy of which has
The fugitives when overtaken implored quarter, never been called in question, was fifteen thou
but themselves had settled it, before going into sand. The wounded and missing may have swelled
battle, and, accordingly, no quarter was given the total loss to fifty thousand, the number given
.
ciation
MECHLIN .
Twenty-four counts and barons stuck their swords in the Bohemian ballad, a part of which we are
in the ground, and knelt before their captors, pray about to quote. The German nobility suffered
ing that their lives might be spared. But in vain . tremendous loss, nearly all their leaders being
In one place three hundred slain knights are said left on the field . Of the Hussites there fell in
to have been found lying together in a single heap . battle thirty men .
A rich booty was reaped by the victors. All
1 Balbin.,Epitom . Rer. Bohem ., p. 468. Hist.Guer.Huss.,' the wagons, artillery, and tents, and a large
tom . i., livr. xii., pp . 238, 239.
17
supply of provisions and coin , fell into their
hands. “ The Pope," said the Hussites jeeringly, By Predlitz, on Behání's height,
“ owes the Germans his curse, for having en The armies met and closed in fight;
Stout Germans there, Bohemians here,
riched us heretics with such boundless store of Like hungry lions, know no fear.
treasure.” But the main advantage of this victory The Germans loud proclaim 'd that day,
was the splendid prestige it gave the Hussites. The Czechiansmust their creed unsay,
Submit themselves and sue for grace,
From that day their arms were looked upon as Or leave their lives upon the place.
invincible. • 'Gainst us ye cannot stand ,' they said ,
The national poets of Bohemia celebrated in song Against our host ye are but dead ;
this great triumph. The following fragment is not Look at our numbers ; what are ye ?
unlike the ballads in which some of the early A cask of poppy -seed are we.''
conflicts of our own country were commemorated. The bold Bohemians made reply :
Our creed we hold until we die,
In its mingled dialogue and description, its piquant Our fatherland we will defend,
interrogatories and stinging retorts, it bears evi Though in the fight wemeet our end.
dence of being contemporary, or nearly so, with And though a little band to see,
the battle. It is only a portion of this spirited A spoonful small ofmustard we,
poem for which we can here find room . Yet none the less we'll sharply bite,
If Christ but aid us in the fight.
But be this pact betwixt us twain :
“ In mind let all Bohemians bear, Whoe'er 's by either army ta'en ,
How God the Lord did for them care, Bind him and keep him , slay him not ;
And victory at Aussig gave, Expect from us the selfsame lot.'
When war they waged their faith to save. Said they : This thing we cannot do ;
The year of grace --the time to fix The Pope's dread curse is laid on you ,
Was fourteen hundred twenty -six ; And we must slay in fury wild
The Sunday after holy Vite Both old and young, both maid and child .'
The German host dispersed in flight. The Czechians too same pact did make,
Many there were look'd on the while, NoGerman prisoners to take;
Looked on Bohemia's risk with guile, Then each man call'd his God upon,
For glädsome they to see had been And thought his faith , his honour on .
Bohemians suffer woe and teen . The Germans joer'd them as they stood ,
But thanks to God the Lord we raise, On came their horsemen like a flood ;
To God we glory give and praise , • Our foes,' they say, like geese to -day
Who aided us with mighty hand With axe, with dirk , with mace we'll slay.
To drive the German from our land . Soon lose shallmany a maid and wife,
Sire, brother, husband in the strife,
The host doth nigh Bavaria war, In sad bereavement shall remain ;
Crusading foes to chase afar, Woe waits the orphans of the slain .'
Foes that the Pope of Rome had sent, When each on other 'gan to fall,
That all the faithful might be shent. The Czechians on their God did call ;
The tale of woe all hearts doth rend , They saw before their ran in view
Thus to the host for aid they send : A stranger knight, whom no man knew .
• Bohemia 's faith doth stand upright, The Taborites begin the fight,
If comrade comrade aids in fight.' Like men they forwards press and smite ;
The Count of Meissen said in sight, Where'er the Orphans took their road ,
* If the Bohemian bands unite, There streamsof blood like brooklets flow'd.
Evil, methinks, will us betide ;
Asunder let us keep them wide. And many a knight display'd his might,
Fear strikesme, when the flails I see, And many a lord was good in fight,
And those black lads so bold and free ! 'Twere vain to strive cach name to say
' Tis said that each doth crush the foc Lord ! bless them and their seed for aye !
Upon whose mail he sets a blow .' For there with valour without end
Our Marshal, good Lord Vanek , spake: They did the truth of God defend,
· Whoe'er God's war will undertake, They gave their lives right valiantly ,
Whoe'er will wage it free from guile, With thee , O Lord ! in heav'n to be.
Himself with God must reconcile.' When long the fight had fiercely burn 'd ,
On Friday then, atmorning light, The wind against the Germans turn 'd,
The Czechians service held aright, Their backs the bold Bohemians sec,
Received God 's body and His blood , Quick to the woodsand hills they face.
Ero for their faith in fight they stood .
Prince Sigmund did the same likewise,
And prayed to God with tearful eyes, | A figure borrowed from the cultivation of the poppy
And urged the warriors firm to stand , in Bohemia.
And cheer'd the people of the land. · Hussi, gecse, alluding to Jan Huss, John Goose.
ORGANISATION OF ANOTHER CRUSADE. 195
And those that ' scaped the bloody scene Besides the youths, that did abide
Right sadly told the Margravine, In helmets by the army's side ;
For faith and creed how fierce and wood But these they kept alive, to tell
The Czechian heretics had stood . Their lady how her people fell,
Then fourteen counts and lords of might That all might think the fight upon ,
Did from their coursers all alight, At Aussig that for God was won .
Their sword -points deep in earth did place Ho ! all ye faithful Christian men !
And to the Czechians sued for grace. Each lord and knight and citizen !
For prayers and cries they cared not aught, Follow and hold your fathers' creed
Silver and gold they set at naught, And show ye are their sons indeed !
E 'en as themselves had made reply , Be steadfast in God's truth always,
So ev'ry man they did to die. And so from God ye shall have praise ;
Thus thousands fifty, thousands twain , God on your offspring blessings pour,
Or more, were of the Germans slain , And grant you life for evermore ! " .
CHAPTER XVII.
BRILLIANT SUCCESSES OF THE HUSSITES.
Another Crusade- Bishop of Winchester its Leader - The Crusaders - Panic - Booty reaped by the Hussites
Sigismund Negotiates for the Crown - Failure of Negotiation - Hussites Invade Germany and Austria - Papal
Bull - A New Crusade - Panic and Flight of the Invaders.
SCARCE had this tempest passed over the Hussites Pope put him at the head of a new Bohemian
when a more terrible one was seen rolling up against crusade, which he had called into existence by
their devoted land. The very next year (1427) a his bull given at Rome, February 16th , 1427.
yet greater crusade than that which had come to so This bull the Pope sent to Henry of Win
inglorious an issue, wasorganised and set in motion. chester, and the bishop had forthwith to provide
This invasion, like the former , was instigated by the important additions of money, soldiers, and
the Pope, who this time turned his eyes to a success."
new quarter for a captain to lead it. He might The bishop,now become legate-a-latere, published
well despair of finding a German prince willing to in England the bull sanctioning the crusade, not
head such an expedition , after the woeful experience doubting that he should instantly see thousands of
the nobles of that land had had of Bohemian war enthusiastic warriors pressing forward to fight
fare. The English wereat that timewinning great under his banner. He was mortified , however, to
renown in France, and why should they be unwill find that few Englishmen were ambitious of taking
ing,thought the Pope, to win equal fame, and at part in an enterprise beyond doubt very holy ,
the same time to serve the Church, by turning their but which beyond doubt would be very bloody.
armsagainst the heretics of Bohemia ? Who could Beaufort crossed the sea to Belgium , where better
tell but the warlike Norman might know how to fortune awaited him . In the venerable and very
break the spell which had hitherto chained victory ecclesiastical city of Mechlin he published the
to the Hussite banners, although the Teuton had Pope's bull, and waited the effect. It was all that
not found out the important secret ? the warlike legate -a-latere could wish. No such
Pope Martin , following out his idea, selected response had been given to any similar summons
Henry de Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, the son since the day that the voice of Peter the Hermit
of the celebrated John of Gaunt, and brother of had thrilled the Western nations, and precipitated
Henry IV ., as a suitable person on whom to bestow them in fanatical masses upon the infidels of Pales
this mark of confidence. He first created him a tine. The whole of that vast region which extends
cardinal, he next made him his legate-a-latere, from the Rhine to the Elbe, and from the shores of
accompanying this distinguished dignity with a the Baltic to the summits of the Alps, seemed to
commission equally distinguished , and which, if
difficult, would confer honour proportionately Hist.Guer. Huss., tom . i., livr. xiii.,p . 254. Krasinski,
great if successfully accomplished . In short, the Slavonia, p.105.
rise up at the voice of this new Peter. Around his latere of the Pope, this great host marched for
standard there gathered a host of motley nation- ward to the scene, as it believed, of its predestined
alities, composed of the shepherds of themountains, triumph. It would strike such a blow as would
and the artisans and traders of the towns, of the redeem all past defeats, and put it out of the power
peasants who tilled the fields, and the lords and of heresy ever again to lift up its head on the soil
ORSIK
of the holy Roman Empire. The very greatness of
STANISHINIWOE
O OID
AD
the danger that now threatened the Hussites

DIESE
W
T S helped to ward it off. The patriotism of all ranks
FI
NA
in Bohemia, from the magnate to the peasant, was

HURES
roused. Many Roman Catholics who till now had

UN
TE
opposed their Protestant countrymen , feeling the

CLISA.
love of country stronger in their bosom than the

homage of creed , joined the standard of the great
Procopius. The invaders entered Bohemia in June,
1427, and sat down before the town of Meiss
which they meant to besiege.
The Bohemians marched to meet their invaders.
RELOSTERBEEK
They were now within sight of them , and the two
armies were separated only by the river that flows
2018
past Meiss. The crusaders were in greatly superior

force , but instead of dashing across the stream , and
closing in battle with the Hussites whom they had
come so far to meet, they stood gazing in silence
at those warriors , whose features, hardened by con
stant exposure, and begrimed with the smoke and
dust of battle, seemed to realise the pictures of
terror which report had made familiar to their
- 110
imaginations long before they came in contact

with the reality. It was only for a few moments
BMORIN
that the invaders contemplated the Hussite ranks.

A sudden panic fell upon them . They turned and
fled in the utmost confusion . The legate was as
one who awakens from a dream . His labours and
hopes at the very moment when, as he thought,
TH
they were to be crowned with victory, suddenly

vanished in a shameful rout. The Hussites, plung
ing into the river, and climbing the opposite bank,
hung upon the rear of the fugitives, slaughtering
them mercilessly. The carnage was increased by
the fury of the peasantry, who rose and avenged
OUMORS QUAM EST AMARA upon the foe, in his retreat, the ravages he had
HUSSITE SHIELD. (From Lenfant.) committed in his advance. The booty taken was
so immense that there was scarcely an individual,
princes that owned them . Contemporary writers of whatever station , in all Bohemia , who was not
say that the army that now assembled consisted suddenly made rich."
of ninety thousand infantry and an equal number The Pope comforted the humiliated Henry de
of eavalry. This doubtless is so far a guess, for Beaufort by sending him a letter of condolence (Oc.
in those days neither armies nor nations were tober 2nd , 1427 ), in which he hinted that a second
accurately told , but it is without doubt that the attempt might have a better issue. But the legate,
numbers that swelled this the fourth crusade very who had found that if the doctrines of the Hussites
much exceeded those of the former one. Here were
swords enough surely to convert all the heretics in
ianss ofof thi
torian st.,, tom 1., livr. til
he his
histor thiss affair have compared it to the
Bohemia.
Led by
Led by thr ee ele
three ctors of
electors w by many
the toEmpire,
of the
T def
The
eat of Crassus by the Parthians , of Darius by the
princes and counts, and headed by the legate -a - Scythians, and of Xerxes by theGreeks.
THE HUSSITES ACT UPON THE OFFENSIVE. 197
were false their swords were sharp , would meddle and patriotic man who guided their councils.
no further in their affairs. Not so the Emperor Their overtures for peace had been haughtily
Sigismund. Still coveting the Bohemian crown, rejected ; and it was now manifest that they could
butdespairing of gaining possession of it by arms, reckon on not a day's tranquillity, save in the way
he now resolved to try what diplomacy could effect. of an unconditional surrender of their crown to the
Butthe Bohemians,who felt that the gulf between emperor, and an equally unconditional surrender of
the emperor and themselves, first opened by the their conscience to the Pope. Much as they loved
stake of Huss , had been vastly widened by the peace, they were not prepared to purchase it at
blood since shed in the wars into which he had such a price . And instead of waiting till war
forced them , declined being ruled by him . Such , should come to them , they thought it better to
at least, was the feeling of the great majority anticipate it by carrying it into the countries of
of the nation. But Procopius was unwilling to their enemies. Procopius entered Germany (1429 )
forego the hopes of peace, so greatly needed by a at the head of 80,000 warriors, and in the campaign
stricken and bleeding country. He had combatted of that and the following summers he carried his
for the Bohemian liberties and the Hussite faith conquests from the gates of Magdeburg in the north ,
on the battle-field . He was ready to die for them . to the further limits of Franconia in the south.
But he longed, if it were possible on anything like The whole of Western Germany felt the weight
honourable and safe terms, to close these frightful of his sword. Some hundred towns and castles
wars. In this hope he assembled the Bohemian he converted into heaps : he exacted a heavy ran
Diet at Prague, in 1429, and got its consent to go som from the wealthy cities , and the barons and
to Vienna and lay the terms of the Bohemian bishops he made to pay sums equally large as the
people before the emperor in person. price of their escape from captivity or death. Such
These were substantially the same as the four towns as Bamberg and Nuremberg, and such
articles mentioned in a former chapter, and which magnates as the Elector of Brandenburg and the
the Hussites , when the struggle opened , had agreed Bishop of Salzburg, were rated each at 10,000
on as the indispensable basis of all negotiations for ducats. This was an enormous sum at a timewhen
peace that might at any time be entered upon — the gold -yielding countries were undiscovered, and
namely , the free preaching of the Gospel, Com the affluence of their mines had not cheapened
munion in both kinds, a satisfactory arrangement the price of the precious metals in the markets of
of the ecclesiastical property , and the execution of Europe. The return homeward of the army of Pro
the laws against all crimes by whomsoever com - copius was attended by 300 wagons, which groaned
mitted . The likelihood was small that so bigoted under the weight of the immense booty that he
à monarch as Sigismund would agree to these carried with him on his march back to Bohemia.
terms; but though the journey had been ten times We record this invasion without either justify
longer, and the chance of success ten times smaller, ing or condemning it. Were we to judge of it,
Procopius would have done what he did if thereby we should feel bound to take into account the
he might bind up his country's wounds. It was character of the age, and the circumstances of the
as might have been anticipated. Sigismund would men. The Bohemians were surrounded by nation
not listen to the voice of a suffering but magnani alities who bitterly hated them , and who would not
mous and pious people ; and Procopius returned to be at peace with them . They knew that their
Prague, his embassy unaccomplished , but with the faith made them the objects of incessant intrigues.
satisfaction that he had held out the olive-branch , They had it in their choice, they believed , to inflict
and that if the sword must again be unsheathed , these ravages or to endure them , and seeing war
the blood which would flow would lie at the door there must be, they preferred that it should be
of those who had spurned the overtures of a just abroad, not at home.
and reasonable peace . But we submit that the lasting tranquillity and
The Hussites now assumed the offensive, and the higher interests of the nation might have been
those nations which had so often carried war into more effectually secured in the long run by a policy
Bohemia experienced its miseries on their own directed to the intellectual, the moral, and especially
soil.' This policy might appear to the Bohemians, the spiritual elevation of Bohemia. The heroism
on a large view of their affairs , the wisest that they of a nation cannot be maintained apart from its
could pursue. We know at least that it was moral and spiritual condition. The seat of valour
adopted at the recommendation of the enlightened is the conscience. Conscience can make of the
man a coward, or it can make of him a hero.
| Hist, Guer. Huss., tom . i., livr. xiv . Living as the Hussites did in the continual ex
citement of camps and battles and victories, it those terrible tempests that had burst, one after the
could not be but that their moral and spiritual other, over it. These are the invasionswhich Rome
life should decline. If, confiding in that Arm which dreads most. It is not men clad in mail, but men
had hitherto so wonderfully guarded their land , clad in the armour of truth , wielding not the sword
which had given them victory on a score of battle, but the Scriptures, before whom Rome trembles.
WIEC
Com
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O
R
PROCOPIUS
PORTRAIT OF PROCOPIUS.
(From Lenfant's “ Histoire de la Guerre Hussitique et du Concile de Basle." )
fields, and which had twice chased their enemies But we must recall our canon of criticism , and
from their soil when they came against them in judge theHussites by the age in which they lived .
overwhelming numbers — if, we say,leaning on that It was not their fault if the fifteenth century did
Arm , they had spread, not their swords, but their not put them in possession of that clear,well-defined
opinions over Germany, they would have taken the system of Truth , and of those great facilities for
best of all revenges, not on the Germans only, but spreading it over the earth , which the nineteenth
on Her whose seat is on the Seven Hills, and who has put within our reach. Their piety and patriot
had called up and directed against their nation all ism , as a principle, may have been equal, nay,
.
BASLE
AT
DEPUTIES
HUSSITE
OFTHE
ARRIVAL
superior to ours, but the ethical maxims which was not wonderful that the Teutons should seize
regulate the display of these virtues were not then this chance of wiping out these stains from the
so fully developed. Procopius, the great leader of national escutcheon. Accordingly , every day new
the Bohemians, lived in an age when missions were troops of crusaders arrived at the place of rendez
yet remote . vous, which was the city of Nuremberg, and the
There was trembling through all Germany. army now assembled there numbered, horse and
Alarm was felt even at Rome, for the Hussites had foot, 130,000 men.
made their arms the terror of all Europe. The Pope On the 1st of August, 1431, the crusaders crossed
and the emperor took counsel how they might close the Bohemian frontier, penetrating through the
a source of danger which threatened to devastate great forest which covered the country on the
Christendom , and which they themselves in an evil Bavarian side. They were brilliantly led, as con
hour had opened . They convoked a Diet at Nurem - cerned rank, for at their head marched quite a host
berg. There it was resolved to organise a new of princes spiritual and temporal. Chief among
expedition against Bohemia. The Pope - not these was the legate Julian Cesarini. The very
Martin V., who died of apoplexy on the 30th of Catholic Cochleus hints that these cardinals and
February, 1431; but Eugenius IV ., who succeeded archbishops might have found worthier employ
him on the 16th of March - proclaimed through his ment, and he even doubts whether the practice of
legate, Cardinal Julian Cesarini, a fifth crusade. priests appearing in mail at the head of armies
No ordinary advantages were held forth as induce can be justified by the Levites of old , who were
ments to embark in this most meritorious but most specially exempt from serving in arms that they
hazardous service. Persons under a vow of pil- might wholly attend to their service in the Taber
grimage to Rome, or to St. James of Compostella nacle. The feelings of the Hussites as day by day
in Spain , might have release on condition of giving they received tidings of the numbers, equipments,
the money they would have spent on their journey and near approach of the host, we can well imagine.
to aid in the war. Nor were rewards wanting to Clouds as terrible had ere this darkened their sky,
those who, though unable to fight, were yet willing but they had seen an omnipotent Hand suddenly
to pray. Intending crusaders might do shrift for disperse them . They were prepared, as aforetime,
half a Bohemian penny, nor need the penitent pay to stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of their
even this small sum unless he chose . Confessors country and their faith , but any army they could
were appointed to give absolution of even the most hope to bring into the field would not amount to
heinous crimes, such as burning churches , and half the number of that which was now marching
murdering priests, that the crusader might go into against them . They reflected, however, that victory
battle with a clear conscience. And verily he had did not always declare on the side of the largest
need of all these aids to fortify him , when he thought battalion , and, lifting their eyes to heaven , they
of those with whom he was about to join battle ; calmly awaited the approach of the foe. The in
for every Hussite was believed to have within him a vading host advanced, “ chanting triumph before
legion of fiends, and it was no light matter to meet victory," says Lenfant, and arriving at Tachau, it
a foe like this. But whatever might happen , the halted there a week . Nothing could have better
safety of the crusader had been cared for. If he suited the Bohemians. Forming into three columns
fell in battle , he went straight to Paradise; and if the invaders moved forward. Procopius fell back
he survived, there awaited him a Paradise on earth on their approach, sowing reports as he retreated
in the booty he was sure to reap in the Bohemian that the Bohemians had quarrelled among them
land, which would make him rich for life. selves, and were fleeing. His design was to lure
Besides these spiritual lures , the feeling of ex- the enemy farther into the country, and fall upon
asperation was kept alive in the breasts of the him on all sides. On the morning of the 14th
Germans, by the memorials of the recent Hussite August the Bohemians marched to meet the foe.
invasion still visible on the face of the country . That foe now became aware of the stratagem which
Their ravaged fields and ruined cities continually had been practised upon him . The terrible Hussite
in their sight whetted their desire for vengeance. soldiers, who were believed to be in flight, were
Besides, German valour had been sorely tarnished advancing to offer battle.
by defeat abroad and by disaster at home, and it The enemy were encamped near the town of
Reisenberg. The Hussites were not yet in sight,
i Coch . L ., vi., pp . 136 - 139. Theob ., cap. 71, p . 138.
Bzovius, ann. 1431. Lenfant, Hist. Guer . Huss., tom . i., ? Hist. Guer. Huss., tom . i., livr. xvi., p. 316. Some
ļivr. XV., p. 299. historians reduce the number to 90 ,000.
MYSTERIOUS PANIC ON THE BATTLE-FIELD OF REISENBERG . 201
but the sounds of their approach struck upon the slaughter they had inflicted in their advance, would
ear of the Germans. The rumble of their wagons, rise upon them and cut them down in their flight.
and their war-hymn chanted by the whole army as With these words he succeeded in rallying some
it marched bravely forward to battle, were distinctly bodies of the fugitives. But it was only for a few
heard . Cardinal Cesarini and a companion climbed minutes. They stood their ground only till the
a little hill to view the impending conflict. Beneath Bohemians were within a short distance of them ,
them was the host which they expected soon to see and then that strange terror again fell upon them ,
engaged in victorious fight. It was an imposing and the stampede (to use a modern phrase) became
spectacle, this great army of many nationalities, so perfectly uncontrollable, that the legate himself
with its waving banners, its mail-clad knights, its was borne away by the current of bewildered and
helmeted cavalry , its long lines of wagons, and its hurryingmen . Much did the cardinal leave behind
numerous artillery . The cardinal and his friend him in his enforced flight. First and chiefly , he
had gazed only a few minutes when they were lost that great anticipated triumph of which he
startled by a strange and sudden movement in the had been so sure . His experience in this respect
host. As if smitten by some invisible power, it was precisely that of another cardinal-legate, his
appeared all at once to break up and scatter. The predecessor, Henry de Beaufort. It was a rude
soldiers threw away their armour and fled, one this awakening, in which he opened his eyes, not on
way, another that; and the wagoners, emptying glorious victory, but on humiliating and bitter
their vehicles of their load , set off across the plain defeat. Cesarini incurred other losses on this fatal
at full gallop. Struck with consternation and field . He left behind him his hat, his cross, his
amazement, the cardinal hurried down to the field , bell, and the Pope's bull proclaiming the crusade
and soon learned the cause of the catastrophe. The — that same crusade which had come to so ridi
army had been seized with a mysterious panic. culous a termination . The booty was immense.
That panic extended to the officers equally with the Wagon-loads of coin , destined for the payment
soldiers. The Duke of Bavaria was one of the first of the troops, became now the property of the
to flee. He left behind him his carriage, in the Bohemians, besides the multifarious spoil of the
hope that its spoil might tempt the enemy and field - artillery, arms, banners, dresses, gold and
delay their pursuit. Behind him , also in inglorious silver plate, and utensils of all kinds ; and, adds an
flight,came the Elector of Brandenburg ; and follow - old chronicler, with a touch of humour, “ many
ing close on the elector were others of less note , wagons of excellent wine." ?
chased from the field by this unseen terror. The This was now the second time the strange
army, followed, if that could be styled an army phenomenon of panic had been repeated in the
which so lately had been a marshalled and bannered Hussite wars. The Germans are naturally brave ;
host, but was now only a rabble rout, fleeing when they have proved their valour on a hundred
no man pursued . fields. They advanced against the Bohemians in
To do him justice, the only man who did not lose vastly superior numbers ; and if panic there was to
his head that day was the Papal legate Cesarini. be, we should rather have looked for it in the little
Amazed ,mortified,and indignant, he took his stand Hussite army. ' When they saw the horizon filled
in the path of the crowd of fugitives, in the hope with German foot and horse, it would not have
of compelling them to stand and show fight. He been surprising if the Bohemians had turned and
addressed them with the spirit of a soldier, bidding fled . But that the Germans should flee is ex
them remember the glory of their ancestors. If plicable only with reference to the moral state of
their pagan forefathers had shown such courage in the combatants. It shows that a good conscience
fighting for dumb idols, surely it became their is the best equipment of an army, and will do
descendants to show at least equal courage in much to win victory. But there is something
fighting for Christ, and the salvation of souls. more in the facts we have related than the cou
But deeming, it may be, this style of argument rage inspired by the consciousness of a good cause,
too high -pitched for the men and the occasion , and the feebleness and cowardice engendered by
the cardinal pressed upon the terrified crowd the consciousness of a bad one. There is here
the more prudential and practical consideration , the touch of a Divine finger — the infusion of a
that they had a better chance of saving their lives preternatural terror. So great was the stupefaction
by standing and fighting than by running away ; with which the crusaders were smitten that many
that they were sure to be overtaken by the light
cavalry of the Bohemians, and that the peasantry, 1 Æneas Sylvius, cap. 48. Theob., cap. 76. Lenfant,
whose anger they had incurred by the pillage and Hist.Guer. Hu8s., tom . i., livr. xvi., pp. 315- 320.
of them , instead of continuing their fight into Nuremberg, did not know their native city when
their own country, wandered back into Bohemia ; they entered it, and began to beg for lodgings as
while others of them , who reached their homes in if they were among strangers .
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE COUNCIL OF BASLE.
Negotiations - Council of Basle - Hussites Invited to the Council - Entrance of Hussite Deputies into Basle - Their
Four Articles - Debates in the Council- No Agreement - Return of the Deputies to Prague - Resumption of
Negotiations , The Compactata --Its Equivocal Character - Sigismund accepted as King.
ARMS, which had served the cause of Rome so ill, bled, and where a century later the seeds of the
were now laid aside, and in their room resort was Reformation found a congenial soil. Letters from
had to wiles. It was now evident that those great the emperor and the legate Julian invited the
armaments, raised and fitted out at an expense so Bohemians to come to Basle and confer on their
enormous, and one after another launched against points of difference. To induce them to accept
Bohemia - -a little country, but peopled by heroes , this invitation, the Fathers offered them a safe-con
were accomplishing no end at all, save that of duct to and from the Council, and a guarantee for
fattening with corpses and enriching with booty the free celebration of their worship during their
the land they were meant to subdue. There were stay, adding the further assurance that the Council
other considerations which recommended a change “ would lovingly and gently hear their reasons."3
of policy on the part of the imperial and ecclesias- The Hussites were not at all sanguine that the
tical powers. The victorious Hussites were carry result of the conference would be such as would
ing the war into the enemy's country. They had enable them to sheathe the sword over a satis
driven the Austrian soldiers out of Moravia. They factory arrangement of their affairs. They had
had invaded Hungary and other provinces, burning doubts, too , touching their personal safety. Still
towns and carrying off booty. These proceedings the matter was worth a good deal of both labour
were not without their effect in opening the eyes of and risk ; and after deliberating, they resolved to
the Pope and the emperor to the virtue of con - give proof of their desire for peace by attending
ciliation, to which till now they had been blind. the Council. They chose deputies to represent
In the year 1132, they addressed letters to the them at Basle , of whom the chief were Procopius
Bohemians, couched in the most friendly terms, “ the Great,” William Rosca , Baron of Poscupicz,
and evidently designed to open the way to peace, a valiant knight; John Rochyzana, preacher of
and to give the emperor quiet possession of the Prague ; and Nicolas Galecus, pastor of the
kingdom in which, as he said , he was born , and Taborites. They were accompanied by Peter Payne,
over which his father, brother, and uncle had an Englishman, " of excellent prompt and pregnant
reigned. Not otherwise than as they had reigned will,” says Fox ; and who did good service at
would he reign over them , should they permit him Basle. A company of 300 in all set out on horse
peaceably to enter. So he promised. back for the Council.
A General Council of the Church had been con
voked , and was now in session at Basle. On the . Concil. Basil. - Hard., tom . viii., pp. 1313 and 1472
frontier between Germany and Switzerland, washed 1494. Lenfant, Hist. des Huss., tom . i., pp. 322 – 324 and
330 — 334 .
by the Rhine, skirted on the east by the hills of 3 Concil. Basil - Hard.,tom .viii., p. 1472. Fox,vol.i.,862.
the Black Forest, while in the southern horizon 4 Comenius, Persecut. Eccles. Bohem ., p. 53.
appear the summits of the Jura Alps, is situated the 5 Payne had been Principal of Edmund's Hall,Oxford.
He enjoyed a high repute among the Bohemians. Lenfant
pleasant town where the Council was now assem says he was a man of deep learning , and devoted himself
to the diffusion of Wicliffe's opinions, and the elucidation
So says Comenius : “ Cæsar igitur cum pontifice ut of obscure passages in his writings. Cochleus speaks of
armis nihil profici animadvertunt ad fraudes conversi him as " adding his own pestiferous tracts to Wicliffe's
Busilea convocato iterum (anno 1432) concilio." (Persecut. books, and with inferior art, but more intense venom ,
Eccles. Bohem ., p . 53.) corrupting the purity of Bohemia .” (Krasinski, p. 87.)
THE FOUR ARTICLES PROPOSED BY THE HUSSITES. 203
The arrival of the Bohemian deputies was looked before the Council, they made the Fathers aware
forward to with much interest in the Swiss town. that their deliberations must be confined to these
The prodigies recently enacted upon its soil had four points ; that these were the faith of the
made Bohemia a land of wonders, and very ex- Bohemian nation ; that that nation had not em
traordinary pictures indeed had been circulated powered them to entertain the question of a renun
of the men by whom the victories with which ciation of that faith , but only to ascertain how far
all Europe was now ringing had been won . The it might be possible, in conformity with the four
inhabitants of Basle waited their arrival half in articles specified, to arrange a basis of peace with
expectation, half in terror, not knowing whether the Church of Rome, and permit a Roman Catholic
they were heroes or monsters whom they were sovereign to wear the crown of Bohemia , and that
about to receive into their city. At length their they had appeared in the Council not to discuss
approach was announced . All the inhabitants of with it generally the tenets of Huss and Jerome.3
Basle turned out to see those men whose tenets
were so abominable, and whose arms were so
terrible. The streets were lined with spectators ; ca
every window and roof had its cluster of eager and
anxious sight-seers ; and even the venerable Fathers sino
of the Council mingled in the crowd , that they BASE
might have an early view of the men whom they
were to meet in theological battle. As the caval SEAL OF THE COUNCIL OF BASLE. (From Lenfant.)
cade crossed the long wooden bridge that spans the
Rhine,and slowly climbed the opposite bank,which These four articles may be said to have formed
is crowned with the cathedral towers and other the new constitution of the kingdom of Bohemia .
buildings of the city, its appearance was very im - They struck at the foundation of the Roman hier
posing. The spectators missed the " teeth of lions archy, and implied a large measure of reformation.
and eyes of demons ” with which the Hussites were The eventual consolidation of the nation's civil and
credited by those who had fled before them on the religious liberties would have been their inevitable
battle-field ; but they saw in them other qualities result. The supreme authority of the Scriptures,
which , though less rare, were more worthy of which the Hussites maintained , implied the eman
admiration . Their tall figures and gallant bearing, cipation of the conscience, the beginning of all
their faces scarred with battle, and their eyes lit liberty. The preaching of the Gospel and the
with courage, were the subject of general comment. celebration of public worship in the language of the
Procopius drew all eyes upon him . “ This is the people, implied the purification of the nation's
man," said they one to another, “ who has so often morals and the enlightenment of the national in
put to flight the armies of the faithful— who has tellect. Communion in both kinds was a practical
destroyed so many cities — who has massacred so repudiation of the doctrine of the mass; for to insist
many thousands ; the invincible — the valiant.” on the Cup as essential to the Sacrament is tacitly
The deputies had received their instructions be- to maintain that the bread is simply bread , and not
fore leaving Prague. They were to insist on the the literal flesh of Christ. And the articles which
four following points (which, as already mentioned , disqualified priests from civil rule, displaced them
formed the pre-arranged basis on which only the from the state offices which they filled,and subjected
question of a satisfactory adjustment of affairs them to the laws in common with others. This
could be considered ) as the indispensable conditions
of peace :— I. The free preaching of the Word. 3.“ It was an unheard -of occurrence in the Church,"
II. The right of the laity to the Cup, and the use says Lechler, “ that a General Council should take part
in a discussion with a whole nation that demanded
of the vernacular tongue in all parts of Divine ecclesiastical reform , receive its deputies as the ambas
worship. III. The ineligibility of the clergy to sadors of an equalpower, and give them liberty of speech .
secular office and rule. IV . The execution of the This extraordinary event lent to the idea of reform a
laws in the case of all crimes , without respect of consideration , and gave it an honour,which involuntarily
worked deeper than all that heretofore had been thought,
persons. Accordingly, when the deputies appeared spoken ,and treated of respecting Church reform . Even
the journey of the ambassadors through the German
* Æneas Sylvius (who was an eye-witness), Hist. Bohem ., provinces, where they were treated with kindness and
cap . 49. Fox, Acts and Mon., vol. i., pp. 862, 863. . honour, still more the public discussion in Basle, as well
. Comenius, Persecut. Eccles. Bohem ., p. 54. These are as the private intercourse of the Hussites with many of
nearly the samearticleswhich the Protestants demanded the principal members of the Council, were of lasting
in 1551 from the Council of Trent. (Sleidan , lib . xxiii.) importance.” (Vol. ii., p . 479.)
article struck
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(From Lenfant.)
white and fair, and without spot or wrinkle, and the Hussite articles, and the delegates were as far
that it cannot err in those points necessary to from being convinced that they ought to refrain from
salvation. He exhorted them also to receive the urging them , as they had been on the first day of
decrees of the Council, and to give no less credit the debate. This was not a little mortifying te
unto the Council than unto the Gospel, by whose the Fathers; all the more so that it was the reverse
authority the Scriptures themselves are received of what they had confidently anticipated . The
and allowed. Also , that the Bohemians, who call Hussites, they thought,might cling to their errors
themselves the children of the Church, ought to in the darkness that brooded over the Bohemian
hear the voice of their mother, who is never soil; but at Basle, in the presence of the polemical
unmindful of her children . . . . that in the giants of Rome, and amidst the blaze of an Ecu
time of Noah's flood as many as were without menical Council, that they should continue to main
the ark perished ; that the Lord's passover was to tain them was not less a marvel than a mortification
be eaten in one house ; that there is no salvation to the Council. Procopius especially bore himself
to be sought for out of the Church , and that this is gallantly in this debate. A scholar and a theo
the famous garden and fountain of water, whereof logian, as well as a warrior , the Fathers saw with
whosoever shall drink shall not thirst everlastingly ; mingled admiration and chagrin that he could
that the Bohemians have done as they ought, in wield his logic with not less dexterity than his
that they have sought the fountains of this water sword , and could strike as heavy a blow on the
at the Council, and have now at length determined ecclesiastical arena as on the military. “ You hold
to give ear unto their mother."! a great many heresies,” said the Papal legate to
The Bohemians made a brief reply , saying that him one day. “ For example, you believe that the
they neither believed nor taught anything that was Mendicant orders are an invention of the devil.”
not founded on the Word of God ; that they had If Procopius grant this, doubtless thought the
come to the Council to vindicate their innocence in legate , he will mortally offend the Council ; and it
open audience, and ended by laying on the table he deny it, he will scandalise his own nation .
the four articles they had been instructed to insist The legate waited to see on which horn the leader
on as the basis of peace.” of the Taborites would do penance. “ Can you
Each of these four articles became in its turn show ," replied Procopius, “ that the Mendicants
the subject of discussion. Certain of the members were instituted by either the patriarchs or the
of Council were selected to impugn , and certain of prophets under the Old Testament, or Jesus Christ
the Bohemian delegates were appointed to defend and the apostles under the New ? If not, I ask
them .' The Fathers strove, not without success, to you, by whom were they instituted ?" We do not
draw the deputies into a discussion on the wide read that the legate pressed the charge further.
subject of Catholicism . They anticipated , it may After three months' fruitless debates, the Bo
be, an easy victory over men whose lives had been hemian delegates left Basle and returned to their
passed on the battle-field ; for if the Hussites were own country. The Council would come to no terms
foiled in the general argument, they might be ex- unless the Bohemians would engage to surrender
pected to yield more easily on the four points the faith of Huss, and submit unconditionally to
specially in debate. But neither on the wider field Rome. Although the Hussites, vanquished and in
of Catholicism nor on the narrower ground of the fetters, had been prostrate atthe feet of the Council,
four articles did the Bohemians show any inclina- it could have proposed nothing more humiliating.
tion to give way. Wherever they learned their They forgot that the Bohemians were victorious,and
theology, they proved themselves as obstinate that it was the Council that was suing for peace.
combatants in the council-chamber as they had In this light, it would seem , did the matter appear
done on the field of battle ; they could marshal to them when the deputies were gone, for they
arguments and proofs as well as soldiers, and the - ---
Fathers soon found that Rome was likely to win as 4 Comenius, Persecut. Eccles. Bohem ., p . 54 . Lenfant,
little fame in this spiritual contest as she had done Hist. Conc. Basle., tom . ii., livr. xvii., p . 4. It is interesting
in her military campaigns. The debates dragged to observe that the legate Julian , president of the
on through three tedious months ; and at the close Council, condemns among others the three following
articles of Wicliffe :- 1. That the substance of bread and
of that period the Council was as far from yielding wine remains after consecration. 2. That the accidents
cannot subsist without the substance. 3. That Christ is
not really and corporeally present in the Sacrament.
1 Lenfant, Hist. Conc. Basle, tom . ii., livr. xvii., p. 2; This shows conclusively what in the judgment of the
Amsterdam , 1731 . legate was the teaching of Wicliffe on the Eucharist.
Ibid., pp . 2, 3. 3 Ibid ., p . 4. (Lenfant, Hist. Conc. Basle, tom . ü ., livr. xvi., p. 6 .)
COMPROMISE BETWEEN THE ROMAN CATHOLICS AND HUSSITES. 207
sent after them a proposal to renew at Prague the plentiful crop of misunderstandings and quarrels
negotiations which had been broken off at Basle . in the future. To this agreement was given the
Shrinking from the dire necessity of again un - name of the Compactata . As with the Bible so
sheathing the sword, and anxious to spare their with the four Hussite articles - Rome accepted
country the calamities that attend even victorious them , but reserved to herself the right of deter
warfare , the Bohemian chiefs returned answer to mining their true sense. It might have been fore
the Council bidding them send forward their dele- seen that the Interpretation and not the Articles
gates to Prague. Many an armed embassy had would henceforth be the rule. So was the matter
come to Prague, or as near to it as the valour of , understood by Æneas Sylvius, an excellent judge
its heroic sonrs would permit ; now messengers of of what the Council meant. “ This formula of the
peace were travelling toward the land of John Council,” said he, “ is short,but there is more in its
Huss. Let us, said the Bohemians, display as great meaning than in its words. It banishes all such
courtesy and respect on this occasion as we have opinions and ceremonies as are alien to the faith ,
shown bravery and defiance on former ones. The and it takes the Bohemians bound to believe and
citizens put on their best clothes, the bells were to maintain all that the Church Catholic believes
tolled , flags were suspended from the steeples and and maintains.” : This was said with special re
ramparts and gates , and every expression of public ference to the Council's explication of the Hussite
welcome greeted the arrival of the delegates of the article of Communion in both kinds. The adminis
Council. trator was to teach the recipient of the Eucharist,
The Diet of Bohemia was convoked (1434)’ with according to the decree of the Council in its
reference to the question which was about to thirtieth session, that a whole Christ was in the
be reopened . The negotiations proceeded more cup as well as in the bread. This was a covert
smoothly on the banks of the Moldau than they reintroduction of transubstantiation .
had done on those of the Rhine. The negotiations The Compactata , then , was but a feeble gua
ended in a compromise. It was agreed that the rantee of the Bohemian faith and liberties ; in fact,
four articles of the Hussites should be accepted, . it was a surrender of both ; and thus the Pope and
bat that the right of explaining them , that is of the emperor, defeated on so many bloody fields,
determining their precise import, should belong to triumphed at last on that of diplomacy. Many
the Council — in other words, to the Pope and the of the Bohemians, and more especially the party
emperor. Such was the treaty now formed be- termed the Calixtines, now returned to their
tween the Roman Catholics and the Hussites ; its obedience to the Roman See, the cup being guaran
basis was the four articles, explained by the Council teed to them , and the Emperor Sigismund was now
- obviously an arrangement which promised a acknowledged as legitimate sovereign of Bohemia .“
CHAPTER XIX .
LAST SCENES OF THE BOHEMIAN REFORMATION .
The Two Parties, Calixtines and Taborites — The Compactata Accepted by the First , Rejected by the Second
War between the Two- Death of Procopius- Would the Bohemian Reformation have Regenerated Christendom ?
- Sigismund Violates the Compactata - He Dies - His Character - George Podiebrad - Elected King - The
Taborites -- Visited by Æneas Sylvius- Their Persecutions - A Taborite Ordination - Multiplication of their
Congregations.
The Bohemians were now divided into two strongly the first ; but it widened in proportion as the .
marked and widely separated parties, the Taborites strain of their great struggle was relaxed . The
and the Calixtines. This division had existed from
3 Æneas Sylvius, Hist. Bohem ., cap. lii. Lenfant, Hist.
Conc. Basle , tom . ii., livr. xvii., pp. 14 and 69, 70.
Lenfant, Hist. Conc. Basle, tom . ii., livr. xvii., p. 14. * Comenius, Persecut. Eccles. Bohem ., pp . 54 , 55 . Kra
? Ibid ., tom . ii., livr. xvii., pp. 14 - 18. sinski, Slavonia, pp. 120, 121.
party that retained most of the spirit of John Huss divided by that power whose wiles have ever been
were the Taborites. With them the defence of their a hundred times more formidable than her arms,
religion was the first concern, that of their civil Bohemian unsheathed the sword against Bohemian .
rights and privileges the second. The latter they The Calixtines were by much the larger party,
deemed perfectly safe under the ægis of the former. including as they did not only the majority of those
The Calixtines, on the other hand, had become who had been dissentients from Rome, but also all
lukewarm so far as the struggle was one for the Roman Catholics. The Taborites remained
religion. They thought that the rent between under the command of Procopius, who, although
their country and Rome was unnecessarily wide, most desirous of composing the strife and letting
and their policy was now one of approximation . his country have rest, would not accept of peace
They had secured the cup, as they believed , not on terms which he held to be fatal to his nation's
reflecting that they had got transubstantiation along faith and liberty. Bohemia, he clearly saw , had
with it ; and now the conflict, they thought, should entered on the descending path. Greater conces
cease. To the party of the Calixtines belonged the sions and deeper humiliations were before it. The
chief magnates , and most of the great cities , which enemy before whom she had begun to humble her
threw the preponderance of opinion on the side of self would not be satisfied till he had reft from her
the Compactata . Into this scale was thrown also all she had won on the victorious field . Rather
the influence of Rochyzana, the pastor of the than witness this humiliation , Procopius betook
Calixtines. “ He was tempted with the hope of a himself once more to the field at the head of his
bishopric,” says Comenius, and used his influence armed Taborites .
both at Basle and Prague to further conciliation on Bloody skirmishes marked the opening of the
termsmore advantageous to Rome than honourable conflict. At last, the two armies met on the plain
to the Bohemians. “ In this manner," says Come- of Lipan, twelve English miles from Prague, the
nius, “ they receded from the footsteps of Huss 29th of May, 1434, and a great battle was fought
and returned to the camp of Antichrist.” ? The day, fiercely contested on both sides, was going
In judging of the conduct of the Bohemians at in favour of Procopius, when the general of his
this crisis of their affairs, we are to bear in mind cavalry rode off the field with all under his com
that the events narrated took place in the fifteenth mand. This decided the action. Procopius,
eentury ; that the points of difference between the gathering round him the bravest of his soldiers,
two Churches,so perfectly irreconcilable ,had not yet rushed into the thick of the foe, where he con
been so clearly and sharply defined as they came to tended for awhile against fearful odds, but at last
beby the great controversies of the century that fol- sank overpowered by numbers. With the fall of
lowed. But the Bohemians in accepting this settle- Procopius came the end of the Hussite wars.
ment stepped down from a position of unexampled A consummate general, a skilful theologian, an
grandeur. Their campaigns are amongst the most accomplished scholar, and an incorruptible patriot,
heroic and brilliant of the wars of the world . A Procopius had upheld the cause of Bohemia so long
little country and a little army, they nevertheless as Bohemia was true to itself. Æneas Sylvius
were at this hour triumphant over all the resources Piccolomini said of him that “ he fell weary with
of Rome and all the armies of the Empire. They conquering rather than conquered." * His death
had but to keep their ground and remain united, fulfilled the saying of the Emperor Sigismund, " that
and take care that their patriotism , kindled at the the Bohemians could be overcome only by Bobe
altar, did not decline, and there was no power in mians.” With him fell the cause of the Hussites.
Europe that would have dared attack them . From No effectual stand could the Taborites make after
the day that the Bohemian nation sat down on the the loss of their great leader ; and as regards the
Compactata , their prestige waned, they gained no Calixtines, they riveted their chains by the same
more victories ; and the tone of public feeling, and blow that struck down Procopius. Yet one hardly
the tide of national prosperity, began to go back . can wish that this great patriot had lived longer.
The Calixtines accepted , the Taborites rejected The heroic days of Bohemia were numbered , and
this arrangement. The consequence was the deplor- the evil days had come in which Procopius could
able one of an appeal to arms by the two parties. take no pleasure. He had seen the Bohemians
Formerly, they had never unsheathed the sword united and victorious. He had seen puissant
except against a common enemy, and to add new
glory to the glory already acquired ; but now , alas ! ? Lenfant, Hist. Conc. Basle, tom . ii., livr. xvii., pp. 19, 20.
Bonnechose, vol. ii., p . 328.
: Comenius, Persecut. Eccles. Bohem ., pp. 54 , 55 . 3 Æneas Sylvius, Hist. Bohem ., p . 114 .
DEATHS OF PROCOPIUS AND THE EMPEROR SIGISMUND. 209
kings and mighty armies fleeing before them . He death destroyed this hope : there arose after them
had seen their arts, their literature, their husbandry, no one of equally commanding talents and piety ;
all flourishing. For the intellectual energy evoked and the Bohemian movement, instead of striking its
by the war did not expend itself in the camp ; it roots deeper, camemore and more to the surface.
overflowed, and nourished every interest of the Its success, in fact, might have been a misfortune to
nation . The University of Prague continued open, Christendom , inasmuch as by giving it a reformed
and its class-rooms crowded , all throughout that Romanism , it would have delayed for some cen
stormy period . The common schools of the country turies the advent of a purer movement.
were equally active, and education was universally The death of Procopius, as we have already
diffused . Æneas Sylvius says that every woman mentioned , considerably altered the position of
among the Taborites was well acquainted with the affairs. With him died a large part of that energy
Old and New Testaments, and unwilling as he was and vitality which had invariably sustained the
to see any good in the Hussites, he yet confesses Bohemians in deir resolute struggles with their
that they had one merit - namely , “ the love of military and eccesiastical enemies ; and, this being
letters." It was not uncommon at that era to find so, the cause gradually pined away.
tracts written by artizans, discussing religious sub- The Emperor Sigismund was now permitted to
jects, and characterised by the elegance of their mount the throne of Bohemia , but not till he had
diction and the vigour of their thinking. All this sworn to observe the Compactata, and maintain the
Procopius had seen. But now Bohemia herself had liberties of the nation (July 12th , 1436). A feeble
dug the grave of her liberties in the Compactata . guarantee ! The Bohemians could hardly expect
And when all that had made Bohemia dear to that the man who had broken his pledge to Huss
Procopius was about to be laid in the sepulchre, it would fulfil his stipulations to them . “ In striking
was fitting that he too should be consigned to the this bargain with the heretics,” says Æneas Sylvius,
tomb. “ the emperor yielded to necessity, being desirous at
One is compelled to ask what would the result any price of gaining the crown , that he might bring
have been , had the Bohemians maintained their back his subjects ' to the true Church.” ? And so
ground ? Would the Hussite Reformation have it turned out, for no sooner did the emperor feel
regenerated Christendom ? Weare disposed to say himself firm in his seat' than, forgetful of the
that it would not. It had in it no principle of Compactata , and his oath to observe it, he pro
sufficient power to move the conscience ofmankind. ceeded to restore the dominancy of the Church of
The Bohemian Reformation had respect mainly to Rome in Bohemia . This open treachery provoked
the corruptions of the Church of Rome— not those a storm of indignation ; the country was on the
of doctrine, but those of administration . If the brink of war, and this calamity was averted only
removal of these could have been effected , the by the death of the emperor in 1437, within little
Bohemians would have been content to accept more than a year after being acknowledged as king
Rome as a true and apostolic Church. The by the Bohemians.
Lutheran Reformation, on the other hand, had a Born to empire , not devoid of natural parts, and
first and main respect to the principle of corrup- endowed with not a few good qualities , Sigismund
tion in the individual man. This awoke the might have lived happily and reigned gloriously .
conscience . “ How shall I, a lost sinner, obtain But all his gifts were marred by a narrow bigotry
pardon and life eternal? ” This was the first which laid him at the feet of the priesthood. The
question in the Reformation of Luther. It was stake of Huss cost him a twenty years' war. He
because Rome could not lift off the burden from the wore out life in labours and perils ; he never knew
conscience , and not simply because her adminis- repose, he never tasted victory. He attempted
tration was tyrannical and her clergy scandalous, much, but succeeded in nothing. He subdued
that men were constrained to abandon her. It was rebellion by subtle arts and deceitful promises ;
a matter of life and death with them . They must content to win a momentary advantage at the cost
flee from a society where, if they remained , they of incurring a lasting disgrace. His grandfather,
saw they should perish everlastingly. Had Huss Henry VII., had exalted the fortunes of his house
and Jerome lived , the Bohemian Reformation might and the splendour of the Empire by opposing the
have worked itself into a deeper groove ; but their
? Æneas Sylvius, Hist. Bohem ., p . 120.
Æneas Sylvius:“ Nam perfidium genus illud hominum 3 Krasinski, Slavonia , p. 135. Bonnechose, vol. ii.,
hoc solum boni habet, quod litteras amat.” (Letter to p . 330.
Carvajal.) Krasinski, Slavonia , pp . 124 – 126 . 4 Lenfant, Hist. Conc. Basle, tom . ii., p . 63.
Papal See; Sigismund lowered both by becoming during the minority of King Vladislav, George
its tool. His misfortunes thickened as his years Podiebrad, a Bohemian nobleman, and head of the
advanced. He escaped a tragical end by a some- Calixtines , becameregent of the kingdom , and by
what sudden death . No grateful nation mourned his great talents and upright administration gave a
around his grave. breathing-space to his distracted nation. On the
There followed some chequered years. The first death of the young monarch , Podiebrad was elected
TABORITES SELECTING A PASTOR .
king. He now strove to make the Compactata a

reality,and revive the extinct rights and bring
back the vanished prestige of Bohemia ; but
he found that the hour of opportunity had
rent in Bohemian unity, the result of declension passed, and that the difficulties of the situation were
from the first vigour of the Bohemian faith, was greater than his strength could overcome. He
never healed . The Calixtines soon began to dis- fondly hoped that Æneas Sylvius, who had now
cover that the Compactata was a delusion, and that assumed the tiara under the title of Pius II.,would
it existed only on paper. Their monarchs refused to be more compliant in the matter of the Compac
govern according to its provisions. To plead it as tata than his predecessor had been . As secretary to
the charter of their rights was only to expose them - the Council of Basle , Æneas Sylvius had drafted
selves to contempt. The Council of Basle no doubt this document ; and Podiebrad believed that, as
had appended its seal to it, but the Pope refused to a matter of course, he would ratify as Pope what
look at it, and ultimately annulled it. At length , he had composed as secretary. He was doomed
BOHEMIAN TROUBLES AND WARS REVIVED. 211
to disappointment. Pius II. repudiated his own Podiebrad drove out the invaders, but he was
handiwork, and launched excommunication against not able to restore the internal peace of his nation.
Podiebrad (1463)' for attempting to govern on its The monks had returned, and priestly machinations
principles. Æneas' successor in the Papal chair, were continually fomenting party animosities. He
Paul II., walked in his steps. He denounced the retained possession of the throne ; but his efforts
Compactata anew ; anathematised Podiebrad as an were crippled , his life was threatened,and his reign
22
NATAL
WA
SO
ku
TABORITES WORSHIPPING IN A CAVE .
excommunicated heretic, whose reign could only

be destructive to mankind, and published a crusade
against him . In pursuance of the Papal bull a
foreign army entered Bohemia, and it became again
the theatre of battles, sieges, and great bloodshed. continued to be full of distractions till its very
close, in 1471. The remaining years of the century
" A wit of the time remarked , “ Pius damnavit quod were passed in similar troubles, and after this the
Æneas amavit ” - that is, Pius damned what Æneas loved . of Bohemia merges in the general stream of
Platina, the historian of the Popes, holds up Æneas history
the Reformation .
(Pius II.) as a memorable example of the power of the
Papal chair to work a change for the worse on those who We turn for a few moments to the other branch
have the fortune or the calamity to occupy it. As secre- of the Bohemian nation . the Taborites. They
tary to the Council of Basle, Æneas stoutly maintained
the doctrine that a General Council is above the Pope; received from Sigismund , when he ascended the
when he came to be Pius II., he as stoutly maintained
thatthe Pope is superior to a General Council. Krasinski, Slavonia,pp. 137 – 141.
throne, that lenient treatment which a conqueror a branch behind them on their return , to obliterate
rarely denies to an enemy whom he despises. He their footsteps and make it impossible for their
gave them the city of Tabor,' with certain lands enemies to track them to their hiding-places."
around, permitting them the free exercise of their Were they alone of all the witnesses of truth left
worship within their allotted territory , exacting in on the earth , or were there others, companions with
return only a small tribute. Here they practised them in the faith and patience of the kingdom of
the arts and displayed the virtues
plougofh, citizens.
domiEx-
their domainnat bJesus
ring Christ
themof ?Christendom
They sent messengers into various
changing the sword for the plough, their countries , to inquire secretly and
bloomed like a garden. The rich cultivation that bring them word thatagain
ever.y These messengers re
covered their fields bore as conclusive testimony to turned to say that everywhere darkness covered
their skill as husbandmen , as their victories had the face of the earth , but that nevertheless, here
done to their courage as warriors. Once, when on and there , they had found isolated confessors of the
a tour through Bohemia , Æneas Sylvius came to truth - a few in this city and a few in that, the
their gates ;' and though “ this rascally people” did object like themselves of persecution ; and that
not believe in transubstantiation , he preferred lodg- amid the mountains of the Alps was an ancient
ing amongst them for the night to sleeping in the Church, resting on the foundations of Scripture,
open fields, where , as he confesses , though the con- and protesting against the idolatrous corruptions
fession somewhat detracts from the merit of the of Rome. This intelligence gave great joy to the
action , he would have been exposed to robbers. Taborites ; they opened a correspondence with these
They gave the future Pope a most cordialwelcome, confessors, and were much cheered by finding that
and treated him with “ Slavonic hospitality." 3 this Alpine Church agreed with their own in the
About the year 1455 , the Taborites formed them - articles of its creed , the form of its ordination , and
selves into a distinct Church under the name of the the ceremonies of its worship .
“ United Brethren .” They looked around them : The question of ordination occasioned the Tabo
error covered the earth ; all societies needed to be rites no little perplexity. They had left the Roman
purified , the Calixtines as well as the Romanists ; Church, they had no bishop in their ranks ; how
" the evil was immedicable." So they judged ; were they to perpetuate that succession of pastors
therefore they resolved to separate themselves from which Christ had appointed in his Church ? After
all other bodies, and build up truth anew from the many anxious deliberations, “ they quieted their
foundations. This step exposed them to the bitter minds,” says Comenius, by the conclusion that " the
enmity of both Calixtines and Roman Catholics. ordination of presbyter by presbyter is legitimate."
They now became the object of a murderous per- They proceeded to act on their conclusion after a
secution , in which they suffered far more than they somewhat novel fashion. In the year 1467 their
had done in common with their countrymen in the chief men, to the number of about seventy, out of
Hussite wars. Rochyzana , who till now had be- all Bohemia and Moravia , met in a plain called
friended them , suffered himself to be alienated from Lhota , in the neighbourhood of the town of Rich
and even incensed against them ; and Podiebrad, novia. Humbling themselves with many tears and
their king, tarnished his fame as a patriotic and prayers before God , they resolved on an appeal by
upright ruler by the cruel persecution which he lot to the Divine omniscience as to who should be
directed against them . They were dispersed in the set over them as pastors. They selected by suffrage
woods and mountains ; they inhabited dens and nine men from among themselves, from whom three
caves ; and in these abodes they were ever careful were to be chosen to be ordained . They then put
to prepare their meals by night, lest the ascending twelve schedules or voting papers into the hands
smoke should betray their lurking-places. Gather - of a boy who was kept ignorant of the matter, and
ing round the fires which they kindled in these they ordered him to distribute these schedules
subterranean retreats in the cold of winter , they among the nine persons already selected. Of the
read the Word ofGod , and united in social worship . twelve voting papers nine were blanks, and three
At times, when the snow lay deep , and it was were inscribed with the word Est - i.e., It is the
necessary to go abroad for provisions, they dragged will of God . The boy distributed the schedules,
and it was found that the three bearing the word
I Lenfant,Hist. Conc. Basle, tom . ii., livr. xviž .,pp.49, 50.
· Ibid ., tom . ii., livr. xxi., p. 155. i Comenius, Hist. Eccles . Bohem ., pp . 63 - 68.
3 Krasinski, Slavonia, p. 130. 6 " An satis legitima foret ordinatio si presbyter pres
+ Comenius, Hist. Eccles. Bohem ., p . 61: " immedicabile byterum crearet, non vero episcopus ? " (Comenius, Hist.
esse hoc malum . " Eccles. Bohem ., P . 69.)
ANCIENT SOCIETY OVERTURNED. 213
Est had been given to the three following persons : words first uttered by Huss, and repeated by Jerome, ,
--Matthew Kunwaldius, “ one of the most pious that a century must revolve before the day should
of men ;" Thomas Przelaucius, “ a very learned break. These were to the Taborites what the
man ;" and Elias Krzenovius, who was “ distin . words of Joseph were to the tribes in the House
guished for his great parts.” The rite of ordination of Bondage : “ I die, and God will surely visit
was afterwards administered to these three by you, and bring you out.” The prediction kept
Stephen , a Waldensian pastor in Vienne on the alive their hopes in the night of their persecution,
Rhone. They rejoiced in this, as a public recogni. and in the darkest hour their eyes were still turned
tion of their oneness with the Waldensian Church . towards the horizon like men who watch for the
The death of Podiebrad and the accession of the morning. Year passed after year. The end of
Polish prince, Vladislav, in 1471 brought them the century arrived : it found 200 churches of
deliverance from persecution. The quiet they now the “ United Brethren " in Bohemia and Moravia .”
enjoyed was followed by an increase in the number So goodly was the remnant which, escaping the
of their congregations. Their lot was cast in evil destructive fury of fire and sword , was permitted
days,but they knew that the appointed years of to see the dawning of that day which Huss had
darkness must be fulfilled . They remembered the foretold .
Book Fourth .
CHRISTENDOM AT THE OPENING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
CHAPTER I.
PROTESTANTISM AND MEDIÆVALISM .
Ancient Society Discarded –New Races brought on the Stage- Their Capacity for Progress - The Reformation not
Possible before the Sixteenth Century - Mediævalism Revives - A Conflict - Odds — The Victory of the Weak.
We are now arrived at the sixteenth century. the capacity of adapting themselves to new forms
For a thousand years the Great Ruler had been of life, and surrendering themselves to the guidance
laying, in the midst of wars and great ethnical of great principles. What was to be done ? Must
revolutions, the foundations of a new and more the building which God purposed to erect be
glorious edifice than any that former ages had seen. abandoned, because a foundation sufficiently strong
Ancient society was too enfeebled by slavery, and and sound could not be found for it ? Should
too corrupted by polytheism , to be able to bear the Christianity remain the half-finished structure, or
weight of the structure about to be erected . The rather the defaced ruin , which the fourth and fifth
experiment had been tried of rearing the new social
centuries beheld it ? .
edifice upon the old foundations, but the attempt An answer was given to this question when the
had turned out a failure. By the fourth century, gates of the North were opened , and new and
the Gospel, so warmly embraced at first by the hardy races, issuing from the obscure regions of
Greek and Roman nations, had begun to decline - Germany, spread themselves over Southern and
had , in fact, become greatly corrupted. It was Western Europe. An invisible · Power marched
seen that these ancient races were unable to ad - before these tribes, and placed each — the Huns,
vance to the full manhood of Christianity and civil- the Vandals, the Burgundians, the Franks, the
isation . They were continually turning back to old Lombards— in that quarter of Christendom which
models and established precedents. They lacked best suited the part each was destined to play in
? Comenius,Hist. Eccles. Bohem ., pp. 63 – 71. ? Comenius, Hist. Eccles. Bohem ., p. 74.
that great drama of which the stamping out of the mental torpor, and it may be the religion also, of
laws, the religion , and the government of the old the Turk, would at this day have been reigning
world was the first act. The same Power which in Europe. Christendom , at the epoch of which
guided their march from the remote lands of their we speak , had only two things in its choice - to
birth, and chose for them their several habitations, accept the Gospel, and fight its way through
continued to watch over the development of their scaffolds and stakes to the liberty which the Gospel
manners , the formation of their language, and the brings with it, or to crouch down beneath the
growth of their literature and their art, of their shadow of a universal Spanish monarchy, to be
laws and their government ; and thus, in the slow succeeded in no long time by the yet gloomier
course of the centuries, were laid firm and broad night of Moslem despotism .
the foundations of a new order of things. These It would require more space than is here at our
tribes had no past to look back upon . They had disposal to pass in review the several kingdomsof
no storied traditions and observances which they Europe, and note the transformation which all of
trembled to break through. There was no spell them underwent as the era of Protestantism ap
upon them like that which operated so mischiev- proached . Nor is this necessary. The characteristic
onsly upon the Greek and Latin races. They were of the Christendom of that age lay in two things
free to enter the new path . Daring, adventurous, first in the constitution and power of the Empire,
and liberty-loving, we can trace their steady ad - and secondly in the organisation and supremacy of
vance , step by step , through the convulsions of the the Papacy. For certain ends, and within certain
tenth century, the intellectual awakening of the limits, each separate State of Europe was indepen
twelfth, and the literary revival of the fifteenth, dent ; it could pursue its own way, make war with
onward to the great spiritual movement of the whom it had a mind, or conclude a peace when it
sixteenth. chose ; but beyond these limits each State was
It is at this great moral epoch that we are now simply the member of a corporate body, which was
arrived . It will aid us if we pause in our narrative, under the sway of a double directorate. First
and glance for a moment at the constitution of came the Empire, which in thedays of Charlemagne,
Europe, and note specially the spirit of its policy , and again in the days of Charles V ., assumed the
the play of its ambitions, and the crisis to which presidency of well-nigh the whole of Europe.
matters were fast tending at the opening of the six . Above the Empire was the Papacy. Wielding a
teenth century. This will enable us to understand subtler influence and armed with higher sanctions,
what we may term the timing of the Reformation . it was the master of the Empire in even a greater
We have just seen that this great movement was degree than the Empire was the master of
not possible before the century we speak of, for till Europe.
then there was no stable basis for it in the con- It is instructive to mark that, at the moment
dition of the Teutonic nations. The rapid survey when the Protestant principle was about to appear,
that is to follow will show us further that this Mediævalism stood up in a power and grandeur
renewal of society could not, without the most unknown to it for ages. The former was at its
disastrous consequences to the world , have been weakest, the latter had attained its full strength
longer delayed . Had the advent of Protestantism when the battle between them was joined . To see
been postponed for a century or two beyond its how great the odds, what an array of force Medie
actual date, not only would all the preparations of valism had at its service , and to be able to guess
the previous ages have miscarried , but the world what would have been the future of Christendom
would have been overtaken, and society, it may be, and the world, had not Protestantism come at this
dissolved a second time, by a tremendous evil,which crisis to withstand, nay, to vanquish the frightful
had been growing for some time, and had now combination of power that menaced the liberties of
come to a head. Without the Protestantism of the mankind,and to feel how marvellous in every point
sixteenth century, not only would the intellectual of view was the victory which , on the side of the
awakening of the twelfth and the literary revival weaker power, crowned this great contest, we must
of the fifteenth century have been in vain , but the turn first to the Empire.
THE GOLDEN BULL . 215
CHAPTER II.,
THE EMPIRE.
Fall of Ancient Empire - Revived by the Pope - Charlemagne - The Golden Bull - The Seven Electors - Rules and
Forms of Election - Ceremony ofCoronation - Insignia - Coronation Feast - Emperor's Power Limited - Charles V .
- Capitulation - Spain - Becomes OneMonarchy on the Approach of the Reformation - Its Power Increased by the
Discoveries of Columbus- Brilliant Assemblage of States under Charles V . - Liberty in Danger- Protestantism
comes to Save it.
The one great Empire of ancient Romewas, in the it is true, a few relations of the head with the
days of Valentinian (A. D. 364), divided into two, members ; but nothing could be more indistinct
the Eastern and the Western . The Turk eventually than the public law of all those States, independent
made himself heir to the Eastern Empire, taking though at the same timeunited. . . . Had not
forcible possession of it by his great guns, and savage the Turks, at that time the violent enemies of all
but warlike hordes. The Western Empire has Christendom , come during the first years of the
dragged out a shadowy existence to our own day. reign of Frederick to plant the crescent in Europe,
There was, it is true, a parenthesis in its life ; it and menaced incessantly the Empire with invasion ,
succumbed to the Gothic invasion, and for awhile it is not easy to see how the feeble tie which bound
remained in abeyance ; but the , Pope raised up the that body together could have remained unbroken .
fallen fabric. The genius and martial spirit of the The terror inspired by Mahomet II. and his
Cæsars, which had created this Empire at the first, ferocious soldiers, was the first common interest
the Pope could not revive, but the nameand forms which led the princes of Germany to unite them
of the defunct government he could and did resusci- selves to one another, and around the imperial
tate. He grouped the kingdomsof Western Europe throne.”!
into a body or federation , and selecting one of their The author last quoted makes mention of the
kings he set him over the confederated States, with Golden Bull. Let us bestow a glance on this
the title of Emperor. This Empire was a fictitious ancient and curious document ; it will bring before
or nominal one ; it was the image or likeness of us the image of the time. Its author was Charles
the past reflecting itself on the face of modern IV ., Emperor and King of Bohemia . Pope Gregory,
Europe. about the year 997, it is believed , instituted seven
The Empire dazzled the age which witnessed its electors. Of these, three were Churchmen and
sudden erection . The constructive genius and the three lay princes, and one of kingly rank was
marvellous legislative and administrative powers of added , to make up the mystic number of seven, as
Charlemagne, its first head , succeeded in giving it some have thought, but more probably to prevent
a show of power ; but it was impossible by a mere equality of votes. The three Churchmen were the
fiat to plant those elements of cohesion , and those Archbishop of Trèves, Chancellor for France ; the
sentiments of homage to law and order,which alone Archbishop of Mainz, Chancellor for Germany ;
could guarantee its efficiency and permanency. It the Archbishop of Cologne, Chancellor for Italy .
supposed an advance of society , and a knowledge The four laymen were the King of Bohemia , the
on the part of mankind of their rights and duties, Duke of Saxony, the Count Palatine of the Rhine,
which was far from being the fact. “ The Empire and the Marquis of Brandenburg.
of the Germans," says the historian Müller, “ was The Archbishop of Mainz, by letters patent,was
constituted in a most extraordinary manner : it was to fix the day of election, which was to take place
a federal republic ; but its members were so diverse not later than three months from the death of the
with regard to form , character, and power, that it former emperor. Should the archbishop fail to
was extremely difficult to introduce universal laws, summon the electors, they were to meet notwith
or to unite the whole nation in measures of mutual standing within the appointed time, and elect one
interest." ! “ The Golden Bull,” says Villers , " that to the imperial dignity. The electorswere to afford
strange monument of the fourteenth century, fixed , to each other free passage and a safe-conduct
Müller, Univ. Hist., vol. ü ., p. 427; Lond., 1818. ? Villers, Essay on the Reformation , pp. 193 - 195.
through their territories when on their way to the safety of the electors, under the penalty of loss of
privileges. The inmorning after their
could not ofcometheirin person
discharge hemight sendIf ana deputy.
electoralduties. elector arrival,the
goods and electors,attired their officialhabits,
proceeded on
horseback
from the
council-hall to
the cathedral
church of St.
Bartholomew ,
where mass
was sung.
Then the
Archbishop
of Mainz adan
ministered
oath at the
altar to each
elector, that
he would,
FA
SU without bribe
or reward,
ES
choose a tem
poralhead for
Christendom
Thereafter
.
ON
they met in
secret con
ELI clave. Their
DONT
BOR
decision must
be come to
within butthirtyif
days,
deferred be
yond that
period, they
were to be fed
on bread and
and
water, ted
VIEW IN FRANKFORT-ON -THE-MAINE. pre ven
leaving the
city till they had complet ed the election. A ma
jority of votes constit uted
decision was to be announceda valid a stageanderectedthe
from election,
for the purpose in front ofthechoir of the cathedral.
an The
oath person chosen theto the imperialof dignity took
IUNI
to maintain profession the Catholic

faith, to protect the Church in all her rights, to be
obedienttoallthethePope,customs
conserve to administer
and justice, ofandtheto
privileges
The election was to take place in Frankfort-on-the- electors and States of the Empire. The imperial
Maine. No elector was to be permitted to enter insignia were then given him , consisting of a golden
the city attended by more than twohundred horse- crown, a sceptre, a globe called the imperial apple,
men, whereof fifty only were to be armed. The the sword of Charlemagne,a copy of the Gospels said
citizens of Frankfort were made responsible for the to have been found in his grave, and a rich mantle
THE CORONATION FEAST. 217
which was presented to one of the emperors by an measure of twelve marks' price, deliver oats to the
Arabian prince. chief equerry of the stable, and then, sticking his
The ceremonies enjoined by theGolden Bull to be staff in the oats, shall depart, and the vice-marshal
observed at the coronation feast are curious; the shall distribute the rest of the oats. The three
following minute and graphic account of them is archbishops shall say grace at the emperor's table,
given by an old traveller :— “ In solemn court the and he of them who is chancellor of the place shall
POTRE
COOC
GEN
VIEW IN GHENT.
emperor shall sit on his throne, and the Duke of lay reverently the seals before the emperor, which
Saxony, laying a heap of oats as high as his horse's the emperor shall restore to him ; and the staff of
saddle before the court-gate, shall, with a silver the chancellor shall be worth twelve marks silver.
1 The insignia were kept in one of the churches of angel from heaven . The robe called Dalmatick of Charle
Nuremberg ; Misson, who travelled 200 years ago, magne is of a violet colour, embroidered with pearls, and
describes them . The diadem or crown of Charlemagne strewed with eagles of gold , and a great number of jewels.
is of gold and weighs fourteen pounds. It is covered There are likewise the cope, the stole, the gloves, the
nearly all over with precious stones, and is surmounted breeches, the stockings, and the buskins.” (Maximilian
by a cross. The sceptre and globe are of gold. “ They Misson, New Voyage to Italy, & c ., vol. i., pt. i., p. 117 ;
say," remarks Misson , “ that the sword was brought by an Lond., 1739.)
The Marquis of Brandenburg, sitting upon his been variously described . Generally, it may be said
horse , with a silver basin of twelve marks' weight, that the emperor could not enact new laws, nor
and a towel, shall alight from his horse and give impose taxes, nor levy bodies of men , nor make
water to the emperor. The Count Palatine, sitting wars , nor erect fortifications, nor form treaties of
upon his horse,with four dishes of silver with meat, peace and alliances, except with the concurrent voice
each dish worth three marks, shall alight and set of the electors, princes, and States. He had no
gsitting n oonf his
the dishes
entlemaupon
the table. TheerKing of Bohemia ,
Falsithorse, mpat a silver
the ewith and whcup orth
ip wworth special revenue to support the imperial dignity , and
no power to enforce the imperial commands. The
twelve marks, filled with water and wine, shall princes were careful not to make the emperor too
alight and give it the emperor to drink . The powerful, lest he should abridge the independent
gentleman of Falkenstein , under-chamberlain , the sovereignty which each exercised within his own
gentleman of Nortemberg, master of the kitchen , dominions, and the free cities were equally jealous
and the gentleman of Limburch , vice-butler, or in lest the imperial power should encroach upon their
their absence the ordinary officers of the court, shall charters and privileges. The authority of the
have the said horses, basin , dishes, cup, staff, and emperor was almost entirely nominal. We speak
measure , and shall after wait at the emperor's of the times preceding the peace of Westphalia ; by
table. The emperor's table shall be six feet higher that settlement the constitution of the Empire was
than any other table, where he shall sit alone, and more accurately defined .
the table of the empress shall be by his side three tsmost uvá by the P The once
Its first days were its most vigorous. It began
feet lower. The electors' tables shall be three feet to decline when no longer upheld by the power and
lower than that of the empress , and all of equal guided by the genius of Charlemagne. The once
height, and three of them shall be on the emperor's brilliant line of Pepin had now ceased to produce
right hand, three on his left hand, and one before warriors and legislators. By a sudden break-down
his face , and each shall sit alone at his table . it had degenerated into a race of simpletons and
When one elector has done his office he shall go imbeciles. By-and-by the Empire passed from
and stand at his own table , and so in order the the Frank kings to the Saxon monarchs. Under
rest, till all have performed their offices, and then the latter it recovered a little strength ; but soon
all seven shall sit down at one time. Gregory VII. came with his grand project of making
“ The emperor shall be chosen at Frankfort, the tiara supreme not only over all crowns, but
crowned at Augsburg, and shall hold his first court above the imperial diadem itself. Gregory suc
at Nuremberg, except there be some lawful impedi- ceeded in the end of the day, for the issue of the
ment. The electors are presumed to be Germans, long and bloody war which he commenced was that
and their sons at the age of seven years shall be the Empire had to bow to the mitre, and the
taught the grammar, and the Italian and Slavonian emperor to take an oath of vassalage to the Pontiff.
tongues, so as at fourteen years of age they may be The Empire had only two elements of cohesion
skilful therein and be worthy assessors to the Roman Catholicism within , and the terror of the
emperor. " 1 Turk without. Its constituent princes were
The electors are , by birth, the privy councillors rivals rather than members of one confederacy .
of the emperor ; they ought, in the phraseology Animosities and dissensions were continually
of Charles IV ., “ to enlighten the Holy Empire, springing up amongst them . They invaded each
as seven shining lights, in the unity of the seven- other's territories, regardless of the displeasure of
fold spirit ;” and, according to the same mon - the emperor. By these wars trade was impeded,
arch, are “ the most honourable members of the knowledge repressed , and outrage and rapine
imperial body." The rights which the emperor Aourished to a degree that threatened society itself
could exercise on his own authority , those he could with destruction. The authors of these calamities
exert with the consent of the electors, and those at last felt the necessity of devising some other
which belonged to him only with the concurrence way of adjusting their quarrels than by the sword.
of all the princes and States of the Empire have The Imperial Council,the Aulic Diet, the Diet of the
Empire, were the successive methods had recourse
i An Itinerary written by Funes Moryson , Gent., first in to for obviating these frequent and cruel resorts to
the Latin tongue,and then translated by him into English ; force , which were giving to the provinces of the
containing his ten yeers travell through the twelve dominions Empire the appearance of a devastated and unin
of Germany, Bohmerland , Sweitzerland , Netherland , Den - habited region
habited racion .
mark, Poland , Italy , Turkey , France, England , Scotland , and
Ireland . Fol.; Lond ., 1617. Pt. iii., p. 191. In A.D. 1519, by the death of Maximilian, the
2 Müller, vol. ü ., p. 432. imperial crown became vacant. Two illustrious
GREATNESS OF SPAIN . 219
and powerful princes came forward to contest the estimating the overwhelming force now arrayed
brilliant prize _ Francis I. of France, and Charles against Protestantism .
of Austria , the grandson of Maximilian , and King As the Reformation drew nigh, Spain suddenly
of Spain . Henry VIII. of England, the third great changed its form , and from being a congeries of
monarch of the age, also entered the lists, but diminutive kingdoms, it became one powerful
finding at an early stage of the contest that his empire. The various principalities, which up till
chance of success was small, he withdrew . Francis this time dotted the surface of the Peninsula, were
now merged into the two kingdoms of Arragon and
I. was a gallant prince, a chivalrous soldier, a friend
of the new learning, and so frank and affable in his Castile. There remained but one other step to
manners that he won the affection of all who ap- make Spain one monarchy, and that step was
proached him . But the Germans were averse to taken in A. D. 1469, by the marriage of Ferdinand
accept as the head of their Empire the king of a of Arragon and Isabella of Castile. In a few years
nation whose genius, language, and manners were thereafter these two royal personages ascended the
80 widely different from their own. Their choice thrones of Arragon and Castile, and thus all the
fell on Charles, who, though he lacked the brilliant crowns of Spain were united on their head . One
personal qualities of his rival, drew his lineage monarch now swayed his sceptre over the Iberian
from their own race , had his cradle in one of their Peninsula , from San Sebastian to the Rock of Gib
own towns, Ghent, and was the heir of twenty- raltar, from the Pyrenees to the straits that wash
eight kingdoms. the feet of the mountainsofMauritania. The whole
There was danger as well as safety in the vast resources of the country now found their way into
power of the man whom the Germans had elected one exchequer ; all its tribes were gathered round
to wear a crown which had in it so much grandeur one standard ; and its whole power was wielded
and so little solid authority . The conqueror of the by one hand .
East, Selim II., was perpetually hovering upon Spain , already great, was about to become still
their frontier. They needed a strong arm to repel greater. Columbus was just fitting out the little
the invader, and thought they had found it in that craft in which he was to explore the Atlantic, and
of the master of so many kingdoms; but the hand add, by his skill and adventurous courage, to the
that shielded them from Moslem tyranny might crown of Spain the most brilliant appendage which
who could tell, crush their own liberties. It be subject ever gave to monarch. Since the days of
hoved them to take precautions against this possible old Rome there had arisen no such stupendous
catastrophe. They framed a Capitulation or claim political structure as that which was about to show
of rights, enumerating and guaranteeing the privi- itself to the world in the Spanish Monarchy. Spain
leges and immunities of the Germanic Body ; and itself was but a unit in the assemblage of kingdoms
the ambassadors of Charles signed it in the name of that made up this vast empire. The European
their master, and he himself confirmed it by oath dependencies of Spain were numerous. The fertile
at his coronation. In this instrument the princes plains and vine-clad hills of Sicily and Naples
of Germany unconsciously provided for the defence were hers. The vast garden of Lombardy, which
of higher rights than their own royalties and the Po waters and the Alps enclose, with its
immunities. They had erected an asylum to which queenly cities , its plantations of olive and mulberry,
Protestantism might retreat, when the day should its corn and oil and silk , were hers. The Low
come that the emperor would raise his mailed hand Countries were hers , with their canals, their fertile
to crush it. meadows stocked with herds, their cathedrals and
Charles V . was more powerful than any emperor museums, and their stately towns, the seats of
had been for many an age preceding. To the im - learning and the hives of industry. As if Europe
perial dignity, a shadow in the case of many of his were too narrow to contain so colossal a power,
predecessors, wasadded in his the substantial power Spain stretched her sceptre across the great western
of Spain . A singular concurrence of events had sea , and ample provinces in the New World called
made Spain a mightier kingdom by far than any her mistress. Mexico and Peru were hers, and the
that had existed in Europe since the days of the products of their virgin soils and the wealth of
Cæsars. Of this magnificent monarchy the whole their golden mines were borne across the deep to
resources were in the hands of theman who was at replenish her bazaars and silver shops. It was not
once the wearer of the imperial dignity and the the Occident only that poured its treasures at her
enemy of the Reformation. This makes it im - feet ; Spain laid her hand on the Orient, and the
perative that we should bestow a glance on the fragrant spices and precious gems of India minis
extent and greatness of the Spanish kingdom , when tered to her pleasure. The sun never set on the
dominions of Spain . The numerous countries that the field , and his boughs were multiplied , and his
owned her sway sent each whatever was most branches became long because of the multitude of
precious and most prized among its products, to waters, when he shot forth.” l
stock her markets and enrich her exchequer. To The monarch of Spain, though master of so much ,
Spain flowed the gums of Arabia , the drugs of was laying schemes for extending the limits of his
Molucca, the diamonds of Borneo , the wheat of already overgrown dominions, and making himself
Lombardy, the wine of Naples, the rich fabrics absolute and universal lord. Since the noon of the
worked on the looms of Bruges and Ghent, the Roman power, the liberties of the world had at no
arms and cutlery forged in the factories and time been in so great peril as now. The shadow of
wrought up in the workshops of Liège and a universal despotism was persistently projecting
Namur. itself farther and yet farther upon the kingdoms
This great empire was served by numerous and peoples of Western Europe. There was no
from everydy,familiebe trop
armies and powerful fleets. Her soldiers , drawn principle known to the men of that age that seemed
from every nation , and excellently disciplined, were capable of doing battle with this colossus, and stay
brave, hardy, familiar with danger, and inured to ing its advance. This despotism , into whose hands
every climate from the tropics to the arctic regions. as it seemed the nations of Christendom had been
They were led by commanders of consummate delivered , claimed a Divine right, and , as such , was
ability , and the flag under which they marched had upheld by the spiritual forces of priestcraft, and
conquered on a hundred battle -fields. When the the material aids of fleets and legions. Liberty
master of all these provinces , armies and fleets, was retreating before it. Literature and art had
added the imperial diadem , as Charles V . did , to become its allies, and were weaving chains for the
all his other dignities, his glory was perfected. We men whom they had promised to emancipate. As
may adapt to the Spanish monarch the bold image Liberty looked around, she could see no arm on
under which the prophet presented the greatness of which to lean , no champion to do battle for her.
the Assyrian power. “ The” Spaniard " was a cedar Unless Protestantism had arrived at that crisis, at
in ” Europe “ with fair branches ,and with a shadow - universal despotism would have covered Europe,
ing shroud , and of an high stature ; and his top was and Liberty banished from the earth must have
among the thick boughs. The waters made him returned to her native skies. “ Dr. Martin Luther,
great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers a monk from the county of Mansfeld . . . ,
running round about his plants, and sent out her by his heroism alone, imparted to the half of
little rivers unto all the trees of the field . There- Europe a new soul ; created an opposition which
fore his height was exalted above all the trees of became the safeguard of freedom ." !
CHAPTER III.
THE PAPACY, OR CHRISTENDOM UNDER THE TIARA.

Complex Constitution of the Papacy - Temporal Sovereignty limited to PapalStates-- PontificalSupremacy covers all
Christendom - GovernmentalMachinery - Legate-a -latere - Interdict - The Concordat - Concordat with Austria
The Papacy in Piedmont- Indulgences-- The Confessional - The Papacy Absolute in Temporals as in Spirituals
- Enormous Strength .
We now ascend to the summit of the European religion and liberty was begun . The relation of the
edifice as constituted at the beginning of the six - Papacy to the other kingdoms of Christendom was,
teenth century . There was a higher monarch in -
the world than the emperor, and a more powerful Ezek. xxxi. 3 - 5 .
kingdom in Christendom than the Empire . That “ 2IfMüller,
the
Univ . Hist., vol. iii., sec. 1, p . 2 ; Lond., 1818.
tide of events had followed in the sixteenth
monarch was the Pope — that Empire, the Papacy. century, and in those which succeeded , the course in
Any view of Christendom that fails to take which it had hitherto flowed, nothing could have save
note of the relations of the Papacy to its several Europe from approaching servitude, and the yoke of an
kingdoms, overlooks the prominent characteristic universal monarchy.” (Villers, Essay on the Spirit and
Influence of the Reformation of Luther , sec. 4, p. 125 ;
of Europe as it existed when the great struggle for Lond., 1805.)
TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPEDOM . 221
in a word , that of dominancy. It was their chief, did the legate contrive to bring under his juris
their ruler. It taught them to see in the Seven diction . He claimed to decide all questions of
Hills, and the power seated thereon, the bond of divorce. These decisions involved, of course, civil
their union , the fountain of their legislation, and issues, such as the succession to landed estates, the
the throne of their government. It thus knit all ownership of other forms of wealth , and in some
the kingdoms of Europe into one great confederacy instances the right to the throne. All questions
or monarchy. They lived and breathed in the touching the lands and estates of the convents,
Papacy. Their fleets and armies, their constitutions monasteries, and abbeys were determined by the
and laws, existed more for it than for themselves. legate. This gave him the direct control of one
They were employed to advance the policy and up- half the landed property of most of the kingdoms
hold the power of the sovereigns who sat in the of Europe. He could impose taxes , and did levy a
Papal chair. penny upon every house in France and England.
In the one Pontifical government there were He had power, moreover , to impose extraordinary
rolled up in reality two governments, one with levies for special objects of the Church upon both
in the other. The smaller of these covered the clergy and laity. He made himself the arbiter of
area of the Papal States ; while the larger, spurn - peace and war. He meddled in all the affairs of
ing these narrow limits, embraced the whole of princes , conducted perpetual intrigues, fomented
Christendom , making of its thrones and nations endless quarrels , and sustained himself umpire in
but one monarchy, one theocratic kingdom , over all controversies . If any one felt himself aggrieved
which was stretched the sceptre of an absolute by the judgment of the legate, he could have no
jurisdiction . redress from the courts of the country, nor even
In order to see how this came to pass, wemust from the sovereign. He must go in person to
briefly enumerate the various expedients by which Rome. Thus did the Pope, through his legate-a
the Papacy contrived to exercise jurisdiction outside latere, manage to make himself the grand justiciary
its own special territory, and by which it became of the kingdom .”
the temporal not less than the spiritual head of The vast jurisdiction of the legate-a-latere was
Christendom — the real ruler of the kingdoms of supported and enforced by the “ interdict.” The
mediæval Europe. How a monarchy, professedly interdict was to the legate instead of an army.
spiritual, should exercise temporal dominion, and The blow it dealt was more rapid , and the sub
especially how it should make its temporaldominion jugation it effected on those on whom it fell was
wextensive with Christendom , is not apparent at more complete, than any that could have been
first sight. Nevertheless , history attests the fact achieved by any number of armed men . When a
that it did so make it. monarch proved obdurate, the legate unsheathed
One main expedient by which the Papacy this sword against him . The clergy throughout
wielded temporal power and compassed political the length and breadth of his kingdom instantly
ends in other kingdoms was the office of “ legate- desisted from the celebration of the ordinances of
a-latere.” The term signifies an ambassador from religion. All the subjects were made partnerswith
the Pope's side. The legate -a -latere was, in fact, the sovereign in this ghostly but dreadful infliction .
the alter ego of the Pope, whose person he re- In an age when there was no salvation but through
presented , and with whose power he was clothed .
He was sent into all countries, not to mediate Sir James Melville informs us that the bloody war
but to govern ; his functions being analogous to which broke out between France and Spain in the reign
those of the deputies or rulers which the pagan of Henry II . was preceded by the Papal legate absolving
the King of France from all the oaths and treaties by
masters of the world were wont to send from which he had ratified the peace between the two kingdoms
Rome to govern the subject provinces of the but a little before. “ As legate,” said Caraffa, “ from
Empire. God's Vicar (Paul IV .] he would give him full absolu .
In the prosecution of his mission the tion , he having power to bind and loose.” (Memoirs of
legate-a Sir James Melvil, p. 38 ; Edin ., 1735.)
latere made it his first business in the particular » Details regarding the functions of the legate-a
country into which he entered to set up his court, latere, and the acts in which his powers were shown,
and to try causes and pronounce judgment in the will be found in Dupin , Biblioth., tom . viii., p . 56 ; also
tom . ix., pp . 220, 223 ; and tom . x ., p. 126. Fleury, Eccl.
Pope's name. Neither the authority of the Hist., tom . xviii., p. 225. Maimbourg, Hist. du Pontific. de
sovereign nor the law of the land was acknow S. Gregory le Grand ; also in Words of Peace and Justice,
ledged in the court of the legate ; all causes were & c., on the subject of “ Diplomatic Relations with the
Holy See,” by the Right Rev. Nicholas Wiseman , D .D .,
determined by the canon law of Rome. A vast Bishop of Melipotamus, Pro . V .A . L .D .; Lond., Charles
multitude of cases,and these by no means spiritual, Dolman, 1848.
the priesthood , and no grace but through the Another contrivance by which the Papacy ,while
ces
thierywhere visible throughen sitignmes ofofmamaleledidictctioion n ittheleftacttuoalpringovernthmee nt on con
channel of the Sacraments, the terrors of interdict it left to princes the name of king, took from them
were irresistible. All the signs of malediction the actual government of their kingdoms, was the
everywhere visible throughout the land on which concordat. These agreements or treaties between
this terrible chastisement had been laid , struck the Pope and the kings of Christendom varied in
the imagination with all the greater force that their minor details, but the leading provisions
they were viewed as the symbols of a doom which were alike in all of them , their key-note being
did not terminate on earth , but which extended the supremacy of Rome, and the subordination
into the other world. The interdict in those ages of the State with which that haughty power
LIÈGE.
never failed to gain its end, for the people,punished had deigned to enter into compact. The Concordat
for the fault, real or supposed , of their sovereign, bound the government with which it was made to
broke out into murmurs, sometimes into rebellion, enact no law , profess no religion, open no school,
and the unhappy prince found in the long run that and permit no branch of knowledge to be taught
he must either face insurrection or make his peace within its dominions, until the Pope had first given
with the Church . It was thus the shadow of his consent. Moreover, it bound it to keep open
power only which was left the king ; the substance the gates of the realm for the admission of such
of sovereignty filched from him was carried to legates, bishops, and nuncios as the Pope might be
Rome and vested in the chair of the Pope.! pleased to send thither for the purpose of adminis
- tering his spiritual authority, and to receive such
1 The interdict began to be employed in the ninth bulls and briefs as he might be pleased to pro
century ; the practice of missioning legates-a -latere dates - - - -
from the tenth ; both expedients were invented and
brought into use a little before the breaking out of that interdict and the legate materially contributed to the
great war between the Papacy and the Empire, which success which attended the Church in that conflict, and
was to decide the question which was the stronger. The which made the mitre triumphant over the Empire.
1ST
DILLUMINIO TERTRANMIASTRELAZIOLUMI
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TTTT MULIH T
TUTTET RITUA
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(From the portraitby Lucas Cranach,painted in 1543.)

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‫קפטיזר ו‬
MARTIN LUTHER.
THERECENSERASPBERRED
71
11
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mulgate , which were to have the force of law in the canon law of Rome. The “ chapter " was but
the country whose rights and privileges these another term for the court by which the bishop
missives very possibly invaded , or altogether set exercised that jurisdiction , and as it was a recog
aside. The advantages secured by the contracting nised doctrine that the jurisdiction of the bishop
parties on the other side were usually of the most was temporal as well as spiritual, the hierarchy
meagre kind, and were respected only so long as it formed in fact a magistracy, and a magistracy
was not for the interests of the Church of Rome to planted in the country by a foreign power, under
violate them . In short, the Concordat gave the an oath of obedience to the power that had ap
Pope the first place in the government of the pointed it — a 'magistracy independent of the sove.
kingdom , leaving to the sovereign and the Estates reign, and wielding a combined temporal and
of the Realm only the second. It bound down the spiritual jurisdiction over every person in the
prince in vassalage, and the people in serfdom realm , and governing him alike in his religious
political and religious. acts, in his political duties, and in his temporal
Another formidable instrumentality for com - possessions.
passing the same ends was the hierarchy. The Let us take the little kingdom of Sardinia as an
struggle commenced by Hildebrand , regarding in - illustration. On the 8th of January, 1855, a bill
vestitures, ended in giving to the Pope the power was introduced into the Parliament of Turin for
of appointing bishops throughout all the Empire . the suppression of convents and the more equal
This placed in the hands of the Pontiff the better distribution of Church lands. The habitable portion
half of the secular government of its kingdoms. of Sardinia is mostly comprised in the rich valley
The hierarchy formed a body powerful by their of the Po, and its population amounts only to
union, their intelligence , and the reverence which about four and a half millions. Yet it appeared
waited on their sacred office . Each member of that from the bill that in this small territory there were
body had taken a feudal oath of obedience to the seven archbishops, thirty-four bishops, forty-one
Pope. The bishop was no mere priest, he was a chapters, with eight hundred and sixty canons
ruler as well, being possessed of jurisdiction — that attached to the bishoprics; seventy-three simple
is, the power of law - the law he administered being chapters , with four hundred and seventy canons;
I Let us, by way of illustration , look at the Concordat eleven hundred livings for the canons ; and lastly,
four thousand two hundred and forty-seven parishes,
framed so recently as 1855 with Southern Germany, then
under the House of Austria . Besides the privileges with some thousandsof parish priests. The domains
specified above, that Concordat gave the bishops the sole of the Church represented a capital of four hundred
government of the priests ; they could punish them ac- millions of francs, yielding a yearly revenue of
cording to canon law , and the priest had no appeal from
the penal jurisdiction of the Church . If any one dared seventeen millions and upwards. Nor was even
to appeal to the civil tribunals , he was instantly smitten this the whole of the ecclesiastical burden borne by
with excommunication . Equally in the power of the the little State. To the secular clergy we have to
bishops were all schools and teachers, nor could one give add eight thousand five hundred and sixty-three
religious instruction in even the university without the
episcopal sanction . The bishops moreover had the in persons who wore cowls and veils. These were
dependent administration of all the lands and property distributed into six hundred and four religious
of the Church and of the religious houses. They were houses , whose annual cost was two millions and a
guaranteed in free communication with Rome, in the
independent exercise of their own discipline irrespective half of francs .
of the civil law , which amounted to the enforcement of There were thus from twelve to twenty thousand
canon law on all the subjects of the realm , in all cases in persons in Piedmont, all under oath , or under vows
which the bishops saw fit to apply it. And they were, in
equivalent to an oath , to obey only the orders that
fine, reinstated in their ancient penal jurisdiction . On
the principle Ex uno disce omnes, we are forced to the con
came from Rome. These held one-fourth
clusion that the bondage of mediæval Christendom was lands of the kingdom ; they were exempt fromof the
the
complete, and that that bondage was to a far greater
degree spiritual than temporal. It had its origin in the jurisdiction of the laws. They claimed the right
Roman Church ; it was on the conscience and intellect of dictating to all the subjects of the realm how to
that it pressed , and it gave its sanction to the temporal act in every matter in which duty was involved
fetters in which the men of those ages were held .
2 We quote one or two of the clauses of the oath :- “ I that is, in every matter absolutely — and they had
will be faithful and obedient to our lord the Pope and the power of compelling obedience by penalties of a
to his successors. . . . In preserving and defending
the Roman Papacy and the regalia of St. Peter, I will be peculiarly forcible kind. It is obvious at a glance
their assistant against all men . . . . Heretics , schis . that the actual government of the kingdom was in
matics, and rebels to our same lord, I will [pro posse per the hands of these men -- that is, of their master at
sequar et impugnabo ] persecute and attack to the utmost Rome.
ofmy power.” (Decretum Greg. IX., lib . ii., tit. 24.) Let us glance briefly at the other principalities
THE CONFESSIONAL AND MORTMAIN . 225
of the peninsula — the Levitical State, as Italy was sat unseen, digging, hour by hour and day after day,
wont to be called. We leave out of view the the mine beneath the prince he had marked out for
secular clergy with their gorgeous cathedrals, so ruin , while the latter never once suspected that his
rich in silver and gold , as well as in statuary and overthrow was being prepared till he was hurled
paintings ; nor do we include their ample Church from his seat. There was, moreover, the device
lands, and their numerous dues drawn from the of dispensations and indulgences. Never did mer
people. We confine ourselves to the ranks of the chant by the most daring venture, nor statesman
cloister. In 1863 a “ Project of Law ” was tabled by the most ingenious scheme of finance , succeed
in the Italian Chamber of Deputies for their sup- in amassing such store of wealth as Rome did
pression. From this “ Project” it appeared that simply by selling pardon. She sent the vendors of
there were in Italy eighty -four orders of monks, her wares into all countries, and as all felt that
distributed in two thousand three hundred and they needed forgiveness, all flocked to her market ;
eighty-two religious houses. Each of these eighty - and thus, “ as one gathereth eggs,” to employ the
four orders had numerous affiliated branches ra - language of the prophet, so did Rome gather the
diating over the country. All held property, save riches of all the earth . She took care, moreover,
the four Mendicant orders. The value of the con - that these riches should not “ take to themselves
ventual property was estimated at forty million wings and flee away.” She invented mortmain.
lire, and the number of persons made a grand total Not a penny of her accumulated hoards, not an
of sixty -three thousand two hundred and thirty- acre of her wide domains, did her “ dead hand ”
nine. This does not include the conventual esta- ever let go. Her property was beyond the reach
blishments of the Papal States, nor the religious of the law ; this crowned the evil. The estates of
houses of Piedmont, which had been suppressed the nobles could be dealt with by the civil tri
previous to 1863. If we take these into account, bunals, if so overgrown as to be dangerous to the
we cannot estimate the monastic corps of Italy at public good. But it was the fate of the ecclesi
less than a hundred thousand.” astical property ever to grow — and with it, of
Besides those we have enumerated there were a course , the pride and arrogancy of its owners — ang
host of instrumentalities all directed to the same however noxious the uses to which it was turned ,
end, the enforcement even of the government of however much it tended to impoverish the re
Rome,mainly in things temporal, in the dominions sources of the State, and undermine the industry
of other sovereigns. Chief among these was the of the nation, no remedy could be applied to the
Confessional. The Confessional was called “ the mischief. Century after century the evil continued
place of penitence ;" it was, in reality , a seat of and waxed stronger , till at length the Reformation
jurisdiction. It was a tribunal — the highest of all came and dissolved the spell by which Rome had
tribunals, because to the Papist the tribunal of God. succeeded in making her enormous possessions in
Its terrors as far transcended those of the human violable to the arm of the law ; covering them ,
judgment-seat, as the sword of eternal anathema as she did , with the sanctions of Heaven.
transcends the gallows of temporal governments. It Thus did Rome by these expedients, and others
afforded, moreover, unrivalled facilities for sowing which it were tedious here to enumerate, extend
sedition and organising rebellion. Here the priest her government over all the countries of Chris
tendom , alike in temporals as in spirituals. “ The
i Progetto di Legge relativo alla Soppressione di Corpora . Pope's jurisdiction,” said a Franciscan, “ is uni
sione Religiose e Disposizione sull'asse Ecclesiastico — Camera versal, einbracing the whole world , its temporalities
dei Deputati, Sess. 1863, No. 159. Relazione della Com
missione composta dei Deputati, & c., sul Progetto di Legge as well as its spiritualities." ; Rome did not set
presentato dal Ministro di Grazia e Giustizia e dei Culti up the chair of Peter bodily in these various coun
Sess. 1863, No. 159, A. Resoconto dell Aministrazione della tries, nor did she transfer to them the machinery
casa Ecclesiastica ; presentato dall Presidente dal Consiglio of the Papal government as it existed in her own
dei Ministri, Ministro dell Finanze - Sess. 1863, No. 215, A .
Progetto di Legge. Soppressione delle decime Eccles. - Sess. capital. It was not in the least necessary that she
1863, No. 158. should do so . She gained her end quite as effect
? Progetto di Legge relativo alla Soppressione di Corpo .
razione Religiose e Disposizione sull' asse Ecclesiastico ually by legates-a-latere, by Concordats, by bishops,
Camera dei Deputati, Sess. 1863, No. 159. Relazione della by bulls, by indulgences, and by a power that
Commissione composta dei Deputati, & c.,sul Progetto di Legge stood behind all the others and lent them its sanc
presentato dal Ministro di Grazia e Giustizia e dei Culti
Sess. 1863, No. 159, A. These and the above-quoted
documents were printed, but not published , and we owe 3 “ Jurisdictionem habet universalem in toto mundo
the use of them to the politeness of Sig. Malan, formerly papa, nedum in spiritualibus sed temporalibus.” (Al
member of the Italian Parliament. varus Pelagius, De Planctu Eccles., lib . i., cap. 13.)
tion and force— namely, the Infallibility - a fiction , nations than any known to the former, and she had,
no doubt, but to the Romanist a reality — a moral moreover, the art to imbue them with a spirit of
omnipotence, which he no more dared disobey than profounder submission than was ever yielded to
he dared disobey God, for to him it was God. The her · pagan predecessor ; and , as a consequence ,
Infallibility enabled the Pope to gather the whole while the Empire of the Cæsars preserved its unity
Romanist community dispersed over the world into unbroken , and its strength unimpaired , for only a
one army, which , obedient to its leader, could be brief space, that of the Popes has continued to
put in motion from its centre to its wide circum - flourish in power and great glory for well-nigh a
ference, as if it were one man, forming an array of thousand years.
political, spiritual, and material force, which had Such was the constitution of Christendom as
not its like on earth. fully developed at the end of the fifteenth and
Nor, when he entered the dominions of another beginning of the sixteenth century. The verdict
sovereign , did the Pontiff put down the throne, of Adam Smith , pronounced on Rome, viewed as
and rule himself in person . Neither was this in the head and mistress of this vast confederation,
the least necessary . He left the throne standing, expresses only the sober truth : “ The Church of
together with the whole machinery of the govern- Rome," said he, “ is the most formidable combina
ment - tribunals, institutions, the army - all as tion that ever was formed against the authority
aforetime, but he deprived them of all force , and and security of civil government, as well as against
converted them into the instrumentalities and the liberty, reason, and happiness of mankind."
channels of Papal rule. They were made outlying It is no mere scheme of ecclesiastical government
portions of the Pontifical monarchy. Thus did that is before us, having for its aim only to guide
Rome knit into one great federation the diverse the consciences of men in those matters that ap
nationalities and kingdoms of Western Europe. pertain to God, and the salvation of their souls.
One and the same character - namely , the theo. It is a so-called Superhuman Jurisdiction , a Divine
cratic — did she communicate to all of them . She Vicegerency, set up to govern men in their under
made all obedient to one will, and subservient standings and consciences, in their goods, their
to one grand scheme of policy. The ancient Rome liberties, and their lives. Against such a power
had exhibited a marvellous genius for welding the mere earthly force would have naught availed .
nations into one, and teaching them obedience to Reason and argument would have fought against
her behests ; but her proudest triumphs in this it in vain. Philosophy and literature , raillery and
field were eclipsed by the yet greater success of scepticism , would have shot their bolts to no pur
Papal Rome. The latter found a more power- pose. A Divine assailant only could overthrow it :
ful principle of cohesion wherewith to cement the that assailant was PROTESTANTISM .
Book Fifth
HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM IN GERMANY TO THE LEIPSIC DISPUTATION, 1519.
CHAPTER I.
LUTHER 'S BIRTH , CHILDHOOD, AND SCHOOL -DAYS.
Geological Eras - Providential Eras - Preparations for a New Age - Luther's Parents - Birth of Martin - Mansfeld
Sent to School at Magdeburg - School Discipline - Removes to Eisnach - Sings for Bread - Madame Cotta - Poverty
and Austerity of his Youth - Final Ends.
GEOLOGISTS tell us of the many revolutions, each earth was shrouded in thickest night and frozen
occupying its cycle of ages, through which the with intensest cold : and there were ages more in
globe passed before its preparation for man was which a blazing sun shed his light and heat upon
completed. There were ages during which the it. Periods passed in which the ocean slept in
PIONEERING AGENCIES. 227
stagnant calm , and periods succeeded in which occupies. Hitherto he had been confined to a
tempest convulsed the deep and thunder shook the portion of it only ; and on this little spot he had
heavens ; and in the midst of the elemental war, planted and built, he had turned its soil with
the dry land, upheaved by volcanic fires , might the plough, but oftener reddened it with the sword,
have been seen emerging above the ocean. · But unconscious the while that ampler and wealthier
alike in the tempest and in the calm nature worked realms around him were lying unpeopled and un
with ceaseless energy, and the world steadily ad - cultivated. But now magnificent continents and
vanced toward its state of order. At last it goodly islands rose out of the primeval night. It
reached it ; and then, beneath a tranquil sky, and seemed a second Creation. On all sides the world
upon an earth covered with a carpet of verdure , was expanding around man, and this sudden re
man, the tenant and sovereign of the world , velation of the vastness of that kingdom of which
stood up. he was lord, awoke in his bosom new desires, and
So was it when the world was being prepared speedily dispelled those gloomy apprehensions by
to become the abode of pure Churches and free which he had begun to be oppressed. He thought
nations. From the fall of the Western Empire to that Time's career was finished , and that the world
the eleventh century, there intervened a period of was descending into its sepulchre ; to his amaze
unexampled torpor and darkness. The human ment and joy he saw that the world 's youth was
mind seemed to have sunk into senility . Society come only now , and that man was as yet but at
seemed to have lost the vital principle of progress. the beginning of his destiny. He panted to enter
Men looked back to former ages with a feeling of on the new career opening before him .
despair. They recalled the varied and brilliant Compared with his condition in the eleventh
achievements of the early time, and sighed to think century, when man was groping in the thick night,
that the world's better days were past, that old and the rising breath of the crusades was just
age had come upon the race, and that the end of beginning to stir the lethargy of ages , it must have
all things was at hand. Indeed a belief was seemed to him as if he had already seen the full
generally entertained that the year One thousand opening of the day. But the true light had not yet
would usher in the Day of Judgment. It was a risen, if we except a feeble dawn , in the skies of
mistake. The world 's best days were yet to come, England and Bohemia , where gathering clouds
though these - its true golden age — it could reach threatened to extinguish it. Philosophy and poetry,
not otherwise than through terrible political and even when to these are added ancient learning and
moral tempests. modern discoveries, could not make it day. If
The hurricane of the crusades it was that first something better had not succeeded, the awakening
broke the ice of the world's long winter. The of the sixteenth century would have been but as a
frozen bands of Orion being loosed , the sweet in - watch in the night. The world , after those merely
fluences of the Pleiades began to act on society . terrestrial forces had spent themselves, would have
Commerce and art, poetry and philosophy appeared , fallen back into its tomb. It was necessary that
and like early flowers announced the coming of God's own breath should vivify it, if it was to con
spring. That philosophy, it is true, was not of tinue to live. The logic of the schools, the perfume
much intrinsic value, but, like the sports of child of letters , the galvanic forces of art could not make
hood which develop the limbs and strengthen the of the corpse a living man. As with man at first,
faculties of the future man , the speculations of the so with society, God must breathe into it in order
Middle Ages, wherewith the young mind of Europe that it might become a living soul. The Bible, so
exercised itself, paved the way for the achievements long buried , was resuscitated , was translated into
of its manhood. the various tongues of Europe, and thus the breath
By-and-by came the printing - press, truly a of God was again moving over society . The light
Divine gift ; and scarcely had the art of printing of heaven , after its long and disastrous eclipse,
been perfected when Constantinople fell, the tomb broke anew upon the world.
of ancient literature was burst open, and the Three great princes occupied the three leading
treasures of the ancient world were scattered over thrones of Europe. To these we may add the
the West. From these seeds were to spring not potentate of the Vatican, in some points the least,
the old thoughts, but new ones of greater power but in others the greatest of the four. The con
and beauty. Next came the mariner's compass, Aicting interests and passions of these four men
and with the mariner's compass came a new world , preserved a sort of balance , and restrained the
or, what is the same thing, the discovery by man tempests of war from ravaging Christendom . The
of the large and goodly dimensions of the world he long and bloody conflicts which had devastated
Germany were ended as the fifteenth century drew First of the father. His name was John John
to its close. The sword rested meanwhile in Luther. His family was an old one,' and had dwelt
Europe. As in the Roman world the wars of in these parts a long while. The patrimonial in
centuries were concluded , and the doors of the heritance was gone, and without estate or title, rich
temple of Janus were shut, when a great birth was only in the superior qualities of his mind, John
to take place, and a new era to open, so was it Luther earned his daily bread by his daily labour.
!
LED
TILTILL
VIEW OF EISNACH .
once again at the beginning of the sixteenth There is more of dignity in honest labour than in
century. Protestantism was about to step upon titled idleness.
the stage, and to proclaim the good news of the This man married a daughter of one of the
recovery of the long-lost Gospel ; and on all villagers of Neustadt, Margaret Lindemann by
sides, from the Carpathians to the Atlantic, there name. At the period of their marriage they lived
was comparative quiet, that the nations might be near Eisnach, a romantic town at the foot of the
able to listen to the blessed tidings. It was now
that Luther was born . 1 Melancthon , Vita Mart. Luth., p.4 ; Vratislaviæ , 1819.
BIRTH OF LUTHER. 229
Wartburg, with the glades of the Thuringian forest was a peasant by birth , as we have said , but she
around it. Soon after their marriage they left was truly pious, and piety lends a grace to humble
Eisnach , and went to live at Eisleben, a town nearstation which is often wanting in lofty rank. The
by, belonging to the Counts of Mansfeld. fear of God gives a refinement to the sentiments,
They were a worthy pair, and , though in humble and a delicacy and grace to the manners, more
condition , greatly respected. John Luther, the fascinating by far than any conventional ease or
father of the Reformer , was a fearer of God, very airs which a coronet can bestow . The purity of
upright in his dealings and very diligent in his the soul shining through the face lends it beauty,
business. He was marked by his good sense, his even as the lamp transmits its radiance through
manly bearing, and the firmness with which he the alabaster vase and enhances its symmetry.
held by his opinions. What was rare in that age, Margaret Lindemann was looked up to by all her
JOHN LUTHER TAKING HIS SON TO SCHOOL.
he was a lover of books. Books then were scarce , neighbours, who regarded her as a pattern to be
and consequently dear, and John Luther had not followed for her good sense, her household economy,
much money to spend on their purchase, nor much and her virtue. To this worthy couple, both much
time to read those he was able to buy. Still the given to prayer, there was born a son , on the 10th
miner - for he was a miner by trade- managed to of November, 1483. He was their first-born , and
get a few , which he read at meal-times, or in the as the 10th of November is St. Martin 's Eve, they
calm German evenings, after his return from his called their son Martin . Thus was ushered into
work . the world the future Reformer.
Margaret Lindemann , the mother of Luther, was When a prince is born , bells are rung, cannons
& woman of superior mind and character.” She are discharged, and a nation 's congratulations are
3 Melancthon , Vita Mart. Luth., p . 5. Seckendorf,

Melancthon , Vita Mart. Luth., p. 5. Ibid . Hist. Lutheran., lib. i., sec. 7, p. 17 ; Lipsim , 1694.
20
carried to the foot of the throne. What rejoicings and was able to gratify his taste for knowledge
and splendours around the cradle where lies the by entertaining at times the more learned among
heir of some great empire ! When Godersends s the clergy of his neighbourhood , and the conver
emoniehis
whencceremonies.
heroes into the world there arestanoge such . sation that passed had doubtless its influence upon
They step quietly upon the stage where they are the mind of a boy of so quick parts as the young
to icact great parts
h their
h tthey
wwhich e great parts. Like that kingdom of Martin .
h are the heralds and champions, their The child grew , and might now be seen playing
coming is not with observation. Let us visit the with the other children of Mansfeld on the banks
cottage of John Luther, of Eisleben, on the even- of the Wipper. His home was happier than it
ing of November 10th , 1483 ; there slumbers the had been, his health was good, his spirits buoyant,
miner's first-born . The miner and his wife are and his clear joyous voice rung out above those of
proud of their babe, no doubt ; but the child is just his playmates. But there was a cross in his lot
like other German children ; there is no indication even then. It was a stern age. John Luther,
about it of the wondrous future that awaits the with all his excellence , was a somewhat austere
child that has come into existence in this lowly man. As a father he was a strict disciplinarian ;
household . When he grows up he will toil doubt no fault of the son went unpunished, and not un
less with his father as a miner. Had the Pope frequently was the chastisement in excess of the
(Sextus V . was then reigning) looked in upon the fault. This severity was not wise. A nature less
child , and marked how lowly was the cot in which elastic than Luther's would have sunk under it
he lay, and how entirely absent were all signs of into sullenness, or it may be hardened into wicked
worldly power and wealth, he would have asked ness . But what the father on earth did for his
with disdain , “ Can any harm to the Popedom come own pleasure, or from a mistaken sense of duty,
of this child ? Can any danger to the chair of the Father in heaven overruled for the lasting
Peter, that seat more august than the throne of good of the future Reformer. It is good for a man
kings, lurk in this poor dwelling ?" Or if the to bear the yoke in his youth , for it is in youth ,
emperor had chanced to pass that way, and had sometimes even in childhood, that the great turn
learned that there was born a son to John Luther, ing-points of life occur. Luther's nature was one
the miner, “ Well, what of that ?" he would have of strong impulses ; these forces'were all needed in
asked ; “ there is one child more in Germany, that his future work ; but, had they not been disci
is all. He may one day be a soldier in my plined and brought under control, they might have
ranks, who knows, and help to fight my battles.” made him rash , impetuous, and headlong ; there
How greatly would these potentates, looking only fore he was betimes taught to submit to the curb.
at things seen, and believing only in material His nature, moreover, rich in the finest sensi
forces, have miscalculated ! The miner's child was bilities, might, but for this discipline, have become
to become mightier than Pope, mightier than self-indulgent. Turning away from the harder
emperor. One Luther was stronger than all the tasks of life, Luther might have laid himself out
cardinals of Rome, than all the legions of the only to enjoy the good within his reach , had not the
Empire. His voice was to shake the Popedom , and hardships and severities of his youth attempered
his strong hands were to pull down its pillars that his character, and imported into it that element of
a new edifice might be erected in its room . Again hardness which was necessary for the greater trials
it might be said , as at the birth of a yet greater before him .
Child , “ He hath scattered the proud in the imagi. Besides the examples of piety which he daily
nation of their hearts. He hath put down the beheld , Luther received a little rudimental in
mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low struction under the domestic roof. But by-and-by
degree ." he was sent to school at Mansfeld . He was yet
When Martin was six months old his parents re- a “ little one,” to use Melancthon's phrase ; so
moved to Mansfeld . At that time the portion of young, indeed, that his father sometimes carried
this world 's goods which his father possessed was him to school on his shoulders. The thought that
small indeed ; but the mines of Mansfeld were lucra- his son would one day be a scholar, cheered John
tive, John Luther was industrious, and by-and-by Luther in his labous ; and the hope was strength
his business began to thrive, and his table was better ened by the strong memory, the sound understand
spread. He was now the owner of two furnaces ; ing, and the power of application which the young
he became in time a member of the Town Council, Luther already displayed.
1 Melancthon, Vita Mart. Luth., p.5 . - Melancthon , Vita Mart. Luth ., p. 6.

THE TRAINING OF THE FUTURE REFORMER. 231
At the age of fourteen years (1497) Martin was had heard the harsh words with which he had been
sent to the Franciscan school at Magdeburg. At driven away from other doors. Taking pity, she
school the hardships and privations amid which his took him in , and made him sit down at her board ;
childhood had been passed not only attended him and not only did she appease his hunger for the
but increased. His master often flogged him ; for time, but her husband , won by the open face and
it was a maxim of those days that nothing could sweet disposition of the boy, made him come and
be learned without a free use of the rod ; and we live with them .
can imagine that the buoyant or boisterous nature Luther had now a home ; he could eat without
of the boy often led him into transgressions of the begging or singing for his bread. He had found a
rules of school etiquette. Hementions having one father and mother in this worthy pair. His heart
day been flogged fifteen times. What added to his opened ; his young genius grew livelier and lovelier
hardships was the custom then universal in the every day. Penury, like the chill of winter, had
German towns, and continued till a recent date, if threatened to blight his powers in the bud ; but
even now wholly abandoned, of the scholars beg- this kindness, like the sun , with genial warmth ,
ging their bread , in addition to the task of conning awakened them into new vigour. He gave himself
their lessons. They went, in small companies, to study with fresh ardour ; tasks difficult before
singing from door to door, and receiving whatever became easy now . If his voice was less frequently
alms the good burghers were pleased to give them . heard in the streets, it cheered the dwelling of his
At times it would happen that they received more adopted parents. Madame Cotta was fond of
blows, or at least more rebuffs, than alms. music, and in what way could the young scholar
The instruction was gratis, but the young scholar so well repay her kindness as by cultivating his
had not bread to eat, and though the means of his talent for singing, and exercising it for the delight
father were ampler than before , all were needed for of this “ good Shunammite ?" Luther passed, after
the support of his family, now numerous ; and after this, nearly two years at Eisnach, equally happy at
a year Luther was withdrawn from Magdeburg and school in the study of Latin , rhetoric, and verse
sent to a school in Eisnach, where having relatives, making, and at home where his hours of leisure
he would have less difficulty , it was thought, in were filled up with song, in which he not unfre
supporting himself. These hopes were not realised, quently accompanied himself on the lute. He
because perhaps his relations were poor. The never, all his after-life, forgot either Eisnach or
young scholar had still to earn his meals by singing the good Madame Cotta . He was accustomed to
in the streets. One day Luther was perambulating speak of the former as “ his own beautiful town,”
Eisnach , stopping before its likeliest dwellings, and and with reference to the latter he would say,
striving with a brief hymn to woo the inmates to “ There is nothing kinder than a good woman's
kindness. He was sore pressed with hunger, but heart.” The incident helped also to strengthen his
no door opened, and no hand was extended to him . trust in God . When greater perils threatened in
He was greatly downcast ; he stood musing within his future career, when man stood aloof, and he
himself what should become of him . Alas ! he could descry no deliverance near, he remembered
could not endure these hardships much longer ; be his agony in the streets of Eisnach , and how visibly
must abandon his studies ; he must return home, God had come to his help .
and work with his father in the mines. It was at We cannot but mark the wisdom of God in the
that moment that Providence opened for him a
training of the future Reformer. By nature he was
home. loving and trustful, with a heart ever yearning for
As he stood absorbed in these melancholy human sympathy, and a mind ever planning largely
thoughts, a door near him was opened , and a voice for the happiness of others. But this was not
bade him come in . He turned to see who it was enough. These qualities must be attempered by
that spoke to him . It was Ursula, the wife of others, which should enable him to confront oppo
Conrad Cotta , a man of consideration among the sition, endure reproach, despise ease, and brave peril.
burghers of Eisnach. Ursula Cotta had marked The first without the last would have issued in mere
the young scholar before . He was accustomed to benevolent schemings, and Luther would have died
sing in the church choir on Sundays. She had sighing over the stupidity or malignity of those who
been struck with the sweetness of his voice. She had thwarted his philanthropic projects. He would
have abandoned his plans on the first appearance of
" Melancthon , Vita Mart. Luth., p. 6. opposition , and said , “ Well, if the world won't be
? Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran., lib . i., sec. 8, p. 20 ; reformed, I shall let it alone.” Luther ,on the other
Lipsiæ , 1694. hand, reckoned on meeting this opposition ; he was
trained to endure and bear with it, and in his early lashing rain , and the pelting hail, and the stormy
life we see the hardening and the expanding process gust, are spread on the bare rock a few twigs.
going on by turns. And so is it with all whom These are the nest of that bird which is to spend
God selects for rendering great services to the its after-life in soaring among the clouds, battling
Church or to the world . He sends them to a hard with the winds, and gazing upon the sun .
school, and he keeps them in it till their education Luther was to spend his life in conflict with
is complete. Let us mark the eagle and the bird emperors and Popes, and the powers of temporal
of song, how dissimilar their rearing. The one and spiritual despotism ; therefore his cradle was
is to spend its life in the groves, flitting from bough placed in a miner's cot,and his childhood and youth
to bough,and enlivening the woods with its melody were passed amid hardship and peril. It was thus
Look what a warm nest it lies in ; the thick he came to know that man lives not to enjoy,
branches cover it, and its dam sits brooding over but to achieve ; and that to achieve anything great,
it. How differently is the eaglet nursed ! On he must sacrifice self, turn away from man, and
yonder ledge, amid the naked crags, open to the lean only on God .
CHAPTER II.
LUTHER'S COLLEGE LIFE.
Erfurt - City and University - Studies - Aquinas, & c. - Cicero and Virgil - A Bible - Bachelor of Arts - Doctor of
Philosophy - Illness - Conscience awakens - Visits his Parents - Thunderstorm - His Vow - Farewell Supper to
his Friends - Enters a Monastery.
IN 1501 Luther entered the University of Erfurt. the verdict of the ages pronounced , although the
He had now attained the age of eighteen years. time was now near when that verdict would be re
This seat of learning had been founded about a versed , and the darkness of oblivion would quench
century before ; it owed its rise to the patronage those lights placed , as was supposed , eternally in
of the princely houses of Brunswick and Saxony, the firmament for the guidance of mankind.
and it had already become one of the more famous The young man threw himself with avidity upon
schools of Central Europe. Erfurt is an ancient this branch of study. It was an attempt to gather
town. Journeying from Eisnach eastward , along grapes of thorns and figs of thistles ; yet Luther
the Thuringian plain , it makes an imposing show profited by the effort,for the Aristotelian philosophy
as its steeples, cathedral towers , and ramparts rise had some redeeming virtues. It was radically
before the eye of the traveller. Thirsting for hostile to the true method of acquiring knowledge ,
knowledge, the young scholar came hither to drink afterwards laid open by Bacon ; yet it tried the
his fill. His father wished him to study law , not strength of the faculties , and the discipline to
doubting that with his great talents he would which it subjected them was beneficial in propor
speedily achieve eminence, and fill some post of tion as it was stringent. Not only did it minister
emolument and dignity in the civic administration to the ripening of the logical understanding, it
of his country. In this hope John Luther toiled gave an agility of mind, a keenness of discrimina
harder than ever, that he might support his son tion, a dialectic skill, and a nicety of fence which
more liberally than heretofore. were of the greatest value in the discussion of
At Erfurt new studies engaged the attention of subtle questions. In these studies Luther forged
Luther. The scholastic philosophy was still in the weapon which he was to wield with such terrible
great repute. Aristotle, and the humbler but still effect in the combats of his after -life.
mighty names of Aquinas, Duns, Occam , and others, Two years of his university course were now
were the great sovereigns of the schools. So had run. From the thorny yet profitable paths of the
-- - - - - - - *** - -- - - - scholastics, he would turn aside at times to regale
i Melancthon , Vita Mart. Luth ., p. 7 ; Vratislaviæ , 1819. himself in the greener and richer fields opened to
Ibid ., p. 11. him in the orations of Cicero and the lays of Virgil.
LUTHER'S DISTINGUISHED SUCCESS AT COLLEGE. 233
What he most studied to master was not the words never to cease till they issued not merely in a new
but the thinking of the ancients ; it was their man , but a new age- a new Europe. Out of the
wisdom which he wished to garner up. His pro- Bible at Oxford came the first dawn of the Refor
gress was great; he became par excellence the scholar mation : out of this old Bible at Erfurt came its
of Erfurt. second morning.
It was now that an event occurred that changed It was the year 1503. Luther now took his
the whole future life of the young student. Fond first academic degree. But his Bachelorship in Arts
of books, like his father, hewent day by day to the had nearly cost him his life. So close had been his
library of the university and spent some hours amid application to study that he was seized with a
its treasures. He was now twenty years of age, and dangerous illness, and for some time lay at the
he revelled in the riches around him . One day, as point of death. Among others who came to see
he took down the books from their shelves, and him was an old priest, who seems to have had a
opened them one after another , he came to a volume presentiment of Luther 's future distinction. “ My
unlike all the others. Taking it from its place, he bachelor,” said he, “ take heart, you shall not die
opened it, and to his surprise found that it was a of this sickness ; God will make you one who
Bible — the Vulgate , or Latin translation of the will comfort many others ; on those whom he loves
Holy Scriptures, by Jerome. he lays the holy cross, and they who bear it
The Bible he had never seen till now . His joy patiently learn wisdom .” Luther heard , in the
was great. There are certain portions which the words of the aged priest, God calling him back
Church prescribes to be read in public on Sundays from the grave. He recovered, as had been fore
and saints' days, and Luther imagined that these told , and from that hour he carried within him an
were the whole Bible. His surprise was great impression that for some special purpose had his
when , on opening the volume, he found in it life been prolonged ."
whole books and epistles of which he had never After an interval of two years he becameMaster
before heard. He began to read with the feel- of Arts or Doctor of Philosophy. The laureation
ings of one to whom the heavens have been of the first scholar at Erfurt University , then the
opened . The part of the book which he read was most renowned in Germany, was no unimportant
the story of Samuel, dedicated to the Lord from event, and it was celebrated by a torch-light pro
his childhood by his mother, growing up in the cession. Luther saw thathe already held no mean
Temple, and becoming the witness of the wicked- place in the public estimation, and might aspire to
ness of Eli's sons, the priests of the Lord , who the highest honours of the State . As the readiest
made the people to transgress , and to abhor the road to these, he devoted himself, in conformity
offering of the Lord. In all this Luther could with his father 's wishes, to the bar, and began to
fancy that he saw no very indistinct image of his give public lectures on the physics and ethics of
own times. Aristotle. The old book seems in danger of being
Day after day Luther returned to the library , forgotten , and the Reformer of Christendom of
took down the old book , devoured someGospel of being lost in the wealthy lawyer or the learned
the New or story of the Old Testament, rejoicing judge.
as one that finds great store of spoil, gazing upon But God visited and tried him . Two incidents
its page as Columbus may be supposed to have that now befell him brought back those feelings
gazed on the plains and mountains of the New and convictions of sin which were beginning to be
World , when the mists of ocean opened and un - effaced amid the excitements of his laureation and
veiled it to him . Meanwhile , a change was passing the fascinations of Aristotle. Again he stood as it
upon Luther by the reading of that book. Other were on the brink of the eternal world . One
books had developed and strengthened his faculties, morning he was told that his friend Alexius had
this book was awakening new powers within him . been overtaken by a sudden and violent death .
The old Luther was passing away, another Luther The intelligence stunned Luther. His companion
was coming in his place. From that moment began had fallen as it were by his side. Conscience,
those struggles in his soul which were destined first quickened by the old Bible, again awoke.
Melancthon , Vita Mart. Luth ., p. 7. 4 D ’Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., pp. 157, 158.
2 " His genius,” says Melancthon , “ became the ad 5 Melancthon , Vita Mart. Luth ., p . 8.
miration of the whole college " (toti Academiæ Lutheri 6 Some say Alexius was killed by lightning, others that
ingenium admiratio esset). - Vita Mart. Luth ., p. 7. he fell in a duel. Melancthon says “ he knows not how
D 'Aubigné, Hist, Reform ., vol. i., p. 156 ; Edin ., 1846 . Luther's friend cameby his death .” (Vita Mart. Luth ., p . 9.)
Soon after this, he paid a visit to his parents at The vow must be fulfilled . To serve God was to
Mansfeld . He was returning to Erfurt, and was wear a monk 's hood — so did the age understand it,
now near the city gate ,when suddenly black clouds and so too did Luther. To one so fitted to enjoy
gathered overhead, and it began to thunder and the delights of friendship , so able to win the
lighten in an awful manner. A bolt fell at his honours of life — nay, with these honours all but
feet. Some accounts say that he was thrown down. already grasped — a terrible wrench it must be to
The Great Judge, he thought, had descended in this tear himself from the world and enter a monastery
cloud, and he lay momentarily expecting death. ~ a living grave. But his vow was irrevocable.
STUDIE
LUTHER SINGING IN THE STREETS OF EISNACH .
The greater the sacrifice , the more the merit. He

must pacify his conscience ; and as yet he knew
not of the more excellent way.
Oncemore he will see his friends, and then
He prepares a frugal supper ; he calls together his
acquaintances ; he regales them with music ; he
converses with apparent gaiety. And now the
feast is at an end, and the party has broken up.
Luther walks straight to the Augustinian Convent,
In his terror he vowed that should God spare him on the 17th of August, 1505. He knocks at the
he would devote his life to His service. The light gate ; the door is opened , and he enters.
nings ceased , the thunders rolled past, and Luther, To Luther, groaning under sin , and seeking de
rising from the ground and pursuing his journey liverance by the works of the law , that monastery
with solemn steps, soon entered the gates of so quiet, so holy, so near to heaven, as he thought
Erfurt. - seemed a very Paradise. Soon as he had crossed
its threshold the world would be shut out; sin ,too ,
1 Melancthon , Vita Mart. Luth ., p. 9, foot-note. would be shut out ; and that sore trouble of soul
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which he was enduring would be at an end. At There is a city of refuge to which the sinner may
this closed door the “ Avenger ” would be stayed. flee when death and hell are on his track , but it is
So thought Luther as he crossed its threshold . not that into which Luther had now entered .
CHAPTER III.
LUTHER'S LIFE IN THE CONVENT.
Astonishment of his Townsmen - Anger of his Father - Luther's Hopes - Drudgery of the Convent - Begs by Day
Studies by Night - Reads Augustine - Studies the Bible - His Agony of Soul - Needful Lessons.
When his friends and townsmen learned on the John Luther 's reply , “ lest you have been imposed
morrow that Luther had taken the cowl, they were upon by an illusion of the devil.”
struck with stupefaction . That one with such an On entering the convent Luther changed his
affluence of all the finer intellectual and social name to Augustine. But in the convent life he
qualities, and to whom his townsmen had already did not find that rest and peace to enjoy which
assigned the highest post that genius can fill, he had fled thither. He was still seeking life,
should become a monk , seemed a national loss. not from Christ, but from monastic holiness , and
His friends, and many members of the university, had he found rest in the convent he would have
assembled at the gates of the monastery, and waited missed the eternal rest. It was not long till he
there two whole days, in the hope of seeing Luther, was made to feel that he had carried his great
and persuading him to retrace the foolish step burden with him into the monastery , that the ap
which a fit of caprice or a moment's enthusiasm prehensions of wrath which haunted him in the
had led him to take. The gate remained closed ; world had followed him hither ; that, in fact, the
Luther came not forth , though the wishes and convent bars had shut him in with them ; for here
entreaties of his friends were not unknown to him . his conscience began to thunder more loudly than
What to him were all the rewards of genius, ever, and his inward torments grew every day more
all the high posts which the world could offer ? insupportable. Whither shall Luther now flee ? He
The one thing with him was how he might save knows no holier place on earth than the cell, and
his soul. Till a month had elapsed Luther saw if not here, where shall he find a shadow from this
no one. great heat,a rock of shelter from this terrible blast !
When the tidings reached Mansfeld , the sur- God was preparing him for being the Reformer of
prise, disappointment, and rage of Luther's father Christendom , and the first lesson it was needful to
were great. He had toiled night and day to be teach him was what a heavy burden is unpardoned
able to educate his son ; he had seen him win one guilt, and what a terrible tormentor is an awakened
academical honour after another ; already in imagi- conscience, and how impossible it is to find relief
nation he saw him discharging the highest duties from these by works of self-righteousness. From
and wearing the highest dignities of the State. In this same burden Luther was to be the instru
a moment all these hopes had been swept away ; ment of delivering Christendom , and he himself,
all had ended in a monk 's hood and cowl. John first of all, must be made to feel how awful is its
Luther declared that nothing of his should his son weight.
ever inherit, and according to some accounts he set But let us see what sort of life it is that Luther
out to Erfurt, and obtaining an interview with his leads in the monastery of the Augustines : a very
son at the convent gate , asked him sharply , “ How different life indeed from that which he had led in
can a son do right in disobeying the counsel of his the university !
parents ?." The monks, ignorant, lazy, and fond only of good
On an after-occasion, when telling his father of cheer, were incapable of appreciating the character
the impression made upon his mind by the thunder- or sympathising with the tastes of their new
storm , and that it was as if a voice from heaven
had called him to be a monk , “ Take care,” was Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran., p. 19 ; Lipsiæ , 1694.
LUTHER'S EXPERIENCE IN THE CONVENT. 237
brother. That one of the most distinguished scholastic theologians, Gerson and Occam ,whom we
doctors of the university should enroll himself in have already mentioned as opponents of the Pope's
their fraternity was indeed an honour ; but did not temporal power, were the writers to whom he most
: his fame throw themselves into the shade ? Besides, frequently turned .?
what good would his studies do their monastery ? But though he set great store on Augustine, there
They would replenish neither its wine cellar nor its was another book which he prized yet more. This
larder. His brethren found a spiteful pleasure in was God's own Word, a copy of which he lighted
putting upon him the meanest offices of the esta - on in themonastery. Oh ! how welcome to Luther,
blishment. Luther unrepiningly complied . The in this dry and parched land, this well of water,
brilliant scholar of the university had to perform whereat he that drinketh, as said the great Teacher,
the duties of porter, “ to open and shut the gates , “ shall never thirst.” This Bible he could not take
to wind up the clock , to sweep the church , and to with him to his cell and there read and study it,
clean out the cells." 1 Nor was that the worst ; for itwas chained in the chapel of the convent ; but
when these tasks were finished, instead of being he could and did go to it, and sometimes he spent
permitted to retire to his studies, “ Come, come !" whole days in meditation upon a single verse or
would the monks say, “ saccum per nackum - get word. It was now that he betook him to the study
ready your wallet : away through the town, and of the original tongues, that being able to read the
get us something to eat.” The book had to be Scriptures in the languages in which they were
thrown aside for the bag. “ It is not by studying," at first written, he might see deeper into their
would the friars say, “ but by begging bread , corn , meaning. Reuchlin 's Hebrew Lexicon had recently
eggs, fish , meat and money, that a monk renders appeared, and with this and other helps he made
himself useful to the cloister.” Luther could not rapid progress in the knowledge of the Hebrew and
but feel the harshness and humiliation of this : the Greek . In the ardour of this pursuit he would
pain must have been exquisite in proportion as his forget for weeks together to repeat the daily prayers.
intellect was cultivated , and his tastes refined. His conscience would smite him for transgressing
But having become a monk, he resolved to go the rules of his order, and he would neither eat nor
through with it, for how otherwise could he acquire sleep till the omitted services had been performed ,
the humility and sanctity he had assumed the and all arrears discharged. It once happened that
habit to learn , and by which he was to earn peace for seven weeks he scarcely closed his eyes."
now , and life hereafter ? No, he must not draw The communicative and jovial student was now
back , or shirk either the labour or the shame of changed into the taciturn solitary. The person as
holy monkhood. Accordingly , traversing the streets, well as the manners of Luther had undergone a
wallet on back — the same through which he had transformation. What with the drudgery of the
strode so often as an honoured doctor — or knocking day, the studies of the night, the meagre meals he
at the door of some former acquaintance or friend, allowed himself — " a little bread and a small
and begging an alms,might now be seen the monk herring were often his only food " 5 — the fasts and
Augustine. macerations he practised , he was more like a corpse
In this kind of drudgery was the day passed. than a living man . The fire within was still con --
At night, when the other monks were drowned in suming him . He fell sometimes on the floor of his.
sleep, or in the good things which brother Martin cell in sheer weakness. “ One morning, the door
had assisted in begging for them , and when he too, of his cell not being opened as usual, the brethren
worn out with his many tasks, ought to have laid became alarmed . They knocked : there was no,
himself down to rest, instead of seeking his couch reply . The door was burst in ,and poor Fra Martin
he trimmed his lamp, and opening the patristic and was found stretched on the ground in a state of
scholastic divines, he continued reading them till ecstacy, scarcely breathing, well-nigh dead. A
far into the night. St. Augustine was his especial monk took his flute; and gently playing upon it
favourite. In the writings of the Bishop of Hippo one of the airs that Luther loved, brought him
there is more of God's free grace , in contrast with gradually back to himself.”O The likelihood at that
the deep corruption of man , to himself incurable ,
than in any other of the Fathers ; and Luther was ? Melancthon, Vita Mart. Luth ., p . 11.
beginning to feel that the doctrines of Augustine 3 Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran ., p. 19 .
had their echo in his own experience. Among the 4 D 'Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., p . 168. Melancthon ,
Vita Mart. Luth ., p . 8 . Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran., p . 21.
5 " Exiguo pane et halece contentum esse." (Melanc
1 Adam , Vita Luth., p. 103. Şeckendorf, Hist. Lutheran., thon , Vita Mart. Luth., p. 8.)
p . 21. D 'Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., p . 165 . Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran., p. 21.
mym nt was that instead of living to do battle those fierce tempests that were raging in his soul ;
with the Pope, and pull down the pillars of his his tears watering the stony floor, and his bitter
kingdom , a quiet grave, somewhere in the precincts cries and deep groans echoing through the long
of the monastery, would ere long be the only galleries of the convent, a mystery and a terror to
memorial remaining to testify that such a one as the other monks. He tried to disburden his soul
Martin Luther had ever existed. to his confessor, an aged monk. He had had no
It was indeed a bitter cup that Luther was now experience of such a case before ; it was beyond his
drinking, but it could by no means pass from him . skill ; the wound was too deep for him to heal.
He must drink yet deeper , he must drain it to “ • Save me in thy righteousness ' — what does
its dregs. Those works which he did in such that mean ?” asked Luther. “ I can see how God
bondage of spirit were the price with which he can condemn me in his righteousness , but how can
thought to buy pardon. The poor monk came he save me in his righteousness ?” But that
again and again with this goodly sum to the door question his father confessor could not answer.
of heaven , only to find it closed. Was it not It was well that Luther neither despaired nor
enough ? “ I shall make it more,” thought Luther. abandoned the pursuit as hopeless. He persevered
He goes back , resumes his sweat of soul, and in a in reading Augustine, and yet more in studying
little returns with a richer price in his hand. He the chained Bible ; and it cannot be but that some
is again rejected. Alas, the poor monk ! What rays must have broken in through his darkness.
shall he do ? He can think but of longer fasts , of Why was it that he could not obtain peace ? This
severer penances, of more numerous prayers. He question he could not but put to himself — “ What
returns a third time. Surely he will now be ad - rule of my order have I neglected — or if in aught
mitted ? Alas, no ! the sum is yet too small ; the I have come short, have not penance and tears
door is still shut ; justice demands a still larger wiped out the fault ? And yet my conscience tells
price. He returns again and again , and always me that my sin is not pardoned. Why is this ?
with a bigger sum in his hand ; but the door is not Are these rules after all only the empirical devices
opened. God is teaching him that heaven is not of man ? Is there no holiness in those works
to be bought by any sum , however great : that which I am toiling to perform , and those mortifica
eternal life is the free gift ofGod . “ I was indeed tions to which I am submitting ? Is it a change
a pious monk," wrote he to DukeGeorge of Saxony, of garment only or a change of heart that I need ?"
at a future period of his life , “ and followed the Into this train the monk 's thoughts could scarce
rules of my order more strictly than I can express. avoid falling. . And meanwhile he persevered in
If ever monk could obtain heaven by his monkish the use of those means which have the promise
works, I should certainly have been entitled to it. connected with them — “ Seek, and ye shall find ;
Of this all the friars 'who have known me can knock , and it shall be opened unto you.” “ If thou
testify . ' If I had continued much longer I should criest after wisdom , if thou liftest up thy voice for
have carried my mortifications even to death, by understanding, then shalt thou find the fear of the
means of my watchings, prayers, readings, and other Lord, and understand the knowledge of thy God."
labours." 1 It is not Luther alone whose cries we hear.
But the hour was not yet come when Luther Christendom is groaning in Luther, and travailing
was to enjoy peace. Christ and the redemption in pain to be delivered. The cry of those many
He had wrought were not yet revealed to him , captives , in all the lands of Christendom , lying in
and till these had been made known Luther was fetters , goes up in the cry of this captive, and has
to find no rest. His anguish continued, nay, in - entered into the ears of the Great Ruler : already
creased , and his aspect was now enough to have a deliverer is on the road . As Luther, hour by
moved to pity his bitterest enemy. Like a shadow hour, is sinking in the abyss, nearer, hour by hour,
he glided from cell to cell of his monastery ; his are heard the approaching footsteps of the man
eyes sunk , his bones protruding, his figure bowed who is to aid him in breaking the bars of his own
down to the earth ; on his brow the shadows of and the world 's prison.
1 Luther's Works, xix . 2299. 2 Melancthon, Vita Mart. Luth., p . 10 .

THE VICAR-GENERAL AND LUTHER . 239
CHAPTER IV .
LUTHER THE MONK BECOMES LUTHER THE REFORMER .
Staupitz – Visits the Convent at Erfurt - Meets Luther - Conversations between the Vicar-General and the Monk
- The Cross - Repentance - A Free Salvation – The Dawn Begins - The Night Returns - An Old Monk — “ The
Forgiveness of Sins” — Luther's Full Emancipation - A Rehearsal - Christendom 's Burden - Hox Delivered.
As in the darkest night a star will at times look contending “ with horses." His own experience
forth , all the lovelier that it shines out amidst the enabled him to guess at the inner history of the
clouds of tempest, so there appeared at intervals, monk who now stood before him .
during the long and dark night of Christendom , a The Vicar-General called the monk to him , spoke
few men of eminent piety in the Church of Rome. words of kindness — accents now become strange to
Taught of the Spirit, they trusted not in the Luther, for the inmates of his monastery could
Church, but in Christ alone, for salvation ; and account for his conflicts only by believing him
amid the darkness that surrounded them they saw possessed of the Evil One - and by degrees he won
the light, and followed it. One of these men was his confidence . Luther felt that there was a mys
John Staupitz . terious influence in the words of Staupitz, which
Staupitz was Vicar-General of the Augustines of penetrated his soul, and was already exerting a
Germany. He knew the way of salvation , having soothing and mitigating effect upon his trouble.
learned it from the study of Augustine and the In the Vicar-General the monk met the first man
Bible. He saw and acknowledged the errors and who really understood his case.
vices of the age, and deplored the devastation they They conversed together in the secresy of the
were inflicting on the Church. The purity of his monastic cell. Luther laid open his whole soul ;
own life condemned the corruptions around him , he concealed nothing from the Vicar-General. He
but he lacked the courage to be the Reformer of told him all his temptations, all his horrible
Christendom . Nevertheless,God honoured him by thoughts — his vows a thousand times repeated and
making him signally serviceable to the man who as often broken ; how he shrunk from the sight of
was destined to be that Reformer, his own vileness, and how he trembled when he
It chanced to the Vicar-General to be at this thought of the holiness of God . It was not the
time on a tour of visitation among the convents of sweet promise of mercy , but the fiery threatening
the Augustinians in Germany, and the path he had of the law , on which he dwelt. “ Who may abide
traced for himself led him to that very monastery the day of His coming, and who shall stand when
within whose walls the sore struggle we have He appeareth ?”
describe l was going on. Staupitz came to Erfurt. The wise Staupitz saw how it was. The monk
His eye, trained to read the faces on which it fell, was standing in the presence of the Great Judge
lighted on the young monk . The first glance without a days-man . He was dwelling with
awoke his interest in him . He marked the brow Devouring Fire ; he was transacting with God just
on which he thought he could see the shadow of as he would have done if no cross had ever been
some great sorrow ,the eye that spoke of the anguish set up on Calvary, and no “ place for repentance."
within, the frame worn to almost a skeleton by the “ Why do you torture yourself with these thoughts ?
wrestlings of the spirit ; the whole man so meek , Look at the wounds of Christ,” said Staupitz ,
so chastened , so bowed down ; and yet about him anxious to turn away the monk 's eye from his
withal an air of resolution not yet altogether van - own wounds his stripes, macerations, fastings
quished , and of strength not yet wholly dried up. by which he hoped to move God to pity. “ Look
Staupitz himself had tasted the cup of which Luther at the blood Christ shed for you," continued his
was now drinking. He had been in trouble of skilful counsellor ; “ it is there the grace of God
soul, although , to use the language of the Bible , he will appear to you."
had but “ run with the footmen," while Luther was “ I cannot and dare not come to God,” replied
- Luther, in effect, “ till I am a better man ; I have
D 'Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., bk . ij., chap. 4 . not yet repented sufficiently.” “ A better man ! "
Adam , Vita Staupizii. would the Vicar-General say in effect ; “ Christ
came to save not good men , but sinners. Love present of a Bible, which Luther received with
God, and you will have repented ; there is no real unbounded joy ; and most sacredly did he obey the
repentance that does not begin in the love of God ; parting injunction of Staupitz : “ Let the study of
and there is no love to God that does not take its the Scriptures be your favourite occupation."
rise in an apprehension of that mercy which offers But the change in Luther was not yet complete.
to sinners freedom from sin through the blood of It is hard to enter into life — to cast out of the
Christ.” “ Faith in the mercies of God ! This is heart that distrust and fear of God with which sin
LUTHER ENTERING THE AUGUSTINIAN CONVENT.
the star that goeth before the face of Repentance ,

the pillar of fire that guideth her in the night of
her sorrows, and giveth her light,” 1 and showeth
her the way to the throne ofGod.
These were wise words, and “ the words of the
wise are as nails, and as goads fastened in a sure
place by the master of assemblies.” So was it with
the words of the Vicar-General; a light from
heaven accompanied them , and shone into the has filled it, and take in the grand yet true idea of
understanding of Luther. He felt that a healing God's infinite love, and absolutely free and bound
balm had touched his wound, that a refreshing oil less mercy.
had been poured upon his bruised spirit. Before Luther's faith was as yet but as a grain of
leaving him , the Vicar-General made him the mustard-seed. After Staupitz had taken leave of
him , he again turned his eye from the Saviour to
I Bishop King, Lectures on Jonah ,delivered at York, 1594,
p . 184 ; Lond., 1618 . ? D ’Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., pp. 170 - 180.
LUTHER'S FULL EMANCIPATION . 241
himself ; the clouds of despondency and fear that forgiveness of David's sins, and of Peter's cins ;
instant gathered ; and his old conflicts, though not you must believe in the forgiveness of your own
with the same violence, were renewed. He fell ill, sins." ! The decisive words had been spoken . A
and in his sore sickness he lay at the gates of ray of light had penetrated the darkness that en
death. It pleased God on this bed , and by a very compassed Luther . He saw it all : the whole
humble instrument, to complete the change which Gospelin a single phrase, the forgiveness of sins
the Vicar -General had commenced. An aged not the payment, but the forgiveness.
24
THE ORDINATION OF LUTHER TO THE PRIESTHOOD .
In that hour the principle of Popery in Luther's

soul fell. He no longer looked to himself and to
the Church for salvation . He saw that God had
freely forgiven him in His Son Jesus Christ. His
prison doors stood open . He was in a new world .
God had loosed his sackcloth and girded him with
gladness. The healing of his spirit brought health
to his body ; and in a little while he rose from that
bed of sickness, which had so nearly been to him
the bed of death. The gates of destruction were,
in God's marvellous mercy, changed into the gates
of Paradise.
The battle which Luther fought in this cell was
in reality a more sublime one than that which he
brother-monk who, as Luther afterwards said , was afterwards had to fight before the Diet of the
doubtless a true Christian though he wore “ the
cowl of damnation ,” came to his bedside, and began Empire at Worms. Here there is no crowd
to recite with much simplicity and earnestness the looking on, no dramatic ughts tall upo
Apostle's Creed , “ I believe in the forgiveness of the conflict passes in the obscurity of a cell ; but
sins.” Luther repeated after him in feeble accents, all the elements of the morally sublime are present.
“ I believe in the forgiveness of sins.” “ Nay,” said
the monk, “ you are to believe not merely in the Melancthon, Vita Mart. Luth., p. 10.
21
At Worms, Luther stood before the powers and and the mightiest of all forces awoke. The Re
principalities of earth ,who could but kill the body, formation's birth-place was not the cabinet of
and had no more that they could do. Here he kings , nor the closet of philosophers and scholars:
meets the powers and principalities of darkness, it had its beginnings in the depths of the spiritual
and engages in a struggle, the issue of which is world — in the inextinguishable needs and longings
to him eternal life or eternal death . And he of the human soul, quickened, after a long sleep,
triumphs! This cell was the cradle of a new life by divinely ordained instrumentalities.
to Luther, and a new life to Christendom . But For ages the soul of man had “ groaned, being
before it could be the cradle of a new life it had burdened ." That burden was the consciousness of
first to become a grave. Luther had here to sin . The method taken to be rid of that burden
struggle not only to tears and groans : he had to was not the forgiveness, but the payment of sin .
struggle unto death. “ Thou fool, that which thou A Church arose which , although retaining “ the
sowest is not quickened except it die.” So did forgiveness of sins ” as an article in her creed ,
the Spirit of God inspire Paul to announce what had discarded it from her practice ; or rather, she
is a universal law . In every case death must had substituted her own “ forgiveness of sins" for
precede a new life. The new life of the Church God 's.
at the beginning of the Christian era came from TheGospel cameto men in the beginning preach
a grave, the sepulchre of Christ. Before we our ing a free pardon. To offer forgiveness on any
selves can put on immortality we must die and other terms would have been to close heaven while
be buried. In this cell at Erfurt died Martin professing to open it. But the Church of Rome
Luther the monk , and in this cell was born turned the eyes of men from the salvation of the
Martin Luther the Christian, and the birth of Gospel, to a salvation of which she assumed to be
Luther the Christian was the birth of the Reforma- the exclusive and privileged owner. That on which
tion in Germany. the Gospel had put no price, knowing that to put
Let us pause here, and notice how the Reforma- upon it the smallest price was wholly to withhold
tion rehearsed itself first of all in the cell at Erfurt, it, the Church put a very great price on. Salva
and in the soul of Luther, before coming forth to tion was made a marketable commodity ; it was put
display its power on the public stage of Germany up for sale, and whoever wished to possess it had
and of Christendom . to pay the price which the Church had put upon it.
The finger of God touched the human conscience , Some paid the price in good works, some paid it in
austerities and penances, and some in money. Each
paid in the coin that most suited his taste, or
i The author visited Erfurt in the summer of 1871, and convenience , or ability ; but all had to pay. Chris
may be permitted here to give his reminiscences of the
Augustinian convent and the cell of Luther. Erfurt is a tendom , in process of time, was covered with a vast
thriving town ; its size and importanceare notified to the apparatus for carrying on this spiritual traffic. An
traveller by the number and elegance of its steeples and order of men was established, through whose hands
monuments. On a nearer approach he finds it enclosed
by a broad moat and strong fortifications. Its principal exclusively this ghostly merchandise passed. Over
streets are spacious, its ecclesiastical buildings numerous and above the great central emporium of this traffic,
and superb , its population intelligent, orderly, and pros which was opened on the Seven Hills, hundreds and
perous. But the point in which the interest of the place
centres is " Luther's Cist .” The convent of the Augustines thousands of inferior marts were established all
still remains, with the chamber of Luthermuch as he left over Christendom . Cloisters and convents arose for
it. It is placed in a quarter of the city which has not those who chose to pay in penances ; temples and
been touched by modern improvements . It is a perfect churches were built for those who chose to pay in
net-work of narrow and winding lanes, numerous canals,
sweetly lined with tall poplars, and spanned at every prayers
prayers and masses ; and privileged shrines and
short distance by a bridge. The waters of the canals are confessional-boxes for those who preferred paying
employed in woollen and other manufactories. In the in money. One half of Christendom revelled in
heart of this region , we have said , is the convent. A
wide postern gives you admission . You find yourself in sin because they were wealthy, and the other half
an open courtyard . You ascend a single flight of steps, groaned under self-inflicted mortifications because
and are ushered into a chamber of about twelve feet they were poor. When at length the principle of
in length by six in width . It has a wooden floor, and
roof and walls are lined with wood ; the panelling looks salvation to be purchased from the Church had
old and dingy. The window looks out upon a small come to its full height, it fell.
garden . It contains a few relics of its former illus. But Christendom did not deliver itself on the
trious occupant: an old cabinet, an arm -chair, a por
trait of Luther, an old Bible, and a few other things ; principle of payment. It was not by remaining
but it is not what is seen , but what is unseen , that here the bondsman of the Church , and toiling in its
engrossos one. service of penances and works of merit, that it
LUTHER BECOMES PROFESSOR AT WITTEMBERG . 243
wronght out its emancipation. It found that this Jubilee , broke upon its ear : it listened : it cast
road would never lead to liberty. Its burden , age off the yoke of ceremonies : it turned from man 's
after age, was growing but the heavier. Its case pardon to God's ; from the Church to Christ; from
had become hopeless, when the sound of the old the penance of the cell to the sacrifice of the Cross.
Gospel, like the silver trumpets of the Day of Its emancipation was accomplished.
CHAPTER V .
LUTHER AS PRIEST, PROFESSOR, AND PREACHER.
Ordained as a Priest- Wittemberg University - Luthermade Professor - Lectures on the Bible — Popularity - Concourse
of Students - Luther Preaches at Wittemberg - A Wooden Church - The Audience - The Impression - The Gospel
Resumes its March - Who shall Stop it ?
LUTHER had been two years in themonastery, when “ If the earth did not open and swallow us both
on Sunday, 2nd May, 1507, he was ordained to the up,” said he,“ it was owing to the great patience
priesthood. The act was performed by Jerome, and long-suffering of the Lord .”
Bishop of Brandenburg. John Luther, his father, Luther passed
anLuther ans Josepyear
parent,another Universileftty itof
la hiins hispriecell,and
was present, attended by twenty horsemen, Martin 's in haste at last, as Joseph his prison, being sum
old comrades, and bringing to his son a present moned to fill a wider sphere. The University of
of twenty guilders. The earliest letter extant of Wittemberg was founded in 1502 by Frederick the
Luther is one of invitation to John Braun, Vicar Wise, Elector of Saxony. He wished , as he said
of Eisnach. It gives a fine picture of the feelings in its charter, to make it the light of his kingdom .
with which Luther entered upon his new office. He little dreamed what a fulfilment awaited his
“ Since the glorious God ,” said he, “ holy in all his wish . The elector was looking round him for fit
works, has deigned to exalt me, who am a wretched men for its chairs. Staupitz , whose sagacity and
man and every way an unworthy sinner, so emin honourable character gave him great weight with
nently, and to call me to his sublime ministry by Frederick , recommended the Augustinian monk at
his sole and most liberal mercy, may I be grateful Erfurt. The electoral invitation was immediately
for the magnificence of such Divine goodness (as far dispatched to Luther, and accepted by him . And
at least as dust and ashes may) and duly discharge now we behold him , disciplined by God, rich in
the office committed to me." ) the experience of himself, and illumined with the
In the Protestant Churches, the office into which knowledge of the Gospel, bidding themonastery a
ordination admits one is that of ministry ; in the final adieu , though not as yet the cowl, and going
Church of Rome, in which Luther received ordi- forth to teach in the newly-founded University of
nation, it is that of priesthood. The Bishop of Wittemberg.
Brandenburg, when he ordained Luther, placed the The department assigned to Luther was " dia
chalice in his hand, accompanying the action with lectics and physics” - in other words, the scholastic
the words, “ Receive thou the power of sacrificing philosophy. There was a day — it had not long
for the quick and the dead.” ? It is one of the gone by — when Luther revelled in this philo
fundamental tenets of Protestantism that to offer sophy, and deemed it the perfection of all wisdom .
sacrifice is the prerogative of Christ alone, and that, He had since tasted the “ old wine " of the
since the coming of this “ one Priest," and the offer- apostles, and had lost all relish for the " new
ing of His “ one sacrifice," sacrificing priesthood wine" of the schoolmen. Much he longed to
is for ever abolished . Luther did not see this unseal the fountains of the Water of Life to his
then ; but the recollection of the words addressed students. Nevertheless , he set about doing the
to him by the bishop appalled him in after years. work prescribed to him , and his labours in this
1 Worsley, Life of Mart. Luth., vol. i., p . 53 ; Lond ., 1856 . 3 Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran ., lib. i., sec. 8, p . 18 ;
• Seckendorf, Hist, Lutheran ., lib. i., sec. 8, p. 19. Lipsiæ , 1694.,
ungenial field were of great use, in the way of of Germany, are multitudes who are as sheep with
completing his own preparation for combating and out a shepherd , seeking to satisfy their hunger
overthrowing the Aristotelian philosophy - one of with the husks on which the monks feed them ;
the idols of the age . why not minister to these men also the Bread of
Soon “ philosophy " was exchanged for “ theo Life ? The Vicar-General proposed to Luther that
logy," as the department of the new professor. It he should preach in public. He shrank back from
was now that Luther was in his right place. He so august an office — so weighty a responsibility.
opened the New Testament; he selected for ex - “ In less than six months,” said Luther, “ I shall
position the Epistle to the Romans — that book be in my grave.” But Staupitz knew the monk
which shines like a glorious constellation in the better than he knew himself ; he continued to urge
firmament of the Bible, gathering as it does into his proposal, and at last Luther consented. We
one group all the great themes of revelation. have followed him from the cell to the professor's
Passing from the cell to the class-room with the chair, now we are to follow him from the chair to
open Bible in his hand , the professor spoke as no the pulpit.
teacher had spoken for ages in Christendom . It Luther opened his public ministry in no proud
was no rhetorician , showing what a master of his cathedral, but in one of the humblest sanctuaries
art he was ; it was no dialectician, proud to display in all Germany. In the centre of the public square
the dexterity of his logic, or the cunning of his stood an old wooden church , thirty feet long and
sophistry ; it was no philosopher, expounding with twenty broad. Far from magnificent in even its
an air of superior wisdom the latest invention of best days, it was now sorely decayed . Tottering
the schools ; Luther spoke like one who had come to its fall, it needed to be propped up on all sides.
from another sphere. And he had indeed been In this chapel was a pulpit of boards raised three
carried upwards,or, to speak with greater accuracy, feet over the level of the floor. This was the place
he had , more truly than the great poet of the assigned to the young preacher. In this shed, and
Inferno, gone down into Hades, and at the cost of from this rude pulpit, was the Gospel proclaimed to
tears,and groans,and agonies of soul he had learned the common people for the first time after the
what lie was now communicating so freely to others. silence of centuries.
Herein lay the secret of Luther's power. The “ This building,” says Myconius, “ may well be
youths crowded round him ; their numbers in - compared to the stable in which Christ was born .
creased day by day ; professors and rectors sat at It was in this wretched enclosure that God willed ,
his feet ; the fame of the university went forth to so to speak, that his well-beloved Son should be
other lands, and students flocked from foreign born a second time. Among those thousands of
countries to hear the wisdom of the Wittemberg cathedrals and parish churches with which the
professor. The living waters shut up so long world is filled , there was not one at that time
were again let loose, and were flowing among the which God chose for the glorious preaching of
habitations of men , and promised to convert the eternal life.” '
dry and parched wilderness which Christendom I f his learning and subtlety fitted Luther to
had become into the garden of the Lord . shine in the university , not less did his powers of
“ This monk,” said Dr. Mallerstadt, the rector popular eloquence enable him to command the
of the university, himself a man of great learning attention of his countrymen . Before his day the
and fame, “ will reform the whole Church . He pulpit had sunk ineffably low . At that time not a
builds on the prophets and apostles , which neither secular priest in all Italy ever entered a pulpit."
Scotist nor Thomist can overthrow .” 3 Preaching was wholly abandoned to the Mendicant
Staupitz watched the career of the young pro friars. These persons knew neither human nor
fessor with peculiar and lively satisfaction . He Divine knowledge. To retain their hearers they
was even now planning a yet wider usefulness for were under the necessity of amusing them . This
him . Why, thought Staupitz, should Luther con was not difficult, for the audience was as little
fine his light within the walls of the university ? critical as the preacher was fastidious. Gibes— the
Around him in Wittemberg , and in all the towns coarser, the more effective ; legendsand tales — the
more wonderful and incredible, the more attentively
1 Melancthon, Vita Mart. Luth ., p. 13 . listened to ; the lives and miracles of the saints
? His lecture-hour was one o'clock . It should have
been six in the morning, but was changed ob commo
ditatem . (Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran ., lib . i., p. 19 .) 4 Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran ., lib . i., sec. 8, p. 17.
3 Melch . Adam , Vita Luth ., p. 104. Seckendorf, Hist. 5 Ruchat, Hist. de la Réformation de la Suisse, tom . .,
Lutheran ., lib . i., sec. 8 , p . 19. p . 192 ; Lausanne, 1836 .
LUTHER AS A PREACHER . · 245
were the staple of the sermons of the age. Dante The Town Council of Wittemberg now elected him
has immortalised these productions, and the truth to be their preacher, and gave him the use of
of his descriptions is attested by the representa - the parish church . On one occasion the Elector
tions of such scenes which have come down to us Frederick was among his hearers, and expressed his
in the sculpture-work of the cathedrals. But the admiration of the simplicity and force of his lan
preacher who now appeared in the humble pulpit guage, and the copiousness and weight of his
of the wooden chapel of Wittemberg spoke with matter. In presence of this larger audience his
authority , and not as the friars. His animated eloquence burst forth in new power. Still wider
face, his kindling eye, his thrilling tones - above all, shone the light, and more numerous every day
the majesty of the truths which he announced — were the eyes that turned towards the spot where
captivated the hearts and awed the consciences of it was rising. The Reformation was now fairly
his hearers. He proclaimed pardon and heaven , launched on its path. God had hidden it go on
not as indirect gifts through priests, but as direct wards, and man would be unable to stop it. Popes
from God. Men wondered at these tidings - SO and emperors and mighty armies would throw
new , so strange, and yet so refreshing and welcome. themselves upon it ; scaffolds and stakes would
It was evident, to use the language of Melancthon, be raised to oppose it : over all would it march in
that “ his words had their birth -place not on his triumph, and at last ascend the throne of the
lips, but in his soul.” ? quare. ofEmerging
world his lowly shed in the
rom tthis
Witters ffrom
His fame as a preacher grew . From the sur square of Wittemberg, as emerges the sun from
rounding cities came crowds to hear him . TThe he the mists of earth, it would rise ever higher and
timbers of the old edifice creaked under the shine ever brighter, till at length Truth , like
multitude of listeners. It was far too small a glorious noon, would shed its beams from pole
to accommodate the numbers that flocked to it. to pole.
CHAPTER VI.
LUTHER 'S JOURNEY TO ROME.
A Quarrel - Luther Deputed to Arrange it - Sets out for Rome - His Dreams- Italian Monasteries - Their Luxurious
ness - A Hint- His Illness at Bologna - A Voice — “ The Just shall Live by Faith ” - Florence - Beauty of Site and
Buildings- The Renaissance - Savonarola - Campagna di Roma - Luther's First Sight of Rome.
It was necessary that Luther should pause a little more in order to his full training as the future
while in the midst of his labours. He had been Reformer, and that lesson he could receive only
working for some time under high pressure, and in a foreign land . In his cell at Erfurt he had
neither mind nor body would long have endured been shown the sinfulness of his own heart, and
the strain. It is in seasons of rest and reflection his helplessness as a lost sinner . This must be
that the soul realises its growth and makes a the foundation of his training. At Rome he must
new start. Besides, Luther needed one lesson be shown the vileness of that Church which he
still regarded as the Church of Christ and the
1 “ On the chapiters of the great pillars of the church abode 01 nomeSS .
at Strasburg there is a procession represented in which a As often happens, a very trivial matter led to
hog carrieth the pot with theholy water, and asses and what resulted in the highest consequences both to
hogs in priestly vestments follow to make up the proces Luther himself and to Christendom . A quarrel
sion. There is also an ass standing before an altar, as if
he were going to consecrate, and one carrieth a case with broke out between seven monasteries of the Au
relics in which one seeth a fox ; and the trains of all that gustines and their Vicar-General. It was agreed
so in this procession are carried by monkeys.” (Misson , to submit the matter to the Pope, and the sagacity
New Voyage to Italy, vol. ii., pt. ii., p. 506 ; Lond., 1739.) and eloquence of Luther recommended him as the
“ Non in labris nasci, sed in pectore.” (Vita Mart.
Luth ., p . 13.) fittest person to undertake the task. This was in
UR
HIN L
DUA
.
ATWITTEMBERG
CHURCH
WOODEN
OLD
INTHE
PREACHING
LUTHER
LUTHER'S JOURNEY TO ROME. 247
the year 1510, or, according to others, 1512. We There dwelt the consecrated priests and ministers
now behold the young monk setting out for the of the Lord. Thither went up, year by year,
metropolis of Christendom . Wemay well believe armies of devout pilgrims, and tribes of holy
that his pulse beat quicker as every step brought anchorites and monks, to pay their vows in her
him nearer the Eternal City, illustrious as the temples, and prostrate themselves at the footstool
abode of the Cæsars ; still more illustrious as the of the apostles. Luther's heart swelled with no
KI
ET
LIFE
ES
DILE
N . JINSI
06 .
ENTRAS
SUNDA
DIA
TEIE
OU
THE Une
VIEW OF BOLOGNA.
abode of the ring. To Luther, Romewas a type common emotion when he thought that his feet
of the Holy of Holies. There stood the throne of would stand within the gates of this thrice-holy
God's Vicar. Thereresided theOracle of Infallibility. city.
Alas, what a terrible disenchantment awaited
Mathesius
in 1512. Someandmention
Seckendorf
two place
the monk at the end of his journey; or rather,
it in 1510,Melancthon
journeys. Luther himself what a happy emancipation from an enfeebling
speaks of only one. Hisobject i n going to
been variously stated. The authorhas followed Romehas also and noxious illusion ! For so long as this spell
the oldest
authorities, who isarea matter
likely toofbesmall
also moment;
the best informed was upon him , Luther must remain the captive
. of that power which had imprisoned truth and
Luther's errand
fact is thathe did visit Rome.
the great enchained the nations. An arm with a fetter
upon it was not the arm to strike such blows dishes of meat. Luther could no longer refrain .
as would emancipate Christendom . He must see “ On this day," said Luther, “ such things may not
Rome, not as his dreams had painted her, but be eaten. The Pope has forbidden them .” The
as her own corruptions had made her. And he monks opened their eyes in astonishment on the
must go thither to see her with his own eyes, rude German. Verily , thought they, his boldness
for he would not have believed her deformity is great. It did not spoil their appetite , but they
although another had told him ; and the more began to be apprehensive that the German might
profound the idolatrous reverence with which he report their manner of life at head-quarters, and
approaches her , the more resolute his purpose, they consulted together how this danger might be
when he shall have re-crossed her threshold , to obviated . The porter , a humane man, dropped a
leave of that tyrannical and impious power not hint to Luther of the risk he would incur should
one stone upon another . he make a longer stay. Profiting by the friendly
Luther crossed the Alps and descended on the counsel to depart hence while health served him ,
fertile plains of Lombardy. Those magnificent he took leave, with as little delay as possible, of
highways which now conduct the traveller with so the monastery and all in it.
much ease and pleasure through the snows and Again setting forth, and travelling on foot, he
rocks that form the northern wall of Italy did came to Bologna, “ the throne of the Roman law."
not then exist, and Luther would scale this ram . In this city Luther fell ill, and his sickness was so
part by narrow , rugged , and dangerous tracks. sore that it threatened to be unto death . To sick
The sublimity that met his eye and regaled him ness was added the melancholy natural to one who
on his journey had, doubtless , an elevating and is to find his grave in a foreign land. The Judg
expanding effect upon his mind, and mingled ment Seat was in view , and alarm filled his soulat
something of Italian ideality with his Teutonic the prospect of appearing before God. In short,the
robustness. To him , as to others, what a charm old anguish and terror, though in moderated force,
in the rapid transition from the homeliness of returned. As he waited for death he thought he
the German plains, and the ruggedness of the heard a voice crying to him and saying, “ The just
Alps. to the brilliant sky. the voluptuous air. shall live by faith.” ? It seemed as if the voice
and the earth teeming with flowers and fruits, spoke to him from heaven, so vivid was the impres
which met his gaze when he had accomplished his sion it made. This was the second time this passage
descent ! of Scripture had been borne into his mind, as if
Weary with his journey, he entered a monastery one had spoken it to him . In his chair at Wit
situated on the banks of the Po, to refresh himself temberg , while lecturing from the Epistle to the
a few days. The splandour of the establishment Romans, he had come to these same words, “ The
struck him with wonder. Its yearly revenue, just shall live by faith .” They laid hold upon him so
amounting to the enormous sum of thirty-six that he was forced to pause and ponder over them .
thousand ducats,' was all expended in feeding, What do they mean ? What can they mean but
clothing, and lodging the monks. The apartments that the just have a new life, and that this new life
were sumptuous in the extreme. They were lined springs from faith ? But faith on whom , and on
with marble, adorned with paintings, and filled what ? On whom but on Christ, and on what but
with rich furniture . Equally luxuriousand delicate the righteousness of Christ wrought out in the
was the clothing of the monks. Silks and velvet poor sinner's behalf ? If that be so , pardon and
mostly formed their attire ; and every day they sat eternal life are not of works but of faith : they
down at a table loaded with exquisite and skilfully are the free gift of God to the sinner for Christ's
cooked dishes. The monk who, in his native sake. .
Germany, had inhabited a bare cell, and whose So had Luther reasoned when these words first
day's provision wes at times only a herring and arrested him , and so did he again reason in his
a small piece of bread, was astonished , but said sick -chamber at Bologna. They were a needful ad
nothing. monition, approaching as he now was a city where
Friday came, and on Friday the Church has endless rites and ceremonies had been invented to
forbidden the faithful to taste flesh. The table of enable men to live by works. His sickness and
the monks groaned under the same abundance as anguish threw him back upon the first elements of
before. As on other days, so on this there were life, and the one only source of holiness. He was
taught that this holiness is restricted to no soil, to
D 'Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., p. 190 . Luth. Opp.
(W ) xxi . 1468. 2 D'Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., pp. 190,191.
FLORENCE AND THE RENAISSANCE . 249
to no rite ; it springs up in the heart north of Europe, here met the philosophers and
LUT
JOU S
iwells. Its source was not at Rome, poets of Italy ; and as they walked on the terraces,
HER
ROM
RNE
le ; its bestower was not the Pope, or gathered in groups in the alcoves of the gardens
TYO
E
irit. - the city , the Arno, and the olive and cypress-clad
' live by faith .” As he stood at vale beneath them — they would prolong their dis.
2 light seemed, at these words, course on the new learning and the renovated age
157ties mies
him . He arose from his bed which literature was bringing with it, till the
Lor e Thovont j t,o elain
Wtooh1f de
con t eand manwrinlerhel

9
d. d pilrg
ul. He resumed his journey . shadows fell, and dusk concealed the domes of
prin hu
tra ile
wel tin thTuehr thte
and
tht ,
eta lle
nines, experiencing doubt Florence at their feet, and brought out the stars in
to o s
the restorative power of the calm azure overhead. Thus the city of the
f
1 the fragrance of their Medici became the centre of that intellectual and
nion ntdhe le
vf early summer. The literary revival which was then radiating over
u Whi
ha m
in t
bu
bniotuhe
into that delicious Europe, and which heralded a day of more blessed
1 by the Arno, and light than any that philosophy and letters have
iss groves, reposes ever shed. Alas, that to Italy, where this light
beauty to every first broke, the morning should so soon have been
uther made his turned into the shadow of death !
But Florence had very recently been the scene
par
nce has been of events which could not be unknown to Luther,

les
tum
Its many and which must have touched a deeper chord in

Maju
ction , and his bosom than any its noble edifices and literary
still upon glory could possibly awaken . Just fourteen years
dome- (1498) before Luther visited this city, Savonarola
already had been burned on the Piazza della Gran ' Ducca ,
by its for denouncing the corruptions of the Church,
ovens, and the richness of upholding the supreme authority of Scripture, and
vusiy -coloured marbles, the characteristic teaching that men are to be saved, not by good
feature of the city. Already the Baptistry had works, but by the expiatory sufferings of Christ.'
lieen built, with its bronze doors which Michael These were the very truths Luther had learned in
Angelo declared to be “ worthy of being the gates his cell ; their light had broke upon him from the
of Paradise.” Besides these, other monuments and page of the Bible ; the Spirit, with the iron pen of
works of art adorned the city where the future Re- anguish, had written them on his heart ; he had
former was now making a brief sojourn. To these preached them to listening crowds in his wooden
creations of genius Luther could not be indifferent, chapel at Wittemberg ; and on this spot, already
familiar as he had hitherto been with only the marked by a statue of Neptune, had a brother-monk
comparatively homely architecture of a Northern been burned alive for doing the very same thing in
land. In Germany and England wood was then Italy which he had done in Saxony. The martyr
not unfrequently employed in the construction of dom of Savonarola he could not but regard as at
dwellings, whereas the Italians built with marble. once of good and of evil augury. It cheered him ,
Other things were linked with the Etrurian doubtless , to think that in this far-distant land
capital,which Luther was scholar enough to appre- another, by the study of the same book , had come
ciate. Florence was the cradle of the Renaissance to the same conclusion at which he himself had
The house of Medici had risen to eminence in the arrived respecting the way of life , and had been
previous century. Cosmo, the founder of the enabled to witness for the truth unto blood. This
family , had amassed immense riches in commerce. showed him that the Spirit of God was acting
Passionately fond of letters and arts, he freely ex- in this land also , that the light was breaking out
pended his wealth in the munificent patronage of
scholars and artists. Lovers of letters from every Lechler bears his testimony to the teaching of Savo
narola. He says : “ Not only is faith the gift and work
land were welcomed by him and by his son Lorenzo of God , but also that faith alone justifies without the
· in his superb villa on the sides of Fiesole, and were works of the law . This Savonarola has clearly, roundly,
entertained with princely hospitality. Scholars and fully expressed. He has done so in his exposition of
from the East, learned men from England and the the 31st and 51st Psalms, written in prison . And he
quotes from Rudelbach the following words in proof :
* Hæc fides sola justificat hominem , id est, apud Deum
? Worsley, Life of Luther, vol. i., p .60. Michelet, Life absque operibus legis justum facit '" (Meditationes in
of Luther, p. 15 ; Lond., 1846 . Psalmos). - Lechler, vol. ii., p . 542.
at various points, and that the day he waited for at the irreverence and impiety which characterised
was not far distant." all ranks, especially the “ religious.” The re
But the stake of Savonarola might be differently laxation of morals was universal. Pride, avarice,
interpreted ; it might be construed into a prognostic luxury, abominable vices, and frightful crimes de
of many other stakes to be planted hereafter. The filed the land ; and, to crown all, “ sacred things "
death of the Florentine confessor showed that the were the subjects of contempt and mockery. It
tothe lightwas not fruits of the
ancient hatred of the darkness to the light was as seemed as if the genial climate which nourished the
bitter as ever, and that the darkness would not fruits of the earth into a luxuriance unknown to
home, ng
abdicate without a terrible struggle. It was no his Northern home, nourished with a like luxu
peaceful scene on which Truth was about to step , riance the appetites of the body and passions of the
and it was not amid the plaudits of the multitude soul. He sighed for the comparative temperance,
that her progress was to be accomplished. On the frugality , simplicity , and piety of his fatherland.
contrary, tempest and battle would hang upon her But he was now near Rome, and Rome, said he
path ; every step of advance would be won over to himself, will make amends for all. In that holy
frightful opposition ; she must suffer and bleed city Christianity will be seen in the spotless beauty
before she could reign . These were among the of her apostolic youth. In that city there are no
lessons which Luther learned on the spot to which monks bravely apparelled in silks and velvets ;
doubtless he often came to muse and pray. there are no conventual cells with a luxurious
How many disciples had Savonarola left behind array of couches and damasks, and curious furni
him in the city in which he had poured out his ture inlaid with silver and mother-of-pearl, while
blood ? This, doubtless, was another point of their walls are aglow with marbles, paintings, and
anxious inquiry to Luther ; but the answer was gilding. There are no priests who tarry by the
not encouraging. The zeal of the Florentines wine-cup, or sit on fast-days at boards smok
had cooled . It was hard to enter into life as ing with dishes of meat and venison. The sound
Savonarola had entered into it — the gate was too of the viol, the lute, and the harp is never heard
narrow and the road too thorny. They praised in the monasteries of Rome : there ascend only the
him , but they could not imitate him . Florence accents of devotion : matins greet the day, and
was not to be the cradle of an evangelical Re- even -song speeds its departure. Into that holy city
naissance. Its climate was voluptuous and its there entereth nothing that defileth. Eager to
Church was accommodating : so its citizens, who, mingle in the devout society of the place to which
when the voice of their great preacher stirred he was hastening, and there forget the sights which
them , seemed to be not far from the kingdom of had pained him on the way thither, he quitted
heaven , drew back when brought face to face with Florence, and set out on the last stage of his
the stake, and crouched down beneath the two- journey.
ney .
fold burden of sensuality and superstition . We see him on his way. He is descending
So far Luther had failed to discover that sanctity the southern slopes of the mountains on which
which before beginning his journey he had pictured Viterbo is seated. At every short distance he
to himself, as springing spontaneously as it were strains his eyes, if haply he may descry on the
out of this holy soil. The farther he penetrated bosom of the plain that spreads itself out at his
into this land of Italy , the more was he shocked feet, some signs of her who once was “ Queen of
the Nations.” On his right, laving the shore of
1 “ Savonarola ,” says Rudelbach, “ was a prophet of Latium , is the blue Mediterranean ; on his left
the Reformation." Lechler adds : “ and the martyr of
his prophecy ; a martyr for reform before the Reforma is the triple-topped Soracte and the “ purple Apen
tion .” (Vol. i ., p . 546.) nine" - white towns hanging on its crest, and
2 The author was shown , in 1864 , the Bible of Savona- olive-woods and forests of pine clothing its sides
rola, which is preserved in the library of San Lorenzo at
Florence. The broad margin of its leaves is written all running on in a magnificent wall of craggy peaks,
over in a small elegant hand, thatof Savonarola . Afterhis till it fades from the eye in the southern horizon .
martyrdom his disciples were accustomed to comesecretly Luther is now traversing the storied Campagna
and kiss the spot where he had been burned . This coming di Roma.
to the knowledge of the reigning duke, Pietro de Medici,
he resolved to put an end to a practice that gave him The man who crosses this plain at the present
annoyance. He accordingly erected on the spot a statue day finds it herbless, silent, and desolate. The
of Neptune, with a fountain falling into a circular basin multitude of men which it once nourished have
of water, and sea -nymphs clustering on the brim . The perished from its bosom . The numerous and popu
duke's device has but the more effectually fixed in the
lonowledge of mankind the martyrdom and the spotlous towns, that in its better days crowned every
where it took place. conical height that dots its surface , are now buried
ARRIVAL OF LUTHER AT ROME. 251
in its soil : its olive-woods and orange-groves have man , and so forsaken of its cities, as it is at this
been swept away, and thistles, wiry grass, and reeds day. The land still continued to enjoy what has
have come in their room . Its roads, once crowded now all but ceased upon it, seed -time and harvest.
with armies , ambassadors, and proconsuls, are now Besides, it was the beginning of summer when
deserted and all but untrodden. Broken columns Luther visited it, and seen under the light of an
protruding through the soil, stacks of brick -work Italian sun, and with the young verdure clothing
with the marble peeled off, substructions of temples its surface, the scene would be by no means an
and tombs, now become the lair of the fox or the unpleasant one. But one object mainly engrossed
lurking-place of the brigand, and similar memo- his thoughts : he was drawing nigh to the metro
rials are almost all that remain to testify to the polis of Christendom . The heights of Monte
flourishing cultivation , and the many magnificent Mario , adjoining the Vatican — for the cupola of
structures , that once adorned this great plain . St. Peter's was not yet built - would be the first
But in the days of Luther the Campagna di to catch his eye ; the long ragged line formed by
Roma had not become the blighted, treeless, devas- the buildings and towers of the city would next
tated expanse it is now . Doubtless many me come into view . Luther had had his first sight of
morials of decay met his eye as he passed along. her whom no one ever yet saw for the first time
War had left some frightful scars upon the plain : without emotion , though itmight not be so fervent,
the indolence and ignorance of its inhabitants had nor of the same character exactly , as that which
operated with even worse effect : but still in the thrilled Luther at this moment. Falling on his
sixteenth century it had not become so deserted of knees, he exclaimed, “ Holy Rome, I salute thee !” .
CHAPTER VII.
LUTHER IN ROME.
Enchantment - Ruins - Holy Places - Rome's Nazarites - Rome's Holiness - Luther's Eyes begin to Open - Pilate 's
Stairs - A Voice heard a Third Time A Key that Opens the Closed Gates of Paradise - What Luther Learned
at Rome.
AFTER many a weary league, Luther's feet stand at of art which had beautified it in its palmy days.
last within the gates of Rome. What now are his They showed him what Rome had been under her
feelings ? Is it a Paradise or a Pandemonium in pagan consuls and emperors, and they enabled him
which he is arrived ? to judge how much she owed to her Popes.S
The enchantment continued for some little while . Luther gazed with veneration on these defaced
Luther tried hard to realise the dreams which and mutilated remains, associated as they were in
had lightened his toilsome journey. Here he his mind with the immortal names of the great
was breathing holier air, so he strove to persuade men whose deeds had thrilled him , and whose
himself ; here he was mingling with a righteous writings had instructed him in his native land.
people ; while the Nazarites of the Lord were every Here , too, thought Luther, the martyrs had died ;
moment passing by in their long. robes, and the on the floor of this stupendous ruin , the Coliseum ,
chimes pealed forth all day long, and, not silent had they contended with the lions; on this spot,
even by night, told of the prayers and praises that where now stands the sumptuous temple of St.
were continually ascending in the temples of the Peter , and where the Vicar of Christ has erected
metropolis of Christendom . his throne, were they used “ as torches to illumine
The first things that struck Luther were the the darkness of the night.” Over this city, too,
physical decay and ruin of the place . Noble palaces Paul's feet had walked, and to this city had that
and glorious monuments rose on every side of him ,
but, strangely enough, mingled with these were 1 In proof we appeal to the engravings of Piranesi, now
nearly 200 years old . These represent the country around
heaps of rubbish and piles of ruins. These were Rome as tolerably peopled and cultivated.
the remains of the once imperial glory of the city • Tischreden , 441.
the spoils of war,the creations of genius, thelabours 3 Luth. Opp. (W ) xxii. 2374, 2377.
letterread,
been insent,and here thehad words
it firstthatbeenhadopened outward course of liberty, andandthehabits
ideas ofmaylegalbe
and which occur been reformed while the old acts
the means of imparting to him a new life — “ The beliefmay for a timesurvive. It was not easy for
just shall live by faith.” Luther or for Christendom to find its way out of a
The first weekswhich Luther passed in Rome night of twelve centuries. Even to this hour that
were occupied in visiting the holy places, and night remains brooding over a full half of Europe.
F SAN
ath
B Man
BUEU
BE
Het IT
SAN IELA
Duo
Nu
STATE
GHID M away full
INT
WA
VAS
>
NO
HIN
VIEW OF FLORENCE.
saying massFor,at although
the altars Luther
of the was
moreconverted
holy of itsin scarsIt itwhich
was thewar physical deformities ofinflicted
Rome—— thatthe
churches. or barbarism had
heart,and rested on the one Mediator, his know- formed the first stumbling-blocks to Luther, it was
ledge was imperfect, and the darkness of his mind not long till he began to see that these outward
still remained in part. The law of life in the soul blemishes were as nothing to the hideous moral
may not be able all at once to develop into an and spiritual corruptions that existed beneath the
surface. The luxury, lewdness, and impiety that
Seckendorf,Hist. Lutheran.,lib.i., sec.8,p.19. shocked him in the first Italian towns he had
LUTHER BEHIND THE SCENES. 253
entered,and
of his journeywhichsincehadcrossing
attendedthehimAlps,in every
werestepall haste,
the neighbouring altarsLadyhad backsung herseven.Son :”“ Make
and send Our such
repeatedHisin practice
tude. Rome onof asaying
scale mass
of seven-fold
at all magni-
themore wasdelay,
hisand the horrible
as they scoff with itwhich
accounted . ". Totheythem reproved
“ Lady
favouredthe priests
with churches; hebrought
saw themhim behind
into dailythe scenes
contact; Son " were worth only the
But these were the common priests. Surely,money they brought.
heheard— their
himself thoughtalk,and he couldunspeakably
thediscovery not concealshocked
from thought
dignitarieshe,offaiththe andChurchpiety! stillHowlingermistaken
among was
the
and pained him — that these men were simply even this belief, Luther was soon to discover. One
playing a part, and that in private they held in day he chanced to find himself at table with some
IS
ET
B TO
EITERR
EUR
.
EU
CR
JE
THEME
th
fiiUNTI
REC
S
SI
TA
M ONT DET
MATE
IDL
SS
THE SCHLOSS-KIRK , OR CASTLE-CHURCH, AT WITTEMBERG.

contemptin andpublictreated
which they withcelebrated
mockerywiththe soverygreatritesa prelates.easy Taking
same faith the German
with to betheyamanliftedof thethe
themselves,
show
profane of levity,
devotion.they Ifon hetheirwaspartshocked
were atnotheir
less veil a littlein toothefreely.
disbelief Theyopenly
mysteries of their expressed
Church, their
and
astonished at his solemn credulity,
as a dull German, who had not genius enough to and jeered him shamelessly boasted of their cleverness
and befooling the people. Instead of the words, in deceiving
bea-a fossilised
sceptic, norspecimen
cunning, inenough to ofbea a fanaticism
short, hypocrite “ Hoc est ofmeum
utterance which corpus,
the " &c. —isthechanged,
bread words atas the
the
common enough in the twelfth century, but which
iteenth
t amazed them to find still existing in the six - himof Christ— Church of Rome teaches, into the flesh and blood
these prelates, as they themselves told
. , were accustomed
One day Luther was saying mass in one of the manebis," &c. — Bread tothousay,art,“ Panis
and es,breadet panis
thou
churches
While he ofhadRomewith
been sayinghisonemass,
accustomedthesolemnity.
priests at 1 Tischreden, 441. Seckendorf, lib . i., p. 19.
22
wilt remain — and then , said they, we elevate the services to the Church Our Lady's House at Lo
Host, and the people bow down and worship . retto for example. The stairs so transported were
Luther was literally horrified : it was as if an enshrined in the Palace of the Lateran, and every
abyss had suddenly yawned beneath him . But one who climbs them on his knees merits an in
the horror was salutary ; it opened his eyes. dulgence of fifteen years for each ascent. Luther,
Plainly he must renounce belief in Christianity or who doubted neither the legend touching the stairs,
in Rome. His struggles at Erfurt had but too nor the merit attached by the bulls of the Popes to
surely deepened his faith in the first to permit him the act of climbing them , went thither one day to
to cast it off : it was the last, therefore, that must engage in this holy act. He was climbing the
be let go ; but as yet it was not Rome in her doc- steps in the appointed way, on his knees namely,
trines and rites, but Rome in her clergy, from earning at every step a year's indulgence, when he
which Luther turned away. was startled by a sudden voice , which seemed as if
Instead of a city of prayers and alms, of contrite it spoke from heaven , and said , “ The just shall
hearts and holy lives, Rome was full of mocking live by faith.” Luther started to his feet in amaze
hypocrisy, defiant scepticism , jeering impiety , and ment. This was the third time these same words
shameless revelry. Borgia had lately closed his had been conveyed into his mind with such em
infamous Pontificate, and the warlike Julius II. phasis, that it was as if a voice of thunder had
was now reigning. A powerful police patrolled uttered them . It seemed louder than before, and
the city every night. They were empowered to he grasped more fully the great truth which it
deal summary justice on offenders, and those whom announced . What folly , thought he, to seek an
they caught were hanged at the next post or indulgence from the Church, which can last me but
thrown into the Tiber. But all the vigilance of a few years, when God sends me in his Word an in
the patrol could not secure the peace and safety dulgence that will last me for ever ! How idle to
of the streets. Robberies and murders were of toil at these performances, when God is willing to
nightly occurrence. “ If there be a hell,” said acquit me of all my sins not as so much wages for
Luther, “ Rome is built over it.” 1 so much service , but freely, in the way of believing
And yet it was at Rome, in the midst of all this upon his Son ! “ The just shall live by faith ."
darkness, that the light shone fully into the mind From this time the doctrine of justification by
of the Reformer , and that the great leading idea , faith alone — in other words, salvation by free grace
that on which his own life was based , and on which - stood out before Luther as the one great compre
he based the whole of that Reformation which God hensive doctrine of revelation . He held that it
honoured him to accomplish — the doctrine of justi- was by departing from this doctrine that the Church
fication by faith alone rose upon him in its full- had fallen into bondage, and had come to groan under
orbed splendour. We naturally ask , How did this penances and works of self-righteousness. In no
come about ? What was there in this city of Popish other way, he believed , could the Church find her
observances to reveal the reformed faith ? Luther way back to truth and liberty than by returning to
was desirous of improving every hour of his stay in this doctrine. This was the road to true reforma
Rome, where religious acts done on its holy soil, tion . This great article of Christianity was in a
and at its privileged altars and shrines, had a ten- sense its fundamental article, and henceforward
fold degree ofmerit ; accordingly he busied himself Luther began to proclaim it as eminently the
in mutiplying these, that he might nourish his Gospel — the whole Gospel in a single phrase .
piety, and return a holier man than he came ; for With relics, with privileged altars, with Pilate's
as yet he saw but dimly the sole agency of faith in Stairs, he would have no more to do ; this one
the justification of the sinner. sentence , “ The just shall live by faith ,” had more
One day he went, under the influence of these efficacy in it a thousand times over than all the
feelings, to the Church of the Lateran. There are holy treasures that Rome contained. It was the
the Scala Sancta , or Holy Stairs, which tradition
says Christ descended on retiring from the hall of ? Luth . Opp. Lat., Præfatio .
judgment, where Pilate had passed sentence upon all3 the
These stairs are still in the Lateran , and still retain
him . These stairs are of marble, and the work of Rome invirtue they ever had . When the author was at
1851, he saw some peasants from Rimini
conveying them from Jerusalem to Rome was engaged in climbing them . They enlivened their per
reported to have been undertaken and executed formance with roars of laughter, for it is the devout act,
by the angels, who have so often rendered similar not the devout feeling, that earns the indulgence. A
French gentleman and lady with their little daughter
were climbing them at the same time, but in more
1 Luth. Opp. (W ) xxii. 2376. decorous fashion .
LUTHER'S RETURN TO WITTEMBERG . 255
key that unlocked the closed gates of Paradise ; in spite of all the world , and of the devils thein
it was the star that went before his face, and selves ; and that if they endeavour to fight against
led him to the throne of a Saviour, there to find this truth they will draw the fires of hell upon their
a free salvation. It needed but to re-kindle that own heads. This is the true and holy Gospel, and
old light in the skies of the Church, and a day, the declaration of me, Doctor Martin Luther , ac
clear as that of apostolic times, would again shine cording to the teaching of the Holy Ghost. We
upon her. This was what Luther now proposed hold fast to it in the name of God . Amen ."
doing. This was what Luther learned at Rome. Verily ,
The words in which Luther recorded this purpose he believed, it was worth his long and toilsome jour
are very characteristic. “ I, Doctor Martin Luther," ney thither to learn this one truth. Out of it were
writes he, “ unworthy herald of the Gospel of our to come the life that would revive Christendom , the
Lord Jesus Christ, confess this article, that faith light that would illuminate it,and the holiness that
alone without works justifies before God ; and I would purify and adorn it. In that one doctrine
declare that it shall stand and remain for ever, in lay folded the whole Reformation. “ I would not
despite of the Emperor of the Romans, the Emperor have wanted my journey to Rome," said Luther
of the Turks, the Emperor of the Tartars, the Em - afterwards, “ for a hundred thousand florins.”
peror of the Persians ; in spite of the Pope and all When he turned his back on Rome, he turned
the cardinals, with the bishops, priests, monks, and his face toward the Bible. The Bible henceforward
nuns; in spite of kings, princes, and nobles; and was to be to Luther the true city of God.
CHAPTER VIII.
TETZEL PREACHES INDULGENCES.
Luther Returns to Wittemberg - His Study of the Bible - Leo X . - His Literary Tastes - His Court- A Profitable
Fable - Thé Re-building of St. Peter's - Sale of Indulgences - Archbishop of Mainz - Tetzel – His Character – His
Red Cross and Iron Chest - Power of his Indulgences - Extracts from his Sermons - Sale - What the German
People Think.
LUTHER's stay in Rome did not extend over two tures. He looked upon himself henceforward as
weeks, but in that short time he had learned the sworn knight of the reformed faith. Taking
lessons not to be forgotten all his life long. The farewell of philosophy, from which in truth he was
grace he had looked to find at Rome he had indeed glad to escape, he turned to the Bible as his life
found there , but in the Word of God , not in the work. A more assiduous student of it than ever,
throne of the Pope. The latter was a fountain his acquaintance with it daily grew , his insight
that had ceased to send forth the Water of Life ; into its meaning continually deepened , and thus a
80, turning from this empty cistern , he went back beginning was made in Wittemberg and the neigh
to Wittemberg and the study of the Scriptures. bouring parts of Germany, by the evangelical light
The year of his return was 1512. It was yet which he diffused in his sermons, of that greatwork
five years to the breaking out of the Reformation for which God had destined him . Hehad as yet
in Germany. These years were spent by Luther in no thought of separating himself from the Roman
the arduous labours of preacher, professor, and con - Church, in which , as he believed , there resided
fessor at Wittemberg. A few months after his some sort of infallibility . These were the last
return he received the degree of Doctor in Divinity, links of his bondage, and Rome herself was at that
and this was not without its influence upon the moment unwittingly concocting measures to break
mind of the Reformer. On that occasion Luther them , and set free the arm that was to deal the
took an oath upon the Bible to study, propagate , blow from which she should never wholly rise.
and defend the faith contained in the Holy Scrip- Wemust again turn our eyes upon Rome. The
warlike Julius II., who held the tiara at the #
? Melancthon , Vita Mart, Luth ., pp. 12, 13. Seckendorf,
Hist, Lutheran ., lib . i., p. 21. . Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran ., lib. i., p.
of Luther's visit, was now dead, and Leo X . occu - exchequer. But the magnificent conception must
pied the Vatican. Leo was of the family of the not be permitted to fall through from want of
Medici, and he brought to the Papal chair all money. If the earthly treasury of the Pope was
the tastes and passions which distinguished the empty, his spiritual
Spycan push treasury
there was
was full ; and there
online
Medicean chiefs of the Florentine republic. Refined was wealth enough there to rear a temple that
in manners, but sensual and voluptuous in heart, a would eclipse all existing structures, and be worthy
lover and patron of the fine arts, affecting a taste of being the metropolitan church of Christendom .
for letters, delighting in pomps and shows, his In short, it was resolved to open a special sale of
court was perhaps the most brilliant in Europe.' indulgences in all the countries of Europe. This
No elegance, no amusement, no pleasure were for- traffic would enrich all parties. From the Seven
bidden admission into it. The fact that it was an Hills would flow a river of spiritual blessing. To
ecclesiastical court was permitted to be no restraint Rome would flow back a river of gold .
upon its ample freedom . It was the chosen home Arrangements were made for opening this great
of art, of painting, of music, of revels, and of market (1517). The licence to sell in the different
masquerades. countries of Europe was disposed of to the highest
The Pontiff was not in the least burdened with bidder , and the price was paid beforehand to the
religious beliefs and convictions. To have such Pontiff. The indulgences in Germany were farmed
was the fashion of neither his house nor his age. out to Albert, Archbishop of Mainz and Magde
His office as Pontiff, it is true, connected him with burg.* ' The archbishop was in Germany what
“ a gigantic fable ” which had come down from early Leo X . was in Rome. He loved to see himself
times ; but to have exploded that fable would have surrounded with a brilliant court ; he denied him
been to dissolve the chair in which he sat, and the self no pleasure ; was profuse in entertainments ;
throne that brought him so much magnificence and never went abroad without a long retinue of ser
power. Leo was, therefore, content to vent his vants ; and, as a consequence ,was greatly in want of
scepticism in the well-known sneer , “ What a money. Besides , he owed to the Pope for his pall —
profitable affair this fable of Christ has been to some said , 26 ,000, others , 30,000 floring. There
us !" To this had it come! Christianity was now could be no harm in diverting a little of the wealth
worked solely as a source of profit to the Popes. that was about to flow to Rome, into channels that
Leo, combining, as we have said , the love of art might profit himself. The bargain was struck , and
with that of pleasure , conceived the idea of beauti- the archbishop sought out a suitable person to
fying Rome. His family had adorned Florence with perambulate Germany, and preach up the indul
the noblest edifices. Its glory was spoken of in gences. He found a man every way suited to his
all countries , and men came from afar to gaze upon purpose . This was a Dominican monk , named
its monuments. Leo would do for the Eternal John Diezel, or Tetzel, the son of a goldsmith of
City what his ancestors had done for the capital Leipsic. He had filled the odious office of in
of Etruria. War, and the slovenliness or penury quisitor, and having added thereto a huckstering
of the Popes, had permitted the Church of St. Peter trade in indulgences, he had acquired a large ex
to fall into disrepair. He would clear away. the perience in that sort of business. He had been
ruinous fabric, and replace it with a pile more convicted of a shameful crime at Innspruck , and
glorious than any that Christendom contained . sentenced to be put into a sack and drowned ; but
But to execute such a project millions would be powerful intercession being made for him , he was
needed . Where were they to come from ? The reprieved, and lived to help unconsciously in the
shows or entertainments with which Leo had overthrow of the system that had nourished him .
gratified the vanity of his courtiers , and amused Tetzel lacked no quality necessary for success in
the indolence of the Romans, had emptied his his scandalous occupation. He had the voice of a
town-crier, and the eloquence of a mountebank.
1 “ He played,” says Michelet, “ the part of the first This latter quality enabled him to paint in the
King of Europe.” ( Life of Luther, chap . 2, p . 19.) Polano, most glowing colours the marvellous virtues of the
after enumerating his qualities and accomplishments ,
says that " he would have been a Pope absolutely com
plete, if with these he had joined some knowledge of 3 Polano, Hist. Counc. Trent, bk . i., p. 4 ; Lond., 1629.
things that concern religion .” (Hist. Counc. Trent, lib . i., Sarpi, Hist. Conc. Trent, livr. i., p. 14 ; Basle, 1738. Slei.
p. 4 .) dan , Hist. Reform ., bk . i. ; Lond ., 1689.
2 Paul of Venice says that this Pope laboured under 4 Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran ., lib . i., sec. 6 , p . 12.
two grievous faults : " ignorance of religion , and impiety 6 Gerdesius, Hist. Evan . Renov., tom . i., p . 92.
or atheism ” (ignorantia religionis , et impietate sive athe Hechtius, Vita Tezelii, p . 21. Seckendorf, Hist. Luth .,
ismo). - Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran ., lib . i., sec. 47, p . 190. lib . i., sec. 7, p . 16 . Sleidan , bk. xiii., p. 273.
TETZEL ON INDULGENCES. 257
wares which he offered for sale. The resources “ Indulgences are the most precious and the most
of his invention , the power of his effrontery, and noble of God 's gifts," said Tetzel. Then pointing to
the efficacy of his indulgences were all alike the red cross, which stood full in view of the multi
limitless. tude, he would exclaim , “ This cross has as much
This man made a progress through Germany. efficacy as the very cross of Christ.” “ Come, and
The line of the procession as it moved from place I will give you letters all properly sealed , by which
to place might be traced at a distance by the great even the sins which you intend to commit may be
red cross, which was carried by Tetzel himself, and pardoned.” . “ I would not change my privileges
on which were suspended the arms of the Pope. for those of St. Peter in heaven, for I have saved
In front of the procession , on a velvet cushion, was more souls by my indulgences than the apostle did
borne the Pontiff's bull of grace ; in the rear came by his sermons." The Dominican knew how to
the mules laden with bales of pardons, to be given, extol his own office as well as the pardons he was
not to those who had penitence in the heart, but to so desirous to bestow on those who had money to
those who had money in the hand. buy. “ But more than this,” said Tetzel, for he
When the procession approached a town it was had not as yet disclosed the whole wonderfulvirtues
announced to the inhabitants that “ The Grace of of his merchandise, “ indulgences avail not only for
God and of the Holy Fathers was at their gates.” the living but for the dead.” So had Boniface VIII.
The welcome accorded was commonly such as the enacted two centuries before ; and Tetzel goes on to
extraordinary honour was fitted to draw forth the particular application of the dogma. “ Priest ,
The gates were opened, and the tall red cross, with noble, merchant, wife, youth , maiden , do you not
all the spiritual riches of which it was the sign, hear your parents and your other friends who are
passed in , followed by a long and imposing array of dead , and who cry from the bottom of the abyss :
the ecclesiastical and civic authorities, the religious “ We are suffering horrible torments ! A trifling
orders, the various trades, and the whole popula - alms would deliver us ; you can give it, and you will
tion of the place, which had come out to welcome not'?” O
the great pardon-monger. The procession advanced These words, shouted in a voice of thunder by
amid the beating of drums, the waving of flags, the the monk , made the hearers shudder.
blaze of tapers, and the pealing of bells.? “ At the very instant,” continues Tetzel, “ that
When he entered a city , Tetzel and his company the money rattles at the bottom of the chest, the
went straight to the cathedral. The crowd pressed soul escapes from purgatory, and flies liberated to
in and filled the church. The cross was set up in heaven.? Now you can ransom so many souls,
front of the high altar, a strong iron box was put stiff-necked and thoughtless man ; with twelve
down beside it, in which the money received for groats you can deliver your father from purgatory,
pardons was deposited , and Tetzel, in the garb of the and you are ungrateful enough not to save him ! I
Dominicans,mounting the pulpit began to set forth shall be justified in the Day of Judgment ; but you
with stentorian voice the incomparable merit of his you will be punished so much the more severely
wares. He bade the people think what it was that for having neglected so great salvation. I declare
had come to them . Never before in their times to you, though you have but a single coat, you
nor in the times of their fathers, had there been à ought to strip it off and sell it, in order to obtain
day of privilege like this. Never before had the this grace. . . . The Lord our God no
gates of Paradise been opened so widely . “ Press longer reigns, he has resigned all power to the
in now : come and buy while the market lasts," Pope.”
shouted the Dominican ;, “ should that cross be No argument was spared by the monk which
taken down the market will close, heaven will could prevail with the people to receive his pardons ;
depart, and then you will begin to knock , and to in other words, to fill his iron box. From the fires
bewail your folly in neglecting to avail yourselves of purgatory - dreadful realities to men of that age,
of blessings which shall then have gone beyond for even Luther as yet believed in such a place
your reach.” So in effect did Tetzel harangue the Tetzel would pass to the ruinous condition of St.
crowd. But his own words have a plainness and Peter's, and draw an affecting picture of the ex
vigour which no paraphrase can convey. Let us posure to the rain and hail of the bodies of the two
cull a few specimens from his orations.
3 Myconius, Hist. Reform ., p. 14 ; Ten . edit.
4 Sleidan , Hist. Reform ., bk . xiii., p. 273.
1 Melancthon , Vita Mart . Luth., p. 15 . 5 Gerdesius, Hist. Evan . Renov., tom . i., p. 82.
2 Myconius, Hist .Reform ., p. 106 . Gerdesius, Hist. Evan . 6 D’Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., p . 242.
Renov., tom . i., p . 84. · 7 Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran., lib .i., sec. 6, pp . 12 – 17.
ANI
MBBW NUNINNA
101
BETH
HER
NVN
.
WITTEMBERG
AT
CHURCH
WOODEN
OLD
INTHE
PREACHING
LUTHER
LUTHER'S JOURNEY TO ROME. 247
the year 1510, or, according to others, 1512.' We There dwelt the consecrated priests and ministers
now behold the young monk setting out for the of the Lord. Thither went up, year by year,
metropolis of Christendom . We may well believe armies of devout pilgrims, and tribes of holy
that his pulse beat quicker as every step brought anchorites and monks, to pay their vows in her
him nearer the Eternal City, illustrious as the temples, and prostrate themselves at the footstool
abode of the Cæsars ; still more illustrious as the of the apostles. Luther's heart swelled with no
10
A A .
N
6 . HLAGU
man
VIEW OF BOLOGNA.
abode of the ring. To Luther, Romewas a type common emotion when he thought that his feet
of the Holy of Holies. There stood the throne of would stand within the gates of this thrice-holy
God's Vicar. There resided theOracle ofInfallibility. city.
Alas, what a terrible disenchantment awaited
1Mathesius and Seckendorf place it in 1510,Melancthon the monk at the end of his journey ; or rather,
in 1512. Some mention two journeys. Luther himself what a happy emancipation from an enfeebling
speaks of only one. His object in going to Rome has also and noxious illusion ! For so long as this spell
been variously stated. The author has followed theoldest
authorities, who are likely to be also the best informed . was upon him , Luther must remain the captive
Luther's errand is a matter of small moment ; the great of that power which had imprisoned truth and
fact is thathe did visit Rome. enchained the nations. An arm with a fetter
as would emancipate Christendom . Hemust see “ On this day," said Luther , “ such things may not
Rome, not as his dreams had painted her, but be eaten . The Pope has forbidden them .” The
must go thither to see her with his own eyes, rude German . Verily, thought they, his boldness
profound the idolatrous reverence with which he report their manner of life at head-quarters , and
approaches her, the more resolute his purpose , they consulted together how this danger might be
when he shall have re-crossed her threshold , to obviated . The porter, a humane man, dropped a
one stone upon another. he make a longer stay. Profiting by the friendly
much ease and pleasure through the snows and Again setting forth , and travelling on foot, he
rocks that form the northern wall of Italy did came to Bologna, “ the throne of the Roman law.”
part by narrow , rugged, and dangerous tracks. sore that it threatened to be unto death. To sick
on his journey had , doubtless, an elevating and is to find his grave in a foreign land. The Judg
expanding effect upon his mind, and mingled ment Seat was in view , and alarm filled his soul at
something of Italian ideality with his Teutonic the prospect of appearing before God. In short, the
in the rapid transition from the homeliness of returned . As he waited for death he thought he
Alps, to the brilliant sky, the voluptuous air , shall live by faith." It seemed as if the voice
descent ! of Scripture had been borne into his mind, as if
situated on the banks of the Po, to refresh himself temberg, wbile lecturing from the Epistle to the
a few days. The splendour of the establishment Romans, he had come to these same words, “ The
struck him with wonder. Its yearly revenue, just shall live by faith .” They laid hold upon him so
amounting to the enormous sum of thirty -six that he was forced to pause and ponder over them .
with marble, adorned with paintings, and filled what ? On whom but on Christ , and on what but
with rich furniture. Equally luxuriousand delicate · the righteousness of Christ wrought out in the
cooked dishes. The monk who, in his native sake. .
day's provision was at times only a herring and arrested him , and so did he again reason in his
a small piece of bread , was astonished , but said sick -chamber at Bologna. They were a needful ad
nothing monition, approaching as he now was a city where
forbidden the faithful to taste flesh . The table of enable men to live by works. His sickness and
1 D'Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., p. 190. Luth . Opp.
( W ) xxi . 1468 . • D ’Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., pp. 190, 191.
FLORENCE AND THE RENAISSANCE. 249
no system , to no rite ; it springs up in the heart north of Europe, here met the philosophers and
where faith dwells. Its source was not at Rome, poets of Italy ; and as they walked on the terraces,
but in the Bible ; its bestower was not the Pope, or gathered in groups in the alcoves of the gardens
but the Holy Spirit. - the city,the Arno, and the olive and cypress-clad
“ The just shall live by faith ." As he stood at vale beneath them — they would prolong their dis .
the gates of death a light seemed, at these words, course on the new learning and the renovated age
to spring up around him . He arose from his bed which literature was bringing with it, till the
healed avin body as inApsoul.
enn He resumed
estora his journey. shadows fell, and dusk concealed the domes of
ed ersed the ines, tive power of
He traversed the Apennines, experiencing doubt- Florence at their feet, and brought out the stars in
less, after his sickness , the restorative power of the calm azure overhead . Thus the city of the
their healthful breezes, and the fragrance of their Medici became the centre of that intellectual and
dells gay with the blossoms of early summer. The literary revival which was then radiating over
chain crossed, he descended into that delicious Europe, and which heralded a day of more blessed
valley where Florence, watered by the Arno, and light than any that philosophy and letters have
embosomed by olive and cypress groves, reposes ever shed . Alas, that to Italy, where this light
under a sky where light lends beauty to every first broke, the morning should so soon have been
object on which it falls. Here Luther made his turned into the shadow of death !
next resting-place. But Florence had very recently been the scene
The “ Etrurian Athens," as Florence has been of events which could not be unknown to Luther ,
named, was then in its first glory. Its many and which must have touched a deeper chord in
sumptuous edifices were of recent erection , and his bosom than any its noble edifices and literary
their pristine freshness and beauty were still upon glory could possibly awaken . Just fourteen years
them . Already Brunelleschi had hung his dome (1498 ) before Luther visited this city, Savonarola
the largest in the world — in mid -air ; already had been burned on the Piazza della Gran' Ducca ,
Giotto had raised his Campanile ,making it, hy its for denouncing the corruptions of the Church,
great height, its elegant form , and the richness of upholding the supreme authority of Scripture , and
its variously -coloured marbles, the characteristic teaching that men are to be saved , not by good
feature of the city . Already the Baptistry had works, but by the expiatory sufferings of Christ.”
been built, with its bronze doors which Michael These were the very truths Luther had learned in
of Paradise.” Besides these, other monuments and page of the Bible ; the Spirit, with the iron pen of
Other things were linked with the Etrurian doubtless , to think that in this far-distant land
capital,which Luther was scholar enough to appre- another, by the study of the same book , had come
ciate. Florence was the cradle of the Renaissance. to the same conclusion at which he himself had
The house of Medici had risen to eminence in the arrived respecting the way of life, and had been
family , had amassed immense riches in commerce. showed him that the Spirit of God was acting
Passionately fond of letters and arts, he freely ex - in this land also , that the light was breaking out
scholars and artists. Lovers of letters from every ? Lechler bears his testimony to the teaching of Savo
narola . He says : “ Not only is faith the gift and work
in his superb villa on the sides of Fiesole, and were works of the law . This Savonarola has clearly , roundly,
entertained with princely hospitality. Scholars and fully expressed. He has done so in his exposition of
? Worsley, Life of Luther, vol. i., p . 60. Michelet, Life absque operibus legis justum facit '" (Meditationes in
of Luther, p. 15 ; Lond., 1846 . Psalmos ). - Lechler, vol. ii., p. 542.
as would emancipate Christendom . He must see “ On this day," said Luther , “ such things may not
profound the idolatrous reverence with which he report their manner of life at head -quarters , and
when he shall have re-crossed her threshold , to obviated. The porter , a humane man , dropped a
rocks that form the northern wall of Italy did came to Bologna, “ the throne of the Roman law."
part by narrow , rugged , and dangerous tracks. sore that it threatened to be unto death. To sick
in the rapid transition from the homeliness of returned . As he waited for death he thought be
Alps, to the brilliant sky, the voluptuous air , shall live by faith ." ? It seemed as if the voice
descent ! of Scripture had been borne into his mind , as if
situated on the banks of the Po, to refresh himself temberg , while lecturing from the Epistle to the
a few days. The splendour of the establishment Romans, he had come to these same words, “ The
struck him with wonder. Its yearly revenue, just shall live by faith." They laid hold upon him so
amounting to the enormous sum of thirty -six thathe was forced to pause and ponder over them .
with marble, adorned with paintings, and filled what ? On whom but on Christ , and on what but
with rich furniture. Equally luxurious and delicate · the righteousness of Christ wrought out in the
cooked dishes. The monk who, in his native sake.
day's provision was at times only a herring and arrested him , and so did he again reason in his
a small piece of bread , was astonished , but said sick -chamber at Bologna. They were a needful ad
nothing. monition, approaching as he now was a city where
forbidden the faithful to taste flesh. The table of enable men to live by works. His sickness and
1 D’Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., p. 190. Luth. Opp.
( W ) xxii. 1468 . 2 D 'Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., pp. 190, 191.
but the Holy Spirit. — the city, the Arno, and the olive and cypress-clad
“ The just shall live by faith.” As he stood at vale beneath them — they would prolong their dis
healed in body as in soul. He resumed his journey. shadows fell, and dusk concealed the domes of
less, after his sickness, the restorative power of the calm azure overhead. Thus the city of the
their healthful breezes , and the fragrance of their Medici became the centre of that intellectual and
embosomed by olive and cypress groves , reposes ever shed . Alas, that to Italy, where this light
next resting-place." But Florence had very recently been the scene
The “ Etrurian Athen nhau hoon of events which could not be unknown to Luther ,
named , was then in it deeper chord in
sumptuous edifices were ices and literary
their pristine freshness a 1 New Work by Prof.Henry Morley. st fourteen years
them . Already Brunell city, Savonarola
On April 26th will be published Part I., price 7d., of ella Gran ' Ducca ,
the largest in the we OASSELL ' S
Giotto had raised his C of the Church,
great height, its elegant Library of of Scripture, and
its variously -coloured 1
feature of the city. A
English Literature . red, not by good
erings of Christ.
been built, with its br By PROFESSOR HENRY MORLEY.
EXTRACT FROM INTRODUCTION . and com
er had learned in
Angelo declared to be RHE purpose of this work is to provide a compact
prehensive library of English thought, from the earliest times
. von him from the
of Paradise." Besides totranour
days of Chara owntics
sduceris The Ce
day.of our arran
lemegemenntt will
will be chchrono
eslogica
t timesl. th the iron pen of
works of art adorned ti bet h : ofThtrans
days
cteristics of our Celtic and Teutonic forefathers ; the
singition
spir,itafter
of the Conque
the Conq st, thr
uest, ughh its
throoug forefathe
the timeof rs :cer
Chau the, is heart ; he had
former was now making with the rising spirit
**
beth s of
; the her firs
confl
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on byopi nio
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nReformation , to the Englandd of Eliza
by
andwh ic h
whic Engl, to the
nced from the En gl
adva an 'ds in his wooden
creations of genius Lut days of her first Stuart king to the Revolution of 1688 ; and the
course of thought and action by which we have been brought to
this spot, already
familiar as he had h the England of to-day . --not without illustration of the character of ad a brother-monk
our own time, where we have leave to suggest that by selection
comparatively homely from the works ofour chief living writers, - all these should be found rery same thing in
land. In Germany a here represented in such order as to make this library of use to the
student of the History and Literature of our country. iny. The martyr
not unfrequently emp " Each piece o? prose or verse will be set in a briefnarrative showing
when and by whom it was written , as far as that can be told , with here
į but regard as at
dwellings,whereas the and there such information asmay serve to secure fuller enjoyment of It cheered him ,
some part of the mind of a people 'not slow and dull, but of a quick , is far-distant land
Other things were ingenious, and piercing spirit, acute to invent, subtle and sinewy
to discourse, not beneath the reach of any point the highest that
capital,which Luther human capacity can soar to.' So Milton described his countrymen , ne book , had come
ciate. Florence was t1 and the readers of these volumes will see that he spoke truth .
“ The volumes will be freely illustrated with copies from trustworthy
oh he himself had
The house of Medici." portraits, sketches of places, contemporary illustrations of manners ife, and had been
and customs, or of incidents described or referred to in the pieces
previous century. quoted. unto blood. This
family, had amassed " Our LIBRARY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE seeks to draw for f God was acting
rich and poor, for young and old, the healthiest of pleasures from
Passionately fond of the highest human source."
. . Full Prospectuses of this Important Work at all Boo selirs,
t was breaking out
pended his wealth in and Post Free from the Publishers, MESSRS CASSELL
PETTER & GALPIN : LUDGATE HILL , LONDON .
scholars and artists. the teaching of Savo
Cassell Petter & Galpin : Ludgate Hill, London , th the gift and work
land were welcomed justifies without the
in his superb villa or has clearly, roundly,
entertained with pruthy wwwp - -- so in his exposition of
from the East, learned men from England and the the 31st anu usou - - --- in in prison . And he
Worsley, Life of Luther , vol. i., p . 60. Michelet, Life absque operibus legis justum facit '” (Meditationes in
of Luther , p. 15 ; Lond ., 1846. Psalmos ). - Lechler, vol. ii., p. 542.
upon it was not the arm to strike such blows dishes of meat. Luther could no longer réfrain .
as would emancipate Christendom . Hemust see “ On this day,” said Luther, “ such things may not
Rome, not as his dreams had painted her, but be eaten. The Pope has forbidden them .” The
must go thither to see her with his own eyes, rude German. Verily, thought they, his boldness
for he would not have believed her deformity is great. It did not spoil their appetite, but they
approaches her, the more resolute his purpose, they consulted together how this danger might be
when he shall have re-crossed her threshold, to obviated. The porter, a humane man, dropped a
rocks that form the northern wall of Italy did came to Bologna, “ the throne of the Roman law,"
on his journey had , doubtless, an elevating and is to find his grave in a foreign land. The Judg.
expanding effect upon his mind, and mingled ment Seat was in view , and alarm filled his soul at
robustness To him , as to others, what a sham old anguish and terror, though in moderated force,
in the rapid transition from the hi
the German plains, and the rugged
Alps, to the brilliant sky, the vol 67 On April 26 will be published Part L., price bd., of
A NEW SERIAL EDITION OF
and the earth teeming with flowers CASSELL ' S
which met his gaze when he had acco
descent !
Weary with his journey, he entered
BIB LE DICTIONARY.
WITH UPWARDS OF 600 ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS.
situated on the banks of the Po, to re To be completed in 36 Parts.
1. It explains every word in the 1 6. All obsolete words are in
a few days. The splendour of the Bible requiring explanation , cluded .
2. All words are alphabetically 17. The figurative senses ofwords
arranged in their familiar English are given .
struck him with wonder. Its yea forms, and not in Hebrew forms, Copious Referencesare giver
thus Tendering the work much to 8. passages on which the ar .
amounting to the enormous sum more serviceable for purposes of ticles are founded , thus constitu
reference. ting the Work an Index to the
thousand ducats,' was all expended 3. All Proper Names occurring Bible, as well as a Dictionary of
in the Bille, with their variations its contents .
clothing, and lodging the monks. Th in spelling, and literal mean . 9 . THE ENGRAVINGS ARE
ings are given in alphabetical | ACCURATE , AND BEAUTIFULLY
order. EXECUTED , FULLY ILLUSTRA
were sumptuous in the extreme. Thi 4. The Geographical Names of TING THE EASTERN LIFE AND
every pace mentioned in the Bible | MANNERS, AND BIBLE SCENRO
with marble, adorned with painting will be with
ranged ,
foundthealphal : tically ar.
latest information
AND ANTIQUITIES .
TO . The Maps are numerous.
and extend over the whole range
with rich furniture. Equally luxuriou from recent travellers.
5. Every word is accentuated . Tot Bible Lands.
" A thoroughly good Dictionary of the Bible , at once
was the clothing of the monks. Sill moderate in price, sound and varied in its oritical in .
formation , written up to the tme, and above all, unitine
mostly formed their attire ; and every independence of thought with orthodoxy of belief, has
long been a desideratum . The well-known Arm of
Cassell & Co , huve supplied the want in the publication
down at a table loaded with exquisite described above." - Record ,
cooked dishes. The monk who, ii • Prosnectuses at all Booksellers and Bookstalls.
Germany, had inhabited a bare cel o Completion of the Bible Educator.
day's provision was at times only a Now ready, complete in Four Vols., price g . each :
a small piece of bread, was astonis)
nothing .
or Two Double Volumes , price £1 R .
Friday came, and on Friday the

forbidden the faithful to taste flesh.
THE BIBLE EDUCATOR.
Edited by the Rev. PLUMPTRE , M . A ., assisted by
Rey E . H . PLUMPTRE.MA
some of ouror most eminent Scholars and Divines. Illus
re ar
the monks groaned under the same n for thnoe rahesitati
mnandatioWehave lmelor ionwork
nterines placing
whwhicichh thhas
trated with about 400 Illustrations and Ma
thee Bi blyetesEducat
Bible
acing the Bible Educator beyond andor.Mbein this
appeared
above any similar work whic as yet
has as app
before. As on other days, so on th country , for the value of its autho rityh ,, and
authority variedd exte
and varie nt of its infor
extent
mation ." - Standard ,
a Cassell Petter & Galpin : Ludgate Hill , London ,
D'Aubigné, Hist. Reform .,vol. i., p. 19
(W ) xxü . 1468.
but the Holy Spirit. — the city, the Arno,and the olive and cypress-clad
" The just shall live by faith.” As he stood at vale beneath them — they would prolong their dis.
the gates of death a light seemed , at these words, course on the new learning and the renovated age
their healthful breezes, and the fragrance of their Medici becamethe centre of that intellectual and
embosomed by olive and cypress groves, reposes ever shed. Alas, that to Italy, where this light
nextresting-place. But Florence had very recently been the scene
The “ Etrurian Athens," as Florence has been of events which could not be unknown to Luther,
named, was then in its first glory. Its many and which must have tozched a deeper chord in
their pristine freshness and beauty were still upon glory could possibly awaken. Just fourteen years
them . Already Brunelleschi had hung his dome- (1498) before Luther visited this city, Savonarola
maldin mid-air : already had been burned on the Piazza della Gran' Ducca,
corruptions of the Church,
Now ready, price 7d. Now ready, price od
he authority of Scripture, and
re to be saved , not by good
MAGAZ. INE LITT
DASSELLS LE FOLKS
FAMILForY APRIL For APRIL
THE STAR IN THE DUST.
xpiatory sufferings of Christ.”
truths Luther had learned in
How to give a Nice Li lle RiddHEA P . Serial Story .
The
Dinner .
Great Gold Secret.
les, Puzzl
The Early
es, & c .
Chris tians, aad broke upon him from the
How we got Frank off to Bea. A Talk about Posts in the
Health and Wealth , East.
Hiats and Topics for April Reading Pussy & Letter.
he Spirit, with the iron pen of
Grandmother .
“ How Furnish my
shall I
The story of & Boldier , a
Donkey , and a Doll. 2 them on his heart ; he had
Fords Bedroom P "
Through the Jungle by
Mr. and Mrs. Chaficoh , of
Holly
Ragged Bob.
Lodge. stening crowds in his wooden
rg ; and on this spot, already
Fives LoveTorchlight.
or Pride. Short Story . Natural History Wanting
Chit- chat on Dres . By our Words.
ar
titt
the
Paris Correspondent.
Father's Boat By the Rev.
One Fault Only .
Picture Truths. MORE f Neptune, had a brother-monk
y of M . G WATKINS, M . A .
A London Slum ,
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE SUN .
Nutcrac - ers and their or doing the very same thing in
AREY
LL
Police Pre tices.
April Showers
Vivisectors and their Vic.
Nighbours,
The Sh down the Wall.
Little Fiks' Letters.
lone in Saxony. The martyr
TRA
AND
NES
tims. By W . GILBERT.
Recºrd Thoughts
The Brave Fringus ; or,
Priy rin & Volcano. he could not but regard as at
ous,
Starlight. MUSIC by WALTER
WomeH . SAUNDERS.
About the Monke ve
Amlia 's Comic 1 Landscape.
Script ire History Wanting
' evil augury. It cheered him ,
iage n who Work : Needle
women.
FlowerMusicale
The Roiree Gatherer.
Words.
Trusting Ever . Music by J.
that in this far-distant land
Our
MARKWICK . . By E . GORDON SAUNDERS, Mus. B .
Buying and selling in the dy of the same book, had come
The Gatherer.
The MANCHESTER MAN .
East.
The Good Ship Never Fail."
Bold Wilfrid ; "a Tale of the
sion at which he himself had
By Mrs. LINNAUS BANKS .
PRETTY MISS BELLEW . Corn .sh Coast.
Through & Museum
the way of life, and had been
Serial Story. By THEO.GIFT. The Family of the Old wo
man who Lived in a shoe . for the truth unto blood. This
“ Any Lad of Intelligence may, by the aid of the the Spirit of God was acting
" TECHNICAL EDUCATOR ,' become master not only of
his own destined trade, but of all others that meet his
that the light was breaking out
own at any point. A task has been achieved ofalmost
Nationil importance in placing this work within testimony to the teaching of Savo
the reach of every working and professional man ." Tot only alone
is faithjustifies
the giftwithout
and work
Daily Telegraph . at faith the
PART 2 now ready, price 7d., of his Savonarola has clearly , roundly ,
Cassell's Technical Educator,
With ILLUSTRATIONS and DIAGRAMS
He has done so in his exposition of
Psalms, written in prison. And he
ON NEARLY EVERY PAGE . ach the following words in proof:
Cassell Petter & Galpin : Ludgate Hill, London , tificat hominem , id est, apud Deum
gis justum facit'" (Meditationes in
vol. ii., p . 542.
as would emancipate Christendom . He must see “ On this day,” said Luther, “ such things may not
must go thither to see her with his own eyes, rude German . Verily , thought they, his boldness
profound the idolatrous reverence with which he report their manner of life at head -quarters, and
when he shall have re-crossed her threshold , to obviated . The porter , a humane man , dropped a
he make a longer stay. Profiting by the friendly
onestene upon another ins and descended
Luther crossed the Alps and descended on the counsel to depart hence while health served him .
rocks that form the northern wall of Italy did came to Bologna , “ the throne of the Roman law ."
part by narrow , rugged, and dangerous tracks. sore that it threatened to be unto death . To sick
expanding effect upon his mind , and mingled ment Seat was in view , and alarm filled his soul at
in the rapid transition from the homeliness of returned . As he waited for death he thought he
the German plains, and the ruggedness of the heard a voice arying to him and saying, “ The just
Alps, to the brilliant sky. the faith." ? It seemed as if the voice
and the earth om heaven, so vivid was the impres
which met his was the second time this passage
descent ! d been borne into his mind, as if
Weary it to him . In his chair at Wit
situated on lecturing from the Epistle to the
a few day come to these same words, “ The
struck hin faith.” They laid hold upon him so
amounting d to pause and ponder over them .
thousand d ean ? What can they mean but
clothing, ai a new life, and that this new life
were sumpt h ? But faith on whom , and on
with marbl but on Christ, and on what but
with rich fui of Christ wrought out in the
was the clot ulf ? If that be so , pardon and
mostly form ot of works but of faith : they
down at a ta of God to the sinner for Christ's
cooked dishe
Germany, ha easoned when these words first
day's provisio so did he again reason in his
a small piece logna. They were a needful ad
nothing Dites Saa ing as he now was a city where
Friday came remonies had been invented to
forbidden the i by works. His sickness and
the monks gros back upon the first elements of
before. A ly source of holiness. He was·
ness is restricted to no soil, to
4. Reform ., vol. i., pp. 190, 191.

Wu , Lada
where faith dwells. Its source was not at Rome, poets of Italy ; and as they walked on the terraces ,
but the Holy Spirit. - the city, the Arno, and the olive and cypress -clad
“ The just shall live by faith.” As he stood at vale beneath them --they would prolong their dis .
He traversed the Apennines, experiencing doubt Florence at their feet, and brought out the stars in
valley where Florence , watered by the Arno, and light than any that philosophy and letters have
embosomed by olive and cypress groves, reposes ever shed. Alas, that to Italy, where this light
named , was then in its first glory. Its many and which must have touched a deeper chord in
them . Already Brunelleschi had hung his dome— (1498) before Luther visited this city, Savonarola
the largest in the world — in mid -air ; already had been burned on the Piazza della Gran ' Ducca,
Giotto had raised his Campanile , making it, by its for denouncing the corruptions of the Church ,
great height, its elegant form , and the richness of upholding the supreme authority of Scripture, and
its variously-coloured marbles, the characteristic teaching that men are to be saved, not by good
feature of the city . Already the Baptistry had works, but by the expiatory sufferings of Christ.”
of Paradise." Besides these, other monuments and page of the Bible ; the Spirit, with the iron pen of
familiar as he had hitherto been with only the marked by a statue of Neptune, had a brother -monk
Other things were linked with the Etrurian doubtless, to think that in this far-distant land
capital,which Luther was scholar enough to appre- another, by the study of the same book, had come
previous century. Cosmo, the founder of the enabled to witness for the truth unto blood . This
family, had amassed immense riches in commerce. showed him that the Spirit of God was acting
Passionately fond of letters and arts, he freely ex - in this land also, that the light was breaking out
scholars and artists. Lovers of letters from every 2 Lechler bears his testimony to the teaching of Savo
in his superb villa on the sides of Fiesole, and were works of the law . This Savonarola has clearly , roundly,
entertained with princely hospitality. Scholars and fully expressed . He has done so in his exposition of
the 31st and 51st Psalms, written in prison . And he
from the East , learned men from England and the quotes from Rudelbach the following words in proof :
I Worsley, Life of Luther, vol. i., p. 60. Michelet, Life absque operibus legis justum facit ' " (Meditationes in
of Luther, p . 15 ; Lond., 1846. Psalmos). - Lechler, vol. ii., p . 542.
as would emancipate Christendom . He must see
o nad painted her, but be eaten. nha
Rome, not as his dreams had painted her, but
e succes
“ On this day,” said Luther, “ such things may not
be eaten. The Pope has forbidden them ." The
although another had told him ; and the more began to be apprehensive that the German might and
profound the idolatrous reverence with which he report their manner of life at head -quarters,
more reresolute
ham. ththee more
approaches her, his pupurpose,
solute his rpose, they consulted together how this danger might be
ne.m The porter, a humane man, dropped a
when he shall have re-crossed her threshold , to obviated
Luther crossed the Alps and descended on the counsel to depart hence while health served him .
rocks that form the northern wall of Italy did came to Bologna, “ the throne of the Roman law ."
not then exist, and Luther would scale this ram - In this city Luther fell ill, and his sickness was so
part by narrow , rugged , and dangerous tracks. sore that it threatened to be unto death . To sick
on his journey had, doubtless, an elevating and is to find his grave in a foreign land. The Judg
in the rapid transition fror aihe waited for death he thought he
the German plains, d saying, “ The just
Alps, to the brillia ned as if the voice
and the earth teem Now
Now ready,
teady *PART I., price 6d ., of the NEW SERIAL ivid was the impres
* ISSUE
which met his gaze v of nd time this passage
(lescent ! CASSELL 'S ILLUSTRATED nto his mind, as if
Weary with his jot n his chair at Wit
situated on the banks
a few days. The sp
GUL LIVER'S TRAVELS .
With upwards of 100 Illustrations by the late
the Epistle to the
same words, “ The
struck him with wi Mr. T . Morten . uid hold upon him so
amounting to the e To be completed within Twelve Parts. ponder over them .
thousand ducats,' w “ We never so thoroughly enjoyed the plain , unvarnished tale so
truthfully andin these parte between the Beobdingua determinedhere is
truthfully and plainly told by Captain Lemuel Gulliver, as the can they mean but
perusal of it in these pages. Never before did we so completely
clothing, and lodging inaster the difference of size between the traveller and the Lillipu
tians, and between the same and the Brobdingnagians ; while the
d that this new life
were sumptuous in tl voyage to Laputa , which was only readable by a determined man ,
now becomes a labour of absolute pleasure . All this difference is
on whom , and on
with marble , adorner owing to the pictures which are strewn broadcast throughout the
volume- a volume which is about the most elegant yet produced by
t, and on what but
with rich furniture. ] the enterprising firm of Cassell Petter and Galpin ," - The Bookseller . rought out in the
was the clothing of t With Part I. is issued , free of charge, a OOLOURED
PLATE , representing " Gulliver in Lilliput. " be so, pardon and
mostly formed their a put of faith : they
down at a table loader PART 6 now ready, price 7d. | Now ready, PART 8, price 7d. sinner for Christ's
cooked dishes. The
Germany, had inhab
The Histo
OF
ry Cassell's History
OF THE these words first
day's provision was & Protestantism . United States . gain reason in his
a small piece of brea By the Rev . Dr. Wylle .
With Original Illustrations.
were a needful ad
nothing. ACCURATELY AND PRO was a city where
Friday came, and ** Alike in manner and in matter ,
this new history proinises to rank
FUSELY ILLUSTRATED . been invented to
forbidden the faithful as the standard work upon the
subject." - Edinburgh Daily Re. Third Edition of Part I. His sickness and
view . engravingsare wellworthy
the monks groaned u
before.
" The
of the great historical drama de
with PRESENTATION PLATE ,
now ready. le first elements of
As on other scribed." - Standard, holiness. He was
Edition of Part I . , " A beautifully illustrated and
with hPRESENTATION
Fourt PLATE, | carefully written history." -- Stan .
dard .
cted to no soil, to
i D 'Aubigné, Hist. Reft not ready.
(W ) xxi . 1468. Cassell Petter & Galpin : Ludgate Hill; London, i., pp. 190, 191.
b e r ed in groups they wwalked

a l
no system , to no rite ; it springs up in the heart north of Europe, here met the philosophers and rs and
ked bilosopheterraces
where faith dwells. Its source was not at Rome, poets of Italy ; and as they on the ,
but the Holy Spirit. - the city, the Arno, and the olive and cypress-clad
“ The just shall live by faith.” As he stood at vale beneath them — they would prolong their dis.
less, after his sickness , the restorative power of the calm azure overhead. Thus the city of the
their healthful breezes , and the fragrance of their Medici became the centre of that intellectual and
chain crossed , he descended into that delicious Europe, and which heralded a day of more blessed
embosomed by olive and cypress groves, reposes ever shed . Alas , that to Italy , where this light
The “ Etrurian Athens," as Florence has been of events which could not be unknown to Luther ,
named, was then in its first glory. Its many and which must have touched a deeper chord in
sumptuous edifices were of recent erection, and his bosom than any its noble edifices and literary
their pristine freshness and beauty were still upon glory could possibly awaken . Just fourteen years
them . Already Brunelleschi had hung his dome (1498) before Luther visited this city , Savonarola
the largest in the world — in mid -air ; already had been burned on the Piazza della Gran ' Ducca ,
Giotto had raised his Campanile, making it, hy its for denouncing the corruptions of the Church,
great height, its elegant form , and the richness of upholding the supreme authority of Scripture , and
its variously-coloured marbles, the characteristic teaching that men are to be saved , not by good
feature of the city. Already the Baptistry had works, but by the expiatory sufferings of Christ.”
of Paradise.” Besides these , other monuments and page of the Bible ; the Spirit, with the iron pen of
works of art adorned the city where the future Re- anguish , had written them on his heart ; he had
former was now making a brief sojourn . To these preached them to listening crowds in his wooden
dwellings, whereas the Italians built with marble. Once of good and of evil augury. It cheered him ,
capital, which Luther was scholar enough to appre- another, by the study of the same book , had come
previous century. Cosmo, the founder of the enabled to witness for the truth unto blood . This
Passionately fond of letters and arts, he freely ex- in this land also, that the light was breaking out
scholars and artists. Lovers of letters from every ? Lechler bears his testimony to the teaching of Savo
in his superb villa on the sides of Fiesole, and were works of the law . This Savonarola has clearly, roundly ,
I Worsley, Life of Luther, vol. i., p. 60. Michelet, Life absque operibus legis justum facit '” (Meditationes in
of Luther , p. 15 ; Lond ., 1846. Psalmos). - Lechler, vol. ii., p . 542.
at various points, and that the day he waited for at the irreverence and impiety which characterised
was not far distant. all ranks, especially the “ religious.” The re
interpreted ; it might be construed into a prognostic luxury, abominable vices, and frightful crimes de
ofmany other stakes to be planted hereafter. The filed the land ; and, to crown all, “ sacred things ”
bitter as ever, and that the darkness would not fruits of the earth into a luxuriance unknown to
peaceful scene on which Truth was about to step, riance the appetites of the body and passions of the
and it was not amid the plaudits of the multitude soul.ountHe
y sighed
mplici for the comparative temperance ,
that her progress was to be accomplished. On the frugality, i
B , ssimplicity, and piety of his fatherland.
lessone shetempest
contrary, could and
ni battle stouldhang
she muwould orn her
be wupon her But he was now near Rome, and Rome, said he
doubtless he often came to muse and pray, there are no conventual cells with a luxurious
How the city in biless, was a
him in the city in which he had poured out his ture inlaid with silver and mother -of-pearl, while
blood ? This, doubtless, was another point of their walls are aglow with marbles, paintings, and
anxious inquiry to Luther ; but the answer was gilding. There are no priests who tarry by the
had cooled . It was hard to enter into life as ing with dishes of meat and venison . The sound
Savonarola had entered into it — the gate was too of the viol, the lute, and the harp is never heard
narrow and the road too thorny. They praised in the monasteries of Rome : there ascend only the
heaven , drew back when brought face to face with Florence , and set out on the last stage of his
the stake, and crouched down beneath the two- journey.
fold burden of sensuality and superstition . We see him on his way. He is descending
which before beginning his journey he had pictured Viterbo is seated . At every short distance he
into this land of Italy , the more was he shocked feet, some signs of her who once was “ Queen of
the Nations.” On his right, laving the shore of
1 “ Savonarola ,” says Rudelbach , “ was a prophet of Latium , is the blue Mediterranean ; on his left
the Reformation .” Lechler adds : “ and the martyr of
his prophecy; a martyr for reform before the Reforma is the triple-topped Soracte and the “ purple Apen
tion ." (Vol. ii., p . 546 .) nine” - white towns hanging on its crest, and
2 The author was shown , in 1864, the Bible of Savona olive-woods and forests of pine clothing its sides —
rola , which is preserved in the library of San Lorenzo at
over in a small eleganthand , that of Savonarola . After his till it fades from the eye in the southern horizon .
martyrdom his disciples were accustomed to comesecretly Luther is now traversing the storied
and kiss the spotwhere he had been burned . This coming di Roma.
to the knowledge of the reigning duke, Pietro de Medici ,
annoyance. He accordingly erected on the spot a statue day finds it herbless, silent, and desolate. The
of water, and sea -nymphs clustering on the brim . The
duke's device has but the more effectually fixed in the perished from its bosom . The numerous and popu
linowledge of mankind the martyrdom and the spot lous towns, that in its better days crowned every
where it took place . conical height that dots its surface , are now buried
in its soil : its olive-woods and orange-groves have man, and so forsaken of its cities , as it is at this
been swept away, and thistles, wiry grass, and reeds day. The land still continued to enjoy what has
have come in their room . Its roads, once crowded now all but ceased upon it, seed -time and harvest.
with armies, ambassadors , and proconsuls, are now Besides, it was the beginning of summer when
deserted and all but untrodden . Broken columns Luther visited it, and seen under the light of an
protruding through the soil, stacks of brick -work Italian sun, and with the young verdure clothing
with the marble peeled off, substructions of temples its surface, the scene would be by no means an
lurking-place of the brigand, and similar memo- his thoughts : he was drawing nigh to the metro
flourishing cultivation, and the many magnificent Mario , adjoining the Vatican — for the cupola of
structures, that once adorned this great plain. St. Peter's was not yet built - would be the first
Roma had not become the blighted , treeless, devas- the buildings and towers of the city would next
tated expanse it is now . Doubtless many me- come into view . Luther had had his first sight of
War had left some frightful scars upon the plain : without emotion, though it might not be so fervent,
the indolence and ignorance of its inhabitants had nor of the same character exactly , as that which
operated with even worse effect: but still in the thrilled Luther at this moment. Falling on his
sixteenth century it had not become so deserted of knees , he exclaimed ,“ Holy Rome, I salute thee !" 9
CHAPTER VII.
LUTHER IN ROME.
Enchantment - Ruins - Holy Places-- Rome's Nazarites - Rome's Holiness - Luther's Eyes begin to Open - Pilate's
Stairs - A Voice heard a Third Time- A Key that Opens the Closed Gates of Paradise - What Luther Learned
at Rome.
which he is arrived ? to judge how much she owed to her Popes.
The enchantment continued for some little while. Luther gazed with veneration on these defaced
was breathing holier air, so he strove to persuade men whose deeds had thrilled him , and whose
himself ; here he was mingling with a righteous writings had instructed him in his native land .
people ; while the Nazarites of the Lord were every Here, too, thought Luther, the martyrs had died ;
moment passing by in their long. robes, and the on the floor of this stupendous ruin, the Coliseum ,
chimes pealed forth all day long, and, not silent had they contended with the lions ; on this spot,
Even by night, told of the prayers and praises that where now stands the sumptuous temple of St.
were continually ascending in the temples of the Peter, and where the Vicar of Christ has erected
physical decay and ruin of the place. Noble palaces Paul's feet had walked, and to this city had that
and glorious monuments rose on every side of him , -
but, strangely enough, mingled with these were In proof we appeal to the engravings of Piranesi, now
nearly 200 years old . These represent the country around
heaps of rubbish and piles of ruins. These were Rome as tolerably peopled and cultivated .
the remains of the once imperial glory of the city ? Tischreden , 441.
the spoils of war, the creations of genius, the labours 3 Luth . Opp. (W ) xxii. 2374, 2377.
letterread,in
and been sent,and
which here thehad wordsthat
occur it first beenhadopened
been outward
reformed course
while of liberty,
the old actsandandthehabitsideas ofmaylegbeal
thejustmeans
shall of byimparting
live faith.” to him a new life— “ The beliefmay
Luther or for Christendom
for a timesurvive.to findIt wasits waynot easyoutofafor
first weekswhich Luther passed in Rome night of twelve centuries. Even to this hourthat
wereThe occupied in visiting the holy places, and nightremainsbrooding overa fullhalf of Europe.
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VIEW OF FLORENCE.
saying mass at the altars of the more holy of its It it was the physical deformities of Rome— the
heart, For, although
churches.and rested on the one LutherMediator,his formedwhich
scars
was convertedknowin- inflicted —it that
or barbarism hadto Luther,
the firstwarstumbling-blocks was
ledge
still remained in part.and Thethe lawdarkness
was imperfect, not long till
of lifeofin histhemind he began to see that
blemishes were as nothingthatto existed
soul these
the hideous outward
moralthe
and spiritualThe corruptions
may not be able all at once to develop into an surface. beneath
1 Seckendorf,Hist. Lutheran., lib.i., sec.8,p.19. shocked him luxury, lewdness,
in the first Italianandtowns
impietyhe that
had
entered, and which had attended him in every step the neighbouring altars had sung seven . “ Make
of his journey since crossing the Alps, were all haste, and send Our Lady back her Son :" such
repeated in Rome on a scale of seven-fold magni- was the horrible scoff with which they reproved
tude. His practice of saying mass at all the more his delay, as they accounted it." . To them “ Lady
favoured churches brought him into daily contact and Son ” were worth only the money they brought.
with the priests ; he saw them behind the scenes ; But these were the common priests. Surely ,
he heard their talk , and he could not conceal from thought he, faith and piety still linger among the
himself — though the discovery unspeakably shocked dignitaries of the Church ! How mistaken was
THE SCHLOSS-KIRK , OR CASTLE -CHURCH , AT WITTEMBERG .
contempt and treated with mockery the very rites prelates. Taking the German to be a man of the
which in public they celebrated with so great a same easy faith with themselves, they lifted the
show of devotion . If he was shocked at their veil a little too freely. They openly expressed their
profane levity , they on their part were no less disbelief in the mysteries of their Church, and
astonished at his solemn credulity , and jeered him shamelessly boasted of their cleverness in deceiving
as a dull German, who had not genius enough to and befooling the people. Instead of the words,
be a sceptic, nor cunning enough to be a hypocrite “ Hoc est meum corpus," & c. — the words at the
-a fossilised specimen , in short, of a fanaticism utterance of which the bread is changed , as the
common enough in the twelfth century, but which Church of Rome teaches, into the flesh and blood
it amazed them to find still existing in the six - of Christ — these prelates, as they themselves told
teenth. him , were accustomed to say, “ Panis es, et panis
One day Luther was saying mass in one of the manebis,” & c. - Bread thou art, and bread thou
churches of Romewith his accustomed solemnity .
While he had been saying one mass, the priests at · Tischreden, 441. Seckendorf, lib . i., p. 19.
22
as would emancipate Christendom . He must see “ On this day," said Luther, “ such things may not
Rome, not as his dreams had painted her, but be eaten . The Pope has forbidden them ." The
must go thither to see her with his own eyes , rude German. Verily, thought they, his boldness
when he shall have re-crossed her threshold , to obviated . The porter, a humane man, dropped a
rocks that form the northern wall of Italy did came to Bologna, “ the throne of the Roman law .”
not then exist, and Luther would scale this ram - In this city Luther fell ill, and his sickness was so
on his journey had, doubtless, an elevating and is to find his grave in a foreign land. The Judg
expanding effect upon his mind , and mingled ment Seat was in view , and alarm filled his soul at
something of Italian ideality with hin Teutonia the prospect of appearing before God. In short,the
robustness. To him , as to o ated force,
in the rapid transition fron thought he
the German plains, and the Now ready, PART I., price 6d., of the NEW SERIAL “ The just
Alps, to the brilliant sky, ISSUE of the voice
and the earth teeming with CASSELL'S ILLUSTRATED he impres
which met his gaze when he his passage
mind, as if
descent !
Weary with his journey, he GULLIVER'S TRAVELS.
With upwards of 100 Illustrations by the late är at Wit
situated on the banks of the: Mr. T . Morten . stle to the
a few days. The splendour To be completed within Twelve Parts. brds, “ The
struck him with wonder. “ We never so thoroughly enjoyed the plain , unvarnished tale so
truthfully and plainly told by Captain Lemuel Gulliver, as the
pon him so
amounting to the enormous perusal of it in these pages. Never before did we so completely
master the difference of size between the traveller and the Lillipu .
over them .
thousand ducats, ' was all « tians, and between the same and the Brobdingnagians , while the
voyage to Laputa , which was only readable by a determined man , mean but
clothing, and lodging themo now becomes a labour of absolute pleasure. All this difference is
owing to the pictures which are strewn broadcast throughout the
volume- a volume which is about the most elegant yet produced by
is new life
were sumptuous in the extre the enterprising firm of Cassell Petter and Galpin ," - The Bookseller . m , and on
with marble, adorned with With Part I . is issued , free of charge, a OOLOURED i what but
with rich furniture. Equally PLATE , representing Gulliver in Lilliput. "
(ut in the
was the clothing of the mon PART 6 now ready, price 7d. | Now ready, PART 8, price 7d . ardon and
mostly formed their attire ; a The History Cassell's History aith : they
down at a table loaded with for Christ's
cooked dishes. The monk Pr otestantism . United States. OF THE
Germany, had inhabited a ' By the Rev . Dr.Wylie, words first

day's provision was at time With Original Illustrations. son in his
ACCURATELY AND PRO
a small piece of bread, was " Alike in manner and in matter,
this new history promises to rank FUSELY ILLUSTRATED. needful ad
nothing . as the standard work upon the
subject." - Edinburgh Daily Re. • Third Edition of Part I. city where
view .
Friday came, and on F " The engravings are well worthy
of the great historical drama de
PRESENTA
with
now ready.
TION PLATE , nvented to
forbidden the faithful to tas scribed ." - Standard . kness and
the monks groaned under th Fourth Edition of Part I . , " A beautifully illustrated and
carefully written history." - Stan
with PRESENTATION PLATE , | dard.
alements of
before. As on other days, now ready. ! He was
Cassell Petter & Galpin : Ludgate Hill, London, no soil, to
1 D’Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vo
( W ) xxi . 1468. 90, 191.
but the Holy Spirit. — the city, the Arno, and the olive and cypress-clad
" The just shall live by faith .” As he stood at vale beneath them — they would prolong their dis
less, after his sickness, the restorative power of the calm azure overhead . Thus the city of the
embosomed by olive and cypress groves, reposes ever shed. Alas, that to Italy , where this light
named, was then in its first glory. Its many and which must have tozched a deeper chord in
them . Already Brunelleschi had hung his dome (1498 ) before Luther visited this city , Savonarola
the largest in the world — in mid -air ; already had been burned on the Piazza della Gran' Ducca ,
Giotto had raised his Campanile , making it, by its for denouncing the corruptions of the Church,
great height, its elegant form , and the richness of upholding the supreme authority of Scripture, and
its variously -coloured marbles, the characteristic teaching that men are to be saved, not by good
feature of the city. Already the Baptistry had works, but by the expiatory sufferings of Christ.”
of Paradise.” Besides these , other monuments and page of the Bible ; the Spirit, with the iron pen of
works of art adorned the city where the future Re- anguish , had written them on his heart ; he had
dwellings, whereas the Italians built with marble. Once of good and of evil augury. It cheered him ,
capital,which Luther was scholar enough to appre- another, by the study of the same book, had come
ciate . Florence was the cradle of the Renaissance. to the same conclusion at which he himself had
Passionately fond of letters and arts, he freely ex- in this land also, that the light was breaking out
scholars and artists. Lovers of letters from every 2 Lechler bears his testimony to the teaching of Savo
narola . He says :" Not only is faith the gift and work
in his superb villa on the sides of Fiesole , and were works of the law . This Savonarola has clearly , roundly ,
the 31st and 51st Psalms, written in prison . And he
from the East, learned men from England and the quotes from Rudelbach the following words in proof:
' Hæc fides sola justificat hominem , id est, apud Deum
Worsley, Life of Luther, vol. i., p. 60. Michelet, Life absque operibus legis justum facit'" (Meditationes in
of Luther, p . 15 ; Lond., 1846. Psalmos). - Lechler, vol. ii., p . 542.
at various points , and that the day he waited for at the irreverence and impiety which characterised
was not far distant." all ranks, especially the “ religious.” The re
interpreted ; it might be construed into a prognostic luxury, abominable vices , and frightful crimes de
of many other stakes to be planted hereafter. The filed the land ; and, to crown all, “ sacred things"
bitter as ever , and that the darkness would not fruits of the earth into a luxuriance unknown to
peaceful scene on which Truth was about to step, riance the appetites of the body and passions of the
and it was not amid the plaudits of the multitude soul. He sighed for the comparative temperance ,
that her progress was to be accomplished . On the frugality, simplicity, and piety of his fatherland.
contrary, tempest and battle would hang upon her But he was now near Rome, and Rome, said he
doubtless he often came to muse and pray. there are no conventual cells with a luxurious
him in the city in which he had poured out his ture inlaid with silver and mother-of-pearl, while
blood ? This , doubtless, was another point of their walls are aglow with marbles, paintings, and
anxious inquiry to Luther ; but the answer was gilding. There are no priests who tairy by the
had cooled . It was hard to enter into life as ing with dishes of meat and venison . The sound
Savonarola had entered into it - the gate was too of the viol, the lute , and the harp is never heard
narrow and the road too thorny. They praised in the monasteries of Rome: there ascend only the
heaven, drew back when brought face to face with Florence, and set out on the last stage of his
the stake, and crouched down beneath the two- journey .
fold burden of sensuality and superstition. We see him on his way. He is descending
which before beginning his journey he had pictured Viterbo is seated. At every short distance he
into this land of Italy, the more was he shocked feet, some signs of her who once was “ Queen of
1 “ Savonarola,” says Rudelbach, “ was a prophet of
the Nations." On his right, laving the shore of
Latium , is the blue Mediterranean ; on his left
the Reformation .” Lechler adds : “ and the martyr of
his prophecy ; a martyr for reform before the Reforma is the triple-topped Soracte and the “ purple Apen
tion .” (Vol. ii., p. 546.) nine" - white towns hanging on its crest, and
? The author was shown, in 1864, the Bible of Savona olive-woods and forests of pine clothing its sides —
rola, which is preserved in the library of San Lorenzo at
over in a small eleganthand, thatof Savonarola . Afterhis till it fades from the eye in the southern horizon.
martyrdom his disciples were accustomed to comesecretly Luther is now traversing the storied Campagna
and kiss the spot where he had been burned . This coming di Roma.
to the knowledge of the reigning duke, Pietro de Medici,
annoyance. He accordingly erected on the spot a statue day finds it herbless , silent, and desolate. The
of water, and sea -nymphs clustering on the brim . The
duke's device has but the more effectually fixed in the perished from its bosom . The numerous and popu
Ispowledge of mankind the martyrdom and the spotlous towns, that in its better days crowned every
where it took place. conical height that dots its surface, are now buried
in its soil : its olive-woods and orange-groves have man, and so forsaken of its cities, as it is at this
been swept away, and thistles , wiry grass, and reeds day. The land still continued to enjoy what has
have come in their room . Its roads, once crowded now all but ceased upon it, seed-time and harvest.
with armies, ambassadors, and proconsuls, are now Besides, it was the beginning of summer when
deserted and all but untrodden. Broken columns Luther visited it, and seen under the light of an
protruding through the soil, stacks of brick-work Italian sun , and with the young verdure clothing
with the marble peeled off, substructions of temples its surface , the scene would be by no means an
lurking-place of the brigand, and similar memo his thoughts : he was drawing nigh to the metro
flourishing cultivation, and the many magnificent Mario , adjoining the Vatican — for the cupola of
structures, that once adorned this great plain . St. Peter's was not yet built — would be the first
Roma had not become the blighted , treeless, devas- the buildings and towers of the city would next
tated expanse it is now . Doubtless many me- come into view . Luther had had his first sight of
War had left some frightful scars upon the plain : without emotion, though it might not be so fervent,
the indolence and ignorance of its inhabitants had nor of the same character exactly, as that which
operated with even worse effect : but still in the thrilled Luther at this moment. Falling on his
sixteenth century it had not become so deserted of knees, he exclaimed, “ Holy Rome, I salute thee!" .
CHAPTER VII.
LUTHER IN ROME .
Enchantment - Ruins- Holy Places - Rome's Nazarites - Rome's Holiness - Luther's Eyes begin to Open - Pilate's
Stairs - A Voice heard a Third Time- A Key that opens the Closed Gates of Paradise - What Luther Learned
at Rome.
which he is arrived ? to judge how much she owed to her Popes.
The enchantment continued for some littlewhile. Luther gazed with veneration on these defaced
was breathing holier air , so he strove to persuade men whose deeds had thrilled him , and whose
himself ; here he was mingling with a righteous writings had instructed him in his native land.
people ; while the Nazarites of the Lord were every Here, too, thought Luther , the martyrs had died ;
moment passing by in their long robes, and the on the floor of this stupendous ruin , the Coliseum ,
chimes pealed forth all day long, and, not silent had they contended with the lions ; on this spot,
even by night, told of the prayers and praises that where now stands the sumptuous temple of St.
were continually ascending in the temples of the Peter, and where the Vicar of Christ has erected
physical decay and ruin of the place. Noble palaces Paul's feet had walked, and to this city had that
and glorious monuments rose on every side of him ,
but, strangely enough, mingled with these were nearly In proof we appeal to the engravings of Piranesi, now
heaps of rubbish and piles of ruins. These were 200 years old . These represent the country around
Rome as tolerably peopled and cultivated .
theremains of the once imperial glory of the city, · Tischreden , 441.
the spoils of war, the creations of genius, the labours 3 Luth. Opp. (W ) xxii. 2374 ,2377.
letter been sent, and here had it first been opened outward course of liberty, and the ideasmay be
and read, in which occur the words that had been reformed while the old acts and habits of legal
the means of imparting to him a new life— “ The beliefmay for a time survive. Itwas not easy for
justTheshallfirstliveweekswhich Lutherofortwelve
by faith.” Luther passed in Rome night for Christendom
centuries. toEvenfindtoitsthiswayhourout thatofa
were occupied in visiting the holy places, and night remains brooding over a full half of Europe.
MES
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ELT
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VIEW OF FLORENCE.
saying mass at the altars of the was more holy of its of Rome- the
It it was the physicaldeformities inflicted
churches. For, although LutherMediator, converted in scars which war or barbarism had Luther, — that
heart, and rested on the one his know - formed the first stumbling-blocks to outward it was
ledge was imperfect, and the darkness of his mind to see that these moral
not long till he begannothing
still remained in part. The law of life in the soul
may not be able all at once to develop into an om wel cor uptions wednes, and impletne bad
blemishes
and spiritual
surface. The
as thatto existed
werecorruptions
luxury, lewdness,
the hideous
and
beneath the
impiety that
i Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran., lib. i., sec. 8, p. 19. shocked him in the first Italian towns he had
entered , and which had attended him in every step the neighbouring altars had sung seven . “ Make
of his journey since crossing the Alps, were all haste, and send Our Lady back her Son :” such
repeated in Rome on a scale of seven-fold magni- was the horrible scoff with which they reproved
tude. His practice of saying mass at all the more his delay, as they accounted it." . To them “ Lady
favoured churches brought him into daily contact and Son ” were worth only the money they brought.
with the priests ; he saw them behind the scenes ; But these were the common priests. Surely ,
he heard their talk , and he could not conceal from thought he, faith and piety still linger among the
himself — though the discovery unspeakably shocked dignitaries of the Church ! How mistaken was
THE SCHLOSS-KIRK, OR CASTLE -CHURCH , AT WITTEMBERG .
contempt and treated with mockery the very rites prelates. Taking the German to be a man of the
which in public they celebrated with so great a same easy faith with themselves, they lifted the
show of devotion . If he was shocked at their veil a little too freely. They openly expressed their
profane levity , they on their part were no less disbelief in the mysteries of their Church , and
astonished at his solemn credulity, and jeered him shamelessly boasted of their cleverness in deceiving
as a dull German, who had not genius enough to and befooling the people. Instead of the words,
be a sceptic, nor cunning enough to be a hypocrite “ Hoc est meum corpus," & c. — the worels at the
- a fossilised specimen, in short, of a fanaticism utterance of which the bread is changed , as the
common enough in the twelfth century, but which Church of Rome teaches, into the flesh and blood
it amazed them to find still existing in the six - of Christ — these prelates, as they themselves told
teenth. him , were accustomed to say, “ Panis es, et panis
One day Luther was saying mass in one of the manebis," & c. — Bread thou art , and bread thou
churches of Rome with his accustomed solemnity .
While he had been saying one mass, the priests at 1 Tischreden , 441. Seckendorf, lib.i., p. 19.
22
wilt remain — and then, said they , we elevate the services to the ChurchOur Lady's House at Lo
Host, and the people bow down and worship. retto for example. The stairs so transported were
Luther was literally horrified : it was as if an enshrined in the Palace of the Lateran, and every
abyss had suddenly yawned beneath him . But one who climbs them on his knees merits an in
the horror was salutary ; it opened his eyes. dulgence of fifteen years for each ascent. Luther,
Plainly he must renounce belief in Christianity or who doubted neither the legend touching the stairs,
in Rome. His struggles at Erfurt had but too nor the merit attached by the bulls of the Popes to
surely deepened his faith in the first to permit him the act of climbing them , went thither one day to
to cast it off : it was the last, therefore, that must engage in this holy act. He was climbing the
be let go; but as yet it was not Rome in her doc- steps in the appointed way, on his knees namely,
trines and rites, but Rome in her clergy, from earning at every step a year's indulgence, when he
which Luther turned away. was startled by a sudden voice, which seemed as if
Instead of a city of prayers and alms, of contrite it spoke from heaven, and said, “ The just shall
hearts and holy lives, Rome was full of mocking live by faith .” Luther started to his feet in amaze
hypocrisy, defiant scepticism , jeering impiety, and ment. This was the third time these same words
shameless revelry . Borgia had lately closed his had been conveyed into his mind with such em
infamous Pontificate, and the warlike Julius II. phasis, that it was as if a voice of thunder had
was now reigning. A powerful police patrolled uttered them . It seemed louder than before, and
the city every night. They were empowered to he grasped more fully the great truth which it
deal summary justice on offenders, and those whom announced. What folly , thought he, to seek an
they caught were hanged at the next post or indulgence from the Church, which can last me but
thrown into the Tiber. But all the vigilance of a few years,when God sends me in his Word an in
the patrol could not secure the peace and safety dulgence that will last me for ever !? How idle to
of the streets. Robberies and murders were of toil at these performances, when God is willing to
nightly occurrence . “ If there be a hell,” said acquit me of all my sins not as so much wages for
Luther, “ Rome is built over it." 1 so much service , but freely, in the way of believing
And yet it was at Rome, in the midst of all this upon his Son ! “ The just shall live by faith.”
darkness, that the light shone fully into themind From this time the doctrine of justification by
of the Reformer, and that the great leading idea, faith alone — in other words, salvation by free grace
that on which his own life was based , and on which stood out before Luther as the one great compre
he based the whole of that Reformation which God hensive doctrine of revelation. He held that it
honoured him to accomplish — the doctrine of justi- was by departing from this doctrine that the Church
fication by faith alone - rose upon him in its full- had fallen into bondage, and had come to groan under
orbed splendour. We naturally ask , How did this penances and works of self-righteousness. In no
comeabout ? Whatwas there in this city of Popish other way, he believed, could the Church find her
observances to reveal the reformed faith ? Luther way back to truth and liberty than by returning to
was desirous of improving every hour of his stay in this doctrine. This was the road to true reforma
Rome, where religious acts done on its holy soil, tion . This great article of Christianity was in a
and at its privileged altars and shrines, had a ten- sense its fundamental article, and henceforward
fold degree of merit ; accordingly he busied himself Luther began to proclaim it as eminently the
in multiplying these , that he might nourish his Gospel — the whole Gospel in a single phrase.
piety, and return a holier man than he came ; for With relics, with privileged altars, with Pilate's
as yet he saw but dimly the sole agency of faith in Stairs, he would have no more to do ; this one
the justification of the sinner. sentence, “ The just shall live by faith," had more
One day he went, under the influence of these efficacy in it a thousand times over than all the
feelings, to the Church of the Lateran. There are holy treasures that Rome contained. It was the
the Scala Sancta , or Holy Stairs, which tradition
says Christ descended on retiring from the hall of ? Luth . Opp . Lat., Præfatio . .
judgment, where Pilate had passed sentence upon 3 These stairs are still in the Lateran , and still retain
all the virtue they ever had . When the author was at
him . These stairs are of marble, and the work of Rome in 1851, he saw some peasants from Rimini
conveying them from Jerusalem to Rome was engaged in climbing them . They enlivened their per.
reported to have been undertaken and executed formance with roars of laughter, for it is the devout act,
not the devout feeling, that earns the indulgence. A
by the angels, who have so often rendered similar French gentleman and lady with their little daughter
were climbing them at the same time, but in more
1 Luth . Opp. (W ) xxii. 2376 . decorous fashion .
LUTHER'S RETURN TO WITTEMBERG . 255
key that unlocked the closed gates of Paradise ; in spite of all the world , and of the devils thein
it was the star that went before his face, and selves ; and that if they endeavour to fight against
led him to the throne of a Saviour, there to find this truth they will draw thefires of hell upon their
a free salvation. It needed but to re-kindle that own heads. This is the true and holy Gospel, and
old light in the skies of the Church, and a day, the declaration of me, Doctor Martin Luther , ac
clear as that of apostolic times , would again shine cording to the teaching of the Holy Ghost. We
upon her. This was what Luther now proposed
doing
hold fast to it in the name of God. Amen.”
doing. This was what Luther learned at Rome. Verily,
The words in which Luther recorded this purpose he believed, it was worth his long and toilsome jour
are very characteristic. “ I, Doctor Martin Luther," ney thither to learn this one truth. Out of it were
writes he, “ unworthy herald of the Gospel of our to come the life that would revive Christendom , the
Lord Jesus Christ, confess this article, that faith light that would illuminate it,and the holiness that
alone without works justifies before God ; and I would purify and adorn it. In that one doctrine
declare that it shall stand and remain for ever, in lay folded the whole Reformation. “ I would not
despite of the Emperor of the Romans, the Emperor have wanted my journey to Rome,” said Luther
of the Turks, the Emperor of the Tartars, the Em - afterwards, “ for a hundred thousand florins.”
peror of the Persians ; in spite of the Pope and all When he turned his back on Rome, he turned
the cardinals, with the bishops, priests, monks, and his face toward the Bible. The Bible henceforward
nuns ; in spite of kings, princes, and nobles ; and was to be to Luther the true city of God.
CHAPTER VIII.
TETZEL PREACHES INDULGENCES.
Luther Returns to Wittemberg - His Study of the Bible - Leo X . - His Literary Tastes - His Court - A Profitable
Fable – The Re-building of St. Peter's — Sale of Indulgences - Archbishop of Mainz - Tetzel - His Character - His
Red Cross and Iron Chest - Power of his Indulgences - Extracts from his Sermons - SaleWhat the German
People Think.
LUTHER's stay in Rome did not extend over two tures. He looked upon himself henceforward as
weeks, but in that short time he had learned the sworn knight of the reformed faith. Taking
lessons not to be forgotten all his life long. The farewell of philosophy, from which in truth he was
grace he had looked to find at Rome he had indeed glad to escape, he turned to the Bible as his life
found there , but in the Word of God, not in the work . A more assiduous student of it than ever,
throne of the Pope. The latter was a fountain his acquaintance with it daily grew , his insight
that had ceased to send forth the Water of Life ; into its meaning continually deepened , and thus a
So, turning from this empty cistern , he went back beginning was made in Wittemberg and the neigh
to Wittemberg and the study of the Scriptures. bouring parts of Germany, by the evangelical light
The year of his return was 1512. It was yet which he diffused in his sermons,of that greatwork
five years to the breaking out of the Reformation for which God had destined him . He had as yet
in Germany. These years were spent by Luther in no thought of separating himself from the Roman
the arduous labours of preacher, professor, and con - Church , in which, as he believed , there resided
fessor at Wittemberg. A few months after his some sort of infallibility . These were the last
return he received thedegree of Doctor in Divinity, links of his bondage, and Rome herself was at that
and this was not without its influence upon the moment unwittingly concocting measures to break
mind of the Reformer. On that occasion Luther them , and set free the arm that was to deal the
took an oath upon the Bible to study, propagate, blow from which she should never wholly rise.
and defend the faith contained in the Holy Scrip - Wemust again turn our eyes upon Rome. The
- warlike Julius II., who held the tiara at the time
1 Melancthon , Vita Mart. Luth., pp. 12, 13. Seckendorf,
Hist. Lutheran ., lib. i., p. 21. : Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran ., lib . i., p. 23 .
of Luther's visit, was now dead, and Leo X . occu- exchequer. But the magnificent conception must
pied the Vatican. Leo was of the family of the not be permitted to fall through from want of
Medici, and he brought to the Papal chair all money. If the earthly treasury of the Pope was
the tastes and passions which distinguished the empty , his spiritual treasury was full ; and there
Medicean chiefs of the Florentine republic. Refined was wealth enough there to rear a temple that
in manners, but sensual and voluptuous in heart, a would eclipse all existing structures, and be worthy
lover and patron of the fine arts, affecting a taste of being the metropolitan church of Christendom .
for letters, delighting in pomps and shows, his In short, it was resolved to open a special sale of
court was perhaps the most brilliant in Europe. indulgences in all the countries of Europe. This
No elegance, no amusement, no pleasure were for - traffic would enrich all parties. From the Seven
bidden admission into it. The fact that it was an Hills would flow a river of spiritual blessing. To
ecclesiastical court was permitted to be no restraint Rome would flow back a river of gold .
upon its ample freedom . It was the chosen home Arrangements were made for opening this great
of art, of painting, of music, of revels, and of market (1517). The licence to sell in the different
masquerades. countries of Europe was disposed of to the highest
The Pontiff was not in the least burdened with bidder , and the price was paid beforehand to the
religious beliefs and convictions. To have such Pontiff. The indulgences in Germany were farmed
was the fashion of neither his house nor his age. out to Albert, Archbishop of Mainz and Magde
His office as Pontiff, it is true, connected him with burg .* ' The archbishop was in Germany what
“ a gigantic fable " which had come down from early Leo X . was in Rome. He loved to see himself
times ; but to have exploded that fable would have surrounded with a brilliant court ; he denied him
been to dissolve the chair in which he sat, and the self no pleasure ; was profuse in entertainments ;
throne that brought him so much magnificence and never went abroad without a long retinue of ser
power. Leo was, therefore, content to vent his vants ; and, as a consequence, was greatly in wantof
scepticism in the well-known sneer, “ What a money. Besides, he owed to the Pope for his pall
profitable affair this fable of Christ has been to some said , 26 ,000, others , 30,000 florins. There
us!” To this had it come ! Christianity was now could be no harm in diverting a little of the wealth
worked solely as a source of profit to the Popes.? that was about to flow to Rome, into channels that
Leo, combining, as we have said , the love of art might profit himself. The bargain was struck, and
with that of pleasure, conceived the idea of beauti- the archbishop sought out a suitable person to
fying Rome. His family had adorned Florence with perambulate Germany, and preach up the indul
the noblest edifices. Its glory was spoken of in gences. He found a man every way suited to his
all countries, and men came from afar to gaze upon purpose. This was a Dominican monk , named
its monuments. Leo would do for the Eternal John Diezel, or Tetzel, the son of a goldsmith of
City what his ancestors had done for the capital Leipsic. He had filled the odious office of in
of Etruria. War, and the slovenliness or penury quisitor, and having added thereto a huckstering
of the Popes, had permitted the Church of St. Peter trade in indulgences, he had acquired a large ex
to fall into disrepair. He would clear away. the perience in that sort of business. He had been
ruinous fabric, and replace it with a pile more convicted of a shameful crime at Innspruck , and
glorious than any that Christendom contained. sentenced to be put into a sack and drowned ; but
But to execute such a project millions would be powerful intercession being made for him , he was
needed . Where were they to come from ? The reprieved , and lived to help unconsciously in the
shows or entertainments with which Leo had overthrow of the system that had nourished him .
gratified the vanity of his courtiers, and amused Tetzel lacked no quality necessary for success in
the indolence of the Romans, had emptied his his scandalous occupation . He had the voice of a
town -crier, and the eloquence of a mountebank.
1 “ He played,” says Michelet, “ the part of the first This latter quality enabled him to paint in the
King of Europe.” ( Life of Luther, chap . 2 , p . 19 .) Polano, most glowing colours the marvellous virtues of the
after enumerating his qualities and accomplishments,
says that “ he would have been a Pope absolutely com
plete, if with these he had joined some knowledge of 3 Polano, Hist. Counc. Trent, bk . i., p . 4 ; Lond., 1629.
things that concern religion .” (Hist. Counc. Trent, lib . i., Sarpi, Hist. Conc. Trent, livr. i., p . 14 ; Basle, 1738. Slei.
p . 4 .) dan , Hist. Reform ., bk . i.; Lond., 1689.
2 Paul of Venice says that this Pope laboured under 4 Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran ., lib . i., sec. 6, p. 12.
two grievous faults : “ ignorance of religion , and impiety 5 Gerdesius, Hist. Evan . Renov., tom . i., p . 92.
or atheism ” (ignorantia religionis, et impietate sive athe 6 Hechtius, Vita Teselii, p. 21 . Seckendorf, Hist. Luth.,
ismo). - Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran ., lib . i., sec. 47, p. 190. lib. i., sec. 7 , p. 16 . Sleidan , bk, xiii., p . 273.
TETZEL ON INDULGENCES. 257
wares which he offered for sale. The resources “ Indulgences are the most precious and the most
of his invention , the power of his effrontery, and noble ofGod 's gifts," said Tetzel. Then pointing to
the efficacy of his indulgences were all alike the red cross, which stood full in view of the multi
limitless." tude, he would exclaim , “ This cross has as much
This man made a progress through Germany. efficacy as the very cross of Christ.” : “ Come, and
The line of the procession as it moved from place I will give you letters all properly sealed , by which
to place might be traced at a distance by the great even the sins which you intend to commit may be
red cross, which was carried by Tetzel himself, and pardoned .” “ I would not change my privileges
on which were suspended the arms of the Pope. for those of St. Peter in heaven, for I have saved
In front of the procession, on a velvet cushion, was more souls by my indulgences than the apostle did
borne the Pontiff's bull of grace ; in the rear came by his sermons." The Dominican knew how to
the mules laden with bales of pardons, to be given , extol his own office as well as the pardons he was
not to those who had penitence in the heart, but to so desirous to bestow on those who had money to
those who had money in the hand. all buy. “ But more than this,” said Tetzel, for he
When the procession approached a town it was had not as yet disclosed the whole wonderful virtues
announced to the inhabitants that “ The Grace of of his merchandise, “ indulgences avail not only for
God and of the Holy Fathers was at their gates." the living but for thedead.” So had Boniface VIII.
The welcome accorded was commonly such as the enacted two centuries before ; and Tetzel goes on to
extraordinary honour was fitted to draw forth the particular application of the dogma. “ Priest,
The gates were opened, and the tall red cross, with noble, merchant, wife, youth , maiden , do you not
all the spiritual riches of which it was the sign , hear your parents and your other friends who are
passed in, followed by a long and imposing array of dead, and who cry from the bottom of the abyss :
the ecclesiastical and civic authorities, the religious " We are suffering horrible torments ! A trifling
orders, the various trades, and the whole popula- alms would deliver us ; you can give it, and you will
tion of the place , which had come out to welcome not’?”
the great pardon -monger. The procession advanced These words, shouted in a voice of thunder by
amid the beating of drums, the waving of flags , the the monk , made the hearers shudder.
blaze of tapers, and the pealing of bells.? “ At the very instant,” continues Tetzel, “ that
When he entered a city, Tetzel and his company the money rattles at the bottom of the chest, the
went straight to the cathedral. The crowd pressed soul escapes from purgatory, and flies liberated to
in and filled the church . The cross was set up in heaven .? Now you can ransom so many souls,
front of the high altar, a strong iron box was put stiff-necked and thoughtless man ; with twelve
down beside it, in which the money received for groats you can deliver your father from purgatory ,
pardonswas deposited , and Tetzel, in the garb of the and you are ungrateful enough not to save him ! I
Dominicans, mounting the pulpit began to set forth shall be justified in the Day of Judgment ; but you
with stentorian voice the incomparable merit of his — you will be punished so much the more severely
wares. He bade the people think what it was that for having neglected so great salvation. I declare
had come to them . Never before in their times, to you, though you have but a single coat, you
nor in the times of their fathers , had there been à ought to strip it off and sell it, in order to obtain
day of privilege like this. Never before had the this grace. . . The Lord our God no
gates of Paradise been opened so widely. “ Press longer reigns, he has resigned all power to the
in now : come and buy while the market lasts," Pope."
shouted the Dominican ; “ should that cross be N o argument was spared by the monk which
taken down the market will close, heaven will could prevail with the people to receive his pardons;
depart, and then you will begin to knock, and to in other words, to fill his iron box. From the fires
bewail your folly in neglecting to avail yourselves of purgatory - dreadful realities to men of that age,
of blessings which shall then have gone beyond for even Luther as yet believed in such a place
your reach.” So in effect did Tetzel harangue the Tetzel would pass to the ruinous condition of St.
crowd. But his own words have a plainness and Peter's, and draw an affecting picture of the ex
vigour which no paraphrase can convey. Let us posure to the rain and hail of the bodies of the two
cull a few specimens from his orations.
3 Myconius, Hist. Reform ., p. 14 ; Ten . edit.
4 Sleidan, Hist. Reform ., bk . xiž ., p. 273.
Melancthon , Vita Mart. Luth ., p . 15. 5 Gerdesius, Hist. Evan . Renov., tom . i., p . 82.
? Myconius,Hist. Reform ., p. 106. Gerdesius, Hist. Evan . 6 D’ Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., p. 242.
Renov., tom . i., p. 84 . . 7 Şeckendorf, Hist. Lutheran ., lib. i., sec. 6 , pp . 12 – 17.
apostles, Peter and Paul, and the other martyrs merits of his most holy passion. And I, by virtue
buried within its precincts. Pausing, he would of the apostolic power which has been confided to
launch a sudden anathema at all who despised the me, do absolve thee from all ecclesiastical censures,
grace which the Pope and himself were offering to judgments, and penalties which thou mayest have
men ; and then,changing to a more meek and pious merited , and from all excesses, sins, and crimes
strain , he would wind up with a quotation from which thou mayest have committed , however great
Scripture ,“ Blessed are the eyes which see the things or enormous they may be, and for whatsoever cause,
that ye see : for I tell you that many prophets even though they had been reserved to our most
have desired to see those things that ye see, and Holy Father the Pope and the Apostolic See. I
have not seen them , and to hear those things that efface all attainders of unfitness and all marks of
ye hear, and have not heard them .”? And having infamy thou mayest have drawn on thee on this
made an end, the monk would rush down the pulpit occasion ; I remit the punishment thou shouldest
stairs and throw a piece of money into the box, have had to endure in purgatory ; I make thee
which, as if the rattle of the coin were infectious, anew a participator in the Sacraments of the
was sure to be followed by a torrent of pieces. Church ; I incorporate thee afresh in the commu
All round the church were erected confessional nion of the saints ; and I reinstate thee in the
stalls. The shrift was a short one, as if intended innocence and purity in which thou wast at the
only to afford another opportunity to the penancer hour of thy baptism ; so that, at the hour of thy
of impressing anew upon the penitent the im - death , the gate through which is the entrance to
portance of the indulgences. From confession the the place of torments and punishments shall be
person passed to the counter behind which stood closed against thee, and that which leads to the
Tetzel. He sharply scrutinised all who approached Paradise of joy shall be open. And shouldest thou
him , that he might guess at their rank in life, and be spared long, this grace shall remain immutable
proportion accordingly the sum to be exacted to the time of thy last end. In the name of the
From kings and princes twenty -five ducats were Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen .
demanded for an ordinary indulgence ; from abbots “ Brother John Tetzel, Commissioner, has signed
and barons, ten ; from those who had an income of it with his own hand.” 4
five hundred florins, six ; and from those who had Day by day great crowds repaired to thismarket,
only two hundred , one. For particular sins there where for a little earthly gold men might buy all
was a special schedule of prices. Polygamy cost the blessings of heaven. Tetzeland his indulgences
six ducats ; church robbery and perjury, nine ; became the one topic of talk in Germany. The
murder, eight ; and witchcraft, two. Samson , who matter was discussed in all circles, from the palace
carried on the same trade in Switzerland as Tetzel and the university to the market-place and the
in Germany, charged for parricide or fratricide one wayside inn. The more sensible portion of the
ducat. The same hand that gave the pardon could nation were shocked at the affair. That a little
not receive the money. The penitent himself must money should atone for the guilt and efface the
drop it into the box. There were three keys for stain of themost enormous crimes, was contrary to
the box. Tetzel kept one, another was in the pos- the natural justice of mankind. That the vilest
session of the cashier of the house of Fugger in characters should be placed on a level with the
Augsburg ,the agent of the Archbishop and Elector virtuous and the orderly, seemed a blow at the
of Mainz, who farmed the indulgences ; the third foundation of morals — an unhinging of society.
was in the keeping of the civil authority. From The Papal key , instead of unlocking the fountains
time to time the box was opened in presence of of grace and holiness, had opened the flood -gates of
a notary-public, and its contents counted and impiety and vice , and men trembled at the deluge
registered of licentiousness which seemed ready to rush in
The form in which the pardon was given was and overflow the land. Those who had some know
that of a letter of absolution. These letters ran in ledge of the Word of God viewed the matter in
the following terms :- " May our Lord Jesus Christ even a worse light. They knew that the pardon
have pity on thee, N . N ., and absolve thee by the of sin was the sole prerogative of God : that he
had delegated that power to no mortal, and that
those who gathered round the red cross of Tetzel
1 Alberti Moguntini Summaria Instructio Sub- Commissa and bought his pardons were cheated of their
riorum in Causa Indulgentia . (Gerdesius, tom . i., App. money and their souls at the same time. Chris
No. 9 , p . 83.)
2 D ’Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., pp. 241 – 243 .
3 Summaria Instructio. (Gerdesius, tom . i., App . No. 9 .) 4 D 'Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., p . 247.
M
ZZA
.
ma
TETZEL
.SP' ROCESSION
tianity , instead of a source of purity , appeared to Meanwhile Friar John Tetzel and Pope Leo X.
have become a fountain of pollution ; and, from went on labouring with all their might, though
being the guardian and nurse of virtue, seemed to wholly unwittingly and unintentionally, to pave the
be the patron and promoter of all ungodliness. way for Luther. If anything could have deepened
The thoughts of others took another direction the impression produced by the scandals of Tetzel's
They looked at the “ power of the keys ” under the trade, it was the scandals of his life. He was
new light shed upon it by the indulgences, and spending, day by day, no little amount of breath
began to doubt the legitimacy of that which was in the Church's service , extolling the merit of her
now being so flagrantly abused . What, asked indulgences, and when night came he felt he was
they, are we to think of the Pope as a man of not without the need of refreshment: and he took
humanity and mercy ? One day a miner of Schnee- it. “ The collectors led a disorderly life," says
berg met a seller of indulgences. “ Is it true,” he Sarpi ; " they squandered in taverns, gambling
asked , “ that we can, by throwing a penny into the houses, and places of ill-fame all that the people
chest, ransom a soul from purgatory ?” “ It is so ," had saved from their necessities." ?
replied the indulgence-vendor. “ Ah, then," re- As regards Leo X ., when the stream of gold from
sumed the miner, “ what a merciless man the Pope the countries beyond the Alps began to flow, his
must be, since for want of a wretched penny he joy was great. He had not, like the Emperor
leaves a poor soul crying in the flames so long !” Charles , a “ Mexico " beyond the Atlantic , but he
Luther embodied in his Theses on Indulgences what had a “ Mexico " in the credulity of Christendom ,
was a very general sentiment, when he asked, and he saw neither limit nor end to the wealth it
“ Why does not the Pope deliver at once all the might yield him . Never again would he have
souls from purgatory by a holy charity and on cause to bewail an empty treasury. Men would
account of their great wretchedness, since he de- never cease to sin , and so long as they continued to
livers so many from love of perishablemoney and of sin they would need pardon ; and where could they
the Cathedral of St. Peter ?" It was all very well go for pardon if not to the Church - in other words,
to have a fine building at Rome, thought the people to himself ? He only , of all men on the earth , held
of Germany, but to open the gates of that doleful the key. Hemight say with an ancient monarch ,
prison in which so many miserable beings live in “ Mine hand hath found as a nest the riches of the
flames,and for once make purgatory tenantless,would nations, and as one gathereth eggs so have I
be a nobler monument of the grace and munificence gathered all the earth.” Thus Leo went on from
of the Pope, than the most sumptuous temple that day to day, building St. Peter's, but pulling down
he can by any possibility rear in the Eternal City. , the Papacy,
CHAPTER IX .
THE " THESES."
Unspoken Thoughts - Tetzel' s Approach - Opens his Market at Juterbock - Moral Havoc - Luther Condemns his
Pardong - Tetzel' s Rage - Luther ' s Opposition grows more Strenuous - Writes to the Archbishop of Mainz - A
Narrow Stage, but a Great Conflict - All Saints' Eve - Crowd of Pilgrims - Luther Nails his Theses to the Church
Door - Examples - An Irrevocable Step - Some the Movement inspires with Terror - Others Hail it with Joy
The Elector's Dream .
The great red cross, the stentorian voice of Tetzel, in worship before her ; but when she presented
and the frequent chink of money in his iron chest, herself as a hawker of spiritualwares for earthly
had compelled the nations of Germany to think. pelf, when she stood before them in the person of
Rome had come too near these nations. While the monk who had so narrowly escaped being tied
she remained at a distance, separated from them up in a sack and flung into the river Inn , for his
by the Alps, the Teutonic peoples had bowed down
? Sarpi, Hist. Conc. Trent, livr. i., p . 16. Similar is the
1 Luther, Theses on Indulgences, 82, 83 , 84 . testimony of Guicciardiniand M . de Thou .
LUTHER OPPOSES HIMSELF TO TETZEL. 261
own sins, before he took to pardoning the sins of money and their hope of heaven , these persons
others, the spell was broken. But as yet theGerman hastened back to Tetzel, and informed him that a
nations only thought ; they had not given utterance monk in Wittemberg was making light of his in
to their thoughts. A few murmurs might be heard, dulgences, and was warning the people against
but no powerful voice had yet spoken . them as deceptions. Tetzel literally foamed with
Meanwhile, Tetzel, travelling from town to town, rage, and bellowing more loudly than ever, poured
eating of the best at the hostelries, and paying his out a torrent of anathemas against the man who
bills in drafts on Paradise ; pressing carriers and had dared to speak disparagingly of the pardons of
others into his service for the transport of his mer- the Pope. To energetic words, Tetzel added sig
chandise, and recompensing them for the labour of nificant acts. Kindling a fire in themarket-place
themselves and their mules by letters of indulgence, of Juterbock, he gave a sign of what would be
approached within four miles of Luther. He little done to the man who should obstruct his holy
suspected how dangerous the ground on which work. The Pope, he said, had given him authority
he was now treading ! The Elector Frederick, to commit all such heretics to the flames .
revolted at this man's trade, and yet more at the Nothing terrified by Tetzel's angry words, or by
scandals of his life, had forbidden him to enter the fire that blazed so harmlessly in the market-place
Saxony ; but he came as near to it as he durst ; of Juterbock , Luther became yet more strenuous
and now at Juterbock , a small town on the Saxon in his opposition . He condemned the indulgences
frontier, Tetzel set up his red cross, and opened his in his place in the university. He wrote to the
market. Wittemberg was only an hour and a half's Prince Archbishop of Mainz, praying him to inter
walk distant, and thousands flocked from it to pose his authority and stop a proceeding that was a
Juterbock, to do business with the pardon-monger. scandal to religion and a snare to the souls of men.”
When Luther first heard of Tetzel, which was only He little knew that he was addressing the very
a little while before, he said , “ By the help of God , man who had farmed these indulgences. He even
Iwill make a hole in his drum :" he might have believed the Pope to be ignorant, if not of the in
added, and in that of his master, Leo X . Tetzel dulgences, of the frightful excesses that attended
was now almost within ear-shot of the Reformer. the sale of them . From the pulpit, with all affec
Luther, who acted as confessor as well as preacher, tion but with all fidelity, he warned his flock not
soon discovered the moral havoc which Tetzel's par- to take part in so great a wickedness. God, he
dons were working. For we must bear in mind said , demands a satisfaction for sin , but not
that Luther still believed in the Church, and in from the sinner ; Christ has made satisfaction for
obedience to her commands exacted confession and the sinner, and God pardons him freely. Offences
penance on the part of his flock , though only as against herself the Church can pardon, but not
preparatives, and not as the price, of that free offences against God . Tetzel's indulgences cannot
salvation which he taught comes through themerit open the door of Paradise, and they who believe in
of Christ, and is appropriated by faith alone. One them believe in a lie, and unless they repent shall
day, as he sat in the confessional, some citizens die in their sins.
of Wittemberg came before him , and confessed In this Luther differed more widely from his
having committed thefts, adulteries, and other Church than he was then aware of. She holds with
heinous sins. “ You must abandon your evil Tetzel rather than with Luther. She not merely
courses,” said Luther , “ otherwise I cannot absolve remits ecclesiastical censures, she pardons sin , and
you.” To his surprise and grief, they replied lifts off the wrath of God from the soul.
that they had no thought of leaving off their sins; We have here a narrow stage but a great conflict.
that this was not in the least necessary, inasmuch From the pulpit at Wittemberg is preached a free
as these sins were already pardoned, and they them - salvation. At Juterbock stands the red cross,
selves secured against the punishment of them . The where heaven is sold for money. Within a radius
deluded people would thereupon pull out the in - of a few miles is fought the same battle which is
dulgence papers of Tetzel, and show them in soon to cover the face of Christendom . The two
testimony of their innocence. Luther could only systems — salvation by Christ and salvation by
tell them that these papers were worthless, that Rome— are here brought face to face ; the one helps
they must repent, and be forgiven of God , other sharply to define the other, not in their doctrines
wise they should perish everlastingly. only , but in their issues, the holiness which the one
Denied absolution , and sore at losing both their
? Apologia Luth. cont. Hen . Ducem . Brunsvicensem . Ex
Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran., lib .i., sec.7, p. 17. Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran., lib .i., sec. 7, p. 16.
demands and the licentiousness which the other salvation by indulgences will go to perdition along
sanctions, that men may mark the contrast between with those who teach them so.
the two, and make their choice between theGospel XXXVII. Every true Christian, dead or living,
of Wittemberg and the indulgence-market of Juter is a partaker of all the blessings of Christ, or of the
bock . Already Protestantism has obtained a terri- Church, by the gift of God , and without any letter
torial foothold , where it is unfurling its banner and of indulgence.
enlisting disciples. XXXVIII. Yet we must not despise the Pope's
Tetzel went on with the sale of his indulgences, distributive and pardoning power , for his pardon is
and Luther felt himself driven to more decisive a declaration of God's pardon.'
measures. The Elector Frederick had lately built XLIX . We should teach Christians that the
the castle -church of Wittemberg , and had spared Pope's indulgence is good if we put no confidence
neither labour nor money in collecting relics to in it, but that nothing is more hurtful if it dimi
enrich and beautify it. These relics, in their set- nishes our piety.
tings of gold and precious stones, the priests were L . We should teach Christians that if the Pope
accustomed to show to the people on the festival of knew of the extortions of the preachers of indul
All Saints, the 1st of November; and crowds came gences, he would rather the Mother Church of St.
to Wittemberg to nourish their piety by the sight Peter were burned and reduced to ashes , than see
of the precious objects, and earn the indulgence it built up with the skin , the flesh, and the bones
offered to all who should visit the church on that of his flock .
day. The eve of the festival (October 31st ) was LI. We should teach Christians that the Pope
now come. The street of Wittemberg was thronged (as it is his duty) would distribute his own money
with pilgrims. At the hour of noon, Luther, who to the poor, whom the indulgence-sellers are now
had given no hint to any one of what he purposed , stripping of their last farthing, even were he com
sallied forth , and joined the stream that was flow - pelled to sell the Mother Church of St. Peter.
ing to the castle-church, which stood close by the LII. To hope to be saved by indulgences is a
eastern gate. Pressing through the crowd, and lying and an empty hope, although even the com
drawing forth a paper , he proceeds to nail it upon missary of indulgences - nay, further, the Pope
the door of the church. The strokes of his ham - himself - should pledge their souls to guarantee it.
mer draw the crowd around him , and they begin LIII. They are the enemies of the Pope and
eagerly to read . What is on the paper ? It con - of Jesus Christ who, by reason of the preaching
tains ninety-five “ Theses " or propositions on the of indulgences, forbid the preaching of the Word of
doctrine of indulgences. We select the following God.
as comprehensive of the spirit and scope of the LXII. The true and precious treasure of the
whole : Church is the holy Gospel of the glory and grace
V . The Pope is unable and desires not to remit of God .
any other penalty than that which he has imposed LXXVI. The Papal pardons cannot remit even
of his own good pleasure , or conformably to the the least of venal sins as regards the guilt.
canons-- that is, to the Papal ordinances . These propositions Luther undertook to defend
VI. The Pope cannot remit any condemnation, next day in the university against all who might
but can only declare and confirm the remission that choose to impugn them . No one appeared .
God himself has given, except only in cases that In this paper Luther struck at more than the
belong to him . If he does otherwise , the con- abuses of indulgences. Underneath was a principle
demnation continues the same. subversive of the whole Papal system . In the
VIII. The laws of ecclesiastical penance can midst of some remaining darkness -- for he still
only be imposed on the living, and in no wise reverences the Pope, believes in purgatory, and
respect the dead . speaks of the merits of the saints — he preaches the
XXI. The commissaries of indulgences are in Gospel of a free salvation. The “ Theses " put
error, when they say that by the Papal indulgence God's gift in sharp antagonism to the Pope's gift.
a man is delivered from every punishment and is The one is free , the other has to be bought. God's
saved . pardon does not need the Pope's indorsement, but
XXV. The same power that the Pope has over
purgatory in the Church at large, is possessed by 1 Loesher has inserted these “ Theses " in full in his
Acts and Documents of the Reformation , tom . i., p . 438 et
every bishop and every curate in his own particular seq.; also Kappius in his Theatro Nundinationis Indul.
diocese and parish. gentiariæ Tezeliance, p . 73 et seq.; and so too Gerdesius,
XXXII. Those who fancy themselves sure of tom . i., App. No. 11, p 114.
THE REFORMATION LAUNCHED . 263
the Pope's forgiveness , unless followed by God's, is of Steinlausitz , who had for some time ceased to
of no avail ; it is a cheat, a delusion. Such is the celebrate mass, “ At last we have found the man we
doctrine of the “ Theses.” That mightiest of all have waited for so long ;" and, playing on themean
prerogatives, the power of pardoning sins and so of ing of the word Wittemberg , he added , “ All the
saving men 's souls, is taken from the “ Church ” world will go and seek wisdom on that mountain ,
and given back to God . and will find it."
Themovement is fairly launched. It is speeding We step a moment out of the domain of history,
on ; it grows not by weeks only, but by hours and to narrate a dream which the Elector Frederick of
moments ; but no one has yet estimated aright its Saxony had on the night preceding the memorable
power, or guessed where only it can find its goal. day on which Luther affixed his “ Theses” to the
The hand that posted up these propositions cannot door of the castle -church. The elector told it the
take them down. They are no longer Luther's next morning to his brother, Duke John, who was
they are mankind's. then residing with him at his palace of Schweinitz ,
The news travelled rapidly . The feelingsawakened six leagues from Wittemberg. The dream is re
were, of course, mixed, but in the main joyful. corded by all the chroniclers of the time. Of its
Men felt a relief — they were conscious of a burden truth there is no doubt, however we may interpret
taken from their hearts ; and , though they could it. We cite it here as a compendious and dra
scarce say why, they were sure that a new day had matic epitome of the affair of the “ Theses," and the
dawned . In the homes of the people, and in the movement which grew out of them .
cell of many a monk even, there was joy. “ While On the morning of the 31st October, 1517, the
those,” says Mathesius, “ who had entered the con - elector said to Duke John , “ Brother, I must tell
vents to seek a good table, a lazy life, or consi- you a dream which I had last night, and themean
deration and honour, heaped Luther's name with ing of which I should like much to know . It is so
revilings, those monks who lived in prayer, fasting, deeply impressed on my mind , that I will never
and mortificapion, gave thanks to God as soon as forget it, were I to live a thousand years. For I
they heard the cry of that eagle which John Huss dreamed it thrice, and each time with new circum
had foretold a century before.” The appearance of stances.”
Luther gladdened the evening of the aged Reuchlin . Duke John : “ Is it a good or a bad dream ?”
He had had his own battles with the monks, and The Elector : “ I know not ; God knows."
hewas overjoyed when he saw an abler champion Duke John : “ Don't be uneasy at it ; but be so
enter the lists to maintain the truth . good as tell it to me."
The verdict of Erasmus on the affair is very The Elector : “ Having gone to bed last night,
characteristic. The Elector of Saxony having fatigued and out of spirits, I fell asleep shortly after
asked him what he thought of it, the great scholar my prayer, and slept calmly for about two hours
replied with his usual shrewdness, “ Luther has and a half ; I then awoke, and continued awake
committed two unpardonable crimes— he has at- to midnight, all sorts of thoughts passing through
tacked the Pope's tiara, and the bellies of the my mind. Among other things, I thought how I
monks." was to observe the Feast of All Saints. I prayed
There were others whose fears predominated over for the poor souls in purgatory ; and supplicated
their hopes, probably from permitting their eyes to God to guide me, my counsels, and my people ac
rest almost exclusively upon the difficulties. The cording to truth . I again fell asleep, and then
historian Kranz, of Hamburg, was on his death-bed dreamed that Almighty God sent me a monk , who
when Luther's “ Theses" were brought to him . “ Thou was a true son of the Apostle Paul. All the saints
art right, brother Martin," exclaimed hhe
aveson read accompanied him by order of God, in order to bear
wilt not so God, tphalia
ing them , “ but thou wilt not succeed . Poor monk, testimony before me, and to declare that he did
hie thee to thy cell, and cry, O God, have pity on not come to contrive any plot, but that all that he
me.'" 1 An old priest of Hexter, in Westphalia , did was according to the will of God. They asked
shook his head and exclaimed , “ Dear brother me to have the goodness graciously to permit him
Martin, if thou succeed in overthrowing this pur- to write something on the door of the church of
gatory, and all these paper-dealers, truly thou art à the Castle of Wittemberg. This I granted through
very great gentleman .” But others, lifting their my chancellor. Thereupon the monk went to the
eyes higher, saw the hand of God in the affair. church, and began to write in such large characters
" At last,” said Dr. Fleck , prior of the monastery that I could read the writing at Schweinitz. The
pen which he used was so large that its end reached
Gerdesius, Hist. Reform ., tom . i., p. 132. as far as Rome, where it pierced the ears of a lion
LUTHER
NAILING
HIS TILESES
THE
DOON
OF
KSCHLOSS
WITTEM T BERG
,A-T".OIRK
THE ELECTOR'S DREAM . 265
that was crouching there, and caused the triple I then asked the monk (for I was sometimes at
crown upon the head of the Pope to shake. All Rome,and sometimes at Wittemberg) where he got
theto prevent
cardinalsit andfromprinces,running
falling. You hastilyI, up,brother,
and tried this pen,he,and' belonged
replied why it towasan soold strong.
goose “TheBohemia,
of pen,'
wished also to assist, and I stretched out my a hundred years old. I got it from one of my old
arm ;— but at this moment I awoke, with my arm schoolmasters. As to its strength, it is owing to
in the air, quite amazed, and very much enraged at the impossibility of depriving it of its pith ormar
themonk for not managing his pen better. I re- row ; and I am quite astonished at it myself.'
collected myself a little ; it was only a dream . Suddenly I heard a loud noise— a large number of
EN
SI
Puhe
HE
BE
AU
AVA
HAM
U NIONE
SIBU
MALUM
WA
WA
LUTHER'S HOUSE AT WITTEMBERG.

" Iwas still half asleep,and once more closed my other pens had sprung out of the long pen of the
eyes. The dream returned. The lion , still annoyed monk. I awoke a third time: it was daylight."
by the pen, began to roar with all his might, so Duke John : “ Chancellor, what is your opinion ?
much so that the whole city of Rome, and all the Would we had a Joseph, or a Daniel, enlightened
States of the Holy Empire, ran to see what the by God ! ”
matter
this was. andThe applied
monk, Pope requested them totome,opposeon proverb,
particularly Chancellor:
that “theYourdreams
highness
of knowsgirls,
young the common
learned
account of his being in my country. I again awoke, men, and great lords have usually some hidden
repeated the Lord's prayer, entreated God to pre- meaning. The meaning of this dream , however, we
serve bis Holiness,and oncemore fell asleep. shall not be able to know for some time— not till
" Then I dreamed that all the princes of the the things to which it relates have taken place.
Empire, and we among them, hastened to Rome,
and strove,one after another, to break the pen; but
Wherefore, leave the accomplishment to God, and
place it fully in his hand.”
the more we tried the stiffer it became,sounding as Duke John : “ I am of your opinion, Chancellor;
if it had23been made of iron. We at length desisted. 'tis not fit for us to annoy ourselves in attempting
266 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTÍSÍİ.
to discover the meaning. God will cverrule all for So passed themorning of the 31st October, 1517,
his glory." in the royal castle of Schweinitz., The events of the
Elector : “ May our faithfulGod do so ; yet I shall evening at Wittemberg we have already detailed.
never forget this dream . I have , indeed , thought of The elector has hardly made an end of telling his
an interpretation, but I keep it to myself. Time, dream when the monk comes with his hammer to
perhaps, will show if I have been a good diviner." ? interpret it.
CHAPTER X .
LUTHER ATTACKED BY TETZEL , PRIERIO , AND ECK,
Consequences - Unforeseen by Luther - Rapid Dissemination of the “ Theses " - Counter- Theses of Tetzel - Burned by
the Students at Wittemberg - Sylvester, Master of the Sacred Palace, Attacks Luther- The Church All, the Bible
Nothing - Luther Replies — Prierio again Attacks -- Is Silenced by the Pope - Dr. Eck next Attacks- Is Discomfited .
The day on which the monk of Wittemberg whether the blow might not fall on greater person
posted up his “ Theses,” occupies a distinguished ages than Tetzel. His arm would have been un
new and she proposition does not
place among the great days of history. It marks a
new and grander starting-point in religion and
nerved , and the hammer would have fallen from
his grasp, had he been told that its strokes would
liberty. The propositions of Luther preached to not merely scare away Tetzel and break up the
all Christendom that God does not sell pardon , but market at Juterbock , but would resound through
bestows it as a free gift on the ground of the death Christendom , and centuries after he had gone to
of his Son — the “ Theses,” in short were an echo his grave, would be sending back their echoes in
of the song sung by the angels on the plain of the fall of hierarchies, and in the overthrow of that
Bethlehem fifteen centuries before — “ On earth throne before which Luther was still disposed to
peace : good-will to men." bow as the seat of the Vicar of Christ.
The world had forgotten that song : no wonder, Luther's eye did not extend to these remote
seeing the Book that contains it had long been countries and times ; he looked only at what was
hidden. Taking God to be a hard task anaster, before him — the professors and students of the
who would admit no one into heaven unless he university ; his flock in Wittemberg in danger of
paid a great price, Christendom had groaned for being ensnared ; the crowd of pilgrims assembled
ages under penances and expiatory works of self- to earn an indulgence — and to the neighbouring
righteousness. But the sound of Luther's hammer towns and parts of Germany. These he hoped to
was like that of the silver trumpet on the day of influence.
Jubilee : it proclaimed the advent of the year of re- But far beyond these modest limits was spread
lease — the begun opening of the doors of that great the fame of Luther's “ Theses.” They contained
prison -house in which the human soul had sat for truth , and truth is light, and light must necessarily
ages and sighed in chains. diffuse itself, and penetrate the darkness on every
Luther acted without plan — so he himself after- side. The “ Theses” were found to be as applicable
wards confessed . He obeyed an impulse that was to Christendom as to Wittemberg, and as hostile to
bome in upon him ; he did what he felt it to be his the great indulgence-market at Rome as to the
duty at the moment, without looking carefully or little one at Juterbock. Now was seen the power
anxiously along the line of consequences to see of that instrumentality which God had prepared
beforehand for this emergency — the printing-press.
Copied with the hand , how slowly would these pro
i D 'Aubigné, Hist. Reform . (Collins, 1870, pp. 79, 80), positions have travelled , and how limited the
from an MS. in the archives of Weimar, taken down from
the mouth of Spalatin , and which was published at the number of persons who would have read them !
last jubilee ofthe Reformation , 1817. But the printing-press, multiplying copies, sowel
• In 1517 the Council of the Lateran , summoned by them like snow - flakes over Saxony. Other print
Julius II., for tho reform of the Church , was dissolved . ing-presses set to work , till speedily there was no
In that same year, remarks Seckendorf, God sent the Re-
formation . country in Europe where the “ Theses” of the
TETZEL'S COUNTER-THESES. 267
monk of Wittemberg were not as well known as in extent of the responsibility he had incurred , and
Saxony. the formidable character of the opposition he had
The moment of their publication was singularly provoked . His friends were silent, stunned by the
opportune ; pilgrims from all the surrounding suddenness and boldness of the act. He stood
States were then assembled at Wittemberg. Instead alone. He hadde thrown down the gage, and he
of buying an indulgence they bought Luther's could not now cline ide. Still he That
could not now decline the battle. ot stwas
did nbattle and
" Theses,” not one, but many copies, and carried mustering on every side. Still he did not repent
them in their wallets to their own homes. In a fort of what he had done. He was prepared to stand
nightthese propositionswere circulated over all Ger- by the doctrine of his “ Theses.” He looked upward .
many." They were translated into Dutch , and read Tetzel by this time had broken up his encamp
in Holland ; they were rendered into Spanish, and ment at Juterbock — having no more sins to pardon
studied in the cities and universities of the Iberian and no more money to gather - and had gone to
peninsula. In a month they had made the tour the wealthier locality of Frankfort-on -the-Oder. He
of Europe. “ It seemed ,” to use the words of had planted the red cross and the iron box on one
Myconius, " as if theangels had been their carriers." of the more fashionable promenades of the city.
Copies were offered for sale in Jerusalem . In four Thither the rumour of the Wittemberg “ Theses "
short weeks Luther's tract had become a household followed him . He saw at a glance the mischief the
book ,and his name a household word in all Europe. monk had done him , and made a show of fight after
The “ Theses” were the one topic of conversation his own fashion. Full of rage, he kindled a great
everywhere - in all circles, and in all sorts of places. fire, and as he could not burn Luther in person he
They were discussed by the learned in the univer- burned his “ Theses.” This feat accomplished , he
sities, and by the monks in their cells. In the rubbed up what little theology he knew , and at
market-place, in the shop, and in the tavern, men tempted a reply to the doctor of Wittemberg in a
paused and talked together of the bold act and the set of counter-propositions. They were but poor
new doctrine of the monk of Wittemberg. A copy affairs. Among them were the following :
was procured and read by Leo X . in the Vatican. III. “ Christiansshould be taught that the Pope,
The very darkness of the age helped to extend in the plenitude of his power, is superior to the
the circulation and the knowledge of the “ Theses,” universal Church , and superior to Councils ; and
The man who kindles a bonfire on a mountain -top that entire submission is due to his decrees.”
by day will have much to do to attract the eyes of IV . “ Christians should be taught that the Pope
even a single parish. He who kindles his signal alone has the right to decide in questions of Chris
amid the darkness of night will arouse a whole tian doctrine ; that he alone, and no other, has
kingdom . This last was what Luther had done. power to explain , according to his judgment, the
He had lighted a great fire in the midst of the sense of Holy Scripture, and to approve or condemn
darkness of Christendom , and far and wide over the words and works of others.”
distant realms was diffused the splendour of that V. “ Christians should be taught that the judg
light; and men , opening their eyes on the sudden ment of the Pope, in things pertaining to Christian
illumination that was brightening the sky, hailed doctrine, and necessary to the salvation of mankind,
the new dawn. can in no case err.”
No one was more surprised at the effects pro- XVII. “ Christians should be taught that there
duced than Luther himself. That a sharp discus. are many things which the Church regards as
sion should spring up in the university ; that the certain articles of the Catholic faith , although they
convents and colleges of Saxony should be agitated ; are not found either in the inspired Scripture or in
that some of his friends should approve and others the earlier Fathers ."
condemn, was what he had anticipated ; but that all There is but one doctrine tanght in Tetzel's
Christendom should be shaken as by an earthquake, “ Theses” -- the Pontifical supremacy, namely ; and
was an issue he had never dreamed of. Yet this there is butone duty enjoined - -absolute submission.
was what had happened. The blow he had dealt Atthe feet of the Pope are to be laid the Holy Scrip
had loosened the foundations of an ancient and vener- tures, the Fathers , human reason. The man who
able edifice , which had received the reverence of is not prepared to make this surrender deserves to
many preceding generations, and his own reverence do penance in the fire which Tetzel had kindled .
among the rest. It was now that he saw the full So thought the Pope's vendor of pardons.
i Myconius, Hist. Reform ., 13.
2 Gerdesius, Hist. Reform ., tom . i., p . 132. * Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran ., lib . i., sec. 12, p . 27 .
3 Mathesius, p . 1.2 Sleidan , bk. i., p . 2 .
The proceedingsof Tetzel at Frankfort soon came tively and organically it is the supreme Pontiff,
to the knowledge of the students of Wittemberg. who is tho head of the Church , but in a different
They espoused with more warmth than was needed sense from Christ. Further hemaintained that,as
the cause of their professor. They bought a bundle of the Church universal cannot err in determining
Tetzel's “ Theses" and publicly burned them . Many questions pertaining to faith and morals, neither
of the citizens were present, and gave unmistak - can the organs through which the Church elaborates
able signs, by their laughter and hootings, of the and expresses its decisions — the Councils and the
estimation in which they held the literary and supreme Pontiff - err. These principles he applied
theological attainments of the renowned indulgence practically, thus : “ Whoever does not rely on the
monger. Luther knew nothing of the matter. The teaching of the Roman Church and of the Roman
proceedings savoured too much of Rome's method Pontiff, as the infallible rule of faith, from which
of answering an opponent to find favour in his the Holy Scriptures themselves derive their strength
eyes. When informed of it, he said that really it and their authority, is a heretic.”
was superfluous to kindle a pile to consume a It is curious to note that already, in this first
document, the extravagance and absurdity of which exchange of arguments between Protestantism and
would alone have effected its extinction. the Papacy, the controversy was narrowed to this
But soon abler antagonists entered the lists. The one great question : Whom isman to believe,God or
first to present himself was Sylvester Mazzolini, the Church in other words, have we a Divine or
of Prierio. He was Master of the Sacred Palace a human foundation for our faith ? The Bible is
at Rome, and discharged the office of censor. Sta- the sole infallible authority , said the men of Wit
tioned on the watch -tower of Christendom , this temberg. No, said this voice from the Vatican,
man had it in charge to say what books were to the sole infallible authority is the Church. The
be circulated , and what were to be suppressed ; Bible is a dead letter . Not a line of it can men
what doctrines Christians were to believe, and what understand : its true sense is utterly beyond their
they were not to believe. Protestant liberty, claim apprehension. In the Church - -that is, in the
ing freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and priests — is lodged the power of infallibly perceiving
freedom of printing, came at this early stage into the true sense of Scripture, and of revealing it to
immediate conflict with Roman despotism , which Christians. Thus there are two Bibles. Here is
claimed absolute control over the mind, the tongue, the one a book , a dead letter ; a body without
and the pen. The monk of Wittemberg , who nails living spirit or living voice ; practically of no use.
his “ Theses” on the church door in the open day, Here is the other, a living organisation, in which
encounters the Papal censor, who blots out every dwells the Holy Spirit. The one is a written Bible :
line that is not in agreement with the Papacy. the other is a developed Bible. The one was com
The controversy between Luther and Prierio, pleted and finished eighteen hundred years since :
as raised by the latter, turned on “ the rule of the other has been growing with the ages ; it has
faith.” Surely it was not altogether of chance that been coming into being through the decisions of
this fundamental point was debated at this early Councils, the rules of canonists, and the edicts of
stage. It put in a clear light the two very dif- Popes. Councils have discussed and deliberated ;
ferent foundations on which Protestantism and the interpreters and canonists have toiled ; Popes have
Papacy respectively stood. legislated , speaking as the Holy Spirit gave them
Prierio's performance took the form of a dialogue. utterance ; and, as the product of all those minds
He laid down certain great principles touching the and of all these ages, you have now the Bible
constitution of the Church , the authority vested in the deposit of the faith — the sole infallible au
it, and the obedience due by all Christians to that thority to which men are to listen . The written
authority. The universal Church essentially , said book was the original seed ; but the Church — that
Prierio , is a congregation for worship of all is, the hierarchy — is the stem which has sprung
believers ; virtually it is the Roman Church ; repre- from it. The Bible is now a dead husk ; the living
sentatively it is the college of cardinals ; concentra- tree which has grown out of it — the fully rounded
and completely developed body of doctrine, now
1 His epithets are somewhat scurrilous for a Master of before the world in the Church — is the only really
the Sacred Palace. “ Hewould like to know ," he says, useful and authoritative revelation of God, and the
“ whether this Martin has an iron nose or a brazen head ” . one infallible rule by which it is his will that men
(an ferreum nasum , an caput aneum ). - Seckendorf, Hist . should walk .
Lutheran ., lib . i., sec. 13, p . 31. One thing was clear, that The Master of the Sacred Palace
this Martin had an iron pen .
2 Sleidan , bk. i., p . 3 . 3 Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran., lib. i., sec. 13, p .31.
LUTHER'S ANTAGONISTS. 269
deposited the germ of this line of argument. Sub- upon the too zealous champion of Peter's See. As
sequent Popish polemics have more fully developed regarded Leo himself, he took the matter more
the argument, and given it the form we have coolly than the master of his palace. There had
stated . been noisy monks in all ages, he reflected ; the
Prierio's doctrine was unchallengeably orthodox Papacy had not therefore fallen . Moreover, it
at the Vatican, for the meridian of which it was was but a feeble echo of the strife that reached
calculated. At Wittemberg his tractate read like him in the midst of his statues, gardens, cour
a bitter satire on the Papacy. Luther thought, or tiers, and courtesans. He even praised the genius
affected to think, that an enemy had written it, and of brother Martin ;s for Leo could pardon a little
had given it on purpose this extravagant loftiness, truth, it spoken wittily and gracefully. Then ,
in order to throw ridicule and contempt over the thinking that he had bestowed too much praise
prerogatives of the Papal See. He said that he on the Germans, he hinted that the wine-cup may
recognised in this affair the hand of Ulric von have quickened the wit of the monk, and that
Hütten — a knight, whose manner it was to make his pen would be found less vigorous when the
war on Romewith the shafts of wit and raillery. fumes of the liquor had subsided, as they would
But Luther soon saw that he must admit the soon do. .
real authorship, and answer this attack from the Scarcely had Prierio been disposed of, when
foot of the Papal throne. Prierio boasted that he another combatant started up. This was Hoch
had spent only three days over his performance : straten , an inquisitor at Cologne. This disputant
Luther occupied only two in his reply. The doctor belonged to an order unhappily more familiar with
of Wittemberg placed the Bible of the living God the torch than with the pen ; and it was not
over against the Bible of Prierio , as the foundation long till Hochstraten showed that his fingers, un .
of men's faith . The fundamental position taken in used to the one, itched to grasp the other. He lost
his answer was expressed in the words of Holy his temper at the very outset, and called for a
Writ : “ Though we, or an angel from heaven , scaffold . If, replied Luther , nothing daunted by
preach any other gospel unto you than that which this threat, it is the faggot that is to decide the
we have preached unto you, let him be accursed .” controversy , the sooner I am burned the better ,
Prierio had centred all the faith , obedience, and otherwise the monksmay have cause to rue it.
hopes of men in the Pope : Luther places them on Yet another opponent ! The first antagonist of
that Rock which is Christ. Thus, with every day, Luther came from the Roman Curia ; the second
and with each new antagonist, the true nature of from monachism ; he who now appears, the third,
the controversy, and the momentous issues which it is the representative of the schools. This was
had raised, were coming more clearly and broadly Dr. Eck , professor of scholastic theology at In
into view . golstadt." He rose up in the fulness of his erudition
Prierio , who deemed it impossible that a Master and of his fame, to extinguish themonk of Wittem
of the Sacred Palace could be vanquished by a berg, although he had but recently contracted a
German monk , wrote a reply. This second per - friendship with him , cemented by an interchange of
formance was even more indiscreet than his first letters. Though a scholar, the professor of Ingol
The Pope's prerogative he aimed at exalting to stadt did not account it beneath him to employ
even a higher pitch than before ; and he was so ill abuse, and resort to insinuation . “ It is the
advised as to found it on that very extraordinary Bohemian poison which you are circulating," said
part of the canon law which forbids any one to he to Luther, hoping to awaken against him the
stop the Pope, or to admit the possibility of his old prejudice which still animated the Germans
erring, though he should be found on the high road against Huss and the Reformers of Bohemia . So
to perdition, and dragging the whole world after far as Eck condescended to argue, his weapons,
him .' The Pope, finding that Sylvester's replies taken from the Aristotelian armoury, were adapted
were formidable only to the Papacy, enjoined silence for a scholastic tournament only ; they were useless
in a real battle , like that in which he now engaged.
This almost incredible decree runs as follows : - “ If They were speedily shivered in his hand. “ Would
the Pope should become neglectful of his own salvation, you not hold it impudence," asked Luther, meeting
and of that of other men , and so lost to all good that he
draw down with himself innumerable people by heape
into hell, and plunge them with himself into eternal
torments, yet no mortal man may presume to repre 2 Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran ., lib. i., sec. 15, p . 40.
hend him , forasmuch as he is judge of all, and to be 3 Ibid . “ Che Fra Martino fosse un bellissimo in .
judged ofno one.” (Corpus Juris Canonici, Decreti, pars. i., gegno.'
distinct. al., can . 6.) * Ibid., lib . i., sec. 13, p . 30,
Dr. Eck on his own ground, “ in one to maintain , demolishes the mock infallibility : “ God is truth ,
as a part of the philosophy of Aristotle, what one and cannot err.” Next comes the Inquisitor,
found it impossible to prove Aristotle had ever with his hints that there is such an institution as
taught ? You grant it. It is the most impudent the “ Holy Office ” for convincing those whom
of all impudence to affirm that to be a part of nothing else can. Luther laughs these threats to
Christianity which Christ never taught.” scorn. Last of all appears the doctor, clad in the
POPE LEO X . (After the portrait by Raphael.)
The doctor of Ingolstadt sunk into silence. One armour of the schools, who shares the fate of his
after another the opponents of the Reformer retire predecessors. The secret of Luther's strength they
from Luther 's presence discomfited. First, the do not know , but it is clear that all their efforts to
Master of the Sacred Palace advances against the overcome it can but advertise men that Roman
monk , confident of crushing him by the weight of infallibility is a quicksand, and that the hopes of
the Pope's authority. “ The Pope is but a man , the human heart can repose in safety nowhere,
and may err," says Luther, as with quiet touch he save on the Eternal Rock.
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CHAPTER XI.
LUTHER'S JOURNEY TO AUGSBURG.
Luther Advances - Eyes of the Curia begin to Open - Luther Cited to Rome- University of Wittemberg Intercedes for
him - Cajetan Deputed to Try the Cause in Germany - Character of Cajetan - Cause Prejudged - Melancthon
Comes to Wittemberg – His Genius - Yoke- fellows- Luther Departs for Augsburg - Journey on Foot - No Safe.
conduct - Myconius - A Borrowed Coat - Prognostications- Arrivesat Augsburg,
The eyes of the Pope and the adherents of the were the well-marked stages the movement had
Papacy now began to open to the real importance already attained . The last especially , the sole in
of themovement inaugurated at Wittemberg. They fallible authority of the Bible, was a reformation
had regarded it slightingly, almost contemptuously , in itself — a seed from which must spring a new
as but a quarrel amongst that quarrelsome genera system .
tion the monks, which had broken out in a remote Rome, at this crisis, had need to be decided and
province of their dominions, and which would prompt ; she strangely vacillated and blundered .
speedily subside and leave Rome unshaken . But, Leo X . was a sceptic, and scepticism is fatal to
so far from dying out, the movement was every earnestness and vigour. The Emperor Maximilian
day deepening its seat and widening its sphere ; it was more alive to the danger that impended over
was allying itself with great spiritual and moral the Papal See than Leo. He was nearer the
forces ; it was engendering new thoughts in the cradle of the movement, and beheld with dismay
minds of men ; already a phalanx of disciples, the spread of the Lutheran doctrines in his own
created and continually multiplied by its own dominions. He wrote energetically, if mayhap he
energies, stood around it, and , unless speedily might rouse the Pope, who was slumbering in his
checked, the movement would work, they began to palace , careless of everything save his literary and
fear, the downfall of their system . artistic treasures, while this tempest was gathering
Every day Luther was making a new advance. over him . The Diet of the Empire was at that
His words were winged arrows, his sermons were moment (1518) sitting at Augsburg. The emperor
lightning-flashes, they shed a blaze all around : there sought to inflame the members of the Diet by
was an energy in his faith which set on fire the pronouncing a furious philippic against Luther,
souls of men , and he had a wonderful power to including the patrons and defenders whom the Re
evoke sympathy, and to win confidence. The former had found among the powerful. The Elector
common people especially loved and respected him . Frederick of Saxony was especially meant. It
Many cheered him on because he opposed the Pope, helped to augment the chagrin of the emperor, that
but not a few because he dealt out to them that mainly through the influence of Frederick he had
Bread for which their souls had long hungered . been thwarted in carrying a project through the
His “ Theses " had been mistaken or misrepre- Diet, on which he was much set as tending to the
sented by ignorant or prejudiced persons ; he re - aggrandisement of his dynasty — the election of his
solved to explain them in clearer language. He grandson, the future Charles V ., to succeed him in
now published what he styled his “ Resolutions," the Empire. But if Frederick herein did the em
in which , with admirable moderation and firmness, peror a disfavour, he won for himself greater con
he softens the harder and lights up the darker sideration at the court of the Pope, for there were
parts of his “ Theses,” but retracts nothing of their few things that Leo X . dreaded more than the
teaching. union of half the sceptres of Europe in one hand.
In this new publication he maintains that every Meanwhile the energetic letter of Maximilian
true penitent possesses God's forgiveness, and has no was not without effect, and it was resolved to lay
need to buy an indulgence ; that the stock of merit vigorous hold upon the Wittemberg movement.
from which indulgences are dispensed is a pure On the 7th August, 1518, Luther was summoned
chimera , existing only in the brain of the indul- to answer at Rome, within sixty days, to the
gence -monger ; that the power of the Pope goes no charges preferred against him .' To have gone to
farther than to enable him to declare the pardon
which God has already bestowed , and that the rule Pallavicino. Istoria del Concilio di Trento , lib . i.,cap.6,
of faith is the Holy Scriptures . These statements p . 46 ; Napoli, 1757,
LUTHER MEETS MELANCTHON . 273
Rome would have been to march into his grave appear was born ( 1469) at Gaeta , a frontier-town
But the peril of staying was scarcely less than the of the Neapolitan kingdom , to which events in the
peril of going. He would be condemned as con- personal history of a subsequent Pope (Pius IX .)
tumacious, and the Pope would follow up the long afterwards gave some little notoriety. Ho
excommunication by striking him , if not with his belonged to the Dominican order , and was, more
own hand , with that of the emperor. The powers over, a warm admirer and a zealous defender of
of earth , headed by the King of the Seven Hills, the scholastic philosophy. The cardinal's manners
were rising up against Luther. He had no visible were suave to a degree, but his spirit was stern .
defence — no acknowledged protector. There seemed Beneath a polished , courtly, and amiable exterior,
no escape for the unbefriended monk. there lurked the Dominican. His talents , his
ther
The University of Wittemberg , of which Luther learning, and his fame for sanctity made him one
was the soul, made earnest intercession for him at of the most distinguished members of the Sacred
the court of the Vatican, dwelling with special College. His master , the Pope, reposed great con
emphasis upon the unsuspected character of his fidence in him , and hemerited it ; for De Vio was
doctrine, and the blameless manners of his life, not a sincere believer in all the dogmas of the Church,
reflecting, apparently , how little weight either plea even in the gross forms into which they now began
would carry in the quarter where it was urged . A to develop ; and no one placed the Papal prero
more powerful intercessor was found for Luther in gatives higher, or was prepared to do stouter battle
the Elector Frederick, who pleaded that it was a for them , than he. Cardinal Cajetan took his
right of the Germans to have all ecclesiastical ques place on the judgment-seat with much pomp, for he
tions decided upon their own soil, and urged in held firmly by the maxim that legates are above
accordance therewith that some fit person should be kings ; but he sat there, not to investigate Luther's
deputed to hear the cause in Germany, mentioning cause , but to receive his unqualified and uncon
at the same time his brother-elector,the Archbishop ditional submission . The cause, as we shall after
of Trèves, as one every way qualified to discharge wards see, was already decided in the highest
this office. The peril was passed more 'easily than quarter. The legate's instructions were brief but
could have been anticipated. The Pope remembered precise, and were to this effect : that he should
that Frederick of Saxony had done him a service at compel the monk to retract ; and, failing this, that
the Diet of Augsburg, and he thought it not im - he should shut him up in safe custody till the Pope
probable that he might need his good offices in the should be pleased to send for him . This was as
future. And, further, his legate-a-latere, now in much as to say, “ Send him in chains to Rome.”
Germany, was desirous to have the adjudication of We must pause here, and relate an episode which
Luther's case, never doubting that he should be took place just as Luther was on the point of setting
able to extinguish heresy in Germany, and that the out for Augsburg, and which (from a small begin
glory of such a work would compensate for his morning) grew into most fruitful consequences to the
tification at the Diet of Augsburg , where, having Reformation , and to Lutherprsonally. A very few
failed to engage the princes in a war against the days before Luther's departure to appear before the
Turk, he was consequently without a pretext for cardinal, Philip Melancthon arrived atWittemberg,
levying a tax upon their kingdoms. The result to fill the Greek chair in its university. He was
was that the Pope issued a brief, on the 23rd of appointed to this post by the Elector Frederick,
August, empowering his legate, Cardinal de Vio , having been strongly recommended by the famous
to summon Luther before him , and pronounce Reuchlin. His fame had preceded him , and his
judgment in his case . Leo, while appearing to arrival was awaited with no little expectations by
oblige both Frederick and the cardinal, did not the Wittemberg professors. But when he appeared
show all his hand. This transference of the cause amongst them , his exceedingly youthful appearance ,
to Germany was but another way, the Pope hoped , his small figure, his shy manners, and diffident air,
of bringing Luther to Rome. but ill corresponded with their preconceptions of
Thomas de Vio, Cardinal St. Sixti, but better him . They looked for nothing great from their
known as Cardinal Cajetan, cited the doctor of young professor of Greek . But they did not know
Wittemberg to appear before him at Augsburg. as yet the treasure they had found ; and little
The man before whom Luther was now about to especially did Luther dream what this modest,
* Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 7, p. 46. Seckendorf, Hist. 3 Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 9, p . 52. Sleidan, bk. i., p . 5 .
Lutheran., lib . i., sec. 16 , p. 41. 4 Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran ., lib. i., sec. 16, p. 43.
. Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran., lib . i., sec. 16 , pp. 41, 42. 5 Joach. Camerarius, De Vita Phil. Melancth . Nar., cap.7 ;
Pallavicino , lib. i., cap. 9, p. 52. Vratislaviæ , 1819.
shrinking young man was to be to him in after the passionate energy of Luther. It doubled the
days. working powers of each for both to draw in the
In a day or two the new professor delivered his same yoke. Genius alone would have knit them
inaugural lecture, and then it was seen what a great into friendship , but they found a yet more sacred
soul was contained in that small body. He poured bond in their love of the Gospel. From the day
forth , in elegant Latinity , a stream of deep, philo - that the two met at Wittemberg there was a new
sophical, yet luminous thought, which delighted all light in the heart of Luther, a new force in the
who listened, and won their hearts, as well as movement of the Reformation .
compelled the homage of their intellects. Me As at the beginning of Christianity , so was it
lancthon displayed in his address a knowledge so now as regards the choice of instruments by whom
full, and a judgment so sound and ripened, com - the work of reforming, as before of planting, the
bined with an eloquence of such grace and power , Church , was to be done. From no academy of
that all felt that he would make for himself a great Greek philosophy, from no theatre of Roman elo
name, and extend the fame of their university. quence, from no school of Jewish learning were the
This young scholar was destined to do all this, and first preachers of the Gospel taken. These bottles
a great deal more. were too full of the old wine of human science to
Wemust devote a few sentences to his previous receive the new wine of heavenly wisdom . To the
life — he was now only twenty-one. Melancthon hardy and unlettered fishermen of Galilee was the
was the son of a master armourer in Bretten in the call addressed, “ Come, follow me, and I will make
Palatinate. His birth took place on February 14th , you fishers of men.”
1497. His father, a pious and worthy man, died All the leading Reformers, without exception,
when he was eleven years of age, and his education were of lowly birth . Luther first saw the light in
was cared for by his maternal grandfather. His a miner's cottage ; Calvin was the grandson of a
disposition was as gentle as his genius was beauti- cooper in Picardy ; Knox was the son of a plain
ful, and from his earliest years the clearness and burgess of a Scottish provincial town ; Zwingle
strength of his understanding made the acquisition was born in a shepherd 's hut in the Alps ; and
of knowledge not only easy to him , but an absolute Melancthon was reared in the workshop of an
pleasure. His training was conducted first under armourer. Such is God's method. It is a law
a tutor, next at the public school of Pforzheim , of the Divine working to accomplish mighty
and lastly at the University of Heidelberg,' where results by weak instruments. In this way God
he took his bachelor's degree at fourteen . It was glorifies himself, and afterwards glorifies his ser
about this time that he changed his name from the vants.
German Schwartzerd to the Greek Melancthon. We return to the scenes which we recently left.
The celebrated Reuchlin was a relation of his Luther departed , amid the tremblings of his
family, and charmed with his genius, and his fond friends, to appear before the Legate of Rome. He
ness for the Greek tongue, he presented him with a might be waylaid on the road, or his journey might
Greek grammar and a Bible : two books which end in a Roman dungeon. Luther himself did
were to be the study of his life.5 not share these apprehensions. He set out with
Luther now stood on the threshold of his stormy intrepid heart. It was a long way to Augsburg,
career. He needed a companion , and God placed and it had all to be walked on foot, for whatever
Melancthon by his side. These two were the the conflict had brought the monk , it had not
complement the one of the other ; united, they brought him wealth . The Elector Frederick , how .
formed a complete Reformer. In the one we beever, gave him money for his journey, but not a
hold a singular assemblage of all the lovelier safe-conduct.? This last, he said , was unnecessary.
qualities, in the other an equally singular combina- The fate of John Huss , which many called to mind ,
tion of all the stronger. The gentleness, the did not justify his confidence.
timidity, the perspicacity of Melancthon were the On September 28th,our traveller reached Weimar,
companion graces of the strength, the courage, and lodged in the convent of the Bare-footed friars.
A young inmate of the monastery ,who had already
Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheran ., lib . i., sec. 16 , p. 43. received Luther's doctrine into his heart, sat gazing
2 Camerarius, Vita Melancth ., cap. 1. upon him , but durst not speak to him . This was
3 Ibid ., cap. 3.
4 Both termssignify the same thing, black earth. Itwas Myconius. The Cordeliers were not favourably
not uncommon for learned men in those days to change
their names from the harsher Teutonic into the more 6 D 'Aubigné, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., p . 366 .
euphonious Latin or Greek . 7 Seckendorf, Hist. Letheran., lib . i., sec. 16, p. 45.
5 Camerarius, Vita Melancth ., cap. 2, p . 43. & Melch . Adam , Vita Myconii, p. 176 .
LUTHER ARRIVES AT AUGSBURG . 275
disposed to their guest's opinions, and yet one of the midst of his enemies, Christ reigns. May
their number, John Kestner,the purveyor, believing Christ live, may Luther die : may the God of my
that Luther was going to his death , could not help salvation be exalted.”
expressing his sympathy. “ Dear brother,” he said . There was one favour, however, which Luther
" in Augsburg you will meet with Italians, who are did not disdain to accept at the hands of his friends
learned men , but more likely to burn you than to in Nuremberg. His frock , not the newest or
answer you.” i “ Pray to God, and to his dear Son freshest when he started from Wittemberg, by the
Jesus Christ,” replied Luther, “ whose cause it is, time he reached the banks of the Pegnitz bore but
to uphold it for me." Luther here met the elector, too plain marks of his long journey, and his friends
who was returning from Augsburg, and at his judged that it was not fit to appear in before the
request preached before the court on St. Michael's legate . They therefore attired him in a frock belong
day ,but said not a word, as was remarked, in praise ing to his friend Link . On foot, and in a borrowed
of the saint. cloak , he went on his way to appear before a prince
From Weimar, Luther pursued his way, still on of the Church , but the serge of Luther was more
foot, to Nuremberg. Here he was welcomed by sublime than the purple and fine linen of De Vio .
warm friends. Among these were the illustrious Link and another friend accompanied him , and
painter and sculptor, Albert Dürer , Wenceslaus on the evening of October 7th they entered the
Link, monk and preacher, and others. Nuremberg gates of Augsburg, and took up their abode at the
had formerly enjoyed an enriching trade ; it was Augustine monastery. On the morrow he sent
still famous for the skill of its artists ; nor were Link to notify his arrival to the cardinal.
letters neglected, and the independence of mind Had Luther come a few weeks earlier he would
thus engendered had led to the early reception of have found Augsburg crowded with princes and
Luther's doctrines within it. Many came to see counts, among whom would have been found some
him , but when they found that he was travelling willing to defend him ; but now all had taken their
without a safe- conduct, they could not conceal their departure, the Diet being at an end , and no one
fears that he would never return from Augsburg. remained save the Roman Legate , whose secret
They tried to dissuade him from going farther, but purpose it was that Luther should unconditionally
to these counsels Luther refused to listen. No submit, or otherwise never depart alive out of
thoughts of danger could alter his purpose or shake those gates within which , to De Vio 's delight, he
his courage. “ Even at Augsburg," wrote he, “ in hand now entered.
CHAPTER XII.
LUTHER' S APPEARANCE BEFORE CARDINAL CAJETAN .
Urban of Serra Longa – His Interview with Luther - Revoco - Non-Revoco- A Safe -Conduct-- Luther and the Papal
Legate Face to Face - Luther Breaks Silence - Doctrines to be Retracted - Refusal - Second Interview - Discussion
on the Sacrament and Indulgences- Luther takes his Stand on Scripture - Third Interview - Luther Reads
Statement of his Views - The Legate' s Haughtiness — The Difference Irreconcilable.
A LITTLE melodrama preceded the serious part of sence of De Vio. A greater contrast it is impos
the business. Early on the day after Luther 's sible to imagine than that between the smiling,
arrival, an Italian courtier, Urban of Serra Longa bowing, and voluble Italian, and the bluff but
-a creature of the cardinal's, though he took care honest German.
not to say som -presented himself at the door of the The advice of Urban was expressed in a single
monastery where Luther lodged . He made un- word — “ Submit. Surely he had not come this long
bounded professions of friendship for the doctor of way to break a lance with the cardinal : of course
Wittemberg, and had come, he said , to give him he had not. He spoke, he presumed, to a wise
a piece of advice before appearing in the pre- man.”
Luther hinted that the matter was not so plain
1 Melch. Adam , Vita Myconii, p. 176 . as his adviser took it to be.
“ Oh,” continued the Italian, with a profusion of conclusion with his Holiness." He exhorted him
politeness, “ I understand : you have posted up not to lose a moment in tearing down his “ Theses"
“ Theses,” you have preached sermons, you have and recalling his oaths.
sworn oaths ; but three syllables, just six letters, Urban of Serra Longa had overshot the mark.
will do the business - Revoco." . Luther found it necessary to tell him yet more
“ If I am convinced out of the Sacred Scriptures,” plainly that the thing was impossible, unless the
LVL
VIEW OF AloBliv.
rejoined Luther, " that I have erred , I shall be buit

too glad to retract.”
The Italian Urban opened his eyes somewhat
widely when he heard the monk appeal to a Book
which had long ceased to be read or believed in at
the metropolis of Christendom . But surely, he cardinal should convince him by arguments drawn
thought, Luther will not be so fanatical as to persist from the Word of God that he had taught false
in putting the authority of the Bible in opposition doctrine.
to that of the Pope; and so the courtier continued. That a single monk , nay, that a whole army of
“ The Pope,” he said, “ could by a single nod monks should stand up to contest a matter with
change or suppress articles of faith,' and surely he Rome, appeared to the supple Italian an astounding
must feel himself safe when he had the Pope on his prodigy. The thing was incomprehensible to him .
side, more especially when emolument, position, The doctor of Wittemberg appeared to the courtier
and life might all lie on his coming to the same a man bent on his own ruin . “ What !" continued
the Italian, “ do you imagine that any princes or
1 L. Epp., i. 144. D'Aubigné, i. 372. lords will protect you against the Holy See !
Femei
3
etalagu
DES
HISTOR
RE
Et 3
VE
THE OLD CASTLE AT WEIMAR.

24
What support can you have ? Where will you some other friends, accompanied him to the palace
remain ?” of the legate. On his entrance the Italian courtiers
“ I shall still have heaven," answered Luther: crowded round him , eager to have “ a peep at the
Luther saw through this man's disguise, despite Erostratus who had kindled such a conflagration."
his craft, and his protestations of regard , and per- Many pressed in after him to the hall of audience,
ceived him to be an emissary of the legate , sent to to be the witnesses of liis submission , for however
sound and it might be to entrap him . He there courageous at Wittemberg, they never doubted that
fore became more reserved , and dismissed his the monk would be pliant enough when he stood
loquacious visitor with the assurance that he would before the Roman purple.
show all humility when he appeared before the The customary ceremonies over, a panse ensued .
cardinal, and would retract what was proved to be The monk and the cardinal looked at each other in
erroneous. Thereupon Urban, promising to return silence : Luther because , having been cited , he ex
and conduct him into the legate's presence , went pected Cajetan to speak first;and the cardinalbecause
back to the man from whom he had come, to tell he deemed it impossible that Luther would appear
him how he had failed in his errand . in his presence with any other intention than that
Augsburg was one of the chief cities of the of retracting. He was to find that in this he was
Empire, and Luther was encouraged by finding that mistaken .
even here his doctrines had made considerable way. It was a moment of supreme interest. The new
Many of the more honourable councillors of the city age now stood face to face with the old . Never
waited upon him , invited him to their tables, in - before had the two come into such close contact.
quired into his matters; and when they learned that There sat the old , arrayed in the purple and
he had come to Augsburg without a safe -conduct, other insignia of an ancient and venerable au
they could not help expressing their astonishment at thority : there stood the new , in a severe simplicity,
his boldness — “ a gentle name," said Luther, “ for as befitted a power which had come to abolish an
rashness.” These friends with one accord entreated age of ceremony and form , and bring in one of
him on no account to venture into the legate's spirit and life. Behind the one was seen a long
presence without a safe-conduct, and they undertook vista of receding centuries , with their traditions,
to procure one for him from the emperor, who was their edicts, and their Popes. Behind the other
still in the neighbourhood hunting. Luther deemed came a future, which was as yet a “ sealed book,"
it prudent to follow their advice ; they knew De for the opening of which all men now waited
Vio better than he did , and their testimony regard - some in terror, others in hope ; but all in awe, no
ing him was not assuring. Accordingly , when one knowing what that future might bring, and
Urban returned to conduct him to the audience of the boldest not daring to imagine even the half of
the cardinal, Luther had to inform him that he what it was destined to bring — the laws it was to
must first obtain a safe -conduct. The Italian af. change ; the thrones and altars it was to cast down ;
fected to ridicule the idea of such a thing ; " it was the kingdoms it was to overturn, breaking in pieces
useless ; it would spoil all ; the legate was gentle - the strong, and lifting up the weak to dominion
ness itself. Come," he urged , “ come, and let us and glory. No wonder that these two powers,
have the matter settled off-haud ; one little word when brought for the first time into the immediate
will do it,” he repeated , imagining that he had presence of each other, paused before opening &
found a spell before which all difficulties must give conflict that was to bring after it issues so vast.
way ; " one little word – Revoco.” But Luther Finding that the legate still kept silence, Luther
was immovable : “ Whenever I have a safe-conduct spoke : “ Most worthy Father, in obedience to the
I shall appear.” The grimacing Italian was com summons of his Papal Holiness, and in compliance
pelled to put up with his repulse, and, biting his with the orders of my gracious Lord the Elector of
finger,' he returned to tell the legate that his mis- Saxony, I appear before you as a submissive and
sion had sped even worse the second than the first dutiful son of the Holy Christian Church , and
time. acknowledge that I have published the propositions
At length a safe-conduct was obtained , and the and theses ascribed to me. I am ready to listen
11th of October was fixed for Luther's appearance most obediently to my accusation, and if I have
before De Vio . Dr. Link , of Nuremberg, and erred, to submit to instruction in the truth ." These
words were the first utterance of the Reformation
1 Tischreden, 370 — 380. Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 16 , p . 45. before a bar where in after-times its voice was
2 “ Tam ille , gestu Italico mordens digitum ,dixit , Hem ."
ter the Italian fashion hiting his finger said to be often heard .
Hem . Seckendorf. De Vio thought this an auspicious commence:
LUTHER AND CAJETAN FACE TO FACE. 279
ment. A submission was not far off. So, putting This was precisely what Luther had done. His
on a very gracious air , and speaking with con - “ Theses ” had broke the spell which opened to
descending kindness, he said that he had only three Rome the wealth of Europe. She saw at a glance
would
errors;prosecondly,
his errors
retract his
mulgata whthat
atevheer.would
things to ask of “ his dear son :" first, that he the whole extent of the damage : her markets for
The saken, her wares unsaleable , and the streams of
abstain in future from promulgating his opinions ; gold which had flowed to her from all countries
and thirdly, that he would avoid whatever might dried up. Cardinal Cajetan , therefore , obeying in
tend to disturb the peace of the Church. tho twonfrom
The structions
se d head-quarters, put his finger upon
ed
proposal, with a little more circumlocution , was those two most damaging points of the “ Theses,"
precisely that which his emissary had already pre- and demanded of Luther an unconditional retracta
sented — “ Retract.” tion of them .
Luther craved that the Papal brief might be “ You must revoke both these errors,” said
read, in virtue of which the legate had full powers De Vio, “ and embrace the true doctrine of the
to treat of this matter. Church."
The courtiers opened their eyes in astonishment “ That the man who receives the holy Sacrament
at the monk 's boldness ; but the cardinal, conceal must have faith in the grace offered him ," said
ing his anger, intimated with a wave of his hand Luther , “ is a truth I never can and never will
that this request could not be granted. revoke.”
“ Then,” replied Luther , “ deign, most reverend “ Whether you will or no,” returned the legate ,
Father, to point out to me wherein I have erred .” getting angry, “ I must have your recantation this
The courtiers were still more astonished, but Ca- very day, or for this one error I shall condemn all
jetan remained unruffled. The legate took up the your propositions."
* Theses ” of Luther : “ Observe," said he, “ in the “ But,” replied the professor of Wittemberg,with
seventh proposition you deny that the Sacrament equal decision , though with great courteousness,
can profit one unless he has faith ; and in your “ I demand proof from Scripture that I am wrong ;
fifty -eighth proposition you deny that the merits of it is on Scripture that my views rest."
Christ form part of that treasure from which the But no proof from Scripture could the Reformer
Pope grants indulgences to the faithful.” ? get. The cardinal could only repeat the common
These both were heinous errors in the estima- places of Rome, re-affirm the doctrine of the opus
tion of Rome. The power of regenerating men by operatum , and quote one of the Extravagants of
the opus operatum — that is, the simple giving of the Clement VI.S Luther, indignant at seeing what
Sacrament to them , irrespective altogether of the stress the legate laid on a Papal decree,exclaimed,
disposition of the recipient — is a mighty power, and “ I cannot admit any such constitution in proof of
invests her clergy with boundless influence. If, by matters so weighty as those in debate. These in
the mere performance or the non -performance of a terpretations put Scripture to the torture.”
certain act, they can save men or can destroy men , “ Do you not know ,” rejoined De Vio, “ that the
there is no limit to the obedience they may exact,
and no limit to the wealth that will flow in upon 3 Pallavicino, lib. i., cap. 9, pp. 53 – 55. The cardinal
them . And so of indulgences. If the Pope has a founded this on the well-known decree of Clement VI.
treasury of infinite merit on which he can draw for Boniface VIII. ordained a jubilee every hundredth year.
the pardon of men's sins, all will come to him , and Clement VI. shortened the term to fifty years ; but lest
will pay him his price ,how high soever hemay choose men should think that this frequent recurrence of the
year of grace would empty the treasury whence all the
to fix it. But explode these two dogmas ; prove to blessings bestowed in that year proceed, the Pope showed
men that without faith, which is the gift not of the them that this calamity could not possibly happen. “ One
Pope but of God , the Sacrament is utterly without drop of Christ's blood ,” he said , “ would have sufficed for
the salvation of the whole world ; but Christ shed all his
efficacy - an empty sign, neither conferring grace blood , constituting thereby a vast treasury ofmerits, the
now nor meetness for heaven hereafter — and that distribution of which has been given to the Divine Peter
the Pope's treasury of inexhaustible merits is a pure [ Divo Petro ) and his successors . To this have been added
fiction ; and who after that will bestow a penny in the merits of the Virgin Mary and all the saints, making
the material of pardon (condoni materies ] literally in .
buying Sacraments which contain no grace, and exhaustible .” Luther maintained that Christ had com
purchasing pardons which convey no forgiveness ? mitted to Peter and his successors the keys and ministry
of the Word , whereby they were empowered to declare
the remission of their sins to the penitent; and that
Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 18, p . 46. Sleidan , bk . i., p. 7. if this was the meaning of Pope Clement's decretal, he
? Pallavicino, tom . i., lib. i., cap . 9, p. 53. Seckendorf, agreed with it ; but if not, he disapproved of it . (Sleidan ,
lib . i., sec. 18, p. 46. bk . i., p. 9.)
280 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM . ..
Pope has authority and power over these things ?" barrassment under an affected pity for the monk.
“ Save Scripture," said Luther eagerly . “ Scrip - “ Leave off," he said , in accents of great mildness,
ture !” said the cardinal derisively , “ the Pope is “ these senseless counsels, and return to your sound
above Scripture, and above Councils. Know you mind. Retract, my son , retract.” Luther once
not that he has condemned and punished the Coun - more appealed to the authority of Scripture, but
cil of Basle ?” “ But,” responded Luther, “ the De Vio becoming somewhat ruffled , the conference
University of Paris has appealed.” “ And the ended, after Staupitz had craved and obtained leave
Parisian gentlemen,” said De Vio, “ will pay the for Luther to put his views in writing.*
penalty .” At the third and last interview , the doctor of
Luther saw plainly that at this rate they would Wittemberg read a full statement of his views on
never arrive at a settlement of the matter. The all the points which had been under consideration .
legate sat in state , treating the man before him He maintained all his former positions, largely
with affected condescension , but real contempt. fortifying them by quotations from Augustine and
When Luther quoted Scripture in proof of his other early Fathers, but more especially from Holy
doctrine, the only answer he received from the Writ. The cardinal could not help , even on the
cardinal was a shrug of his shoulders, or a derisive judgment-seat, displaying his irritation and chagrin.
laugh. The legate, despite his promise to reason Drawing himself up in his robes, he received the .
the matter out on the foundation of the Word of “ declaration ” with a look of contempt, and pro
God , would not, or perhaps could not, meet Luther nounced it “ mere words,” “ a long phylactery ;"
on that ground. He kept exclusively by the de- but said that he would send the paper to Rome.
cretals and the schoolmen. Glad , perhaps, to escape Meanwhile the legate threatened him with the
for the present from a controversy which was not penalties enacted by the Pope unless he retracted."
so manageable a: he had hoped to find it, he offered He offered Luther, somewhat earnestly , a safo
to give the doctor of Wittemberg a day for de conduct, if he would go to Rome and there be
liberation, but intimated at the same time that he judged. The Reformer knew what this meant.
would accept of nothing but a retractation . So It was a safe-conduct to a dungeon somewhere in
ended the first interview . the precincts of the Vatican. The proffered favour
On returning to his convent his delight was great was declined , much to the annoyance of De Vio,
to find his valued friend Staupitz , the Vicar-General who thought, no doubt, that this was the best way
of the Augustines, who had followed him to Augs- of terminating an affair which had tarnished the
burg, in the hope of being serviceable to him at this Roman purple, but lent éclat to the monk's serge.
crisis. On the morning when Luther returned to This was a great crisis in the history of Protest
his second interview with the cardinal, the Vicar- antism , and we breathe more freely when we find
General and four imperial councillors accompanied it safely passed . Luther had not yet sounded the
him , along with many other friends, a notary, and Papal dogmas to the bottom . He had not as yet
witnesses. After the customary obeisance , Luther those clear and well-defined views to which fuller
read a paper, protesting that he honoured and investigation conducted him . He still believed the
followed the Holy Roman Church ; that hesubmitted office of Pope to be of Divine appointment, and
himself to the judgment and determination of that while condemning the errors of the inan , was dis
Church ; that he was ready here present to answer posed to bow to the authority of his office. There
in writing whatever objection the legate of the was risk of concessions which would have ham
Pope might produce against him ; and, moreover, pered him in his future course, or have totally
that he was willing to submit his “ Theses ” to the wrecked his cause. From this he was saved ,
judgment of the Imperial Universities of Basle, partly by his loyalty to his own convictions, partly
Fribourg, and Louvain , and, if these were not also by the perception on the part of the theolo
enough , of Paris- from of old ever the most Chris - gians of Rome that the element of “ faith ," on
tian, and in theology ever the most flourishing which Luther so strenuously insisted, constituted
university.3 an essential and eternal difference between his
The legate evidently had some difficulty in system and theirs. ' It substituted a Divine for a
knowing what to reply to these reasonable and human agency , the operation of the Holy Spirit for
manly proposals. He tried to conceal his em - the opus operatum . On such a point there could
i Sleidan , bk . i., p. 7. 4 Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 9 , p . 54.
2 Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 18, p . 47. 5 Sleidan, bk. i., p . 8 .
3 Pallavicino, tom . i., lib . i., cap. 9 , p . 54. 6 Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 9, p. 54 . Sleidan, bk.i., p. 8.
LUTHER 'S FLIGHT FROM AUGSBURG . 281
be no reconcilement on the basis of mutual conces- Luther had looked through and through Cajetan.
sion, and this led them to insist on absolute and He was astonished to find how weak a polemic and
unconditionalretractation . Luther used to say that how flimsy a theologian was the champion to whom
he did not learn all his divinity at once , but was Rome had committed her battle. “ One may guess
constrained to sink deeper and deeper. The Pope from this,” wrote Luther to Spalatin , “ what is the
said ,• Although Christ be the Head of the Church, calibre of those of ten times or a hundred times
yet notwithstanding there must be a visible and lower rank.” The Reformer went forth ever after
corporeal head of the Church on earth.' With this to meet Rome's mighty men with less anxiety
I could have been well content, in case he had but touching the issue. But the cardinal had formed
taught the Gospel purely unul clearly, and had not no contemptuous opinion of the monk, although he
brought forward human inventions and lies instead could find none but contemptuous epithets in which
thereof." : to speak of him . “ I will have no more disputing
So ended the first conflict between the old and with that beast," said he, when Staupitz pressed
the new powers . The victory remained with the him to debate the matter once more with the doctor
latter. This was no small gain . Besides, the twomen of Wittemberg, “ for he has deep eyes and wonder
had been able to take each the measure of the other. ful speculation in his head.” 3
CHAPTER XIII.
LUTHER 'S RETURN TO WITTEMBERG AND LABOU'RS THERE.
Luther Writes to the Cardinal, and Leaves Augsburg - His Journey – The Pope's Bull Condemning him - Luther's
Protestation - De Vio 's Rage- Luther Enters Wittemberg - Cajetan's Letter to Elector Frederick - Frederick's
Reply - Luther 's Account of the Conference - Activity in the University - Study of the Bible - The Pope's Bull
on Indulgences - Luther Appeals from the Pope to the Church - Frederick Requests Luther to Leave Saxony
Whither shall heGo? - Supper with his Friends - Anguish and Courage .
Two days had passed since the legate had bidden traversing before dawn the silent streets of Augs
Luther “ be gone, and see his face no more, unless burg. He is escaping from the cardinal. He
he changed his mind.” ? After leaving the car approaches a small gate in the city walls. A
dinal's presence, Luther wrote him a letter (Octo friendly hand opens it, and he passes out into the
ber 16th ) in which , although he retracted nothing, open country. This was on the morning of the
he expressed great respect and submission. The fourth day (October 20th ) after his last interview .
cardinal returned no answer to this. What did Behind him is the sleeping city, before him is
his silence mean ? “ It bodes no good,” said the champagne country, just beginning to be visible
Luther's friends ; “ he is concocting some plot in the early daybreak . In what direction shall he
with the emperor ; we must be beforehand with turn his horse's head ? He stands a moment un
him .” certain . The French ambassador had mentioned
In fact , Cajetan did not need to consult the his name with favour at the late Diet ; may he not
emperor or any one else. He had received in - expect protection in his master's dominions ? His
structions from his master at Rome in view of hand is on his bridle-rein to direct his flight to
the possible miscarriage of his mission. If he France. But no ; he turns northward. It was
delayed to put these instructions in force , it was Wittemberg, not Paris, that was destined to be the
because he thought he had snared his victim : the centre of the new movement.
walls of Augsburg had shut him in . The two travellers rode away at what speed they
The trap was not quite so sure as the cardinal could . Luther was but little accustomed to the
deemed it. Mounted on a horse , provided for him
by his friends, a trusty guide by his side, Luther is 3 Myconius, Hist. Reform .,p .73. Gerdesius, Evan . Renov.,
tom . i., p . 227.
1 Table Talk , ? Sleidan, bk . i., p . 8 . 4 Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 18, p . 49,
saddle , the horse he rode was a hard trotter, and The Papal brief — in the hands of the legate when
so overcome by fatigue was he, that when hearrived he satdown on the judgment-seat - enjoined him to
at the end of his first stage, unable to stand upright, compel Luther to retract. From Rome, then, had
he lay down upon the straw in the stable of the come the one word Revoco , which Serra Longa first,
hostelry where he was to pass the night. On ar- and Cajetan next, dictated as that which Luther
LIST
c.TALom
FREDERICK III., ELECTOR OF SAXOXY, SU'RNAMED “ THE WISE.”

(From the portrait by Lucas Cranach , painted in 1520.)
riving at Nuremberg , he read for the first time the was contritely to utter. If he could be brought to
directions forwarded from Rome to De Vio, touch - retract, and to beg forgiveness for the disturbance
ing the way in which himself and his cause were to he had made, and the scandal he had caused to the
be disposed of. These showed him that he had left hierarchy, the legate was empowered to " receive him
Augsburg not a moment too soon, and that during into the unity of our Holy Mother the Church ."
his stay there a sword had all the while been hang. But if the monk should prove obstinate, De Vio
ing above his head . was to use summary and sharp measures to have
the business ended. He was to seize the person of
i Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 18 , p. 49. ? Ibid ., p . 51. Luther,and keep him in safe custody, that he might
AUGSBURG
FROM
.ESCAPING
LUTHER
be sent to Rome. To effect this, should it be tion of the monk ; his person was now beyond his
necessary, the legate wils to demand the aid of the reach ; he had carried with him the prestige of
emperor, of the princes of Germany, and of all the victory ; Rome had been foiled in this her first
communities and potentates ecclesiastical and secu - passage of arms with the new faith ; the cardinal,
lar. If, notwithstanding, Luther should escape, he whó hoped to rehabilitate himself as a diplomatist,
was to proscribe him in every part of Germany, and had come out of the affair as a bungler : what
lay under interdict all those princes, communities , would they say of him at Rome? The more he
universities, and potentates, with their cities, towns, reflected, the greater appeared to him the mischief
countries , and villages, which should offer him an thatwould grow out of this matter. Hehad secretly
asylum , or in any way befriend him .? exulted when told that Luther was in Augsburg ;
Even before the summons to appear before De but better the monk had never entered its gates,
Vio had been put into Luther's hands, his cause than that he should come hither to defy Romein
had been adjudged and himself condemned as a the person of her legate, and go away, not only
heretic in a Papal court, that of Jerome, Bishop of unharmed , but even triumphing. The cardinal was
Ascoli. Ofthis Luther knew nothing when he set out filled with indignation, shame, and rage.
for Augsburg. When he learned it he exclaimed , Meanwhile Luther was every day placing a
“ Is this the style and fashion of the Roman court, greater distance between himself and the legate.
which in the same day summons, exhorts, accuses, The rumour spread through Germany that the
judges, condemns, and declares a man guilty , who monk lad held his own before the cardinal, and the
is so far from Rome, and who knows nothing of inhabitants of the villages and towns in his route
all these things?" The danger was passed before he turned out to congratulate him on his victory,
knew its full extent ; but when he saw it he gave Their joy was the greater inasmuch as their hopes
thanks with his whole soul to God for his escape. had been but faint that he should ever return.
The angel of the Lord had encamped round about Germany had triumphed in Luther. Proud Italy,
him and delivered him . who sent her dogmas and edicts across the Alps,
Like the Parthian , Luther discharged his arrows to be swallowed without examination , and who
as he fled. He did not leave Augsburg without followed them by her tax-gatherers, had received
leaving behind him something that would speak for a check . That haughty and oppressive Power had
him when he was gone; and not in Augsburg only, begun to fall, and the dawn of deliverance had
but in all Christendom . He penned an appeal to broke for the Northern nations.
Rome. In that document he recapitulated the Luther re-entered Wittemberg on theday (October
arguments with which he had combatted indul- 30th , 1518) preceding the anniversary of that on
gences, and characterised the cardinal's prooedure which he had posted up his “ Theses." The 1st of
as unreasonable, in insisting on a retractation with November was All Saints' Day. There came this
out deigning to show him wherein he had erred. year no crowd of pilgrims to Wittemberg to visit
He had not yet renounced the authority of the the relics and purchase indulgences. So much for
Pope : he still reverenced the chair of Peter , the blow Luther had struck : the trade of Rome in
though disgraced bymal-administrations, and there . these parts had well-nigh been ruined ; it was
fore he closed his appeal in the following terms : - manifest that the doctrines of the Reformer were
“ I appeal from the Most Holy Father the Pope, spreading.
ill-informed, to the Most Holy Father the Pope But if the crowd of pilgrims that annually re
Leo X ., by the grace ofGod to be better-informed." ? sorted to Wittemberg was all but extinct, that of
This appeal was to be handed to the legate only students had greatly increased . With the growing
when the writer was at a safe distance. But the renown of Luther grew the fame of the university,
question was, who should bell the cat. De Vio and the Elector Frederick saw with joy the pros
was in no mood to be approached with such a perity of a seminary in which he took so deep an
document. The cardinal burned with a sense of interest. This helped to draw him to the side of
the disaster which had befallen himself and the the Reformer. Luther resumed , with heart and
cause of Rome, in Luther's flight. He, and all the soul, his labours in his chair. He strove to forget
men of craft, his advisers, had been outwitted by what Rome might be hatching ; he knew that
the German ! He had failed to compel the retracta - trouble was not far off ; but meanwhile he went on
with his work , being all the more anxious to make
i Pallavicino, lib. i., cap. 9 , p . 52. the best use of the interval of quiet, the more he
• Luth . Opp ., tom . i., p . 232. Sleidan , bk . i., p . 9. Paul. felt that it would be short.
Sarpi, tom . i., livr. i., p. 23 (foot-note ). It was short indeed , On November the 19th
ENTHUSIASM IN THE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES. 288
Frederick of Saxony received a letter from Cardinal Luther had becomenot the doctor of Wittemberg
Cajetan, giving his version of the interviews at only , but of all Germany. The whole nation, not
Augsburg,' and imploring the elector no longer to less than the youth in the university , had been
sully the fame of his name and the glory of his drawn into the study of theology. Through the
house by protecting a heretic , whom the tribunals printing-press Luther's voice reached every hearth
of Rome were prosecuting, and of whom and of and every individual in the Fatherland . It was a
whose affairs he had now and for ever washed his new life that men were tasting ; it was a new
hands. The result of this application was the more world that was opening to their eyes ; it was a new
to be dreaded inasmuch as Frederick was as yet influence, unfelt for ages, that was stirring their
ignorant of the reformed doctrine. But he well souls ; the ancient yoke was being broken and cast
merited the epithet bestowed on him of “ Wise ; ” in away. In the university especially the theology of
all things he acted with consideration and candour, the Holy Scriptures was being studied with an
and he might be expected to do so in this. The ardour and a perseverance to which we can find in
elector had no sooner received the legate's letter later times no parallel. Professors and students ,
than, desirous of hearing both sides, he sent it to kindled with the enthusiasın. of Luther, if they
Luther. The latter gave Frederick his account of could not keep pace with , strove to follow him as
the affair , dwelling on Cajetan's promise , which he closely as possible. “ Our university ," wrote Luther,
had not kept, to convince him out of Scripture ; " glows with industry like an ant-hill.” With each
the unreasonableness of his demand, that he should new day came a new batch of students, till the
retract, and the gross and manifest perversion of halls of the university and the accommodation at
those passages from Sacred Writ on which, in Wittemberg overflowed. Not from Germany oniy ,
his letter to the elector, Cajetan had professed, to but from far countries, came these youths to re
ground his cause ; and all with such clearness , ceive here the seed of a reformed life , and to bear
force, and obvious truth , that Frederick resolved it thence and scatter it over regions remote.
not to abandon Luther. He knew his virtues, Great attention was given to the study of Hebrew
though he did not understand his doctrines, and and Greek, “ the two languages which , like porters ,
he knew the grievances that Germany groaned sit at the entrance of the Bible, holding the keys.”
under from Italian pride and Papal greed. The From the university the passion for theological
reply of Frederick to De Vio was in reality the study passed to the court. The elector's secretary,
same with that of Luther — “ Prove the errors Spalatin , in his correspondence with Luther, was
which you allege” — a reply which deepened the perpetually asking and receiving expositions of
mortification and crowned the misfortunes of the Scripture, and it was believed that belind the
cardinal. secretary's shadow sat the elector himself, quietly
To the unhappy De Vio, and the cause which he but earnestly prosecuting that line of inquiry which
represented , one calamity followed another in rapid was ultimately to place him by the side of Luther.
succession. The day following that on which the Meanwhile the plot was thickening. The tidings
Elector Frederick dispatched his letter to the legate, of Cajetan's “ victory ," as he himself phrased it,
Luther's narrative of the Augsburg interview , had reached Rome; but the news of that “ victory”
which he had been some time carefully preparing, caused only consternation. The cannon of St.
issued from the press. The elector had requested Angelo, which have proclaimed so many triumphs
Luther to withhold it for a little while, and the Re- before and since, forbore to proclaim this one.
former was firmly purposed to do so . But the There were gloomy looks and anxious deliberations
eagerness of the public and the cupidity of the in the halls of the Vatican. Rome must repair the
printers overreached his caution. The printing. disaster that had befallen her ; but here, too,
house was besieged by a crowd of all ranks and fatality attended her steps. She could have done
ages, clamouring for copies. The sheets were nothing better to serve the cause of Luther than
handed out wet from the press, and as each sheet the course she took to oppose it. Serra Longa had
was produced a dozen hands were stretched out to blundered , De Vio had blundered , and now Leo X .
clutch it. The author was the last person to see blunders worst of all. It seemed as if the master
his own production. In a few days the pamphlet wished to obliterate the mistakes of his servants by
was spread far and near. his own greater mistakes.
- --- On November 9 the Pontiff issued a new de
i Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 11, pp. 58,59. Sleidan , bk. i., cretal, in which he sanctioned afresh the doctrine
p . 10.
• Sleidan, bk. i., p. 11. Pallavicino, lib. i., cap. 11, of indulgences, and virtually confirmed all that
pp . 59, 60 . Tetzel first and CardinalCajetan next had taught on
the head of the Church's power to pardon sin. The before the world holding the bag with as covetous
• edict ran as follows :— “ That the Roman Church , a grip as any friar of them all.
the mother of all Churches, had handed down by In another way the decree of the Pope helped to
tradition that the Roman Pontiff, the successor of overthrow the system it was meant to uphold. It
St. Peter, by the power of the keys — that is, by compelled Luther to go deeper than he had yet
removing the guilt and punishment due for actual ventured to do in his investigations into the Papacy .
sins by indulgence - can for reasonable causes grant He now looked at its foundations. The doctrine of
to the faithful of Christ, whether in this life or in indulgences in its sacrilegious and blasphemous
purgatory, indulgences out of the superabundance form he had believed to be the doctrine of Tetzel
of the merits of Christ and the saints ; can confer only ; now he saw it to be the doctrine of Leo of
the indulgence by absolution , or transfer it by Rome as well. Leo had indorsed Tetzel's and
suffrage. And all those who have acquired in - Cajetan 's interpretation of the matter. The con
dulgences, whether alive or dead , are released from clusion to which Luther's studies were tending is
so much temporal punishment for their actual sins indicated in a letter which he wrote about this time
as is the equivalent of the acquired indulgence. to his friend Wenceslaus Link at Nuremberg :
This doctrine is to be held and preached by all, “ The conviction is daily growing upon me,” says
under penalty of excommunication, from which he, “ that the Pope is Antichrist.” And when
only the Pope can absolve, save at the point of Spalatin inquired what he thought of war against
death ." 1 This bull was sent to Cajetan , who was the Turk — “ Let us begin ," he replied, “ with the
then living at Linz, in Upper Austria, whence Turk at home; it is fruitless to fight carnal wars
copies were despatched by him to all the bishops of and be overcome in spiritual wars." ?
Germany, with injunctions to have it published. The conclusion was in due time reached. The
The weight that belonged to the utterance of Reformer drew up another appeal, and on Sunday,
Peter's successor would , the Pope believed, over the 28th of November , he read it aloud in Corpus
whelm and silence the monk of Wittemberg ; and , Christi Chapel, in the presence of a notary and
the conscience of Christendom set at rest, men witnesses. “ I appeal,” he said , “ from the Pontiff,
would return to their former quiescence under the as a man liable to error, sin , falsehood, vanity, and
sceptre of the Vatican. He little understood the other human infirmities -- not above Scripture, but
age on which he was entering, and the state of under Scripture - to a future Council to be legiti
public feeling and sentiment north of the Alps. mately convened in a safe place, so that a proctor
The age was past when men would bow down im - deputed by me may have safe access." This appeal
plicitly before sheets of parchment and bits of lead. marks a new stage in Luther's enlightenment.
Wherein , men asked , does the Pope's teaching on The Pope is, in fact, abjured : Luther no longer
indulgences differ from Tetzel's, unless in the greater appeals from Leo ill-informed to Leo well-informed ,"
decency of its language ? The doctrine is the same, but from the Papal authority itself to that of a
only in the one case it is written in the best Latin General Council, from the head of the Church to
they are now masters of at Rome, whereas in the the Church herself.
other it is proclaimed with stentorian voice in the So closed the year 1518. The sky overhead was
coarsest Saxon . But plain it is that the Pope as thick with tempest. The cloud grew blacker and
really as Tetzel brings the money-chest to our bigger every day. The Reformer had written the
doors, and expects that we shall fill it. He vaunts appeal read in Corpus Christi Chapel on the 28th
his treasure of merits , but it is as the chapman of November, as the Israelites ate their last supper
vaunts his wares, that we may buy ; and themore in Egypt, “ his robe tucked up and his loins girded,
we sin , the richer will they be at Rome. Money — ready to depart,” though whither he knew not.
money - money, is the beginning, middle, and end He only knew that he could go nowhere where
of this new decretal. It was in this fashion that God would not be his “ shield , and exceeding great
the Germans spoke of the edict of November 9, reward.” The Papal anathemas he knew were
which was to bolster up Cajetan and extinguish being prepared at Rome; they were not, impro
Luther. The Pope had exonerated Tetzel, but it bably, at this moment on their way to Germany.
was at the expense of taking the whole of this im - Not because he feared for himself, but because he
mense scandal upon himself and his system . The did not wish to compromise the Elector Frederick ,
chief priest of Christendom presented himself - -- -
? Letter, December 21, 1518. De Wette, i., p. 200.
i Pallavicino, lib. i., cap . 12 , p. 62. Sleidan, bk . i., 3.“ Ben informato.” (Pallavicino, lib . i., cap.12, p.62.)
p . 12 . Paul. Sarpi, Hist. Conc. Trent, tom . i., livr . i., p. 22. ; Sleidan , bk. i., p . 12.
CLOUDS GATHERING ROUND LUTHER 287
he held himself ready at a day's notice to quit on the point of being quenched , and the great
Saxony. His thoughts turned often to France. movement which promises a new life to the world
The air seemed clearer there, and the doctors of on the brink of overthrow . So sudden an over
the Sorbonne spoke their thoughts with a freedom casting of the day they had not looked for. They
unknown to other countries ; and had Luther been waited for light, and beheld darkness. No prince
actually compelled to flee, most probably he would in all Christendom , no, not even their own wise and
have gone to that country. And now the die wąs magnanimous elector, dare give an asylum to the
cast as it seemed . The elector sent a message to man who in the cause of righteousness has stood up
him , intimating his wishes that he should quit his against Rome. It was a bitter cup that Luther
dominions. He will obey, but before going forth was now drinking. Hemust go forth. His enemy,
he will solace himself, most probably for the last he knew , would pursue him from land to land, and
time, in the company of his friends. While seated would never cease to dog his steps till she had
with them at supper, a messenger arrives from the overtaken and crushed him . But it was not this
elector. Frederick wishes to know why Luther that troubled him . His soul, the only thing of
delays his departure . What a pang does this value about him , he had committed to One who
message send to his heart ! What a sense of was able to keep it ; and as for his body, it was
sadness and desolation does he now experience ! at the disposal of Rome, to rot in her dungeons, to
On earth he has no protector. There is not for hang on her gibbets, to be reduced to ashes in her
him refuge below the skies. The beloved friends fires, just as she might will. He would have gone
assembled round him — Jonas, Pomeranus, Carlstadt, singing to the stake, but to go forth and leave his
Amsdorf, the jurist Schurff, and , dearest of all, country in darkness, this it was that pierced him
Melancthon -- are drowned in grief, in almost de to the heart, and drew from him a flood of bitter
spir, as they behold the light of their university tears.
CHAPTER XIV .
MILTITZ - CARLSTADT - DR . ECK .
Miltitz - Of German Birth Of Italian Manners - His Journey into Germany-- The Golden Rose - His Interview with
Luther - His Flatteries — A Truce - Danger - The War Resumed - Carlstadt and Dr. Eck - Disputation at Leipsic
Character of Dr. Eck - Entrance of the Two Parties into Leipsic - Place and Formsof the Disputation - Its Vast
Importance - Portrait of the Disputants.
We left Luther dispirited to the last degree. A gation ; he had spoken his parting words to the
terrible storm seemed to be gathering over him , youth who had gathered round him from all
and over the work which he had been honoured to the provinces of Germany, and from distant coun
begin , and so far auspiciously to advance. He had tries ; he had bidden adieu to his weeping friends,
incurred the displeasure of a foe who had at com - and now he stood, staff in hand, ready to go forth
mand all the powers of Europe. Maximilian , he knew not whither, when all at once the whole
Emperor of Germany, seemed even inore intent on face of affairs was unexpectedly changed .
crushing the monk of Wittemberg, and stamping Rome was not yet prepared to proceed to extre
out the movement, than Leo himself was. Letter mities. She had not fully fathomed the depth of
after letter did he dispatch to Rome chiding the the movement. Scarce an age was there in the
delays of the Vatican , and urging it to toy no past, but some rebellious priest had threatened his
longer with a movement which threatened to breed sovereign lord , but all such attempts against the
serious trouble to the chair of Peter. The Pope Pontiff had been in vain . The Wittemberg move
could not close his ear to appeals so urgent, coming ment would , like a tempest, exhaust itself, and
from a quarter so powerful. The Elector Frederick , the waves would dash harmlessly against the rock
Luther's earthly defender, was standing aloof. of the Church . True, the attempts of Leo to
Wittemberg could no longer be the home of the -
Reformer. He had taken farewell of his congre- 1 L.Epp.,i.188 — 193. D'Aubigné,bk. iv.,chap. 11.
compose the Wittemberg troubles had so far been ficient in Italian craft, to which he added a liking
without result, or rather had made the matter for music. The new envoy was much more of a
worse ; but, like the conjuror in the tale , Rome diplomatist than a theologian. This, however, did
had not one only, but a hundred tricks; she had not much matter, seeing he came not to discuss
diplomatists to Alatter, and she had red hats to knotty points, but to lavish caresses and lay snares.
dazzle those whom it might not be convenient as Being a German by birth , it was supposed he would
yet to burn , and so she resolved on making one know how to manage the Germans.
other trial of conciliation.' Miltitz's errand to Saxony was not avowed.
TIT
.9
NET
PROVA
LUTHER'S PAMPHLET : SCENE AT THE PRINTING -HOUSE .
He did not visit the elector's court on Luther's

business ; not at all. He was the bearer from the
Pope to Frederick of the “ golden rose,"3 a token
2 The Germans invited him to their banquets. He
The person pitched upon to conduct the new forgot himself at table, and verified the maxim , In vino
operation was Charles Miltitz. Cajetan was too veritas. Herevealed the scandals of the city and court of
stately, too haughty, too violent; Miltitz was not Rome. So Paul III. discovered and complained. (See
Ranke, also Pallavicino, lib. i., cap. 28, p. 78.)
likely to split on this rock. He was the cham 3 Sleidan , bk. i., p . 12. Along with the “ rose " to
berlain of the Pope : a Saxon by birth, but he had Frederick , he carried a letter from the Pope to Degenart
Pfefinger, one of Frederick 's councillors, asking his
resided so long at Rome as to have become a pro assistance to enable Miltitz “ to expel that son of Satan
Luther.” (Sleidan, ut supra. Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 24,
i Pallavicino, lib.i., cap. 14. p . 64 .)
ON THE BUSINESS OF THE POPE. 289
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“ The Pope's chamber
one was deceived. friends
lwithButain nocomes,” said Luther's ,“ ladenthe
flattering letters and Pontificalto himbriefs,
to bindofyouGod,”andreplied
hopesthewill
towithRome.”which“ heI await
youthecordsReformer. carry
On histhejourney
ascertain state Miltitz
of public madefeelingit onhis thebusiness to
question tolandlady
his interrogatories. One dayputheup,asked the
nowhold iwhich
n agitation.
the opinionsHe wasof astonished
Luther hadto taken find theon of the inn where he had
opinion was of the chair of Peter ? “ What can we what her
theGerman
iwhere
n the way-side mind.taverns,In inallthecompanies hetheentered, ofnothumble folks,chair” replied
Peter's ? we the hostess,pawkily,“
have never knowcan
he lodged, he found the quarrel betweencastles
towns, in the seen
tell whether it be of wood or of stone." ? it, and
25 Seckendorf,lib.i., sec.24, p.61. · Luth.Opp.(Lat.) in Præfatio.
Miltitz reached Saxony in the end of the year seduced , and they had been so by the course which
1518, but his reception at Frederick 's court was he, Luther, had felt it his duty to pursue. Would
not of a kind to inspire him with high hopes. The he not confess that herein he had erred, and restore
elector's ardour peace to the Church a matter, the envoy assured
o Augsburghadanfordbeen
iitst shfragrance
the “ golden rose” had cooled ;
port by the late breezes
been sspoiled him , that lay very much upon his heart.
from Augsburg and Rome, and he gave orders that Luther boldly answered that the chief offender in
it should be delivered to him through one of the this business was neither Tetzel nor the Archbishop
officers of the palace. The letters which Miltitz of Mainz, but the Pope himself, who, while he
carried to Spalatin and Pfeffinger, the elector's might have given the pallium freely , had put upon
councillors, though written with great fervour, did it a price so exorbitant as to tempt the archbishop
but little to thaw the coldness of these statesmen. to employ Tetzel to get the money for him by hook
The envoy must reserve all his strength for Luther or by crook . “ But as for a retractation," said
himself, that was clear ; and he did reserve it, and Luther in a very firm tone, “ never expect one from
to such purpose that he came much nearer gaining me."
his point than Cajetan had done. The movement A second and a third interview followed , and
was in less danger when the tempest appeared Miltitz, despairing of extorting from Luther a
about to burst over it, than now when the clouds recantation, professed to be satisfied with what
had rolled away, and the sun again shone out he could get ; and he got more than might have
Miltitz was desirous above all things of having a been expected . It is evident that the arts of the
personal interview with Luther. His wish was at envoy, his well-simulated fairness and moderation,
last gratified, and the envoy and the monk met and the indignation, not wholly feigned, which he
each other in the house of Spalatin at Altenberg.' expressed against Tetzel, had not been withont
The courtier exhausted all the wiles of which he their effect upon the mind of Luther. The final
was master. He was not civil merely, he was arrangement come to was that neither side should
gracious ; he fawned upon Luther. Looking full write or act in the question ; that Luther should
into his face , he said that he expected to see an revoke upon proof of his errors , and that the
old theologian, prosing over knotty points in his matter should be referred to the judgment of an
chimney -corner; to his delight he saw , instead , a enlightened bishop. The umpire ultimately chosen
man in the prime of life. He flattered his pride was the Archbishop of Trèves.
by saying that he believed he had a larger follow . The issue to which the affair had been brought
ing than the Pope himself, and he sought to disarm was one that threatened disaster to the cause. It
his fears by assuring him that, though he had an seemed to prelude a shelving of the controversy.
army of 20,000 men at his back, he would never It was gone into for that very purpose. The
be so foolish as to think of carrying off one who .“ Theses ” will soon be forgotten ; the Tetzel scan
was so much the idol of the people. Luther knew dal will fade from the public memory ; Rome will
perfectly that it was the courtier who was speak - observe a little more moderation and decency in
ing, and that between the words of the courtier the sale of indulgences ; and when the storm shall
and the deeds of the envoy there might possibly be have blown over, things will revert to their old
some considerable difference. But he took care course, and Germany will again lie down in her
not to let Miltitz know what was passing in his chains. Happily , there was a Greater than Luther
mind. at the head of the movement.
The envoy now proceeded to business. His Miltitz was overjoyed. This troublesome affair
touch was adroit and delicate. Tetzel, he said , was now at an end ; so he thought. His mistake lay
had gone beyond his commission ; he had done the in believing the movement to be confined to the
thing scandalously, and he did not greatly wonder bosom of a single monk. He could not see thatit
that Luther had been provoked to oppose him . was a new life which had come down from the
Even the Archbishop of Mainz was not without skies, and which was bringing on an awakening in
blame, in putting the screw too tightly upon Tetzel the Church. Miltitz invited Luther to supper.
as regarded the money part of the business. Still At table, he did not conceal the alarm this matter
the doctrine of indulgences was a salutary one ; had caused at Rome. Nothing that had fallen out
from that doctrine the German people had been these hundred years had occasioned so much un
i Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 24 , p . 61. 4 Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 14 , p . 66.
º Pallavicino , lib . i., cap . 13 , p . 65. 5 Ibid. “ Che la colpa era del Papa."
3 Luth. Opp . (Lat.) in Præfatio . 6 Ibid ., p . 67.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPSIC . 291
easiness in the Vatican. The cardinals would give Saxony, uncle of the Elector Frederick, and other
“ ten thousand ducats ” to have it settled , and the princes and illustrious personages.
news that it was now arranged would cause un- Before the day arrived for this trial of strength
bounded joy. The repast was a most convivial one; between Carlstadt and Eck , the latter had begun
and when it was ended , the envoy rose, took the to aim at higher game. To vanquish Carlstadt
monk of Wittemberg in his arms, and kissed him would bring him but little fame ; the object of
_ " a Judas kiss," said Luther, writing to Staupitz , Eck 's ambition was to break a lance with the monk
“ but I would not let him perceive that I saw of Wittemberg, “ the little monk who had suddenly
through his Italian tricks." 1 grown into a giant." : Accordingly , he publisher
There came now a pause in the controversy. thirteen Theses, in which he plainly impugned the
Luther laid aside his pen , he kept silence on in - opinions of Luther .
dulgences ; he busied himself in his chair ; but, This violation of the truce on the Roman side
fortunately for the cause at stake, this pause was set Luther free .; and, nothing loth , he requesteel
of no long duration . It was his enemies that broke permission from Duke George to come to Leipsic
the truce. Had they been wise , they would have and take up the challenge which Eck had thrown
left the monk in the fetters with which Miltitz had down to him . The duke, who feared for the
bound him . Not knowing what they did , they public peace, should two such combatants wrestle
loosed his cords. a fall on his territories, refused the request.
This brings us to the Leipsic Disputation,an affair Ultimately, however, he gave leave to Luther to
that made a great noise at the time, and which was come to Leipsic as a spectator ; and in this capacity
followed by vast consequences to the Reformation . did the doctor of Wittemberg appear on a scene
Such disputations were common in that age in which he was destined to fill the most prominent
They were a sort of tournament in which the place.
knights of the schools, like the knights of the It affords a curious glimpse into the manners of
Middle Ages, sought to display their prowess and the age, to mark the pomp with which the two
win glory. They had their uses. There were then parties entered Leipsic. Dr. Eck and his friends
no public meetings, no platforms, no daily press ; came first, arriving on the 21st of June, 1519.
and in their absence , these disputations between Seated in a chariot, arrayed in his sacerdotal
the learned came in their stead, as arenas for the garments, he made his entry into the city, at the
ventilation of great public questions. head of a procession composed of the civic and
The man who set agoing the movement when it ecclesiastical dignitaries who had come forth to do
had stopped, thinking to extinguish it, was Doctor him honour. He passed proudly along through
John Eccius or Eck. He was famed as a debater streets thronged with the citizens, who rushed from
all over Europe. He was Chancellor of the Uni- their houses to have a sight of the warrior who
versity of Ingolstadt ; deeply read in the school had unsheathed his scholastic sword on so many
inen, subtle, sophistical, a great champion of fields— in Pannonia , in Lombardy, in Bavaria --and
the Papacy, transcendently vain of his dialectic who had never yet returned it into its scabbard
powers, vaunting the triumphs he had obtained on but in victory. Hewas accompanied by Poliander,
many fields, and always panting for new oppor- whom he had brought with him to be a witness of
tunities of displaying his skill. A fellow -labourer his triumph, but whom Providence designed , by
of Luther, Andrew Bodenstein , better known as the instrumentality of Luther, to bind to the
Carlstadt, Archdeacon of the Cathedral at Wittem - chariot of the Reformation . There is a skeleton
berg, had answered the Obelisks of Dr. Eck , taking at every banquet, and Eck complains that a report
occasion to defend the opinions of Luther. Eck was circulated in the crowd, that in the battle about
answered him , and Carlstadt again replied . After to begin it would be his fortune to be beaten. The
expending on each other the then customary wish in this case certainly was not father to the
amenities of scholastic strife, it was ultimately thought, for the priests and people of Leipsic were
agreed that the two combatants should meet in the to a man on Eck 's side.
city of Leipsic, and decide the controversy by oral On the 24th of June the theologians from Wit
disputation, in the presence of George, Duke of temberg made their public entry into Leipsic.
Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 24 , p . 63. “ Me accepto con 2 " He was as eager to engage this Goliath , who was
rivio,lætati sumus, et osculo mihidato discessimus” (He defying the people of God, as the young volunteer is to
received me at supper, we were very happy, and he gave join the colours of his regiment." (Pallavicino, lib . i.,
mea kiss at parting). - Item Luth . Opp. (Lat.) in Præfatio. cap. 14 , p . 68 .)
Heading the procession came Carlstadt, who was the introductory address. He exhorts the cham
to maintain the contest with Eck. Of the dis - pions to bear themselves gallantly yet courteously ;
tinguished body of men assembled at Wittemberg, to remember that they are theologians, not duellists,
Carlstadt was perhaps the most impetuous, but the and that their ambition ought to be not so much to
least profound. He was barely fit to sustain the conquer as to be conquered, so that Truth might be
part which he had chosen to act. He was enjoying the only victor on the field now about to open."
the ovation of his entry when , the wheel of his When the address had terminated, the organ pealed
carriage coming off, he suddenly rolled in the through the hall of the Pleisenberg, and the whole
mud. The spectators who witnessed his mischance assembly, falling on their knees, sang the ancient
construed it into an omen of a more serious down- hymn — Veni, Sancte Spiritus. Three times was
fall awaiting him , and said that if Eck was to be this invocation solemnly repeated.3
beaten it was another than Carlstadt who would be The Church now stood on the line that divided
the victor. the night from the day. The champions of the
In the carriage next after Carlstadt rode the darkness and the heralds of the light were still
Duke of Pomerania , and on either side of him sat mingled in one assembly , and still united by the tie
the two theologians of chief note, Luther and of one ecclesiastical communion. A little while and
Melancthon. Then followed a long train of doctors- they would be parted, never again to meet ; butas
in -law , masters of arts, licentiates in theology, and yet they assemble under the same roof, they bow
surrounding their carriages came a body of 200 their heads in the same prayer, and they raise aloft
students bearing pikes and halberds. It was not their voices in the same invocation to the Holy
alone the interest they took in the discussion which Spirit. That prayer was to be answered . The
brought them hither ; they knew that the disposi- Spirit was to descend ; the dead were to draw to
tion of the Leipsickers was not over-friendly , and the dead,the living to the living, and a holy Church
they thought their presence might not be unneeded was to look forth “ fair as the moon, clear as the
in guarding their professors from insult and in - sun , terrible as an army with banners."
jury.' It was now past noon. The opening of the dis
On the morning of the 27th, mass was sung in cussion was postponed till after dinner. Duke
the Church of St. Thomas. The princes, counts , George had prepared a sumptuous repast for the
abbots, councillors, and professors walked to the two disputants and their friends, and they accord
chapel in procession, marching to the sound of ingly adjourned to the ducal table. At two o'clock
martial music, with banners flying, and accom - they re-assembled in the hall where the disputation
panied by a guard of nearly 100 citizens, who was to take place.
bore halberds and other weapons. After service The battle was now joined,and it continued to be
they returned in the same order to the ducal waged on this and the sixteen following days. The
castle of Pleisenberg, the great room of which questions discussed were of the very last importance :
had been fitted up for the disputation. Duke they were those that lie at the foundations of the
George, the hereditary Prince John of Saxony, the two theologies, and that constitute an essentialand
Duke of Pomerania , and Prince John of Anhalt eternal difference between the Roman and Pro
occupied separate and conspicuous seats ; the less testant Churches, in their basis, their character,
distinguished of the audience sat upon benches . At and their tendencies. The discussion was also of
either end of the hall rose a wooden pulpit for the the last importance practically . It enabled the Re
use of the disputants. Over that which Luther formers to see deeper than they had hitherto done
was to occupy hung a painting of St. Martin , whose into fundamentals. It convinced them that the
name he bore ; and above that which had been contrariety between the two creeds was far greater
assigned to Dr. Eck was a representation of St. than they had imagined , and that the diversity
George trampling the dragon under foot : a symbol, was not on the surface merely , not in the temporal
as the learned doctor doubtless viewed it, of the wealth and spiritual assumptions of the hierarchy
feat he was to perform in slaying with scholastic merely, not in the scandals of indulgences and the
sword the dragon of the Reformation . In the disorders of the Papal court merely, but in the
middle of the hall were tables for the notaries - very first principles upon which the Papal system
public , who were to take notes of the discussion is founded, and that the discussion of these prin
All are in their places : there is silence in the ciples leads unavoidably into an examination of the
hall. Mosellanus ascends the pulpit and delivers moral and spiritual condition of the race , and the
i Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 26, p. 85. . Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 26 , p . 88 . 3 Ibid ., p .90. Ibid .
PEN -AND-INK SKETCH OF THE DISPUTANTS. 293
true character of the very first event in human strong and truly German voice, and such excellent
history . lungs that he would be well heard on the stage, or
Before sketching in outline — and an outline is would make an admirable town-crier. His accent
all that has come down to us — this celebrated dis- is rather coarse than elegant, and he has none of
putation , it may not be uninteresting to see a pen - rather fuggest the mouth, hijauded by
the gracefulness so much lauded by Cicero and
and -ink sketch, by an impartial contemporary and Quintilian. His mouth , his eyes, and his whole
eye-witness , of the three men who figured the most figure suggest the idea of a soldier or a butcher
prominently in it. The portraits are by Peter rather than a theologian. His memory is excellent,
Mosellanus, Professor of Greek in the University and were his intellect equal to it he would be fault
of Leipsic, the orator who opened the proceedings. less. But he is slow of comprehension , and wants
" Martin Luther is of middle stature, and so judgment, without which all other gifts are use
emaciated by hard study that one might almost less. Hence, when he debates, he piles up, with
count his bones. He is in the vigour of life , and out selection or discernment, passages from the
his voice is clear and sonorous. His learning and Bible, quotations from the Fathers , and argu
knowledge of the Holy Scriptures are beyond com - ments of all descriptions. His assurance, moreover,
pare : he has the whole Word of God at command. is unbounded . When he finds himself in a dif
In addition to this he has great store of arguments ficulty he darts off from the matter in hand,
and ideas. It were , perhaps, to be wished that he and pounces upon another ; sometimes , even, he
had a little more judgment in arranging his mate adopts the view of his antagonist, and, changing
rials. In conversation he is candid and courteous ; the form of expression, most dexterously charges
there is nothing stoical or haughty about him ; he him with the very absurdity which he himself was
has the art of accommodating himself to every indi- defending." ?
vidual. His address is pleasing, and replete with Such were the three men who now stood ready
good -humour ; he displays firmness, and is never to engage in battle , as sketched by one who was
discomposed by the menaces of his adversaries, be too thoroughly imbued with the spirit of ancient
they what they may. One is, in a manner, to pagan literature to care about the contest farther
believe that in the great things which he has done than as it might afford him a little amusement or
God has assisted him . He is blamed , however, for some pleasurable excitement. The eyes of this
being more sarcastic in his rejoinders than becomes a learned Grecian were rivetted on the past. It was
theologian, especially when he announces new ideas the scholars , heroes , and battles of antiquity that
“ Carlstadt is of smaller stature ; his complexion engrossed his admiration. And yet what were
is dark and sallow , his voice disagreeable, his these but mimic conflicts compared with the tremen
memory less retentive, and his temper more easily dous struggle that was now opening, and the giants
ruffled than Luther's. Still, however, he possesses that were to wrestle in it ? The wars of Greece and
though in an inferior degree, the same qualities Rome were but the world's nursery tales ; this war,
which distinguish his friend. though Mosellanus knew it not,was the real drama
“ Eck is tall and broad -shouldered. He has a of the race — the true conflict of the ages.
CHAPTER XV .
THE LEIPSIC DISPUTATION .
Two Theologies - Dividing Line Question of the Power of the Will - State of the Question - Distinction between
Mental Freedom and Moral Ability - Augustine - Paul- Salvation ofGod - Salvation of Man - Discussion between
Luther and Eck on the Primacy - The Rock - False Decretals - Bohemianism - Councils have Erred - Luther
Rests on the Bible AloneGain from the Discussion - A Great Fiction Abandoned - Wider Views - A more
Catholic Church than the Roman .
The man who climbs to the summit of a mountain other may lie the birth -places of these young rivers ;
chain beholds the waters that gush forth from the but how different their courses ! how dissimilar the
soil rolling down the declivity, some on this side
of the ridge and some on that. Very near to each ? Mosellanus in Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 26,p. 90.
countries which they water , and how widely apart This question, it is necessary to remark , is not
lie the oceans into which they ultimately pour their one touching the freedom of man. About this
floods ! This difference of destiny is occasioned by there is no dispute. It is admitted on both sides,
what would seem no great matter. The line of the Popish and Protestant, that man is a free
the mountain summit runs between their sources, agent. Man can make a choice ; there is neither
and hence, though their beginnings are here, at the physical nor intellectual constraint upon his will,
traveller's feet, on the same mountain -top, their and having made his choice he can act conformably
endings are parted , it may be, by hundreds of to it. This constitutes man a moral and responsible
miles. agent. But the question is one touching the
We are arrived at a similar point in the history moral ability of the will. Granting our freedom of
of the two great systems whose rise and course we choice , have we the power to choose good ! Will
are employed in tracing. We stand at the water- the perceptions, bias, and desires of our nature,
shed of the two theologies. We can here clearly as summed up and expressed by the will, be on
trace the dividing line as it runs along, parting the the side of holiness as holiness ? They will not,
primeval sources of the Protestant and the Roman says the Protestant theology, till the nature is
theologies. These sources lie close, very close to renewed by the Holy Spirit. The will may be
each other, and yet the one is on this side of the physically free, it may be intellectually free, and
line which divides truth from error , the other is on yet, by reason of the bias to sin and aversion to
that ; and hence the different and opposite course on holiness which the Fall planted in the heart, the
which we behold each setting out ; and so far from will is not morally free ; it is dominated over by
ever meeting, the longer they flow they are but the its hatred of holiness and love of sin , and will not
farther parted. The discussion at Leipsic proceeded act in the way of preferring holiness and loving
along this line ; it was, in fact, the first distinct God, till it be rid of the spiritual incapacity which
tracing-out and settling of this line, as the essential hatred of what is good inflicts upon it .
and eternal boundary between the two theologies -- But let us return to the combatants in the arena
between the Roman and Protestant Churches. at Leipsic. Battle has already been joined, and
The form which the question took was one we find the disputants stationed beside the deepest
touching the human will. What is the moral sources of the respective theologies, only half con
condition of man 's will ? in other words, What is scious of the importance of the ground they occupy,
the moral condition of man himself ? As the will and the far-reaching consequences of the proposi
is, so is the man, for the will or heart is but a term tions for which they are respectively to fight.
expressive of the final outcome of the man ; it is “ Man's will before his conversion ,” says Carl
the organ which concentrates all the findings of his stadt, “ can perform no good work . Every good
animal, intellectual, and spiritual nature - body, work comes entirely and exclusively from God , who
mind , and soul— and sends them forth in the form gives to man first the will to do, and then the power
of wish and act. Is man able to choose that which of accomplishing." ! Such was the proposition main
is spiritually good ? In other words, when sin and tained at one end of the hall. It was a very old
holiness are put before him , and he must make his proposition , though it seemed new when announced
choice between the two, will the findings of his in the Pleisenberg hall, having been thoroughly
whole nature, as summed up and expressed in his obscured by the schoolmen. The Reformers
choice, be on the side of holiness ? Dr. Eck and could plead Augustine's authority in behalf of their
the Roman theologians at Leipsic maintained the proposition ; they could plead a yet greater au
affirmative, asserting that man has the power, thority, even that of Paul. The apostle had
without aid from the Spirit of God, and simply maintained this proposition both negatively and
of himself, to choose what is spiritually good , and positively. He had described the “ carnal mind ” as
to obey God. Luther, Carlstadt, and the new theo “ enmity against God ;” he had spoken of the
logians maintained the negative, affirming that understanding as “ darkness," and of men as
man lost this power when he fell ; that he is now “ alienated from the life of God through the
morally unable to choose holiness; and that, till his ignorance that is in them .” This same doctrine
nature be renewed by the Holy Spirit, he cannot he had put also in the positive form . “ It is God
love or serve God .? that worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure.” Our Saviour has laid down a
i Compare account of disputation as given by Secken
dorf, lib . i., sec. 25 and 26 , pp. 71 – 94 , with that of ? Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 25, pp . 72 – 74 ; Add. i.
Pallavicino, lib . i., cap . 15 – 17 . 3 Rom . viii. 7, 8. 4 Philipp. ii. 13.
.
.
THEOLOGIANS
WITTEMBERG
ARRIVAL
OFTHEATLEIPSIC
the head of the Church's power to pardon sin . The before the world holding the bag with as covetous
edict ran as follows :- “ That the Roman Church, a grip as any friar of them all.
the mother of all Churches, had handed down by In another way the decree of the Pope helped to
tradition that the Roman Pontiff, the successor of overthrow the system it was meant to uphold . It
St. Peter , by the power of the keys — that is, hy compelled Luther to go deeper than he had yet
removing the guilt and punishment due for actual ventured to do in his investigations into the Papacy.
sins by indulgence — can for reasonable causes grant He now looked at its foundations. The doctrine of
to the faithful of Christ, whether in this life or in indulgences in its sacrilegious and blasphemous
purgatory, indulgences out of the superabundance form he had believed to be the doctrine of Tetzel
of the merits of Christ and the saints ; can confer only ; now he saw it to be the doctrine of Leo of
the indulgence by absolution , or transfer it by Rome as well. Leo had indorsed Tetzel's and
suffrage. And all those who have acquired in - Cajetan's interpretation of the matter. The con
dulgences , whether alive or dead , are released from clusion to which Luther's studies were tending is
so much temporal punishment for their actual sins indicated in a letter which he wrote about this time
as is the equivalent of the acquired indulgence. to his friend Wenceslaus Link at Nuremberg :
This doctrine is to be held and preached by all, “ The conviction is daily growing upon me,” says
under penalty of excommunication, from which he, “ that the Pope is Antichrist.” And when
only the Pope can absolve, save at the point of Spalatin inquired what he thought of war against
death .” This bull was sent to Cajetan , who was the Turk — “ Let us begin ," he replied , “ with the
then living at Linz, in Upper Austria , whence Turk at home; it is fruitless to fight carnal wars
copies were despatched by him to all the bishops of and be overcome in spiritual wars.”
Germany, with injunctions to have it published. The conclusion was in due time reached. The
The weight that belonged to the utterance of Reformer drew up another appeal, and on Sunday,
Peter's successor would , the Pope believed , over the 28th of November, he read it aloud in Corpus
whelm and silence the monk of Wittemberg ; and , Christi Chapel, in the presence of a notary and
the conscience of Christendom set at rest, men witnesses. “ I appeal,” he said , “ from the Pontiff,
would return to their former quiescence under the as a man liable to error, sin , falsehood , vanity , and
sceptre of the Vatican. He little understood the other human infirmities— not above Scripture, but
age on which he was entering, and the state of under Scripture — to a future Council to be legiti
public feeling and sentiment north of the Alps. mately convened in a safe place , so that a proctor
The age was past when men would bow down im - deputed by me may have safe access." This appeal
plicitly before sheets of parchment and bits of lead. marks a new stage in Luther's enlightenment.
Wherein , men asked, does the Pope's teaching on The Pope is, in fact, abjured : Luther no longer
indulgences differ from Tetzel's, unless in the greater appeals from Leo ill-informed to Leo well-informed,"
decency of its language ? The doctrine is the same, but from the Papal authority itself to that of a
only in the one case it is written in the best Latin General Council, from the head of the Church to
they are now masters of at Rome, whereas in the the Church herself.
other it is proclaimed with stentorian voice in the So closed the year 1518. The sky overhead was
coarsest Saxon. But plain it is that the Pope as thick with tempest. The cloud grew blacker and
really as Tetzel brings the money-chest to our bigger every day. The Reformer had written the
doors, and expects that we shall fill it. He vaunts appeal read in Corpus Christi Chapel on the 28th
his treasure of merits, but it is as the chapman of November, as the Israelites ate their last supper
vaunts his wares, that we may buy ; and themore in Egypt, “ his robe tucked up and his loins girded ,
we sin , the richer will they be at Rome. Money — ready to depart," though whither he knew not.
money - money, is the beginning, middle, and end He only knew that he could go nowhere where
of this new decretal. It was in this fashion that God would not be his “ shield , and exceeding great
the Germans spoke of the edict of November 9, reward ." The Papal anathemas he knew were
which was to bolster up Cajetan and extinguish being prepared at Rome; they were not, impro
Luther. The Pope had exonerated Tetzel, but it bably , at this moment on their way to Germany.
was at the expense of taking the whole of this im - Not because he feared for himself, but because he
mense scandal upon himself and his system . The did not wish to compromise the Elector Frederick,
chief priest of Christendom presented himself
? Letter, December 21, 1518. De Wette, i., p. 200.
i Pallavicino, lib . i., cap . 12 , p. 62. Sleidan, bk . i., 3 “ Ben informato.” (Pallavicino, lib .i., cap. 12, p.62.)
p . 12. Paul. Sarpi, Hist. Conc. Trent, tom . i., livr. i., p. 22. Sleidan , bk . i., p . 12.
CLOUDS GATHERING ROUND LUTHER 287
he held himself ready at a day's notice to quit on the point of being quenched , and the great
Saxony. His thoughts turned often to France. movement which promises a new life to the world
The air seemed clearer there, and the doctors of on the brink of overthrow . So sudden an over
the Sorbonne spoke their thoughts with a freedom casting of the day they had not looked for. They
unknown to other countries ; and had Luther been waited for light, and beheld darkness. No prince
actually compelled to flee , most probably he would in all Christendom , no, not even their own wise and
have gone to that country. And now the die was magnanimous elector, dare give an asylum to the
cast as it seemed . The elector sent a message to man who in the cause of righteousness has stood up
him , intimating his wishes that he should quit his against Rome. It was a bitter cup that Luther
dominions. He will obey, but before going forth wasnow drinking. Hemust go forth. His enemy,
he will solace himself, most probably for the last he knew , would pursue him from land to land, and
time, in the company of his friends. While seated would never cease to dog his steps till she had
with them at supper, a messenger arrives from the overtaken and crushed him . But it was not this
elector. Frederick wishes to know why Luther that troubled him . His soul, the only thing of
delays his departure. What a pang does this value about him , he had committed to One who
message send to his heart ! What a sense of was able to keep it ; and as for his body, it was
sadness and desolation does he now experience ! at the disposal of Rome, to rot in her dungeons, to
On earth he has no protector. There is not for hang on her gibbets , to be reduced to ashes in her
him refuge below the skies. The beloved friends fires, just as she might will. He would have gone
assembleil round him — Jonas, Pomeranus, Carlstadt, singing to the stake, but to go forth and leave his
Amsdorf, the jurist Schurff, and , dearest of all, country in darkness, this it was that pierced him
Melancthon - are drowned in grief, in almost de to the heart, and drew from him a flood of bitter
spair, as they bchold the light of their university tears.
CHAPTER XIV .
MILTITZ - CARLSTADT — DR . ECK .
Miltitz - Of German Birth Of Italian Manners - His Journey into Germany - The Golden Rose - His Interview with
Luther - His Flatteries - A Truce - Danger - The War Resumed - Carlstadt and Dr. Eck - Disputation at Leipsic
Character of Dr. Eck - Entrance of the Two Parties into Leipsic - Place and Forms of the Disputation - Its Vast
Importance - Portrait of the Disputants.
We left Luther dispirited to the last degree. A gation ; he had spoken his parting words to the
terrible storm seemed to be gathering over him , youth who had gathered round him from all
and over the work which he had been honoured to the provinces of Germany, and from distant coun
begin , and so far auspiciously to advance. He had tries ; he had bidden adieu to his weeping friends,
incurred the displeasure of a foe who had at com - and now he stood , staff in hand, ready to go forth
Dand all the powers of Europe. Maxiniilian , he knew not whither, when all at once the whole
Emperor of Germany, seemed even inore intent on face of affairs was unexpectedly changed .
theo himself wasiling the thRome
crushing the monk of Wittemberg, and stamping
e moutwassomnot
e reyet
bel prepared to proceed to extre
out the movement, than Leo himself was. Letter mities. She had not fully fathomed the depth of
after letter did he dispatch to Rome chiding the the movement. Scarce an age was there in the
delays of the Vatican , and urging it to toy no past, but some rebellious priest had threatened his
longer with a movementwhich threatened to breed sovereign lord , but all such attempts against the
serious trouble to the chair of Peter. The Pope Pontiff had been in vain . The Wittemberg move
could not close his ear to appeals so urgent, coming ment would , like a tempest, exhaust itself, and
from a quarter so powerful. The Elector Frederick, the waves would dash harmlessly against the rock
Luther's earthly defender, was standing aloof. of the Church. True, the attempts of Leo to
Wittemberg could no longer be the home of the
Reformer. He had taken farewell of his congre- . Epp ., i. 188 - 193. D 'Aubigné, bk. iv., chap. 11 .
compose the Wittemberg troubles had so far been ficient in Italian craft, to which he added a liking
without result, or rather had made the matter for music. The new envoy was inuch more of a
worse ; but, like the conjuror in the tale , Rome diplomatist than a theologian. This, however, did
had not one only, but a hundred tricks ; she had not much matter, seeing he came not to discuss
diplomatists to fatter, and she had red hats to knotty points, but to lavish caresses and lay snares.
dazzle those whom it might not be convenient as Being a German by birth , it was supposed he would
yet to burn , and so she resolved on making one know how to manage the Germans.
other trial of conciliation." Miltitz's errand to Saxony was not avowed.
W1
62
CA
WIN
LUTHER'S PAMPHLET : SCENE AT THE PRINTING -HOUSE.
He did not visit the eleetor's court on Luther's

business ; not at all. He was the bearer from the
Pope to Frederick of the “ golden rose,"3 a token
M
2 The Germans invited him to their banquets. He

The person pitched upon to conduct the new veritas.
forgot himself at table,and verified the maxim , In vino
He revealed the scandals of the city and court of
operation was Charles Miltitz. Cajetan was too Rome. So Paul III. discovered and complained. (See
stately, too haughty, too violent; Miltitz was not Ranke, also Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 28, p. 78.)
likely to split on this rock. He was the cham 3 Sleidan, bk . i., p. 12. Along with the “ rose " to
berlain of the Pope : a Saxon by birth, but he had Frederick , he carried a letter from the Pope to Degenart
Pfeffinger, one of Frederick 's councillors, asking his
resided so long at Romeas to have become a pro
- -- - - - - - -
assistance to enable Miltitz “ to expel that son of Satan
Luther.” (Sleidan , ut supra. Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 24,
i Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 14 . p. 64.)
ON THE BUSINESS OF THE POPE. 289
of regard which the Pope granted only to the most monk and the Pope the topic of talk. Of every
esteemed of his friends, and being solicitous that five Germans three were on the side of Luther.
Frederick should believe himself of that number, How different the mentalstate on this side the Alps
and knowing that he was desirous of receiving this from the worn-out Italian mind ! This prognosti
special mark of Papal affection,' he sent Miltitz cated an approaching emancipation of the young
this long road, with the precious and much-coveted and ingenuous Teutonic intellect from its thraldom
gift. Being on the spot he might as well try his to the traditionalism of Italy. At times the Pope's
hand at arranging “ brother Martin's” business. chamberlain received somewhat amusing answers
TITUL
TID
VIEW OF MAINZ.
But no one was deceived . “ The Pope's chamber
lain comes,” said Luther's friends to him , “ laden
with flattering letters and Pontifical briefs, the
cords with which he hopes to bind you and carry
you to Rome.” “ I await the will of God,” replied
the Reformer.
On his journey Miltitz made it his business to
ascertain the state of public feeling on the question to his interrogatories. One day he asked the
now in agitation. He was astonished to find the landlady of the inn where he had put up, whather
hold which the opinions of Luther had taken on opinion was of the chair of Peter ? “ What can we
the German mind. In all companies he entered, humble folks,” replied the hostess, pawkily, “ know
in the way-side taverns, in the towns, in the castles of Peter's chair ? we have never seen it, and can
where he lodged, he found the quarrel between the not tell whether it be of wood or of stone." ?
Seckendorf, lib.i.,sec.24, p.61. · Luth. Opp.(Lat.) in Præfatio.
25
Miltitz reached Saxony in the end of the year seduced , and they had been so by the course which
1518, but his reception at Frederick's court was he, Luther, had felt it his duty to pursue. Would
not of a kind to inspire him with high hopes. The he not confess that herein he had erred , and restore
elector's ardour for the “ golden rose" had cooled ; peace to the Church a matter , the envoy assured
its fragrance had been spoiled by the late breezes him , that lay very much upon his heart."
from Augsburg and Rome, and he gave orders that Luther boldly answered that the chief offender in
should be
itit should delivered toto him
be delivered 1. lothrough h Miofltthe
tters whicone itz this business was neither Tetzel nor the Archbishop
officers of the palace. The letters which Miltitz of of Mainz,
Mainz, vi e palliuhimself,
butventhethPope m freely,had
carried to Spalatin and Pfeffinger, the elector's might have given the pallium freely , had put upon
puu he
who, while
councillors, though written with great fervour, did it a price so exorbitant as to tempt the archbishop
but little to thaw the coldness of these statesmen. to employ Tetzel to get the money for him by hook
The envoy must reserve all his strength for Luther or by crook. “ But as for a retractation ,” said
himself, that was clear ; and he did reserve it, and Luther in a very firm tone, “ never expect one from
to such purpose that he came much nearer gaining me.”
his point than Cajetan had done. The movement A second and a third interview followed , and
was in less danger when the tempest appeared Miltitz , despairing of extorting from Luther a
about to burst over it, than now when the clouds recantation , professed to be satisfied with what
had rolled away, and the sun again shone out. he could get ; and he got more than might have
Miltitz was desirous above all things of having a been expected. It is evident that the arts of the
personal interview with Luther. His wish was at envoy, his well-simulated fairness and moderation,
last gratified , and the envoy and the monk met and the indignation, not wholly feigned , which he
each other in the house of Spalatin at Altenberg .' expressed against Tetzel, had not been without
The courtier exhausted all the wiles of which he their effect upon the mind of Luther. The final
was master. He was not civil merely, he was arrangement come to was that neither side should
gracious ; he fawned upon Luther. Looking full write or act in the question ; that Luther should
into his face, he said that he expected to see an revoke upon proof of his errors, and that the
old theologian , prosing over knotty points in his matter should be referred to the judgment of an
chimney-corner ; to his delight he saw , instead, a enlightened bishop. The umpire ultimately chosen
man in the prime of life. He flattered his pride was the Archbishop of Trèves.
by saying that he believed he had a larger follow . The issue to which the affair had been brought
ing than the Pope himself, and he sought to disarm was one that threatened disaster to the cause. It
his fears by assuring him that, though he had an seemed to prelude a shelving of the controversy.
army of 20,000 men at his back , he would never It was gone into for that very purpose. The
be so foolish as to think of carrying off one who .“ Theses " will soon be forgotten ; the Tetzel scan
was so much the idol of the people. Luther knew dal will fade from the public memory ; Rome will
perfectly that it was the courtier who was speak- observe a little more moderation and decency in
ing, and that between the words of the courtier the sale of indulgences ; and when the storm shall
and the deeds of the envoy there might possibly be have blown over, things will revert to their old
some considerable difference. But he took care course, and Germany will again lie down in her
not to let Miltitz know what was passing in his chains. Happily, there was a Greater than Luther
mind. at the head of the movement.
The envoy now proceeded to business. His Miltitz was overjoyed. This troublesome affair
touch was adroit and delicate. Tetzel, he said , was now atan end ; so he thought. His mistake lay
had gone beyond his commission ; he had done the in believing the movement to be confined to the
thing scandalously, and he did not greatly wonder bosom of a single monk. He could not see that it
that Luther had been provoked to oppose him . was a new life which had come down from the
Even the Archbishop of Mainz was not without skies, and which was bringing on an awakening in
blame, in putting the screw too tightly upon Tetzel the Church . Miltitz invited Luther to supper.
as regarded the money part of the business. Still At table, he did not conceal the alarm this matter
the doctrine of indulgences was a salutary one ; had caused at Rome. Nothing that had fallen out
from that doctrine the German people had been these hundred years had occasioned so much tin
i Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 24, p. 61. 4 Pallavicino, lib. i., cap. 14, p. 66 .
2 Pallavicino , lib . i., cap . 13, p . 65. 5 Ibid . “ Che la colpa era del Papa."
3 Luth . Opp . (Lat.) in Præfatio . 6 Ibid ., p. 67.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE DISPUTATION AT LEIPSIC. 291
pasiness in the Vatican. The cardinals would give Saxony, uncle of the Elector Frederick , and other
" ten thousand ducats ” to have it settled, and the princes and illustrious personages.
news that it was now arranged would cause un - Before the day arrived for this trial of strength
bounded joy. The repast was a most convivial one; between Carlstadt and Eck, the latter had begun
and when it was ended , the envoy rose, took the to aim at higher game. To vanquish Carlstadt
monk of Wittemberg in his arms, and kissed him would bring him but little fame; the object of
- " a Judas kiss,” said Luther, writing to Staupitz, Eck's ambition was to break a lance with the monk
" but I would not let him perceive that I saw of Wittemberg, “ the little monk who had suddenly
through his Italian tricks.” 1 grown into a giant.”. Accordingly, he published
There came now a pause in the controversy. thirteen Theses , in which he plainly impugned the
Luther laid aside his pen , he kept silence on in - opinions of Luther.
dulgences ; he busied himself in his chair ; but, This violation of the truce on the Roman side
fortunately for the cause at stake, this pause was set Luther free.; and, nothing loth , he requested
ofno long duration. It was his enemies that broke permission from Duke George to come to Leipsic
the truce. Had they been wise, they would have and take up the challenge which Eck had thrown
left the monk in the fetters with which Miltitz had down to him . The duke, who feared for the
bound him . Not knowing what they did , they public peace , should two such combatants wrestle
loosed his cords. a fall on his territories, refused the request.
This brings us to the Leipsic Disputation, an affair Ultimately, however, he gave leave to Luther to
thatmade a great noise at the time, and which was come to Leipsic as a spectator ; and in this capacity
followed by vast consequences to the Reformation . did the doctor of Wittemberg appear on a scene
Such disputations were common in that age in which he was destined to fill the most prominent
They were a sort of tournament in which the place.
knights of the schools, like the knights of the It affords a curious glimpse into the manners of
Middle Ages, sought to display their prowess and the age, to mark the pomp with which the two
win glory . They had their uses. There were then parties entered Leipsic. Dr. Eck and his friends
no public meetings, no platforms, no daily press ; came first, arriving on the 21st of June, 1519.
and in their absence , these disputations between Seated in a chariot, arrayed in his sacerdotal
the learned came in their stead, as arenas for the garments, he made his entry into the city, at the
ventilation of great public questions. head of a procession composed of the civic and
The man who set agoing the movement when it ecclesiastical dignitaries who had come forth to do
had stopped, thinking to extinguish it, was Doctor him honour. He passed proudly along through
John Eccius or Eck. He was famed as a debater streets thronged with the citizens, who rushed from
all over Europe. He was Chancellor of the Uni- their houses to have a sight of the warrior who
versity of Ingolstadt ; deeply read in the school had unsheathed his scholastic sword on so many
men , subtle, sophistical, a great champion of fields — in Pannonia , in Lombardy, in Bavaria - and
the Papacy, transcendently vain of his dialectic who had never yet returned it into its scabbard
powers, vaunting the triumphs he had obtained on but in victory. He was accompanied by Poliander,
many fields, and always panting for new oppor- whom he had brought with him to be a witness of
tunities of displaying his skill. A fellow -labourer his triumph, but whom Providence designed , by
Cathedraer known as
of Luther, Andrew Bodenstein , better known as the instrumentality of Luther, to bind to the
Carlstadt, Archdeacon of the Cathedral at Wittem - chariot of the Reformation. There is a skeleton
berg, had answered the Obelisks of Dr. Eck , taking at every banquet, and Eck complains that a report
occasion to defend the opinions of Luther . Eck was circulated in the crowd , that in the battle about
answered him , and Carlstadt again replied. After to begin it would be his fortune to be beaten . The
expending on each other the then customary wish in this case certainly was not father to the
amenities of scholastic strife , it was ultimately thought, for the priests and people of Leipsic were
agreed that the two combatants should meet in the to a man on Eck's side.
city of Leipsic, and decide the controversy by oral On the 24th of June the theologians from Wit
disputation, in the presence of George, Duke of temberg made their public entry into Leipsic.
Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 24, p . 63. “ Me accepto con - 2 “ He was as eager to engage this Goliath , who was
rivio , lætati sumus, et osculo mihi dato discessimus” (He defying the people of God , as the young volunteer is to
received me at supper, we were very happy, and he gave join the colours of his regiment.” (Pallavicino, lib. i.,
me a kiss at parting). - Item Luth . Opp. (Lat.) in Prefatio . cap. 14, p . 68.)
Heading the procession came Carlstadt, who was the introductory address. He exhorts the cham
to maintain the contest with Eck . Of the dis- pions to bear themselves gallantly yet courteously ;
tinguished body of men assembled at Wittemberg to remember that they are theologians, not duellists,
Carlstadt was perhaps themost impetuous, but the and that their ambition ought to be not so much to
least profound. He was barely fit to sustain the conquer as to be conquered , so that Truth might be
part which he had chosen to act. He was enjoying the only victor on the field now about to open.”
the ovation of his entry when, the wheel of his When the address had terminated ,the organ pealed
carriage coming off, he suddenly rolled in the through the hall of the Pleisenberg, and the whole
mud. The spectators who witnessed his mischance assembly , falling on their knees, sang the ancient
construed it into an omen of a more serious down- hymn — Veni, Sancte Spiritus. Three times was
fall awaiting him , and said that if Eck was to be this invocation solemnly repeated.
beaten it was another than Carlstadt who would be The Church now stood on the line that divided
the victor. the night from the day. The champions of the
In the carriage next after Carlstadt rode the darkness and the heralds of the light were still
Duke of Pomerania , and on either side of him sat mingled in one assembly, and still united by the tie
the two theologians of chief note , Luther and of one ecclesiastical communion . A little while and
Melancthon. Then followed a long train of doctors- they would be parted , never again to meet ; butas
in-law , masters of arts, licentiates in theology, and yet they assemble under the same roof, they bow
surrounding their carriages came a body of 200 their heads in the same prayer, and they raise aloft
students bearing pikes and halberds. It was not their voices in the same invocation to the Holy
alone the interest they took in the discussion which Spirit. That prayer was to be answered . The
brought them hither ; they knew that the disposi- Spirit was to descend ; the dead were to draw to
tion of the Leipsickers was not over-friendly , and the dead,the living to the living, and a holy Church
they thought their presence might not be unneeded was to look forth “ fair as the moon , clear as the
in guarding their professors from insult and in - sun, terrible as an army with banners.”
jury. It was now past noon . The opening of the dis
On the morning of the 27th, mass was sung in cussion was postponed till after dinner. Duke
the Church of St. Thomas. The princes, counts, George had prepared a sumptuous repast for the
abbots, councillors, and professors walked to the two disputants and their friends, and they accord
chapel in procession, marching to the sound of ingly adjourned to the ducal table. At two o'clock
martial music, with banners flying, and accom - they re-assembled in the hall where the disputation
panied by a guard of nearly 100 citizens, who was to take place.
bore halberds and other weapons. After service The battle wasnow joined, and it continued to be
they returned in the same order to the ducal waged on this and the sixteen following days. The
castle of Pleisenberg, the great room of which questionsdiscussed were of the very last importance :
had been fitted up for the disputation. Duke they were those that lie at the foundations of the
George, the hereditary Prince John of Saxony, the two theologies, and that constitute an essential and
Duke of Pomerania , and Prince John of Anhalt eternal difference between the Roman and Pro
occupied separate and conspicuous seats ; the less testant Churches, in their basis, their character,
distinguished of the audience sat upon benches. At and their tendencies. The discussion was also of
either end of the hall rose a wooden pulpit for the the last importance practically . It enabled the Rex
use of the disputants. Over that which Luther formers to see deeper than they had hitherto done
was to occupy hung a painting of St. Martin , whose into fundamentals. It convinced them that the
name he bore ; and above that which had been contrariety between the two creeds was far greater
assigned to Dr. Eck was a representation of St. than they had imagined , and that the diversity
George trampling the dragon under foot : a symbol, was not on the surface merely, not in the temporal
as the learned doctor doubtless viewed it, of the wealth and spiritual assumptions of the hierarchy
feat he was to perform in slaying with scholastic merely, not in the scandals of indulgences and the
sword the dragon of the Reformation. In the disorders of the Papal court merely , but in the
middle of the hall were tables for the notaries- very first principles upon which the Papal system
public, who were to take notes of the discussion. is founded , and that the discussion of these prin
All are in their places : there is silence in the ciples leads unavoidably into an examination of the
hall. Mosellanus ascends the pulpit and delivers moral and spiritual condition of the race ,and the
1 Seckendorf, lib .i., sec. 26, p.85. 2 Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 26, p . 88. 3 Ibid., p . 90. Ibid .
PEN -AND-INK SKETCH OF THE DISPUTANTS. 293
true character of the very first event in human strong and truly German voice, and such excellent
history. lungs that he would be well heard on the stage, or
Before sketching in outline — and an outline is would make an admirable town-crier. His accent
all that has come down to us— this celebrated dis- is rather coarse than elegant, and he has none of
putation , it may not be uninteresting to see a pen- the gracefulness so much lauded by Cicero and
and-ink sketch, by an impartial contemporary and Quintilian. His mouth , his eyes , and his whole
eye-witness, of the three men who figured the most figure suggest the idea of a soldier or a butcher
prominently in it. The portraits are by Peter rather than a theologian . His memory is excellent,
Mosellanus, Professor of Greek in the University and were his intellect equal to it he would be fault
of Leipsic, the orator who opened the proceedings. less. But he is slow of comprehension, and wants
“ Martin Luther is of middle stature, and so judgment, without which all other gifts are use
emaciated by hard study that one might almost less. Hence, when he debates, he piles up , with
count his bones. He is in the vigour of life , and out selection or discernment, passages from the
his voice is clear and sonorous. His learning and Bible, quotations from the Fathers, and argu
knowledge of the Holy Scriptures are beyond com - ments of all descriptions. His assurance,moreover ,
pare : he has the whole Word of God at command. is unbounded. When he finds himself in a dif
In addition to this he has great store of arguments ficulty he darts off from the matter in hand,
and ideas. It were, perhaps, to be wished that he and pounces upon another ; sometimes, even, he
had a little more judgment in arranging his mate - adopts the view of his antagonist, and, changing
rials. In conversation he is candid and courteous ; the form of expression, most dexterously charges
there is nothing stoical or haughty about him ; he him with the very absurdity which he himself was
has the art of accommodating himself to every indi- defending.”
vidual. His address is pleasing, and replete with Such were the three men who now stood ready
good-humour ; he displays firmness, and is never to engage in battle, as sketched by one who was
diseomposed by the menaces of his adversaries, be too thoroughly imbued with the spirit of ancient
they what they may. One is, in a manner, to pagan literature to care about the contest farther
believe that in the great things which he has done than as it might afford him a little amusement or
God has assisted him . He is blamed , however, for some pleasurable excitement. The eyes of this
being more sarcastic in his rejoinders than becomes a learned Grecian were rivetted on the past. It was
theologian, especially when he announces new ideas. the scholars, heroes, and battles of antiquity that
" Carlstadt is of smaller stature ; his complexion engrossed his admiration. And yet what were
is dark and sallow , his voice disagreeable , his these but mimic conflicts compared with the tremen
memory less retentive, and his temper more easily dous struggle that was now opening, and the giants
ruffled than Luther's. Still, however, he possesses, that were to wrestle in it ? The wars of Greece and
though in an inferior degree, the same qualities Rome were but the world's nursery tales ; this war,
which distinguish his friend . though Mosellanus knew it not,was the realdrama
“ Eck is tall and broad-shouldered . He has a of the race — the true conflict of the ages.
CHAPTER XV.
THE LEIPSIC DISPUTATION .
Two Theologies - Dividing Line Question of the Power of the Will - State of the Question - Distinction between
Mental Freedom and Moral Ability - Augustine - Paul - Salvation of God - Salvation of Man - Discussion between
Luther and Eck on the Primacy - The Rock - False Decretals - Bohemianism - Councils have Erred - Luther
Rests on the Bible Alone - Gain from the Discussion - A Great Fiction Abandoned - Wider Views- A more
Catholic Church than the Roman .
The man who climbs to the summit of a mountain other may lie the birth-places of these young rivers ;
chain beholds the waters that gush forth from the but how different their courses ! how dissimilar the
soil rolling down the declivity, some on this side
of the ridge and some on that. Very near to each 1 Mosellanus in Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 26 , p . 90.
countries which they water , and how widely apart This question, it is necessary to remark ,is not
lie the oceans into which they ultimately pour their one touching the freedom of man. About this
floods ! This difference of destiny is occasioned by there is no dispute. It is admitted on both sides,
what would seem no great matter. The line of the Popish and Protestant, that man is a free
the mountain summit runs between their sources,dered their and mica! nor inte,make a che
agent. Man can make a choice ; there is neither
and hence, though their beginnings are here, at the physical nor intellectual constraint upon his will,
traveller's feet, on the same mountain -top, their and having made his choice he can act conformably
endings are parted, it may be, by hundreds of to it. This constitutes man a moral and responsible
miles. agent. But the question is one touching the
We are arrived at a similar point in the history moral ability of the will. Granting our freedom of
of the two great systems whose rise and course we choice, have we the power to choose good ? Will
are employed in tracing. We stand at the water - the perceptions, bias, and desires of our nature,
shed of the two theologies. We can here clearly as summed up and expressed by the will, be on
trace the dividing line as it runs along, parting the the side of holiness as holiness ? They will not,
primeval sources of the Protestant and the Roman says the Protestant theology, till the nature is
theologies. These sources lie close, very close to renewed by the Holy Spirit. The will may be
each other , and yet the one is on this side of the physically free, it may be intellectually free, and
line which divides truth from error, the other is on yet, by reason of the bias to sin and aversion to
that ; and hence the different and opposite course on holiness which the Fall planted in the heart, the
which we behold each setting out ; and so far from will is not morally free ; it is dominated over by
ever meeting, the longer they flow they are but the its hatred of holiness and love of sin , and will not
farther parted. The discussion at Leipsic proceeded act in the way of preferring holiness and loving
along this line ; it was, in fact, the first distinct God, till it be rid of the spiritual incapacity which
tracing-out and settling of this line, as the essential hatred of what is good inflicts upon it.
and eternal boundary between the two theologies — But let us return to the combatants in the arena
between the Roman and Protestant Churches. at Leipsic. Battle has already been joined , and
The form which the question took was one we find the disputants stationed beside the deepest
touching the human will. What is the moral sources of the respective theologies, only half con
condition of man's will ? in other words, What is scious of the importance of the ground they occupy,
the moral condition of man himself ? As the will and the far-reaching consequences of the proposi
is, so is the man, for the will or heart is but a term tions for which they are respectively to fight.
expressive of the final outcome of the man ; it is “ Man's will before his conversion,” says Carl
the organ which concentrates all the findings of his stadt, “ can perform no good work. Every good
animal, intellectual, and spiritual nature - body, work comes entirely and exclusively from God, who
mind , and soul- and sends them forth in the form gives to man first the will to do, and then the power
of wish and act. Is man able to choose that which of accomplishing." 9 Such was the proposition main
is spiritually good ? In other words, when sin and tained at one end of the hall. It was a very old
holiness are put before him , and he must make his proposition , though it seemed new when announced
choice between the two, will the findings of his in the Pleisenberg hall, having been thoroughly
whole nature, as summed up and expressed in his obscured by the schoolmen. The Reformers
choice , be on the side of holiness ? Dr. Eck and could plead Augustine's authority in behalf of their
the Roman theologians at Leipsic maintained the proposition ; they could plead a yet greater au
affirmative, asserting that man has the power, thority, even that of Paul. The apostle had
without aid from the Spirit of God , and simply maintained this proposition both negatively and
of himself, to choose what is spiritually good , and positively. He had described the “ carnal mind ” as
to obey God. Luther, Carlstadt, and the new theo “ enmity against God ; " 3 he had spoken of the
logians maintained the negative, affirming that understanding as “ darkness," and of men as
man lost this power when he fell ; that he is now “ alienated from the life of God through the
morally unable to choose holiness ; and that, till his ignorance that is in them ." This same doctrine
nature be renewed by the Holy Spirit, he cannot he had put also in the positive form . “ It is God
love or serve God .1 that worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure.” Our Saviour has laid down a
i Compare account of disputation as given by Secken .
dorf, lib . i., sec. 25 and 26 , pp. 71 - 94, with that of Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 25, pp . 72 – 74 ; Add . i.
Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 15 – 17. 3 Rom . viii. 7, 8. Philipp . ii. 13.
LLET
CASSA
NE
.
WALIO
DET
12
.
ATLEIPSIC
THEOLOGIANS
WITTEMBERG
OFTHE
ARRIVAL
great principle which amounts to this, that corrupt nature be true, if he has lost the power of choosing
human nature by itself can produce nothing but what is spiritually good, and doing work spiritually
what is corrupt, when he said , “ That which is acceptable to God, the Protestant divines were
born of the flesh is flesh.” ] And the same great right. If he retains this power, the Roman theo
principle is asserted, with equal clearness, though logians were on the side of truth. There is no
in figurative language, when he says, “ A corrupt middle position.
tree cannot bring forth good fruit.” And were Thus the controversy came to rage around this
commentary needed to bring out the full meaning one point - Has the Will the power to choose and
of this statement, we have it in the personal appli- to do what is spiritually good ? This, they said, was
cation which the apostle makes of it to himself. the whole controversy between Romanism and Pro
“ For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh ] testantism . All the lines of argument on eitherside
dwelleth no good thing." ? If then man's whole flowed out of, or ran up into , this one point. It was
nature be corrupt, said the Reformer , nothing but the greatest point of all in theology viewed on the
what is corrupt can proceed from him , till he be side of man ; and according as it was to be decided,
quickened by the Spirit of God. Antecedently to Romanism is true and Protestantism is false, or
the operations of the Spirit upon his understanding Protestantism is true and Romanism is false.
and heart, he lacks the moral power of loving and “ I acknowledge," said Eck, who felt himself
obeying God, and of effecting anything that may hampered in this controversy by opinions favourable
really avail for his deliverance and salvation ; and to the doctrine of grace which , descending from the
he who can do nothing for himself must owe all times of Augustine, and maintained though imper
to God . fectly and inconsistently by some of the schoolmen,
At the other end of the hall, occupying the pulpit had lingered in the Church of Rometill now — " I
over which was suspended the representation of acknowledge that the first impulse in man 's conver
St. George and the dragon, rose the tall portlysion proceeds from God , and that the will of man in
form of Dr. Eck . With stentorian voice and ani. this instance is entirely passive."
mated gestures, he repudiates the doctrine which “ Then ,” asked Carlstadt, who thought that he
has just been put forth by Carlstadt. Eck admits had won the argument, “ after this first impulse
that man is fallen, that his nature is corrupt, but which proceeds from God, what follows on the part
he declines to define the extent of that corruption ; ofman ? Is it not that which Paul denominates will,
he maintains that it is not universal, that his whole and which the Fathers entitle consent ?"
nature is not corrupt, that man has the power of “ Yes," answered the Chancellor of Ingolstadt,
doing some things that are spiritually good ; and “ but this consent of man comes partly from our
that, prior to the action of God 's Spirit upon his natural will and partly from God 's grace" — thus re
mind and heart, man can do works which have a calling what he appeared to have granted ; making
certain kind of merit, the merit of congruity even ; man a partner with God in the origination of will
and God rewards these good works done in the or first act of choice in the matter of his salvation,
man's own strength , with grace by which he is and so dividing with God the merit of the work.
able to do what still remains of the work of his “ No," responded Carlstadt, “ this consent or act
salvation, of will comes entirely from God ; he it is who
The combatants at the one end of the hall fight creates it in the man." 4
for salvation by grace - grace to the entire exclusion
of human merit : salvation of God . The com - Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 25 , pp. 75, 82. Pallavicino,
batants at the other end fight for salvation by lib . i., cap. 17. Eck distinguished between totum and
totaliter, between whole and wholly. He admitted that
works, a salvation beginning in man's own efforts the good in man , viewed as a whole, was produced by God,
and good works, and these efforts and good works but not wholly. This Pallavicino (lib . i., cap . 15) explains
running along the whole line of operation ; and by saying the whole apple (tutto il pomo) is produced by
the sun , (ma non tolamente) but not wholly - the plant co
though they attract to them supernatural grace, operates ; in like manner, he said , the whole good in man
and make it their yoke-fellow as it were, yet them comes from God , but man co-operates in its production.
selves substantially and meritoriously do the work. Carlstadt, on the other hand, maintained that God is the
This is salvation of man. one, exclusive, and independent cause of that good - that
If the doctrine of the corruption of man 's whole tois ,God
of the conversion of man ; that whatever is pleasing
,and springs from saving faith , comes of the effica
cious, independent, and proper working of God (totaliter
1 John üi. 6. a Deo esse, independenter, efficaciter, et propria vi agente
? Rom . vii. 18 . Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 25), and that man in that work
3 Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 25, p. 74 ; Add . i. Pallavicino, contributes only the passive faculties on which God
lib . i., cap. 17, p . 76. operates.
DISCUSSION ON THE POWER OF THE WILL. 297
Offended at a doctrine which so completely took motive of the highest end,which is the glory of
away from man all cause of glorying, Eck , feigning God. Such actions, the Protestant theology teaches,
astonishment and anger, exclaimed , “ Your doctrine can come only from a heart purified by faith, and
converts a man into a stone or log, incapable of any quickened by the Spirit of God.
action . " On the 4th of July, Luther stepped down into
The apostle had expressed it better : “ dead in the arena. He had obtained permission to be
trespasses and sins." Yet he did not regard those present on condition of being simply a spectator ;
in that condition whom he addressed as a stone or but, at the earnest solicitations of both sides, Duke
a log, for he gave them the motives to believe, and George withdrew the restriction, and now he and
held them guilty before God should they reject the Eck are about to join battle. At seven o'clock in
Gospel the morning the two champions appeared in their
A log or a stone ! it was answered from respective pulpits, around which were grouped the
Carlstadt's end of the hall. Does our doctrine friends and allies of each . Eck wore a courageous
make man such ? does it reduce him to the level of and triumphant air, claiming to have borne off the
an irrational animal ? By no means. Can he not palm from Carlstadt, and it was generally allowed
meditate and reflect, compare and choose ? Can he that he had proved himself the abler disputant.
not read and understand the statements of Scripture Luther appeared with a nosegay in his hand , and a
declaring to him in what state he is sunk , that he face still bearing traces of the terrible storms through
is “ without strength ,” and bidding him ask the aid which he had passed . The former discussion had
of the Spirit of God ? If he ask , will not that thinned the hall ; it was too abstruse and meta
Spirit be given ? will not the light of truth be made physical for the spectators to appreciate its impor
to shine into his understanding ? and by the in - tance . Now came mightier champions, and more
strumentality of the truth , will not his heart be palpable issues A crowd filled the Pleisenberg
renewed by the Spirit, his moral bias against holi- hall, and looked on while the two giants con
ness taken away, and he become able to love and tended .
obey God ? In man 's capacity to become the It was understood that the question of the Pope's
subject of such a change, in his possessing such primacy was to be discussed between Luther and
a framework of powers and faculties as, when Eck. The Reformer's emancipation from this as
touched by the Spirit, can be set in motion in the from other parts of the Romish system had been
lirection of good , is there not, said the Reformers, gradual. When he began the war against the
sufficient to distinguish man from a log, a stone, or indulgence-mongers, he never doubted that so soon
an irrational animal ? as the matter should come to the knowledge of
The Popish divines on this head have ignored a the Pope and the other dignitaries , they would be
distinction on which Protestant theologians have as forward as himself to condemn the monstrous
always and justly laid great stress, the distinction abuse. To his astonishment, he found them
between the rational and the spiritual powers of throwing their shield over it, and arguing from
man . Scripture in a way that convinced him that the
Is it not matter of experience, the Romanists men whom he had imagined as sitting in a region
have argued, that men of themselves , hat is, by of serene light, were in reality immersed in lark
the promptings and powers of their unrenewed ness. This led him to investigate the basis of the
nature— have done good actions ? Does not ancient
history show us many noble, generous, and virtuous 1 Romish divines generally,and Bellarmine and Moehler
achievements accomplished by the heathen ? Did in particular, have misrepresented the views of both
they not love and die for their country ? All en Luther and Calvin , and their respective followers, on this
lightened Protestant theologians have most cheer head . They have represented Luther as teaching a
fully granted this. Man even unrenewed by the doctrine which would deprive fallen man of all religious
and moral capacity . Calvin , they say, was less extrava
Spirit of God may be truthful, benevolent, loving, gant than Luther,but to that extent less consistent with
patriotic ; and by the exercise of these qualities, he his fundamental position. There is no inconsistency
may invest his own character with singular grace whatever between Luther's and Calvin ' s views on this
point. The only difference between the two lies in the
fulness and glory,and to a very large degree benefit point indicated in the text, even that Calvin gives more
his species . But the question here is one regarding prominence than Luther does to the remains of the
a higher good, even that which the Bible denomi Divine image still to be found in fallen man , as attested
nates holiness — " without which no man can see by the virtues of the heathen . But as to man's tendency
to spiritual good , and the power of realising to any degree
God ” - actions done conformably to the highest by his own strength his salvation, both held the same
standard, which is the Divine law , and from the doctrine.
Roman primacy, and soon he came to the con - and that all his arts were met and repelled by the
clusion that it had no foundation whatever in simple massive strength, knowledge of Scripture,
either the early Church or in the Word of God . and familiarity with the Fathers which the monk
He denied that the Pope was head of the Church of Wittemberg displayed , he was not above a dis
by Divine right, though he was still willing to creditable ruse. He essayed to raise a prejudice
grant that he was head of the Church by human against Luther by charging him with being “ a
right — that is, by the consent of the nations. patron of the heresies of Wicliffe and Huss."
Eck opened the discussion by affirming that the The terrors of such an accusation , we in this age
Pope's supremacy was of Divine appointment. His can but faintly realise. The doctrines of Huss
main proof, as it is that of Romanists to this hour, and Jerome still lay under great odium in the
was the well-known passage, “ Thou art Peter, and West ; and Eck hoped to overwhelm Luther by
on this rock will I build my church.” Luther re- branding him with the stigma of Bohemianism .
plied , as Protestants at this day reply, that it is The excitement in the hall was immense when
an unnatural interpretation of the words to make the charge was hurled against him ; and Duke
Peter the rock ; that their natural and obvious George and many of the audience half rose from
sense is, that the truth Peter had just confessed their seats , eager to caich the reply .
in other words Christ himself— is the rock ; that Luther well knew the peril in which Eck had
Augustine and Ambrose had so interpreted the placed him , but he was faithful to his convictions.
passage, and that therewith agree the express de- “ The Bohemians," he said , “ are schismatics ;
clarations of Scripture — “ Other foundation can no and I strongly reprobate schism : the supreme
man lay than that is laid , which is Jesus Christ ;" Divine right is charity and unity . But among
and that Peter himself terms Christ “ the chief the articles of John Huss condemned by the
corner-stone, and a living stone on which we are Council of Constance, some are plainly most Chris
built up a spiritual house." . tian and evangelical, which the universal Church
It is unnecessary to go into the details of the cannot condemn.” 4 Eck had unwittingly done
disputation. The line of argument, so often tra- both Luther and the Reformation a service. The
versed since that day, has become very familiar to blow which he meant should be a mortal one had
Protestants. But we must not overlook the persevered the last link in the Reformer's chain
spicacity and courage of the man who first opened Luther had formerly repudiated the primacy of the
the path, nor the wisdom which taught him to rely Pope, and appealed from the Pope to a Council.
so confidently on the testimony of Scripture, nor Now he publicly accuses a Council of having con
the independence b ; which he was able to emanci- demned what was “ Christian ” - in short, of having
pate himself from the trammels of a servitude erred. It was clear that the infallible authority of
sanctioned by the submission of ages. Councils, as well as that of the Pope, must be
Luther in this disputation laboured under the given up. Henceforward Luther stands upon the
disadvantage of having to confront numerous quo- authority of Scripture alone.
tations from the false decretals. That gigantic The gain to the Protestant movement from the
forgery, which formsso large a part of the basis of Leipsic discussion was great. Duke George,
the Roman primacy, had not then been laid bare ; frightene by the charge of Bohemianism , was
nevertheless, Luther looking simply at the internal benceforward its bitter enemy. There were others
evidence, in the exercise of his intuitive sagacity, who were incurably prejudiced against it. But
boldly pronounced the evidence produced against these losses were more than balanced by manifold
him from this source spurious. He even retreated and substantial gains. The views of Luther were
to his stronghold , the early centuries of Christian henceforward clearer. The cause got a broader
history, and especially the Bible, in neither of and firmer foot-hold . Of those who sat on the
which was proof or trace of the Pope's supremacy benches, many became its converts. The students
to be discovered . When the doctor of Ingolstadt especially were attracted by Luther, and forsaking
found that despite his practised logic, vast reading the University of Leipsic , flocked to that of
and ready eloquence, he was winning no victory,
Council of the Vatican . “ Am I able to find them when
11 Cor. ii. 11. I search the annals of the Church ? Ah ! well, I frankly
? 1 Peter ii. 4 , 5 , 6 . Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 16 . confess that I have searched for a Pope in the first four
3 We have seen bishops of name in our own day make centuries, and have not found him .”
the same confession . “ I cannot find any traces of the 4 “ Quos non possit universalis Ecclesia damnare.”
Papacy in the times of the Apostles," said Bishop Stross. (Loescher, Acts and Docum . Reform . - videGerdesius, tom .
inayer, when arguing against the Infallibility in the i., 255.)
THE ONE CATHOLIC CHURCH . 299
Wittemberg. Some names, that afterwards were lieving the voice that proceeded from it to be the
among the brightest in the ranks of the Reformers, voice of God. Luther now acknowledged no in
were at this time enrolled on the evangelical side— fallible guide on earth save the Bible. From this
Poliander, Cellarius, the young Prince of Anhalt, day forward there was a greater power in every
Cruciger, and last and greatest of all, Melancthon. word and a greater freedom in every act of the
Literature heretofore had occupied the intellect and Reformer.
filled the heart of this last distinguished man , Once more in the midst of his friends atWittem
but now , becoming as a little child , he bowed to berg, Luther's work was resumed. Professors and
the authority of the Word of God, and dedicating students soon felt the new impetus derived from
all his erudition to the evangelical cause, he began the quickened and expanded views which the Re
to expound the Gospel with that sweetness and former had brought back with him from his
clearness which were so peculiarly his own . Luther encounter with Eck. . .
loved him before , but from this time he loved He had discarded the mighty fiction of the pri
him more than ever. Luther and Melancthon macy ; lifting his eyes above the throne that stood
were true yoke-fellows; they were not so much on the Seven Hills, with its triple-crowned occu
twain as one ; they made up between them a per- pant, he fixed them on that King whom God hath
fect agent for the times and the work. How set upon the holy hill of Zion. In the living and
admirably has Luther hit this off ! “ I was born ,” risen Redeemer, to whom all power in heaven and
said he, “ to contend on the field of battle with in earth has been given , he recognised the one
factions and wicked spirits. It is my task to up- and only Head of the Church. This brought with
root the stock and the stem , to clear away the it an expansion of view as regarded the Church
briars and the underwood. I am the rough work - herself. The Church in Luther's view was no
man who has to prepare the way and smooth the longer that community over which the Pope
road . But Philip advances quietly and softly. stretches his sceptre. The Church was that holy
He tills and plants the ground ; sows and waters and glorious company which has been gathered out
it joyfully , according to the gifts which God has of every land by the instrumentality of the Gospel.
given him with so liberal a hand.” I On all the members of that company one Spirit has
The war at Leipsic, then , was no affair of out descended, knitting them together into one body,
posts merely. It raged round the very citadel of and building them up into a holy temple. The
the Roman system . The first assault was directed narrow walls of Rome, which had aforetime
against that which emphatically is the key of the bounded his vision, were now fallen ; and the Re
Roman position, its deepest foundation as a theology former beheld nations from afar who had never
- namely, man 's independence of the grace of God . heard of the name of the Pope, and who had never
For it is on the doctrine of man's ability to begin borne his yoke, gathering, as the ancient seer had
and — with the help of a little supplemental grace, foretold , to the Shiloh. This was the Church to
conveyed to him through the sole channel of the which Luther had now come, and of which he re.
Sacraments —- to accomplish his salvation, that joiced in being a member.
Rome builds her scheme of works, with all its The drama is now about to widen , and new
attendant penances , absolutions, and burdensome actors are about to step upon the stage. Those
rites. The second blow was struck at that dogma who form the front rank , the originating and
which is the corner-stone of Rome as a hierachy , creative spirits , the men whose words, more
the Pope's primacy. powerful than edicts and armies, are passing
The Reformers strove to overthrow both, that sentence of doom upon the old order of things, and
they might substitute for the first, God, as the bidding a new take its place, are already on the
sole Author of man's salvation ; and for the second , scene. We recognise them in that select band of
CHRIST, as the sole Monarch of the Church. enlightened and powerful intellects and purified
Luther returned from Leipsic a freer, a nobler , souls at Wittemberg, of whom Luther was chief.
and a more courageous man. The fetters of But the movement must necessarily draw into
Papalism had been rent. He stood erect in the itself the political and material forces of the world ,
liberty wherewith the Gospel makes all who receive either in the way of co -operation or of antagonism .
. and follow it free. He no longer bowed to Councils ; These secondary agents, often mistaken for the first,
he no longer did reverence to the “ chair " set up were beginning to crowd upon the stage. They
at Rome, and to which the ages had listened, be had contemned the movement at its beginning
the material always under-estimates the spiritual
* Lutk . Opp. (W ) xiv . 200. D ’Aubigné, vol. ii., p. 68 . - but now they saw that it was destined to change
MULTIMETIDIDUNTIMUM WIN
NUUT
MELANCTHONDUONNONVIDIMUSTERITIMO
PHILIP MELANCTHON.
(From the Portrait by Lucas Cranach, painted in 1513.)
MEDIÆVALISM REVIVES. 301
kingdoms— to change the world . Mediævalism petus to the human mind. A spirit of free inquiry
took the alarm . Shall it permit its dominion and a thirst for national knowledge had been
quietly to pass from it ? Reviving in a power and awakened ; society was casting off the yoke of
glory unknown to it since the days of Charlemagne, antiquated prejudices and terrors. The world was
if even then, it threw down the gage of battle to Pro - indulging the cheering hope that it was about to
VIEW IN AIX -LA -CHAPELLE.
testantism . Let us attend to the new development make good its escape from the Dark Ages. But,
we see taking place,at this crisis, in this old power. lo ! the Dark Ages start up anew . They embody
Nothing more unfortunate , as it seemed , could themselves afresh in the mighty Empire of Charles.
have happened for the cause of the world's pro - It is a general law , traceable through all history,
gress. All things were prognosticating a new era. that before their fall a rally takes place in the
The revival of ancient learning had given an im - powers of evil.
26
Book Sixth .
` FROM THE LEIPSIC DISPUTATION TO THE DIET AT WORMS, 1521.
CHAPTER I.
PROTESTANTISM AND IMPERIALISM ; OR , THE MONK AND THE MONARC
Dangers of Luther - Doubtful Aid - Death of Maximilian -Candidates for the Empire - Character of Cha
- His Dominions - The Empire Offered to Frederick of Saxony - Declined - Charles of Spain Chosen
- Luther's Labours - His Appeal to the People of Germany - His Picture of Germany under the Papes
Called for - Impression produced by his Appeal.
Among the actors that now begin to crowd the much the fight is terrible, and the vic
stage there are two who tower conspicuously above hopeless, by so much are the proofs
the others, and fix the gaze of all eyes, well-nigh that the power which, without eart 1
exclusively, upon themselves. With the one we can scatter the forces of Imperialisi u
are already familiar, for he has been some time up a world which a combined spiritua k at
Eskal
before us, the other is only on the point of appear- despotism has trodden into the dust, is
ing. They come from the opposite poles of society is the clash and struggle of these two
to mingle in this great drama. The one actor first we are now to contemplate. But first
saw the light in a miner's cottage, the cradle of the at the situation of Luther.
other was placed in the palace of an ancient race of Luther's friends were falling away,
kings. The one wears a frock of serge, the other timid . Even Staupitz was hesitating, I
is clad in an imperial mantle . The careers of goal to which the movement tended w
these two men are not more different in their tincily visible. In the coldness or th
beginning than they are fated to be in their ending these friends, other allies hastened to
Emerging from a cell the one is to mount a throne, their somewhat doubtful aid . Drawn
where he is to sit and govern men, not by the force rather by hatred of Papal tyranny th
of the sword, but by the power of the Word. The ciation of Gospel liberty and purity, t
other, thrown into collision with a power he can somewhat embarrassed the Reformer.
neither see nor comprehend, is doomed to descend Teutonic quite as much as the Refor
through one humiliation after another, till at last - a noble product when the two are b }
from a throne, the greatest then in the world , he now stirred the German barons, and
comes to end his days in a cloister. But all this hands grasp their sword -hilts wher
is yet behind a veil. Luther's life was in danger ; that mer
Meanwhile the bulkier, but in reality weaker under their cloak were dogging him
power, seems vastly to overtop the stronger. The Longa was writing to the Elector Fre
Reformation is utterly dwarfed in presence of a not Luther find an asylum in the S
colossal Imperialism . If Protestantism has come highness ; let him be rejected of all a
forth from the Ruler of the world , and if it has the face of heaven ;" that Miltitz , the
been sent on the benign errand of opening the eyes who had not forgiven his discomfiture.
and loosing the fetters of a long-enslaved world , to snare him by inviting him to anot] interview
one would have thought that its way would be at Trèves ; and that Eck had gone to Rome to find
prepared, and its task made easy , by some signal a balm for his wounded pride, by getting forged in
weakening of its antagonist. On the contrary, it the Vatican the bolt that was to crush the man
is at this moment that Imperialism develops into whom his scholastic subtlety had not been able to
sevenfold strength . It is clear the great Ruler vanquish at Leipsic.
seeks no easy victory. He permits dangers to There seemed cause for the apprehensions that
multiply , difficulties to thicken , and the hand of now began to haunt his friends. “ If God do not
the adversary to be made strong. But by how help us," exclaimed Melancthon , as he listened to
COMPETITORS FOR THE- THRONE OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE. 303
the ominous sounds of tempest, and lifted his eye thrown him into the hands of his mortal enemies.
to a sky every hour growing blacker, “ If God do By the death of Maximilian at this crisis, the
not help us, we shall all perish .” Even Luther storm 'that seemed ready to burst passed over for
himself was made at times to know , by the mo the time. Till a new emperor' should be elected ,
mentary depression and alarm into which he was Frederick of Saxony, according to an established
permitted to sink , that if he was calm , and strong, rule, became regent. This sudden ' shifting of the
and courageous, it was God that made him so. One scenes placed the Reformer and the Reformation
of the most powerful knights of Franconia , Syl- under the protection of the man who for the time
vester of Schaumburg, sent his son all the way to presided over the Empire. . *
Wittemberg with a letter to Luther, saying, “ If Negotiations and intrigues were now set on foot
the electors, princes, magistrates fail you , come to for the election of a new emperor. These became
me. God willing, I shall soon have collected more a rampart around the Reformed movement. The
than a hundred gentlemen, and with their help I Pope, who wished to carry a particular candidate,
shall be able to protect you from every danger." ? found it necessary, in order to gain his object, to
Francis of Sickingen, one of those knights who conciliate the Elector Frederick, whose position as
united the love of letters to that of arms, whom regent, and whose character for wisdom , gave him
Melancthon styled “ a peerless ornamentof German a potential voice in the electoral college. This led
knighthood," offered Luther the asylum of his to a clearing of the sky in the quarter of Rome. '
castle. “ My services, my goods, and my body, all There were two candidates in the field - Charles I.
that I possess are at your disposal,” wrote he. of Spain , and Francis I. of France . Henry VIII. of
Ulrich of Hütten , who was renowned for his verses England , finding the prize which he eagerly coveted
not less than for his deeds of valour, also offered beyond his reach, had retired from the contest. The
himself as a champion of the Reformer. His mode claimsof the two rivals were very equally balanced.
of warfare, however , differed from Luther's. Ulrich Francis was gallant, chivalrous, and energetic, but
was for falling on Romewith the sword ; Luther he did not sustain his enterprises by a perseverance
sought to subdue her by the weapon of the Truth . equal to the ardour with which he had commenced
" It is with swords and with bows,” wrote Ulrich , them . Of intellectual tastes, and a lover of the
" with javelins and bombs that we must crush the new learning, wise men and scholars, warriors and
fury of the devil.” “ I will not have recourse to statesmen, mingled in his court, and discoursed
arms and bloodshed in defence of the Gospel,” said together at his table. Hewas only twenty-six , yet
Luther , shrinking back from the proposal. “ It he had already reaped glory on the field of war.
was by the Word that the Church was founded, “ This prince,” says Müller, “ was the most accom
and by the Word also it shall be re-established .” plished knight of that era in which a Bayard was
And , lastly , the prince of scholars in that age, the ornament of chivalry, and one of the most
Erasmus, stood forward in defence of the monk of enlightened and amiable men of the polished age of
Wittemberg. He did not hesitate to affirm that the Medici.” 4 Neither Francis nor his courtiers
the outcry which had been raised against Luther, were forgetful that Charlemagne had worn the
and the disturbance which his doctrines had created , diadem , and its restoration to the Kings of France ·
were owing solely to those whose interests, being would dispel the idea that was becoming common ,
bound up with the darkness , dreaded the new day that the imperial crown, though nominally elective,
that was rising on the world a truth palpable and was really hereditary, and had now permanently
trite to us, but not so to the men of the early part vested in the house of Austria .
of the sixteenth century. Charles was seven years younger than his rival,
When the danger was at its height, the Emperor and his disposition and talents gave high promise .
Maximilian died (January 12th , 1518). This Although only nineteen he had been trained in
prince was conspicuous only for his good-nature affairs, for which he had discovered both incli
and easy policy, but under him the Empire had nation and aptitude. The Spanish and German
enjoyed a long and profound peace. An obse- blood mingled in his veins, and his genius com
quious subject of Rome, the Reformed movement bined the qualities of both races. He possessed the
was every day becoming more the object of his perseverance of the Germans, the subtlety of the
dislike, and had he lived he would have insisted on Italians, and the taciturnity of the Spaniards. His
the elector's banishing Luther, which would have birth-place was Ghent. Whatever prestige riches,
" Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 27, p . 111.
Sleidan , bk. i., p. 21. 3 Ibid., p. 13. * Müller, Univ. Hist., bk. xix., sec. 1.
extent of dominion , and military strength could advice to the electors to choose Frederick of
give the Empire, Charles would bring to it. His Saxony. The result was that Frederick was
hereditary kingdom , inherited through Ferdinand chosen. The imperial crown was offered to
and Isabella, was Spain . Than Spain there was Luther's friend.
no more flourishing or powerful monarchy at Will he or ought he to put on the mantle of
that day in Christendom . To this magnificent Empire ? The princes and people of Germany
domain , the seat of so many opulent towns, around would have hailed with joy his assumption of the
which was spread an assemblage of corn-bearing odignity.
plains, wooded sierras, and vegas, on which the this strong
tecseem
ftener thItandidosceptre rhand hawere
t theasRifefoProvidence ating
hepputting
t ttherewith
into his hand,, tthat
fruits of Asia mingled in rich luxuriance with he might protect the Reformer. Frederick bad ,
those of Europe, were added the kingdoms of oftener than once, been painfully sensible of his
Naples and Sicily , Flanders and the rich domains lack of power . He may now be the first man in
of Burgundy; and now the death of his grand- Germany, president of all its councils, generalis
father, the Emperor Maximilian, had put him in simo of all its armies ; and may stave off from
possession of the States of Austria . Nor was this the Reformation 's path , wars, scaffolds, violences of
all ; the discovery of Columbus had placed a new all sorts, and permit it to develop its spiritual
continent under his sway ; and how large its limit, energies, and regenerate society in peace. Ought
or how ample the wealth that might flow from it, he to have become emperor ? Most historians
Charles could not, at that hour, so much as con - have lauded his declinature as magnanimous. We
jecture. So wide were the realms over which this take the liberty most respectfully to differ from
young prince reigned. Scarcely had the sun set them . We think that Frederick , looking at the
on their western frontier when the morning had whole case, ought to have accepted the imperial
dawned on their eastern. crown ; that the offer of it came to him at a
It would complete his glory, and render him moment and in a way that made the point of duty
without a peer on earth , should he add the imperial clear, and that his refusal was an act of weakness.
diadem to the many crowns he already possessed. Frederick, in trying to shun the snare of am .
He scattered gold profusely among the electors and bition, fell into that of timidity. He looked at
princes of Germany to gain the coveted prize. His tho difficulties and dangers of the mighty task , at
rival Francis was liberal, but he lacked the gold - the distractions springing up within the Empire,
mines of Mexico and Peru which Charles had at and the hostile armies of the Moslem on its fron
his command . The candidates , in fact, were too tier. Better, he thought, that the imperial sceptre
powerful. Their greatness had well-nigh defeated should be placed in a stronger hand ; better that
both of them ; for the Germans began to fear that Charles of Austria should grasp it. He forgot
to elect either of the two would be to give them that, in the words of Luther, Christendom was
selves a master. The weight of so many sceptres threatened by a worse foe than the Turk ; and so
as those which Charles held in his hand might Frederick passed on the imperial diadem to onewho
stifle the liberties of Germany. was to become a bitter foe of the Reformation .
The electors , on consideration, were of the mind But, though we cannot justify Frederick in shirk
that it would be wiser to elect one of themselves ing the toils and perils of the task to which he was
to wear the imperial crown. Their choice was now called , we recognise in his decision the over
given, in the first instance, neither to Francis nor ruling of a Higher than human wisdom . If Pro
to Charles ; it fell unanimously on Frederick of testantism had grown up and flourished under the
Saxony. Even the Pope was with them in this protection of the Empire, would not men have said
matter. Leo X . feared the overgrown power of that its triumph was owing to the fact that it had
Charles of Spain . If the master of so many one go wise as Frederick to counsel it, and one so
kingdoms should be elected to the vacant dignity, powerful to fight for it ? Was it a blessing to
the Empire might overshadow the mitre. Nor primitive Christianity to be taken by Constantine
was the Pope more favourably inclined towards under the protection of the arms of the first Emi
the King of France : he dreaded his ambition ; pire ? True, oceans of blood would have been
for who could tell but that the conqueror of spared , had Frederick girded on the imperial sword
Carignano would carry his arms farther into and become the firm friend and protector of the
Italy ? On these grounds, Leo sent his earnest movement. But the Reformation without mar
tyrs, without scaffolds, without blood ! Weshould
· Robertson , Hist. Charles V ., bk . i., p . 83. hardly have known it. It would be the Reforma
2 Sleidan , bk . i., p. 18. tion without glory and without power. Not its
LUTHER'S UNWEARIED LABOURS. 305
xhibitedonly,
eannals es othe
htaclbut f faitannals
h and haofd the lackawould
they race read
rould ppreached to it a century ago , and burned !" It
have been immensely poorer had they lacked the was now that he proclaimed the great truth that
sublime spectacles of faith and heroism which were the Sacrament will profit no man without faith,
exhibited by the martyrs of the sixteenth century and that it is folly to believe that it will operate
Not an age in the future which the glory of these spiritual effects of itself and altogether independ
sufferers will not illuminate ! ently of the disposition of the recipient. The
Frederick of Saxony had declined what the two Romanists stormed at him because he taught that
most powerful sovereigns in Europe were so eager the Sacrament ought to be administered in both
to obtain . On the 28th of June, 1519, the elec - kinds : not able to perceive the deeper principle
toral conclave, in their scarlet robes, met in the of Luther, which razed the opus operatum with all
Church of St. Bartholomew , in Frankfort-on -the- attendant thereon. They were defending the out
Maine, and proceeded to the election of the new works : the Reformer, with a giant's strength, was
emperor. The votes were unanimous in favour of levelling the citadel. It was amazing what ac
Charles of Spain. It was more than a year tivity and vigour of mind Luther at this period
(October, 1520) till Charles arrived in Germany to displayed. Month after month , rather week by
be crowned at Aix -la-Chapelle ; and meanwhile the week, he launched treatise on treatise. These
regency was continued in the hands of Frederick , productions of his pen , “ like sparks from under
and the shield was still extended over the little the hammer, each brighter than that which pre
company of workers at Wittemberg , who were ceded it,” added fresh force to the conflagration
busily engaged in laying the foundations of an that was blazing on all sides. His enemies attacked
empire that would long outlast that of the man on him : they but drew upon themselves heavier
whose head the diadem of the Cæsars was about to blows. It was, too, during this year of marvel
be placed . lously varied labour, that he published his Com
The year that elapsed between the election and mentary upon the Galatians, “ his own epistle "
the coronation of Charles was one of busy and as he termed it. In that treatise he gave a
prosperous labour at Wittemberg. A great light clearer and fuller exposition than he had yet
shone in the midst of the little band there gathered done of what with him was the great cardinal
together, namely , the Word of God. The voice truth , even justification through faith alone. But
from the Seven Hills fell upon their ear unheeded ; he showed that such a justification neither makes
all doctrines and practices were tried by the Bible void the law , inasmuch as it proceeds on the
alone. Every day Luther took a step forward . ground of a righteousness that fulfils the law , nor
New proofs of the falsehood and corruption of the leads to licentiousness, inasmuch as the faith that
Roman system continually crowded in upon him . takes hold of righteousness for justification, ope
It was now that the treatise of Laurentius Valla rates in the heart to its renewal, and a renewed
fell in his way, which satisfied him that the dona- heart is the fountain of every holy virtue and of
tion of Constantine to the Pope was a fiction . every good work .
This strengthened the conclusion at which he had It was now , too, that Luther published his
already arrived touching the Roman primacy, even famous appeal to the emperor, the princes, and the
that foundation it had none save the ambition of people of Germany, on the Reformation of Chris
Popes and the credulity of the people. It was tianity This was the most graphic, courageous,
now that he read the writings of John Huss, and , eloquent, and spirit-stirring production which had
to his surprise, he found in them the doctrine yet issued from his pen . It may be truly said of it
of Paul — that which it had cost himself such that its words were battles. The sensation it pro
agonies to learn — respecting the free justification duced was immense. It was the trumpet that
of sinners. “ We have all,” he exclaimed , half in summoned the German nation to the great conflict.
wonder, half in joy, “ Paul, Augustine, and my. “ The time for silence,” said Luther, “ is past, and
self, been Hussites without knowing it !" ? and he the time to speak is come.” And verily he did
added , with deep seriousness, “ God will surely speak.
visit it upon the world that the truth was In this manifesto Luther first of all draws a most
masterly picture of the Roman tyranny. Rome had
achieved a three-fold conquest. She had triumphed
| After the election the ambassadors of Charles offered over all ranks and classes of men ; she had
a large sum of money to the Elector Frederick ; he not
only refused it, but commanded all about him to take
not a farthing . (Sleidan , bk . i., p. 18 .)
: L . Epp., ii., p . 452. 3 Sleidan, bk. i., p. 31 .
298 · HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM .
Roman primacy, and soon he came to the con - and that all his arts were met and repelled by the
clusion that it had no foundation whatever in simple massive strength, knowledge of Scripture,
either the early Church or in the Word of God. and familiarity with the Fathers which the monk
He denied that' the Pope was head of the Church of Wittemberg displayed, he was not above a dis
by Divine right, though he was still willing to creditable ruse. He essayed to raise a prejudice
grant that he was head of the Church by human against Luther by charging him with being " a
right that is, by the consent of the nations. patron of the heresies of Wicliffe and Huss.”
Eck opened the discussion by affirming that the The terrors of such an accusation , we in this age
Pope's supremacy was of Divine appointment. His can but faintly realise. The doctrines of Huss
main proof, as it is that of Romanists to this hour, and Jerome still lay under great odium in the
was the well-known passage, “ Thou art Peter, and West ; and Eck hoped to overwhelm Luther by
on this rock will I build my church .” Luther re - branding him with the stigma of Bohemianism .
plied , as Protestants at this day reply , that it is The excitement in the hall was immense when
an unnatural interpretation of the words to make the charge was hurled against him ; and Duke
Peter the rock ; that their natural and obvious George and many of the audience half rose from
sense is , that the truth Peter had just confessed their seats, eager to caüh the reply .
in other words Christ himself — is the rock ; that Luther well knew the peril in which Eck had
Augustine and Ambrose had so interpreted the placed him , but he was faithful to his convictions.
passage, and that therewith agree the express de- “ The Bohemians," he said , “ are schismatics ;
clarations of Scripture — “ Other foundation can no and I strongly reprobate schism : the supreme
man lay than that is laid , which is Jesus Christ; " Divine right is charity and unity. But among
and that Peter himself terms Christ “ the chief the articles of John Huss condemned by the
corner-stone, and a living stone on which we are Council of Constance, someare plainly most Chris
built up a spiritual house." ? tian and evangelical, which the universal Church
It is unnecessary to go into the details of the cannot condemn." 4 Eck had unwittingly done
disputation. The line of argument, so often tra- both Luther and the Reformation a service. The
versed since that day, has become very familiar to blow which he meant should be a mortal one had
Protestants. But we must not overlook the persevered the last link in the Reformer's chain.
spicacity and courage of the man who first opened Luther had formerly repudiated the primacy of the
the path , nor the wisdom which taught him to rely Pope, and appealed from the Pope to a Council.
so confidently on the testimony of Scripture, nor Now he publicly accuses a Council of having con
the independence b ; which he was able to emanci- demned what was “ Christian” - in short , of having
pate himself from the trammels of a servitude erred. It was clear that the infallible authority of
sanctioned by the submission of ages. Councils, as well as that of the Pope, must be
Luther in this disputation laboured under the given up. Henceforward Luther stands upon the
disadvantage of having to confront numerous quo- authority of Scripture alone.
tations from the false decretals. That gigantic The gain to the Protestantmovement from the
forgery, which forms so large a part of the basis of Leipsic discussion was great. Duke George,
the Roman primacy , had not then been laid bare ; frightened by the charge of Bohemianism , was
nevertheless, Luther looking simply at the internal henceforward its bitter enemy. There were others
evidence, in the exercise of his intuitive sagacity, who were incurably prejudiced against it. But
boldly pronounced the evidence produced against these losses were more than balanced by manifold
him from this source spurious. He even retreated and substantial gains. The views of Luther were
to his stronghold , the early centuries of Christian henceforward clearer. The cause got a broader
history, and especially the Bible , in neither of and firmer foot-hold . Of those who sat on the
which was proof or trace of the Pope's supremacy benches,many became its converts. The students
to be discovered . When the doctor of Ingolstadt especially were attracted by Luther, and forsaking
found that despite his practised logic, vast reading, the University of Leipsic, flocked to that of
and ready eloquence, he was winning no victory,
Council of the Vatican . “ Am I able to find them when
11 Cor. ii. 11. I search the annals of the Church ? Ah ! well, I frankly
2 1 Peter ii.4, 5,6. Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 16 . confess that I have searched for a Pope in the first four
3 We have seen bishops of name in our own day make centuries, and have not found him ."
the same confession . “ I cannot find any traces of the 4 “ Quos non possit universalis Ecclesia damnare."
Papacy in the times of the Apostles," said Bishop Stross- (Loescher, Acts and Docum . Reform . - vide Gerdesius, tom .
mayer, when arguing against the Infallibility in the i., 235.)
THE ONE CATHOLIC CHURCH . 299
Wittemberg. Some names, that afterwards were lieving the voice that proceeded from it to be the
among the brightest in the ranks of the Reformers, voice of God. Luther now acknowledged no in
were at this time enrolled on the evangelical side— fallible guide on earth save the Bible. From this
Poliander, Cellarius, the young Prince of Anhalt, day forward there was a greater power in every
Cruciger , and last and greatest of all, Melancthon. word and a greater freedom in every act of the
Literature heretofore had occupied the intellect and Reformer.
filled the heart of this last distinguished man , Once more in the midst of his friends at Wittem
but now , becoming as a little child , he bowed to berg , Luther's work was resumed. Professors and
the authority of the Word of God, and dedicating students soon felt the new impetus derived from
all his erudition to the evangelical cause , he began the quickened and expanded views which the Re
to expound the Gospel with that sweetness and former had brought back with him from his
clearness which were so peculiarly his own. Luther encounter with Eck. .
loved him before, but from this time he loved He had discarded the mighty fiction of the pri
him more than ever. Luther and Melancthon macy ; lifting his eyes above the throne that stood
were true yoke-fellows ; they were not so much on the Seven Hills, with its triple-crowned occu
twain as one ; they made up between them a per - pant, he fixed them on that King whom God hath
fect agent for the times and the work . How set upon the holy hill of Zion . In the living and
admirably has Luther hit this off ! “ I was born," risen Redeemer, to whom all power in heaven and
said he, “ to contend on the field of battle with in earth has been given , he recognised the one
factions and wicked spirits. It is my task to up- and only Head of the Church . This brought with
root the stock and the stem , to clear away the it an expansion of view as regarded the Church
briars and the underwood . I am the rough work - herself. The Church in Luther's view was no
man who has to prepare the way and smooth the longer that community over which the Pope
road. But Philip advances quietly and softly stretches his sceptre. The Church was that holy
He tills and plants the ground ; sows and waters and glorious company which has been gathered out
it joyfully , according to the gifts which God has of every land by the instrumentality of the Gospel.
given him with so liberal a hand." 1 On all the members of that company one Spirit has
The war at Leipsic, then , was no affair of out- descended, knitting them together into one body,
posts merely . It raged round the very citadel of and building them up into a holy temple. The
the Roman system . The first assault was directed narrow walls of Rome, which had aforetime
against that which emphatically is the key of the bounded his vision, were now fallen ; and the Re
Roman position, its deepest foundation as a theology former beheld nations from afar who had never
--namely , man's independence of the grace of God. heard of the name of the Pope, and who had never
For it is on the doctrine of man's ability to begin borne his yoke, gathering, as the ancient seer had
and — with the help of a little supplemental grace, foretold , to the Shiloh. This was the Church to
conveyed to him through the sole channel of the which Luther had now come, and of which he re.
Sacraments — to accomplish his salvation, that joiced in being a member.
Rome builds her scheme of works, with all its The drama is now about to widen , and new
attendant penances, absolutions, and burdensome actors are about to step upon the stage. Those
rites. The second blow was struck at that dogma who form the front rank, the originating and
which is the corner-stone of Rome as a hierachy creative spirits , the men whose words, more
the Pope's primacy. powerful than edicts and armies , are passing
The Reformers strove to overthrow both, that sentence of doom upon the old order of things, and
they might substitute — for the first, God, as the bidding a new take its place , are already on the
sole Author of man's salvation ; and for the second , scene. We recognise them in that select band of
Christ , as the sole Monarch of the Church . enlightened and powerful intellects and purified
Luther returned from Leipsic a freer, a nobler, souls at Wittemberg, of whom Luther was chief.
and a more courageous man . The fetters of But the movement must necessarily draw into
Papalism had been rent. He stood erect in the itself the political and material forces of the world ,
liberty wherewith the Gospel makes all who receive either in the way of co-operation or of antagonism .
and follow it free. Heno longer bowed to Councils ; These secondary agents, often mistaken for the first,
he no longer did reverence to the “ chair " set up were beginning to crowd upon the stage. They
at Rome, and to which the ages had listened, be- had contemned the movement at its beginning
the material always under-estimates the spiritual
Luth. Opp. (W ) xiv. 200. D'Aubigné, vol. ii., p. 68. - -but now they saw that it was destined to change
Site"
TITITUUT
TE
MI
le
DEER
IESBA
W
ENVE
WA CE
D
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BU W
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We
VI
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2
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MELANCTHON
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PHILIP MELAXCTHON.
(From the Portraitby Lucas Cranach, painted in 1513.)
MEDIÆVALISM REVIVES. 301
kingdoms— to change the world . Mediævalism petus to the human mind. A spirit of free inquiry
took the alarm . Shall it permit its dominion and a thirst for national knowledge had been
quietly to pass from it ? Reviving in a power and awakened ; society was casting off the yoke of
glory unknown to it since the days of Charlemagne, antiquated prejudices and terrors. The world was
if even then, itthrew down the gage of battle to Pro- indulging the cheering hope that it was about to
Another
VIEW IN AIX -LA -CHAPELLE.
testantism . Let us attend to the new development make good its escape from the Dark Ages. But,
we see taking place , at this crisis, in this old power . lo ! the Dark Ages start up anew . They embody
Nothing more unfortunate, as it seemed , could themselves afresh in themighty Empire of Charles.
have happened for the cause of the world's pro It is a general law , traceable through all history,
gress. All things were prognosticating a new era. that before their fall a rally takes place in the
The revival of ancient learning had given an im - powers of evil.
26
Book Sirth .
FROM THE LEIPSIC DISPUTATION TO THE DIET AT WORMS, 1521.
CHAPTER 1.
PROTESTANTISM AND IMPERIALISM ; OR , THE MONK AND THE MONARCH .
Dangers of Luther - Doubtful Aid - Death of Maximilian - Candidates for the Empire - Character of Charles of Spain
- His Dominions — The Empire Offered to Frederick of Saxony - Declined - Charles of Spain Chosen - Wittemberg
- Luther's Labours - His Appeal to the People ofGermany – His Picture of Germany under the Papacy - Reforma
Called for - Impression produced by his Appeal.
Avong the actors that now begin to crowd the much the fight is terrible, and the victory all but
stage there are two who tower conspicuously above hopeless, by so much are the proofs resplendent
the others, and fix the gaze of all eyes, well-nigh that the power which , without earthly weapon ,
exclusively , upon themselves. With the one we can scatter the forces of Imperialism , and raise
are already familiar , for he has been some time up a world which a combined spiritual and secular
before us, the other is only on the point of appear- despotism has trodden into the dust, is Divine. It
ing. They come from the opposite poles of society is the clash and struggle of these two powers that
in mindleycome from the opposite Poles of society
to mingle in this great drama. The one actor first we are now to contemplate . But first let us glance
saw the light in a miner's cottage, the cradle of the at the situation of Luther.
other was placed in the palace of an ancient race of Luther's friends were falling away, or growing
kings. The one wears a frock of serge, the other timid . Even Staupitzwas hesitating, now that the
is clad in an imperial mantle. The careers of goal to which the movement tended was more dis
these two men are not more different in their tincily visible. In the coldness or the absence of
beginning than they are fated to be in their ending. these friends, other allies hastened to proffer him
Emerging from a cell the one is to mount a throne, their somewhat doubtful aid . Drawn to his side
where he is to sit and govern men, not by the force rather by hatred of Papal tyranny than by appre
of the sword, but by the power of the Word. The ciation of Gospel liberty and purity, their alliance
other, thrown into collision with a power he can somewhat embarrassed the Reformer. It was the
neither see nor comprehend , is doomed to descend Teutonic quite as much as the Reformed element
through one humiliation after another, till at last - a noble product when the two are blended that
from a throne, the greatest then in the world , he now stirred the German barons, and made their
comes to end his days in a cloister. But all this hands grasp their sword -hilts when told that
is yet behind a veil. Luther's life was in danger ; that men with pistols
Meanwhile the bulkier, but in reality weaker under their cloak were dogging him ; that Serra
power, seems vastly to overtop the stronger. The Longa was writing to the Elector Frederick , “ Let
Reformation is utterly dwarfed in presence of a not Luther find an asylum in the States of your
colossal Imperialism . If Protestantism has come highness ; let him be rejected of all and stoned in
forth from the Ruler of the world, and if it has the face of heaven ;" that Miltitz , the Papal legate,
been sent on the benign errand of opening the eyes who had not forgiven his discomfiture , was plotting
and loosing the fetters of a long-enslaved world, to snare him by inviting him to another interview
one would have thought that its way would be at Trèves ; and that Eck had gone to Rome to find
prepared, and its task made easy, by some signal a balm for his wounded pride, by getting forged in
weakening of its antagonist. On the contrary, it the Vatican the bolt that was to crush the man
is at this moment that Imperialism develops into whom his scholastic subtlety had not been able to
sevenfold strength. It is clear the great Ruler vanquish at Leipsic.
seeks no easy victory. He permits dangers to There seemed cause for the apprehensions that
multiply , difficulties to thicken, and the hand of now began to haunt his friends. “ If God do not
the adversary to be made strong. But by how help us,” exclaimed Melanothon , as he listened to
COMPETITORS FOR THE THRONE OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE. 303
the ominoust sounds of tempest, and lifted his eye thrown him into the hands of his mortal enemies.
to a sky every hour growing blacker, If God do By, the death of Maximilian 'at this crisis, the
not help us, we shall all. perish.” Even Luther storm 'that seemed ready to burst passed over for
ime. Till a new emperor' should be elected ,
Now ready, PART I,, price 7d ., of erick of Saxony, according to an established
THE NEW WORK by PROFESSOR HENRY MORLEY. s placed regent.
became This sudden
the Reformer and theshifting of the
Reformation
CASSELL ' S
r the protection of the nian who for the time
Library of English Literature. ded over the Empire. . !!
By HENRY MORLEY, egotiations and intrigues were now set on foot
Professor of English Literature at University College, and Examiner in he election of a new emperor. These became
English Language, Literature, and History to the University of London , npart around the Reformed movement. The
EXTRACT PROSPECTUS
FROMby ourselves and
. others, the history of !, who wished to carry a particular candidate,
THROUGH various works put forth d it necessary, in order to gain his object, to
what England has done is now familiar to her people . But the history of
shat England has thought is, as yet, but sparingly diffused, being rather the
luxury of the few than the daily food of the many. iliate the Elector Frederick, whose position as
nation 's inner life, which make her outward life what The
Bigbest phase of a nation ' s education ,
it ismanifesta
, are the tions
last of
anda át, and whose character for wisdom , gave him
* To illustrate English Literature throughout its progressive development,
and to provide a source of intellectual enjoyment for all classes of readers by
tential voice in the electoral college. This led
placing before them the best and most characteristic portions of our National
Literature , and thus enabling all to supply themselves with what will be
clearing of the sky in the quarter of Rome.
virtually a COMPREHENSIVE - ENGLISH LIBRARY , is what we now here were two candidates in the field - Charles I.
propose to do ,
noble Literature
" Such is theIntensely which we proposethetooutward
place within the reach of pain , and Francis I. of France. Henry VIII. of
every reader. interestin truly
g it as
is, expression of the
mational life of our country , uttered by some of the noblest and greatest of her land , finding the prize which he eagerly coveted
fers,and destined to instruct and delight as long asmen and women live who
will read our Saxon -born English
nd his reach , had retired from the contest. The
* The Work will be freely ILLUSTRATED with copies from trustworthy
Portraits,sketches of Places, contemporary illustrations of Manners and Customs, as of the two rivals were very equally balanced.
roí incidents described or referred to in the pieces quoted." acis was gallant, chivalrous, and energetic, but
* * Part I. sent post free as & Specimen for Seven Stamps. id not sustain his enterprises by a perseverance
THE BIBLE FOR CHILDREN , I A New Portrait of il to the ardour with which he had commenced
You ready, Part 4 , price bd., of
1. Of intellectual tastes, and a lover of the
The BISHOP of learning, wise men and scholars, warriors and
MANCHESTER , esmen , mingled in his court, and discoursed
The Child 's Bible. Executed in the Highest ther at his table. Hewas only twenty-six, yet
(One Hundred and Tenth Thousand .) Style of Chromo- Litho
With 220 LARGE PICTURES . graphy,with Original had already reaped glory on the field of war.
To be completed in: 24 Parts. Memoir, forms ris prince,” says Müller, “ was the most accom
Part XIII. of ned knight of that era in which a Bayard was
"One of the most attractive volumes in the
pily Surary,and a treasury of delight to the
The NATIONAL
PORTRAIT ornament
ghtened menand
chivalry,
andofamiable of theonepolished mostof
of theage
Inzest members of the household . ” - Illus
Ned London News.
"Priated in large type, and illustrated by GALLERY, now Medici.” 4 Neither Francis nor his courtiers
Mereu large and small wood engravings of ready, price 6d. e forgetful that Charlemagne had worn the
superior design , this edition of the Bible
1, ve cannot doubt, prove very helpful to
ents and teachers who aim to impart a “ This new Gallery promises
to be what its title aims at
lem , and its restoration to the Kings of France ·
wwledge of the Book to young children . "
can fornuise.
a work of national import . ud dispel the idea that was becoming common ,
| ance." -- Broad Arrow , ; the imperial crown, though nominally elective,
Cassell Petter & Galpin : budgate Ell, London , really hereditary , and had now permanently
ed in the house of Austria .
harles was seven years younger than his rival,
his disposition and talents gave high promise.
Maaman uavu (uwmuway - - ---, - - - - ,. only nineteen he had been trained in
prince was conspicuous only for his good -natu " which he had discovered both incli
and easy policy, but under him the Empire h aptitude. The Spanish and German
enjoyed a long and profound peace. An ok ! in his veins, and his genius com
quious subject of Rome, the Reformed moveme ties of both races. He possessed the
was every day becoming more the object of 1 ' the Germans, the subtlety of the
dişlike, and had he lived he would have insisted o. taciturnity of the Spaniards. His
the elector's banishing Luther , which would have 'hent. Whatever prestige riches,
Seckendorf, lib . i., sec . 27, p. 111.
· Sleidan , bk. i., p . 21. 3 Ibid., p . 13 . iv. Hist., bk. six.,sec.1.
BI
FROM THE LEIPSIC DISPUT Now ready, PART I., price 6d., of
The NEW SERIAL EDITION of
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Dict ionary
ONS
With upwards of 600 ILLUS and MAPS.
To be completed in 38 PARTS.
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the Bible, at once moderate in price, Bible Dictionary ' will be invaluabl
Dangers of Luther- Doubtful Aid - Death of Maxim sound and varied in its critical infor both to the student and to theteache
mation, written up to the time, and,
above all, uniting independence of who will find in it a storehouse
- His Dominions - The Empire Offered to Freder thought with orthodoxy of belief, has information upon every point ca
- Luther's Labours--- His Appeal to the People of long been a desideratum . The well
known firm of Casseli & Co. have sup
nected with the history, interpretatio
and criticism of the Bible ." - Edu
Called for - Impression produced by his Appeal. plied the want in the publication
tional Times.
described above ." - Record .
Among the actors that now begin to crowd Now Publishing in Monthly Parts.
stage there are two who tower conspicuously al THE HISTORY OF The UNITED STATE
the others , and fix the gaze of all eyes, well
exclusively, upon themselves. With the one PROTESTANTISM .
By the Rev. Dr. WYLIE.
(Cassell's History of
Accurately and Profuse
are already familiar, for he has been some 1 With Original Illustrations. Illustrated . Part 6 ng
before us, the other is only on the point ofapr Part 7 now ready, price ready, price 7d .
ing. They come from the opposite poles of soc 8 d.
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fully written history." - Standard
saw the light in a miner's cottage, the cradle of learned history, happily unmarked by
the proverbial theologicum odium . “ Pronises to be a work of
merit. " - Bradford Observer.
other was placed in the palace of an ancient rac Al denominations of the Christian
Church owe a debt of gratitude to the " Noman who reads and desires
kings. The one wears a frock of serge, the o author for a work of the kind , so full
of fact, and so fair to all parties con
know the history of the New W
should be without this book.
is clad in an imperial mantle. The career cerned . ” - Standard , Metropolitan .
these two men are not more different int
beginning than they are fated to be in their end Completion of " The Bible Educator."
Emerging from a cell the one is to mount a thr Now ready, complete in Four Vols ., price 6s. each ;
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of the sword, but by the power of the Word.
other, thrown into collision with a power he
neither see nor comprehend , is doomed to desc
The Bible Educator.
Edited by the Rev. E , H . PLUMPTRE, M . A ., Assisted by sa
through one humiliation after another, till at of our most eminent Scholars and Divines. Illustrated
from a throne, the greatest then in the world about 400 Illustrations and Maps.
comes to end his days in a cloister. But all “ We have no hesitation in placing ' The Bible Educator beyond anda
any similar work which has as yet appeared in this country, for the valued
is yet behind a veil. authority, and varied extent of its information ." - Standard .
Meanwhile the bulkier, but in reality we Cassell Petter & Galpin : Ludgate Hill , London.
power , seems vastly to overtop the stronger.
Reformation is utterly dwarfed in presence
colossal Imperialism . If Protestantism has
forth from the Ruler of the world , and
been sent on the benign errand of openi ho had not forgiven his discomfiture, was plotting
and loosing the fetters of a long-ens snare him by inviting him to another interview
one would have thought that its v Trèves ; and that Eck had gone to Rome to find
prepared , and its task made easy, balm for his wounded pride, by getting forged in
weakening of its antagonist. On he Vatican the bolt that was to crush the man
is at this moment that Imperiali whom his scholastic subtlety had not been able to
sevenfold strength. It is clea' vanquish at Leipsic.
seeks no easy victory. He : There seemed cause for the apprehensions that
multiply , difficulties to thickr now began to haunt his friends. “ If God do not
the adversary to be made si o help us,” exclaimed Melancthon , as he listened to
COMPETITORS FOR THE THRONE _ QF THE GERMAN EMPIRE . 303
the ominous sounds of tempest, and lifted his eye thrown him into the hands of his mortal enemies.
to a sky every hour growing blacker , " If God do By, the death of Maximilian 'at' this ciisis, the
not help us, we shall all perish .” Even Luther storm 'that seemed ready to burst passed over for
himself was made at times to know , by the mo- the time. Till a new emperor should be elected ,
mentary depression and alarm into which he was Frederick of Saxony, according to an established
permitted to sink , that if he was calm , and strong, rule, became regent. This sudden shifting of the
and courageous, it was God that made him so . One scenes placed the Reformer and the Reformation
of the most powerful knights of Franconia , Syl- under the protection of the man who for the time
vester of Schaumburg, sent his son all the way to presided over the Empire.
Wittemberg with a letter to Luther, saying, “ If N egotiations and intrigues were now set on foot
the electors , princes, magistrates fail you, come to for the election of a new emperor. These became
me. God willing, I shall soon have collected more a rampart around the Reformed movement. The
than a hundred gentlemen, and with their help | Pope, who wished to carry a particular candidaté,
shall be able to protect you from every danger." found it necessary, in order to gain his object, to
Francis of Sickingen, one of those knights who conciliate the Elector Frederick , whose position as
united the love of letters to that of arms, whom regent, and whose character for wisdom , gave him
Melancthon styled “ a peerless ornamentof German a potential voice in the electoral college. This led
knighthood," offered Luther the asylum of his to a clearing of the sky in the quarter of Rome. .
castle. “ My services, my goods, and my body, all There were two candidates in the field - Charles I.
that I possess are at your disposal,” wrote he. of Spain , and Francis I.of France . Henry VIII. of
Ulrich of Hütten ,who was renowned for his verses England, finding the prize which he eagerly coveted
not less than for his deeds of valour, also offered beyond his reach , had retired from the contest. The
himself as a champion of the Reformer . His mode claims of the two rivals were very equally balanced.
of warfare, however, differed from Luther's. Ulrich Francis was gallant, chivalrous, and energetic, but
was for falling on Rome with the sword ; Luther he did not sustain his enterprises by a perseverance
sought to subdue her by the weapon of the Truth . equal to the ardour with which he had commenced
“ It is with swords and with bows," wrote Ulrich, them . Of intellectual tastes, and a lover of the
“ with javelins and bombs that we must crush the new learning, wise men and scholars, warriors and
fury of the devil.” “ I will not have recourse to statesmen, mingled in his court, and discoursed
arms and bloodshed in defence of the Gospel,” said together at his table. Hewas only twenty-six , yet
Luther, shrinking back from the proposal. “ It he had already reaped glory on the field of war.
was by the Word that the Church was founded, “ This prince,” says Müller, “ was the most accom
and by the Word also it shall be re -established.” plished knight of that era in which a Bayard was
And, lastly, the prince of scholars in that age, the ornament of chivalry, and one of the most
Erasmus, stood forward in defence of the monk of enlightened and amiable men of the polished age of
Wittemberg. He did not hesitate to affirm that the Medici.” + Neither Francis nor his courtiers
the outcry which had been raised against Luther, were forgetful that Charlemagne had worn the
and the disturbance which his doctrines had created , diadem , and its restoration to the Kings of France ·
were owing solely to those whose interests , being would dispel the idea that was becoming common,
bound up with the darkness , dreaded the new day that the imperial crown, though nominally elective,
that was rising on the world a truth palpable and was really hereditary, and had now permanently
trite to us, but not so to the men of the early part vested in the house of Austria.
of the sixteenth century. Charles was seven years younger than his rival,
When the danger was at its height, the Emperor and his disposition and talents gave high promise.
Maximilian died (January 12th, 1518) : This Although only nineteen he had been trained in
prince was conspicuous only for his good -nature affairs, for which he had discovered both incli
and easy policy , but under him the Empire had nation and aptitude. The Spanish and German
enjoyed a long and profound peace. An obse- blood mingled in his veins, and his genius com
quious subject of Rome, the Reformed movement bined the qualities of both races. He possessed the
was every day becoming more the object of his perseverance of the Germans, the subtlety of the
dislike, and had he lived he would have insisted on Italians, and the taciturnity of the Spaniards. His
the elector's banishing Luther, which would have birth -place was Ghent. Whatever prestige riches,
Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 27, p. 111.
2 Sleidan, bk . i., p . 21. 3 Ibid ., p. 13. + Müller, Univ . Hist., bk. xix., sec. 1.
extent of dominion , and military strength could advice to the electors to choose Frederick of
give the Empire, Charles would bring to it. His Saxony. The result was that Frederick was
hereditary kingdom , inherited through Ferdinand chosen. The imperial crown was offered to
and Isabella , was Spain . Than Spain there was Luther's friend.
that day the seated an
no more flourishing or powerful monarchy at
that day in Christendom . To this magnificent
Will he or ought he to put on the mantle of
Empire ? The princes and people of Germany
domain , the seat of so many opulent towns, around would have hailed with joy his assumption of the
which was spread an assemblage of corn-bearing dignity . It did seem as if Providence were putting
plains, wooded sierras, and vegas, on which the this strong sceptre into his hand , that therewith
fruits of Asia mingled in rich luxuriance with he might and once, been paow be the firs
he might protect the Reformer. Frederick had,
those of Europe, were added the kingdoms of oftener than once, been painfully sensible of his
Naples and Sicily , Flanders and the rich domains lack of power. He may now be the first man in
of Burgundy ; and now the death of his grand- Germany, president of all its councils, generalis
father, the Emperor Maximilian, had put him in simo of all its armies ; and may stave off from
possession of the States of Austria. Nor was this the Reformation's path , wars, scaffolds, violences of
all ; the discovery of Columbus had placed a new all sorts, and permit it to develop its spiritual
continent under his sway ; and how large its limit, energies, and regenerate society in peace. Ought
or how ample the wealth that might flow from it, he to have become emperor ? Most historians
Charles could not, at that hour, so much as con - have lauded his declinature as magnanimous. We
jecture. So wide were the realms over which this take the liberty most respectfully to differ from
young prince reigned. Scarcely had the sun set them . We think that Frederick , looking at the
on their western frontier when the morning had whole case, ought to have accepted the imperial
dawned on their eastern. crown ; that the offer of it came to him at a
It would complete his glory, and render him moment and in a way that made the point of duty
without a peer on earth , should he add the imperial clear, and that his refusal was an act of weakness.
diadem to the many crowns he already possessed. Frederick , in trying to shun the snare of an
He scattered gold profusely among the electors and bition, fell into that of timidity. He looked at
princes of Germany to gain the coveted prize. His the difficulties and dangers of the mighty task, at
rival Francis was liberal, but he lacked the gold - the distractions springing up within the Empire,
mines of Mexico and Peru which Charles had at and the hostile armies of the Moslem on its fron
his command. The candidates , in fact , were too tier. Better, he thought, that the imperial sceptre
powerful. Their greatness had well-nigh forhol
ne bonne defeated should
Chor be placed
i in onshould
a sulan
stronger hand ; better that
. forgot
both of them ; for the Germans began to fear that Charles of Austria grasp it. u He
to elect either of the two would be to give them that, in the words of Luther, Christendom was
selves a master . The weight of so many sceptres threatened by a worse foe than the Turk ; and so
as those which Charles held in his hand might Frederick passed on the imperial diadem to one who
stifle the liberties of Germany. was to become a bitter foe of the Reformation .
The electors, on consideration , were of themind But, though we cannot justify Frederick in shirk
that it would be wiser to elect one of themselves ing the toils and perils of the task to which he was
to wear the imperial crown. Their choice was now called, we recognise in his decision the over
given , in the first instance , neither to Francis nor ruling of a Higher than human wisdom . If Pro
to Charles ; it fell unanimously on Frederick of testantism had grown up and flourished under the
Saxony. Even the Pope was with them in this protection of the Empire , would not men have said
matter. Leo X . feared the overgrown power of that its triumph was owing to the fact that it had
Charles of Spain . If the master of so many one so wise as Frederick to counsel it, and one so
kingdoms should be elected to the vacant dignity, powerful to fight for it ? Was it a blessing to
the Empire might overshadow the mitre. Nor primitive Christianity to be taken by Constantine
was the Pope more favourably inclined towards under the protection of the arms of the first Em
the King of France : he dreaded his ambition ; pire ? True, oceans of blood would have been
for who could tell but that the conqueror of spared, had Frederick girded on the imperial sword
Carignano would carry his arms farther into and become the firm friend and protector of the
Italy ? On these grounds, Leo sent his earnest movement. But the Reformation without mar
tyrs, without scaffolds, without blood ! We should
i Robertson , Hist. Charles V ., bk . i., p . 83. hardly have known it. It would be the Reforma
2 Sleidan , bk. i., p . 18 . tion without glory and without power. Not its
LUTHER'S UNWEARIED LABOURS. 305
annals only , but the annals of the race would preached to it a century ago, and burned !” It
have been immensely poorer had they lacked the was now that he proclaimed the great truth that
sublime spectacles of faith and heroism which were the Sacrament will profit no man without faith ,
exhibited by the martyrs of the sixteenth century. and that it is folly to believe that it will operate
Not an age in the future which the glory of these spiritual effects of itself and altogether independ
sufferers will not illuminate ! ently of the disposition of the recipient. The
Frederick of Saxony had declined what the two Romanists stormed at him because he taught that
most powerful sovereigns in Europe were so eager the Sacrament ought to be administered in both
to obtain . On the 28th of June, 1519, the elec- kinds : not able to perceive the deeper principle
toral conclave, in their scarlet robes, met in the of Luther , which razed the opus operatum with all
Church of St. Bartholomew , in Frankfort-on -the- attendant thereon. They were defending the out
Maine, and proceeded to the election of the new works : the Reformer, with a giant's strength, was
emperor. The votes were unanimous in favour of levelling the citadel. It was amazing what ac
Charles of Spain . It was more than a year tivity and vigour of mind Luther at this period
(October, 1520) till Charles arrived in Germany to displayed . Month after month , rather week by
be crowned at Aix -la -Chapelle ; and meanwhile the week , he launched treatise on treatise . These
regency was continued in the hands of Frederick, productions of his pen , “ like sparks from under
and the shield was still extended over the little the hammer, each brighter than that which pre
company of workers at Wittemberg, who were ceded it,” added fresh force to the conflagration
busily engaged in laying the foundations of an that was blazing on all sides. His enemies attacked
empire that would long outlast that of the man on him : they but drew upon themselves heavier
whose head the diadem of the Cæsars was about to blows. It was, too, during this year of marvel
be placed . lously varied labour, that he published his Com
The year that elapsed between the election and mentary upon the Galatians, “ his own epistle "
the coronation of Charles was one of busy and as he termed it. In that treatise he gave a
prosperous labour at Wittemberg. A great light clearer and fuller exposition than he had yet
shone in the midst of the little band there gathered done of what with him was the great cardinal
together, namely , the Word of God. The voice truth, even justification through faith alone. But
from the Seven Hills fell upon their ear unheeded ; he showed that such a justification neither makes
all doctrines and practices were tried by the Bible void the law , inasmuch as it proceeds on the
alone. Every day Luther took a step forward. ground of a righteousness that fulfils the law , nor
New proofs of the falsehood and corruption of the leads to licentiousness, inasmuch as the faith that
Roman system continually crowded in upon him . takes hold of righteousness for justification , ope
It was now that the treatise of Laurentius Valla rates in the heart to its renewal, and a renewed
fell in his way, which satisfied him that the dona- heart is the fountain of every holy virtue and of
tion of Constantine to the Pope was a fiction. every good work .
This strengthened the conclusion at which he had It was now , too, that Luther published his
already arrived touching the Roman primacy, even famous appeal to the emperor, the princes, and the
that foundation it had none save the ambition of people of Germany, on the Reformation of Chris
Popes and the credulity of the people. It was tianity. This was the most graphic, courageous,
now that he read the writings of John Huss, and, eloquent, and spirit-stirring production which had
to his surprise, he found in them the doctrine yet issued from his pen. It may be truly said of it
of Paul — that which it had cost himself such that its words were battles. The sensation it pro
agonies to learn — respecting the free justification duced was immense. It was the trumpet that
of sinners. “ We have all,” he exclaimed , half in summoned the German nation to the great conflict.
wonder, half in joy, “ Paul, Augustine, and my- “ The time for silence,” said Luther, “ is past, and
self, been Hussites without knowing it !" ? and he the time to speak is come.” And verily he did
added , with deep seriousness , “ God will surely speak.
visit it upon the world that the truth was In this manifesto Luther first of all draws a most
masterly picture of the Roman tyranny. Rome had
achieved a three-fold conquest. She had triumphed
? After the election the ambassadors of Charles offered
over all ranks and classes of men ; she had
a large sum of money to the Elector Frederick ; he not
only refused it, but commanded all about him to take
not a farthing . (Sleidan , bk. i., p . 18.)
L. Epp., ii., p . 452. 3 Sleidan, bk. i., p. 31.
triumphed over all the rights and interests of her Pope above the throne of kings, so that no one
human society ; she had enslaved kings ; she had dare call him to account ? The Pontiff enlists
enslaved Councils ; she had enslaved the people. armies, makes war on kings, and spills their sub
She had effected a serfdom complete and universal. jects' blood ; nay, he challenges for the persons of his
By her dogma of Pontifical supremacy she had priests immunity from civil control, thus fatally
CHARLES V ., EMPEROR OF GERMANY.

(From a Painting by Bartholomew Behem , 1531.)
enslaved kings, princes, and magistrates. She had deranging the order of the world , and reducing
exalted the spiritual above the temporal in order authority into prostration and contempt.
that all rulers, and all tribunals and causes,might By her dogma of spiritual supremacy, Romehad
be subject to her own sole absolute and irrespon- vanquished Councils. The Bishop of Rome claimed
sible will, and that, unchallenged and unpunished to be chief and ruler over all bishops. In him was
by the civil power, she might pursue her career of centred the whole authority of the Church , so that
usurpation and oppression. let him promulgate the most manifestly erroneous
Has she not, Luther asked, placed the throne of dogma, or commit the most flagrant wickedness, no
H|1 ELOVI
SWAND
.
GERMANY
OF
EMPEROR
ELECTING
CONCLAVE
THE
Council had the power to reprove or depose him . robbery surpassing that of thieves and highwaymen ,
Councils were nothing, the Pope was all. The who expiated their offences on the gibbet. Here
Spiritual supremacy made him the Church : the were the tyranny and destruction of the gates of
Temporal, the world. hell, seeing it was the destruction of soul and body,
By her assumed sole and infallible right of inter - the ruin of both Church and State. Talk of the
preting Holy Scripture, Rome had enslaved the devastation of the Turk, and of raising armies to
people. She had put out their eyes ; she had bound resist him ! there is no Turk in all the world like
them in chains of darkness, that she might make the Roman Turk .
them bow down to any god she was pleased to set The instant remedies which he urged were the
up, and compel them to follow whither she was same with those which his great predecessor,
pleased to lead - into temporal bondage, into eternal Wicliffe,a full hundred and fifty years before, had
perdition. . recommended to the English people, and happily
Behold the victory which Rome has achieved ! had prevailed upon the Parliament to so far adopt.
She stands with her foot upon kings, upon bishops, The Gospel alone, which he was labouring to restore,
upon peoples ! All has she trodden into the dust could go to the root of these evils, but they were of
These , to use Luther's metaphor, were the three a kind to be corrected in part by the temporal
walls behind which Rome had entrenched herself.: power. Every prince and State , he said , should
Is she threatened with the temporal power ? She forbid their subjects giving annats to Rome.
is above it. Is it proposed to cite her before a Kings and nobles ought to resist the Pontiff as the
Council ? She only has the right to convoke one. greatest foe of their own prerogatives, and the worst
Is she attacked from the Bible ? She only has the enemy of the independence and prosperity of their
power of interpreting it. Rome has made herself kingdoms. Instead of enforcing the bulls of the
supreme over the throne, over the Church , over the Pope, they ought to throw his ban, seal, and briefs
Word of God itself ! Such was the gulf in which into the Rhine or the Elbe. Archbishops and
Germany and Christendom were sunk . The Re- bishops should be forbidden , by imperial decree , to
former called on all ranks in his nation to combine receive their dignities from Rome. All causes
for their emancipation from a vassalage so dis- should be tried within the kingdom , and all
graceful and so ruinous. personsmade amenable to the country's tribunals.
To rouse his countrymen , and all in Christendom Festivals should cease, as but affording occasions for
in whose breasts there yet remained any love of idleness and all kinds of vicious indulgences , and
truth or any wish for liberty, he brought the the Sabbath should be the only day on which men
picture yet closer to the Germans, not trusting to were to abstain from working. No more cloisters
any general portraiture, however striking. Enter- ought to be built for Mendicant friars , whose
ing into details, he pointed out the ghastly havoc begging expeditions had never turned to good, and
the Papal oppression had inflicted upon their never would ; the law of clerical celibacy should be
common country. repealed, and liberty given to priests to marry like
Italy, he said , Rome had ruined ; for the decay other men ; and , in fine, the Pope, leaving kings
of that fine land, completed in our day,was already and princes to govern their own realms, should
far advanced in Luther's. And now , the vampire confine himself to prayer and the preaching of the
Papacy having sucked the blood of its own country, Word . “ Hearest thou , O Pope, not all holy , but
a locust swarm from the Vatican had alighted on all sinful ? Who gave thee power to lift thyself
Germany. The Fatherland, the Reformer told the above God and break his laws ? The wicked Satan
Germans, was being gnawed to the very bones. lies through thy throat. – O my Lord Christ, hasten
Annats, palliums, commendams, administrations, thy last day, and destroy the devil's nest at Rome.
indulgences, reversions, incorporations, reserves - There sits the man of sin,' of whom Paul speaks,
such were a few , and but a few , of the contrivances the son of perdition.” ”
by which the priests managed to convey the wealth Luther well understood what a great orator since
of Germany to Rome. Was it a wonder that has termed “ the expulsive power of a new emo
princes , cathedrals, and people were poor ? The tion.” Truth he ever employed as the only effectual
wonder was, with such a cormorant swarm preying instrumentality for expelling error. Accordingly,
upon them , that anything was left. All went into underneath Rome's system of human merit and
the Roman sack which had no bottom . Here was salvation by works, he placed the doctrine of man 's
1 Seckendorf, lib . i., sec .28, p . 112. 2 Dr. Chalmers.

LUTHER LAYS HIS APPEAL BEFORE CHARLES. 309
inability and God 's free grace. This it was that so great. Never did orator or patriot combat so
shook into ruin the Papal fabric of human merit. powerful an antagonist , or denounce so foul a
By the samemethod of attack did Luther demolish slavery, or smite hypocrisy and falsehood with
the Roman kingdom of bondage. He penetrated blows so terrible. And if orator never displayed
the fiction on which it was reared . Rome takes more eloquence, orator never showed greater
a man , shaves his head, anoints him with oil, courage. This appeal was made in the face of a
gives him the Sacrament of orders, and so infuses thousand perils. On these Luther did not bestow
into him a mysterious virtue. The whole class of a single thought. He saw only his countrymen ,
men so dealt with form a sacerdotal order, distinct and all the nations of Christendom , sunk in a most
from and higher than laymen , and are the divinely humiliating and ruinous thraldom , and with fearless
appointed rulers of the world . intrepidity and Herculean force he hurled bolt on
This falsehood, with the grievous and ancient bolt, quick, rapid , and fiery, against that tyranny
tyranny of which it was the corner -stone, Luther which was devouring the earth. The man, the
overthrew by proclaiming the antagonistic truth . cause, the moment, the audience , all were sublime.
All really Christian men, said he, are priests. Had And never was appeal more successful. Like a
not the Apostle Peter,addressing all believers, said , peal of thunder it rung from side to side of Ger
“ Yeare a royal priesthood ” ? It is not the shear- many. It sounded the knell of Roman domination
ing of the head, or the wearing of a peculiar gar- in that land. The movement was no longer con
ment, that makes a man a priest. It is faith that fined to Wittemberg ; it was henceforward truly
makes men priests,faith that unites them to Christ , national. It was no longer conducted exclusively
and that gives them the indwelling of the Holy by theologians. Princes, nobles, burghers joined in
Spirit, whereby they become filled with all holy it. It was seen to be no battle of creed merely ; it
grace and heavenly power. This inward anointing was a struggle for liberty , religious and civil ; for
-- this oil, better than any that ever came from the rights, spiritual and temporal; for the generation
horn of bishop or Pope - gives them not the name then living, for all the generations that were to live
only, but the nature, the purity, the power of in the future ; a struggle, in fine, for the manhood
priests ; and this anointing have all they received of the human race.
who are believers on Christ. Luther's thoughts turned naturally to the new
Thus did Luther not only dislodge the falsehood, emperor. What part will this young potentate
he filled its place with a glorious truth , lest, if left play in the movement ? Presuming that it would
vacant, the error should creep back . The fictitious be the just and magnanimous one that became so
priesthood of Rome— a priesthood which lay in oils great a prince , Luther carried his appeal to the foot
and vestments, and into which men were introduced of the throne of Charles V . “ The cause,” he said ,
by the scissors and arts of necromancy - departed, “ was worthy to come before the throne of heaven ,
and the true priesthood came in its room . Men much more before an earthly potentate .” Luther
opened their eyes upon their glorious enfranchise- knew that his cause would triumph, whichever
ment. They were no longer the vassals of a sacer- side Charles might espouse. But though neither
dotal oligarchy, the bondsmen of shavelings ; they Charles nor all the great ones of earth could
saw themselves to be the members of an illustrious stop it, or rob it of its triumph , they might delay
brotherhood , whose Divine Head was in heaven . it ; they might cause the Reformation's path to be
Never was there a grander oration. Patriots and amid scaffolds and bloody fields, over armies van
orators have, on many great and memorable occa - quished and thrones cast down. Luther would
sions, addressed their fellow -men, if haply they much rather that its progress should be peaceful
might rouse them to overthrow the tyrants who and its arrival at the goal speedy. Therefore he
held them in bondage. They have plied them with came before the throne of Charles as a suppliant ;
every argument, and appealed to every motive. trembling, not for his cause , but for those who he
They have dwelt by turns on the bitterness of foresaw would but destroy themselves by opposing
servitude and the sweetness of liberty. But never it. What audience did the monk receive ? The
did patriot or orator address their fellow -men on a emperor never deigned the doctor of Wittenberg a
greater occasion than this - -rarely , if ever, on one reply .
CHAPTER II.
POPE LEO'S BULL .
Eck at Rome- His Activity against Luther - Procures his Condemnation - The Bull - Authorship of the Bull- Ita
Terms- Its Two Bearers - The Bull crosses the Alps - Luther 's “ Babylonish Captivity ” The Sacrament - His
Extraordinary Letter to Pope Leo - Bull arrives in Wittemberg - Luther enters a Notarial Protest against it
He Burns it - Astonishment and Rage of Rome- Luther 's Address to the Students .
We have almost lost sight of Dr. Eck. We saw The indefatigable Eck left no stone unturned to
him , after his disputation with Luther at Leipsic, procure the condemnation of his opponent. He
set off for Rome. What was the object of his laboured to gain over every one he came in con
journey ? He crossed the Alps to solicit the Pope's tact with . His eloquence raised to a white heat
help against the man whom he boasted having the zeal of the monks. He spent hours of delibe
vanquished. He was preceded by Cardinal Cajetan, ration in the Vatican. Hemelted even the coldness
another “ conqueror ” after the fashion of Eck, and of Leo . He dwelt on the character of Luther - so
who too was so little satisfied with the victory obstinate and so incorrigible that all attempts at
which he so loudly vaunted that, like Eck, he had conciliation were but a waste of time. He dwelt
gone to Rome to seek help and find revenge. on the urgency of the matter ; while they sat in
In the metropolis of the Papacy these men debate in the Vatican , the movement was growing
encountered greater difficulties than they had by days, by moments , in Germany. To second
reckoned on. The Roman Curia was apathetic. Eck 's arguments , Cajetan, so ill as to be unable
Its members had not yet realised the danger in to walk , was borne every day in a litter into the
its full extent. They scouted the idea that Wit council-chamber. The doctor of Ingolstadt found
temberg would conquer Rome, and that an in - another, and, it is said , even a more potent ally.
significant monk could shake the Pontiff's throne. This was no other than the banker Fugger of
History exhibited no example of any such astound- Augsburg. He was treasurer of the indulgences,
ing phenomenon. Great tempests had arisen in and would have made a good thing of it if Luther
former ages. Rebel kings, proud heresiarchs, and had not spoilt his speculation. This awoke in him
barbarous or heretical nations had dashed them - a most vehement desire to crush a heresy so hurtful
selves against the Papal chair , but their violence to the Church's interests and his own.
had no more availed to overturn it than ocean 's Meanwhile rumours reached Luther of what was
foam to overthrow the rock . preparing for him in the halls of the Vatican.
The affair, however, was not without its risks, to These rumours caused him no alarm ; his heart was
which all were not blind. It was easy for the fixed ; he saw a Greater than Leo. A very different
Church to launch her ban , but the civil power must scene from Romo did Wittemberg at that moment
execute it. What if it should refuse ? Besides present. In the former city all was anxiety and
there were, even in Rome itself, a few moderate turmoil, in the latter all was peaceful and fruitful
men who, having a near view of the disorders of labour. Visitors from all countries were daily
the Papal court , were not in their secret heart ill- arriving to see and converse with the Reformer.
pleased to hear Luther speak as he did. In the The halls of the university were crowded with
midst of so many adulators, might not one honest youth - the hope of the Reformation. The fame of
censor be tolerated ? There were also men of Melancthon was extending ; he had just given his
diplomacy who said , Surely, amid the innumerable hand to Catherine Krapp, and so formed the first
dignities and honours in the gift of the Church , link between the Reformation and domestic life,
something may be found to satisfy this clamorous infusing thereby a new sweetness into both. It
monk . Send him a pall : give him a red hat. The was at this hour, too, that a young Swiss priest
members of the Curia were divided . The jurists was not ashamed to own his adherence to that
were for citing Luther again before pronouncing Gospel which Luther preached . He waited upon
sentence upon him : the theologians would brook the interim Papal nuncio in Helvetia, entreating
no longer delay,' and pleaded for instant anathema. him to use his influence at head-quarters to prevent
1 Polano, i., p. 9. Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 20 .
BULL CONDEMNING LUTHER. 311
the excommunication of the doctor of Wittemberg. tion, and committing all his books to the flames ,
The name of this priest was Ulrich Zwingle. This within the space of sixty days. Failing to obey
was the first break of day visible on the Swiss this summons, Luther and his adherents were pro
mountains. nounced incorrigible and accursed heretics, whom
Meanwhile Eck had triumphed at Rome. On all princes and magistrates were enjoined to ap
the 15th of June, 1520, the Sacred College brought prehend and send to Rome, or banish from the
their lengthened deliberations to a close by agreeing country in which they happened to be found. The
to fulminate the bull of excommunication against towns where they continued to reside werelaid
Luther. The elegancies or barbarisms of its style under interdict, and every one who opposed the
are to be shared amongst its joint concoctors, publication and execution of the bull was excom
Cardinals Pucci, Ancona, and Cajetan. municated in “ the name of the Almighty God, and
“ Now,” thought the Vulcans of the Vatican, of the holy apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul.” 4
when they had forged this bolt, “ now we have These were haughty words ; and at what a
tinished the business . There is an end of Luther moment were they spoken ! The finger of a man 's
and the Wittemberg heresy." To know how hand was even then about to appear, and to write
haughty at this moment was Rome's spirit, we on the wall that Rome had fulfilled her glory, had
must turn to the bull itself. reached her zenith, and would henceforward hasten
" Arise , O Lord !” — so ran this famousdocument, to her setting. But she knew not this. She saw
" arise and be Judge in thy own cause. Remember only the track of light she had left behind her in
the insults daily offered to thee by infatuated men her onward path ath wart the ages. A thick veil
Arise, O Peter ! remember thy holy Roman Church , hid the future with all its humiliations and defeats
the mother of all Churches, and mistress of the faith . from her eyes.
Arise, O Paul! for here is a new Porphyry, who is The Pope advanced with excommunications in
attacking thy doctrines, and the holy Popes our one hand and flatteries in the other. Immediately
predecessors' ! Arise, in fine, assembly of all the on the back of this terrible fulmination came a
saints , holy Church of God, and intercede with the letter to the Elector Frederick from Leo X . The
Almighty !" Pope in this communication dilated on the errors
The bull then goes on to condemn as scandalous, of that “ son of iniquity,” Martin Luther ; he was
heretical,, and damnable, forty -one propositions sure that Frederick cherished an abhorrence of these
extracted from the writings of Luther. The ob- errors, and he proceeded to pass a glowingeulogium
noxious propositions are simple statements of on the piety and orthodoxy of the elector, who he
Gospel truth. One of the doctrines singled out for knew would not permit the blackness of heresy to
special anathema was that which took from Rome sully the brightness of his own and his ancestors '
the right of persecution, by declaring that “ to burn fame. There was a day when these compliments
heretics is contrary to the will of the Holy Ghost.” 3 would have been grateful to Frederick, but he had
After the maledictory clauses of the bull, the docu - since drunk at the well of Wittemberg and lost his
ment went on to extol the marvellous forbearance relish for the Roman cistern . The object of the
of the Holy See, as shown in its many efforts to letter was transparent, and the effect it produced
reclaim its erring son. To heresy Luther had was just the opposite of that which the Pope
added contumacy. He had had the hardihood to intended. From that day Frederick of Saxony
appeal to a General Council in the face of the resolved with himself that he would protect the
decretals of Pius II. and Julius II.; and he had Reformer.
filled up the measure of his sins by slandering the Every step that Rome took in the matter was
immaculate Papacy. The Papacy , nevertheless, marked by infatuation . She had launched her bull,
yearned over its lost son, and “ imitating the and must needs see to its being published in all
omnipotentGod, who desireth not the death of a the countries of Christendom . In order to this the
sinner," earnestly exhorted the prodigal to return bull was put into the hands of two nuncios, than
to the bosom of his mother, to bring back with him whom it would hardly have been possible to find
all he had led astray, and make proof of the two men better fitted to render an odious mission
sincerity of his penitence by reading his recanta- yet more odious. These were Eck and Aleander.
Eck , the conqueror at Leipsic,who had left amid
1 Pallavicino, lib . i., cap . 20 . Sarpi, livr. i., p. 27 .
· Sleidan , bk . ii., p. 35.
3 Art. 33 of the bull condemns this proposition : - Sarpi, Hist. Conc. Trent, livr. i., p . 28 ; Basle, 1738.
“ Hæreticos comburi est contra voluntatem Spiritus.” Sleidan, bk . i., p . 35.
(Bullarium Romanum , tom . i., p . 610 ; Luxemburg, 1742.) i Sleidan , bk . i., p . 32.
the laughter of the Germans, now recrosses the tary to Pope Alexander VI., the infamous Borgia;
Alps. He bears in his hand the bull that is to and no worthier bearer could have been found of
complete the ruin of his antagonist. “ It is Eck's such a missive,and no happier choice could have
bull,
the ” said the Germans,of“ anotmortal
treacherousdagger the enemy,
Pope's.”notIttheis been
pair madeambassadors,
of of a colleague
” said tosome;
Eck. “ both
“ A worthy
are ad
axe of a Roman lictor.? Onward, however, came mirably suited for this work,and
the nuncio, proud of the bull, which he had so in effrontery, impudence, and debauchery." ?
perfectly matched
large a share in bore
own eyes,who fabricating
up the —sinking
the veryRoman
Atlas,world.
in his a glance
The bullatis twoslowlypublications
travelling which
towardsatLuther,and
this time
F
LA
ES
Dal
EZ
VIEW OF TRÈVES.
As he passed through the German towns,he posted (6th of October, 1520) issued from his pen, enables
upthe the important document,of theamidburghers,
the coldness of usretractation.
to judge howThefarPopehe ishadlikely to meethim ittowithburna
bishops, the contempt and the exhorted
hootings of the youth of the universities. His all his writings: here are two additional oneswhich
progress was more like that of a fugitive than a will have to be added to theheap before he applies
conqueror.fury Hein thehad nearest
to hideconvent,
at timesand from
he closedthe thethe torch . The“first is The Babylonish Captivity
popular Church. I denied," said Luther, owningof
hisCoburgcareer by going into permanent seclusion at his obligations to his adversaries,“ that the Papacy
was of Divine origin, but I granted that itwassubof
wasThecommitted
other functionary
the task was Aleander.
of bearing a copyToof himthe human right. Now, after reading all
tleties on which these gentry have set up their idol,the
bull to the Archbishop ofMainz, and of publishing I know that the Papacy is none other than the
it in the Rhenish towns. Aleander had been secre- kingdom of Babylon, and the violence of Nimrod
1 Pallavicino, lib. i., cap. 20, p. 81. 2 D 'Aubigné,vol. i .,p. 135.
LUTHER ON THE SACRAMENT. 313
the mighty hunter. I therefore beseech all my nor in the efficacy of the Sacrament, but in the
friends and all the booksellers to burn the books faith of the recipient. Faith lays hold on that
that I have written on this subject, and to sub- which the Sacrament represents, signifies, and
stitute this one proposition in their place : The seals — even the promise of God ; and the soul
Papacy is a generalchase led by the Roman Bishop resting on that promise has grace and salvation .
to catch and destroy souls.” These are not thewords The Sacrament,on the side of God, represents the
SA
HO
GE PRATI
VIEW OF COBURG , A RESIDENCE

F LUTHER DURING THE DIET OF AUGSBURG
te (From a Sketch by the late Prince Consort )
IN
of a man who is about offered blessing ; on

to present himself in theside of man , it is
the garb of a penitent a help to faith which
at the threshold of the lays hold of that
Roman See. blessing. “ Without
Luther next passed faith in God's pro
in review the Sacramental theory of the Church of mise," said Luther, “ the Sacrament is dead ; it is
Rome. The priest and the Sacrament— these are a casket without a jewel, a scabbard without a
the twin pillars of the Papal edifice, the two sword.” Thus did he explode the opus operatum ,
saviours of the world. Luther, in his Babylonish that great mystic charm which Rome had substi
Captivity, laid his hands upon both pillars, and tuted for faith, and the blessed Spirit who works
bore them to the ground. Grace and salvation, in the soul by means of it. At the very moment
he affirmed , are neither in the power of the priest when Rome was advancing to crush him with the
bolt she had just forged, did Luther pluck from
her hand that weapon of imaginary omnipotency
1 Seckendorf, lib.i., sec. 28, p.112. Sleidan,bk. ii., p.36. which had enabled her to vanquish men.
27
Nay, more : turning to Leo himself, Luther did been horrified in seeing how , under your name, the
not hesitate to address him at this crisis in words poor followers of Christ were deceived. . . .
of honest warning, and of singular courage. We “ You know it. Rome has for many years been
refer, of course, to his well-known letter to the inundating the world with whatever could destroy
Pope. Some of the passages of that letter read both soul and body. The Church of Rome, formerly
like a piece of sarcasm , or a bitter satire ; and yet the first in holiness, has become a den of robbers,a
it was written in no vein of this sort. The spirit place of prostitution , a kingdom of death and hell;
it breathes is that of intense moral earnestness, so that Antichrist himself, were he to appear,
which permitted the writer to think but of one would be unable to increase the amount of wicked
thing, even the saving of those about to sink in ness. All this is as clear as day.
a great destruction . Not thus did Luther write “ And yet, O Leo, you yourself are like a lamb
when he wished to pierce an opponent with the in the midst of wolves-- a Daniel in the lions'den.
shafts of his wit, or to overwhelm him with the But, single-handed, what can you oppose to these
bolts of his indignation. The words he addressed monsters ? There may be three or four cardinals
to Leo were not those of insolence or of hatred , who to knowledge add virtue. But what are these
though some have taken them for such , but of against so many ? You should perish by poison
affection too deep to remain silent, and too even before you could try any remedy. It is all
honest and fearless to flatter. Luther could dis- over with the court of Rome. The wrath of God
tinguish between Leo and the ministers of his has overtaken and will consume it. It hates
government. counsel - it fears reform — it will not moderate the
We need give only a few extracts from this fury of its ungodliness ; and hence it may be justly
extraordinary letter, as follow : said of it as of its mother : We would have healed
“ To the most Holy Father in God , Leo X ., Pope Babylon , but she is not healed - forsake her. . .
at Rome, be all health in Christ Jesus, our Lord. “ Rome is not worthy of you, and those who
Amen . resemble you.” This, however, was no great com
“ From amid the fearful war which I have pliment to Leo, for the Reformer immediately
been waging for three years with disorderly men , I adds, " the only chief whom she deserves to have is
cannot help looking to you, O Leo, most Holy Satan himself, and hence it is that in this Babylon
Father in God. And though the folly of your he is more king than you are. Would to God
impious flatterers has compelled me to appeal from that, laying aside this glory which your enemies so
your judgment to a future Council, my heart is not much extol, you would exchange it for a modest
turned away from your holiness ; and I have not pastoral office, or live on your paternal inheritance.
ceased to pray God earnestly, and with profound Rome's glory is of a kind fit only for Iscariots.
sighs, to grant prosperity to yourself and your " Is it not true that under the vast expanse of
Pontificate. heaven there is nothing more corrupt, more hateful
“ It is true I have attacked some anti-Christian than the Roman court ! In vice and corruption it
doctrines, and have inflicted a deep wound on my infinitely exceeds the Turks. Once the gate of
adversaries because of their impiety . Of this I heaven , it has become the mouth of bell a wide
repent not, as I have here Christ for an example . mouth which the wrath of God keeps open, so that
Ofwhat use is salt if it have lost its savour, or the on seeing so many unhappy beings thrown headlong
edge of a sword if it will not cut ? Cursed be he into it, Iwas obliged to liftmy voice as in a tempest,
who doeth the work of the Lord negligently in order that, at least, some might be saved from
Most excellent Leo , far from having conceived any the terrible abyss.”
bad thoughts with regard to you, my wish is that Luther next enters into some detail touching his
you may enjoy the most precious blessings through- communications with De Vio, Eck, and Miltitz,
out eternity. One thing only I have done; I have the agents who had come from the Roman court to
maintained the word of truth . I am ready to yield make him cease his opposition to the Papal corrup
to all in everything ; but as to this word I will tions. And then he closes-- -
not, I cannot abandon it. Hewho thinks differently “ I cannot retract my doctrine. I cannot permit
on this subject is in error. rules of interpretation to be imposed upon the Holy
" It is true that I have attacked the court of Scriptures. The Word ofGod — the source whence
Rome; but neither yourself nor any man living all freedom springs must be left free. Perhaps I
can deny that there is greater corruption in it than am too bold in giving advice to so high a majesty,
was in Sodom and Gomorrah, and that the impiety whose duty it is to instruct all men , but I see the
that prevails makes cure hopeless. Yes, I have dangers which surround you at Rome; I see you
LCTHER'S PROTEST AGAINST THE BULL 315
driven hither and thither ; tossed, as it were , upon the 17th of November, at ten o'clock in the morn
the billows of a raging sea. Charity urges me, and ing, in the Augustine convent where he resided , in
I cannot resist sending forth a warning cry.” the presence of a notary public and five witnesses ,
That he might not appear before the Pope empty- among whom was Caspar Cruciger, he entered a
handed , he accompanied his letter with a little book solemn protest against the bull. The notary took
on the “ Liberty of the Christian." The two poles down his words as he uttered them . His appeal
of that liberty he describes as faith and love ; faith was grounded on the four following points :— First,
which makes the Christian free , and love which because he stood condemned without having been
makes him the servant of all. Having presented heard, and without any reason or proof assigned of
this little treatise to one who “ needed only spiri- his being in error. Second ,because hewas required
tual gifts,” he adds, “ I commend myself to your to deny that Christian faith was essential to the
Holiness. May the Lord keep you for ever and efficacious reception of the Sacrament. Third , be
ever ! Amen." cause the Pope exalts his own opinions above the
So spoke Luther to Leo - the monk of Wittem , Word of God ; and Fourth , because, as a proud
berg to the Pontiff of Christendom . Never were contemner of the Holy Church of God, and of a
spoken words of greater truth , and never were legitimate Council, the Pope had refused to convoke
words of truth spoken in circumstances in which a Council of the Church, declaring that a Council is
they were more needed , or at greater peril to the nothing of itself.
speaker. If we laud historians who have painted This was not Luther's affair only , but that of all
in truthful colours, at a safe distance, the character Christendom , and accordingly he accompanied his
of tyrants, and branded their vices with honest protest against the bull by a solemn appeal to “ the
indignation, we know not on what principle we can emperor, the electors, princes, barons, nobles, sena
refuse to Luther our admiration and praise. Pro tors, and the entire Christian magistracy of Ger
vidence so ordered it that before the final rejection many," calling upon them , for the sake of Catholic
of a Church which had once been renowned through- truth, the Church of Christ, and the liberty and
out the earth for its faith , Truth , once more and right of a lawful Council, to stand by him and his
for the last time,should lift up her voice at Rome. appeal, to resist the impious tyranny of the Pope,
The bull of excommunication arrived at Wit and not to execute the bull till he had been legally
temberg in October , 1520. It had ere this been summoned and heard before impartial judges, and
published far and wide, and almost the last man to convicted from Scripture. Should they act dutifully
see it was the man against whom it was fulminated in this matter, “ Christ, our Lord,” he said , “ would
But here at last it is. Luther and Leo : Wittem - reward them with his everlasting grace. But it
berg and Rome now stand face to face — Rome has there be any who scorn my prayer, and continue to
excommunicated Wittemberg, and Wittemberg will obey that impious man, the Pope, rather than
excommunicate Rome. Neither can retreat, and God ,” he disclaimed all responsibility for the con
the war must be to the death . sequences, and left them to the supreme judgment
The bull could not be published in Wittemberg, of Almighty God.
for the university possessed in this matter powers In the track of the two nuncios blazed numerous
superior to those of the Bishop of Brandenburg. It piles— not of men, as yet, but of books, the writings
did, indeed , receive publication at Wittemberg , and of Luther. In Louvain , in Cologne, and many
that of a very emphatic kind,as we shall afterwards other towns in the hereditary estates of the emperor,
see, but not such publication as Eck wished and a bonfire had been made of his works. To these
anticipated. The arrival of the terrible missive many piles of Eck and Aleander, Luther replied by
caused no fear in the heart of Luther. On the kindling one pile. He had written his bill of
contrary, it inspired him with fresh courage. The divorcement, now he will give a sign that he has
movement was expanding into greater breadth. He separated irrevocably from Rome.
saw clearly the hand of God guiding it to its goal. A placard on the walls of the University of Wit- i
Meanwhile the Reformer took those formalmea- temberg announced that it was Luther's intention
sures that were necessary to indicate his position in to burn the Pope's bull, and that this would take
the eyes of the world , in the eyes of the Church place at nine o 'clock in the morning of December
which had condemned him , and in the eyes of 10th, at the eastern gate of the town. On the
posterity . He renewed his appeal with all solemnity day and hour appointed, Luther was seen to issue
from Leo X . to a future Council. On Saturday, from the gate of the university , followed by a
train of doctors and students to the number of 600,
1 Luth . Opp., ii. 315 ; Jenæ . and a crowd of citizens who enthusiastically sympa
thised. The procession held on its way through the of it travelled fast and far ; and when the report
streets of Wittemberg, till, making its exit at the reached Rome, the powers of the Vatican trem
gate , it bore out of the city — for all unclean things bled upon their seats. It sounded like the Voice
were burned without the camp — the bull of the that is said to have echoed through the heathen
Pontiff. Arriving at the spot where this new and world at our Saviour's birth , and which awoke
strange immolation was to take place, the members lamentations and wailings amid the shrines and
of procession found a scaffold already erected , and groves of paganism : “ Great Pan is dead !"
a pile of logs laid in order upon it. One of Luther knew that one blow would not win the
the more distinguished Masters of Arts took the battle ; that the war was only commenced , and
torch and applied it to the pile. Soon the flames must be followed up by ceaseless , and if possible
blazed up. At this moment, the Reformer, wearing still mightier blows. Accordingly next day, as he
the frock of his order, stepped out from the crowd was lecturing on the Psalms, he reverted to the
and approached the fire, holding in his hand the episode of the bull, and broke out into a strain of
several volumes which constitute the Canon Law , impassioned eloquence and invective. The burning
the Compend of Gratian , the Clementines, the of the Papal statutes, said he, addressing the crowd
Extravagants of Julius II., and other and later of students that thronged the lecture-room , is but
coinages of the Papalmint. He placed these awful the sign , the thing signified was what they were to
volumes one after the other on the blazing pile. aim at, even the conflagration of the Papacy. His
It fared with them as if they had been common brow gathered and his voice grew more solemn as
things. Their mysterious virtue did not profit in he continued : “ Unless with all your hearts you
the fire. The flames , fastening on them with their abandon the Papacy, you cannot save your souls.
fiery tongues, speedily turned these monuments of The reign of the Pope is so opposed to the law of
the toil, the genius, and the infallibility of the Christ and the life of the Christian , that it will le
Popes to ashes. This hecatomb of Papal edicts was safer to roam the desert and never see the face of
not yet complete. The bull of Leo X . stillremained. man , than abide under the rule of Antichrist. I
Luther held it up in his hand. “ Since thou hast warn every man to look to his soul's welfare, lest
vexed the Holy One of the Lord ,” said he, “ may by submitting to the Pope he deny Christ. The
everlasting fire vex and consume thee." ? With time is come when Christiansmust choose between
these words he flung it into the burning mass. death here and death hereafter. For my own part,
Eck had pictured to himself the terrible bull, as he I choose death here. I cannot lay such a burden
bore it in triumph across the Alps, exploding in upon my soul as to hold my peace in this matter :
ruin above the head of the monk . A more peaceful I must look to the great reckoning. I abominate
exit awaited it. For a few moments it blazed and the Babylonian pest. As long as I live I will
crackled in the flames, and then it calmly mingled proclaim the truth. If the wholesale destruction
its dust with the ashes of its predecessors, that of souls throughout Christendom cannot be pre
winter morning, on the smouldering pile outside vented, at least I shall labour to the utmost of my
the walls of Wittemberg power to rescue my own countrymen from the
The blow had been struck. The procession re- bottomless pit of perdition.”
formed . Doctors, masters, students,and townsmen, The burning of the Pope's bull marks the closing
again gathering round the Reformer, walked back, of one stage and the opening of another in the
amid demonstrations of triumph, to the city. greatmovement. It defines the fulness of Luther's
Had Luther begun his movement with this act, doctrinal views; and it was this matured and per
he would but have wrecked it. Men would have fected judgment respecting the two systems and
seen only fury and rage, where now they saw the two Churches, that enabled him to act with
courage and faith . The Reformer began by posting such decision - - a decision which astounded Rome,
up his “ Theses" - by letting in the light upon the and which brought numerous friends around him
dark places of Rome. Now , however, the minds self. Rome never doubted that her bolt would
of men were to a large extent prepared . The crush the monk. She had stood in doubt as to
burning of the bull was, therefore , the right act at whether she ought to launch it, but she never
the right time. It was felt to be the act, not of doubted that, once launched, it would accomplish
a solitary monk, but of the German people — the the suppression of the Wittemberg revolt. For
explosion of a nation's indignation . The tidings centuries no opponent had been able to stand
before her. In no instance had her anathemas
1 Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 31, p. 121.
2 Pallavicino, lib. i., cap. 22. 3 Luth.Opp.(Lat.), ii.123. D'Aubigné,ii, 152.
A SPRING - TIME. 317
failed to execute the vengeance they were meant to her path ; nor name nor memorial would remain
inflict. Kings and nations,temporalities and powers, to him on earth. Rome would make Wittemberg
when struck by this dreaded engine, straightway and its movement a reproach, a hissing, and a
collapsed and perished as if under the influence of desolation. She did speak, she did stretch out
terrible plagues. And who was this Wittemberg her arm , she did launch her bolt. And what was
heretic, that he should defy a power before which the result ? To Rome a terrible and appalling
the whole world crouched in terror ? Rome had one. The monk, rising up in his strength , grasped
only to speak , to stretch out her arm , to let fall the bolt hurled against him from the Seven Hills,
her bolt, and this adversary would be swept from and flung it back at her from whom it came.
CHAPTER III.
INTERVIEWS AND NEGOTIATIONS.
A Spring- time- The New Creation - Three Circles - The Inner Reformed Doctrine-- The Middle Morality and
Liberty - The Outer- The Arts and Sciences - Charles V . Crowned at Aix-la -Chapelle - Papal Envoy Aleander
Labours to have the Bull executed against Luther - His Efforts with Frederick and Charles - Prospect of a War
with France - The Emperor courts the Pope - Luther to be the Bribe - The Pope Won - The Court goes to Worms
- A Tournament Interrupted – The Emperor's Draft - Edict for Luther's Execution .
From the posting of the “ Theses ” on the doors of both , and forbids power to grow into oppression, or
the Schloss Kirk of Wittemberg, on October 31st, liberty to degenerate into licentiousness. Over the
1517, to the burning of the Pope's bull on December whole of life does the movement diffuse itself. It
10th , 1520, at the eastern gate of the same town, has no limits but those of society — of the world .
are just three years and six weeks. In these three But while its circumference was thus vast, we
short years a great change has taken place in the must never forget that its centre was religion or
opinions of men, and indeed in those of Luther dogma-- great everlasting truths, acting on the soul
himself. A blessed spring-time seems to have of man , and effecting its renewal, and so restoring
visited the world . How sweet the light ! How both the individual and society to right relations
gracious the drops that begin to fall out of heaven with God, and bringing both into harmony with
upon the weary earth ! What a gladness fills the the holy, beneficent, and omnipotent government
souls of men , and what a deep joy breaks out of the Eternal. This was the pivot on which the
on every side, making itself audible in the rising whole movement rested, the point around which it
songs of the nations, which, gathering around the revolved .
standard of a recovered Gospel, now “ come,” in At that centre were lodged the vital forces
fulfilment of an ancient oracle, “ unto Zion with the truths. These ancient, simple, indestructible,
singing !" changeless powers came originally from Heaven ;
The movement we are contemplating has many they constitute the life of humanity, and while they
circles or spheres. We trace it into the social life remain at its heart it cannot die , nor can it lose
of man ; there we see it bringing with it purity its capacity of reinvigoration and progress. These
and virtue. We trace it into the world of intellect life-containing and life-giving principles had , for a
and letters ; there it is the parent of vigour and thousand years past, been as it were in a sepulchre ,
gracea literature whose bloom is fairer , and imprisoned in the depths of the earth. But now ,
whose fruit is sweeter than the ancient one, imme- in this gracious spring-time, their bands were
diately springs up. We trace it into the politics loosed, and they had come forth to diffuse them
of nations ; there it is the nurse of order, and the selves over the whole field of human life, and to
guardian of liberty. Under its ægis there grow manifest their presence and action in a thousand
up mighty thrones, and powerful and prosperous varied and beautiful forms.
nations. Neither is the monarch a tyrant, nor are Without this centre, which is theology, we never
the subjects slaves; because tbe law is superior to should have had the outer circles of this movement,
which are science, literature, art, commerce, law , history of Protestantism furnishes us with two
liberty. The progress of a being morally con- notable examples. Duke George of Saxony was
stituted,basis.
moral as society
The is , must forces,
spiritual necessarily restLuther
which on a movement
a prince ofattrulythe national
first, spirit, andhe favoured
because saw thattheit
was honoured to be the instrument of once more embodied a resistance to foreign tyranny. But his
setting in motion ,alone could originate this move- hatred to the doctrine of grace made him , in no
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DESIDERIUS ERASMUS.
(From the Portrait by R. Houston in Roll's " Lives of the Principal Reformers," London, 1759.)
ment, and conduct it to suchof aletters, goal as would long time, one of its bitterest enemies. He com
benefit the world. The love and the plained that Luther was spoiling all by his “ de
love of liberty, were all too weak for this. They testable doctrines," not knowing that it was the
do not go high deep aimenough, nor they present
do motives a won hearts, and that it was the -
sufficiently , nor supply
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end aimedOfatthisin any
by which canalonebe theattained.
sacrificereformation civil
true the The career of Erasmus was a nearly equally
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pathies in common with Luther. The Reformation was now on his way to Worms, where he purposed
owes him much for his edition of the Greek New holding his first Diet. The rules of the Golden
Testament." Yet neither his refined taste, nor his Bull had specially reserved that honour for Nurem
exquisite scholarship , nor his love of liberty, nor berg ; but the plague was at present raging in that
his abhorrence of monkish ignorance could retain town also, and Worms was chosen in preference.
him on the side of Protestantism ; and the man In the journey thither the court halted at Cologne,
who had dealt Rome some heavy blows, when in and in this ancient city on the banks of the Rhino
his prime, sought refuge when old within the pale were commenced those machinations which culmi
of Romanism , leaving letters and liberty to care nated at the Diet of Worms.
for themselves. The Papal See had delegated two special envoys
We turn for a little while from Luther to to the imperial court to look after the affair of
Charles V ., from Wittemberg to Aix -la -Chapelle. Luther, Marino Caraccioli, and Girolamo Aleander,"
The crown of Charlemagne was about to be placed This matter now held the first place in the thoughts
on the head of the young emperor, in the presence of the Pope and his counsellors . They even forgot
of the electoral princes, the dukes, archbishops, the Turk for the time. All their efforts to silence
barons,and counts of the Empire ,and the delegates the monk or to arrest the movement had hitherto
of the Papal See. Charles had come all the way been in vain , or rather had just the opposite effect.
from Spain for that purpose , taking England in his The alarm in the Vatican was great. The cham
way, where he spent four days in attempts to secure pions sont by Rome to engage Luther had one
the friendship of Henry VIII., and detach his after another been discomfited . Tetzel, the great
powerful and ambitious minister, Cardinal Wolsey, indulgence-monger, Luther had put utterly to rout.
from the interests of the French king, by dangling Cajetan , the most learned of their theologians, he
before his eyes the brilliant prize of the Papal tiara. had completely baffled. Eck , the ablest of their
Charles was crowned on the 23rd of October, in polemics,he his snares in valta11, Leo hin
polemics, he had vanquished ; the plausible Miltitz
presence of a more numerous and splendid assembly had spread his snares in vain , he had been out
than had ever before been convened on a similar witted and befooled ; last of all, Leo himself had
occasion . descended into the arena ; but he had fared no
Having fallen prostrate on the cathedral floor better than the others ; he had been even more
and said his prayers, Charles was led to the altar ignominiously handled , for the audaciousmonk had
and sworn to keep the Catholic faith and defend burned his bull in the face of all Christendom .
the Church . He was next placed on a throne Where was all this to end ? Already the See of
overlaid with gold . While mass was being sung Rome had sustained immense damage. Pardons
he was anointed on the head , the breast, the arm were becoming unsaleable. Annats and reserva
pits, and the palms of his hands. Then he was led tions and first-fruits were, alas ! withheld ; holy
to the vestry , and clothed as a deacon. Prayers shrines were forsaken ; the authority of the keys
having been said , a naked sword was put into his and the ancient regalia of Peter were treated with
hand, and again he promised to defend the Church contempt ; the canon law , that mighty monument
and the Empire. Sheathing the sword, he was of Pontifical wisdom and justice, which so many
attired in the imperial mantle, and received a ring, minds had toiled to rear, was treated as a piece of
with the sceptre and the globe. Finally, three lumber, and irreverently thrown upon the burning
archbishops placed the crown upon his head ; and pile ; worst of all, the Pontifical thunder had lost
the coronation was concluded with a proclamation its terrors, and the bolt which had shaken monarchs
by the Archbishop of Mainz, to the effect that the on their thrones was daringly flung back at the
Pope confirmed what had been done, and that it was thunderer himself. It was time to curb such
his will that Charles V . should reign as emperor. audacity and punish such wickedness.
Along with the assemblage at Aix -la-Chapelle The two envoys at the court of the emperor left
came a visitor whose presence was neither expected no stone unturned to bring the matter to an issue,
nor desired — the plague ; and the moment the coro Of the two functionaries the more zealous was
nation was over, Charles V . and his brilliant suite Aleander , who has already come before us. An
took their departure for Cologne. The emperor evil prestige attached to him for his connection
— with the Papal See during the most infamous of its
i Published , privately in 1515 ; publicly, in 1516 . He Pontificates, that of Alexander VI.; but he possessed
thus, as Gerdesius says, exhibited the foundation and rule
of all reformation . (Hist. Renovati Doctrinæque Reformatæ , great abilities, he had scholarly tastes,indefatigable
tom . i., p . 147.)
? Sleidan , bk . ii., p. 37. 3 Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 23.
MORE NEGOTIATIONS AGAINST LUTHER 321
industry, and profound devotion to the See of edict against their author.” “ I must first ascer
Rome. She had at that hour few men in her tain,” replied the emperor, “ what our father the
service better able to conduct to a favourable issue Elector of Saxony thinks of this matter."
this difficult and dangerous negotiation . Luther It was clear that before making progress with the
sums up graphically his qualities. “ Hebrew was emperor the elector must be managed. Aleander
his mother-tongue, Greek he had studied from his begged an audience of Frederick . The elector re
boyhood, Latin he had long taught professionally. ceived him in the presence of his counsellors, and
He was a Jew ,' but whether he had ever been the Bishop of Trent. The haughty envoy of the
baptised he did not know . He was no Pharisee , Papal court assumed a tone bordering on insolence
however, for certainly he did not believe in the in the elector's presence. He pushed aside Carac
resurrection of the dead, seeing he lived as if all cioli, his fellow -envoy, who was trying to win
perished with the body. His greed was insatiable, Frederick by flatteries,and plunged atonce into the
his life abominable, his anger at times amounted to business. This Luther, said Aleander, is rending
insanity. Why he seceded to the Christians he the Christian State ; he is bringing the Empire to
knew not, unless it were to glorify Moses by ob- ruin ; the man who unites himself with him
scuring Christ."? separates himself from Christ. Frederick alone, he
Aleander opened the campaign with a bonfire of “ affirmed, stood between the monk and the chastise
Luther's writings at Cologne. “ What matters it,” ment he deserved, and he concluded by demanding
said some persons to the Papal delegate, “ to erase that the elector should himself punish Luther, or
the writing on paper ? it is the writing on men's deliver him up to Rome.5
hearts you ought to erase. Luther's opinions are The elector met the bold assault of Aleander
written there.” “ True," replied Aleander, com - with the plea of justice. No one, he said , had yet
prehending his age, “ but we must teach by signs refuted Luther ; it would be a gross scandal to
which all can read.” 3 Aleander, however, wished punish a man who had not been condemned ; Luther
to bring something else to the burning pile — the must be summoned before a tribunal of pious,
author of the books even . But first he must get learned, and impartial judges.
him into his power. The Elector of Saxony stood This pointed to the Diet about to meet at Worms,
between him and the man whom he wished to and to a public hearing of the cause of Protestantism
destroy. Hemust detach Frederick from Luther's before that august assembly . Than this proposal
side. He must also gain over the young emperor nothing could have been more alarming to Aleander.
Charles. The last ought to be no difficult matter. He knew the courage and eloquence of Luther. He
Born in the old faith, descended from an ancestry dreaded the impression his appearance before the
whose glories were entwined with Catholicism , Diet would make upon the princes. He had no
tutored by Adrian of Utrecht, surely this young ambition to grapple with him in person, or to win
and ambitious monarch will not permit a con - any more victories of the sort that Eck so loudly
temptible monk to stand between him and the boasted . He knew how popular his cause already
great projects he is revolving ! Deprived of the was all over Germany, and how necessary it was
protection of Frederick and Charles, Luther will to avoid everything that would give it additional
be in the nuncio 's power, and then the stake prestige. In his journeys, wherever he was known
will very soon stifle that voice which is rousing as the opponent of Luther, it was with difficulty
Germany and resounding through Europe ! So that he could find admittance at a respectable inn,
reasoned Aleander ; but he found the path beset while portraits of the redoubtable monk stared
with greater difficulties than he had calculated on upon him from the walls of almost every bed-room
meeting. in which he slept. He knew that the writings
Neither zeal nor labour noradroitness was of Luther were in all dwellings from the baron 's
lacking to the nuncio. - He went first to the castle to the peasant's cottage. Besides , would it
emperor. “ We have burned Luther's books," he not be an open affront to his master the Pope, who
said the emperor had permitted these piles to be had excommunicated Luther , to permit him to
kindled — “ but the whole air is thick with heresy. plead his cause before a lay assembly ? Would it
We require , in order to its purification,an imperial not appear as if the Pope's sentence might be
- - - - - -- reversed by military barons, and the chair of Peter
? In this Luther wasmistaken. Pallavicino informsus madesubordinate to the States -General of Germany ?
that Aleander was born of a respectable family in Friuli. On all these grounds the Papal nuncio was resolved
Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 34, p. 125.
a Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 23, pp . 91, 92.
4 Ibid ., p . 89. Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 34, p. 124 . 6 Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 34,p. 125. Ibid.
to gerne to the uttermost Luther's appearance Leo . So stood the matter. Meanwhile, negotia
before the Dist. tions were being carried on with the view of
Aleader now turned from the Elector of Saxony ascertaining on which side Leo , who dreaded both
to the emperor. “ Our hope of conquering," he of these potentates, would elect to make his stand,
wirte to the Cardinal Julio de Medici, “ is in and what in consequence would be the fate of
the emperor only ." ! In the truth or falsehood of the Reformer, imperial protection or imperial con
Lather's opinions the emperor took little interest. demnation.
The cause with him resolved itself into one of In this fashion did these great ones deal with
policy. He asked simply which would further the cause of the world's regeneration. The man
most his political projects , to protect Luther or to who was master of so many kingdoms, in both the
burn him ! Charles appeared the most powerful Old and the New Worlds, was willing, if he could
man in Christendom , and yet there were two men improve his chances of adding the Dukedom of
with whom he could not afford to quarrel, the Milan to his already overgrown possessions, to
Elector of Saxony and the Pontiff. To the first fling into the flames the Reformer, and with him
he owed the imperial crown , for it was Frederick's the movement out of which was coming the new
influence in the electoral conclave that placed it times . The monk was in their hands ; so they
on the heard of Charles of Austria . This obli- thought. How would it have astonished them to
gation might have been forgotten, for absolute be told that they were in his hands, to be used by
monarchs have short memories, but Charles could him as his cause might require ; that their crowns,
not dispense with the advice and aid of Frederick armies , and policies were shaped and moved , pros
in the government of the Empire at the head pered or defeated , with sole reference to those
of which he had just been placed. For these great spiritual forces which Luther wielded ! Wit
reasons the emperor wished to stand well with the temberg was small among the many proud capitals
elector. of the world , yet here, and not at Madrid or at
On the other hand , Charles could not afford to Paris, was, at this hour, the centre of hunan
break with the Pope. He was on the brink of war affairs.
with Francis I., the King of France. That chi- The imperial court moved forward to Worms.
valrous sovereign had commenced his reign by The two Papal representatives, Caraccioli and
crossing the Alps and fighting the battle of Marig - Aleander, followed in the emperor's train . . Feats
nano (1515 ), which lasted three days — “ the giant of chivalry, parties of pleasure, schemes of ambi
battle,” as Marshal Trivulzi called it.? This victory tion and conquest, occupied the thoughts of others ;
gained Francis I. the fame of a warrior, and the the two nuncios were engrossed with but one
more substantial acquisition of the Duchy of Milan. object, the suppression of the religious movement ;
The Emperor Charles meditated despoiling the and to effect this all that was necessary, they per
French king of this possession, and extending his suaded themselves, was to bring Luther to the
own influence in Italy. The Italian Peninsula was stake. Charles had summoned the Diet for the
the prize for which the sovereigns of that age con - 6th of January, 1521. In his circular letters to
tended, seeing its possession gave its owner the the several princes, he set forth the causes for
preponderance in Europe. This aforetime frequent which it was convoked . One of these was the
contest between the Kings of Spain and France was appointment of a council of regency for the govern
now on the point of being resumed . But Charles ment of the Empire during his necessary absences
would speed all the better if Leo of Romewere on in his hereditary kingdom of Spain ; but another ,
his side. and still more prominent matter in the letters of
It occurred to Charles that the monk of Wit- convocation, was the concerting of proper measures
temberg was a most opportune card to be played for checking those new and dangerous opinions
in the game about to begin. If the Pope should which so profoundly agitated Germany, and
engage to aid him in his war with the King of threatened to overthrow the religion of their an
France, Charles would give Luther into his hands, cestors.
that he might do with him as might seem good to Many interests, passions,and motives combined to
him . But should the Pope refuse his aid , and join bring together at Worms, on this occasion , a more
himself to Francis, the emperor would protect the numerous and brilliant assemblage than perhaps had
monk , and make him an opposing power against ever been gathered together at any Diet since the
days of Charlemagne. It was the emperor's first
i Pallavicino , lib. i., cap. 24, p. 93.
? Müller, Univ. Hist., vol. ii., pp. 406 , 420 . 3 Robertson ,Hist. Charles V., bk. ii.
OPENING OF THE DIET OF WORMS. 323
Diet. His youth, and the vast dominions over bring Luther with him to Worms, the next he
which his sceptre was swayed, threw a singular would command him to leave him behind at Wit
interest around him . The agitation in the minds temberg. Meanwhile Frederick arrived at the Diet
of men ,and the gravity of the affairs to be discussed, without Luther,
contributed further to draw unprecedented numbers The opposition which Aleander encountered but
to the Diet. Far and near,from the remotest parts, roused him to yet greater energy - indeed, almost
came the grandees of Germany. Every road lead - fury. He saw with horror the Protestant move
ing to Worms displayed a succession of gay ment advancing from one day to another, while
cavalcades. The electors, with their courts ; the Rome was losing ground. Grasping his pen, he
archbishops, with their chapters ; margraves and wrote a strong remonstrance to the Cardinal de
barons, with their military retainers; the delegates Medici, the Pope's relative, to the effect that
of the various cities, in the badges of their office ; “ Gerinany was separating itself from Rome;" and
bands of seculars and regulars , in the habits of that, unless more money was sent to be scattered
their order ; the ambassadors of foreign States — all amongst the members of the Diet, he must abandon
hastened to Worms, where a greater than Charles all hope of success in his negotiations. ? Rome
was to present himself before them , and a cause listened to the cry of her servant. She sent not
greater than that of the Empire was to unfold its only more ducats, but more anathemas. Her first
claims in their hearing. bull against Luther had been conditional, inas
The Diet was opened on the 28th of January, much as it called on him to retract , and threatened
1521. It was presided over by Charles — a pale- him with excommunication if, within sixty days,
faced ,melancholy -looking prince of twenty , accom - he failed to do so . Now , however, the excommu
plished in feats of horsemanship , but of weak nication was actually inflicted by a new bull,
bodily constitution. Thucydides and Machiavelli fulminated at this time (6th January, 1521), and
were the authors he studied . Chièvres directed ordered to be published with terrible solemnities
his councils ; but he does not appear to have in all the churches of Germany. This bull placed
formed as yet any decided plan of policy. “ Charles all Luther's adherents under the same curse as
had chiefly acquired from history,” says Müller, himself ; and thus was completed the separation
“ the art of dissimulating, which he confounded between Protestantism and Rome. The excision ,
with the talent of governing." 1 Amid the splen - pronounced and sealed by solemn anathema, was
dour that surrounded him , numberless affairs and the act of Rome herself.
perplexities perpetually distracted him ; but the This new step simplified matters to both Aleander
pivot on which all turned was the monk of Wit and Luther, but it only the more embroiled them
temberg and this religious movement. The Papal to the emperor and his councillors. The politicians
nuncios were night and day importuning him to saw their path less clearly than before. It ap
execute the Papal bull against Luther. If he peared to them the wiser course to stifle themove
should comply with their solicitations and give the ment, but the new ban seemed to compel them to
monk into their hands, he would alienate the fan it. This would be to lose the Elector even
Elector of Saxony, and kindle a conflagration in before they had gained the Pope ; for the negotia
Germany which all his powers might not be able tions with the court of the Vatican had reached as
to extinguish . If, on the other hand, he should yet no definite conclusion. They must act warily ,
refuse Aleander and protect Luther, he would and shun extremes.
thereby grievously offend the Pope, and send him A new device was hit upon, which was sure to
over to the side of the French king, who was every succeed, the diplomatists thought, in entrapping
day threatening to break out into war against him the theologians of Wittemberg. There was at the
in the Low Countries, or in Lombardy, or in court of the emperor a Spanish Franciscan, Jolin
both. Glapio by name, who held the office of confessor to
There were tournaments and pastimes on the sur- Charles. He was supple, plausible , and able. This
face, anxieties and perplexities underneath ; there man undertook to arrange the matter * which had
were feastings in the banquet-hall, intrigues in the --- -
cabinet. The vacillations of the imperial mind ·? Pallavie
Pallavicino, lib. i., cap. 25, pp. 95, 96 : " Il gran seguito
can be traced in the conflicting orders which the di Martino ; l' alienazione del popolo d 'Alemagna dalla
emperor was continually sending to the Elector Corte di Roma . . . e il rischio di perdere la Germania
Frederick
Frederick . One
One day
day he
he would
would write
write toto him
him to
to per avarizia d ' una moneta .”
3 This bull is engrossed in Bullarum , Jan ., 1521, under
the title of Decret . Romanum Pontificem .
1 Müller, Univ . Hist., vol. ii., p. 3. + Pallavicino, lib. i., cap . 24, p. 93.
hebaffled
Pontanus,
so many
craved an
the
wise heads;
interview
councillor with
of the
andGregory
with Bruck,
Elector
this viewortionsigh,"ofwasthe hiswitness
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ardently
protested as
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the reforma
Luther,
zealon or headany
this
Pontanusversed
petently was ain mantheological
of sterling integrity,
questions, and com - with
saga- to thehisemperor,
views, andtheCharles
as world sympathised
would yet largelyto
come
cious enough to see through the most cunning know .
diplomatistin allthe court of the emperor. Glapio From the general eulogium pronounced on the
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was a member
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circumstance within thethe writings of Luther,Glapio
theworthyBabylonish Captivity. excepted
That workonewasworknot
guise he nowof assumed.
councillor Frederick, Athis
Glapio interview
professed witha verythe t neitherofit.hisLuther,
idisavow style he maintained.
nor his learning. HeLutherfoundmustin
-*m regard for Luther;
miration, heagreedhad readwith hishim writings Astheyforshould
the restbe ofsubmitted
hisworks,hewould
Jesus Christ," ' he said, heaving aindeepthe
and he propose
body of that
intelligentand impartialmen,
should explain some things and apologise for
to aLuther
that select
State Papers;apud D'Aubigné,vol. ii., p.192. others; and then the Pope,in the plenitude of his
COMPACT BETWEEN CHARLES AND THE POPE. 325
power and benignity, would reinstate him . Thus clusion . The Pope agreed to be the ally of Charles
theended.breachSuchwouldwasbethelittle
healed,and the affair happily in his approachingthewaremperor,
artifice
with the
on hisFrench king, and
part,undertook
with which the wise heads at the to please the Pope in thematter of
court of Charles hoped to accom the monk of Wittemberg. The
plish so great things. They only two are to unite, but the link be
showed how little able they were tween them is a stake. The Em .
to gauge the man whom they pire and the Popedom are tomeet
wished to entrap, or to fathom the and shake hands over the ashes of
Luther. During the two centuries
movement which they sought to which included and followed the
arrest. Pontanus looked on while
they were spreading the net, with Pontificate of Gregory VII., the
a mild contempt ; and Luther lis imperial diadem and the tiara had
tened to the plot, when it was told waged a terrible war with each
him ,with feelings ofderision. other for the supremacy of Chris
The negotiationsbetween the em tendom . In thatage the two shared
peror and the court
which meanwhile had been goingof the Vatican, the world between them --other
lo
competitor there was none. But
now a new power had risen up,
on, were now brought to a con and the hatred and terror which
1 Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 37, p. 143. both felt to that new power made
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THE CATHEDRAL OF WORMS.

28
these old enemies friends. The die is cast. The their armour, and the fair spectators of the show
spiritual and the temporal arms have united to were preparing the honours and prizes to reward
crush Protestantism . the feats of gallantry which were to grace the
The emperor prepared to fulfil his part of the mimic war, when suddenly an imperial messenger
arrangement. It was hard to see what should appeared commanding theattendance of the princes
hinder him . He had an overwhelming force of in the "royal palace. It was a real tragedy in
kingdoms and armies at his back. The spiritual which they were invited to take part. When they
sword , moreover, was now with him . If with such had assembled , the emperor produced and read the
a combination of power he could not sweep this Papal brief which had lately arrived from Rome,
troublesome monk from his path , it would be a enjoining him to append the imperial sanction to
thing so strange and unaccountable that history the excommunication against Luther, and to give
might be searched in vain for a parallel to it immediate execution to the bull. A yet greater sur
It was now the beginning of February. The prise awaited them . The emperor next drew forth
day was to be devoted to a splendid tournament and read to the assembled princes the edict which
The lists were already marked out, the emperor's he himself had drawn up in conformity with the
tent was pitched ; over it floated the imperial Papal brief, commanding that it should be done
banner ; the princes and knights were girding on as the Pope desired .
CHAPTER IV .
LUTHER SUMMONED TO THE DIET AT WORMS.
A Check - Aleander Pleads before the Diet - Protestantism more Frightful than Mahommedanism - Effect of Aleander's
Speech -- Duke George - The Hundred and One Grievances — The Princes Demand that Luther be Heard - The
Emperor resolves to Summon him to the Diet - A Safe- conduct - Maunday - Thursday at Rome - The Bull In
Cæna Domini--Luther 's Name Inserted in it - Luther comes to the Fulness of Knowledge - Arrival of the
Imperial Messenger at Wittemberg - The Summons.
Yet the storm did not burst. We have seen pro- was agreed that Aleander should be heard before
duced the Pope's bull of condemnation ; we have the Diet on the 13th of February.
heard read the emperor's edict empowering the It was a proud day for the nuncio . The assem
temporal arm to execute the spiritual sentence ; we bly was a great one : the cause was even greater.
have only a few days to wait, so it seems, and we Aleander was to plead for Rome — the primacy
shall see the Reformer dragged to the stake and and princedom of Peter, the mother and mistress of
burned . But in order to accomplish this one thing all Churches - before the assembled principalities
was yet lacking. The constitution of the Empire of Christendom . He had the gift of eloquence ,
required that Charles, before proceeding further, and he rose to the greatness of the occasion. Pro
should add that “ if the States knew any better vidence ordered it that Rome should appear and
course, he was ready to hear them .” The majority plead by the ablest of her orators in the presence
of the German magnates cared little for Luther, of the most august of tribunals, before she was
but they cared a good deal for their prescriptive condemned . The speech has been recorded by
rights ; they hated the odious tyranny and grinding one of the most trustworthy and eloquent of the
extortions of Rome, and they felt that to deliver Roman historians, Pallavicino.?
up Luther was to take the most effectual means to The nuncio was more effective in those parts of
rivet the yoke that called their own necks. The his speech in which he attacked Luther, than in
princes craved time for deliberation. Aleander those in which he defended the Papacy. His
was furious; he saw the prey about to be plucked charges against the Reformer were sweeping and
from his very teeth . But the emperor submitted
with a good grace. “ Convince this assembly,” said See Aleander's speech in Pallavicino, bk. i.; chap. 35,
the politic monarch to the impatient nuncio . It pp.98 - 108.
THE HUNDRED AND ONE GRIEVANCES. 327
artful. Heaccused him of labouring to accomplish German barons. These no eloquence could efface.
a universal ruin ; of striking a blow at the founda- Duke George of Saxony was the first to present
tions of religion by denying the doctrine of the himself to the assembly. His words had the
Sacrament ; of seeking to raze the foundations of greater weight from his being known to be the
the hierarchy by affirming that all Christians are enemy of Luther, and a hater of the evangelical
priests ; of seeking to overturn civil order by main - doctrines, although a champion of the rights of his
taining that a Christian is not bound to obey the native land and a foe of ecclesiastical abuses. He
magistrate ; of aiming to subvert the foundations ran his eye rapidly over the frightful traces which
of morality by his doctrine of the moral inability of Roman usurpation and venality had left on Ger
the will ; and of unsettling the world beyond the many. Annats were converted into dues ; ecclesias
grave by denying purgatory. The portion of seem - tical benefices were bought and sold ; dispensations
ing truth contained in these accusations made them were procurable for money ; stations were multiplied
the more dangerous. “ A unanimous decree,” said in order to fleece the poor ; stalls for the sale of
the orator in closing his speech, “ from this illus- indulgences rose in every street ; pardons were
trious assembly will enlighten the simple, warn the earned not by prayer or works of charity, but by
imprudent, decide the waverers, and give strength paying the market price of sin ; penances were so
to the weak . . . . But if the axe is not laid at contrived as to lead to a repetition of the offence ;
the root of this poisonous tree , if the death-blow is fines were made exorbitant to increase the revenue
not struck , then . I see it overshadowing arising from them ; abbeys and monasteries were
the heritage of Jesus Christ with its branches, emptied by commendams, and their wealth trans
changing our Lord's vineyard into a gloomy forest, ported across the Alps to enrich foreign bishops ;
transforming the kingdom of God'into a den of wild civil causes were drawn before ecclesiastical tri
beasts, and reducing Germany into that state of bunals : all which “ grievous perdition of miserable
frightful barbarism and desolation which has been souls ” demanded a universal reform , which a
brought upon Asia by the superstition of Mahomet. General Council only could accomplish. Duke
I should be willing," said he, with consummate art, George in conclusion demanded that such should
" to deliver my body to the flames, if the monster be convoked.
that has engendered this growing heresy could be To direct past themselves the storm of indigna
consumed at the same stake, and mingle his ashes tion which the archbishops and abbots. saw to be
with mine." 3 rising in the Diet, they laid the chief blame of the
The nuncio had spoken for three hours . The undeniable abuses, of which the duke had presented
fire of his style, and the enthusiasm of his delivery, so formidable a catalogue, at the door of the
had roused the passions of the Diet ; and had a vote Vatican. So costly were the tastes and so luxu
been taken at that moment, the voices of all the rious the habits of the reigning Pope, they hinted ,
members , one only excepted, would have been given that he was induced to bestow Church livings not
for the condemnation of Luther. The Diet broke on pious and learned men, but on jesters, falconers ,
up, however, when the orator sat down, and thus grooms, valets, and whosoever could minister to his
the victory which seemed within the reach of Rome personal pleasures or add to the gaiety of his court.
Escaped her grasp . The excuse was, in fact, an accusation .
When the princes next assembled , the fumes A committee was appointed by the Diet to draw
raised by the rhetoric of Aleander had evaporated , up a list of the oppressions under which the nation
and the hard facts of Roman extortion alone re- groaned . This document, containing a hundred
mained deeply imprinted in the memories of the and one grievances, was presented to the emperor
at a subsequentmeeting of the Diet, together with
1 “ Ondeavvenga della Germania per la licenziosa Eresia
di Lutero ciò ch ' è avvenuto dell' Asia per la sensuale
Saperstizione di Macometto.” (Pallavicino, lib. i., cap.25.) 4 The progress which the reforming spirit had made,
* Pallavicino, lib. i., cap. 25, p . 97. Seckendorf has said even among the German ecclesiastics, may be judged of
that Pallavicino invented this speech and put it into from the indifference ofmany who were deeply interested
the mouth of Aleander. Some Protestant writers have in the maintenance of the old system . “ Even those,”
followed Seckendorf. There is no evidence in support of complained Eck , “ who hold from the Pope the best
authenticity of the speech . Pallavicino tells us the fishes ; many of them even extolled Luther as a man
sources from which he took the speech ; more especially filled with the Spirit of God , and called the defenders of
Aleander's own letters, still in the library of the Vatican . the Pope sophists and flatterers.” (D ’Aubigné.)
3 Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 26 , p. 108 : “ La maggior parte 5 The important catalogue has been preserved in the
de raynati concorreva nella sentenza d' estirpar l' Eresia archives of Weimar. (Seckendorf, p .328 ; apud D ’ Aubigné,
Luterana ." vol. ii., p . 203.)
- 328 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM .
a request that he would , in fulfilment of the terms herald is on his way to bring hither the man for
of the capitulation which he had signed when he whom they wait, let us turn to see what is at
was crowned, take steps to effect a reformation of that moment taking place at the opposite poles of
the specified abuses. Christendom .
The Diet did not stop here. The princes de- Far separated as are Rome and Wittemberg,
manded that Luther should be summoned before it. there is yet a link binding together the two. An
It were unjust, they said , to condemn him without unseen Power regulates the march of events at both
knowing whether he were the author of the in - places, making them advance by equal steps. What
criminated books, and without hearing what he wonderful harmony under antagonism ! Let us
had to say in defence of his opinions. The turn first to Rome. It is Maunday-Thursday.
emperor was compelled to give way, though he On the balcony of the Metropolitan Cathedral,
covered his retreat under show of doubting whether arrayed for one of the grand ceremonies of his
the books really were Luther's. He wished , he Church, sits the Pope. Around him stand attendant
said , to have certainty on that point. Aleander priests , bearing lighted torches; and beneath him ,
was horror-struck at the emperor's irresolution . crowding in silence the spacious area, their knees
He saw the foundations of the Papacy shaken , the bent and their heads uncovered, are the assembled
tiara trembling on his master's brow , and all the Romans. Leo is pronouncing, as the wont is
terrible evils he had predicted in this great oration, before the festival of Easter, the terrible bull In
rushing like a devastating tempest upon Christen - Cona Domini.
dom . But he strove in vain against the emperor's This is a very ancient bull. It has undergone,
resolve, and the yet stronger force behind it, in during successive Pontificates , various alterations
which that resolve had its birth - the feeling of the and additions, with the view of rendering its scope
German people . It was concluded in the Diet more comprehensive and its excommunications
that Luther should be summoned. Aleander had more frightful. It has been called “ the pick of
one hope left, the only mitigating circumstance excommunications." It was wont to be promul
about this alarming affair, even that Luther would gated annually at Rome on the Thursday before
be denied a safe-conduct. But this proposal he Easter Sunday, hence its name the “ Bull of the
was ultimately unable to carry,' and on the 6th of Lord's Supper.” The bells were tolled, the cannon
March, 1521, the summons to Luther to present of St. Angelo were fired , and the crowd of priests
himself within twenty-one days before the Diet at that thronged the balcony around the Pope waved
Worms was signed by the emperor. Enclosed in their tapers wildly, then suddenly extinguished
the citation was a safe -conduct, addressed “ To the them ; in short, no solemnity was omitted that
honourable, our well-beloved and pious Doctor could add terror to the publication of the bull —
Martin Luther, of the order of Augustines," 4 and superfluous task surely ,when we think that a more
commanding all princes, lords, magistrates, and frightful peal of cursing never rung out from that
others to respect this safe -conduct under pain of balcony, from which so many terrible excommuni
the displeasure of the Emperor and the Empire. cations have been thundered. All ranks and con
Gaspard Sturm , the imperial herald , was com - ditions of men , all nationalities not obedient to the
missioned to deliver these documents to Luther Papal See , are most comprehensively and ener
and accompany him to Worms." getically cursed in the bull In Coena Domini. More
The fiat has gone forth. It expresses the will especially are heretics of every name cursed. “ We
and purpose of a Higher than Charles. Luther is to curse," said the Pope, " all heretics Cathari, Pata
bear testimony to the Gospel, not at the stake, but rins, Poor Men of Lyons, Arnoldists, Speronists,
on the loftiest stage the world can furnish . The Wickliffites, Hussites, Fratricelli ;" _ “ because," said
master of so many kingdoms and the lords of so Luther, speaking aside, “ they desired to possess
many provinces must come to Worms, and there the Holy Scriptures, and required the Pope to be
patiently wait and obediently listen while the
miner 's son speaks to them . While the imperial " and even inconsistent with the laws of the Church, that
a cause of a religious nature should be examined and
i Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 26, p . 108 . decided in the public Diet. But it must be considered that
2 Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 38, p. 150. Varillas says that these Diets in which the archbishops, bishops, and even
Charles had a strong desire to see Luther. certain abbots had their places, as well as the princes of
3 Pallavicino, lib . i., cap . 26 , p. 109. the Empire, were not only political assemblies, but also
4 Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 38 , p. 151. provincial councils for Germany ,to whose jurisdiction, by
6 Pallavicino, lib . i., cap . 26, p . 109. the ancient canon law , such causes as that of Luther pro
G “ It may perhaps appear strange," says Mosheim , perly belonged .” (Eccl. Hist ., cent. 16 , bk. iv., sec. 1, ch.2.)
COMPLETE EMANCIPATION OF LUTHER . 329
sober and preach the Word of God.” “ This and end of Christ's obedience and death ; the office
formulary,” says Sleidan , “ of excommunication and work of the Holy Spirit ; the sanctification of
coming afterwards into Luther's hands, he rendered men by the instrumentality of the Word ; the
it into High Dutch , besprinkling it with some very relation of good works to faith ; the nature and
witty and satirical animadversions." uses of a Sacrament ; the constituent principle of
This year a new name had been inserted in this the Church, even belief in the truth and union to
curse, and a prominent place assigned it. It was Christ. This last,taken in connection with another
the name of Martin Luther. Thus did Rome join great principle to the knowledge of which he had
him to all those witnesses for the truth who, in previously attained , the sole infallible authority
former ages, had fallen under her ban , and many of Scripture, emancipated him completely from a
of whom had perished in her fires. Casting him thraldom which had weighed heavily upon him in
out of the Roman pale irrevocably , she united him the earlier stages of his career , the awe, even, in
with the Church spiritual and holy and catholic. which he stood of Rome as the Church of Christ,
At the samemoment that Rome fulfils and com . and the obedience which he believed he owed the
pletes her course , Luther fulfils and completes his. Pontiff as head of the Church . The last link of
He has now reached his furthest pointof theological this bondage was now gone. He stood erect in
and ecclesiastical advancement. Step by step he the presence of a power before which the whole of
has all these years been going forward, adding first Christendom wellnigh still bowed down. The study
one doctrine, then another, to his store of acquired of Paul's Epistles and of the Apocalypse, and the
knowledge ; and at the same time, and by an equal comparison of both with the history of the past,
process , has he been casting off, one after another, brought Luther about this time to the full and
the errors of Romanism . The light around him matured conviction that the Church of Rome as it
has been waxing clearer and ever clearer, and now now existed was the predicted “ Apostacy,” and
he has come to the meridian of his day. In his that the dominion of the Papacy was the reign of
cell he was made to feel that he was utterly fallen, Antichrist. It was this that broke the spell of
and wholly without power to save himself. This Rome, and took for him the sting out of her curse.
was his first lesson. The doctrine of a free justifi- This was a wonderful training, and not the least
cation - salvation by grace - -was next revealed to wonderful thing in it was the exact coincidence
him . As he stood encompassed by the darkness of in point of time between the maturing of Luther 's
despair, caused by the combined sense of his utter views and the great crisis in his career. The
ruin and his utter inability , this doctrine beamed summons to the Diet at Worms found him in the
out upon him from the page of Scripture. The very prime and fulness of his knowledge.
revelation of it was to him the very opening of the On the 24th of March the imperial herald ,
gates of Paradise. From these initial stages he Gaspard Sturm , arrived at Wittemberg, and put
soon came to a clear apprehension of the whole of into the hands of Luther the summons of the
what constituted the Reformed system — the nature emperor to appear before the Diet at Worms.
CHAPTER V .
LUTHER'S JOURNEY AND ARRIVAL AT WORMS.
Luther's Resolution - Alarm in Germany - The Reformer sets out- His Reception at Leipsic - Erfurt - Preaches
Eisnach - Sickness - Auguries of Evil - Luther's Courage - Will the Safe-conduct be respected ? - Fears of his
Friends - They advise him not to Come on - His Reply - Enters Worms- Crowd in the Street - An Ill-omened
Pageant - The Princes throng his Apartment Night and Sleep.
" Will he come?” asked the members of the Diet himself. In the citation now in his hand he beheld
of one another, when they had determined to sum - the summons of a Greater than the emperor, and
mon Luther before them . The only man who did straightway he made ready to obey it. He knew
not hesitate a moment on that point was Luther that in the assembly before which he was to appear
there was but one man on whom he could fully
1 Sleidan , bk. iii., p. 42. rely , the Elector Frederick . His safe-conduct
might be violated as that of John Huss had been in that city. I will neither recant nor flee. I will
In going to Worms he might be going to the stake. go to Worms in spite of all the gates of hell, and
His opponents, he knew , thirsted for his blood, the prince of the power of the air." ?
still not for a moment did he permit fear to make The news that Luther had been summoned to
him waver in his resolution to go to Worms. the Diet spread rapidly through Germany, and
There he should be able to bear testimony to the wherever they came they produced a mixed feeling
19
22
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itsell
THE PRINCES SUMMONED BEFORE THE EMPEROR.

truth, and as to all beyond, it gave him no concern. of thankfulness and alarm . The Germans were
“ Fear not,” he wrote to Spalatin, the elector's glad to see the cause of their country and their
secretary, " that I shall retract a single syllable. Church assuming such proportions, and challenging
With the help of Christ, I will never desert the examination and discussion before so august an
Word on the battle-field.” “ I am called,” said assembly. At the same time they trembled when
he to his friends, when they expressed their they thought what might be the fate of the man
fears ; “ it is ordered and decreed that I appear who was eminently their nation 's representative,
L. Epp.,i. 574. D'Aubigné,ii. 208. : Luth.Opp., i.987.
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ld If Luther should be that Luther would halt, processions, headed by the
sacrificed nothing could compensate promised toto bringhis them
for loss, magistrates, waited to bid him welcome. There
and the movement which promised were exceptions, however, to the general cordiality.
riddance of a foreign yoke, every year growing At Leipsic the Reformer was presented with simply
more intolerable , would be thrown back for an the customary cup of wine, asmuch as to say, “ Pass
indefinite period. Many eyes and hearts ,therefore, on.” ? But generally the population were touched
in all parts of Germany followed the monk as he with the heroism of the journey. In Luther they
went on his way to Worms. beheld a man who was offering himself on the altar
On the 2nd of April the arrangements for his of his country , and as they saw him pass they
departure were completed. He did not set out heaved a sigh as over one who should never return.
alone. Three of his more intimate friends, mem - His path was strewed with hints and warnings of
bers of the university, accompanied him . These coming fate , partly the fears of timid friends, and
were the courageous Amsdorff - Schurff, professor partly the menaces of enemies who strove by every
of jurisprudence, as timid as Amsdorff was bold , yet means in their power to stop his journey, and pre
who shrank not from the perils of this journey - vent his appearance at the Diet.
and Suaven , a young Danish nobleman, who claimed, His entrance into Erfurt, the city where he had
as the representative of the students, the honour of come to the knowledge of the truth , and on the
attending his master . streets of which he had begged as a monk, was
Most tender was the parting between Luther more like that of a warrior returning from a
and Melancthon. In Luther the young scholar victorious campaign , than a humble doctor going
had found again , his country, his friends, his all. to answer a charge of heresy. Hardly had be
Now he was about to lose him . Sad at heart, he come in sight of its steeples, when a numerous
yearned to go with him , even should he be going cavalcade, composed of the members of the senate,
to martyrdom . He implored , but in vain ; for if the university, and two thousand burghers, met
Luther should fall, who but Philip could fill his him and escorted him into the city. Through
place and carry on his work ? The citizens were streets thronged with spectators he was conducted
moved as well as the professors and youth of the to the old familiar building so imperishably associ
university . They thronged the street to witness ated with his history,the convent of the Augustines.
the departure of their great townsman, and it was On the Sunday after Easter he entered its great
amidst their tears that Luther passed out at the church , the door of which he had been wont,when
gate, and took his way over the great plains that a friar, to open , and the floor of which he had
are spread out around Wittemberg. been wont to sweep out ; and from its pulpit he
The imperial herald , wearing his insignia and preached to an overflowing crowd, from the words
displaying the imperial eagle , to show under what so suitable to the season, “ Peace be unto you."
guardianship the travellers journeyed, came first on (John xx. 19). Let us quote a passage of his
horseback ; after him rode his servant, and closing sermon. Of the Diet — of the emperor - of himself,
the little cavalcade was the humble wagon which not a word : from beginning to end it is Christ and
contained Luther and his friends. This convey - salvation that are held forth .
ance had been provided by the magistrates of Wit- “ Philosophers, doctors , and writers," said the
temberg at their own cost, and , provident of the preacher, “ have endeavoured to teach men the
traveller 's comfort, it was furnished with an awning way to obtain everlasting life, and they have not
to shade him from the sun or cover him from succeeded. I will now tell it to you.
the rain . “ There are two kinds of works — works not of
Everywhere, as they passed along, crowds awaited ourselves, and these are good : our own works,they
the arrival of the travellers. Villages poured out are of little worth . One man builds a church ;
their inhabitants to see and greet the bold monk. another goes on a pilgrimage to St. Iago of Compo
stella , or St. Peter's ; a third fasts, takes the cowl,
i Maimbourg has obligingly provided our traveller with ind, goes bare-foot; another does something else.
a magnificent chariot and a guard of a hundred horse. All these works are nothingness, and will come to
men . There is not a particle of proof to show that this naught, for our own works have no virtue in them .
imposing cavalcade ever existed save on the page of this
narrator. The Canon of Altenburg, writing from Worms
to John , brother of Frederick the Elector, April 16th , ? Letter of Canon of Altenburg to John of Saxony,
1521, says : “ To-day Dr.Martin arrived here in a common ? Letter of Warbeccius, Canon of Altenburg. (Secken
Saxon wagon .” (Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 39, p . 152.) dorf, lib. i., sec. 39, p . 152 - Additio.)
LUTHER ENTERS WORMS. 333
But I am now going to tell you what is the true served by his death or by his life, only he would
work. God has raised one Man from the dead, the rather that the young emperor should not begin
Lord Jesus Christ, that he might destroy death, his reign by shedding his blood ; if he must die, let
expiate sin , and shut the gates of hell. This is it be by the hands of the Romans.
thework of salvation . The Roman party had hoped that the monk
" Christ has vanquished ! This is the joyful news ! would not dare set foot within the gates of Worms.3
and we are saved by his work , and not by our They were told that he was on the road , but they
own. . . . Our Lord Jesus Christ said , ' Peace did not despair by intrigues and menaces to make
be unto you ! behold my hands'— that is to say, him turn back. They little knew the man they
Behold , O man ! it is I, I alone, who have taken were trying to affright. To their dismay Luther
away thy sins, and ransomed thee ; and now thou kept his face steadfastly toward Worms, and was
hast peace, saith the Lord.” 1 now almost under its walls. His approaching foot
Such was the Divine wisdom which Luther dis- steps, coming nearer every hour, as it were sounded
pensed to the men of Erfurt. It was in their city the knell of their power, and caused them greater
that he had learned it ; and well might he have terror than if a mighty army had been advancing
added what the centurion said of his liberty : “ With against them .
a great sum have I obtained this knowledge,” which Whispers began now to circulate in Worms that
now I freely give to you. the Diet was not bound to respect the safe -conduct
Traversing ground every foot-breadth of which of a heretic. This talk coming to the ears of
was familiar as forming the scene of his childhood, Luther's friends gave them great uneasiness. Was
he came soon after to Eisnach, the city of the the perfidy of Constance to be repeated ? Even
good “ Shunanite." It must have called up many the elector shared in the prevalent alarm ; for
memories . Over it towered the Wartburg, where Spalatin sent to Luther, who was now near the
the Reformer was to open the second stage of his city, to say to him not to enter. Fixing his eyes
career, although this was hidden as yet. At every on the messenger, Luther replied, “ Go and tell
step his courage was put to the test. The nearer your master that even should there be as many
he drew to Worms the louder grew the threats of devils in Worms as tiles on the house-tops, still I
his enemies, the greater the fears of his friends will enter it.” 4 This was the sorest assault of all,
" They will burn you and reduce your body to coming as it did from one of his most trusted
ashes, as they did that of John Huss,” said one to friends ; but he vanquished it as he had done all
him . His reply was that of a hero, but it was previous ones , and what remained of his journey
clothed in the grand imagery of the poet. “ Though was done in peace.
they should kindle a fire," said he, " all the way It was ten o'clock in themorning of the 16th of
from Worms to Wittemberg, the flames of which April, when the old towers of Worms rose between
reached to heaven, I would walk through it in the him and the horizon . Luther, says Audin , sitting
name of the Lord, I would appear before them , I up in his car, began to sing the hymn which he had
would enter the jaws of this Behemoth , and confess composed at Oppenheim two days before, “ A strong
the Lord Jesus Christ between his teeth.” Tower is our God.” 5 The sentinel on the look -out
All the way from Eisnach to Frankfort-on-the in the cathedral tower, descrying the approach of
Maine, Luther suffered from sickness. This how - the cavalcade, sounded his trumpet. The citizens
ever produced no faintness of spirit. If health were at dinner, for it was now mid -day, but when
should serve him , well ; but if not, still his journey they heard the signal they rushed into the street,
must be performed ; he should be carried to Worms and in a few minutes princes, nobles, citizens, and
in his bed. As to what might await him at the
end of his journey he bestowed not a thought. 3 Letter of Canon of Altenburg to John of Saxony.
He knew that He who preserved alive the three (Seekendorf.)
Hebrews in the fiery furnace still lived. If it 4 Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 39, p. 152. “ These words,"
was His pleasure he would , despite the rage of says Seckendorf , “ were remembered by many. They
were repeated by Luther himself, a little while before his
his foes, return safe from Worms; but if a stake death , at Eisleben .” He added , “ I know not whether I
awaited him there, he rejoiced to think that the would be as courageous now .”
truth would not perish with his ashes. With God 5 Audin , ii., p. 90. The common opinion is that this
hymn, “ Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott," was composed
he left it whether the Gospel would be better some years later. Audin 's supposition , however,has great
--- - - - -- - - - - -- - inherent probability, and there are some facts which
1 Luth . Opp . (L ) xii. 485. D 'Aubigné, ü . 224 - 226 . seem to support it. The combined rhythm and strength
Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 39, p . 152. of this hymn cannot be transferred to a translation .
men of all nations and conditions, mingling in one at every stage of his journey were renewed within
mighty throng, had assembled to see the monk the walls of Worms. Pressing through the crowd
enter. To the last neither friend nor foe had really came a person in grotesque costume, displaying a
believed that he would come. Now , however, great cross, such as is carried before the corpse
Luther is in Worms. when it is being borne to the grave, and chanting,
The order of the cavalcade was the same as that in the same melancholy cadence in which mass is
in which it had quitted Wittemberg. The herald wont to be sung for the dead , this doleful requiem
. “ Advenisti, O desiderabilis !
Quem expectabamus in tenebris ! " 3
Those who arranged this ill-omened pageant may
have meant it for a little grim pleasantry, or they
may have intended to throw ridicule upon the man
who was advancing single-handed to do battle with
both the temporal and spiritual powers ; or it may
have been a last attempt to quell a spirit which no
former device or threat had been able to affright.
But whatever the end in view , we recognise in this
strange affair a most fitting, though doubtless
a wholly undesigned , representation of the state
and expectancies of Christendom at that hour.
Had not the nations waited in darkness — darkness
deep as that of those who dwell among the dead
for the coming of a deliverer ? Had not such a
deliverer been foretold ? Had not Huss seen
Luther'sday a century off,and said to themourners
around his stake, as the patriarchs on their death
bed, “ I die, but God will surely visit you " ? The
“ hundred years ” had revolved , and now the de
liverer appears. He comes in humble guise — in
cowland frock of monk. He appears to many of
his own age as a Greater appeared to His , “ a root
out of a dry ground.” How can this poor despised
monk save us ! men asked. But he brought with
him that which far transcends the sword of con
queror— the Word, the Light ; and before that
Light fled the darkness. Men opened their eyes,
and saw that already their fetters, which were
ignorance and superstition, were rent. They were
free.
The surging crowd soon pushed aside the bearer
LUTHER'S HOUSE AT FRANKFORT.
of the black cross, and drowned his doleful strains
in the welcome which they accorded the man who,
contrary to the expectation of every one, had at
rode first, making way with some difficulty through last entered their gates. Luther's carriage could
the crowded street for the wagon in which, shaded advance at only a slow pace , for the concourse on
by the awning, sat Luther in his monk's gown,' his the streets was greater than when the emperor had
face bearing traces of his recent illness, but there entered a few days previously. The procession
was a deep calm in the eyes whose glance Cardinal halted at the hotel of the Knights of Rhodes,which
Cajetan liked so ill at Augsburg. conveniently adjoined the hall of the Diet. “ On
The evil auguries which had haunted the monk descending from his car," says Pallavicino , “ he
I " I entered Worms in a covered wagon and my 2.“ Lo, thou art come, O thou greatly desired one,whom
monk's gown,” said Luther afterwards. (Luth . Opp., xvii. we have waited for in the darkness of the grave.” (M .
587 .) Adam , Vita Lutheri, p. 118.)
LUTHER AMIDST ADMIRERS AND ENEMIES. 335
said bravely , “God will be for me.'" 1 This reveals vicino, as a prodigy of knowledge, others looked
to us the secret of Luther's courage. upon him as a monster of wickedness ; the one class
After his recent illness , and the fatigue of his held him to be almost divine, the other believed
journey, now continued for fourteen days, the him to be possessed by a demon.”
Reformer needed rest. The coming day, too, had This crowd of visitors, so varied in rank and so
to be thought of ; eventful as the day now closing different in sentiments, continued to press around
had been , the next would be more eventful still. Luther till far into the night. They were now
But the anxiety to see the monk was too great to gone, and the Reformer was left alone. He sought
permit him so much as an hour's repose. Scarcely his couch , but could not sleep. The events of the
had he taken possession of his lodgings when day had left him excited and restless. He touched
princes, dukes , counts, bishops, men of all ranks, his lute ; he sang a verse of a favourite hymn ; he
friends and foes, besieged his hotel and crowded approached the window and opened the casement.
into his apartments. When one relay of visitors Beneath him were the roofs of the now silent city ;
had been dismissed, another waited for admission . beyond its walls, dimly descried, was the outline
In the midst of that brilliant throng Luther stood of the great valley through which the Rhine pours
unmoved. He heard and replied to all their ques- its floods ; above him was the awful, fathomless ,
tions with calmness and wisdom . Even his enemies and silent vault. He lifted his eyes to it, as was
could not withhold their admiration at the dignity his wont when his thoughts troubled him . There
with which he bore himself. Where has the miner's were the stars fulfilling their courses far above the
son acquired those manners which princes might tumults of earth , yet far beneath that throne on
envy , that courage which heroes might strive in which sat a greater King than the monarch before
vain to emulate , and where has he learnt that whom he was to appear on the morrow . He felt,
wisdom which has seduced , say some— enlightened , as he gazed , a sense of sublimity filling his soul,
say others — so many thousands of his countrymen, and bringing with it a feeling of repose. Turning
and which none of the theologians of Rome have away from the casement, he said , “ I will lay me
been able to withstand ? To friend and foe alike down and take quiet rest, for thou makest mo
he was a mystery. Some revered him , says Palla - dwell in safety.”
CHAPTER VI.
LUTHER BEFORE THE DIET AT WORMS.
Luther's Supplications- Conducted to the Diet - The Crowd - Words of Encouragement - Splendour of the Dieta
Significance of Luther's Appearance before it - Chancellor Eccius - Luther asked touching his Books - Owns their
Authorship - Asked to Retract their Opinions - Craves Time to give an Answer - A Day's Delay granted
Charles's First Impressions of Luther — Morning of the 18th ofMay - Luther's Wrestlings- His Weakness - Strength
not his own --Second Appearance before the Diet - His Speech - Repeats it in Latin - No Retractation - Astonish .
ment of the Diet – The Two Great Powers.
Next morning- Wednesday, the 17th of April - all the earnestness that marked his deeply religious
at eight o'clock , the hereditary Marshal of the nature. He remained all forenoon within doors ,
Empire, Ulrich von Pappenheim , cited Luther to spending most of the time in prayer. His suppli
appear, at four of the afternoon, before his Imperial cations and the groans that accompanied them ,
Majesty and the States of the Empire. An im - were audible outside his chamber door. From
portant crisis, not only in the life of Luther, but kneeling before the throne of the Eternal God,
also in the history of that Reformation which he with whom lay the issues of the coming strife, he
had so recently inaugurated , was fast approaching, rose to stand before the throne of Charles.
and the Reformer prepared himself to meet it with At four the Marshal of the Empire,accompanied
1 “ E nello smontar di carozza disse forte : Iddio sard 2 Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 26, p. 109.
per me." (Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 26 , p . 109.) 3 Worsley, vol. i., p. 230.
by a herald , returned, and Luther set out with down alleys, or climbing to the roofs, to catch a
them to the Diet. But it was no easy matter to glimpse of the monk as he passed on to appear
find their way to the town-hall where the princes before Charles.
were assembled. The crowd in the streets was Arrived at the town hall they found its entrance
greater than on the previous day. Every window blocked up by a still denser crowd. The soldiers
had its group of faces ; every house-top had its had to clear a way by main force. In the vestibule
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LUTHER AT THE CASEMENT.
and ante-chambers of the hall every inch of space,

every recess and window-sill was occupied by cour
tiers and their friends, to the number of not less
than 5,000 — Germans, Italians, Spaniards, and other
nationalities.
As they were elbowing their way, and were now
near the door at which they were to be ushered
into the presence of the Diet, a hand was laid upon
Luther's shoulder. It was that of the veteran
cluster of spectators, many of whom manifested George Freundsberg, whose name was a synonym
considerable enthusiasm as they caught sight of the with his countrymen for gallantry. He had ere
Reformer. The marshal with his charge had pro- this been in many a hard fight, but never, he felt,
ceeded but a little way, when he found that he had he been in so hard a one as that to which the
would never be able to force a passage through so man on whose shoulder his hand now rested was
dense a multitude. He entered a privatedwelling, advancing. “ Mymonk, my good monk," said the
passed out at the back door,and conducting Luther soldier, “ you are now going to face greater peril
through the gardens of the Knights of Rhodes, than any of us have ever, encountered on the
brought him to the town-hall ; the people rushing bloodiest field ; but if you are right, and feel sure of
LUTHER ENCOURAGED. 337
it, go on, and God will fight for you.” Hardly more that they can do." Thus were the hopes
had these words been uttered, when the door which he expressed when he alighted at his hotel
opened , and Luther passed in and stood before the door fulfilled . God was with him , for this was
august assembly. His voice.
The first words which reached his ear after he The sudden transition from the uneasy crowd to
had entered the Diet, whispered to him by some the calm grandeur of the Diet had its effect upon
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one as he passed through the throng of princes to him . For a moment he seemed intimidated and
take his place before the throne of Charles, were bewildered. He felt all eyes suddenly turned upon
cheering : “ But when they deliver you up, take no him ; even the emperor scrutinised him keenly,
thought how or what you shall speak, for it shall But the agitation of the Reformer quickly passed,
be given you in that same hour what ye shall and his equanimity and composure returned,
speak ;” while other voices said, “ Fear not them Luther advanced till he stood in front of the throne
that can kill the body, and after that have no of Charles.
“ Never," says D 'Aubigné, " had man appeared
29
Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 42, p. 156. before so imposing an assembly. The Emperor
TISM
338 HISTORY OF PROTESTAN .
Charles V ., whose sovereignty extended over great the wall were rows of benches, which were occupied
part of the old and new worlds ; his brother the by themembers of the Diet, princes, counts, arch
Archduke Ferdinand ; six electors of the Empire, bishops, and bishops , the deputies of the towns and
most of whose descendants now wear the kingly the ambassadors of foreign States. Here and there
crown ; twenty-four dukes, the majority of whom at various points of the hall were stationed guards,
were independent sovereigns over countries more with polished armour and glittering halberds.
or less extensive, and among whom were some The sun was near his setting. His level rays,
whose names afterwards became formidable to the pouring in at the windows and falling in rich
Reformation ; the Duke of Alva and his two sons ; mellow light on all within , gave additional splendour
eight margraves ; thirty archbishops, bishops, and to the scene. It brought out in strong relief the
abbots ; seven ambassadors, including those from national costumes, and variously coloured dresses
the Kings of France and England ; the deputies of and equipments, of the members of the Diet. The
ten free cities ; a great number of princes, counts, yellow silken robes of the emperor, the velvet and
and sovereign barons ; the Papal nuncios— in allermine of the electors, the red hat and scarlet gown
two hundred and four persons : such was the of the cardinal, the violet robe of the bishop ,the
imposing court before which appeared Martin rich doublet of the knight, covered with the badges
Luther . of his rank or valour, the more sombre attire of the
“ This appearance was of itself a signal victory city deputy , the burnished steel of the warrior - all
over the Papacy. The Pope had condemned the showed to advantage in the chastened radiance
man, and he was now standing before a tribunal which was now streaming in from the descending
which , by this very act, set itself above the Pope. luminary. In the midst of that scene, which
The Pope had laid him under an interdict, and cut might have been termed gay but for its over
him off from all human society, and yet he was whelming solemnity , stood Luther in his monk 's
summoned in respectful language, and received frock .
before the most august assembly in the world . The John Eck or Eccius, Chancellor of the Arch
Pope had condemned him to perpetual silence, and bishop of Trèves, and spokesman of the Diet, rose
he was now about to speak before thousands of in deep silence, and in a sonorous voice repeated,
attentive hearers drawn together from the furthest first in Latin and then in German , the following
parts of Christendom . An immense revolution had words : “ Martin Luther, his sacred and invincible
thus been effected by Luther's instrumentality. Majesty has cited you before his throne,with advice
Rome was already descending from her throne, and counsel of the States of the Holy Roman
and it was the voice of a monk that caused this Empire , to answer two questions. First, do you
humiliation.” acknowledge these books,” pointing with his finger
Let us take a nearer view of the scene as it now to a pile of volumes on the table, " to have been
presented itself to the eyes of Luther. Chief in written by you ? Secondly, are you prepared to
this assemblage of the powers spiritual and temporal retract and disavow the opinions you have ad
of Christendom , sat the emperor. He wore the vanced in them ?" 3
Spanish dress, his only ornaments being the usual Luther was on the point of owning the author
ostrich -plume, and a string of pearls circling his ship of the books, when his friend Schurf, the
breast , from which depended the insignia of the iurist, hastily interposed. “ Let the titles of the
Golden Fleece . A step lower than the imperial books be read,” said he.
platform , on a chair of state, sat his brother, Arch - The Chancellor Eck advanced to the table, and
duke Ferdinand. On the right and left of the read, one after another, the titles of the volumes
throne were the six electors of the Empire — the about twenty in all."
three ecclesiastical electors on the emperor's right, This done, Luther now spoke. His bearing was
and the three secular electors on his left. At his respectful, and his voice low . Some members of
feet sat the two Papal nuncios — on this side Carac- the Diet thought that it trembled a little ; and
cioli, and on that Aleander. On the floor in front they fondly hoped that a retractation was about to
of the imperial seat was the table at which were follow ,
the clerks and Dr. Eccius, who interrogated Luther , The first charge he frankly acknowledged .
and who is not to be confounded with the Dr. Eck
with whom the Reformer held the disputation at ? “ A learned man,” says Pallavicino, " a Catholic, and
Leipsic . From the table extending backwards to an intimate friend of Aleander’ s.”
3 Luth. Opp. (L ) xvii. 588. D 'Aubigné, vol. ii., p. 28.
4 Pallavicino tells us that these had been collected by
i D 'Aubigné, vol. ii., p . 237. ' the industry of Aleander .
LUTHER BEFORE CHARLES. 339
" Most gracious Emperor, and most gracious Princes in the proceedings of a day destined to influence
and Lords," said he,“ the books that have just been so powerfully the condition of after-ages. The
named are mine. As to the second, seeing it is a Papal faction , with Aleander at its head, had met
Iquestion r in heconcerns
shoutewhich aven orthein salvation
earth_whoficsouls, ing waat santhearly
h nothand our toto concert
is wakbhour concert their
their measures. Nor
in which the Word of God — than which nothing was this wakeful activity on one side only. Luther,
is greater in heaven or in earth — is interested, too, " prevented the dawning, and cried.”
I should act imprudently were I to reply with. We shall greatly err if we suppose that it was
out reflection. I entreat your imperial Majesty, an iron firmness of physical nerve, or great in
with all humility , to allow me time, that I may trepidity of spirit, that bore Luther up and carried
repły without offending against the Word of him through these awful scenes ; and we shall not
God." 1
Nothing could have been more wise or more hlesset errhoutif ewendusuppose nted theo ppassed
ring certaithat
without enduring great suffering of soul. The
erfomothrough
tional,asthem
well
becoming in the circumstances. The request for services he was destined to perform demanded a
delay, mehowever, was differently interpreted by the nature exquisitely strung, highly emotional, as well
Papal mbers ofof the
Papal members the Diet. s played th
Distit. HeHeishabreaking hise as powerfully reflective, with a full complement of
fall, said they - he will retract. Hehas played the the
most truest constituti and
such aasympathies rendtenderest
er benesssensibilities.
of tormen
heretic at Wittemberg , he will act the part of the But such constitutionon renderss its possessor, to at
penitent at Worms. Had they seen deeper into proportional extent, liable to the access of torment
Luther 's character, they would have come to just ing anxieties and gloomy forecastings. There were
the opposite conclusion . This pause was the act of moments in which Luther gave way to these feel
a man whose mind was thoroughly made up, who ings. That they did not crush him , was owing to
felt how unalterable and indomitable was his an influence higher far than his natural powers,
resolve, and who therefore was in no haste to pro - which filled his soul and sustained him till the
claim it, but with admirable self-control could wait crisis had passed. The sweet, gracious, omnipo
for the time, the form , the circumstances in which tent Spirit of God descended upon him , and shed a
to make the avowal so that its full and concen - divine serenity and strength into his mind ; bụt so
trated strength might be felt, and it might appear sweetly and gently did it infuse itself into, and
to all to be irrevocable. work along with, his own natural faculties, that
The Diet deliberated. A day's delay was granted Luther was sensible of the indwelling influence
the monk . To-morrow at this time must he ap only by his feeling that to use Melancthon 's beau
pear again before the emperor and the assembled tiful words " he was more than himself." He
estates, and give his final answer. Luther bowed ; was also made sensible of this by the momentary
and instantly the herald was by his side to con - withdrawal at times of this upholding power.“
duct him to his hotel. Then he was again simply himself — weak as other
The emperor had not taken his eyes off Luther men ; and difficulties would of a sudden thicken
all the time he stood in his presence. His worn around him , and dangers would all at once rise
frame, his thin visage, which still bore traces of like so many giants in his path, and threateni him
recent illness, and , as Pallavicino has the candour with destruction . So did it befall him on the
to acknowledge, “ the majesty of his address, and morning of this eventful day. He felt as if he
the simplicity of his action and costume," which were forsaken . A horror of great darkness filled
contrasted strongly with the theatrical airs and the his soul ; he had come to Worms to perish ,
declamatory address of the Italians and Spaniards, It was not the thought that he would be con
produced on the young emperor an unfavourable demned and led to the stake that shook the Re
impression , and led to a depreciatory opinion of former on the morning of his second appearance
the Reformer. .“ Certainly,” said Charles, turning before the Imperial Diet. It was something more
to one of his courtiers as the Diet was breaking terrible than to die — than to die a hundred times.
up, “ certainly that monk will never make a The crisis had come, and he felt himself unable to
heretic of me." meet it. The upholding power which had sustained
Scarcely had the dawn of the 18th of April him in his journey thither , and which had made
(1521) broke, when the two parties were busy pre- the oft-repeated threat of foe, and the gloomy anti
paring for the parts they were respectively to act
3. Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 27, p . 110.
i Pallavicino, lib . i., cap. 26 , p . 110 . 4 Seckendorf (lib . i., p. 156) gives extracts from
? “ Costui certamente non mi farebbe mai diventar Luther's letters to Spalatin , descriptive of his feelings
Eretico." (Pallavicino, lib . i., p. 110.) at Worms, which prove this .
340 HISTORY. OF PROTESTANTISM .
cipation of friend, as ineffectual to move him as from it, and the reader of history at such moments
ocean 's spray is to overturn the rock , had been feels as if he were nearing the very precincts of
withdrawn. What will he do ? He sees a terrible the Eternal Throne, and walking on mysterious and
catastrophe approaching ; he will falter before the holy ground.
Diet ; he will wreck his cause ; he will blast the Luther now rises from his knees , and in the
hopes of future ages ; and the enemies of Christ calm reigning in his soul feels that already he has
and the Gospel will triumph. received an answer to his prayer. He sits down to
Let us draw near to his closet-door, and hear his arrange his thoughts, to draft, in outline, his de
groans and strong cryings ! They reveal to us the fence, and to search in Holy Scripture for passages
deep agony of his soul. wherewith to fortify it. This task finished , he laid
He has already been some considerable while en his left hand upon the sacred volume, which lay
gaged in prayer. His supplication is drawing to a open on the table before him , and raising his
close. “ O God ! myGod, hearest thou me not ? . . . right hand to heaven , he swore to remain ever
My God, art thou dead ? . ' . No ! thou faithful to the Gospel, and to confess it, even
canst not die. Thou hidest thyself only . Thou should he have to seal his confession with his
hast chosen me for this work ; I know it well ! blood. After this the Reformer experienced »
. . . Act then , O God ! . . . Stand at my still deeper peace.
side, for the sake of thy well-beloved Jesus Christ, At four of the clock, the grand marshal and the
who is my defence, my shield , and my strong herald presented themselves. Through crowded
tower.” streets, for the excitement grew greater with each
There comes an interval of silence. Again we passing hour, was the Reformer conducted to the
hear his voice. His wrestlings once more become town-hall. On arriving in the outer court they
audible . found the Diet in deep deliberation . When Luther
“ Lord , where stayest thou ? . O my should be admitted no one could say. One hour
God ! where art thou ? Come, come ! I am ready passed , then another ; ? the Reformer was still
. . . I am ready to lay down my life for thy standing amid the hum and clamour of the multi
truth . . . patient as a lamb. For it is the tude that filled the area . So long a delay, in such
cause of justice — it is thine. . . . I will never circumstances, was fitted to exhaust him physically,
separate myself from thee ; neither now , nor and to ruffle and distract him mentally . But his
through eternity. . . . And though the world tranquillity did not for a moment forsake him . He
should be filled with devils — though my body, was in a sanctuary apart, communing with One
which is still the work of thy hands, should be whom the thousands around him saw not. The
slain , should be racked on the wheel . . . cut night began to fall ; torches were kindled in the
in pieces . . . reduced to ashes . . . my hall of the assembly. Through the ancient windows
soul is thine. . . . Yes ! thy Word is my came their glimmering rays, which , mingling with
assurance of it. My soul belongs to thee ! It the lights of evening, curiously speckled the crowd
shall abide for ever with thee. . . . Amen ! that filled the court , and imparted an air of qnaint
. . . O God ! help me. . . . Amen !” 1 grandeur to the scene.
This is one of those solemn points in history At last the door opened , and Luther entered the
where the seen touches the unseen ; where earth hall. If this delay was arranged, as some have
and heaven meet ; where man the actor below , and conjectured , by Aleander, in the hope that when
the Great Actor above, come both together, side Luther presented himself to the Diet he would
by side upon the stage. Such points in the line of be in a state of agitation, he must have been
history are rare ; they occur only at long intervals, greatly disappointed . The Reformer entered in
but they do occur. The veil is rent ; a hand is perfect composure, and stood before the emperor
stretched out ; a light breaks in as from a world with an air of dignity . He looked around on
separated indeed from that on which the terrestrial that assembly of princes , and on the powerful
actors are placed , yet lying at no great distance monarch who presided over them , with a calm ,
steadfast eye.
1 “ This prayer,” says D' Aubigné,“ is to be found in a The chancellor of the Bishop of Trèves, Dr. Eck,
collection of documents relative to Luther's appearance rose and demanded his answer. What a moment ! 1
at Worms, under No. XVI., in the midst of safe- conductsThe fate of ages hangs upon it. The emperor leans
and other papers of a similar nature. One of his friends
had forward, the princes sit motionless, the very guards
posterity. In our opinion , it is one of the most precious
documents in all history.” (Hist. Reform ., vol. ii., p . 243.) 2 Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 41, p. 154 .
LUTHER 'S SPEECH BEFORE THE DIET. 341
are still : all eager to catch the first utterances of themselves forward as the defenders of the errors
the monk. which had corrupted the faith , the scandals which
He salutes the emperor,the princes, and the lords had disgraced the priesthood , and the exactions
graciously . He begins his reply in a full, firm , but which had robbed the people and ground them into
modest tone. Of the volumes on the table, the the dust. These individuals he may not have
authorship of which he had acknowledged the day treated with much ceremony ; it may be that he
ecclesiastthem there forunbecoming
oen faanulty,acrimony
ad assailed
before, there were , he said , three sorts. There was hhad ical Dwith
one class of his writings in which he had expounded , his ecclesiastical profession ; but although the
that
with all simplicity and plainness, the first principles manner may have been faulty, the thing itself was
of faith and morals. Even his enemies themselves right, and he could not retract it, for that would
allowed that he had done so in a manner conform - be to justify his adversaries in all the impieties
able to Scripture, and that these books were such they had uttered , and all the iniquities they had
as all might read with profit. To deny thesewould done.
be to deny truths which all admit - truths which But he was a man, he continued , and not God,
are essential to the order and welfare of Christian and he would defend himself not otherwise than
society . Christ had done. If he had spoken evil or written
In the second class of his productions he had evil, let them bear witness of that evil. He was
waged war against the Papacy. He had attacked but dust and ashes, liable every moment to err,
those errors in doctrine, those scandals in life, and and therefore it well became him to invite all men
those tyrannies in ecclesiastical administration and to examine what he had written, and to object if
government, by which the Papacy had entangled they had aught against it. Let him but be con
and fettered the conscience , had blinded the reason , vinced from the Word of God and right reason
and had depraved themorals of men , thus destroying that he was in error , and he should not need to be
body and soul. They themselves must acknowledge asked twice to retract, he would be the first to
that it was so. On every side they heard the cry throw his books into the flames.”
of oppression. Law and obedience had been In conclusion , he warned this assembly of
weakened, public morals polluted, and Christendom monarchs of a judgment to come: a judgment not
desolated by a host of evils temporal and spiritual. beyond the grave only, but on this side of it : a.
Should he retract this class of his writings,what judgment in time. They were on their trial. They,
would happen ? Why, that the oppressor would their kingdoms, their crowns, their dynasties, stood
grow more insolent, that he would propagate with at a great Bar. It was to them the day of visi
greater licence than ever those pernicious doctrines tation ; it was now to be determined whether they
which had already destroyed so many souls, and were to be planted in the earth , whether their
multiply those grievous exactions, those most thrones should be stable, and their power should
iniquitous extortions which were impoverishing continue to flourish , or whether their houses should
the substance of Germany and transferring its be razed , and their thrones swept away in a deluge
wealth to other countries. Nay, not only would of wrath , in a flood of present evils, and of eternal
the yoke that now weighs upon the Christian desolation.
people be rendered heavier by his retractation , it He pointed to the great monarchies of former
would become in a sense legitimate , for his re - ages to Egypt, to Babylon, to Nineveh , so mighty
tractation would , in the circumstances,be tantamount in their day, but which, by fighting against God,
to giving this yoke the sanction of his Serene had brought upon themselves utter ruin ; and he
Majesty , and of all the States of the Empire. He counselled them to take warning by these examples
should be the most unhappy of men . He should if they would escape the destruction that overtook
thus have sanctioned the very iniquities which he them . “ You should fear,” said he, “ lest the reign
had denounced , and reared a bulwark around those of this young and noble prince, on whom (under
very oppressions which he had sought to overthrow . God ) we build such lofty expectations, not only
Instead of lightening the burden of his countrymen should begin , but should continue and close, under
he should have made it tenfold heavier, and him the most gloomy auspices. I might speak of the
self would have become a cloak to cover every kind Pharaohs, of the Kings of Babylon , and those of
of tyranny. Israel, whose labours never more effectually con
There was a third class of his writings in which tributed to their own destruction, than when they
he said he had attacked those persons who put sought by counsels, to all appearance most wise,
Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 41, p. 154 . • Sarpi, Hist. Conc. Trent.,tom .i., pp. 32, 33 ; Basle,1738 .
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judge — who, unawed by the crowns they wore and battle. After this it mattered absolutely nothing
the armies they commanded , was entreating, ad - what her champions in the Diet might do with
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doom , should they prove disobedient, with a so - cisive blow had been struck. A stake could neither
lemnity and authority before which they trembled. reverse the defeat they had sustained , nor conceal,
“ Be wise, ye kings." What a light has the sub- although it might enhance, the glory of the victory
sequent history of Europe shed upon the words of that Luther had won. Grievous, inexpressibly
Luther ! and what a monument are the Popish grievous, was their mortification. Could nothing
kingdoms at this day of the truth of his admo- be done ?
nition ! Luther was bidden withdraw for a little ; and
At the conclusion of Luther's address Dr. Eck during his absence the Diet deliberated . It was
again rose, and with a fretted air and in peevish easy to see that a crisis had arisen, but not so easy
tones ? said , addressing Luther : “ You have not to counsel the steps by which it was to be met.
answered the question put to you . We did not They resolved to give him another opportunity of
call you here to bring into question the authority retracting. Accordingly he was called in, led
of Councils ; there can be no dispute on that point again in front of the emperor's throne, and asked
here. We demand a direct and precise answer : to pronounce over again — now the third time- his
will you, or will you not, retract ?" Yes or No. With equal simplicity and dignity
Unmoved, Luther replied : “ Since your most he replied that “ he had no other answer to give
Serene Majesty, and your High Mightiness , require than that which he had already given." In the
from me a direct and precise answer, I will give calmness of his voice, in the steadfastness of his
you one, and it is this. I cannot submit my faith eye, and in the leonine lines of his rugged German
either to the Pope or to the Councils, because it is face, the assembly read the stern , indomitable
clear as day they have frequently erred and contra resolve of his soul. Alas ! for the partisans of the
dicted each other. Unless, therefore , I am convinced Papacy. The No could not be recalled. The die
by the testimony of Scripture, or on plain and clear had been cast irrevocably.
grounds of reason , so that conscience shall bind me There are two Powers in the world , and there
to make acknowledgment of error, I can and will are none other greater than they. The first is the
not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do Word of God without man , and the second is con
anything contrary to conscience.” And then , look- science within him . These two Powers, at Worms,
ing round on the assembly, he said — and the words came into conflict with the combined forces of the
are among the sublimest in history — “ HERE I world . We have seen the issue. A solitary and
STAND . I CAN DO NO OTHER. MAY GOD HELP ME. undefended monk stood up as the representative
AMEN ." of conscience enlightened and upheld by the Word
These words still thrill us after three centuries. of God. Opposed to him was a power which,
The impression which they made on the princes wielding the armies of emperors, and the anathe
was overpowering, and a murmur of applause , as mas of Popes, yet met utter discomfiture. And so
emphatic as the respect due to the imperial pre has it been all along in this great war. Victory
sence permitted, burst out in the Diet. Not from has been the constant attendant of the one power,
all, however ; its Papal partisans were dismayed, defeat the as' constant attendant of the other .
The monk 's No had fallen upon them like a Triumph may not always have come in the guise
thunderbolt. From that hall that No would go of victory ; it may have come by the cord , or by
forth, and travel throughout Christendom , and the axe, or by the fiery stake; it may have worn
it would awaken as it rolled onward the aspira - the semblance of defeat ; but in every case it has
tions of liberty, and summon the nations to rise been real triumph to the cause, while the worldly
and break the yoke of Rome. Rome had lost the powers which have set themselves in opposition
have been slowly consumed by their own efforts,
1 Sleidan , bk. iii., p. 44. and have been undermining their dominion by the
" Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nichtanders. Gott helfe very successes which they thought. were ruining
mir, Amen .” their rival.
AFTER THE DIET. 345
CHAPTER VIL.
LUTHER PUT UNDER THE BAN OF THE EMPIRE.
The Movement Widening - Rising of the Diet - The Draught of Beer Frederick's Joy - Resolves to Protect Luther
Mortification of Papal Party - Charles's Proposal to Violate Safe-Conduct - Rejected with Indignation - Nego .
tiations opened with Luther - He Quits Worms — The Emperor fulminates against him his Ban - The Reformer
Seized by Masked Horsemen - Carried to the Wartburg.
OUR line of narration has, hitherto, been in the entered , bearing a silver jug filled with Eimbeck
main continuous. We have followed the current beer. Presenting it to the doctor, the bearer said ,
of Protestant development, which has flowed so “ My master invites you to refresh yourself with
far within well-defined channels. But now we this draught.” “ Who is the prince," asked Luther,
have reached the point where the movement “ who so graciously remembers me ?" It was the
notably widens. We see it branching out into aged Duke Eric of Brunswick , one of the Papal
other countries, and laying hold on the political members of the Diet. Luther raised the vessel to
combinations and movements of the age. We his lips, took a long draught, and then putting it
must therefore ascend, and take a more extensive down, said , “ As this day Duke Eric has remem
survey of the stage of Christendom than we have bered me, so may the Lord Jesus Christ remember
as yet had occasion to do, noting the marvellously him in the hour of his last struggle.” Not long
varied forms, and the infinitely diversified results, after this, Duke Eric of Brunswick lay dying.
in which Protestantism displays itself. It is ne- Seeing a young page standing by his bedside, he
cessary to mark not only the new religious centres said to him , " Take the Bible, and read in it to
it is planting, but the currents of thought which it me.” The page, opening the Bible, read out these
is creating ; the new social life to which it is giving words : “ Whosoever shall give you a cup of water
birth ; the letters and arts of which it is becoming to drink in my name, because ye belong to me,
the nurse ; the new communities and States with verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his re
which it is covering Christendom , and the career ward." ? Duke Eric was refreshed in his turn .
of prosperity it is opening to the nations,making When his heart and strength were failing him a
the aspect of Europe so unlike what it has been golden cup was put to his lips, and he drank there
these thousand years past. from a draught of the Water of Life.
But first let us succinctly relate the events im - The Elector Frederick was overjoyed at the ap
mediately following the Diet of Worms, and try pearance Luther had made before the Diet. The
to estimate the advance the Protestant movement force and pertinency of his matter, the eloquence
had made, and the position in which we leave of his words, his intrepid yet respectful bearing,
it at the moment when Luther entered into his had not only delighted the sovereign of Saxony,
“ Patmos.” but had made a deep impression on the princes of
“ The Diet will meet again to-morrow to hear the Diet. From that hour many of them became
the emperor's decision,” said Chancellor Eck , dis- attached friends of Luther and the Reformation.
missing the members for the night. The streets Some of them openly avowed their change of senti
through which the princes sought their homes were ment at the time; in others the words of Luther
darkened but not deserted. Late as the hour was, bore fruit in after-years. Frederick was hence
crowds still lingered in the precincts of the Diet, forward more resolved than ever to protect the
eager to know what the end would be. At last Reformer ; but knowing that the less his hand was
Luther was led out between two imperial officers. seen in the matter, the more effectually would he
" See, see," said the bystanders, “ there he is, in further the cause and shield its champion , he
charge of the guard !” “ Are they taking you to avoided personal intercourse with the Reformer.
the prison ?” they shouted out. “ No," replied On one occasion only did the two men meet.
ol.
Luther, “ they are conducting me to my hotel.” The mortification of the Papal party was ex
The crowd instantly dispersed , and the city was left treme. They redoubled their activity ; they laid
to the quiet of the night. Spalatin and many friends
followed the Reformer to his lodgings. They were i Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 44, Additio i., p. 160.
exchanging mutual congratulations, when a servant 2 Ibid ., lib . i., sec . 42, Additio i., p . 157.
snares to entrap the Reformer. They invited him though mosely Papal, also protested against the
to private conferences with the Archbishop of violation of the public faith . The proposition met
Trèves ; they submitted one insidious proposal with the fate it deserved ; it was expelled the Diet
after another, but the constancy of the Reformer with scorn and indignation.
was not to be overcome. Meanwhile Aleander The extreme men of the Papal party would,
and his conclave had been closeted with the em - without hesitation, have planted the Reformer's
peror, concocting measures of another kind. Ac- stake, but what would have been the result ? A
cordingly, at the meeting of the Diet next day, the civil war in Germany the very next day. The
decision of Charles , written in his own hand, was enthusiasm of all classes was immense. Even
delivered and read. It set forth that after the Dean Cochlæus and Cardinal Pallavicino assure us
example of his Catholic ancestors, the Kings of that there were hundreds of armed men in Worms
Spain and Austria , & c., he would defend, to the itself, ready to unsheathe the sword and demand
utmost of his ability, the Catholic faith and the blood for blood. Only a dozen miles away, in his
Papal chair. “ A single monk,” said he, “ misled strong castle of Ebernburg, “ the refuge of the
by his own folly , has risen against the faith of Righteous," was the valorous Sickingen , and the
Christendom . To stay such impiety, I will sacri- fiery knight Hutten, at the head of a corps ofmen
fice my kingdom , my treasures, my friends, my at-arms amounting to many thousands, ready to
body, my blood , my life, and my soul. I am descend on Worms, should Luther be sacrificed , to
about to dismiss the Augustine Luther. I shall demand a reckoning with all who had been con
then proceed against him and his adherents as cerned in his death . From themost distant cities
contumacious heretics , by excommunication, by of Germany men watched, their hands on their
interdict, and by every means calculated to destroy sword -hilts, to see what would happen at Worms.
them .” The moderate men among the Papal members of
But the zeal of Charles had outrun his powers. the Diet were well aware that to violate the safe
This proscription could not be carried out without conduct, would simply be to give the signal for
the consent of the States. The announcement of outbreak and convulsion from one end of Germany
the emperor's decision raised a storm in the Diet. to the other.
Two parties instantly declared themselves. Some Nor could Charles be blind to so great a danger.
of the Papal party, especially the Elector of Had he violated the safe -conduct, his first would
Brandenburg, demanded that Luther's safe -conduct probably have been his last Diet; for the Empire
should be disregarded , and that the Rhine should itself would have been imperilled . But if we may
receive his ashes, as it had done those of John trust historians of name, his conduct in this matter
Huss a century before. But, to his credit, Louis, was inspired by nobler sentiments than those of
Elector Palatine, expressed instant and utter self-interest. In opposing the violation of the
abhorrence of the atrocious proposal. True, he plighted faith of the Empire, he is reported to have
said , Huss was burned at the stake, but ever since said that “ though faith should be banished from
calamity has never ceased to pursue Germany. all the earth, it ought to find refuge with princes.”
We dare not, said he, erect a second such scaffold . Certainly a kingly sentiment, well becoming so
He was joined by DukeGeorge, whose repudiation powerful a potentate, but there was not wanting a
of the proposed infamy was the more emphatic little alloy in its gold. War was then on the
that he was Luther's avowed enemy. That the point of breaking out between him and the King
princes of Germany should for a moment entertain of France. Charles only half trusted the Pope,
the purpose of violating a safe-conduct, was a thing and even that was trusting him a little too much.
he held impossible. They never would bring such The Pope had just concluded a secret treaty with
a stain upon the honour of the Fatherland ; nor both kings, Charles and Francis, pledging his aid
would they open the reign of the young emperor to both, with , of course, the wise reservation of
with such an evil augury. The Bavarian nobles, --
5 Seckendorf (quoting from Altingius), lib . i., sec. 44,
i Cochlæus, p . 32. Pallavicino, lib. i., cap. 27 , p. 111. Additio i. Pallavicino denies that it was proposed to
? “ Perd aver egli statuito d ' impiegar i regni, i tesori, violate the safe-conduct . He founds his denial upon the
gli amici, il corpo, il sangue la vita, e lo spirito." (Palla- silence of Aleander. But the Papal nuncio's silence,
vicino, lib . i., p. 112.) How affecting these words when which is exceedingly natural, can weigh but littleagainst
one thinks of what now is the condition of the kingdom , the testimony of so many historians.
the treasures, and the royal house of Spain ! 6 The imperial proscription of Luther is said to have
3 Sleidan , bk . iii., p. 44. Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 44, been dated on the same day on which the treaty with the
p . 160. Polano, Hist. Counc. Trent,bk . i., p . 14 ; Lond ., 1629. Pope was concluded . (Ranke, Hist. of the Popes, vol. i.,
4 Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 44, Additio i., p. 160 . p . 65 ; Bohn's edit., Lond ., 1847.)
LUTHER SEIZED BY MASKED HORSEMEN. 347
giving it only to the one by aiding whom heshould checked. The edictlf reached its climax in the
as future events might show , most effectually aidite. In the astartling Satan himse that
nd debut affirmation "und“e this an wwas
this mman ot hae
as nnot
himself. This double-handed policy on the part of man , but Satan himself under the form of a man,
Leo , Charles met by tactics equally astute . In the and dressed in a monk 's frock .” 4 So spake “ Charles
game of checking the Pope, which he found he the Fifth " to the electors, princes, prelates, and
must needs play, he judged that a living Luther people of his Empire. Luther had entered Worms
would be a more valuable counter than a dead one with one sword hanging over his head — the ana
“ Since the Pope greatly feared Luther's doctrine," thema of the Pope ; he quits it with two unsheathed
says Vettori, “ he designed to hold him in check against him , for now to the Pope's excommunica
with that rein ." 1 tion is added the emperor's ban.
The result of so many conflicting yet conspiring Meanwhile the Reformer was going on his way.
circumstances was that Luther departed in peace It was now the ninth day (May 4th ) since he set
from those gates out of which no man had expected out from Worms. Hehad traversed the mountains
ever to see him come alive. On the morning of of the Black Forest. How grateful, after the stirs
the 26th April, surrounded by twenty gentlemen and grandeurs of Worms, their silent glades, their
on horseback , and a crowd of people who accom - fir-embowered hamlets, their herds quietly pas
panied him beyond the walls, Luther left Worms. turing, the morning shooting its silvery shafts
His journey back was accomplished amid demon through the tall trees, and the evening descending
strations of popular interest more enthusiastic even from the west with its shadows !
than those which had signalised his progress thither. The pines were getting fewer, the hills were
A few days after he was gone, the emperor fulmi- sinking into the plain ; our traveller was nearing
nated his “ edict ” against him , placing him beyond Eisnach ; he was now on ground familiar to
the pale of law , and commanding all men, when him from boyhood. At this point of the journey ,
ever the term of Luther's safe conduct expired, Schurf, Jonas, and Sauven left him and went
to withhold from him food and drink, succour and on to Wittemberg, taking the high road that
shelter , to apprehend him and send him bound to leads eastward over the plain by Erfurt. Ams
the emperor. This edict was drafted by Aleander , dorff alone remained with him . The doctor and
and ratified at a meeting of the Diet which was his companion struck northward to the town
held , not in the hall of assembly , but in the of Mora to visit his grandmother , who still sur
emperor's own chamber. The Elector Frederick, the, vived . He passed the next day in the refreshing
Elector Palatine, and many others, had ere this left quiet of this little place. The following morning
Worms. The edict was dated the 8th of May, but he resumed his journey, and had reached a lonely
in point of fact the imperial signature was ap- spot near the Castle of Altenstein, when a troop of
pended to it on the 26th of May, as Pallavicino horsemen, wearing masks and completely armed ,
tells us, in the cathedral church of Worms, after rushed suddenly upon him . The wagon in which
the celebration of high mass ; the design of the he sat was stopped , the wagoner thrown to the
ante-dating being, the same writer says, to give to ground, and while one of the masks laid firm hold
nother pupulling
lling LLuther
car, raisianother
theAmsdorff,
the edict the appearance of carrying with it the of uth hastily out of
authority of a full Diet.” This
ats usedict
ually was
are more
more the car, raised him to the saddle, and grasping his
discursive than such documents usually are. Its horse's bridle-rein , plunged quickly with him into
style, instead of being formal and stately, was the forest of Thuringia. All day long the troop of
figurative and rhetorical. It opened with a pro- horsemen wandered hither and thither in the wood,
fusion of epithets meant to be descriptive of the their purpose being to defy pursuit. When night
great heretic of Wittemberg ; it ran on, in equally fell they began to ascend a mountain , and a little
fertile vein , in an enumeration of the heresies , blas- before midnight they came under the walls of a
phemies, and vices into which he had fallen, and castle that crowned its summit. The drawbridge
the crimes to which he was inciting the people was. let down, the portcullis raised, and the caval
“ schism , war, murder, robbery, incendiarism ” - cade passing in , the troopers dismounted in the
and it foretold in alarming terms the perdition into rocky court of the castle. The captive was led up a
which he was dragging society, and the ruin that single flight of steps,and ushered into an apartment,
impended unless his “ furious rage " should be where he was told he must make a sojourn of
1 Sommario della Storia d' Italia . (Ranke, vol. i., p. 66 .) 4 “ Nicht ein Mensch , sondern als der böse Fiend in
º Pallavicino, lib . i., cap . 28 , p. 114 . Gestalt eines Menschen mit angenommener Mönsch
3. Pallavicino, lib . i., cap . 28, p. 117. Seckendorf, lib . i., ski.tten .” -- Luth . Opp. ( L ) xvii. 598.
sec. 42, p . 158 . 5 Seckendorf, lib i., sec. 44, p . 159. L. Epp., ii. 3.
unknown length , and during it must lay aside his could not but know that he was in the Castle ofthe
ecclesiastical dress, attire himself in the costume of Wartburg, and in friendly keeping.
a knight, which lay ready to his hand , and be Thus suddenly the man on whom all eyes were
known only by the name of Knight George. fixed was carried off, as if by a whirlwind, no one
When morning broke, and Luther looked from knew whither ; nor could any one in all Germany ,
GEORGE SPALATIN , OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL COUNCIL OF SAXONY.

(From the Portrait by Lucas Cranach, painted in 1543.)
the casement of his apartment, he saw at a glance save his captors, tell whether he was now dead
where he was. Beneath him were the forest glades, or alive. The Pope had launched his bolt, the
the hamlets, and all the well-known scenes that emperor had raised his mailed hand to strike, on
adjoin Eisnach ; although the town itself was not
in view . Farther away were the plains around window , and he describes it as he saw it , and as it must
Mora , and bounding these was the vast circle of have been daily seen by Luther. The hill of the Wart
burg is a steep and wooded slope on all sides, save that
the hills that sweep along on the horizon." He on which the window of Luther' s chamber is placed. On
this side a bare steep runs sheer down to almost the foot
1 The author has surveyed the scene from the same of the mountain .
BEBEDELLILLLOTELLILULARELHEDELLEEN
A CRISIS IN THE REFORMATION PASSED. 349
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DR. JUSTUS JONAS, PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AT WITTEMBERG.

stagethehastheatre
agoemperors, becomewassuddenly dark.withButgreata moment
crowded actors, vanishes,and a wedeephavesilencetime succeeds
noise, to the ontumult
meditate what andwe
ambassadors. princes, ecclesiastical
Powerful interests dignitaries,
were i n and
conflict have
hearts seen,the topresence
revolveandits lessons,
the andofto thatfeel Great
hand in our
and mighty issues were about to be decided. The Ruler who “ sits King upon the floods.”
Book Seventh .
PROTESTANTISM IN ENGLAND , FROM THE TIMES OF WICLIFFE TO THOSE OF HENRY VIII.
CHAPTER 1.
THE FIRST PROTESTANT MARTYRS IN ENGLAND.
Two Sources of Protestantism - The Bible and the Holy Spirit - Wicliffe 's Missionaries - Hopes of the Protestants
Petition Parliament for a Reformation - England not yet ripe-- The Movement Thrown Back - Richard II.
Persecutes the Lollards- Richard Loses his Throne - Henry IV . Succeeds-- Statute De Heretico Comburendo
- William Sawtre - the First Martyr for Protestantism in England - Trial and Execution of John Badby
Conversation between the Prince of Wales and the Martyr at the Stake - Offered his Life- Refuses and Dies.
THE Protestant, movement, which , after flowing the future progress of Protestantism . While
during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries within Luther is toiling out of sight, let us look around
narrow channels, began in the sixteenth to de- and note the progress of Protestantism in the other
humble. For agored,which was open, was thesources
velop itself over a wide area, had two sources. countries of Christendom . We return to England,
The first, which was in heaven , was the Holy the parent land of the movement, briefly to
Spirit ; the second,which was on the earth , was the chronicle events during the century and a half
Bible. For ages the action of both agencies on which divides the era of Wicliffe from that of
human society had been suspended . The Holy Luther.
Spirit was withheld and the Bible was hidden. Wicliffe was dead (1384), and now it was seen
Hence the monstrous errors that deformed the what a hold he had taken of England , and how and now itwas seen
Church, and hence all the frightful evils that af- widely his doctrine had spread. His disciples,
Alicted the world . styled sometimes Wicliffites, sometimes Lollards,
At length a new era had opened . That sove traversed the kingdom preaching the Gospel. In
reign, beneficent, and eternal Spirit, who acts when the Act of Richard II. (1382), which the clergy,
and where and how he will, began again to make practising upon the youth of the king, got passed
his presence felt in the world which he had made ; without the knowledge of the Commons, mention
he descended to erect a Temple in which he might is made of a great number of persons going about
dwell with men upon the earth . The Omnipotent from country to country, and from town to town,
and Blessed One put forth his creative power in frieze gowns, without the licence of the ordi
through the instrumentality which he himself had naries, and preaching, not only in churches and
prepared, even the Scriptures of Truth, which he churchyards, but in market-places and at fairs,
inspired holy men to write. The recovery of the divers sermons containing heresies and notorious
Holy Scriptures and their diffusion over Chris - errors, to the blemishing of the Christian faith, the
tendom was the one instrumentality, as the Spirit estate of holy Church, and the great peril of souls."
who dwells in and operates through the Scriptures Wicliffe was yet alive, and these men “ in frieze
was the one Author, of that great movement which gowns,” which the Act empowered the bishops to
was now renewing the world . On this supposition seize and confine in their houses and prisons, were
only — that this great movement was not originated the missionaries of the great Reformer. These
by human forces, but created by a Divine agent preachers were not troubled with doubts touching
— can we account for the fact that in all the their right to assume the sacred office. They
countries of Christendom it appeared at the same reasoned that the same charter which gave to the
moment, took the same form , and was followed by Church her right to exist, gave to her members the
the same blessed fruits — virtue in private life and right to discharge those functions that are needful
order in public. to her welfare. They went not to Rome, there
We left Luther in the Wartburg. At a moment fore, but to the Bible for their warrant to minister.
of great peril, Providence opened for him an asylum ;
not there to live idly, but to do a work essential to 1 Fox, pp. 229, 230 ; Lond., 1838.
THE LOLLARD PETITION . 351
Their countrymen flocked to their sermons. The without instruction, awed by tradition, and ruled
soldiers mingled with the civilians, sword in hand,icliffites forgot, over
for rmtoo
ati,onwhen geo was inert and hostile. The
N by the hierarchy,
s are they y roytoal Parlia
born bwent prot be
ready to defend the preacher should violence be Wicliffites
offered to him . Several of the nobility joined their ment, that Reformations are not made, they must
party , and were not ashamed to confess themselves grow . They cannot be evoked by royal procla
the disciples of the Gospel. There followed , wher - mations, or by Parliamentary edicts ; they must be
ever their doctrine was received, a reformation of planted by the patient labour of evangelists, and
manners, and in some places a purging of the public watered not unfrequently by the blood of martyrs.
worship by the removal of idolatrous symbols.
WW1 . Of all harvests that of truth is the slowest to ripen ,
These signs promised much ; in the eyes of the although the most plentiful and precious when it
Wicliffites they promised everything. They believed has come to full maturity . These were lessons
that England was ready to throw off the yoke of which these early disciples had yet to learn .
Rome, and in this belief they resolved on striking The bold step of the Wicliffites threw back the
? vigorous blow at the reigning superstition. movement, or we ought rather to say, made it
Within ten years of the death of Wicliffe (1395) strike its roots downward in the nation's heart.
they petitioned Parliament for a reformation in The priests took the alarm . Arundel, Archbishop
religion , accompanying their petition with twelve of York , posted with all speed to Ireland, where
“ conclusions," or grounds, for such a reformation ; Richard II. then was, and implored him to return
of which the second, that we give as a sample of and arrest the movement, which was growing to a
the style and spirit of the whole, was as follows : head . His pious wife, Anne of Luxemburg, a
" That our usual priesthood ,which took its original disciple of Wicliffe , was dead (1394), and the king
at Rome, and is feigned to be a power higher than readily complied with Arundel's request. He for
angels, is not that priesthood which Christ ordained bade the Parliament to proceed in the matterof the
unto his disciples . This conclusion is thus proved : Lollard petition, and summoning the chief authors
forasmuch as this priesthood is done with signs, of the conclusions " before him , he threatened
and Pontifical rites , and ceremonies, and benedic- them with death should they continue to defend
tions of no force and effect, neither having any their opinions. But Richard II. did not long
ground in Scripture, forasmuch as the bishops retain a sceptre which he had begun to wield
ordinal and the New Testament do nothing at all against the Lollards. Insurrection broke out in his .
agree : neither do we see that the Holy Ghost doth kingdom ; he was deposed , and thrown into the
give any good gift through any such signs or cere- Castle of Pontefract. There are but few steps.
monies, because that he, together with noble and between the prisons and the graves of princes.
good gifts , cannot consist and be in any person Richard perished miserably by starvation , and was
with deadly sin . The corollary or effect of this succeeded by Henry IV ., son of that Duke of
conclusion is that it is a lamentable and dolorous Lancaster who had been the friend of Wicliffe.
mockery unto wise men to see the bishops mock The cause which the father had defended in the
and play with the Holy Ghost in the giving or person of its great apostle , found no favour in the
their orders, because they give (shaven ) crowns for eyes of the son. Henry had mounted the throne
their characters, and marks instead of white hearts , by Arundel's help , and he must needs repay
and this character is the mark of Antichrist, the service by devotion to the Church of which
brought into the holy Church, to cloke and cover Arundel was one of the main pillars. To consoli
their idleness." These conclusions they also posted date his power, the son of John of Gaunt sacrificed
up on the walls of Westminster, and suspended on the Wicliffites. In his reign was passed a law
the gates of St. Paul's. adjudging men to death for religion — the first that
England was not yet prepared for such " plain - stained the English Statute-book . It enacted that
ness of speech." The great mass of the nation , all incorrigible heretics should be burned alive.
The preamble of the Act sets forth that “ divers
1 These included the condemnation of transubstan - false and perverse people of a certain new sect of
tiation ; exorcisms; the blessing of bread , Od wax, water, the
oil, was,water; of thes
faith of
the faith m on
the Sacraments, damnably thinking,
& c. ; the;union
celibacy of for
prayers spiritual and temporal offices
the dead ; clerical
; the worship of saints and and against the law ofGod and the Church , usurp
images; pilgrimages; auricular confession ; indulgences ; ing the office of preaching," were going from diocese
conventual vows, & c. & c. (Collier, Eccles. Hist., vol.i., to diocese , holding conventicles, opening schools ,
pp.597,
? Walsi598ngham
; Lond Anglice, p . 328 ; Camdeni Anglica ,
., 1708.)
, Hist. writing books, and wickedly teaching the people .
Frankfort, 1603. Lewis , Wiclif, p . 337 Fox, Acts and
Mon ., bk. i., p . 662 ; Lond ., 1641. 3 Fox, bk. i., p . 664.
To remedy this, the diocesan was empowered to The law was not permitted to remain a dead
arrest all persons suspected of heresy, confine them letter. William Sawtre , formerly Rector of St.
in his strong prison , bring them to trial, and if on Margaret's in Lynn , and now of St. Osyth in
conviction they refused to abjure , they were to be London — " a good man and faithful priest," says
delivered to the sheriff of the county or the mayor Fox — was apprehended ,and an indictmentpreferred
of the town , who were “ before the people, in a against him . Among the charges contained in it
high place , them to do to be burnt.” Such was we find the following :- “ That he will not worship
the cross on which
t Christ suffered,but
or only Christ who suf
fered upon the cross."
“ That after pronounc
ing the Sacramental
words of the body of
Christ, the bread re
maineth of the same
nature that it was be
fore, neither doth it
cease to be bread."
He was condemned as
a heretic by the arch
11
bishop's
bisa court, and
1127
delivered to the secular power to

be burned .3
As Sawtre was the first Protestant
to be put to death in England, the ceremony of his
degradation was gone about with great formality.
First the paten and chalice were taken out of
his hands ; next the chasuble was pulled off his
back , to signify that now he had been completely
Elu
stripped of all his functions and dignities as a

the statute De were takenNext
priest. the New Testament and the stole
away, to intimate his deposition from
Hæretico Combu
n'endo, of which the order of deacon, and the withdrawal of his
WATER -SFOUT ON LUTHER'S HOUSE Sir Edward Coke effected tobyteach
power . His deposition as subdeacon was
stripping him of the alb . The candle
AT EISXACH . remarks that it stick and taper were next taken from him to “ put
appears that the
bishops are the proper judges of heresy, and that 1382. It is entitled “ An Act to commission sheriffs to
the business of the sheriff was only ministerial apprehend preachers of heresy, and their abettors re
to the sentence of the spiritual court." “ King citing the enormities ensuing the preaching of heretics."
Henry IV .," says Fox, “ was the first of all It was surreptitiously obtained by the clergy and en.
rolled without the consent of the Commons. On the com
English Kings that began the unmerciful burn plaint of that body this Act was repealed , but by a second
ing of Christ's saints for standing against the artifice of the priests the Act of repeal was suppressed ,
Pope." ? and prosecutions carried on in virtue of the “ Act of
Heresy.” (See Cobbett , Parliament. Hist., vol. i., p . 177.)
Sir Edward Coke ( Instit., par. 3, cap. 5, fol. 39) gives the
1 Instit., par. 3, cap. 5, fol. 39. Collier, Eccles. Hist., same account of the matter. He says that the 6th of
vol. i., pp. 614, 615 . Richard II., which repealed the statute of the previous
? Fox, bk . i., p. 675. This statute is known as 2 year (5th Richard II.), was not proclaimed , thus leaving
Henry IV ., cap. 15. Cotton remarks " that the printed the latter in force. Collier (Eccles. Hist., vol. i., p. 606)
statute differs greatly from the record , not only in form , argues against this view of the case. The manner of
but much more in matter, in order to maintain eccle. proclaiming laws, printing being then unknown, was to
siastical tyranny.” His publisher, Prynne, has this note send a copy on parchment, in Latin or French, to each
upon it : “ This was the first statute and butcherly knife sheriff, who proclaimed them in his county ; and had the
that the impeaching prelates procured or had against the 6th of Richard II., which repealed the previous Act, been
poor preachers of Christ's Gospel.” (Cobbett, Parlia omitted in the proclamation , it would , Collier thinks,
ment. Hist., vol. i., p. 287 ; Lond., 1806.) The “ Statute of have been known to the Commons.
Heresy ” was passed in the previous reign - Richard II., 3 Fox, bk . i., p . 675. Collier, Eccles. Hist., vol. i., p. 618.
BURNING OF THE MARTYR BADBY. 353
from thee all order of an acolyte.” He was next he would believe. There could be but one fate in
deprived of the holy water book, and with it he reserve for the man who, instead of bowing im
was bereft of all power as an exorcist. By these plicitly to his mother the Church ," challenged her
and sundry other ceremonies, too tedious to recite, to attest her prodigy by some proof or sign of its
William Sawtre was made as truly a layman as truth . He was convicted before the Bishop of
before the oil and scissors of the Church had Worcester of “ the crime of heresy," but reserved
touched him . for final judgment before Arundel, now become the
Unrobed , disqualified for the mystic ministry, Archbishop of Canterbury."
and debarred the sacrificial shrines of Rome, he On the 1st of March , 1409, the haughty Arun
was now to ascend the steps of an altar ,whereon del, assembling his suffragans, with quite a crowd
he was to lay costlier sacrifice than any to be seen of temporal and spiritual lords, sat down on the
in the Roman temples. That altar was the stake, judgment-seat in St. Paul's, and commanded the
that sacrifice was himself. He died in the flames, humble confessor to be brought before him . He
February 12, 1401. As England had the high hoped , perhaps, that Badby would be awed by this
honour of sending forth the first Reformer, England display of authority . In this, however, he was
had likewise the honour, in William Sawtre, of mistaken . The opinions he had avowed before the
giving the first martyr to Protestantism . Bishop of Worcester, he maintained with equal
His martyrdom was significant of much , for to courage in presence of the more august tribunal of
Protestantism it was a sure pledge of victory, and nd the more The prisoner
the primate, and the more imposing assemblage
to Rome a terrible prognostic of defeat ! Protes - now convened in St. Paul's. The prisoner was re
tantism had now made the soil of England its own manded till the 15th of the same month , being being
by burying its martyred dead in it. Henceforward consigned meanwhile to the convent of the Preach
it will feel that, like the hero of classic story, it ing Friars, the archbishop himself keeping the key
stands on its native earth, and is altogether in - of his cell."
vincible. It may struggle and bleed and endure When the day for the final sentence, the 15th
many a seeming defeat ; the conflict may be proof March, came, Arundel again ascended his epis
longed through many a dark year and century, but copal throne, attended by a yet more brilliant
itmust and shall eventually triumph. It has taken escort of lords spiritual and temporal, including a
a pledge of the soil, and it cannot possibly perish prince of the blood. John Badby had but the same
from off it. Its opponent, on the other hand, has answer to give, the same confession to make, on his
written the prophecy of its own defeat in the blood second as on his first appearance . Bread conse
it has shed , and struggle as it may it shall not pre- crated by the priest was still bread , and the Sacra
vail over its rival, but shall surely fall before it.3 ment of the altar was of less estimation than the
The names of many of these early sufferers, to humblest man there present. This rational reply
whom England owes, under Providence, its liberties was too rational for the men and the times. To
and its Scriptural religion , have fallen into oblivion. them it appeared simple blasphemy. The arch
Among those whom the diligence of our ancient bishop, seeing “ his countenance stoutand his heart
chroniclers has rescued from this fate is that of confirmed,” pronounced John Badby “ an open and
John Badby. Hewas a layman of the diocese of public heretic," and the court “ delivered him to the
Worcester. Arraigned on the doctrine of the secular power, and desired the temporal lords then
Sacrament, he frankly confessed his opinions. In and there present, that they would not put him to
vain , he held, were the “ Sacramental words ” death for that his offence," as if they had been
spoken over the bread on the altar : despite the innocent of all knowledge that that same secular
conjuration it still remained “ material bread.” If power to which they now delivered him had , at
it was Christ whom the priest produced on the their instigation , passed a law adjudging all here
altar, let him be shown Him in his true form , and tics to the fire, and that the magistrate was bound
under excommunication to carry out the statute
i Fox, bk . i., p . 674 . De Hæretico Comburendo.
· Collier, Eccles. Hist., i. 618. Burnet, Hist . Ref., i. 24. A few hours only elapsed till the fire was lighted .
3 There is some ground to think that Sawtre was not
the first to be put to death for religion in England . " A Sentence was passed upon him in the forenoon : on
chronicle of London," says thewriter of the Preface to the afternoon of the same day, the king's writ,
Bale's Brefe Chronycle , " mentions one of the Albigenses ordering the execution , arrived . Badby was hurried
burned A . D . 1210." And Camden , it is thought, alludes
to this when he says : “ In the reign of John, Christians
began to be put to death in the flames by Christians 4 Fox, bk . V., p. 266. 5 Ibid . p . 267.
amongst us." (Bale , Preface ii.) 6 Collier, Eccles. Hist., vol. i., p . 629. Fox, bk . v ., p . 266.
35 + HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM .
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presented before him , would loose his chain and scorched man , he said that if he would recant
set him free. But no ! amid the faggots that his errors and return to the bosom of the Church,
were to consume him , as · before the assembled he would not only save him from the fire, but
grandees in St. Paul's, the martyr had but the same would give him a yearly stipend all the days of
confession to make : " it was hallowed bread, not his life. It was kindly meant, no doubt, on
God's body.” The priests withdrew , the line of the part of the prince, who commiserated the
their retreat through the dense crowd being marked torments but could not comprehend the joys of
by their blazing torches, and the Host borne aloft the martyr. Turn back now , when he saw the
underneath a silken canopy. The torch was now gates opening to receive him , the crown ready
brought. Soon the sharp flames began to prey to be placed upon his head ? No! not for all
upon the limbs of the martyr. A quick cry escaped the gold of England . He was that night to sup
him in his agony, “ Mercy, mercy !" But his prayer with a greater Prince. “ Thus," says Fox , " did
was addressed to God, not to his persecutors. The this valiant champion of Christ, neglecting the
prince, who still lingered near the scene of the prince's fair words . . . not without a great and
tragedy, was recalled by this wail from the stake. most cruel battle, but with much greater triumph
He commanded the officers to extinguish the fires. of victory . . . perfect his testimony and martyr
The executioners obeyed . Addressing the half- dom in the fire." 3
CHAPTER II.
THE THEOLOGY OF THE EARLY ENGLISH PROTESTANTS.
Protestant Preachers and Martyrs before Henry VIII.'s time- Their Theology - Inferior to that of the Sixteenth
Century - The Central Truths clearly Seen - William Thorpe - Imprisoned - Dialogue between him and Arch
bishop Arundel - His Belief- His Views on the Sacrament – The Authority of Scripture - Is Threatened with a
Stake - Christ Present in the Sacrament to Faith — Thorpe's Views on Image -Worship - Pilgrimage - Confession
Refuses to Submit- His Fate Unknown - Simplicity of Early English Theology - Convocation at Oxford to Arrest
the Spread of Protestantism - Constitutions of Arundel— The Translation and Reading of the Scriptures
Forbidden .
This violence did not terrify the disciples of the had not yet begun his career in Bohemia ; in
truth . The stakes they had seen planted in Smith - France, in Germany, and the other countries of
field , and the edict of “ burning ” now engrossed Christendom , all was dark ; but in England the
on the Statute-book , taught them that the task of day had broke, and its light was spreading. The
winning England would not be the easy one which Reformation had confessors and martyrs within
they had dreamed ; but this conviction neither the metropolis ; it had disciples in many of the
shook their courage nor abated their zeal. A cause shires ; it had even crossed the sea, and obtained
that had found martyrs had power enough, they some footing in Calais, then under the English
believed , to overcome any force on earth , and would crown : and all this a century well-nigh before
one day convert, not England only, but the world. Henry VIII., whom Romish writers have credited
In that hope they went on propagating their as the author of themovement, was born.
opinions, and not without success, for, says Fox , William Thorpe, in the words of the chronicler,
“ I find in registers recorded , that these foresaid " was a valiant warrior under the triumphant
persons, whom the king and the Catholic Fathers .banner of Christ." His examination before Thomas
did so greatly detest for heretics, were in divers - ? Walsingham , Hist. Angliæ , p. 570 ; Camdeni Anglica ,
counties of this realm increased , especially at
Frankfort, 1603. Holinshed, Chronicles, vol. iii., pp. 48,
London, in Lincolnshire, in Norfolk , in Herford 49 ; Lond., 1808 . Holinshed says the prince “ promised
shire, in Shrewsbury , in Calais,and other quarters." him not only life, but also three pence a day so long as
Wicliffe was but newly laid in his grave ; Huss he lived, to be paid out of the king 's coffers.” Cobbett,
in his Parliamentary History, tells us that the wages of a
thresher were at that time twopence per day.
1 Fox, bk . v ., p. 268. 3 Fox, bk . v ., pp . 266, 267 ; Lond ., 1838.
EARLY ENGLISH PROTESTANTISM . 357
Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, shows us the nd patient.minostremembrance
aSacrament, true prence ofof hhisis hholiest
olia living, ,
evangelical creed as it was professed by the English and of his most true preaching, and of his willing .
Christians of the fifteenth century. Its hefew and and patient suffering of the most painful passion .”
Standit grand
simple articles led very directly to the grand “ And I believe that this Christ, our Saviour,
centre of truth , which is Christ. Standing before after that he had ordained this most worthy Sacra
him , these early disciples were in the Light. ment of his own precious body, went forth willingly
Many things, as yet, they saw but dimly ; it was . . . and as he would , and when he would , he
only the early morning ; the full day was at a died willingly for man's sake upon the cross.”
distance : those great lights which God had or- “ And I believe in holy Church-- that is, all they
dained to illuminate the skies of his Church in that have been, and that now are, and that to the
the following century, had not yet arisen : the end of the world shall be, a people that shall en
inists and shadows of a night, not yet wholly deavour to know and keep the commandments of
chased away, lay dense on many parts of the field God.”
of revelation ; but one part of it was, in their “ I believe that the gathering together of this
eyes, bathed in light; this was the centre of people, living now here in this life, is the holy
the field , whereon stands the cross , with the great Church of God, fighting here on earth against the
Sacrifice lifted up upon it, the one object of faith, devil, the prosperity of the world , and their own
the everlasting Rock of the sinner's hope. To lusts. . . . I submitmyself to this holy Church
this they clung, and whatever tended to shake of Christ, to be ever ready and obedient to the
their faith in it, or to put something else in its ordinance of it, and of every member thereof,
room , they instinctively rejected . They knew the after my knowledge and power , by the help of
voice of the Shepherd, and a stranger they would God.”
not follow . The prisoner next confessed his faith in the
Imprisoned in the Castle of Saltwood (1407), Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, “ as
Thorpe was brought before the primate , Arundel, the council of the Three Persons of the Trinity,"
for examination. The record of what passed be- that they were sufficient for man 's salvation, and
tween him and the archbishop is from the pen of that he was resolved to guide himself by their light,
Thorpe. He found Arundel in “ a great chamber," and willing to submit to their authority, and also
with a numerous circle around him ; but the instant to that of the “ saints and doctors of Christ,” so far
the archbishop perceived him , he withdrew into a as their teaching agreed with the Word of God.
closet, attended by only two or three clerics . Arundel : “ I require that thou wilt swear to me
Arundel : “ William , I know well that thou hast that thou wilt forsake all the opinions which the
this twenty winters or more travelled in the north sect of the Lollards hold .” Further, the arch
country, and in diverse other countries of England, bishop required him to inform upon his brethren ,
sowing false doctrine, labouring, with undue teach - and cease from preaching till he should come to be
ing, to infect and poison all this land.” of a better mind. On hearing this the prisoner
Thorpe : “ Sir, since ye deem me a heretic, and stood for awhile silent.
out of the faith, will you give me, here, audience Arundel : “ Answer, one way or the other."
to tell you my belief ?” Thorpe : “ Sir, if I should do as you require, full
Arundel : “ Yea, tell on." many men and women would (as they might full
Hereupon the prisoner proceeded to declare his truly ) say that I had falsely and cowardly forsaken
belief in the Trinity ; in the Incarnation of the the truth , and slandered shamefully the Word of
Second Person of the God -head ; and in the events God.”
of our Lord's life , as these are recorded by the The archbishop could only say that if he per
four Evangelists : continuing thus sisted in this obstinacy he must tread the same
Thorpe : “ When Christ would make an end here road that Sawtre had gone. This pointed to a
of this temporal life, I believe that in the next day stake in Smithfield .
before he was to suffer passion, he ordained the Hereupon the confessor was again silent. “ In
ver ook ith o ive
reason have authowhate
Sacrament of his flesh and his blood, in form of my heart," says he, “ I prayed the Lord God to
bread and wine - that is, his own precious body ,
and gave it to his apostles to eat ; commanding
l w at s m
comfort me and strengthen me; and to give me
then and always grace to speak with a meek and
them , and by them all their after-comers, that they quiet spirit ; and whatever I should speak, that I
should do it in this form that he showed to them , might have authorities of the Scriptures or open
use themselves, and teach and administer to other reason for it.”
men and women , this most worshipful and holiest A clerk : “ What thing musest thou ? Do as my
lord hath commanded thee." Still the confessor of the altar stands much more in the faith that you
spoke not. ought to have in your soul, than in the outward
Arundel: “ Art thou not yet determined whether sight of it, and therefore ye were better to stand
thou wilt do as I have said to thee ?" still quietly to hear God's Word, because that
Thorpe humbly assured the primate that the through the hearing of it men come to true belief."
knowledge which he taught to others he had learned Arundel : “ How teachest thou men to believe in
at the feet of the wisest, the most learned , and the this Sacrament ?”
holiest priests he could hear of in England. Thorpe : “ Sir, as I believe myself, so I teach
Arundel : “ Who are these holy and wise men of other men.”
whom thou hast taken thine information ?" Arundel : “ Tell out plainly thy belief thereof."
Thorpe : “ Master John Wicliffe. He was held Thorpe : “ Sir, I believe that the night before
by many men the greatest clerk that they knew Jesus Christ suffered for mankind, he took bread
then living : great men communed often with him . in his holy hands, lifting up his eyes, and giving
This learning of Master John Wicliffe is yet held thanks to God his Father, blessed this bread and
by many men and women the learning most in brake it, and gave it unto his disciples , saying to
accordance with the living and teaching of Christ them , "Take and eat of this, all you ; this is my
and his apostles, and most openly showing how the body. I believe, and teach other men to believe,
Church of Christ has been,and yet should be, ruled that the holy Sacrament of the altar is the Sacra
and governed.” ment of Christ's flesh and blood in the form of
Arundel : “ That learning which thou callest bread and wine."
truth and soothfastness is open slander to holy Arundel : “ Well, well, thou shalt say otherwise
Church ; for though Wicliffe was a great clerk , yet before I leave thee ; but what say you to the second
his doctrine is not approved of by holy Church, but point, that images ought not to be worshipped in
many sentences of his learning are damned , as they anywise ?”
well deserve. Wilt thou submit thee to me or no ?" Thorpe repudiated the practice as not only with
Thorpe : “ I dare not, for fear of God, submit me out warrant in Scripture, but as plainly forbidden
to thee." in the Word of God. There followed a long con
Arundel, angrily to one of his clerks : “ Fetch tention between him and the archbishop, Arundel
hither quickly the certificate that came to me from maintaining that it was good to worship images on
Shrewsbury, under the bailiff's seal, witnessing the the ground that reverence was due to those whom
errors and heresies which this fellow hath venom - they represented , that they were aids in devotion ,
ously sown there ." and that they possessed a secret virtue that showed
The clerk delivered to the archbishop a roll, itself at times in the working of miracles.
from which the primate read as follows :— “ The The prisoner intimated that he had no belief in
third Sunday after Easter, the year of our Lord these miracles ; that he knew the Word of God to
1407 , William Thorpe came unto the town of be true ; that he held , in common with the early
Shrewsbury, and through leave granted unto him doctors of the Church , Augustine, Ambrose , and
to preach , he said openly , in St. Chad's Church, in Chrysostom , that its teaching was in nowise doubt
his sermon , that the Sacrament of the altar, after ful on the point in question, that it expressly
the consecration, was material bread ; and that forbade the making of images , and the bowing
images should in nowise be worshipped ; and that down to them , and held those who did so as guilty
men should not go on pilgrimages ; and that priests of the sin and liable to the doom of idolaters.
have no title to tithes ; and that it is not lawful to The archbishop found that the day was wearing,
swear in anywise." and passed from the argument to the next point.
Arundel, rolling up the paper : “ Lo, here it is Arundel : “ What sayest thou to the third point
certified that thou didst teach that the Sacrament that is certified against thee, that pilgrimage is not
of the altar was material bread after the consecra- lawful ? ”
tion . What sayest thou ?” Thorpe : “ There are truepilgrimages, and lawful,
Thorpe : “ As I stood there in the pulpit, busying and acceptable to God .”
me to teach the commandment of God,a sacred bell Arundel : “ Whom callest thou true pilgrims?"
began ringing, and therefore many people turned Thorpe : “ Those travelling towards the bliss of
away hastily , and with noise ran towards it ; and heaven . Such busy themselves to know and keep
I, seeing this , said to them thus : ‘Good men , ye the biddings of God ; flee the seven deadly sins; do
were better to stand here still, and to hear God 's willingly all the works of mercy, and seek the gifts
Word. For the virtue of the most holy Sacrament of the Holy Ghost. Every good thought they
WILLIAM THORPE AND THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 359
think, every virtuous word they speak , every fruit with their Head, Christ, and will teach me, rule
ful work they accomplish , is a step numbered of me, or chastise me by authority , especially of God's
God toward him into heaven . 1 law ."
“ But,” continued the confessor, “ the most part This was a submission ; but the additions with
of men and women that now go on pilgrimages have which it was qualified robbed it of all grace in the
not these conditions, nor love to have them . For , eyes of the archbishop. Once more, and for the
as I well know , since I have full often tried, last time, the primate put it plainly thus : “ Wilt
examine whoever will twenty of these pilgrims, thou not submit thee to the ordinance of holy
and he shall not find three men or women that Church ?”
know surely a commandment of God, nor can say “ I will full gladly submit me," replied Thorpe,
their Paternosters and Ave Maria , nor their creed , “ as I showed you before.” 1
readily, in any manner of language. Their pilgrim - Hereupon Thorpe was delivered to the constable
age is more to have here worldly and fleshy friend of the castle. He was led out and thrown into a
ship, than to have friendship of God and of his worse prison than that in which he had before been
saints in heaven. Also , sir, I know that when confined. At his prison -door we lose all trace of
several men and women go thus after their own him . He never again appears, and what his fate
wills, and fixing on the same pilgrimage, they will was has never been ascertained .”
arrange beforehand to have with them both men This examination, or rather conference between
and women that can sing wanton songs, and other the primate and Thorpe, enables us to form a
pilgrims will have with them bagpipes ; so that tolerable idea of English Protestantism , or Lollard
every town that they come through, what with the ism , in the twilight time that intervened between
noise of their singing, and with the sound of their its dawn, in the days of Wicliffe, and its brighter
piping, and with the tangling of their Canterbury rising in the times of the sixteenth century. It
bells, and with the barking of dogs after them , they consisted, we may say, of but three facts or truths.
make more noise than if the king came there with The firstwas Scripture, as the supreme and infallible
all his clarions and minstrels." authority ; the second was the Cross , as the sole
Arundel: “ What! janglest thou against men 's fountain of forgiveness and salvation ; and the third
devotion ? Whatever thou or such other say, I say was Faith , as the one instrumentality by which men
that the pilgrimage that now is used is to them that come into possession of the blessings of that salva
do it a praiseworthy and a good means to come to tion. We may add a fourth, which was not so
grace. " much a primary truth as a consequence from the
After this there ensued another long contention three doctrines which formed the osteology, or
between Thorpe and the primate, on the subject of frame-work , of the Protestantism of those days
confession . The archbishop was not making much Holiness. The faith of these Christians was not
way in the argument, when one of the clerks inter- a dead faith : it was a faith that kept the com
posed and put an end to it. mandments of God, a faith that purified the heart,
“ Sir,” said he, addressing the primate, “ it is and enriched the life.
late in the day, and ye have far to ride to -night; If, in one sense, Lollard Protestantism was a
therefore make an end with him , for he will make narrow and limited system , consisting but of a very
none ; but the more, sir, that ye busy you to draw few facts, in another sense it was perfect, inasmuch
him toward you , the more contumacious he is as it contained the germ and promise of all theology.
made." Given but one fundamental truth, all must follow
“ William , kneel down,” said another, " and pray in due time.
my Lord's Grace , and leave all thy fancies, and In the authority of Scripture as the inspired
become a child of holy Church.” The archbishop, Word ofGod, and the death of Christ as a complete
striking the table fiercely with his hand, also and perfect atonement for human guilt, they had
demanded his instant submission . Others taunted found more than one fundamental truth . They
him with his eagerness to be promoted to a stake
which men more learned than he had prudently This account of Thorpe's examination is from For
greatly abridged. Our aim has been to bring out his
avoided by recanting their errors. doctrinal views, seeing they may be accepted as a good
“ Sir," said he, replying to the archbishop , “ as : general representation of the Lollard theology of his day.
I have said to you several times to -day, I will The threats and contumelious epithets addressed to him
by the primate, we have all but entirely suppressed .
willingly and humbly obey and submit to God, and ? There were clearly but two courses open to him
to his law , anda toto every
every member
member of holy Church
of noly Church ,, as
as retractation or condemnation . We agree with Fox in
far as I can perceive that these members accord thinking that he was not likely to retract.
360 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM.these early English Christians were
n the path onby which
forward ithemselves
to go guiding
hadhadlights,butentered, these theytwo besetMeanwhile
without by scrupulosities and prejudices,
possession come, inAtevery step the vision. They feared to lay their hand on theof New
would truth.
andofallthey revealed due time, into arising from the dimness and narrowness their
horizon around them would grow wider,the light Testament andbe sworn ; they scrupled to employ
TEN
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HALA
ST.PAUL'S AND NEIGHBOURHOOD IN 1540.

(After VanOLDder Wyngarde'sV iew of London,taken for Philip I .of Spain.)
falling uponclearer,
continually the objects
the it embracedof truthwouldto truthgrow theminstrumentalmusic
relations condemned all inwar.publicButwithin
worship ;andwhatsomeo
a vast f
would
whole be moregroweasilyinto atraceable,
would completeand til atharmonious
last the tenlargementhad
o the authority theyof thealreadyexperienced
Word of God, ! Bowing
their under
system , truth linked
themselvestruthsin ofbeautiful t o truth, and
orderofaround all ranging standings
the grandthe authority were emancipated
oflookman.with Having from the usurped
thisof anointing, theysee
central
Son of God. the religion Jesus Christ, refused to the eyes
on the inspired page doctrines which no rule of others, and
THE CONSTITUTIONS OF ARUNDEL . 361
exegesis could discover there, and from which their England ; it must be extinguished. The accom
reason revolted as monstrous. In leaning on the plishment of these two objects became now the
Cross,they had found that relief of heart which so main labour of Arundel. Convening at Oxford
many of their countrymen were seeking, but not (1408) the bishops and clergy of his province, he
finding, in fasts, in penances, in offerings to the promulgated certain provisions for the checking of
saints, and in pilgrimages, gone in some cases in heresy, digested into thirteen chapters, and known
sackcloth and tears, and severe mortification of the as the Constitutions of Arundel,' a designation
flesh , and in others in gay apparel, and on soft- they are entitled to bear, seeing they all run under
THE CATHEDRAL AND LEANING TOWER OF PISA .
paced and richly -caprisoned mules,to the screaming the authority of the archbishop. The drift of these
of bag-pipes and the music ofmerry songs. Constitutions was, first,to prohibit all from exercis
The best evidence of the continued spread of ing the function of preacher who had not a special
Lollardism — in other words, of Protestantism — is licence from the diocesan , or had not undergone an
the necessity under which its opponents evidently examination before him touching their orthodoxy ;
felt to adopt more vigorous measures for its re- secondly , to charge preachers to eschew all Wicliffite
pression. The “ well ” which Wicliffe had digged novelties, and to frame their discourses in every
at Oxford was still flowing ; its waters must be respect according to the doctrine of holy Church ;
cut off. The light he had kindled in his vernacular
Bible was still burning, and sending its rays over Collier, vol. i., bk. vii., p. 625.
81
To remedy this, the diocesan was empowered to The law was not permitted to remain a dead
arrest all persons suspected of heresy, confine them letter. William Sawtre, formerly Rector of St.
in his strong prison , bring them to trial, and if on Margaret's in Lynn, and now of St. Osyth in
conviction they refused to abjure, they were to be London — “ a good man and faithful priest,” says
delivered to the sheriff of the county or the mayor Fox — was apprehended , and an indictment preferred
of the town , who were “ before the people, in a against him . Among the charges contained in it
high place, them to do to be burnt.” Such was we find the following :- “ That he will not worship
the cross on which
Christ suffered, but
only Christ who suf
fered upon the cross.”
“ That after pronounc
ing the Sacramental
words of the body of
Christ, the bread re
maineth of the same
nature that it was be
fore, neither doth it
cease to be bread."
He was condemned as
a heretic by the arch
bishop's court, and
delivered to the secular power to
be burned.3
As Sawtre was the first Protestant
to be put to death in England, the ceremony of his
degradation was gone about with great formality.
First the paten and chalice were taken out of
his hands ; next the chasuble was pulled off his
back, to signify that now he had been completely
stripped of all his functions and dignities as a
the statute De were takenNext
priest. the New Testament and the stole
away, to intimate his deposition from
Hæretico Combu the order of deacon , and the withdrawal of his
rendo, of which power to teach . His deposition as subdeacon was
WSTER -SFOUT OX LUTHER 'S HOUSE Sir Edward Coke effected by stripping him of the alb. The candle
AT EISVACH . remarks that it stick and taper were next taken from him to “ put
appears that the
bishops are the proper judges of heresy, and that 1382. It is entitled “ An Act to commission sheriffs to
the business of the sheriff was only ministerial apprehend preachers of heresy, and their abettors re
to the sentence of the spiritual court. “ King citing the enormities ensuing the preaching of heretics."
Henry IV .," says Fox, “ was the first of all It was surreptitiously obtained by the clergy and en
rolled without the consent of the Commons. On the com
English Kings that began the unmerciful burn plaint of that body this Act was repealed, but by a second
ing of Christ's saints for standing against the artifice of the priests the Act of repeal was suppressed ,
Pope." ? and prosecutions carried on in virtue of the “ Act of
Heresy.” (See Cobbett , Parliament. Hist., vol. i., p . 177.)
Sir Edward Coke (Instit., par. 3, cap . 5, fol. 39) gives the
1 Instit., par. 3, cap. 5, fol. 39. Collier, Eccles. Hist., same account of the matter. He says that the 6th of
vol. i., pp. 614, 615. Richard II., which repealed the statute of the previous
2 Fox, bk . i., p. 675. This statute is known as 2 year (5th Richard II.), was not proclaimed , thus leaving
Henry IV ., cap. 15. Cotton remarks “ that the printed the latter in force. Collier (Eccles. Hist., vol. i., p . 606)
statute differs greatly from the record , not only in form , argues against this view of the case. The manner of
but much more in matter, in order to maintain eccle proclaiming laws, printing being then unknown, was to
siastical tyranny.” His publisher, Prynne, has this note send a copy on parchment, in Latin or French , to each
upon it : “ This was the first statute and butcherly knife sheriff, who proclaimed them in his county ; and had the
that the impeaching prelates procured or had against the 6th of Richard II ., which repealed the previous Act, been
poor preachers of Christ's Gospel.” (Cobbett, Parlia . omitted in the proclamation , it would , Collier thinks,
ment. Hist ., vol. i., p . 287 ; Lond., 1806.) The “ Statute of have been known to the Commons.
Heresy ” was passed in the previous reign - Richard II., 3 Fox, bk . i., p . 675. Collier, Eccles. Hist., vol. i., p . 618 .
BURNING OF THE MARTYR BADBY. 353
from thee all order of an acolyte.” He was next he would believe. There could be but one fate in
deprived of the holy water book, and with it he reserve for the man who, instead of bowing im
was bereft of all power as an exorcist. By these plicitly to his “ mother the Church ,” challenged her
and sundry other ceremonies, too tedious to recite, to attest her prodigy by some proof or sign of its
William Sawtre was made as truly a layman as truth . He was convicted before the Bishop of
before the oil and scissors of the Church had Worcester of “ the crime of heresy," but reserved
touched him . for final judgment before Arundel, now become the
Unrobed , disqualified for the mystic ministry , Archbishop of Canterbury."
and debarred the sacrificial shrines of Rome, he
o f
was now to ascend the steps of an altar, whereon judOnemassembling
an any to be sebe, del, b
the 1st of March , 1409, the haughty Arun
l e confe his suffragans, with quite a crowd
he was to lay costlier sacrifice than any to be seen of temporal and spiritual lords, sat down on the
in the Roman temples. That altar was the stake, judgment-seat in St. Paul's, and commanded the
that sacrifice was himself. He died in the flames, humble confessor to be brought before him . He
February 12, 1401. As England had the high hoped, perhaps, that Badby would be awed by this
honour of sending forth the first Reformer, England display of authority . In this, however, he was
had likewise the honour, in William Sawtre, of mistaken. The opinions he had avowed before the
giving the first martyr to Protestantism . Bishop of Worcester, he maintained with equal
His martyrdom was significant of much, for to courage in presence of the more august tribunal of
and the primate, and St. Paul's. The prisoner
Protestantism it was a sure pledge of victory , and the primate, and the more imposing assemblage
to Rome a terrible prognostic of defeat ! Protes- now convened in St. Paul's. The prisoner was re
tantism had now made the soil of England its own manded till the 15th of the same month , being being
by burying its martyred dead in it. Henceforward consigned meanwhile to the convent of the Preach
it will feel that, like the hero of classic story, it ing Friars, the archbishop himself keeping the key
stands on its native earth , and is altogether in - of his cell."
vincible. It may struggle and bleed and endure When the day for the final sentence, the 15th
many a seeming defeat ; the conflict may be proof March , came, Arundel again ascended his epis
longed through many a dark year and century , but copal throne, attended by a yet more brilliant
it must and shall eventually triumph. It has taken escort of lords spiritual and temporal, including a
a pledge of the soil, and it cannot possibly perish prince of the blood. John Badby had but the same
from off it. Its opponent, on the other hand, has answer to give, the same confession to make, on his
written the prophecy of its own defeat in the blood second as on his first appearance. Bread conse
it has shed , and struggle as it may it shall not pre- crated by the priest was still bread, and the Sacra
vail over its rival, but shall surely fall before it.3 ment of the altar was of less estimation than the
The names of many of these early sufferers, to humblest man there present. This rational reply
whom England owes, under Providence , its liberties was too rational for the men and the times. To
and its Scriptural religion , have fallen into oblivion. them it appeared simple blasphemy. The arch
Among those whom the diligence of our ancient bishop , seeing “ his countenance stoutand his heart
chroniclers has rescued from this fate is that of confirmed ,” pronounced John Badby “ an open and
John Badby. He was a layman of the diocese of public heretic," and the court “ delivered him to the
Worcester. Arraigned on the doctrine of the secular power, and desired the temporal lords then
Sacrament, he frankly confessed his opinions. In and there present, that they would not put him to
vain , he held, were the “ Sacramental words ” death for that his offence," as if they had been
spoken over the bread on the altar : despite the innocent of all knowledge that that same secular
conjuration it still remained “ material bread.” If power to which they now delivered him had , at
it was Christ whom the priest produced on the their instigation , passed a law adjudging all here
altar, let him be shown Him in his true form , and tics to the fire, and that the magistrate was bound
under excommunication to carry out the statute
Fox , bk. i., p . 674. De Hæretico Comburendo.
· Collier, Eccles. Hist., i. 618. Burnet, Hist. Ref., i. 24. A few hours only elapsed till the fire was lighted .
3 There is some ground to think that Sawtre wasnot
the first to be put to death for religion in England . “ A Sentence was passed upon him in the forenoon : on
chronicle of London ,” says the writer of the Preface to the afternoon of the same day, the king's writ,
Bale's Brefe Chronycle , " mentions one of the Albigenses ordering the execution , arrived . Badby was hurried
burned A.D. 1210.” And Camden , it is thought, alludes
to this when he says : “ In the reign of John, Christians
began to be put to death in the flames by Christians 4 Fox, bk . v., p. 266. 5 Ibid . p. 267.
amongst us ." (Bale, Preface ii.) 6 Collier, Eccles. Hist., vol. i., p . 629. Fox, bk . V., p. 266.
anto Smithfield,“
empty barrel,andhethere,
was" bound
says Fox,with“ being putin histheselife.“ dangerouslabyrinthsof
iron chains opinion”in theandbarrelsave
The prince and the man
fastened to a stake,havingdrywood putabouthim.” were conversing together when the crowd opened
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INTERIOR OF THE WARTBURG.

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presented before him , would loose his chain and scorched man, he said that if he would recant
set him free. But no ! amid the faggots that his errors and return to the bosom of the Church ,
were to consume him , as before the assembled he would not only save him from the fire, but
grandees in St. Paul's, the martyr had but the same would give him a yearly stipend all the days of
confession to make : " it was hallowed bread, not his life. It was kindly meant, no doubt, on
God's body." The priests withdrew , the line of the part of the prince, who commiserated the
their retreat through the dense crowd being marked torments but could not comprehend the joys of
by their blazing torches , and the Host borne aloft the martyr. Turn back now , when he saw the
underneath a silken canopy. The torch was now gates opening to receive him , the crown ready
brought. Soon the sharp flames began to prey to be placed upon his head ? No ! not for all
upon the limbs of the martyr. A quick cry escaped the gold of England. He was that night to sup
him in his agony, “ Mercy,mercy !" But his prayer with a greater Prince. “ Thus," says Fox, " did
was addressed to God, not to his persecutors. The this valiant champion of Christ, neglecting the
prince, who still lingered near the scene of the prince's fair words . . . not without a great and
tragedy, was recalled by this wail from the stake. most cruel battle, but with much greater triumph
He commanded the officers to extinguish the fires. of victory . . . perfect his testimony and martyr
The executioners obeyed. Addressing the half- dom in the fire." 3
CHAPTER II.
THE THEOLOGY OF THE EARLY ENGLISH PROTESTANTS.
Protestant Preachers and Martyrs before Henry VIII.'s time- Their Theology - Inferior to that of the Sixteenth
Century — The Central Truths clearly Seen - William Thorpe - Imprisoned - Dialogue between him and Arch .
bishop Arundel - His Belief– His Views on the Sacrament – The Authority of Scripture - Is Threatened with 2
Stake- Christ Present in the Sacrament to Faith - Thorpe's Views on Image-Worship - Pilgrimage - Confession
Refuses to Submit - His Fate Unknown -- Simplicity of Early English Theology -- Convocation at Oxford to Arrest
the Spread of Protestantism - Constitutions of Arundel – The Translation and Reading of the Scriptures
Forbidden .
This violence did not terrify the disciples of the had not yet begun his career in Bohemia ; in
truth. The stakes they had seen planted in Smith - France, in Germany, and the other countries of
field , and the edict of “ burning ” now engrossed Christendom , all was dark ; but in England the
on the Statute-book , taught them that the task of day had broke, and its light was spreading . The
winning England would not be the easy one which Reformation had confessors and martyrs within
they had dreamed ; but this conviction neither the metropolis ; it had disciples in many of the
shook their courage nor abated their zeal. A cause shires ; it had even crossed the sea, and obtained
that had found martyrs had power enough, they some footing in Calais, then under the English
believed , to overcome any force on earth, and would crown : and all this a century well-nigh before
one day convert, not England only , but the world . Henry VIII., whom Romish writers have credited
In that hope they went on propagating their as the author of the movement, was born.
opinions, and not without success, for, says Fox, William Thorpe, in the words of the chronicler ,
“ I find in registers recorded , that these foresaid “ was a valiant warrior under the triumphant
persons, whom the king and the Catholic Fathers .banner of Christ.” His examination before Thomas
did so greatly detest for heretics, were in divers -
counties of this realm 2 Walsingham , Hist. Angliæ , p. 570 ; Camdeni Anglica,
increased , especially at Frankfort, 1603. Holinshed , Chronicles, vol. iii., pp. 48,
London, in Lincolnshire , in Norfolk , in Herford 49 ; Lond ., 1808. Holinshed says the prince “ promised
shire, in Shrewsbury, in Calais, and other quarters." him not only life, but also three pence a day so long as
Wicliffe was but newly laid in his grave ; Huss he lived , to be paid out of the king's coffers." Cobbett,
in his Parliamentary History, tells us that the wages of a
thresher were at that time twopence per day.
1 Fox, bk . v ., p . 268 . 3 Fox, bk . v ., pp . 266, 267 ; Lond., 1838.
EARLY ENGLISH PROTESTANTISM . 357
Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, shows us the Sacrament, in remembrance of his holiest living,
evangelical creed as it was professed by the English and of his most true preaching, and of his willing .
Christians of the fifteenth century. Its few and and patient suffering of the most painful passion.”
simple articles led very directly to the grand “ And I believe that this Christ, our Saviour,
centre of truth, which is Christ. Standing before after that he had ordained this most worthy Sacra
him , these early disciples were in the Light. ment of his own precious body,went forth willingly
Many things, as yet , they saw but dimly ; it was nd as
. . .in aand o and when he would , he
as hhee wwould,
as aatt aa
only the early morning ; the full day wwas ied willingly for man's sake upon the cross.”
ddied
distance : those great li
lights hich God had or-
ghts wwhich “ And I believe in holy Church -- that is , all they
dained to illuminate the skies of his Church in that have been , and that now are, and that to the
the following century, had not yet arisen : the end of the world shall be, a people that shall en
mists and shadows of a night, not yet wholly deavour to know and keep the commandments of
chased away, lay dense on many parts of the field God.”
of revelation ; but one part of it was, in their “ I believe that the gathering together of this
eyes , bathed in light ; this was the centre of people, living now here in this life, is the holy
the field , whereon stands the cross , with the great Church of God, fighting here on earth against the
Sacrifice lifted up upon it, the one object of faith, devil, the prosperity of the world , and their own
the everlasting Rock of the sinner's hope. To lusts. . . I submitmyself to this holy Church
this they clung, and whatever tended to shake of Christ, to be ever ready and obedient to the
their faith in it, or to put something else in its ordinance of it, and of every member thereof,
room , they instinctively rejected . They knew the after my knowledge and power, by the help of
voice of the Shepherd , and a stranger they would God ."
not follow The prisoner next confessed his faith in the
Imprisoned in the Castle of Saltwood (1407), Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, “ as
Thorpe was brought before the primate, Arundel, the council of the Three Persons of the Trinity,"
for examination . The record of what passed be that they were sufficient for man's salvation , and
tween him and the archbishop is from the pen of that he was resolved to guide himself by their light,
Thorpe. He found Arundel in “ a great chamber," and willing to submit to their authority, and also
with a numerous circle around him ; but the instant to that of the “ saints and doctors of Christ," so far
the archbishop perceived him , he withdrew into a as their teaching agreed with the Word of God.
closet, attended by only two or three clerics. Arundel : “ I require that thou wilt swear to me
Arundel : “ William , I know well that thou hast that thou wilt forsake all the opinions which the
this twenty winters or more travelled in the north sect of the Lollards hold .” Further, the arch
country, and in diverse other countries of England, bishop required him to inform upon his brethren ,
sowing false doctrine, labouring, with undue teach - and cease from preaching till he should come to be
ing, to infect and poison all this land .” of a better mind. On hearing this the prisoner
Thorpe : “ Sir, since ye deem me a heretic, and stood for awhile silent.
out of the faith, will you give me, here, audience Arundel: “ Answer, one way or the other."
to tell you my belief ?” Thorpe : “ Sir, if I should do as you require, full
Arundel : “ Yea, tell on." many men and women would (as they might full
Hereupon the prisoner proceeded to declare his truly ) say that I had falsely and cowardly forsaken
belief in the Trinity ; in the Incarnation of the the truth , and slandered shamefully the Word of
Second Person of the God-head ; and in the events God .”
of our Lord's life, as these are recorded by the The archbishop could only say that if he per
four Evangelists : continuing thus-- sisted in this obstinacy he must tread the same
Thorpe : “ When Christ would make an end here road that Sawtre had gone. This pointed to a
of this temporal life, I believe that in the next day stake in Smithfield .
before he was to suffer passion, he ordained the Hereupon the confessor was again silent. “ In
Sacrament of his flesh and his blood , in form of my heart," says he, “ I prayed the Lord God to
bread and wine — that is, his own precious body , comfort me and strengthen me ; and to give me
and gave it to his apostles to eat ; commanding then and always grace to speak with a meek and
them , and by them all their after -comers, that they quiet spirit ; and whatever I should speak, that I
should do it in this form that he showed to them , might have authorities of the Scriptures or open
use themselves, and teach and administer to other reason for it."
men and women , this most worshipful and holiest A clerk : “ What thing musest thou ? Do as my
lord hath commanded thee." Still the confessor of the altar stands much more in the faith that you
spoke not. ought to have in your soul, than in the outward
Arundel : “ Art thou not yet determined whether sight of it, and therefore 'ye were better to stand
thou wilt do as I have said to thee ?" still quietly to hear God's Word , because that
Thorpe humbly assured the primate that the through the hearing of it men come to true belief."
knowledge which he taught to others he had learned Arundel : “ How teachest thou men to believe in
at the feet of the wisest, the most learned , and the this Sacrament ?"
holiest priests he could hear of in England. Thorpe : “ Sir, as I believe myself, so I teach
Arundel : “ Who are these holy and wise men of other men ."
whom thou hast taken thine information ?" Arundel : “ Tell out plainly thy belief thereof."
Thorpe : “ Master John Wicliffe. He was held Thorpe : “ Sir, I believe that the night before
by many men the greatest clerk that they knew Jesus Christ suffered for mankind, he took bread
then living : great men communed often with him . in his holy hands, lifting up his eyes, and giving
This learning of Master John Wicliffe is yet held thanks to God his Father, blessed this bread and
by many men and women the learning most in brake it, and gave it unto his disciples, saying to
accordance with the living and teaching of Christ them , " Take and eat of this, all you ; this is my
and his apostles, and most openly showing how the body.' I believe, and teach other men to believe,
Church of Christ has been , and yet should be, ruled that the holy Sacrament of the altar is the Sacra
and governed .” ment of Christ's flesh and blood in the form of
Arundel : “ That learning which thou callest bread and wine."
truth and soothfastness is open slander to holy Arundel : “ Well, well, thou shalt say otherwise
Church ; for though Wicliffe was a great clerk , yet before I leave thee ; but what say you to the second
his doctrine is not approved of by holy Church, but point, that images ought not to be worshipped in
many sentences of his learning are damned, as they anywise ?"
well deserve. Wilt thou submit thee to me or no ?" Thorpe repudiated the practice as not only with
Thorpe : “ I dare not, for fear of God, submit me out warrant in Scripture, but as plainly forbidden
to thee.” in the Word of God. There followed a long con
Arundel, angrily to one of his clerks : “ Fetch tention between him and the archbishop, Arundel
hither quickly the certificate that came to me from maintaining that it was good to worship images on
Shrewsbury, under the bailift's seal, witnessing the the ground that reverence was due to those whom
errors and heresies which this fellow hath venom - they represented, that they were aids in devotion ,
ously sown there." and that they possessed a secret virtue that showed
The clerk delivered to the archbishop a roll, itself at times in the working of miracles.
from which the primate read as follows : — “ The The prisoner intimated that he had no belief in
third Sunday after Easter, the year of our Lord these miracles ; that he knew the Word of God to
1407, William Thorpe came unto the town of be true ; that he held , in common with the early
Shrewsbury, and through leave granted unto him doctors of the Church , Augustine, Ambrose, and
to preach , he said openly, in St. Chad's Church , in Chrysostom , that its teaching was in nowise doubt
his sermon , that the Sacrament of the altar, after ful on the point in question, that it expressly
the consecration , was material bread ; and that forbade the making of images, and the bowing
images should in nowise be worshipped ; and that down to them , and held those who did so as guilty
men should not go on pilgrimages ; and that priests of the sin and liable to the doom of idolaters.
have no title to tithes ; and that it is not lawful to The archbishop found that the day was wearing,
swear in anywise ." and passed from the argument to the next point.
Arundel, rolling up the paper : “ Lo, here it is Arundel : “ What sayest thou to the third point
certified that thou didst teach that the Sacrament that is certified against thee, that pilgrimage is not
of the altar was material bread after the consecra- lawful ? ”
tion . What sayest thou ?” Thorpe : “ There are true pilgrimages, and lawful,
Thorpe : “ As I stood there in the pulpit,busying and acceptable to God."
me to teach the commandmentofGod , a sacred bell Arundel : “ Whom callest thou true pilgrims ?"
began ringing, and therefore many people turned Thorpe : “ Those travelling towards the bliss of
away hastily , and with noise ran towards it ; and heaven . Such busy themselves to know and keep
I, seeing this, said to them thus : 'Good men, ye the biddings of God ; flee the seven deadly sins; do
were better to stand here still, and to hear God's willingly all the works ofmercy, and seek the gifts
Word . For the virtue of the most holy Sacrament of the Holy Ghost. Every good thought they
WILLIAM THORPE AND THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 359
think , every virtuous word they speak , every fruit with their Head , Christ, and will teach me, rule
ful work they accomplish, is a step numbered of me, or chastise me by authority, especially of God's
God toward him into heaven. 1 law ."
“ But," continued the confessor, “ the most part This was a submission ; but the additions with
ofmen and women that now go on pilgrimages have which it was qualified robbed it of all grace in the
not these conditions, nor love to have them . For, eyes of the archbishop. Once more, and for the
as I well know , since I have full often tried , last time, the primate put it plainly thus : “ Wilt
examine whoever will twenty of these pilgrims, thou not submit thee to the ordinance of holy
and he shall not find three men or women that Church ?”
know surely a commandment of God , nor can say “ I will full gladly submit me," replied Thorpe,
their Paternosters and Ave Maria , nor their creed , “ as I showed you before." ]
readily , in any manner of language. Their pilgrim - Hereupon Thorpe was delivered to the constable
age is more to have here worldly and fleshy friend of the castle. He was led out and thrown into a
ship, than to have friendship of God and of his worse prison than that in which he had before been
saints in heaven. Also , sir, I know that when confined . At his prison -door we lose all trace of
several men and women go thus after their own him . He never again appears, and what his fate
wills, and fixing on the same pilgrimage, they will was has never been ascertained .?
arrange beforehand to have with them both men This examination , or rather conference between
and women that can sing wanton songs, and other the primate and Thorpe, enables us to form a
pilgrims will have with them bagpipes ; so that tolerable idea of English Protestantism , or Lollard
every town that they come through , what with the ism , in the twilight time that intervened between
noise of their singing, and with the sound of their its dawn, in the days of Wicliffe, and its brighter
piping, and with the tangling of their Canterbury rising in the times of the sixteenth century. It
bells, and with the barking of dogs after them , they consisted , we may say, of but three facts or truths.
make more noise than if the king came there with The firstwas Scripture, asthe supreme and infallible
all his clarions and minstrels." authority ; the second was the Cross, as the sole
Arundel : “ What ! janglest thou against men 's fountain of forgivenessand salvation ; and the third
devotion ? Whatever thou or such other say, I say was Faith , as the one instrumentality by which men
that the pilgrimage that now is used is to them that come into possession of the blessings of that salva
do it a praiseworthy and a good means to come to tion. We may add a fourth, which was not so
grace . " much a primary truth as a consequence from the
After this there ensued another long contention three doctrines which formed the osteology, or
between Thorpe and the primate, on the subject of frame-work, of the Protestantism of those days
confession . The archbishop was not making much Holiness. The faith of these Christians was not
way in the argument,when one of the clerks inter- a dead faith : it was a faith that kept the com
posed and put an end to it. mandments of God , a faith that purified the heart,
" Sir,” said he, addressing the primate, “ it is and enriched the life.
late in the day, and ye have far to ride to -night ; If, in , one sense, Lollard Protestantism was a
therefore make an end with him , for he will make narrow and limited system , consisting but of a very
none ; but the more , sir, that ye busy you to draw few facts, in another sense it was perfect, inasmuch
him toward you , the more contumacious he is as it contained the germ and promise of all theology.
made." Given but one fundamental truth , all must follow
“ William , kneel down," said another , " and pray in due time.
my Lord 's Grace, and leave all thy fancies, and In the authority of Scripture as the inspired
become a child of holy Church .” The archbishop, Word of God, and the death of Christ as a complete
striking the table fiercely with his hand, also and perfect atonement for human guilt, they had
demanded his instant submission. Others taunted found more than one fundamental truth. They
him with his eagerness to be promoted to a stake
which men more learned than he had prudently 1 This account of Thorpe's examination is from For
avoided by recanting their errors. greatly abridged . Our aim has been to bring out his
doctrinal views, seeing they may be accepted as a good
“ Sir," said he, replying to the archbishop, “ as general representation of the Lollard theology of his day.
I have said to you several times to -day, I will The threats and contumelious epithets addressed to him
willingly and humbly obey and submit to God , and by the primate , we have all but entirely suppressed.
2 There were clearly but two We
to his law , and to every member of holy Church , as retractation or condemnation . courses
agreeopen
withto Fox
him
in
far as I can perceive that these members accord thinking that he was not likely to retract.
had but to go forward in the path on which they Meanwhile these early English Christians were
had entered , guiding themselves by these two beset without by scrupulosities and prejudices,
lights, and they would come, in due time, into arising from the dimness and narrowness of their
possession of all revealed truth. At every step the vision . They feared to lay their hand on the New
horizon around them would grow wider, the light Testament and be sworn ; they scrupled to employ
BAD
ITOSTIGNEAZIENTEGRERETU
OLD ST. L'AUL'S AND NEIGHBOURHOOD IN 1540.

(After Van der Wyngarde's View of London, taken for Philip II. of Spain .)
falling upon the objects it embraced would grow instrumentalmusic in public worship ; and someof
continually clearer, the relations of truth to truth them condemned all war. But within what a vast
would be more easily traceable, till at last the enlargementhad they already experienced ! Bowing
whole would grow into a complete and harmonious to the authority of the Word of God , their under
system , truth linked to truth, and all ranging standings were emancipated from the usurped
themselves in beautiful order around the grand authority of man . Having this anointing, they
central truths of the religion of Jesus Christ, the refused to look with the eyes of others, and see
Son of God. on the inspired page doctrines which no rule of
THE CONSTITUTIONS OF ARUNDEL. 361
exegesis could discover there, and from which their England ; it must be extinguished. The accom
reason revolted as monstrous. In leaning on the plishment of these two objects became now the
Cross, they had found that relief of heart which so main labour of Arundel. Convening at Oxford
many of their countrymen were seeking, but not (1408) the bishops and clergy of his province, he
finding, in fasts, in penances, in offerings to the promulgated certain provisions for the checking of
saints, and in pilgrimages, gone in some cases in heresy, digested into thirteen chapters,and known
sackcloth and tears, and severe mortification of the as the Constitutions of Arundel,' a designation
flesh , and in others in gay apparel, and on soft- they are entitled to bear, seeing they all run under
THE CATHEDRAL AND LEANING TOWER OF PISA .
paced and richly-caprisoned mules, to thescreaming the authority of the archbishop. The drift of these
of bag-pipes and the music ofmerry songs. Constitutions was, first, to prohibit all from exercis
The best evidence of the continued spread of ing the function of preacher who had not a special
Lollardism — in other words, of Protestantism — is licence from the diocesan, or had not undergone an
the necessity under which its opponents evidently examination before him touching their orthodoxy ;
felt to adopt more vigorous measures for its re- secondly,to charge preachers to eschew all Wicliffite
pression . The “ well” which Wicliffe had digged novelties, and to frame their discourses in every
at Oxford was still flowing ; its waters must be respect according to the doctrine of holy Church ;
cut off. The light he had kindled in his vernacular
Bible was still burning, and sending its rays over Collier, vol. i., bk. vii., p. 625.
31
and thirdly , seeing “ the errors of the Lollards ment subjected the offender to prosecution, “ as one
have seized the University of Oxford, therefore , to that makes it his business to spread the infection
prevent the fountain being poisoned, 'tis decreed of schism and heresy." ?
by the Synod that every warden , master, or prin - The seventh Constitution began thus : “ 'Tis a
cipal of any college or hall shall be obliged to dangerous undertaking, as St. Jerome assures us,
inquire, at least every month , into the opinions and to translate the Holy Scriptures. We therefore
principles of the students in their respective houses, decree and ordain ," it continued, “ that from hence
and if they find them maintain anything repugnant forward no unauthorised person shall translate any
to the Catholic faith to admonish them , and if part of Holy Scripture into English , or any other
if they continue obstinate to expel them .” “ In language, under any form of book or treatise.
regard,” said the sixth Constitution, “ the new Neither shall any such book , treatise , or version ,
roads in religion are more dangerous to travel made either in Wicliffe's time or since, be read,
than the old ones,” the primate, careful for the either in whole or in part, publicly or privately,
safety of wayfarers, proceeded to shut up all the under the penalty of the greater excommunication,
new roads thus : “ we enjoin and require that no till the said translation shall be approved either by
book or tract, written by John Wicliffe, or any the bishop of the diocese or a provincial council, as
other person either in Wicliffe's time or since , or occasion shall require." 3
who for the future shall write any other book upon No such authorisation was ever given . Con
a subject in divinity, shall be suffered to be read sequently all translations of the Sacred Scriptures
either in schools, halls, or any other places within into English , or any other tongue, and all reading of
our Province of Canterbury, unless such books the Word of God in whole or in part, in public or
shall first be examined by the University of Oxford in private, were by this Constitution proscribed,
or Cambridge,” & c. The infraction of this enact- under the penalty of the greater excommunication.
CHAPTER III.
GROWTH OF ENGLISH PROTESTANTISM .
The Papal Schism - Its Providential Purpose - Council of Pisa - Henry's Letter to the Pope - The King exhorts the
Pope to Amendment - The Council of Pisa Deposes both Popes - Elects Alexander V . - The Schism not Healed
Protestantism in England continues to grow - Oxford Purged - A Catholic Revival - Aves to Our Lady - Aves to
the Archbishop - Persecution of Protestants grows Hotter - Cradle of English Protestantism - Lessons to be
Learned beside it.
We have already spoken of the schism by which were distracted, for the rival Popes had carried
the Papal world was divided, and its governing their quarrel to the battle-field , and blood was
head weakened ,at the very moment when Wicliffe flowing in torrents. To put an end to these
was beginning his Reformation . To this event, in scandals and miseries, the French king sent an
no small degree , was it owing that the Reformer embassy to Pope Gregory XII., to induce him to
was permitted to go to his grave in peace, and that fulfil the oath he had taken at his election , to vacate
the seeds of truth which he had scattered were the chair provided his rival could be brought to
suffered to spring up and take some hold of the terms. “ He received ,” says Collier, “ a shuffling
soil before the tempest burst. But if the schism answer." !
was a shield over the infant Reformation, it was In November, 1409, the Cardinal of Bordeaux
a prolific source of calamities to the world . Con - arrived in England from France, on the design of
sciences were troubled , not knowing which of the engaging the two crowns to employ their authority
two chairs of Peter was the indubitable seat of in compelling Gregory to make good his oath .
authority and true fountain of grace. The nations The cardinals, too, lent their help towards termi
See ante, bk. ii., chap. 10. · Collier, i., bk. viii, p. 626 . 3 Ibid . 4 Ibid., p.628.
THE COUNCIL OF PISA . 363
nating the schism . They took steps for commencing of the Council well entitled it to represent the
a General Council at Pisa , to which the English Church, and gave good promise of the extinction of
clergy sent three delegates. King Henry had the schism ,
previously dispatched ambassadors, who carried . It was now to be seen how much the Papacy had
with other instructions, a letter to the Pope from suffered in prestige by being cleft in twain , and
the king. Henry IV . spoke plainly to his “ most how merciful this dispensation was for the world 's
Holy Father." He prayed him to “ consider to deliverance. Had the Papacy continued entire and
what degree the present schism has embarrassed unbroken , had there been but one Pope, the Coun
and embroiled Christendom , and how many thou - cil would have bowed down before him as the true
sand lives have been lost in the field in this quarrel.” Vicar ; but there were two; this forced the question
Would he lay these things to heart, he was sure that upon the members — Which is the false Pope ? May
“ his Holiness” would renounce the tiara sooner not both be false ? And so in a few days they found
than keep it at the expense of creating “ division in their way to the conclusion which they put into a
the Church, and fencing against peace with evasive definite sentence in their fourteenth session , and
answers. For," added he, “ were your Holiness which , when we take into account the age, the
influenced by serviceable motives , you would be men, and the functionaries over whom their con
governed by the tenderness of the true mother, demnation was suspended, is one of the most re
who pleaded before King Solomon, and rather markable decisions on record . It imprinted a scar
resign the child than suffer it to be cut in pieces." ? on the Papal power which is not effaced to this
Hewho gives good advice , says the proverb, under day. The Council pronounced Gregory XII. and
takes a thankless office. The proverb especially Benedict XIII. “ to be notorious and incorrigible
holds good in the case of him who presumes to schismatics and heretics, and guilty of plain per
advise an infallible man. Gregory read the letter, jury ; which imputations being evidently proved ,
but made no sign. Archbishop Arundel, by way they deprive them both of their titles and authority,
of seconding his sovereign , got Convocation to pronounce the Apostolic See vacant, and all the
agree that Peter's pence should be withheld till the censures and promotions of these pretended Popes
breach,which so afflicted Christendom , were healed . void and of none effect.” 5
If with the one hand the king was castigating the The Council, having ejected ignominiously the
Pope, with the other he was burning the Lollards : two Popes, and having rescued, as it thought, the
what wonder that he sped so ill in his efforts to chair on which each had laid hold with so tenacious
abate the Papal haughtiness and obstinacy ? and determined a grasp, proceeded to place in it the
Still the woeful sight of two chairs and two Popes Cardinal of Milan, who began to reign under the
continued to afflict the adherents of the Papacy. title of Alexander V.* This Pontificate was brief,
The cardinals ,more earnestly than ever , resolved to for within the year Alexander came by his end in a
bring the matter to an issue between the Pope and manner of which Balthazar, who succeeded him as
the Church ; for they foresaw , if matters went on as John XXIII., was supposed to know more than he
they were doing, the speedy ruin of both . Accord - was willing to disclose. The Council, instead of
ingly they gave notice to the princes and prelates of mendingmatters, had made them worse. John , who
the West, that they had summoned a General Coun - was now acknowledged the legitimate holder of the
cilatPisa ,on the 25th of March next ensuing (1409). tiara, contributed nothing either to the honour of
The call met a universal response. “ Almost all the the Church or the repose of the world . The two
prelates and venerable men of the Latin world,” Popes, Gregory and Benedict, refusing to submit
says Walsingham , “ repaired to Pisa.” 3 The Coun - themselves to the Council, or to acknowledge the
cil consisted of 22 cardinals, 4 patriarchs, 12 arch - new Pope, were still in the field , contending with
bishops in person and 14 by proxy, 80 bishops in both spiritual and temporal arms. Instead of two
person and a great many by their representatives, rival Popes there were now three ; “ not three
87 abbots , the ambassadors of nearly all the princes crowns upon one Pope's head,” says Fox, “ but
of Europe, the deputies of most of the universities , three heads in one Popish Church ,” each with a
the representatives of the chapters of cathedral body of followers to support his pretensions. The
churches, & c.* The numbers, rank , and authority schism thus was not only not healed, it was wider
- - - -- than ever ; and the scandals and miseries that flowed
i Collier, vol. i., p. 628.
Walsingham , Hist. Angliæ , p . 569 ; Camdeni Anglica ,
Frankfort, 1603. 5 Collier, vol. i., bk . vii., p. 629. Concil. Lab. et Cossar.,
3 Ibid ., p . 570. tom . xi., pars. 2 , col. 2126 .
* Collier, vol. i., bk. vii., pp. 628,629 . 6 Ibid ., col. 2131.
from it, so far from being abated or extinguished, vocation added , that a testimonial in favour of
were greatly aggravated ; and a few years later,we Wicliffe and his doctrines, with the seal of the uni.
find another General Council assembling at Con - versity affixed to it, had lately issued from the halls
stance , if haply it might effect what that of Pisa of Oxford .* Arundel did not delay. Presently his
had failed to accomplish . delegates were down on the college. These in
Wereturn to England. While the schism con- quisitors of heretical pravity summoned before them
tinued to scandalise and vex Romanists on the the suspected professors, and by threats of Henry's
Continent, the growth of Lollardism was not less a burning statute compelled them to recant. They
torment to the clergy in England. Despite the next examined the writings of Wicliffe. They ex
vigour of Arundel, who spared neither edicts nor tracted out of them 246 propositions which they
faggots, the seeds which that arch -enemy of the deemed heretical. This list they sent to the arch
Papacy,Wicliffe, had sown,would ever be springing bishop. The primate, after branding it with his
up, and mingling the wheat of Romewith the tares condemnation , forwarded it to the Pope, with a
of heresy . Oxford, in especial, demanded the request that he would stamp it with his final
primate's attention . That fountain had savoured of anathema, and that he would send him a bull, em
Lollardism ever since Wicliffe taught there. It powering him to dig up Wicliffe's bones and burn
must be purified . The archbishop set out, with a them . “ The Pope,” says Collier, “ granted the
pompous retinue, to hold a visitation of the uni- first, but refused the latter, not thinking it any
versity (1411). The chancellor, followed by a useful part of discipline to disturb the ashes of the
numerous body of proctors, masters, and students, dead."
met him at a little distance from the gates, and told While, with the one hand, Arundel maintained
him that if he came merely to see the town he was the fight against the infant Protestantism of Eng.
welcome, but if he came in his character of visitor, land, with the other he strove to promote a Catholic
he begged to remind his Grace that the University revival. He bethought him by what new rite he
of Oxford, in virtue of the Papal bull, was exempt could honour, with what new grace he could crown
from episcopal and archiepiscopal jurisdiction . This the “ mother of God.” He instituted, in honour of
rebuff Arundel could ill bear. He left Oxford in Mary, “ the tolling.of Aves," with certain Aves, the
a day or two, and wrote an account of the affair to due recital of which were to earn certain days of
the king. The heads of the university were sent pardon.” The ceremonies of the Roman Church
for to court, and the chancellor and proctors were were already very numerous, requiring a whole
turned out of their office. The students, taking technological vocabulary to name them , and well
offence at this rigour, ceased their attendance on nigh all the days of the year for their observance.
the public lectures, and were on the point of break In his mandate to the Bishop of London, Arundel
ing up and dissolving their body. set forth the grounds and reasons of this new
After a warm contention between the university observance. The realm of England verily owed
and the archbishop, the matter, by consent of both “ Our Lady ” much , the archbishop argued. She
parties, was referred to the king. Henry decided had been the “ buckler of our protection." She
that the point should remain on the footing on had “ made our arms victorious,” and “ spread our
which Richard II. had placed it. Thus judgment power through all the coasts of the earth.” Yet
was given in favour of the archbishop, and the more , to the Virgin Mary the nation owed its
royal decision was confirmed first by Parliament escape from a portentous evil that menaced it, and
and next by John XXIII., in a bull that made of which it was dreadful to think what the con
void the privilegeof exemption which Pope Boniface sequences would have been , had it overtaken it
had conferred on the university. The archbishop does not name themonstrous thing ;
This opened the door of Oxford to the arch- but it is easy to see what was meant, for the arch
bishop. Meanwhile Convocation raised a yet louder bishop goes on to speak of a new species of wolves
cry of Wicliffitism in the university, and pressed that waited to attack the inhabitants of England
the primate to interpose his authority ere that and destroy them , not by tearing them with their
“ former seat of learning and virtue " had become
utterly corrupt. It was an astounding .tact, Con - 4 The university seal, it is believed , was surreptitiously
obtained ; but the occurrence proves that among the pro
1 See ante, bk. iii., chap . 4 . fessors at Oxford were not a few who thought with
· ? Collier, vol. i., bk . vii., p . 630. Wicliffe.
3 This bull was afterwards voided by Sixtus IV . Wood , 5 Fox, bk . V ., p. 282 ; Lond., 1838.
Hist. Univ .; Oxon , 205 . Cotton ' s Abridgment, p. 480. 6 Collier, vol. i., bk . vii., p . 631.
Collier, vol. i., bk . vii., p. 630 . 7 Fox, bk , V ., p. 280.
PERSECUTION OF EARLY ENGLISH PROTESTANTS. 365
teeth after the usual manner of wild beasts , but in they increased their reverence for “ mother Church .”
the exercise of some novel and strange instinct, Every such act was a strengthening of the fetter
by mingling poison with their food. “ To whom which dulled the intellect and bound the soul. At
(Mary ) we may worthily ascribe, now of late in each repetition the deep sleep of the conscience
these our times, our deliverance from the ravening became yet deeper.
wolves, and the mouths of cruel beasts, who had The persecution against the Protestants did not
prepared against our banquets a mess of meat abate. The pursuit of heretics became more strict;
mingled full of gall." ! On these grounds the arch- and their treatment, at the hands of their captors,
bishop issued his commands (Feb. 10th, 1410), that more cruel. The prisons in the bishops' houses,
peals should be tolled , morning and evening, in heretofore simply places of confinement, were now
praise of Mary ; with a promise to all who should often provided with instruments of torture. The
say the Lord's prayer and a “ hail Mary ” five Lollards' Tower, at Lambeth ,wascrowded with con
times at the morning peal, of a forty-days' pardon. fessors , who have left on the walls of their cell, in
To whom , after “ Our Lady," the archbishop brief but touching phrase , the record of their
doubtless thought, did England owe so much as “ patience and faith ,” to be read by the men of
to himself ? Accordingly , we find him putting in a after-times ; nay, by us, seeing these memorials are
modest claim to share in the honours he had decreed not yet effaced . Many, weak in faith and terrified
to his patroness. This next mandate, directed to rketviolence
by athe
atm csarb, withat
th limenaced ppeared inin
erh , aappeared
ghted tapthem
Thomas Wilton , his somner , enjoined that, at what penitential garb, with lighted tapers in their hand ,
time he should pass through his Province of Can - atmarket crosses, and church doors, and read their
terbury, having his cross borne before him , the bells recantation. But not all : else England at this day
of all the parish churches should be rung,“ in token would have been whatSpain is. There were others,
of special reverence that they bear to us.” : Certain more largely strengthened from on high, who as
churches in London were temporarily closed by the pired to the glory, than which there is no purer or
archbishop, because “ on Tuesday last, when we, brighter on earth, of dying for the Gospel. Thus
between eight and nine of the clock , before dinner, the stake had its occasional victim .
passed openly on foot as it were through the midst So passed the early years of English Protestantism .
of the City of London , with our cross carried before It did not grow up in dalliance and ease , amid the
us, they showed toward us unreverence, ringing smiles of the great and the applause of the mul
not their bells at all at our coming.” “ Wherefore titude ; no, it was nurtured amid fierce and cruel
we command you that by our authority you put storms. From its cradle it was familiar with
all these churches under our indictment, suspend- hardship , with revilings and buffetings, with cruel
ing God's holy organs and instruments in the mockings and scourgings, nay, moreover, with
same." + bonds and imprisonments. The mob derided it ;
“ Why,” inquires the chronicler, “ though the power frowned upon it ; and lordly Churchmen
bells did not clatter in the steeples, should the body branded it as heresy, and pursued it with sword
of the church be suspended ? The poor organs, me and faggot. Let us draw around its cradle , placed
thinks, suffered some wrong in being put to silence under no gorgeous roof, but in a prison -cell, with
in the quire, because the bells rang not in the yaolers and executioners waiting beside it. Let
tower.” There are some who may smile at these us forget, if only for awhile , the denominational
devices of Arundel to strengthen Popery, as be- names, and ecclesiastical classifications, that separate
tokening vain -glory rather than insight. But we us ; let us lay aside, the one his lawn and the other
may grant that the astute archbishop knew what his Genevan cloak , and, simply in our character of
he was about. He thus made “ the Church " ever Christians and Protestants, come hither, and con
present to Englishmen of that age. She awoke template the lowliness of our common origin . It
them from slumber in the morning, she sung them seems as if the “ young child ” had been cast out
to repose at night. Her chimes were in their ears to perish ; the Roman Power stands before it ready
and her symbols before their eyes all day long to destroy it, and yet it has been said to it, “ To
Every time they kissed an image, or repeated thee will I give England." There is a lesson here
an Ave, or crossed themselves with holy water, which, could we humble ourselves, and lay it duly
. to heart, would go far to awaken the love and
i Fox, bk. v ., p . 280 . ? Ibid . 3 Ibid . Lo rd ..
Ibid bring back the union and strength of our first days.
ARCHBISHOP ARUNDEL AT OXFORD .
CHAPTER IV .
EFFORTS FOR THE REDISTRIBUTION OF ECCLESIASTICAL PROPERTY.
The Burning Bush - Petition of Parliament - Redistribution of Ecclesiastical Property - Defence of Archbishop
Arundel — The King stands by the Church - The Petition Presented a Second Time - Its Second Refusal- More
Powerful Weapons than Royal Edicts - Richard II. Deposed - Henry IV . - Edict De Hæretico Comburendo
Griefs of the King - Calamities of the Country - Projected Crusade - Death of Henry IV .
In the former chapter we saw the Protestants of growing in violence every hour, and the little com
England stigmatised as Lollards, proscribed by pany on whom it beat so sorely seemed doomed to
edicts, and haled to prisons, which they left, the extinction. Yet in no age or country , perhaps,
many to read their recantation at cathedral doors has the Church of God more perfectly realised the
and market crosses, and the few to fulfil their promise wrapped up in her earliest and most
witness-bearing at the stake. The tempest was significant symbol, than in England at the pre
THE CLERGY AND THE COMMONS. 367
sent time. As amid the granite peaks of Horeb , their vassals and tenants to the field , and in such
so here in England, “ The bush burned and was numbers, and furnished with such equipments, as
not consumed.” corresponded to the size of their estates ; and
This way of maintaining their testimony by further, the archbishopmaintained that as regarded
suffering, was a surer path to victory than that the taunt that the clerics were but drones , who
which the English Protestants had fondly chalked lived idly at home while their countrymen were
out for themselves. In the sixth year of Henry IV ., serving abroad,the Speaker had donethem injustice.
they had moved the king, through Parliament, to If they donned the surplice or betook them to their
take possession of the temporalities of the Church, breviary, when their lay brethren buckled on the
and redistribute them in such a manner as would coat ofmail, and grasped rapier or cross -bow , it was
22
2222
CHAMBER IN THE LOLLARDS' TOWER , LAMBETH PALACE, WHERE THE REFORMERS WERE CONFINED.
make them more serviceable to both the crown and not because they were chary of their blood, or
the nation. enamoured of ease, but because they wished to give
The Commons represented to the king that the their days and nights to prayer for their country's
clergy possessed a third of the lands in the realm , welfare, and especially for the success of its arms.
that they contributed nothing to the public bur- While the soldiers of England were fighting, her
dens, and that their riches disqualified them from priests were supplicating ; ' the latter, not less
the due performance of their sacred functions. than the former , contributed to those victories
Archbishop Arundel was by the king's side when which were shedding such lustre on the arms of
the petition was presented by the Speaker of the England .
House, Sir John Cheney. He was not the man to The Speaker of the Commons, smiling at the pri
stand silent when such an accusation was preferred mate's enthusiasm , replied that “ he thought the
against his order. True it was, said the arch
bishop , that the clergy did not go in person to the Holinshed , vol. iii., p. 30. Cobbett, vol, i., cols. 299,
wars, but it was not less true that they always sent 296. Collier, vol. i., bk. vii., p . 620.
hith whichHetheeven
prayers of the Church but a slender supply.” Stung tproposal. efused toto llisten
y en rrefused isten +to the request
by this retort, Arundel quickly turned on Sir with which they had accompanied their petition ,
John, and charged himrelwith owaneness. "“ II that he would grant a mitigation of the edict
ate,« hprofaneness.
perceive, sir," said the prelate, “ how the kingdom against heresy , and permit convicted Lollards to be
is likely to thrive, when the aids of devotion , sent to his own prisons, rather than be immured in
and the favour of Heaven, are thus slighted and the more doleful strongholds of the bishops. Even
ridiculed.” these small favours the Protestants could notobtain ,
The king “ hung, as it were, in a balance of and lest the clergy should think that Henry had
thought.” The archbishop, perceiving his indeci- begun to waver between the two faiths, he sealed
sion, dropped on his knees before him , and implored his devotion to the Church by anew kindling the
Henry to remember the oath hehad sworn on coming pile for the Lollards.
to the crown, to maintain the rights of the Church By other weapons were the Wicliffites to win
and defend the clergy ; and he counselled him ,above England than by royal edicts and Paliamentary
all, to beware incurring the guilt of sacrilege, and petitions. They must take slow and laborious pos
the penalties thereto annexed. The king was un- session of it by their tears and their martyrdoms.
decided no longer ; he bade the archbishop dismiss Although the king had done as they desired , and
his fears , and assured him that the clergy need the edict had realised all that they expected from
be under no apprehensions from such proposals it, it would after all have been but a fictitious
as the present, while he wore the crown ; that he and barren acquisition, liable to be swept away by
would take care to leave the Church in even a every varying wind that blew at court. But when ,
better condition than that in which he had found by their painful teachings, by their holy lives, and
it. The hopes of the Lollards were thus rudely their courageous deaths, they had enlightened the
dashed." understandings and won the hearts of their country .
But their numbers continued to increase ; by- men to the Protestant doctrine, then would they
and-by there came to be a “ Lollard party ,” as have taken possession of England in very deed , and
Walsingham calls it, in Parliament, and in the in such fashion that they would hold it for ever.
eleventh year of Henry's reign they judged the These early disciples did not yet clearly see wherein
time ripe for bringing forward their proposal a lay the great strength of Protestantism . The
second time. They made a computation of the political activity into which they had diverged was
ecclesiastical estates, which , according to their an attempt to gather fruit, not only before the sun
showing, amounted to 485,000 merks of yearly had ripened it, but even before they had well sowed
value, and contained 18,400 ploughs of land . the seed. The fabric of the Roman Church was
This property, they suggested , should be divided founded on the belief, in the minds of Englishmen ,
into three parts , and distributed as follows : one that the Pope was Heaven 's delegate for conferring
part was to go to the king, and would enable on men the pardon of their sins and the blessings
him to maintain 6 ,000 men -at-arms, in addition of salvation . That belief must first be exploded .
to those he had at present in his pay ; it would So long as it kept its hold , no material force, no
enable him besides to make a new creation of earls political action , could suffice to overthrow the
and knights . The second was to be divided , as an domination of Rome. Amid the scandals of the
annual stipend , among the 15 , 000 priests who were clergy and the decay of the nation , it would have
to conduct the religious services of the nation ; continued to flourish to our day, had not the reform
and the remaining third was to be appropriated ing and spiritual forces come to the rescue. We
to the founding of 100 new hospitals. But the can the more easily pardon the mistake of the
proposal found no favour with the king, even English Protestants of the fifteenth century when
though it promised to augment considerably his we reflect that, even yet, the sole efficacy — the
military following. He dared not break with the omnipotency of these forces finds only partial
hierarchy, and he might be justly suspicious of belief in the general mind of even the religious
the changes which so vast a project would draw world .
after it. From the hour that the stake for Protestantism
Addressing the Commons in a tone of great was planted in England, neither the king nor the
severity , he charged them never again , so long as nation had rest. Henry Plantagenet (Bolingbroke)
he lived, to come before the throne with any such had returned from exile, on his oath not to disturb
1 Walsingham , pp. 371, 372 . Collier, vol. i., bk , vii.. . Holinshed , vol. iii., p. 48. Walsingham , p . 379. Collier,
pp. 620 , 621. Hume, chap . 18 - Hen . IV . vol. i., bk . vii., p. 629.
HENRY THE FIFTH ' S PROJECTED CRUSADE. 369
the succession to the crown. He broke his vow , monthswore away, as an old chronicler says, “with
and dethroned Richard II. The Church, through little pleasure.”
her head the primate, was an accomplice with him The last year of Henry's life was signalised by
in this deed. Arundel anointed the new king a projected expedition to the Holy Land. The
with oil from that mysterious vial which the Virgin monarch deemed himself called to the pious labour
was said to have given to Thomas à Becket, during of delivering Jerusalem from the Infidel. If he
his exile in France, telling him that the kings on should succeed in a work so meritorious, he would
whose head this oil should be poured would prove spend whatmight remain to him of lifewith an easier
valiant champions of the Church . The coronation conscience, as having made atonement for the crimes
was followed by the dark tragedy in the Castle of by which he had opened his way to the throne.
Pontefract ; and that, again , by the darker, though As it turned out, however , his efforts to achieve this
more systematic, violence of the edict De Hæretico grand enterprise but added to his own cares, and to
Comburendo, which was followed
in its turn by the imprisonings
in the Tower, and the burnings
in Smithfield. The reign thus HV uhn
itnl VEPRI
inaugurated had neither glory kinni υψη
V
abroad nor prosperity at home.
Faction rose upon faction ; re
volt trod on the heels of revolt ;
and a train of national calamities
followed in rapid succession, till
at last Henry had completely lost
the popularity which helped him
to mount the throne ; and the
terror with which he reigned
made his subjects regret the 20
weak , frivolous, and vicious pebrg miring wasdewaedz pewozd vzas
Richard , whom he had deprived
first of his crown, and next of atgod.ygod.WASjepzondyis wasm, pe brgo
his life. Rumours that Richard nong atgod alle rings iberen mage hubyma
still lived, and would one day FACSIMILE OF PART OF A PAGE OF WICLIFFE' S BIBLE .
claim his own, were continually
springing up, and occasioned , his subjects' burdens. He had collected ships,
not only perpetualalarms to the money, provisions, and soldiers. All was ready ;
king, but frequent conspiracies the fleet waited only till the king should come on
among his nobles ; and the man board to weigh anchor and set sail. But before
who was first to plant the stake in England for the embarking, the monarch must needs visit the shrine
disciples of the Gospel had, before many days had of St. Edward. “ While he was making his prayers,"
passed by, to set up scaffolds for the peers of his says Holinshed , “ there as it were to take his
realm . His son , Prince Henry, added to his griefs. leave, and so to procede forth on his journie, he
The thought, partly justified by the wild life which was suddenlie and grievouslie taken , that such as
the prince then led , and the abandoned companions were about him feared that he should have died
with whom he had surrounded himself, that he
wished to seize the crown before death had given it Henry. The prince heard that he had been slandered to
to him in the regular way, continually haunted the the king, and went to court, with a numerous train, to
royal imagination ; and , to obviate this danger, the clear himself. “ He was appareled ," says Holinshed ,
monarch took at times the ludicrous precaution of " in a gown of blue satin and full of small owlet holes, at
every hole the needle hanging by a silk thread with
placing the regalia on his pillow when he went to which it was sewed .” Falling on his knees, he pulled out
sleep . His brief reign of thirteen years and five a dagger, and presenting it to the king, he bade him
plunge it into his breast, protesting that he did not wish
1 Walsingham , pp. 360, 361. This vial, the chronicler to live a single day under his father's suspicions. The
tells us, had lain for many years, neglected, locked up king , casting away the dagger, kissed the prince, and was
in a chest in the Tower of London . reconciled to him . (Chron ., vol. iii., p. 54.)
? The chronicler, Holinshed , records a curious interview 3 Collier, vol. i., bk . vii., p. 632. Holinshed, vol. iii.,
between the prince and his father, in the latter days of p. 57 .
presentlie ; wherefore, to relieve him , if it were not, he willed to know if the chamber had any
possible , they bare him into a chamber that was particular name, whereunto answer was made that
next at hand, belonging to the Abbot of West- it was called “ Jerusalem . Then said the king,
minister , where they laid him on a pallet before the “ Lauds be given to the Father of Heaven , for I
fire, and used all remedies to revive him . At length know that I shall die here in this chamber, accord
he recovered his speech and understanding, and per - ing to the prophecy of me, which declared that I
ceiving himself in a strange place which he knew should depart this life in Jerusalem .' ” 4
CHAPTER V .
TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE.
Henry V . - A Coronation and Tempest - Interpretations - Struggles for Liberty - Youth of Henry - Change on
becoming King - Arundel his Evil Genius- Sir John Oldcastle - Becomes Lord Cobham by Marriage - Embraces
Wicliffe 's Opinions - Patronises the Lollard Preachers - Is Denounced by Arundel- Interview between Lord
Cobham and the King - Summoned by the Archbishop - Citations Torn Down - Confession of his Faith
Apprehended - Broughtbefore the Archbishop's Court - Examination - His Opinions on the Sacrament, Confession,
the Pope, Images, the Church , & c. - His Condemnation as a Heretic - Forged Abjuration - He Escapes from
the Tower.
STRUCK down by apoplexy in the prime of man - aspirations and tendencies, which found their first
hood, March 20th, 1413, Henry IV . was carried to arena of development on the field of battle ; and
his tomb in Canterbury Cathedral, and his son , their second, and more glorious one, in the halls of
Henry V ., mounted his throne. The new king political and theological discussion ; and their final
was crowned on Passion Sunday, the 9th of April. evolvement, after two centuries , in the sublime
The day was signalised by a fearful tempest, that fabric of civil and religious liberty that now stood
burst over England , and which the spirit of the age completed in England, that other nations might
variously interpreted.? Not a few regarded it as a study its principles, and enjoy its blessings.
portent of evil, which gave warning of political The youth of Henry V ., who now governed
storms that were about to convulse the State of England , had been disorderly . It was dis
England. But others, more sanguine, construed honoured by “ the riot of pleasure, the frolic of
this occurrence more hopefully. As the tempest, debauchery, the outrage of wine." 5 The jealousy
said they, disperses the gloom of winter, and sum - of his father, by excluding him from all public
mons from their dark abodes in the earth the flowers employment, furnished him with an excuse for
of spring, so will the even -handed justice of the filling the vacancies of his mind and his timewith
king dispel themoral vapours which have hung above low amusements and degrading pleasures. But
the land during the late reign , and call forth the when the prince put on the crown he put off his
virtues of order and piety to adorn and bless society former self. He dismissed his old associates, called
Meanwhile the future, which men were striving around him the counsellors of his father, bestowed
to read, was posting towards them , bringing along the honours and offices of the State upon men of
with it those sharp tempests that were needful to capacity and virtue ; and, pensioning his former
drive away the exhalations of a night which had companions, he forbade them to enter his presence
long stagnated over England. Religion was de- till they had become better men . He made, in
scending to resumethe place that superstition had short, a commendable effort to effect a reformation
usurped, and awaken in the English people those in manners and religion. “ Now placed on the
royal seat of the realm ," says the chronicler, " he
1 " A sore, ruggie, and tempestuous day, with wind, determined to begin with something acceptable to
snow , and sleet, that men greatly marvelled thereat,
making diverse interpretations what the same might the Divine Majesty, and therefore commanded
signifie.” (Holinshed , vol. iii., p. 61.)
2 Fox, bk . V., p. 282. 3 Walsingham , p. 382. * Holinshed, vol. iii., p. 58. • Hume, chap. 19.
SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE, AFTERWARDS LORD COBHAM . 371
the clergy sincerelie and trulie to preach the Word preacher's side, to defend him from the insults of
of God , and to live accordinglie , that they might be the friars.? Such open disregard of the ecclesiastical
lanterns of light to the temporalitie, as their pro - authority was not likely long to either escape notice
fession required . The laymen he willed to serve or be exempt from censure.
God and obey their prince, prohibiting them , above Convocation was sitting at the time ( 1413) in
all things, breach of matrimonie, custom in swear- St. Paul's. The archbishop rose and called the
ing, and wilful perjurie.” attention of the assembly to the progress of Lol
It was the unhappiness of Henry V ., who meant lardism , and, pointing specially to Lord Cobham ,
so well by his people , that he knew not the true declared that “ Christ's coat would never be with
source whence alone a real reformation can proceed out seam ” till that notorious abettor of heretics
The astute Arundel wasstill by his side, and guided were taken out of the way. On that point allwere
the steps of the prince into the same paths in which agreed ; but Cobham had a friend in the king, and
his father had walked. Lollard blood still con - it would not do to have him out forthwith into
tinued to flow , and new victims from time to time Smithfield and burn him , as if he were an ordinary
mounted the martyr's pile. heretic. They must, if possible , take the king
The most illustrious of the Protestants of that along with them in all they did against Lord
reign was Sir John Oldcastle, a knight of Here- Cobham . Accordingly, Archbishop Arundel, with
fordshire. Having married the heiress of Cowling other bishops and members of Convocation , waited
Castle, near Rochester, he sat in Parliament under on the king, and laid before him their complaint
the title of Lord Cobham , in right of his wife's against Lord Cobham . Henry replied that he would
barony. The youth of Lord Cobham had been first try what he himself could do with the brave
stained with gay pleasures ; but the reading of the old knight whom he bore in so high esteem .
Bible, and the study of Wicliffe's writings, had The king sent for Cobham , and exhorted him to
changed his heart; and now , to the knightly virtues abandon his scruples, and submit to his mother
of bravery and honour, he added the Christian the Church . “ You, most worthy prince,” was
graces of humility and purity. He had borne arms the reply, “ I am always prompt and willing to
in France , under Henry IV ., who set a high value obey, forasmuch as I know you are a Christian
on his military accomplishments. He was not less king, and minister of God ; unto you, next to God ,
esteemed by the son, Henry V ., for his private I owe my whole obedience , and submit me there
worth, his shrewd sense, and his gallant bear- unto. But, as touching the Pope and his spirit
ing as a soldier. But the “ dead fly ” in the ualitie, trulie I owe them neither suit nor service,
noble qualities and upright character of the stout forasmuch as I know him , by the Scriptures, to be
old baron, in the opinion of the king, was his Lol- the great Antichrist, the open adversary of God,
lardism . and the abomination standing in the holy place.” !
With characteristic frankness, Lord Cobham At the hearing of these words the king's coun
nade no secret of his attachment to the doctrines tenance fell ; his favour for Cobham gave way to his
of Wicliffe . He avowed , in his place in Parlia - hatred of heresy ; he turned away, purposing with
ment, so early as the year 1391, “ that it would be himself to interfere no farther in thematter.
very commodious for England if the Pope's juris- The archbishop cameagain to the king, who now
diction stopped at the town of Calais, and did not gave his ready consent that they should proceed
cross the sea." against Lord Cobham according to the laws of the
It is said of him , too, that he had copies made Church. These , in all such cases as the present,
of Wicliffe's works, and sent them to Bohemia , were compendiously summarised in the one statute
France, Spain , Portugal, and other countries. of Henry IV ., De Hæretico Comburendo. The arch
He threw open Cowling Castle to the Lollard bishop dispatched a messenger to Cobham , summon
preachers, making it their head-quarters while ing him to appear before him on September 2nd,
they itinerated in the neighbourhood , preaching and answer to the articles of accusation. Acting
the Gospel. He himself often attended their on the principle that he “ owed neither suit nor
sermons, taking his stand, sword in hand, by the service ” to the Pope and his vassals, Lord Cobham
paid no attention to the summons. Arundel next
1 Holinshed, vol. iii., p . 62. prepared citations, in due form , and had them
. See Dugdale , Baronetage. ?
3 Walsingham , p. 382.
4 Collier, vol. i., bk . vii., p . 632. i Collier, vol. i., bk. vii., p . 632.
5 Bale, Brefe Chron., p. 13; Lond., 1729. 8 Bale, p . 23. Holinshed , vol. iii., p. 62.
6 Ibid . Bale , pp . 24, 25. Fox, bk . V ., p . 282.
sc
LAS
SI INT
BA
KA
LITE
SS
Resh
10
umjetnikada
ARNA
Re
i
NA
CONSULTAR
SALLE
NEUS
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SA
BA
SA
LOVIN ATALOLLARD
CODILAM
.LORD
PREACHING
ACTION AGAINST LORD COBHAM . 373
posted up on the gates of Cowling Castle, and on the not the clear, well-defined and technical expres
doors of the neighbouring Cathedral of Rochester. sion, of the Reformation theology of the sixteenth
These summonses were speedily torn down by the century. He carried it to the king, craving him
friends and retainers of Lord Cobham . The arch - to have it examined by the most godly , wise,
bishop , seeing the Church in danger of being brought and learned men of his realm .” Henry refused
into contempt, and her authority of being made a to look at it. Handing it to the archbishop, the
laughing-stock, hastened to unsheathe against the king said that, in this matter, his Grace was his
defiant knight her ancient sword, so terrible in judge.
those ages. He excommunicated the great Lol. There followed , on the part of Cobham , a pro
lard ; but even this did not subdue him . A third posal which , doubtless, would cause astonishment
LILLE
The
DET
TRIANGLE
TUTTI DI
VIEW OF THE TOWER OF LONDON FROM THE RIVER THAMES (1700 ) .
time were citations posted up, commanding his ap- to a modern divine, but which was not accounted
pearance, under threat of severe penalties ;' and incongruous or startling in an age when so many
again the summonses were contemptuously torn legal, political, and even moral questions were left
down. for decision to the wager of battle. He offered to
Cobham had a stout heart in his bosom , but he bring a hundred knights and esquires into the
would show the king that he had also a good field , for his purgation, against an equal number
cause. Taking his pen, he sat down and drew out on the side of his accusers ; or else, said he, “ I
a statement of his belief. He took , as the ground shall fight, myself, for life or death , in the quarrel
work of his confession of faith ,the Apostles'Creed, of my faith , with any man living, Christian or
giving, mainly in the words of Scripture, the sense heathen, the king and the lords of his council
in which he received its several articles. His excepted ." 3 The proposal was declined , and the
paper has all the simplicity and spirituality, but
2 The document is given in full by Bale and Fox.
Bale, pp .25– 28. Collier, vii. 633. Foz,v. 282. 3 Bale , p. 35.
32
issue was that the king suffered him to be seized, the same that was born of the Virgin , donc on the
in his privy chamber, and imprisoned in the cross, and now is glorified in heaven."
Tower. A doctor : “ After the Sacramental words be
On Saturday, September 23rd, 1413, Lord Cob- uttered there remaineth no bread , but only the
ham was brought before Archbishop Arundel, who, body of Christ.”
assisted by the Bishops of London and Winchester, Lord Cobham : “ You said once to me, in the
opened his court in the chapter-house of St. Paul's. Castle of Cowling, that the sacred Host was not
The primate offered him absolution if he would Christ's body. But I held then against you, and
submit and confess himself. He replied by pulling proved that therein was his body, though the
out of his bosom and reading a written statement seculars and friars could not therein agree , but held
of his faith , handing a copy to the primate, and one against the other.”
keeping one for himself. The court then adjourned Many doctors, with great noise : “ We say all
till the Monday following, when it met in the that it is God's body.”
Dominican Friars , on Ludgate Hill, with a more They angrily insisted that he should answer
numerous attendance of bishops, doctors,and friars. whether it was material bread after consecration ,
Absolution was again offered the prisoner, on the or no.
old terms : “ Nay, forsooth will I not,” he re- Lord Cobham (looking earnestly at the arch
plied , “ for I never yet trespassed against you, and bishop ) : “ I believe surely that it is Christ's body
therefore I will not do it.” Then falling down on in form of bread. Sir , believe not you thus ?”
his knees on the pavement, and extending his The archbishop : “ Yea ,marry, do I.”
hands toward heaven , he said , “ I shrive me here The doctors : “ Is it only Christ's body after the
unto thee , my eternal living God , that in my frail consecration of a priest, and no bread , or not ? "
youth I offended thee, O Lord , most grievously, Lord Cobham : “ It is both Christ's body and
in pride, wrath , and gluttony, in covetousness and bread. I shall prove it thus : For like as Christ,
in lechery. Many men have I hut, in mine anger , dwelling here upon the earth , had in him both
and done many horrible sins ; good Lord , I ask Godhood and manhood , and had the invisible God
thee , mercy.” Then rising up, the tears streaming hood covered under that manhood which was only
down his face, he turned to the people, and cried , visible and seen in him : so in the Sacrament of
“ Lo, good people, for the breaking of God's law the altar is Christ's very body, and very bread also,
these men never yet cursed me ; but now , for their as I believe. The bread is the thing which wesee
own laws and traditions, they most cruelly handle with our eyes ; the body of Christ, which is his
me and other men. ” 1 flesh and his blood , is hidden thereunder, and no
The court took a little while to recover itself seen but in faith ."
after this scene. It then proceeded with the ex- Smiling to one another ,and all speaking together:
amination of Lord Cobham , thus : “ It is a foul heresy."
The archbishop : “ What say you, sir , to the four A bishop : “ It is a manifest heresy to say that
articles sent to the Tower for your consideration , it is bread after the Sacramental words have been
and especially to the article touching the Sacrament spoken.”
of the altar ! " Lord Cobham : “ St. Paul, the apostle, was, I am
Lord Cobham : “ My Lord and Saviour, Jesus sure, as wise as you are , and more godly-learned ,
Christ, sitting at his last supper, with his most dear and he called it bread : writing to the Corinthians,
disciples, the night before he should suffer , took he says, “ The bread that we break , is it not the
bread in his hand, and , giving thanks to his eternal partaking of the body of Christ?""
Father, blessed it, brake it, and gave it unto them , All : “ St. Paul must be otherwise understood ;
saying, " Take it unto you , and eat thereof, all. for it is heresy to say that it is bread after con
This is my body, which shall be betrayed for you. secration."
Do this hereafter in my remembrance.' This do I Lord Cobham : “ How do you make that good ?"
thoroughly believe." The court : “ It is against the determination of
The archbishop : “ Do you believe that it was holy Church ."
bread after the Sacramental words had been The archbishop : “ We sent you a writing con
spoken ?" cerning the faith of the blessed Sacrament, clearly
Lord Cobham : “ I believe that in the Sacrament determined by the Church of Rome, our mother,
of the altar is Christ's very body, in form of bread ; and by the holy doctors,"
Lord Cobham : “ I know none holier than is
Bale, pp. 50 ,51. Fox, bk. v ., p . 284 . Christ and his apostle . And for that determination ,
LORD COBHAM 'S EXAMINATION. 375
I wot, it is none of theirs , for it standeth not with Friar Palmer : “ Sir , will ye worship the cross of
the Scriptures, but is manifestly against them . If Christ, that he died upon ?” .
it be the Church's, as ye say it is, it hath been hers Lord Cobham : “ Where is it ? "
only since she received the great poison of worldly The friar : “ I put the case, sir, that it were here
possessions, and not afore." even now before you."
The archbishop : “ What do you think of holy Lord Cobham : “ This is a wise man , to put to
Church ?” me an earnest question of a thing, and yet he
Lord Cobham : “ Holy Church is the number of himself knows not where the thing is. Again I
them which shall be saved, of which Christ is the ask you, what worship should I give it ?"
head. Of this Church, one part is in heaven with A priest : “ Such worship as St. Paul speaks of,
Christ ; another in purgatory (you say) ; and the and that is this, ‘God forbid that I should joy, but
third is here on earth .” only in the cross of Jesus Christ.' ”
Doctor John Kemp : “ Holy Church hath deter- The Bishop of London : “ Sir, ye wot well that
mined thatevery Christian man ought to be shriven Christ died on a material cross."
by a priest. What say ye to this ? ” . Lord Cobham : “ Yea , and I wot also that our
Lord Cobham : “ A diseased or sore wounded salvation came not by that material cross, but by
man had need to have a wise surgeon and a true. him alone that died thereon ; and well I wot that
Most necessary were it, therefore , to be first shriven holy St. Paul rejoiced in no other cross but Christ's
unto God , who only knoweth our diseases , and can passion and death."
help us. I deny not in this the going to a priest, The archbishop : “ Sir, the day passeth away.
if he be a man of good life and learning. If he be Ye must either submit yourself to the ordinance
a vicious man, I ought rather to flee from him ; for of holy Church, or else throw yourself into most
I am more likely to have infection than cure from deep danger. See to it in time, for anon it will be
him .” too late."
Doctor Kemp : “ Christ ordained St. Peter to be Lord Cobham : “ I know not to what purpose I
his Vicar here on earth , whose see is the Church of should submit me."
Rome; and he granted the same power to all St. The archbishop : “ We once again require you to
Peter's successors in that see. Believe ye not this ?” look to yourself, and to have no other opinion in
Lord Cobham : “ He that followeth St. Peter most these matters, save that is the universal faith and
nearly in holy living is next unto him in succession.” belief of the holy Church of Rome; and so , like an
Another doctor : “ What do ye say of the obedient child , return to the unity of your mother.
Pope ?" See to it, I say, in time, for yet ye may have
Lord Cobham : “ He and you together maketh remeid , whereas anon it will be too late."
the whole great Antichrist. The Pope is the head ; Lord Cobham : “ I will none otherwise believe in
you, bishops, priests, prelates, and monks, are the these points than I have told you before. Do with
body ; and the Begging Friars are the tail, for they me what you will."
hide the wickedness of you both with their so- The archbishop : “ Wemust needs do the law :
phistry.” wemust proceed to a definite sentence, and judge
Doctor Kemp : “ Holy Church hath determined and condemn you for an heretic."
that it is meritorious to go on pilgrimage to holy Hereupon the archbishop stood up to pronounce
places, and there to worship holy relics and images sentence. The whole assembly - bishops, doctors,
of saints and martyrs. What say ye to this ?” and friars— rose at the same time, and uncovered .
Lord Cobham : “ I owe them no service by any The primate drew forth two papers which had been
commandment of God. It were better to brush the prepared beforehand, and proceeded to read them .
cobwebs from them and put them away, or bury The first set forth the heresies of which Lord Cob
them out of sight; as ye do other aged people,which ham had been convicted, and the efforts which the
are God 's images. But this I say unto you, and I court, " desiring the health of his soul,” had made
would all the world should know it, that with your to bring him to “ the unity of the Church ; " but
shrives and idols, your feigned absolutions and he, " as a child of iniquity and darkness,' had so
pardons, ye draw unto you the substance , wealth, hardened his heart that he would not listen to the
and chief pleasures of all Christian realms." voice of his pastor.” “ We, thereupon,” continued
A priest : “ What, sir, will ye not worship good the archbishop,turning to the second paper," judge ,
images ? ”
Lord Cobham : “ What worship should I give 1 “ Iniquitatis et tenebrarum filius.” (Walsingham ,
unto them ? " Hist. Ang., p. 385.)
Jostable here and
declare, and condemn the said Sir John Oldcastle, The sentence was not to be executed till after
knight, for a most pernicious and detestable heretic, fifty days. This respite, so unusual, may have
committing him to the secular jurisdiction and been
bo towing
he p btoy athlingering
h and affection for his old friend
power, to do him thereupon to death ." . i ofe theo king, or it may have been
on n the part
This sentence Arundel pronounced with a sweet prompted by the hope that he would submit him .
and affable voice, the tears trickling down his face. self to the Church , and that his recantation would
It is the primate himself who tells us so ; other- deal a blow to the cause of Lollardism . But
wise we should not have known it ; for certainly Lord Cobham had counted the cost, and his firm
resolve was to brave the horrors
of Smithfield, rather than incur
the guilt of apostacy. His per
secutors, at last, despaired of
bringing him in a penitent's garb,
with lighted tapers, to the door
of St. Paul's, as they had done
MOVIES
humbler and weaker confessors,

there to profess his sorrow for
having scoffed at the prodigious
mystery of transubstantiation,
and placed the authority of the
Scriptures above that of the
Church . But if a real recanta
tion could not be had , a spurious
one might be fabricated, and
given forth as the knight's con
fession . This was the expedient
to which his enemies had now
recourse. They gave out that
FRIAR PREACHING FROM A MOVABLE PULPIT. (Royal MS., 14 E , 3.) “ Sir John had now become a
good man, and had lowlily sub
pronoorun relenting
we can trace no signs of pity d enting iinn the mitted himself in all things to holy Church ;"
terms of the sentence
referring . “ I pronounced it,” says the and thereupon they produced and published a
hn to th referring
archbishop, ttoo the sentence dooming Sir written “ abjuration,” in which they made Lord
John to the fire, " in the kindest and sweetest Cobham profess the most unbounded homage for
manner, with a weeping countenance." 1 If the the Pope (John XXIII. !), “ Christ's Vicar on earth
primate wept, no one saw a tear on the face of and head of the Church ,” his clergy, his Sacraments,
Lord Cobham . “ Turning to the multitude," says his laws, his pardons and dispensations, and re
Bale, “ Lord Cobham said, with a most cheerful commend “ all Christian people to observe,and also
voice, " Though ye judge my body, which is but a most meekly to obey, the aforesaid ;” and further,
wretched thing, yet can ye do no harm to my soul. they made him , in this “ abjuration ,” renounce as
He that created it will, of his infinite mercy, save" errors and heresies " all the doctrines he had
it. Of that I have no manner of doubt. Then maintained before the bishops, and, laying his hand
falling down on his knees, and lifting up his eyes, upon the “ holy evangel of God," to swear that he
with hands outstretched toward heaven , he prayed , should nevermore henceforth hold these heresies,
saying, “ Lord God eternal, I beseech thee, for thy “ or any other like unto them , wittingly." "
greatmercy's sake, to forgive my pursuers, if it be The fabricators of this " abjuration ” had overshot
thy blessed will. He was thereupon delivered to the mark . But small discernment, truly, was
Sir Robert Morley, and led back to the Tower." ? matter (pp . 383, 384 ). See also Collier, vol. i., bk. vi .,
p. 634 . “ Lingard's commentary on tke trial,” says
I " Affabiliter et suaviter recitavit excommunicationem , M 'Crie ( Ann. Eng. Presb., 51), “ is in the true spirit of
flebeli vultu .” (Rymer, Federa, vol. iv ., p. 50. Walsing the religion which doomed the martyr to the stake with
ham , p . 384.) crocodile tears : The prisoner's conduct was as arro
? We give this account of Lord Cobham 's (Sir John gant and insulting as that of his judge was mild and
Oldcastle) examination , slightly abridged , from Bale's dignified !'” (Hist. Eng., vol. v., p . 5.)
Brefe Chronycle , pp. 49 — 73. Walsingham gives sub . 3 Walsingham , p . 385.
stantially, though more briefly, the same account of the 4 Bale, pp. 83 – 88. Fox, bk . V., p. 288.
LOLLARDS ACCUSED OF CONSPIRACY. 377
needed to detect so clumsy a forgery. Its authors stood before the archbishop , so did he still believe.:
were careful, doubtless, that the eye of the man “ This abjuration ,” says Fox, “ never came into
whom it so grievously defamed should not light the hands of Lord Cobham , neither was it com
upon it ; and yet it would appear that information piled by them for that purpose , but only to blear
was conveyed to Cobham , in his prison, of the part the eyes of the unlearned multitude for a time.” 3
the priests were making him act in public ; for we Meanwhile — whether by the aid of his friends, or by
find him sending out to rebut the slanders and connivance of the governor, is not certainly known
falsehoods that were spread abroad regarding him , - Lord Cobham escaped from the Tower and fled to
and protesting that as he had professed when he Wales , where he remained secreted for four years.
CHAPTER VI.
LOLLARDISH DENOUNCED AS TREASON.
Spread of Lollardisin - Clergy Complain to the King - Activity of the Lollards- Accused of Plotting the Overthrow
of the Throne and Commonwealth - Midnight Meeting of Lollards at St. Giles-in -the-Fields - Alarm of the King
- He Attacks and Disperses the Assembly - Was it a Conspiracy or a Conventicle ? -- An Old Device Revived.
LORD COBHAM had for the time escaped from the agencies they had already begun to employ for the
hands of his persecutors , but humbler confessors propagation of their opinions. It justifies the
were within their reach , and on these Arundel and saying of Bale , that “ if England at that time had
his clergy now proceeded to wreak their vengeance. not been unthankful for the singular benefit that
This thing, which they branded as heresy, and God then sent it in these good men, the days of
punished in the fire, was spreading over England Antichrist and his tyrannous brood had been
despite all their rigours. That the new opinions shortened there long ago.”
were dangerous to the authority of the Roman The machinations of the priests bore further
Church was sufficiently clear, but it suited the fruit. The more effectually to rouse the appre
designs of the hierarchy to represent them as dan - hensions of the king, and lead him to cut off the
gerous also to the good order of the State. They very men who would have sowed the seeds of
went to the king, and complaining of the spread of order in his dominions, and been a bulwark around
Lollardism , told him that it was the enemy of kings his throne, they professed to adduce a specific
and the foe of commonwealths, and that if it were instance in support of their general allegations of
allowed to remain longer unsuppressed , it would in disloyalty and treason against the Lollards. In
no long time be the undoing of his realm . “ The January , 1414, they repaired to Eltham , where
heretics and Lollards of Wicliffe's opinion," said the king was then residing, and startled him with
they, “ are suffered to preach abroad so boldly , to the intelligence of a formidable insurrection of the
gather conventicles unto them , to keep schools in Wicliffites, with Lord Cobham at their head , just
men 's houses, to make books, compile treatises, ready to break out. The Lollards, they declared,
and write ballads ; to teach privately in angles and proposed to dethrone the king, murder the royal
corners, as in woods, fields, meadows, pastures, household , pull down Westminster Abbey, and all
groves, and caves of the ground. This,” they the cathedrals in the realm , and to wind up by
added , “ will be a destruction to the common confiscating all the possessions of the Church. To
wealth , a subversion to the land, and an utter give a colouring of truth to the story , they speci
decay of the king's estate royal, if a remedy be not fied the time and place fixed upon for the outbreak
sought in time.” of the diabolical plot. The conspirators were to
This picture, making allowance for some little meet on a certain midnight “ in Ficket Field
exaggeration , shows us the wonderful activity of beside London, on the back side of St. Giles," and
these early Protestants, and what a variety of
- - --
2 Fox, bk. v ., p . 287. 3 Ibid.,bk. v., p .288 .
Bale, p. 90. 4 Bale, p . 16 . 5 Collier, vol. i., bk . vii., p . 634.
then and there begin their terrible work.' The Turk — the kingmarched forth to engage the rebels.
king on receiving the alarming news quitted Hefound no such assembly as he had been led to
Eltham , and repaired, with a body of armed men, expect. There was no Lord Cobham there ; there
to his Palace of Westminster, to beon the spotand were no armed men present. In short, instead of
ready to quell the expected rebellion. The night conspirators in rank and file, ready to sustain the
came when this terrible plot was to explode,and onset of the royal troops, the king encountered
Wi
N
U
n
L N
O NSSO
AND A
SAS
SS
MANS
MALE
LORD COBHAM BEFORE THE BISHOPS.

to leave before morning its memorials in the over- only a congregation of citizens, who had chosen
throw of the throne, and the destruction of the this hour and place as the fittest for a field preach
hierarchy. The martial spirit of the future hero ing. Such, in sober truth,appears to have been the
of Agincourt was roused. Giving orders for the character of the assembly. When the king rode
gates of London to be closed, and “ unfurling a in among them with his men -at-arms, he met abso
banner," says Walden, “ with a cross upon it ” — lutely with no resistance. Without leaders and
after the Pope's example when he wars against the without arms, the multitude broke up and fled.
Some were cut down on the spot, the rest were
| Holinshed , vol. iii., p. 63. pursued , and of these many were taken. The
hu
CLE
HG
VIDEO
La
Tit 31
VA
BIT
T NE JOU
S b)
muLE
LAN
ned
PE
LB L TAYLOR,
FIFTH
THE
'S OLLARD
ALHENRY
TTACK
.UPON
CONVENTICLE
380 THE HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM .
gates of the city had been closed, and why ? “ To only doubt,but ridicule,upon the idea of conspiracy,
prevent the citizens joining the rebels," say the where are the proofs of such a thing ! When
accusers of the Lollards, who would fain have us searched to the bottom , the Theory rests only on
believe that this was an organised conspiracy. The the allegations of the priests. The priests said so
men of London , say they, were ready to rush out to the king. Thomas Walsingham , monk of St.
in hundreds to support the Lollards against the Albans, reported it in his Chronicles ; and one
king's troops. But where is the evidence of this ? historian after another has followed in his wake,
We do not hear of a single citizen arming himself. and treated us to an account of this formidable
Why did not the Londoners sally forth and join rebellion , which they would have us believe had
their friends outside before night had fallen and so nearly plunged the kingdom into revolution,
they were attacked by the soldiery ? Why did and extinguished the throne in blood. No: the
they not meet them the moment they arrived on epithet of heresy alone was not enough to stigma.
Ficket Field ! Their coming was known to their tise the young Protestantism of England. To
foes, why not also to their friends ? No ; the gates
heresy must be joined treason, in order to make
of London were shut for the same reason, doubt- Lollardism sufficiently odious ; and when this
less, which led , at an after-period, to the closing of
double-headed monster should be seen by the
the gates of Paris when a conventicle was held terrified imaginations of statesmen , stalking
outside its walls — even that the worshippers, when through the land, striking at the throne and tne
attacked , might not find refuge in the city . altar, trampling on law as well as on religion, con
The idea that this was an insurrection, planned fiscating the estate of the noble as well as the glebe
and organised , for the overthrow ofGovernment,and of the bishop , and wrapping castle and hamlet in
the entire subversion of the whole ecclesiastical flames, then would the monarch put forth all his
and political estate of England , appears to us too power to crush the destroyer and save the realm .
absurd to be entertained . Such revolutionary and The monks of Paris a hundred and twenty years
sanguinary schemes were not more alien to the after drew the same hideous picture of Protes
character and objects of the Lollards than they tantism , and frightened the King of France into
were beyond their resources. They sought, indeed , planting the stake for the Huguenots . This was
the sequestration or redistribution of the ecclesias- the game which had begun to be played in Eng.
tical property, but they employed for this end none land. Lollardism , said the priests, means revo
but the legitimate means of petitioning Parliament. lution. To make such a charge is an ancient
Rapine, bloodshed, revolution , were abhorrent to device. It is long since a certain city was spoken
them . If the work they now had in hand was of before a powerful monarch as “ the rebellious
indeed the arduous one of overturning a powerful and the bad,” within which they had moved
Government, how came they to assemble without sedition of old time." ? The calumny has been
weapons ? Why, instead of making a display of often repeated since ; but no king ever yet per
their numbers and power , as they would have done mitted himself to be deceived by it, who had not
had their object been what their enemies alleged, cause to rue it in the tarnishing of his throne and
did they cover themselves with the darkness of the the impoverishing of his realm , and it might be in
night ? While so many circumstances throw not the ruin of both .
-- - - - - -
1 The allegation of conspiracy , advanced beforehand vivid descriptions of terrible insurrections in England .
by the priests, was of course entered on the records of wherein , as Bale remarks, “ never a man was hurt;"
King's Bench as the ground of proceedings, but it stands and Walden , in his first preface to his fourth book
altogether unsupported by proof or probability. No against the Wicliffites, says that Sir John Oldcastle
papers containing the plan of revolution were ever conspired against King Henry V . in the first year of his
discovered. No confession of such a thing was made by reign, and offered a golden noble for every head of
any of those who were seized and executed . Even monk , canon , friar, or priest that should he brought to
Walsingham can only say, “ The king heard they intended him ; while in his Fasciculus Zizaniorum Wicleri, he tells
to destroy him and themonasteries," & c., and “ Many were us that Sir John was at that very time a prisoner in
taken who were said lo have conspired ” (qui dicebantur the Tower (Bale, p .101). Fox, the martyrologist, charges
conspirasse). - Hist, Ang., p. 386. When four years after the Papists with not only inventing the plot, but forg .
wards Lord Cobham was taken and condemned, his ing the records which accuse Sir John Oldeastle of com
judges did not dare to confront him with the charge of plicity in it ; and though Collier has attempted to reply
conspiracy, but simply outlawry, passed upon him when he to Fox, it is with no great success. All dispassionate
fled . As an instance of the wild rumours then propa - men will now grant that the meeting was a voluntary
gated against the Lollards, Walden , the king' s confessor, one for worship, or a trap laid for the Lollards by their
and Polydore Virgil, the Pope's collector of Peter' s enemies.
pence in England, in their letters to Martin V ., give · Ezra iv . 12 - 15 .
CHARACTER OF ARCHBISHOP ARUNDEL . 381
CHAPTER VII.
MARTYRDOM OF LORD COBHAM .
Imprisonments and Martyrdoms – Flight of Lollards to other countries - Death of Archbishop Arundel - His
Character - Lord Cobham - His Seizure in Wales by Lord Powis — Brought to London - Summoned before
Parliament - Condemned on the Former Charge - Burned at St. Giles- in -the- Fields- His Christian Heroism
Which is the Greater Hero , Henry V . or Lord Cobham ? - The World 's True Benefactors — The Founders of
England's Liberty and Greatness — The Seeds Sown - The Full Harvest to Come.
The dispersion of this unarmed assembly , met in come together openly about any such matter, withi
the darkness of the night, on the then lonely and out danger to be apprehended." s Other martyr
thicket- covered field of St. Giles, to listen, it doms followed. Of these sufferers some were
might be, to some favourite preacher, or to cele - burned in Smithfield, others were put to death in
brate an act of worship, was followed by the the provinces ; and not a few , to escape the stake,
execution of several Lollards. The most distin - fled into exile, as Bale testifies. “ Many fled out
guished of these was Sir Roger Acton , known to be of the land into Germany, Bohemia , France, Spain ,
a friend of Lord Cobham . He was seized at the Portugal, and into the wilds of Scotland, Wales ,
midnight meeting on St. Giles' Field, and was and Ireland ." , Such terror had the rigour of the
immediately thereafter condemned and executed. archbishop infused into the now numerous ad
The manner of his death has been variously herents of the Protestant doctrines.
reported. Some chroniclers say he was burned, We pause to record another death , which fol
others that he was drawn on a hurdle to Tyburn , lowed , at the distance of less than a month, those
and there hanged. Two other Lollards were put of which we have just made mention. This death
to death at the same time- Master John Brown, takes us, not to Smithfield , where the stake glorifies
and John Beverly, formerly a priest, but now a those whom it consumes, but to the archiepiscopal
Wicliffite preacher. “ So many persons were appre - Palace of Lambeth . There on his bed, Thomas
hended ," says Holinshed , “ that all the prisons in Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, together with
and about London were full.” The leaders only , his life, was yielding up his primacy, which he had
however, were put to death, “ being condemned ,” held for seventeen years.
says the chronicler, “ for heresy by the clergy, and Thomas Arundel was of noble birth , being the
attainted of high treason in the Guildhall of son of Richard Fitz-Alan , Earl of Arundel. His
London, and adjudged for that offence to be drawn talents, naturally good, had been improved by
and hanged , and for heresy to be consumed with study and experience ; he was fond of pomp,
fire, gallows and all, which judgment was executed subtle, resolute, and as stern in his measures
the same month on the said Sir Roger Acton , and as he was suave in his manners . A devoted son
twenty -eight others." : The chronicler, however, of his mother the Church, he was an uncompro
goes on to say, what strongly corroborates the mising foe of Protestantism , which bore in his
view we have taken of this affair, even that the days the somewhat concealing name of Lollardism ,
overthrow of the Government formied no part of but which his instincts as a Churchman taught
the designs of these men, that their only crime was him to regard as the one mortal enemy of that
attachment to Protestant truth , and that their system , wherewith were bound up all dignities,
assembling, which has been magnified into a dark titles, and happiness. He had experienced great
and diabolical plot, was simply a peaceful meeting diversity of fortune. He shared the exile of
for worship. “ Certain affirm ," says Holinshed , Henry Plantagenet, and he returned with him to
" that it was for feigned causes, surmised by the assist in dethroning the man who had condemned
spirituality, more upon displeasure than truth ; and and banished him as a traitor , and in elevating in
that they were assembled to hear their preacher his room Henry IV ., whom he anointed with oil
(the aforesaid Beverly ) in that place there, out of from the sacred vial which fell down from Mary
the way from resort of people , sith they might not out of heaven. He continued to be the evil genius
1 Bale , p . 10 . ? Fox, bk . v., p. 288 . + Holinshed , vol.iii., p. 64. 6 Bale , p. 92 .
3 Holinshed , vol. iii., p. 63. 6 Collier, vol. i., p. 635.
of the king. His stronger will and more powerful to the Tower of London , and from thence down
intellect asserted an easy supremacy over Henry, through London , unto the new gallows in St. Giles
who never felt quite sure of the ground on which without Temple Bar, and there be hanged , and
he stood . burned hanging." "
When at last the king was carried to Canter- When the day came for the execution of this
bury, and laid in marble , Arundel took his place sentence, Lord Cobham was brought out, his hands
by the side of his son, Henry V ., and kept it pinioned behind his back , but his face lighted up
during the first year of his reign. This prince was with an air of cheerfulness. By this time Lol
not naturally cruel, but Arundel's arrogant spirit lardism had been made treason by Parliament,and
and subtle counsel seduced him into paths of in - the usualmarks of ignominy which accompany the
tolerance and blood. The stakes which the king death of the traitor were, in Lord Cobham 's case,
and Arundel had planted were still blazing when added to the punishment of which he was judged
the latter breathed his last, and was carried to lie worthy as a heretic. He was placed on a hurdle,
beside his former master in Canterbury Cathedral and drawn through the streets of London to
The martyrdoms which succeeded the Lollard as- St. Giles-in-the-Fields. On arriving at the place of
sembly in St. Giles' Field , took place in January, execution he was assisted to alight, and, falling on
1414, and the archbishop died in the February his knees, he offered a prayer for the forgiveness of
following. “ Yet died not,” says Bale, “ his pro his enemies. He then stood up, and turning to the
digious tyranny with him , but succeeded with his multitude, he exhorted them earnestly to follow the
office in Henry Chicheley.” ? laws of God as written in the Scriptures , and
Before entering on any recital of the fortunes of especially to beware of those teachers whose im
English Protestantism under the new primate, let moral lives showed that neither had they the spirit
us pursue to a close the story of Sir John Old - of Christ nor loved his doctrine. A new gallows
castle — the good Lord Cobham ,as the people called had been erected, and now began the horrible
him . When he escaped from the Tower, the king tragedy. Iron chains were put round his waist,
offered a reward of 1,000 marks to any one who he was raised aloft, suspended over the fire, and
should bring him to him , dead or alive. Such , subjected to the double torture of hanging and
however, was the general estimation in which he burning. He maintained his constancy and joy
was held , that no one claimed or coveted the amid his cruel sufferings ; “ consuming alive in
price of blood. During four years Cobham re- the fire,” says Bale, “ and praising the name of the
mained undisturbed in his concealment among the Lord so long as his life lasted ." The priests and
mountains of the Welsh Principality . At length friars stood by the while, forbidding the people to
Lord Powis, prompted by avarice, or hatred of pray for one who, as he was departing “ not in
Lollardism , discovering his hiding-place, betrayed the obedience of their Pope," was about to be
him to his pursuers. The brave old man was not plunged into fiercer flames than those in which they
to be taken without resistance. In the scuffle his beheld him consuming. The martyr, now near his
leg was broken, and , thus maimed , he was laid end , lifting up his voice for the last time, com
Lsigned pened tabode
ondon,etonthishapformer oweand cTheon
o be iinn tthehe TTower.
upon a horse -litter, carried to London, and con- mended his soul into the hands of God , and “ so
departed hence most Christianly."6 “ Thus," adds
Parliament happened to be at that time sitting in the chronicler, “ rested this valiant Christian knight,
London , and its records tell us the sequel. “ On Sir John Oldcastle , under the Altar of God, which
Tuesday, the 14th day of December (1417), and is Jesus Christ; among that godly company which ,
the 29th day of said Parliament, Sir John Old - in the kingdom of patience, suffered great tribula
castle, of Cowling, in the county of Kent, knight
(Lord Cobham ), being outlawed (as is before men
tioned ) in the King's Bench, and excommunicated 4 For, bk. v., p. 323 . Collier, vol. i., bk . vii., p. 645.
Walsingham (p . 399) says that he ran out into a long
before by the Archbishop of Canterbury for heresy, address on the duty of man to forgive, and leave the
was brought before the Lords, and having heard punishment of offences in the hands of the Almighty ;
his said convictions, answered not thereto in his and, on being stopped , and asked by the court to speak
to the charge of outlawry, he began a second sermon on
excuse. Upon which record and process it was the same text. Walsingham has been followed in this
judged that he should be taken , as a traitor to the by Collier, Cotton, and Lingard. “ There is nothing
king and the realm ; that he should be carried more in the records," says the younger M 'Crie, speaking
from a personal examination of them , “ than a simple
appeal to mercy.” ( Ann. Eng. Presb., p. 54.)
1 Bale, p. 95. ? Walsingham , p . 399. 5 Bale , p . 96 .
3 Collier, vol. i., bk . vii., p . 645. . * Holinshed, vol. iii., p . 94 . Bale, pp. 96, 97.
THE FOUNDATIONS OF ENGLAND'S GREATNESS AND LIBERTY. 383
tion , with the death of their bodies, for his faithful pluck the bandage of a seven -fold darkness from its
word and testimony ; abiding there with them the eyes, and to break the yoke of a sevenfold slavery
fulfilling of their whole number, and the full re- from its neck. These are the stars that illu
storation of his elect."! minate England's sky ; the heroes whose exploits
“ Chains, gallows, and fire,” as Bale remarks, are glorify her annals ; the kings whose spirits rule
no pleasant things, and death by their means is not from their thrones, which are their stakes, the
precious in the eyes of men ; and yet some of the hearts and souls of her noblest sons. The multitude
noblest spirits that have ever lived lave endured lays its homage at the feet of those for whom the
these things have worn the chain , mounted the world has done much ; whose path it has made
gallows, stood at thestake; and in that ignominious smooth with riches ; whose head it has lifted up
gruise, arrayed in the garb and enduring the doom with honours ; and for whom , while living, it pro
of felons, have achieved victories, than which there vided a stately palace ; and when dead , a marble
are none grander or so fruitful in the records of the tomb. Let us go aside from the crowd : let us seek
world . What better are we at this hour that out, not the men for whom the world has done
Henry V . won Agincourt ? To what purpose was much , but the men who have done much for the
that sea of blood — English and French - poured out world ; and let us pay our homage, not indeed to
on the plains of France ? To set the trumpet of them , but to Him who made them what they were .
idle fame a -soundingAto furnish matter for a And where shall we find these men ! In kings'
lallad to blazon a page in history ? That is houses ? in schools and camps !-- not oft. In gaols ,
about all when we reckon it up. But the blood or at the bar of a tyrannical tribunal, or before a
of Cobham is yielding its fruits at this day. Had bench of Pharisees, or on a scaffold , around which
Sawtre, Badby , and Cobham been careful of their mobs hoot, while the executioner stands by to do
name, their honour, their lives ; had they blushed his office. These are not pleasant places ; and
to stand before tribunals which they knew were yet it is precisely there that those great examples
prepared to condemn them as traitors ; had they have been exhibited which have instructed the
declined to become a gazing-stock to mobs, who world, and those mighty services rendered which
waited to scoff at and insult them as heretics ; had have ennobled and blessed the race. It was amid
they shrunk from the cruel torture and the bitter such humiliations and sufferings that the Lollards
death of the stake— where would have been the sowed , all through the fifteenth century, the living
Protestantism of England ? and, without its Pro- seed, which the gracious spring-time of the sixteenth
testantism , where would have been its liberty ? quickened into growth ; which the following cen
still unborn . It was not the valour of Henry V ., turies, not unmingled with conflict and the blood
itwas the grander heroism of Lord Cobham and his of martyrdom , helped to ripen ; and the fully
fellow-martyrs that awoke the soul of England, matured harvest of which it remains for the
when it was sleeping a dead sleep, and fired it to generations to come to carry home.
Bale, pp. 98, 99. Fox, bk . V., p. 323 . The monks and more - something beyond example in his works : hemakes
friars who wrote our early plays, and acted our dumb a confession of his faith. In his own person , as a poet and
shows, did not let slip the opportunity this gave them of as a man , he proclaims from the stage, ‘Oldcastle died a
vilifying, lampooning, and caricaturing the first Englis'. martyr.' . . . . Shakespeare changed his way of looking
peer who had died a Protestant martyr. Having burned at the old heroes of English thought.” The play - The
him , they never could forgive him . He was handed First Part of the True and Honourable History of the
down, " from fair to fair, and from inn -yard to inn- Life of Sir John Oldcastle, the Good Lord Cobham - is
yard ," as a braggart, a debauchee, and a poltroon . From a protest against the wrong which had been done to
them the martyr came to figure in the same character Oldcastle on the stage. The prologue said
on Shakespeare's stage. But the great dramatist came " It is no pampered glutton wepresent,
to discover how the matter really stood , and then he Nor aged councillor to youthfulsin ;
struck out the name “ Oldcastle," and inserted instead But one whose virtue shone above the rest,
“ Falstaff.” Not only so ; as if he wished to make yet A valiant martyr and a virtuous peer."
greater reparation for the injustice he had unwittingly
done him , he proclaimed that Lord Cobham “ died a “ These lines,” says Mr. Dixon , “ are thought to be
martyr.” This indicates that Shakespeare himself had Shakespeare's own. They are in his vein, and they
undergone some great change. “ The point is curious," repeat the declaration which he had already made :
says Mr. Hepworth Dixon . “ It is not the change of a ‘Oldcastle died a martyr !' The man who wrote this
name, but of a state of mind. For Shakespeare is not confession in the days of Archbishop Whitgift was a
content with striking out the name of Oldcastle and Puritan in faith .” (Her Majesty 's Tower , pp . 100 - 102 ;
Writing down that of Falstaff. He does more - much Lond., 1859.)
SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE, AFTERWARDS LORD COBHAM .
CHAPTER VIII.
LOLLARDIST UNDER HENRY V . AND HENRY VI.
Thomas Arundel succeeded by Henry Chicheley — The New Primate pursues the Policy of his Predecessor - Parliament
at Leicester - More Stringent Ordinances against the Lollards - Appropriation of Ecclesiastical Possessions,
Archbishop Chicheley Staves off the Proposal - Diverts the King's Mind to a War with France Speech of the
Archbishop - Henry V . falls into the Snare - Prepares an Expedition - Invades France - Agincourt - Second
Descent on France - Henry becomes Master of Normandy - Returns to England - Third Invasion of France
Henry's Death - Dying Protestation - His Magnificent Funeral — His Character - Lollardism - More Martyrs
- Claydon - New Edict against the Lollards - Henry VI. - Martyrs in his Reign - William Taylor - William
White - John Huss - Recantations.
The martyrdom of Lord Cobham has carried us a 'ceded him to the grave by only a few months.
little way beyond the point to which we had come More lately Sir Roger Acton and others had ex
in tracing the footprints — faint and intermittent, pired at the stake which Arundel's policy had
of Protestantism in England during the fifteenth planted for them ; and, last of all, he went to
century. We saw Arundel carried from the halls render his own account to God.
of Lambeth to be laid in the sepulchral vaults of Arundel was succeeded in the primacy by Henry
Canterbury. His master, Henry IV ., had pre. Chicheley . Chicheley continued in the chair of
CHICHELEY MADE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 385
St. Anselm the same policy which his predecessor held at Leicester (1414), it was enacted “ that
had pursued . His predecessor's influence at court whoever should read the Scriptures in English ,
he did not wield , at least to the same extent, for which was then called “Wicliffe's Learning,' should
neither was Chicheley so astute as Arundel, nor forfeit land, cattle , goods, and life, and be con
was Henry V . so facile as his father ; but he in - demned as heretics to God, enemies to the crown,
herited Arundel's hatred of Lollardism ,and resolved and traitors to the kingdom ; that they should not
INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE. (From the Tower of London .)

1. The Rack . 2. Block and Axe. 3. Scavenger's Daughter . 4 . Leg-irons. 5. Necklace . 6. Thumb-screw .
to use all the powers of his high office for its have the benefit of any sanctuary, though this was
suppression. The persecution, therefore , still went a privilege then granted to the most notorious
on. The “ Constitutions of Arundel,” passed in malefactors ; and that, if they continued obstinate,
the previous reign, had spread the net so wide that or relapsed after pardon , they should first be
scarcely was it possible for any one who had im - hanged for treason against the king, and then
bibed the opinions ofWicliffe in any degree to avoid burned for heresy against God.” 1
being caught in it. Besides, under the reign of While the Parliament stretched out one hand to
Henry V., new and more stringent ordinances were
framed to oppress the Lollards. In a Parliament 1 Bale, pp. 91, 92 . Cobbett, vol. i., pp. 323, 324 .
33 .
perseen 'e the Lollards, it extended the other to de- of which would considerably increase the revenues
spoil the clergy. Their wealth was enormous ; but of the crown.”
only the smallest fraction of it was given for the This policy, being approved by the synod at
public service. The complaints on this head were London, was vigorously advocated by the priznate
growing louder every year. At this same Parlia - in the Parliament at Leicester. The archbishop ,
ment of Leicester a storm was like to have burst rising in the House, addressed the king as follows :
out, had not the wit and policy of Henry Chicheley - " You administer justice to your people with a
arrested the danger. The Commons reminded the noble equity ; you are illustrious in the arts of a
king of the demand which had twice before been peaceful government : but the glory of a great king
made in Parliament- first in Richard II.'s time consists not so much in a reign of serenity and
(1394), and next in Henry IV .'s (1410 )- relative plenty , in great treasures, in magnificent palaces,
to converting the lands and possessions of the clergy in populous and fair cities, as in the enlargement
to the service of the State . “ This bill,” says Hall, of his dominions ; especially when the assertion of
“ made the fat abbots to sweat; the proud priors to his right calls him out to war, and justice, not
frown ; the poor priors to curse ; the silly nuns to ainbition, authorises all his conquests. Your High
weep ; and indeed all her merchants to fear that ness ought to wear the crown of France, by right
Babel would down." Though Henry had lent the descended to you from Edward III., your illustrious
clergy his power to burn Lollards, they were far predecesssor.” The speaker wenton , at great length ,
from sure that he might not be equally ready to to trace the title, and to establish its validity , to
lend the Parliament his authority to rob the Church. the satisfaction, doubtless, of the audience which
He was active, bold , fond of display, lavish in his he addressed ; and he wound up his oration by a
habits ; and the wealth of the hierarchy offered a reference to the unprecedentedly large sum which
ready and tempting means of maintaining his mag- the liberality of the clergy had placed at the service
nificence , which Henry might not have virtue to of the king, to enable him to make good his title to
resist. They thought of binding the king to their the crown of France. .
interests by offering him a wealthy gift ; but the The primate added, “ Since therefore your right
wiser heads disapproved the policy : it would be to the realm of France is so clear and unques
accounted a bribe, and deemed scarce decent on tionable ; since 'tis supported by the laws both of
the part of men in sacred office to do so. The God and man ; 'tis now your Highness' part to
Archbishop of Canterbury hit on a more likely assert your title, to pull the crown from the heads
expedient, and one that fell in with the genius of of the French usurpers, and to pursue the revolt
the king, and the aspirations of the nation . of that nation with fire and sword . 'Tis your
The most effectual course, said the archbishop, Highness' interest to maintain the ancient lionour
in a synod at London, of averting the impending of the English nation, and not, by a tame over
storm , is to find the king some other business to looking of injurious treatment, give your posterity
employ his courage. We must turn his thoughts an occasion to reproach your memory.” ; No one
to war ; we must rouse his ambition by remind - present whispered into the speaker's ear the con
ing him of the crown of France , descended to juration which our great national poet puts into
him from Edward III. He must be urged to the mouth of King Henry —
demand the crown, as the undoubted heir ; and “ God doth know how many, now in health,
should it be refused , he must attempt the re Shall drop their blood in approbation
covery of it by arms. To cause these counsels Of what your reverence shall incite us to :
to prevail, the clergy agreed to offer a great sum Therefore take heed how you impawn our person ,
of money to defray the expenses of the war. They How you awake the sleeping sword of war :
Wecharge you , in the name of God, take heed ;
further resolved to give up all the alien priories ? For never two such kingdoms did contend
in the kingdom , to the number of 110 , the lands Without much fall of blood ; whose guiltless drops
- -- - -- - - - - Are every one a woe, a sore complaint,
'Gainst him whose wrongs give edge unto the swords
1 These alien priories were most of them cells to monas Thatmake such wasto in brief mortality ."
teries in France. " ' Twas argued ,” says Collier, “ that
these monks, being foreigners, and depending upon su The project met with the approval of the king.
periors in another kingdom , could not be true to the - - - -
interest of the English nation : that their being planted
here gave them an opportunity of maintaining corre ? Bale, p . 91. Collier, vol. i., p . 636 . For, vol. i., p. 775.
spondence with the enemy, besides their transporting Cobbett , vol. i., p . 324.
money and other commodities was no ordinary damago.” 3 Collier, vol. i., p . 638.
(Vol. i., p. 650.) 4 Shakespeare , Henry V ., act i.
HENRY THE FIFTH 'S WARS IN FRANCE. 387
To place the fair realm of France under his sceptre ; France (1417), the mutual hate and fierce con
to unite it with England and Scotland - for the tentions of the French factions opening the gates of
king's uncle, the Duke of Exeter, suggested that he the kingdom for his entrance. He passed on through
who would conquer Scotland must begin with the land, marking in blood the line of his march.
France in one monarchy; to transfer, in due time, Towns besieged , provinces wasted , and their inhabi
the seat of government to Paris, and make his tants subjected to the horrors of famine, of rapine
throne the first in Christendom , was an enterprise and slaughter, were the scenes which presented
grand enough to fire the spirit of a monarch less themselves around his steps. He made himself
ambitious and valorous than Henry V . Instantly master of Normandy, married the king's youngest
the king set about making preparations on a vast daughter, and after a time returned once more to
scale. Soldiers were levied from all parts of England ; his own land.3
shipswere hired from Holland and Flanders for the Soon affairs called King Henry again to France .
transport of men and ammunition . Money , pro - This timehe made a public entry into Paris, accom
visions, horses, carriages, tents, boats covered with panied by his queen , Catherine, on purpose to show
skins for crossing rivers — everything, in fine, the Parisians their future sovereign. France was
requisite for the success of such an enterprise was no nearer recognising his alleged right to reign
provided ; and the expedition was now ready to be over it ; and Henry began, as before, to besiege
launched . its towns and slaughter its children , in order to
But before striking the blow a feint was made compel a submission which it was clear would not
at negotiation with France. This was conducted be voluntarily given . He was thus occupied when
by Archbishop Chicheley , the very man who had an event took place which put an end to his enter
been the prime mover in the affair ; and, as might prise for ever ; he felt that the hand of death was
have been foreseen, the attempts at conciliation upon him , and he retired from Cosne,which he was
came to nothing, and hostilities were now com - besieging, to Vincennes, near Paris. The Dukes of
menced . The king, crossing the Channel with an Bedford and Gloucester, and the Earls of Salisbury
army of 30 , 000 men, landed on the coast of France. and Warwick, when his end approached, came to his
Towns were besieged and taken ; battles were bed -side to receive his instructions. He addressed
fought ; but sickness setting in among the soldiers, them ,protesting that “ neither the ambitious desire
and winter coming on, the king deemed it ad- of enlarging his dominions, nor of winning vain
visable, in order to preserve the remnant of his renown and worldly fame, had moved him to engage
army, to retreat to Calais for winter quarters. On in these wars, but only the prosecution of his just
his march he encountered the French host, which title ; that he might in the end attain to a perfect
four times outnumbered his own, now reduced to peace, and come to enjoy those parts of his in
10,000. He had to fight the terrible battle of heritance which to him of right belonged ; and that,
Agincourt. He conquered on this bloody field , on before the beginning of the same wars, he was
which, stretched out in death, lay the flower of fully persuaded by men both wise and of great
the French nobility , with many thousands of their holiness of life, that upon such intent he might and
followers around them . Resuming his march , ought both begin the same wars, and follow them
Henry held on his way to England ;? where, tidings till he had brought them to an end justly and
of his victory having preceded him , he was welcomed rightly, and that without all danger of God's
with acclamations. Archbishop Chicheley had com - displeasure or peril of soul.” : After making a few
pletely succeeded in diverting the mind of the king necessary arrangements respecting the government
and the Parliament, and shielding the possessions of England and France, he recited the seven peni.
of the clergy ; but at what a price ! tential psalms, received the Sacrament, and so he
Neither England nor France had yet seen the end died , August 31st, 1422.
of this sad and very sanguinary affair. The English The magnificence of his funeral is thus described
king, now on fire, was not the man to let the enter- by the chronicler : - “ His body, embalmed and
prise drop half achieved ; and the policy of the enclosed in lead, was laid in a chariot royal, richly
primate was destined to develop into yet other
tragedies, and yet more oceans of French and 3 Holinshed, vol. iii., pp. 90 – 114. Cobbett, vol. i.,
English blood. Henry made a second descent upon col. 338.
4 This is that Catherine who, after the death of her
husband, Henry V ., married Sir Owen Tudor, a Welsh
Holinshed , vol. iii., p . 68. gentleman , whose descendants afterwards mounted the
Trid ., pp . 79 - 83. Collier, vol. i., p. 641. Hume, throne of England.
chap 20. 5 Holinshed , vol. ii., pp . 132, 133.
TISM
appareled with cloth of gold . Upon his coffin was country of which he was the rightful lord, and to
laid a representation of his person, adorned with that other which he aspired to rule, but the crown
robes, diadem , sceptre , and ball, like a king ; the of which not all his valour and toil were able to
which chariot six horses drew , richly trapped , with place upon his head .· He went down into the
several appointments : the first with the arms of grave in the flower of his age, in the very prime of
St. George, the second with the arms of Normandy, his manhood , after a reign of ten years , “ and all
the third of King Arthur, the fourth of St. Edward , his mighty projects vanished into smoke." He
the fifth of France , and the sixth with the arms of left his throne to his son, an infant only a few
England and France. On this same chariot gave months old , bequeathing to him along with the
attendance James , King of Scots, the principal crown a legacy of complications at homeand wars
mourner ; King Henry's uncle, Thomas, Duke of abroad, for which a “ hundred Agincourts” would
Exeter ; Richard, Earl of Warwick ; ” and nine not have compensated. This episode of Henry
other lords and knights. Other lords carried and his wars with France belongs to the history of
banners and standards. “ The hatchments were Protestantism , springing as it does directly out of
carried only by captains, to the number of twelve ; the policy which was framed for arresting it.
and round about the chariot rode 500 men-at-arms, While these armaments and battles were going
all in black armour, their horses barbed black, and forward, how fared it, we return to ask , with the
they with the butt-ends of their spears upwards. new opinions and their disciples in England ? Did
“ The conduct of this dolorous funeral was com - these great storms root out, or did they shelter, the
mitted to Sir William Philip , Treasurer of the King's seed which Wicliffe had sowed, and which the
Household , and to Sir William Porter, his chief blood of the martyrs who came after him had
carver, and others. Besides this, on every side of watered and caused to spring up ! They were a
his chariot went 300 persons, holding long torches, protection , we are disposed to think , on the whole,
and lords bearing banners , bannerols, and pennons to the infant Protestantism of England. Its ad
With this funeral appointment was he conveyed herents were a humble, unorganised company of
from Bois de Vincennes to Paris, and so to Rouen , men, who shunned rather than courted observation .
to Abbéville, to Calais, to Dover; from thence Still we trace their presence in the nation , as we
through London to Westminster, where he was light, in the ecclesiastical records of their age, at
interred with such solemn ceremonies, mourning of brief intervals of time, upon a stake, and a Lollard
lords, prayer of priests, and such lamenting of sealing his testimony thereat.
commons, as never before then the like was seen in On August 17, 1415, John Claydon, a currier in
England.” ! Tapers were kept burning day and London, was brought before Henry, Archbishop of
night on his tomb, till the Reformation came to put Canterbury . In former years, Claydon had been in
them out. the prison of the Fleet on a charge of heresy. He
Henry V . had not a few great qualities which , was set free on abjuring his opinions. On this his
in other circumstances, would have enabled him to second apprehension , he boldly confessed the faith
render services of great value and lasting benefit to he had denied aforetime. One of the main
his nation . His strength of character was attested charges against him was his having in his house
by his conquest over his youthful passions and many books written in English, and in especial
habits when he came to the throne. He was gentle one book , called the Lanthorn of Light. This
in disposition , frank in manners, and courageous book was produced against him by the Mayor of
in spirit. He was a lover of justice, and showed a London, who had taken possession of it, along
desire to have it purely administered. He ate with others , when he apprehended him . It was
temperately, passed but few hours in bed, and in bound in red leather , written on parchment, in a
field exercises displayed the strength of an athlete. good English hand, and Claydon confessed that it
His good sense made him valuable in council; but had been made at his own cost and charges, and
it was in marshalling an army for battle that his that he often read in it, for he found it “ good and
genius especially shone. Had these talents and healthful for his sonl.” The mayor said that the
energies been exercised at home, what blessings books he found in the house of Claydon “ were, in
might they not have conferred upon his subjects ? his judgment, the worst and most perverse he ever
but the fatal counsel of the archbishop and the did read or see .” He was sentenced as a relapsed
clergy diverted them all into a channel in which heretic, and delivered to the secular power. Com
they were productive of terrible mischiefs to the mitted to the fire at Smithfield , “ he was there
| Holinshed, vol. iii., p. 134 . 2 Hume, chap. 19.
LEGISLATION AGAINST LOLLARDISM . 383
meekly," says Fox, “ made a burnt-offering to the Catholic men, or else that hold any either heresies
Lord." He is said by some to have had a com - or errors, or else that have any suspected books in
panion at the stake,GeorgeGurmyn, with whom , as the English tongue ” - “ Wicliffe's learning " for
it came out on his examination, he had often com - example -- in short,“ those heretics who, like foxes,
muned about the matters of their common faith . lurk and hide themselves in the Lord's vineyard .”
The year after the martyrdom of Claydon , the The personal search of the bishop and archdeacon ,
growth of Lollardism was borne testimony to by or their commissaries, was not, the archbishop
Archbishop Chicheley, in a new edict which he judged, enough ; they were to supplement their
issued, in addition to those that his predecessor, own diligence by calling to their aid certain of the
Arundel, had enacted . The archbishop's edict had “ honestest men, to take their oath upon the holy
been preceded by the Act of Parliament, passed in evangelists, that if they shall know or understand
1414,soon after themidnight meeting at St. Giles- any such ” they should report them “ to our suf
in-the-Fields, which made it one and the same thing fragans, or archdeacons, or to their commissaries.” 3
to be a Lollard and to be a traitor. The preamble
of the Act of Parliament set forth that “ there had
been great congregations and insurrections, as well
by them of the sect of heresy commonly called
Lollardy, as by others of their confederacy , to the
intent to annul, destroy, and subvert the Christian
faith, and also to destroy our Sovereign Lord the
King, and all other manner of Estates of the Realm
of England, as well spiritual as temporal, and also
all manner of policy, and finally the laws of the
land." These simple men , who read the Scriptures ,
believed what they taught, and assembled in secret
places to worship God , are painted in the Act as
the most dangerous of conspirators — as men aiming
at the destruction of society itself, and so are to be
hunted out and exterminated . Accordingly, the
Act goes on to enjoin that all judges, justices,and
magistrates shall take an oath to make inquisition
for Lollards, and that they shall issue warrants for HENRY V. AND HIS PARLIAMENT.
their apprehension, and delivery to the ecclesiastical ( From the Harloian MSS. at the British Museum .)
judges, that they may “ be acquit or convict by the
laws of holy Church ."? . These edicts raise the curtain , and show us how
This paved the way for the edict of the primate , numerouswere the followers of Wicliffe in England
which enjoined on his suffragan bishops and their in the fifteenth century, and how deep his teaching
commissaries a similar pursuit of heretics and had gone into the hearts of the English people .
heresy . In pointing out whom he would have It is only the choice spirits of the party who come
apprehended, the archbishop undesignedly gives us into view at the stake. The greater part hid their
the true character of the men whom Parliament Lollardism under the veil of an outward conformity,
had branded as conspirators, busy plotting the or of an almost entire seclusion from the world ;
destruction of the Christian religion, and the entire or, if apprehended on a charge of heresy , they
subversion and ruin of the commonwealth of quailed before the terrible alternative offered them ,
England. And who are they ? Men of immoral and preferred submission to the Church to burning.
life, who prowl about with arms in their hands, We may be permitted to draw a covering over their
and make themselves, by their lawless and violent weakness, and to pass on to those whose stronger
courses, the terror of the neighbourhood in which faith doomed them indeed to the fire, but won for
they live ? No. The men on whose track the them a place by the side of the ancient “ worthies "
primate sets his inquisitors are the men who on the great roll of renown.
“ frequent conventicles , or else differ in life and The first martyr under Henry VI. was William
manners from the common conversation of other Taylor. He was a priest of the province of Canter
i Fox, bk. v., pp . 319 , 320 . 3 Fox, bk. V., pp . 320, 321.
2 Collier, vol. i., p. 639 . 4 Hebrews xi.
bury. Accused ofheresy before Archbishop Arundel, he was delivered to the secular power, a form of
he abjured , and appeared at Lambeth to receive words consigning him to burning in Smithfield .
absolution at the hands of the primate. “ Laying Before being led to the stake he was degraded.
aside his cloak, his cap, and stripped to his doublet, He was deprived of priesthood by taking from him
he kneeled at the feet of the archbishop , who the chalice and paten ; of deaconship , by taking
then, standing up , and having a rod in his hand, from him the gospel-book and tunicle ; of sub
began the Miserere,'" 1 The prescribed forms of deaconship , by taking from him the epistle-book
ge
PEAR SEW
SON A
KING IEXRI V. (From the Royal Collection at Kensington.)
penance having been duly gone through, Taylor and tunicle ; of acolyteship , by taking from him the
received absolution . In 1419 he was again cruet and candlestick ; of the office of exorcist, by
charged with heretical teaching, and brought be taking from him the book of exorcisms or gradual;
fore Archbishop Chicheley. On a profession of of sextonship, by taking from him the church -door
penitence, he was let free on bail. Little more key and surplice. On the 1st of March , 1492,
than a year only elapsed when he was a third time after long imprisonment, he was brought to Smith
arraigned. Twice had he fallen ; but he will not field , and there, “ with Christian constancy , con
be guilty of a third relapse. Refusing to abjure, summated his martyrdom ."?
Fox, bk. vi., p. 339. 2 Holinshed, iii., p. 135. Collier , vii., p.650. Fox, p.339.
ene
FAITH
.OF
THEIR
ABJURATION
MAKING
LOLLARDS
Two years afterwards (1424), William White, a afternoon. The sheriff, being a mercifulman, took
priest, whose many virtues and continual labours him to his own house, and began to exhort him to
had won him the esteem of all good men in renounce his errors. The confessor thanked him ,
Norfolk , was burned at Norwich. He had pre- but intimated that he was well assured of that for
In 1424 he was wonder
viously renounced his priesthood , married, and which he was about to die : one thing, however,
st
become a Lollard evangelist. In 1424 he was would he beg of him — a little food , for he was
J u ru evangeli .
attached at Canterbury for the following articles :
1. That men should seek for the forgiveness of
hungry and faint. His wish was gladly complied
with , and the martyr sat down and dined com
their sins only at the hand of God . 2. That men posedly , remarking to those that stood by that “ he
ought not to worship images and other idolatrous had made a good and competent meal, seeing he
paintings. 3. That men ought not to worship the should pass through a sharp shower ere he went
holy men who are dead. 4. That the Romish to supper." Having given thanks, he rose from
Church is the fig -trce which the Lord Jesus Christ table, and requested that he might shortly be led to
hath accursed , seeing it hath brought forth no fruit the place where he should yield up his spirit unto
of the true belief. 5. That such as wear cowls, or God.
bé anointed or shorn, are the lance-knights or sol- “ It is to be noted," says Fox, “ that since
diers of Lucifer, and that they all, because their the time of King Richard II., there is no reign of
lamps are not burning, shall be shut out when the any king in which some good man or other has not
Lord shall come. suffered the pains of fire for the religion and true
At Canterbury he “ lost courage and strength," testimony of Christ Jesus.” ?
and abjured . But " afterwards,” says the martyr - It were truly tedious to relate the number of
ologist, " he became much stouter and stronger in apprehensions and trials for heresy that took place
Jesus Christ, and confessed his error and offence." in those days. No spectacle was then more common
He exerted himself more zealously than ever in than that of men and women , at church doors and
writing and preaching. At last he was appre- market crosses, in a garb meant to humiliate and
hended , and, being convicted of thirty articles , he degrade them , their feet and limbs naked, their
was condemned by the Bishop of Norwich to be head bare, with tapers in their hands,making abjura
burned .' As he stood at the stake, he essayed to tion of their Protestantism . “ Within the space of
speak to the people, and to exhort them to stead three or four years,” says Fox, “ that is from 1498
fastness in the doctrine which he had taught them ; to 1431, about the number of 120 men and women
but a servant of the bishop struck him on the were cast into prison, and sustained great vexation
mouth, and forced him to keep silence. The utter- for the profession of the Christian faith , in the
ance of the tongue might be suppressed, but the dioceses of Norfolk and Suffolk .” 3 These were
eloquence of his death it was impossible to sup- the proofs at once of their numbers and their
press. In 1430, William Hoveden , a wool-spinner weakness ; and for the latter the martyrologist
and citizen of London, having imbibed the opinionsthus finely pleads their excuse : “ These soldiers of
of Wicliffe, “ could by no means be plucked back ,"
Christ,” says he, “ being much beaten with the
says Fox, “ and was burned hard by the Tower of cares and troubles of those days, were constrained
London.” In 1431, Thomas Bagley , Vicar of to protest otherwise with their tongues than their
Monenden , near Malden , “ a valiant disciple and hearts did think, partly through correction and
adherent of Wicliffe,” was condemned for heresy , partly through infirmity , being as yet but new
and burned at Smithfield . trained soldiers in God 's field .” . These confessors
Only one other martyr of the fifteenth century attained not the first rank , yet were they soldiers
shall we name- John Huss ; “ for England,” says in the army of the Reformed faith , and contributed
Fox, “ has also its John Huss as well as Bo their moiety of help towards that great victory
hemia." Being condemned , he was delivered to which ultimately crowned their cause, and the
one of the sheriffs to see him burned in the fruits of which we are reaping at this day.
i Fox, bk . vi., p. 341. 2 For, bk. vi., p. 361. Ibid ., p. 340 . Ibid ., p. 340 .
NEW FESTIVALS AND HOLIDAYS. 393
CHAPTER IX .
ROME'S ATTEMPT TO REGAIN DOMINANCY IN ENGLAND.
Henry VI. - His Infancy - Distractions of the Nation – The Romish Church becomes more Intolerant - New Festival
- St. Dunstan 's and St. George's Days - Indulgences at the Shrine of St. Edmund , & c. - Fresh Attempts by Rome
to Regain Dominancy in England - What Led to these - Statutes of Provisors and Præmunire Denounced
Archbishop Chicheley Reprimanded for Permitting these Statutes to Exist – The Pope's Letter.
HENRY V ., overtaken by death in the midst of his may say, under the very roof of the Popes at
wars in a foreign land, left his throne, as we have Avignon. But now the wind set in from another
seen , to his son , then only a few months old . quarter , and if one spoke irreverently of saint,
England now experienced, in amplest measure , the or indulged in a quiet laugh at monk, or hinted
woe predicted of the land whose king is a child . a doubt of any miracle or mystery of “ Holy
During the long minority, many evil fruits grew Church ,” he drew upon himself the suspicion of
out of the counsel tendered to the king by the heresy , and was fortunate indeed if he escaped the
clergy. If ever country needed a firm will and penalties thereto annexed. Some there were who
a strong hand, it was England at the era that saw aimed only at being wits , who found to their
this infant placed on its throne. There were dismay that they were near becoming martyrs.
factions to be repressed ; turbulent nobles to be Protestantism , which has only one object of
curbed ; conspirators , though the Lollards were worship , has only one great Festival— that Day
not of the number , to be hunted out and punished ; which stands in majesty unapproachable among
and, above all, there was the rising spirit of re- the other days. But the fêtes and festivals of
form to be guided into the channel of peaceful Rome crowded the calendar, and if more should
progress , that so it might rectify institutions be added to the list, it would be almost necessary
without destroying them . But the power , the that more days should be added to the year. Yet
enlightenment, and the patriotism necessary for now there came a great addition to these days
this were lacking, and all these elements of con - of unholy idleness. The previous century had
flict, unregulated and uncontrolled , broke out, and enriched the Ronish ceremonial with “ All Souls,"
strove together in the now distracted and miserable the “ Conception of the Blessed Virgin ," and
country. “ Corpus Christi.” To these Boniface IX . had
The natural tendency of corruptions, when first added the Salutation of Mary and Elizabeth,
approached by the pruning-knife, is to strengthen “ cram -full of indulgences," as Walsingham says,
themselves — to shoot up in new and ranker luxu- for those who should duly lionour the feast.
riance — the better to resist the attacking forces. Treading in the footsteps of the Pontiff, although
So was it with the Church of Rome at this era in at a becoming distance , Archbishop Arundel con
England . On the one side Lollardism had begun tributed his share to this department of thenation 's
to question the truth of its doctrines , on the other piety by raising, cum permissio , St. Dunstan's and
the lay power was assailing the utility of its vast St. George's days to the rank of the greater festi
possessions, and the Roman hierarchy, which had vals. Next came the monks of Bury in this pious
not made up its mind to yield to the call for re- work of enriching England with sacred days and
formation now addressed to it, had no alternative holy places. They procured special indulgences for
but to fortify itself against both the Lollards with the shrine of St. Edmund . Norwere the monks of
out and the cry for reform within . It became Ely and Norwich behind their brethren of Bury.
instantly more exacting in its homage and more They were enabled to offer full absolution to all
stringent in its beliefs. Aforetime a very con - who should come and confess themselves in their
siderable measure of freedom had been allowed to churches in Trinity week. Even the bloody field
friend and foe on both points. If one was dis- of Agincourt was made to do its part in aug.
posed to be witty , or satirical, or humorous at the menting the nation's spiritual wealth : from Octo
expense of the Church or her servants, he might ber 25th, this day began to be observed as a
be so without running any great risk of being greater festival. And , not to multiply instances,
branded as a heretic. Witness the stinging dia- the canons of St. Bartholomew , hard by Smithfield ,
tribes and biting satires of Petrarch, written, we where the fires of martyrdom were blazing, were
diligently exercising their new privilege of pardon- which Chicheley could no more prevent than
ing all sorts of persons all manner of sins, one Martin himself could .?
sin only excepted, the unpardonable one of heresy. “ Martin , Bishop, servant of the servants of
The staple of the trade now being so industriously God," began the Pontiff — it is the usual Papal
driven was pardon ; the material cost nothing, phraseology, especially when some arrogant demand
is to follow — “ to his reverend brother, the Arch
the demand was extensive, the price was good , and
bishop of Canterbury , greeting, and apostolic bene
the profits were correspondingly large. This was
Rome's reply to what she deemed the growing diction.” So far well, but the sweetness exhales in
irreverence of the age. It was the only means the first sentence ; the brotherly kindness of Papal
she knew of heightening the spirit of devotion benediction is soon withdrawn, and then comes the
among her members, and strengthening the na- Papal displeasure. Pope Martin goes on to accuse
tional religion . his “ reverend brother ” of forgetting what “ a
It was at this time that Pope Martin V., of strict account he had to give to Almighty God
the haughty house of Colonna, who was elevated of the flock committed to his care.” He upbraids
to the Papal chair by the Council of Constance, him as “ sleepy and negligent,” otherwise he would
which place he soon thereafter left for Rome in a
blaze of magnificence,' turned his eyes on England, ? We may here quote the statute of Præmunire, as
thinking to put it as completely under his feet as passed in the 16th of Richard II. After a preambulatory
it had been under those of Innocent III., in the remonstrance against the encroachments of the Pope
in the way of translating English prelates to other
days of King John. The statutes of Provisors and sees in England, or in foreign countries, in appointing
Præmunire, passed in the reigns of Edward III. foreigners to English sees, and in sending his balls of
and Richard II., were heavy blows to the Papal excommunication against bishops refusing to carry into
effect his appointments, and in withdrawing persons,
power in England. The Popes had never ac. causes, and revenues from the jurisdiction of the king,
quiesced in this state of matters, nor relinquished and after the engagement of the Three Estates to stand
the hope of being able to compel Parliament to by the crown against these assumptions of the Pope, the
cancel these “ execrable statutes.” But the ca enacting part of the statute follows :
“ Whereupon our said Lord the King, by the assent
lamities of the Popedom , and more especially aforesaid , and at the request of his said Commons, hath
the schism , which lasted forty years, delayed the ordained and established , that if any purchase or pursue,
or cause to be purchased or pursued , in the court of
prosecution of the fixed determination of the Rome or elsewhere [the Papal court was at times at
Papal See. Now , however, the schism was healed , Avignon ), any such translations, processes, or sentences
a prince , immature in years and weak in mind, of excommunication , bulls , instruments, or any other
occupied the throne of England , the nation had things whatsoever, which touch the King, against him ,
a war with France upon its hands, factions and his crown, or his regalty, or his realm as is aforesaid ;
and they which bring within the realm , or them receive,
conspiracies were weakening the country at or make thereof notification , or any other execution
home, and success was ceasing to gild its arms whatsoever within the same realm , or without, that they,
their notaries, procurators, maintainers,abettors, fautors ,
abroad, and so the Pope thought the time ripe and counsellors , shall be put out of the King's protection,
for advancing anew his claim for supremacy and their lands and tenements, goods and chattels,
over England. His demand was, in short, that forfeit to our Lord the King. And that they beattached
the statutes of Provisors and Præmunire, which by their bodies, and if they may be, found , and brought
before the King and his Council, there to answer to the
had shut out his briefs and bulls, his bishops cases aforesaid , or that processes be made against them
and legates , and had cut off the outflow of by Præmunire facias, in manner as it is ordained in other
English gold , so much prized at Rome, should be statutes of Provisors. And other which do sue in any
repealed. other court in derogation of the regalty of our Lord the
King."
This request Pope Martin did not send directly Sir Edward Coke observes that this statute is more
to the king or the regent. The Vatican in such comprehensive and strict than that of 27th Edward III.
Thus provision was made, as is expressed in the pre
cases commonly acts through its spiritual machinery. amble, against the throne and nation of England being
In the first place, the Pontiff is too exalted above reduced to servitude to the Papal chair. “ The crown of
other monarchs to make suit in person to them ; England, which has always been so free and independent
and in the second place , he is too politic to do so. as not to have any earthly sovereign, but to be im .
mediately subject to God in all things touching the
It lessens the humiliation of a rebuff that it be prerogatives and royalty of the said crown, should
given to the servant and not the master. Pope be made subject to the Pope, and the laws and sta
Martin wrote to Archbishop Chicheley, frowning tutes of the realm defeated and set aside by him at
pleasure, to the utter destruction of the sovereignty of
right pontifically upon him for a state of things our Lord the King, his crown, and royalty, and whole
kingdom , which God forbid.” (Collier, vol. i., bk. vii.,
See ante, bk. iii., chap. 13. pp . 594 - 596 .)
POPE MARTIN 'S INSOLENT LETTER . 395
have opposed to the utmost of his power “ those ever," asks the Pope, “ such iniquity as this passed
who had made a sacrilegious invasion upon the into a law ? Can that be styled a Catholic kingdom
privileges settled by our Saviour upon the Roman where such profane laws are made and practised ?
Church " — the statutes of Provisors and Præmunire, where St. Peter's successor is not allowed to execute
to wit. While Archbishop Chicheley was slumber our Saviour's commission ? For this Act will not
ing, “ his flock , alas ! ” the Pope tells him , “ were allow St. Peter's See to proceed in the functions of
running down a precipice before his face." The government, nor make provisions suitable to the
flock in the act of hurling themselves over a necessities of the Church.”
precipice are seen , in the next sentence, feeding “ Is this," asks the Pope, in fine, “ a Catholic
quietly beside their shepherd ; for the Pope im - statute , or can it be endured without dishonour to
mediately continues, “ You suffer them to feed our Saviour, without a breach upon the laws'of the
upon dangerous plants, without warning ; and, Gospel, and the ruin of people's souls ? Why,
which is horribly surprising, you seem to put therefore , did you not cry aloud ? why did you not
poison in their mouths with your own hands.” He lift up your voice like a trumpet ? Show your
had forgotten that Archbishop Chicheley's hands people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob
were at that moment folded in sleep , and that he their sins, that their blood may not be required at
was now uttering a cry to awaken him . But again your hands." ]
the scene suddenly shifts, and the Papal pencil Such were the terms in which Pope Martin
displays a new picture to our bewildered sight; for, deemed it becoming to speak of the Act by which
adds the writer, “ you can look on and see the the Parliament prohibited foreigners - many of
wolves scatter and pull them in pieces, and , like a whom did not know our tongue, and some of
dumb dog , not so much as bark upon the occasion.” whom , too lazy to come in person, sent their cooks
After the rhetoric conies a little business. “ What or butlers to do duty for them - holding livings in
abominable violence has been let loose upon your England. He rates the Senate of a great nation
province, I leave it to yourself to consider. Pray as if it was a chapter of friars or a corps of Papal
peruse that royal law ” — the Pope now comes to pensioners, who dared not meet till he had given
the point _ “ if there is anything that is either law them leave, nor transact the least piece of business
or royal belonging to it. For how can that be till they had first ascertained whether it was
called a statute which repeals the laws of God and agreeable to his Pontifical pleasure. And the
the Church ? I desire to know , reverend brother, primate, the very man who at that moment was
whether you, who are a Catholic bishop, can think enacting new edicts against heresy, deeming the
it reasonable such an Act as this should be in force old not severe enough, and was burning Lollards
in a Christian country ? ” for the " greater glory " of the Church , he indecently
Not content with having exhibited the statute scolds as grossly and traitorously negligent of the
of Præmunire under the three similitudes of a interests of the Papal See. This sharp reprimand
" precipice," " poison,” and “ wolves," Pope Martin was followed by an order to the archbishop, under
goes on thus :— “ Under colour of this execrable pain of excommunication, instantly to repair to the
statute, the King of England reaches into the Privy Council, and exert his utmost influence to
spiritual jurisdiction, and governs so fully in have the statute repealed ; and he was further
ecclesiastical matters, as if our Saviour had con - enjoined , as soon as Parliament should sit, to apply
stituted him His Vicar. Hemakes laws for the to it for the same purpose, and to tell the Lords
Church , as if the keys of the kingdom of heaven and Commons of England from the Pope, “ that
were put into his hands. all who obeyed that statute were under excommu
" Besides this hideous encroachment, he has en- nication.” The primate was further required to
acted,” continuesthe Pope,“ several terrible penalties charge all the clergy to preach the same doctrine.
against the clergy .” This “ rigour," worse, the Pope And, lastly, he was ordered to take two grave
calls it, than any to which “ Jew " or " Turk " was personages with him to attest his diligence, and to
subjected , was the exclusion from the kingdom of certify the Pope of the result of the matter.?
those Italians and others whom the Pope had
nominated to English livings without the king's i Collier, vol. i., pp. 653,654.
consent, and in defiance of the statute. “ Was ? Ibid., p. 654.
SAM
MUN
TITILH
USA
LED
ole
BE
RE
RIS
RER
TE
2
SEN1
GA
AB
LIIT
VIEW OF CANTERBURY.
CHAPTER X .
RESISTANCE TO PAPAL ENCROACHMENTS.
Embroilment
Receive a ofLegate-a-Latere-
the Papacy - WhyPowersAngryofwiththe Legate
Archbishop
- Chicheley
Promise - A ofFormerOffence-Advises
exacted Legate Beaufort- theDispleasure
Pope's King not to
Holds the Statutes Void - Commands the Archbishop to Disobey them - Pope's Letter to Duke of Bedford
-Chicheley
Two Currentsadvises Parliamentto
in England in the Repealthe Act- ParliamentRefuses—
Fifteenth Century - Both Radically The Poperesumeshis
Protestant- The Encroachments
Evangelic Principle the
Master-spring of all Activitiesthen beginning in Society.
Why
Primate thisof explosion
England ? ofWhyPapalthiswrath againstabusivethe
torrentof of rebelliononewhomagainstthe God,
against Pope against toSt.thinkPeter,greaterand
seemed
theepithets
Act ofandPræmunire
violent accusations?
to have been theEvenatrociously
granting than prevented
have either -himself—
wicked thing thePopeheld it to be — the very acme before his time. And why, we may ask, was
could ofArchbishop
the passing it? It wasChicheley
passed
THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE POPE AND CHICHELEY . 397
this tempest reserved for the head of Archbishop throne, and he will let both the English Parliament
Chicheley ? Why was not the See of Canterbury and the English Primate know that he is Pope.
taxed with cowardice and prevarication before now ? But Chicheley had offended in another point, and
Why were not Courtney and Arundel reprimanded though the Pope does not mention it, it is possible
upon the same score ? Why had the Pope held his that it wounded his pride just as deeply as the
peace till this time? The flock in England for half other. The archbishop, in his first Convocation,
www
PREACHING AT ST. PAUL'S CROSS IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
a century had been suffering the treble scourge of

being driven over a precipice, of being poisoned,
and of being torn by wolves, and yet the Pontiff
had not broken silence or uttered a cry of warning
all that time. The chief shepherd had been slum
bering as well as the under-shepherd, and ought
first to have made confession of his own faults SWAITUC
before so sharply calling others to a reckoning for
theirs. Why was this ? had moved the annulling of Papal exemptions in
We have already hinted at the reasons. The favour of those under age. “ This he did ,” says
affairs of the Papal See were in great confusion . Walsingham , “ to show his spirit." This was an
The schism was in its vigour. There were at times act of boldness which the court of Rome was not
three claimants of St. Peter's chair. While matters likely to pardon . But, further, the archbishop
were so embroiled , it would have been the height of
imprudence to have ruffled the English bishops ; it 1 “ Ut manifestaret bilem suam " - his bile or choler.
might have sent them over to a rival interest. But The word chosen shows that the chronicler did not quite
now Martin had borne down all competitors, he approve of such a display of independence. (Walsingham ,
had climbed to the sole occupancy of the Papal p . 387.)
34
brought himself into yet deeper disfavour by coun- that no legate from the Pope could enter the realm ,
selling Henry V. to refuse admission to the Bishop without the king's consent, that the kings of Eng.
of Winchester ' as legate-a-latere. The Pope could land had long enjoyed this privilege, and that if
not but deem this a special affront. Chicheley Winchester intended to stretch his legatine autho
showed the king that “ this commission of legate-a- rity to the breach of this ancient custom , and enter
latere might prove of dangerous consequence to the of his own right, it was at his peril. The cardinal,
realm ; that it appeared from history and ancient finding the king firm , gave his solemn promise that
records that no legates-a-latere had been sent into he would do nothing to the prejudice of the prero
England unless upon very great occasions ; that gatives of the crown, and the rights and privileges
before they were admitted they were brought under of the kingdom . The spirited and patriotic con
articles, and limited in the exercise of their charac- duct of Archbishop Chicheley , in advising that the
ter. Their commission likewise determined within legate -a-latere should not be recognised, was the
à year at farthest, whereas the Bishop of Winches- more honourable to him inasmuch as the man who
ter's was granted for life." 9 in this case bore the legatine commission was an
Still further to convince the king of the danger Englishman , and of the blood royal. It was rare
of freely admitting such a functionary, he showed indeed that any but an Italian was appointed to an
him from canon law the vast jurisdiction in which office that came so near equality, in its influence
he was vested ; that from the moment the legate and dignity , with the Papal chair itself. .
entered , he, Henry, would be but half a king ; that The primate's conduct in the matter was, doubt
the legate-a-latere was the Pope in all but the less, reported at Rome. Itmust have been specially
name ; that he would bring with him the Pope's offensive to a court which held it as a maxim that
power in all but its plenitude ; that the chair of to love one's country is to hate one's Church. But
the legate would eclipse the throne of the king ; the Vatican could not show its displeasure or ven
that the couts of the legate would override the ture on resenting the indignity while the warlike
courts of Westminster Hall ; that the legate would Henry V . occupied the throne. Now , however, the
assume the administration of all the Church pro - silent aisles of Westminster had received him . The
perty in the kingdom ; that he would claim the offence was remembered, and the kingdom from
right of adjudicating upon all causes in which, by whom it had come must be taught how heinous it
any pretext, it could be made appear that the is to humiliate the See of Rome, or encroach upon
Church had interest ; in short, that the legate-a- the regalities of St. Peter. The affair of the legate-a
latere would divide the allegiance of the subjects latere was but one in a long series of affronts. To
between the English crown and the Roman tiara, avenge it was not enough ; the Pope must go
reserving the lion's share to his master.
Henry V . was not the man to fill the place of 3 Duck , in Vit. Chichely, p. 37 ; apud Collier, vol. i.,
lieutenant while another was master in his king- . bk. vii., p.657.
4 In the petition given in to Henry VI. by the Duke of
dom . Winchester had to give way ; as the repre Gloucester (1441) against the Cardinal of Winchester,
sentative of Rome's majesty - the Pope's other self legate-a- latere,we find the duke saying, “ My lord, your
- he must not tread the English soil while Henry father would as leefe see him set his crown beside him as
see him wear a cardinal's hat. . . . . His intent was
lived . But in the next reign , after a visit to Rome, never to do so great derogation to the Church of Canter
the bishop returned in the full investiture of the bury, as to make them that were his suffragans sit above
legatine power (1428). He intimated his commis their ordinary and metropolitan . . . . . Item , it is
sion to the young king and the Duke of Gloucester, not unknown to you , how through your lands it is noised
who was regent, but he did not find the way so that the said cardinal and the Archbishop of York had
and have the governance of you , and of all your land, the
sinooth as hehoped. Richard Caudray,being named which none of your true liege men ought to usurp or take
the king's deputy, met him with a protest in form , upon them .” (Holinshed , vol. iii., p. 199.) For this
- honest advice the Duke of Gloucester had in after-years
(1447) to pay the penalty of his life. Henry Beaufort,
i This was the same Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Win the rich cardinal as he was styled , died in 1448. " He
chester - a son of John of Gaunt- to whom the Pope gåve was," says Holinshed , “ more noble in blood than notable
a commission to raise a new crusade against the Bohe. in learning ; haughty in stomach and high of counte.
mians. In this way the Pope hoped, doubtless , to draw nance ; rich above measure, but not very liberal; dis
in the English to take part in those expeditions which dainful to his kin , and dreadful to his lovers ; preferring
had already cost the German nations so much treasure money to friendship ; many things beginning and few
and blood . In fact the legate came empowered by the performing , save in malice and mischief." (Vol. üli,
Pope to levy a tax of a tenth upon the English clergy p. 112.) He was succeeded in his bishopric by William
for the war in Bohemia . This, however, was refused . Wainfleet, a prelate of wisdom and learning, who was
(Collier, vol. i., p. 658.) See ante, bk . iii., chap. 17. made Chancellor of England, and was the fourder of
2 Collier, vol. i., bk . vii., p . 655 . Magdalen College, Oxford.
THE POPE'S LETTERS TO ENGLISH DIGNITARIES. 399
further back and deeper down, and get at the root urging and commanding them , as they valued the
of that spirit of rebellion which had actuated Eng. salvation of their souls, to repeal the Act of Præ
land from the days of Edward III., and which had munire.
come to a head in the Statutes of Provisors and
muThe letspiritot tthe
Pope's letter
the Pope's nd statofe,hBedford
hat aDuke owexe spiseciaal
Præmunire. specimen of the spirit that animated the Popedom
We have seen the primate commanded to go to under Martin V . It is fair to state , however, that
the Privy Council, and also to Parliament, and de- the Pope at that moment had received a special
mand the repeal of these statutes. Excommuni- provocation which explains so far, if it does not
cation was to be the penalty of refusal. But the excuse, the heat of his language. His nuncio had
Pope went further. In virtue of his own supremacy been lately imprisoned in England for delivering
he made void these laws. Hewrote to the Arch - his briefs and letters. It may be supposed,
bishops of York and Canterbury - for the Pope although the bull does not acknowledge it, that
names York before Canterbury, as if he meant they contained matter prejudicial to the crown.
to mortify the latter - commanding them to give The Pope, in his letter to the Duke of Bedford,
no obedience to the Statutes of Provisors and Præ - appears to strike only at the Act of Præmunire,
munire — that is , to offer no resistance to English but he does so with all his might. He calls it “ an
causes being carried for adjudication to the courts execrable statute,” that was contrary to all reason
of Rome, or to the appointment of foreigners to and religion ; that in pursuance of this Act the law
English livings, and the transport beyond sea of of nations and the privilege of ambassadors were
their revenues — and declaring that should they violated , and his nuncios much more coarsely used
themselves, or any others, submit to these laws, in a Christian country than those of that cha
they would ipso facto be excommunicated , and de- racter among Saracens and Turks ; that it was a
nięd absolution, except at the point of death and hideous reproach to the English to fall thus short of
from the Pope himself.? About the same time the infidels in justice and humanity ; and that, without
Pope pronounced a censure upon the archbishop, speedy reformation, it was to be feared some heavy
and it serves to illustrate the jealousy with which judgment would be drawn down upon them . He
the encroachments of the Vatican were watched by concludes by desiring the Duke of Bedford to use
the English sovereign and his council, to find the his interest to wipe off the imputation from the
primate complaining to the Pope that he could not Government, to retrieve the honour of the Church ,
be informed of the sentence in the regular way, and " chain up the rigour of these persecuting sta
that he knew it only by report, “ for he had not so tutes.” It is an old trick of Rome to raise the cry
much as opened the bulls that contained the censure, of “ persecution,” and to demand “ justice,” when
because he was commanded by the king to bring ever England has withstood her encroachments,
these instruments, with the seals whole, and lodge and tried to bind up her hands from meddling with
them in the paper-office till the Parliament sat." ; the gold or violating the laws of the nation.
The Pope did not rest with enjoining the clergy When Parliament assembled, the two archbishops,
to hold the obnoxious statutes null and void ; he Canterbury and York, accompanied by several
took the extraordinary step of writing four letters - bishops and abbots, presented themselves in the
two to the king, one to the Parliament, and another Refectory of the Abbey of Westminster, where the
to the Duke of Bedford, then Regent of France - Commons were sitting, and, premising that they
intended nothing to the prejudice of the king's
? It may be viewed , perhaps, as collateral evidence of prerogative or the integrity of the Constitution ,
the reviving power of Christianity in England, that about they craved Parliament to satisfy the Pope by re
this time it was enacted that fairs and markets should
not be held in cathedrals and churches, save twice in the pealing the Act of Præmunire. Chicheley had
year (Collier) ; that no commodities or victuals should be begun to quail before the storm gathering at Rome.
exposed for sale in London on Sabbath , and that arti Happily the Commons were more jealous of the
ficers and handicraftsmen should not carry home their nation's honour and independence than the hier
wares to their employers on the sacred day . “ But this
ordinance was too good ,” says the author from whom archy. Rejecting the archbishops' advice to “ serve
Holinshed quotes, “ for so bad an age,and therefore died two masters," they refused to repeal the Act.'
within a short time after themagistrate had given it life .” m
The Pope, notwithstanding that he had been
(Vol. iü ., p . 206.)
? Collier, vol. i., bk . vii., p . 655. The letter is dated
8th December, the tenth year of his Popedom . Collier 4 Burnet, Collection of Records, vol. i., p. 100 ; apud.
supposes that this is a mistake for the eleventh year of Collier, vol. i., p. 656 . In 1438, Charles VII. established
Martin 's Pontificate, which would make the year 1427. the Pragmatic Sanction in his Parliament at Bourges. The
3 Burnet, Hist. Reform ., vol. i., p . 111. Collier, vol. i., Pragmatic Sanction was very much in France what the Act
. 656. of Præmunire was in England.
ISM
baulked in his attempts to bend the Parliament of of Provisors and Præmunire, to defend the canons
England to his will, continued his aggressions upon of the Church , and the constitution of the State,
the privileges of the English Church. Hesustained from the utter demolition with which both were
himself its chief bishop, and conducted himself as if threatened by a foreign tyranny, they were enacting
the Act of Præmunire did not exist. Paying no edicts for the conviction of Lollards, and planting
respect to the right of the chapters to elect, and the stakes to burn them . This does not surprise us.
power of the king to grant his congé d'élire, he It is ever so in the earliest stage of a great reform .
issued his provisors appointing to vacant livings, The good which has begun to stir in the quiet
not on the ground of piety or learning, butof riches depths below , sends the evil to the surface in
and interest. The highest price in the market of quickened activity. Hence such contradictions as
Rome commanded the benefice . Pope Martin V ., that before us. To a casual eye, matters appear to
on the termination of the Council of Constance, be getting worse ; whereas the very effervescence
promoted not less than fourteen persons to various and violence of the old powers is a sign that the
bishoprics in the province of Canterbury alone. new are not far off, and that a reformation has
The Pope empowered his favourites to hold sees in already set in . The Jews have a proverb to this
commendam — that is, to draw their temporalities , effect — “ When the tale of bricks is doubled, then
while another discharged or professed to discharge Moses will come,” which saying, however, if it
the duty. Pope Eugene (1438) gave the bishopric were more exactly to express the truth of the fact
of Ely in commendam to the Archbishop of Rouen , and the law of the Divine working, should run
and after some resistance this Frenchman was The tale of bricks has been doubled , therefore
allowed to enjoy the revenues. He ventured on Moses is come.
other stretches of his supremacy in the matter of We trace in the England of the fifteenth century
pluralities , of non-residence, and of exemptions in two powerful currents , and both are, in a sense,
favour of minors, as the holders of ecclesiastical Protestant.
livings. We find the Pope, further, issuing bulls Lollardism , basing itself upon the Word of God
empowering his nuncios to impose taxes upon the and the rights of conscience, was essentially and
clergy, and collect money. Wetrace, in short, in wholly Protestant. The fight against the Roman
the ecclesiastical annals of the time, a steady and supremacy, basing itself upon the canons of the
persistent effort on the one side to encroach, and a Church and the laws of the kingdom , was also so
tolerably steady and continuous effort on the other far Protestant. It was a protest against a power
to repel. The Ven. Henry Edward Manning, that was lifting its seat above all law , and crushing
Archdeacon of Chichester,” with strict historical every right. Andwhat,we ask , engendered this spirit
truth, says : “ If any man will look down along of opposition ? Little did the party who were fighting
the line of early English history, he will see a against the supremacy dream whence their move
standing contest between the rulers of this land ment drew its existence. They would have been
and the Bishops of Rome. The Crown and Church ashamed to own it, even ifmade aware of it. And
of England with a steady opposition resisted the yet it is true that the very Lollardism which they
entrance and encroachment of the secularised were seeking to trample out had originated the
power of the Pope in England." 3 From the days spirit that was now shown in defence of national
of King John the shadow of the Vatican had independence and against Papal encroachments.
begun to go back on England ; it was still shorten- The Lollard, or Protestant, or Christian principle
ing in the fifteenth century, and its lessening line for it matters not by which one of these three
gave promise of a time, for the advent of which names we designate it — had all along through the
the good Lord Cobham had expressed an ardent Dark Ages been present in the bosom of European
wish, when that ominous penumbra , terminating Christendom , preserving to the conscience some
at Calais, would no longer be projected across the measure of action and power, to the intellect some
sea to the English shore. degree of energy and expansion , and to the soul the
• While the English hierarchy were fighting against desire and the hope of liberty . Ordinarily this
the Papal supremacy with the one hand , they were principle attested its presence by the piety with
persecuting Lollardism with the other. At the which it nourished the heart, and the charity and
very timethat they were framing such Acts as those purity with which it enriched the lives of individual
men and women, scattered up and down in monas
i Collier, vol. i., bk. vij., p . 666.
teries , or in cathedral chapters, or in rural vicarages,
? Created a Cardinal ofthe Church of Rome,March , 1875 . or in hidden places where history passed them by.
3 The Unity of the Church, p. 361; Lond ., 1842. At other times it forced itself to the surface , and
TROUBLES OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 401
revealed its power on a large scale, as in the Albi- rested till it had achieved it. This despised
gensian revival. But the powers of evil were then principle -- for in the fifteenth century it is seen
too strong, to permit of its keeping the footing it at the bar of tribunals, in prisons, at stakes, in
had momentarily obtained Beaten down, it again the guise of a felon — was in truth the originator
became torpid . But in the great spring-time which of these activities ; it communicated to them the
came along with Wicliffe it was effectually roused first impulse. Without it they never would have
never again to slumber. Taking now its place in been : night, not morning, would have succeeded
the front, it found itself supported by a host of the Dark Ages . Itwas the day-spring to Christen
agencies, of which itself was the real although the dom . And this is certified to us when, tracing the
indirect creator. For it was the Lollard or Chris- course of the two contemporary currents which
tian spirit, never, amid all the barbarism and we find flowing in England in the century under
strifes and superstitions that overlaid Mediæval review , we see them , at a point a little way only
society , eliminated or purged out, that hailed in advance of that at which we are now arrived ,
letters in that early morning, that tasted their uniting their streams, and forming one combined
sweetness, that prompted to the cultivation of movement, known as the English Reformation .
them , that panted for a wider sphere, for a greater But before that point could be reached England
liberty, for a purer state of society, and never had to pass through a terrible conflict.
CHAPTER XI.
INFLUENCE OF THE WARS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY ON THE PROGRESS OF PROTESTANTISM .
Convulsions of the Fifteenth Century - Fall of Constantinople - Wars in Bohemia - in Italy - in Spain - in Switzer
land - Wars of the Papal Schism - Was it Peace or War which the Popes gave to Christendom ? - Wars
originated by the Popes : the Crusades ; the War of Investitures ; the Albigensian and Waldensian Crusades ;
the Wars in Naples, Poland , & c.; the Feuds in Italy ; the Hussite Campaigns, & c.-- War of the Roses - Traced
to the Council of Archbishop Chicheley - Providential End of the Wars of the Fifteenth Century - The Nobility
Weakened - The Throne made Powerful - Why ? - Hussitism and Lollardism .
The Day that was hastening towards the world sent gloomy and silent. Germany had suffered far more
terrible tempests before it as the heralds of its than she had inflicted. From the Rhine to the
approach . Than themiddle of the fifteenth century Elbe, from the Black Forest to the Baltic, her
there is, perhaps, no point in modern history that nations were lamenting their youth slaughtered in
presents a scene of more universal turmoil and the ill-fated campaigns into which Rome had drawn
calamity, if we except the period that witnessed the them against the Hussites . Italy , split up into
fall of the Western Empire. Nowhere is there principalities , was ceaselessly torn by the ambitions
stability or rest. All around , as far as the eye and feuds of its petty rulers, and if for a moment the
can reach , appears a sea whose waters, swollen into din of these intestine strifes was hushed, it was in
huge billows by the force of the mighty winds, presence of some foreign invader whom the beauty
are assailing the very foundations of the earth . of that land had drawn with his armies across the
The Christian of that day, when he cast his eyes Alps. The magnificent cities of Spain , adorned
around on a world rocked and tossed by these by the art and enriched by the industry of the
great tempests , must have despaired , had he not Moors, were being emptied of their inhabitants by
remembered that there is One who “ sits King the crusades of bigotry ; the Moslem flag was being
upon the floods.” torn down on the walls of Grenada, and the race
The armies of the Turk were gathering round which had converted the Vega around the Moorish
Constantinople, and the Queen of the East was capital into a garden, watering it with the icy
about to bow her head and sink in a tempest of torrents of the Sierra Nevada, and clothing it with
pillage, of rapine, and of slaughter. The land of corn -fields and orange-groves, were fleeing across
Bohemia , watered , as with a plenteous rain , once , the Straits to form new seats on the northern shores
again , and a third time, with German blood, was of Africa . The Swiss ,who had looked for centuries
with almost uninterrupted indifference on the wars gospel of peace was converted into the tocsin of
and convulsions that distracted the nations that war. The evils flowing from the schism , and which
dwelt at the feet of their mountains, finding in for so many years afflicted Christendom , cannot but
their great hills an impregnable fortress against raise the question in every dispassionate mind how
invasion, now saw themselves menaced in their far the Popes have fulfilled the office assigned them
valleys with a foreign sword , and had to fight for as the “ Fathers of Christendom " and the Peace
their immemorial independence. They were assailed makers of the World ? Leaving out of view their
by the two powerful kingdoms on each side of adulators on the one side, and their incriminators
o
p
THE ARCIBISHOPS OF YORK AND CANTERBURY BEFORE THE PARLIAMENT AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY .
them ; for Austria and France, in their desire to on the other, let us put to history the question ,
enlarge their territories, had become forgetful that How many are the years of peace, and how many
in levelling the Alps of the Swiss, they but effaced are the years of war, which have come out of the
the barrier between themselves , which prevented Papal chair , and what proportion does the one bear
the two nations mingling their blood on fierce and to the other ?
frequent battle-fields. To put,then,a few plain questions touchingmatters
As if the antipathies of race , and the ambition of of fact, let us ask , from whom came the crusades
princes, were not enough to afflict an unhappy age, which for two centuries continued to waste the
another element of contention was imported into treasure and the blood of both Europe and
the strife by the Papal schism . The rival Popes Asia ? History answers, from the Popes. Monks
and their supporters brought their cause into the preached the crusades, monks enlisted soldiers
battle-field , and torrents of Christian blood were to fight them , and when the host was marshalled
shed to determine the question which was the true and all was ready, monks placed themselves at
Vicar. The arguments from piety, from wisdom , their head , and led them onward, their track
from learning were but dust in the balance against marked by devastation, to the shores of Syria ,
the unanswerable argument of the sword, and the where their furious fanaticism exploded in scenes
M
CARDINAL BEAUFORT'S CHANTRY, WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL.

of yet greater devastation and horror. In these Who deposed sovereigns, and sanctioned insurrec
expeditions the Popes were always the chiefs ; tion and war between them and their subjects ?
the crossed emperors and kings were enlisted under The Popes. Who so often tempted the Swiss from
their banner, and put under the command of their their mountains to shed their blood on the plains
legates ; at the Popes' mandate it was that they of Italy ? The Bishop of Sion , acting as the legate
went forth to slay and to be slain . In the absence of the Pope. Who was it that, the better to
of these princes the Popes took into their hands the maintain the predominance of their own sway,
government of their kingdoms; the persons and kept Italy divided, at the cost of almost ceaseless
goods of all the crusaders were declared under their intestine feuds and wars , and the leaving the gates
protection ; in their behalf they caused every proof the country unguarded , or purposely open , for the
cess, civil and criminal, to be suspended ; they made entrance of foreign hordes ? History answers, the
a lavish distribution of indulgences and dispensa- Popes . Who was it that, having entered into war
tions, to keep alive fanatical fervour and sanguinary with France, threw aside the mitre for the helmet,
zeal ; they sometimes enjoined as a command, and and, passing over a bridge on the Tiber , is said to
sometimes as a penance, service in the crusades ; have thrown the keys of St. Peter into the river,
their nuncios and legates received the alms and seeing they had served him so ill, and called for
legacies bequeathed for maintaining these wars ; the sword of St. Paul ? Pope Julius II. Who
and when, after two dismal centuries, they came to organised the successive campaigns waged against
an end, it was found that none save the Popes were the Hussites, and on two several occasions sent
the gainers thereby. While the authority of the his legate-a-latere to lead the crusaders ? History
Papal See was vastly strengthened , the secular answers, the Pope.
princes were in the same proportion weakened and We stop at the era of the Reformation . We
impoverished ; the sway of Rome was confirmed, put no questions to history touching the wars in
for the nations, broken and bowed down, suffered Germany, the wars in France , the wars in the Low
a yoke to be rivetted upon their necks that could Countries , the wars in Hungary, and in other
not be broken for ages.? lands ; in which, too, the blood of the scaffold was
We ask further, from whom came the contest largely mingled with the blood of the battle- field .
between the mitre and the Empire— the war of Werestrict our examples to those ages when Rome
investitures — which divided and ravaged Christen - was not only a power, but the power in Christendom .
dom for a full century and a half ? History Kings were then her vassals, and she had only to
answers, from the Pope — Gregory VII. From speak to be obeyed . Why then did she not
whom came the Albigensian crusades, which swept summon them to her bar, and command them to
in successive tempests of fire and blood across the sheathe their swords ? Why did she not bind them
south of France ? History answers, from the in the chain of her excommunications, and compel
Pope - Innocent III. Whence came those armies them to be at peace till she had arbitrated in their
of assassins, which times without number pene quarrels, and so prevent this great effusion of
trated into the Waldensian valleys, carrying the human blood ? Here are the Pope's exploits on
torch into dwelling and sanctuary, and inflicting the field of war. Why has history forgotten to
on the unoffending inhabitants barbarities and chronicle his labours and sacrifices in the blessed
cruelties of so horrible a nature that they never work of peace ? True,we do find a few outstanding
can be known, because they never dare be told ? instances of the Popes enjoining peace among
History answers, from the Pope. Who made Christian princes. We find the Council of Lyons
donations of kingdoms- Naples, Sicily, Aragon, (1245 ) ordaining a general cessation of arms among
Poland , and others - knowing that those to whom the Western sovereigns, with power to prelates to
they had gifted them could possess them only by proceed by censures against those who refused to
fighting for them ? History answers, the Popes. acquiesce ; but for what end ? even that the
crusade which had been projected might be carried
1 In proof of this summary view of the origin and out with greater unanimity and vigour. We
effects of the crusades, the author begs to refer his readers
to Baron ., Ann ., 1096 ; Gibbon , chap . 58, 59 ; Moreri, Le find Gregory X . sending his nuncio to compel
Grand Dict. Hist., tom . iii.; Innet, Origines Anglicana , observance of this decree of the Council on
vol. ii. ; Sismondi, Hist., & c. & c. The author speaks, of Philip III. of France and the King of Castile,
course, of the direct and immediate effects which flowed knowing that these two sovereigns were about to
from thecrusades ; there were remote and indirect results
of a beneficent kind evolved from them , but this was the decide a certain difference by arms, because he
doing of an overruling Providence , and was neither fore
seen nor intended by their authors. · Hardouin , Acta Concil.,tom .vii.,p.395 ; Parisiis,1714.
THE WARS OF THE ROSES. 405
needed their swords to fight his own battles. We ward (1450 ), and discharged its last and heaviest
tind, further, Boniface VIII. enjoining all sove contents on England itself. The long and melan
reigns to terminate all wars and differences at choly train of events which now began to run their
home, that they might be in circumstances to course athometook its rise in thewar with France.
prosecute more vigorously the holy wars of the The premature death of Henry V.; the factions
Church. These, and a few similar instances, are and intrigues that strove around the throne of his
all that we have on the one side to set over against infant son ; the conspiracies that spread disquiet
the long roll of melancholy facts on the other. and distraction over the kingdom ; and, finally , the
History's verdict is, that with the ascent of the outbreak of the Wars of the Roses, which, like a
Popes to supremacy came not peace but war to fearful conflagration, consumed all the great fami
the nations of Christendom . The noon of the Papal lies of the kingdom , the royal house included ; all
power was illustrated , not by its calm splendours these tragedies and crimes connect themselves
and its tranquil joys, but by tempest and battle with, and can be traced up .to , the fateful counsel
and destruction . of the clergy, so eagerly adopted and acted upon
We return from this digression to the picture by the king. Nor was the blood spilt on the
of Europe in the middle of the fifteenth century. battle-field the only evil that darkened that un
To the distractions that were rife in every quarter, happy period. In the wake of fierce civil war
in the east, in the south, and in the centre of came a relaxation of law , and a suspension of in
Christendom , we have to add those that raged in dustry. The consequence of the former was that
the north . The King of England had proclaimed the country was defiled by crimeand outrage ; and
war against France. Mighty armaments were of the latter, that frequent famines and pestilences
setting sail from decimated the population .”
- “ that pale, that white-faced shore, The contest which opened in 1452 between the
Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides , White Rose of York and the Red Rose of Lan
And coops from other lands her islanders” I_ caster, it is the province of the civil historian to
narrate. We notice it here only so far as it bears
the man who led them being forgetful that nature on the history of Protestantism . The war was not
had ordained the sea around England to be at finished in less than thirty years ; it was signalised
once the limit of her seat and the rampart of her by twelve pitched battles ; it is computed to have
power, and that by extending he was imperilling cost the lives of eighty princes of the blood, and
his dominions. This ill-starred expedition , out of almost entirely annihilated the ancient nobility of
which came so many calamities to both countries, England. The kingdom had seemed as a stricken
was planned , we have seen, by the Romish clergy,
for the purpose of finding work for the active- 2 “ God suddenly touched him , unbodying his soul in
minded Henry V ., and especially of diverting his the flower of his youth , and the glory of his conquest.”
- Speech of Duke of York to Parliament, 1460. (Holinshed ,
eye from their own possessions to a more tempting vol. iii., p .264.) While the duke was asserting his title to
prize , the crown of France. The mischiefs and the crown in the Upper House, there happened , says the
woes to which this advice opened the door did not chronicler, " a strange chance in the very same instant
exhaust themselves till the century was drawing to among the Commons in the Nether House. A crown,
which did hang in the middle of the same, to garnish a
a close. The armies of England smote not merely branch to set lights upon , without touch of man , or blast
the northern coasts of France, they penetrated to of wind, suddenly fell down. About the same time also
the centre of the kingdom , marking the line of fell down the crown which stood on the top of Dover
Castle. Soon after the duke was slain on the battle .
their march by cities sacked and provinces devas field , and with him 2,800, mostly young gentlemen , heirs
tated and partially depopulated . This calamity of great families. His head, with a crown of paper,
fell heavily on the upper ranks of French society . stuck on a pole, was presented to the queen . Some
write,” says the chronicler, “ that he was taken alive,
On the fatal field of Agincourt perished the flower made to stand on a mole-hill, with a garland of bul.
of their nobility ; moanings and lamentations re rushes instead of a crown, and his captors , kneeling
sounded in their châteaux and royal residences ; for before him in derision , said, ' Hail, king without rule !
hail, king without heritage ! -- hail, duke and prince
there were few indecd of the great families that without people and possessions !' ” and then struck off
had not cause to mourn the counsel of Archbishop
Chicheley to Henry V ., which had directed this 3 “ This year, 1477,” says Holinshed (vol. iii., p. 346),
“ happened so fierce and quick a pestilence that the
destructive tempest against their country. previous fifteen years consumed not the third part o:
At last the cloud of calamity returned north the people that only four monthsmiserably and pitifully
dispatched and brought to their graves."
1 Shakespeare, King John , act ii., scene 1 . 4 Hume, Hist. Eng., chap . 29 .
land ever since the De Hæretico Comburendo law period , some were called , to use the wordsof Fox,
was placed upon its statute-book , but the Wars of “ to consummate their testimony in the fire."
“ The intimidated Lollards," says D 'Aubigné,
The rival hosts were inflamed with the ran - “ were compelled to hide themselves in the hum
corous hate peculiar to civil conflicts, and seldom blest ranks of the people, and to hold their meet
have more sanguinary battles been fought than ings in secret. The work of redemption was
those which now deluged the soil of England with proceeding noiselessly among the elect of God. Of
the blood of its own children. Sometimes the these Lollards there were many who had been
House of York was victorious, and then the Lan - redeemed by Jesus Christ, but in general they
castrians were mercilessly slaughtered ; at other knew not , to the same extent as the Protestant
times it was the House of Lancaster that tri- Christians of the sixteenth century, the quickening
umphed , and then the adherents of York had to and justifying power of faith . They were plain ,
expiate in the hour of defeat the barbarities they meek, and often timid folks, attracted by the Word
had inflicted in the day of victory. The land of God, affected by the condemnation it pronounces
mourned its many woes. The passage of armies against the errors of Rome, and desirous of living
to and fro over it was marked by castles, churches, according to its commandments. God had assigned
and dwellings burned, and fields wasted . In them a part — and an important part too — in the
these calamities passed the greater part of the great transformation of Christianity. Their hum
second half of the fifteenth century. The reign ble piety, their passive resistance , the shameful
of the Plantagenets, who had so long governed treatment which they bore with resignation, the
England, came to an end on the bloody field of penitent's robes with which they were covered, the
Bosworth (1485), and the House of Tudor, in the tapers they were compelled to hold at the church
person of Henry VII., mounted the throne. door — all these things betrayed the pride of the
If these troubles were so far a shield to the priests, and filled the most generous mind with
Wicliffites, by giving the King of England and his doubts and vague desires. By a baptism of suffer
nobles other things to think of than hunting for ing, God was then preparing the way to a glorious
Lollards, they rendered any revival of their cause Reformation.”S
impossible. The work of doing to death those who Looking only at the causes acting on the surface,
professed and preached the Reformed faith , though surveying the condition and working of established
hindered by the causes before alluded to, did not institutions, especially the “ Church," which was
actually cease. From time to time during this every day mounting higher in power, and at the
same time plunging deeper into error ; which had
1 Rumours of prodigies and portents helped to aug . laid its hand upon the throne and made its occu
ment the prevalent foreboding and alarm of the people. pant simply its lieutenant — upon the statute-book,
Of these the following may be taken as a sample , the and had made it little better than the register of
more that there is a touch of the dramatic about it :
“ In November, 1457, in the isle of Portland , not far its intolerant edicts — upon the magistracy, and left
from the town of Weymouth , was seen a cock coming it hardly any higher function than the humble one
out of the sea , having a great crest upon his head , and of executing its sentences - looking at all this , one
a great red beard, and legs half a yard long. He stood
on the water and crowed three times, and every time would have expected nothing else than that the
turned him about, and beckoned with his head , toward darkness would grow yet deeper, and that the
the north , the south , and the west , and was in colour storms now afflicting the world would rage with
like a pheasant, and when he had crowed three times he even greater fury. And yet the dawn had already
vanished away.” (Holinshed , vol. iii., p . 244 .) We read
of “ a rain of blood " in Bedfordshire, “ which spotted come. There was light on the horizon. Nay,
clothes hung out to dry.” these furious blasts were bearing on their wings
: The Romish clergy were careful, in the midst of this blessings to the nations. Constantinople was fall
general destruction of life and substance, that their
possessions should not eome by loss. The following award ing, that the treasures of ancient literature might
was made at Westminster, 23rd March, 1458 - " That at be scattered over the Western world , and the
the costs , charges, and expenses of the Duke of York , human mind quickened . The nobility of France
the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury, forty -five pounds
of yearly rent should be assured by way of mortisement and England was being weakened on the battle
for ever, unto the monastery of St. Albans, for suffrages field , that the throne might rise into power, and
and obits to be kept, and alms to be employed for the be able to govern .
souls of Edmund , late Duke of Somerset ; Henry, late It was needful that an institution , the weakness
Earl of Northumberland ; and Thomas, late Lord Clif.
ford , lately slain in the battle of St. Albans, and buried of which had invited the lawlessness of the nobles,
in the Abbey church , and also for the souls of all others
Pain in the same battle .” (Holinshed , vol. üi., p . 247.) 3 D 'Aubigné, vol. v., p. 148.
HUSSITISM AND LOLLARDISM . 407
and the arrogancy of the hierarchy, should be lifted designation by which it has been known these three
up and made strong. This was one of the first centuries. The day will come when it will drop in
steps towards the emancipation of society from the turn the name it now bears— that of Protestantism
spiritual bondage into which it had fallen. Ever and will resume that more ancient, more catholic ,
since the days of Gregory VII., monarchy had and more venerable one, given it eighteen centuries
been in subordination to priesthood. The policy ago in Antioch, where the disciples were first
of the Popes, pursued through four centuries, was called CHRISTIANS.
to centralise their power, and place it at the sum - Although there was one spirit in both branches
mit. One of the means adopted for this end was of the movement, yet was there diversity of opera
to make the nobles a poise to the kings, and by tions. The power of Protestantism was shown in
weakening both parties, to make the Pope the Bohemia in converting a nation into heroes, in
most powerful of the three. This policy had been England it was shown in making martyrs. In the
successful. The Popes had grown to be more than one country its history leads us to camps and battle
a match for the petty sovereigns of the fifteenth fields, in the other it conducts us to prisons and
century . Nothing but a system of strong mo- stakes. The latter reveals the nobler champions,
narchies could now cope with that chair of com - and the more glorious conflict. Yet do we not
bined spiritual and temporal power which had blame the Hussites. Unlike the Lollards, they were
established itself at Rome, and grown to be so a nation. Their country was invaded , their con
strong that it made kings their tools, and through sciences were threatened ; and they violated no
them scourged their subjects. principle of Christianity that we are acquainted
Accordingly we see at last emerging from the with, when they girded on the sword in defence
tempests that raged all through the century of their hearths and their altars. And surely we
under review , three powerful thrones — that of do not err when we say that Providence set the
England , that of France, and that of Spain . The seal of its approval upon their patriotic resistance,
undivided power of Christendom was no longer in in that marvellous success that crowned their arms,
one hand, and that hand the holder of the tiara . and which continued to flow in a tide that knew
The three powerful sovereigns who had risen up not a moment's ebb till that fatal day when they
could keep their nobles in check , could spurn the entered into compact with Rome. In the Great Roll
dictation of the hierarchy, and so could meet on we find the names of those who “ waxed valiant in
equal terms the sovereign of the Vatican. With fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens "
that sovereign their interests were sometimes in as well as that of those who “ were stoned , were
accordance , and sometimes in opposition, and this sawn asunder, were tortured , were slain with the
poise between Popedom and monarchy constituted sword , not accepting deliverance , that they might
a shield for that great expansion of the Protestant obtain a better resurrection .”
movement which was just about to take place . Still, it must be confessed that the stake of the
Before leaving England in the fifteenth century, Lollard showed itself in the end a more powerful
it is necessary to remember that during this cen - weapon for defending Protestantism than the sword
tury the great movement which had been originated of the Hussite. The arms of the Bohemians merely
hy the instrumentality of Wicliffe in the previous extinguished enemies, the stakes of the Lollards
one, was parted into two ; the one branch having created disciples. In their deaths they sowed the
its seat in the west, and the other in the east of seed of the Gospel ;- that seed remained in the
Christendom . soil, and while “ the battle of the warrior, with its
Further, that movement was known under two confused noise and garments rolled in blood,” was
names- Hussitism in Bohemia, and Lollardism swaying to and fro over the face of England, it
in England. When the famous Protest was given continued to germinate in silence, awaiting the
in by the German princes in 1529 it dropped both sixteenth century, with its mollient air, for the
appellatives, and received henceforward that one time of spring. .
LFI
2
CUEN LE
TE
CA
NE
VIEW OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY FROM THE MALL, IN FRONT OF ST. JAMES'S PALACE, ST. JAMES'S PARK.
(From a Drawing by J. T. Smith, 1807.)
Book Eighth .
HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM IN SWITZERLAND FROM A .D. 1516 TO ITS
ESTABLISHMENT AT ZURICH , 1526.
- oo
CHAPTER I.
SWITZERLAND — THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE.
TheWho
Reformation dawns first in England -Wicliffe- Luther - His No -What it Implied , Uprising of Conscience
shall Rule, Power or Conscience ? - Contemporaneous Appearance of the Reformers - Switzerland- Variety
and Grandeur of its Scenery - Its History - Bravery and Patriotism of its People - A New Liberty approaches
Will theSwissWelcomeit ?- Yes - An Asylum forthe Reformation - Decline in Germany- Revival in Switzerland.
In following the progress of the recovered Gospel the pledge that after him would come others,
over Christendom in the morning of the sixteenth endowed with equal, and it might be with greater
century, our steps now lead us to Switzerland. gifts, to carry forward the same great mission of
In England first broke the dawn of that blessed emancipation. The success which followed his
day. Foremost in that race of mighty men and preaching gave assurance that that Divine Influence
saviours by whose instrumentality it pleased God to which had wrought so mightily in olden time, and
deliver Christendom from the thraldom into which chased the night of Paganism from so many realms,
the centuries had seen it fall, to ignorance and overturning its altars, and laying in the dust the
superstition,stands Wicliffe. His appearance was powerfulthrones that upheld it,would yet again be
GREATNESS OF WICLIFFE. 409
unloosed,and would display its undying vitality and other countries, it seemed to be again fading away
unimpaired strength in dispelling the second night into night. No second Wicliffe had risen up ; the
which had gathered over the world,and overturning grandeur, the power, and the corruption of Rome
the new altars which had been erected upon the had reached a loftier height than ever — when
ruins of the Pagan ones. suddenly a greater than Wicliffe stepped upon the
But a considerable interval divided Wicliffe from stage. Not greater in himself, for Wicliffe sent
W
ILL
ERRY
11
PE
VIEW IN LUCERNE.
his great successors. The day seemed to tarry, the his glance deeper down, and cast it wider around
hopes of those who looked for “ redemption ” were on the field of truth, than perhaps even Luther.
tried by a second delay. That Arm which had It seemed in Wicliffe as if one of the theological
" cut the bars” of the Pagan house of bondage giants of the early days of the Christian Church
seemed “ shortened," so that it could not unlock the had suddenly appeared among the puny divines of
gates of the yetmore doleful prison of the Papacy. the fourteenth century, occupied with their little
projects of the reformation of the Church " in its
Even in England and Bohemia , to which the Light
was restricted, so far from continuing to brighten head and members," and astonished them by throw
and send forth its rays to illuminate the skies of ing down amongst them his plan of reformation
35
according to the Word of God. But Luther was blossoming of the Greek genius a preparation of
greater than Wicliffe, in that borne up on his the world , by the quickening of its mind and the
shield he seemed not only of loftier stature than widening of its horizon , for the advent of Chris
other men, but loftier than even the proto-Re- tianity . We find this phenomenon repeated, but
former. Wicliffe and the Lollards had left behind on a larger scale , in Christendom at the opening
them a world so far made ready for the Reformers of the sixteenth century .
of the sixteenth century, and the efforts of Luther One of the first to mark this was Ruchat, the
and his fellow -labourers therefore told with sudden eloquent historian of the Swiss Reformation . “ It
and prodigious effect. Now broke forth the day. came to pass,” says he, “ that God raised up, at
In the course of little more than three years, the this time, in almost all the countries of Europe,
half of Christendom had welcomed the Gospel, and Italy not excepted , a number of learned, pious, and
was beginning to be bathed in its splendour. enlightened men , animated with a great zeal forthe
We have already traced the progress of the glory of God and the good of the Church. These
Protestant light in Germany, from the year 1517 illustrious men arose all at once, as if by one
to its first culmination in 1521 — from the strokes of accord, against the prevailing errors, without how
the monk's hammer on the door of the castle-church ever having concerted together ; and by their con
at Wittemberg, in presence of the crowd of pilgrims stancy and their firmness , accompanied by the
assembled on All Souls' Eve, to his No thundered blessing from on high, they happily succeeded in
forth in the Diet of Worms, before the throne of the different places in rescuing the torch of the Gospel
Emperor Charles V . That No sounded the knell of from under the bushel that had hidden its light,
an ancient slavery ; it proclaimed unmistakably and by means of it effected the reformation of the
that the Spiritual had at last made good its footing Church ; and as God gave, at least in part, this
in presence of the Material; that conscience would grace to different nations, such as the French ,
no longer bow down before empire ; and that a English, and Germans, he granted the same to the
power whose rights had long been proscribed had at Swiss nation : happy if they had all profited by
last burst its bonds, and would wrestle with prin - it.” 1
cipalities and thrones for the sceptre of the world . The country on the threshold of which we now
The opposing powers well knew that all this terrible stand, and the eventful story of whose reformation
significance lay couched in Luther's one short sen- we are to trace, is in many respects a remark
tence, “ I cannotretract." It was the voice of a new able one. Nature has selected it as the chosen
age, saying, I cannot repass the boundary across field for the display of her wonders. Here beauty
which I have come. I am the heir of the future ; and terror, softness and ruggedness, the most ex
the nations are my heritage ; I must fulfil my quisite loveliness and stern, savage, appalling sub
appointed task of leading them to liberty, and woe limity lie folded up together, and blend into one
to those who shall oppose me in the execution of my panorama of stupendous and dazzling magnificence.
mission ! Ye emperors, ye kings, ye princes and Here is the little flower gemming the meadow , and
judges of the earth , “ be wise.” If you shall unite yonder on the mountain 's side is the tall, dark,
with me, your recompense will be thrones more silent fir-tree. Here is the crystal rivulet, gladden
stable, and realms more flourishing. But if not - ing the vale through which it flows, and yonder is
my work must be done nevertheless ; but alas ! for the majestic lake, spread out amid the hushed
the opposers ; nor throne, nor realm , nor name mountains, reflecting from its mirror-like bosom
shall be left them . the rock that nods over its strand , and the white
One thing has struck all who have studied, with peak which from afar looks down upon it out of
minds at once intelligent and reverent, the era of mid-heaven . Here is the rifted gorge across which
which we speak , and that is the contemporaneous savage rocks fling their black shadows, making it
appearance of so many men of great character and almost night at noon-day ; here, too, the glacier,
sublimest intellect at this epoch . No other age like a great white ocean , hangs its billows on the
can show such a galaxy of illustrious names. The mountain 's brow ; and high above all, the crowning
nearest approach to it in history is perhaps the glory in this scene of physical splendours, is some
well-known famous half-century in Greece . Before giant of the Alps, bearing on his head the snows
the appearance of Christ the Greek intellect burst of a thousand winters, and waiting for the sun to
out all at once in dazzling splendour, and by its
achievements in all departments of human effort Histoire de la Réformation de la Suisse . Par Abraham
Ruchat, Ministre du Saint Évangile et Professeur en
shed a glory over the age and country . Most Belles Lettres dans l'Académie du Lausanne. Vol.i., p. 70.
students of history have seen in this wondrous Lausanne, 1835.
THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 411
enkindle them with his light, and fill the firma had put upon their fathers. Had they fought and
ment with their splendour. bled to rend the lighter yoke, and were they meekly
The politics of Switzerland are nearly as romantic to bear the heavier ? Its iron was entering the
as its landscape. They exhibit the same blending soul. No ! they had been the bond -slaves of a
people,simple,
of the homely and the heroic. ItItss people, simpy of foreign their too long. This hour should be the
last of priest
frugal, temperate , and hardy, have yet the faculty of last of their vassalage. And in no country did
kindling into enthusiasm , and some of the most find warriors more the
Protestantism find warriors more energetic, or
chivalric feats that illustrate the annals of modern combatants more successful, than the champions
war have been enacted on the soil of this land that Switzerland sent forth.
Their mountains, which expose them to the fury of Not only were the gates of this grand territory
the tempest, to the violence of the torrent, and the to be thrown open to the Reformation, but here in
dangers of the avalanche, have taught them self- years to come Protestantism was to find its centre
denial, and schooled them into daring. Nor have and head-quarters. When kings should be pressing
their souls remained unattempered by the grandeurs it hard with their swords, and chasing it from the
amid which they daily move, as witness, on proper more open countries of Europe, it would retreat
occasions, their devotion at the altar, and their within this mountain -guarded land, and erecting its
heroism on the battle- field . Passionately fond of seat at the foot of its mighty bulwarks, it would
their country , they have ever shown themselves continue from this asylum to speak to Christendom .
ready, at the call of patriotism , to rush to the battle. The day would come when the light would wax
field ,and contend against themost tremendous odds. dim in Germany, but the Reformation would
From tending their herdsand flocks on those breezy retrim its lamp in Switzerland, and cause it to
pasture-lands that skirt the eternal snows, the first burn with a new brightness , and shed all around
summons has brought them down into the plain to a purer splendour than ever was that of morning
do battle for the freedom handed down to them from on its Alps. When the mighty voice that was
their fathers . Peaceful shepherds have been sud - now marshalling the Protestant host in Germany,
denly transformed into dauntless warriors, and the and leading it on to victory, would cease to be
mail-clad phalanxes of the invader have gone down heard ; when Luther would descend into his grave,
before the impetuosity of their onset, his spearmen leaving no one behind him able to grasp his
have reeled beneath the battle -axes and arrows of sceptre, or wield his sword ; when furious tem
the mountaineers , and both Austria and France pests would be warring around Protestantism in
have often had cause to repent having incautiously France, and heavy clouds darkening the morning
roused the Swiss lion from his slumbers. which had there opened so brightly ; when Spain ,
But now a new age had come, in which deeper after a noble effort to break her fetters and escape
feelings were to stir the souls of the Swiss, and into the light, would be beaten down by the in
kindle them into a holier enthusiasm . A higher quisitor and the despot, and compelled to return to
liberty than that for which their fathers had shed her old prison — there would stand up in Switzerland
their blood on the battle-fields of the past was a great chief, who, pitching his pavilion amid
potention at was
approaching their land. What reception shall they its mountains, and surveying from this centre
give it ? Will the men who never declined the every part of the field , would set in order the
summons to arms, sit still when the trumpet calls battle a second time, and direct its movements till
them to this nobler warfare ? Will the yoke on victory should crown the combatants.
the conscience gall them less than that which they Such is the interest of the land we are now
felt to be so grievous though it pressed only on the approaching. Here mighty champions are to con
body ? No ! the Swiss will nobly respond to the tend , here wise and learned doctors are to teach :
call now to be addressed to them . They were to but first let us briefly describe the condition in
see by the light of that early dawn that Austria which we find it — the horrible night that has so
had not been their greatest oppressor : that Rome long covered those lovely valleys and those majestic
had succeeded in imposing upon them a yoke more mountains, on which the first streaks of morning
grievous by far than any the House of Hapsburg are now beginning to be discernible.
CHAPTER II .
CONDITION OF SWITZERLAND PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION .
Primitive and Medieval Christianity - The Latter Unlike the Former - Change in Church 's Discipline - in her Clergy
--in her Worship - State of Switzerland - Ignorance of the Bible - The Sacred Languages Unknown - Greek is
Heresy - Decay of Schools — Decay of Theology - Distracted State of Society - All Things Conventionally Holy
Sale of Benefices - Swiss Livings held by Foreigners .
So changed was the Christianity of the Middle The stream of corruption, swollen to such dimen
Ages from the Christianity of the primitive times, sions so early as the fifth century, flowed down
that it could not have been known to be the same with ever -augmenting volume to the fifteenth.
Gospel. The crystal fountains amid the remote and Not a country in Christendom which the deluge
solitary hills, and the foul and turbid river formed did not overflow . Switzerland was visited with
by their waters after stagnating in marshes, or the fetid stream as well as other lands ; and it will
receiving the pollution of the great cities past help us to estimate the mighty blessing which the
which they roll, are not more unlike than were the Reformation conferred on the world , to take a few
pure and simple Gospel as it issued at the beginning examples of the darkness in which this country
from its Divine source, and the Gospel exhibited to was plunged before that epoch.
the world after the traditions and corruptions of The ignorance of the age extended to all classes
men had been incorporated with it. The govern - and to every department of human knowledge.
ment of the Church , so easy and sweet in the first The sciences and the learned languages were alike
age, had grown into a veritable tyranny. The unknown ; political and theological knowledge were
faithful pastors who fed the flock with knowledge equally neglected . “ To be able to read a little
and truth, watching with care lest harm should Greek,” says the celebrated Claude d'Espenes,
come to the fold , had given place to shepherds who speaking of that time, “ was to render one's self
slumbered at their post, or awoke up only to eat suspected of heresy ; to possess a knowledge of
the fat and clothe them with the wool. The simple Hebrew , was almost to be a heretic outright."
and spiritual worship of the first age had, by the The schools destined for the instruction of youth
fifth, been changed into a ceremonial, which Augus- contained nothing that was fitted to humanise, and
tine complained was “ less tolerable than the yoke sent forth barbarians rather than scholars . It was
under which the Jews formerly groaned .” ? The a common saying in those days, “ The more skilful
Christian churches of that day were but little dis- a grammarian , the worse a theologian .” To be a
tinguishable from the pagan temples of a former sound divine it was necessary to eschew letters ;
era ; and Jehovah was adored by the same cere- and verily the clerks of those days ran little risk of
monies and rites by which the heathen had ex- spoiling their theology and lowering their reputa
pressed their reverence for their deities. In truth, tion by the contamination of learning. For more
the throne of the Eternal was obscured by the than four hundred years the theologians knew the
crowd of divinities placed around it, and the one Bible only through the Latin version, commonly
great object of worship wasforgotten in the distrac- styled the Vulgate, being absolutely ignorant of
tion caused by themany competitors - angels, saints, the original tongues. Zwingle, the Reformer of
and images — for the homage due to him alone. It Zurich, drew upon himself the suspicions of certain
was to no effect, one should think, to pull down priests as a heretic, because he diligently compared
the pagan temple and demolish the altar of the the original Hebrew of the Old Testament with the
heathen god , seeing they were to be replaced with version. And Rodolf Am -Ruhel, otherwise Col
fanes as truly superstitious, and images as grossly linus, Professor of Greek at Zurich , tells usthat he
idolatrous. So early as the fourth century, St. was on one occasion in great danger from having in
Martin , Bishop of Tours, found in his diocese an his possession certain Greek books, a thing that
altar which one of his predecessors had set up in was accounted an indubitable mark of heresy . He
honour of a brigand , who was worshipped as a was Canon of Munster, in Aargau , in the year
martyr. 1523, when the magistrates of Lucerne sent certain
1 Augustin ., Epist. cxix ., Ad Januarium . 3 Commentar., in 1 Epist. Timot., cap. 3.
? Sulp . Severus, Vit. Martini,cap. 11 ; apud Ruchat, i.17. 4 Melchior Canus, Loc . Com ., p. 59.
IGNORANCE OF THE SWISS CLERGY. 413 .
priests to visit his house. Discovering the ob- studied . If they wished to alternate their reading
noxious volumes, and judging them to be Greek --
character, ways have any thenes The they turned, not to Scripture, but to the writings of
from the character , we presume, for no respectable Scotus or Thomas Aquinas. These authors were
curé would in those days have anynearer acquaint their life-long study ; to sit at the feet of Isaiah , or
ance with the tongue .of Demosthenes — “ This,” David , or John, to seek the knowledge of salvation
they exclaimed , “ is Lutheranism ! this is heresy ! at the pure sources of truth ,was never thought of by
Greek and heresy — it is the same thing !"? them . Their great authority was Aristotle, not St.
A priest of the Grisons, at a public disputation Paul. In Switzerland there were doctors in divinity
on religion, held at Ilanz about the year 1526, who had never read the Holy Scriptures ; there
loudly bewailed that ever the learned languages were priests and curés who had never seen a Bible
had entered Helvetia. “ If,” said he, “ Hebrew all their days. In the year 1527 the magistrates
and Greek had never been heard of in Switzerland, of Bern wrote to Sebastien de Mont-Faulcon , the
what a happy country ! what a peaceful state ! last Bishop of Lausanne, saying that a conference
but now , alas ! here they are, and see what a was to be held in their city, on religion, at which all
torrent of errors and heresies have rushed in after points were to be decided by an appeal to Sacred
them ." ! Atthat timethere was only one academy in Scripture, and requesting him to come himself, or
all Switzerland, namely, at Basle ; nor had it existed at least send some of his theologians, to maintain
longer than fifty years, having been founded by their side of the question. Alas ! the perplexity of
Pope Pius II. (Æneas Sylvius) in themiddle of the the good bishop. “ I have no person ,” wrote he to
fifteenth century. There were numerous col- the lords of Bern , “ sufficiently versed in Holy
leges of canons, it is true, and convents of men, Scripture to assist at such a dispute.” This recalls
richly endowed , and meant in part to be nurseries a yet more ancient fact of a similar kind. In A .D .
of scholars and theologians, but these establishments 680 the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus summoned
had now become nothing better than retreats of a General Council (the sixth) to be held in his
epicurism , and nests of ignorance. In particular capital in Barbary. The Pope of the day, Agatho,
the Abbey of St. Gall, formerly a renowned school wrote to Constantine, excusing the non-attendance
of learning, to which the sons of princes and great of the Italian bishops, on the score “ that he could
lords were sent to be taught, and which in the not find in all Italy a single ecclesiastic sufficiently
eighth ,ninth, tenth,and eleventh centuries, had sent acquainted with the inspired' Oracles to send to the
forth many learned men, had by this time fallen Council.” 6 But if this century had few copies of
into inefficiency, and indeed into barbarism . John the Word of Life, it had armies of monks ; it had
Schmidt, or Faber, vicar of the Bishop of Constance, an astoundingly long list of saints, to whose honour
and a noted polemic of the day, as well as a every day new shrines were erected ; and it had
great enemy of the Reformation and the Reformers, churches, to which the splendour of their architec
publicly avowed , in a dispute he had with Zwingle, ture and the pomp of their ceremonies gave an
that he knew just a little Greek , but knew nothing imposing magnificence, while the bull of Boniface V .
whatever of Hebrew . It need not surprise us that took care that they should not want frequenters,
the common pricsts were so illiterate , when even the for in this century was passed the infamous law
Popes themselves, the princes of the Church , were which made the churches places of refuge for
hardly more learned. A Roman Catholic author malefactors of every description.
has candidly confessed that “ there have been many The few who studied the Scriptures were con
Popes so ignorant that they knew nothing at all of temned as ignoble souls who were content to plod
grainmar." 4 along on the humblest road, and who lacked the
As regards theology, the divines of those days ambition to climb to the sublimer heights of know
aimed only at becoming adepts in the scholastic ledge. « Bachelor ” was the highest distinction to
philosophy. They knew but one book in the which they could attain , whereas the study of the
world , to them the sum of all knowledge, the “ Sentences ” opened to others the path to the co
fountain -head of all truth, the “ Sentences ” of Peter veted honour of “ Doctor in Divinity .” The priests
Lombard . While the Bible lay beside them un - had succeeded in making it be believed that the
opened , the pages of Peter Lombard were diligently study of the Bible was necessary neither for the
defence of the Church, nor for the salvation of her
I Hottinger, tom . ii., p . 125 ; apud Ruchat. individual members, and that for both ends Tra
. Ibid ., tom . iii., pp. 285, 286 .
3 Zwing., Oper ., tom . ii., p . 613.
4 Alphons. de Castro adv. Häres, lib . i., cap . 4 ; apud 5 Hottinger ; apud Ruchat, tom . i., p . 22.
Ruchat, tom .i., p .21. 6 Ruchat, tom . i., p. 22. Mosheim , cent. 7, pt. ii., chap .5 .
ditionhavesufficed.
men lived,”“ saidIn what
the peace
Vicar andof Constance,
concord would“ if adoring
ness lay ainrelic,prostrating one'ans selfindulgence,
purchasing before anperform
image,
theGospel had never been heard of in the world !" ing a pilgrimage, or paying one's tithes. This was
The great Teacher has said that God must be the devotion, these were the graces that lent their
worshipped
“ spirit" only,“ inbutspiritin “andtruth,”in even
truth that gloryascendant.
:” notwhichin the to theages The in which
baron thecouldRoman
not faith
ride outwas tillin
TH
HHHH
Wat
u
WARNIR
RUMU
129
feudali
DUT
am
ST
DION
AUGME
DELA
SA
DET!
URE
VIEW IN LAUSANNE.
God has re- he had don
vealed. Con- ned his coat
sequently
when that ofhe mail,
should lestbe
“ truth ” wasassailed by
hidden, wor- his neigh
this was shipsimplybecame
mas baron :tilled the earth, or herded his oxen,
bourpeasant
impossible. Worship after the masterfromroundfair histo neck the
priest stood
querade.certainThemagical
make signs up beforehis thefingers,
with or to with the collar
people to merchant could ofnothis pass fair,: but
mutter unintelligible words between his teeth, or at the risk of being plundered : the robber and
travelled
toa likevociferate at the utmost pitch of his voice. Of the murderer waylaid the passenger who
escort, and the blood of man was
character were the religious acts enjoinedotheron without
continuallyan flowing in private quarrels, and on the
the people. Justice,mercy, humility, and the
virtues of early times were of no value. All holi- battle-field ; but the times, doubtless, were emi
i Zwing., Oper., tom . i ., p. 622. nently
beheld holy, for all around
the symbols wherever
of devotion one looked
- crosses, pardons,he
15
ine
onl
ULRIC ZWINGLE
ULRIC ZWINGLE. (From Roll's " Livesof the PrincipalReformers." )
416 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTI .
SM
privileged shrines, images, relics, aves, cowls, gir- the Popes tried to reduce the scandal, but the cus
dles , and palmer-staffs, and all the machinery tom was too deeply rooted to yield to even their
which the “ religion " of the times had invented to authority . Martin V., in concert with the Council
make all things holy - earth , air ,and water- every- of Constance, enacted a perpetual constitution ,
thing, in short , save the soul of man. Polydore which declared all simoniacs, whether open or
Virgil, an Italian, and a good Catholic, wishing to secret, excommunicated. His successor Eugenius
pay a compliment to the piety of those of whom he and the Council of Basle ratified this constitution.
was speaking, said, “ they had more confidence in It is a fact,nevertheless, that during the Pontificate
their images than in Jesus Christ himself, whom of Pope Martin the sale of benefices continued to
the image represents." ? flourish .” Finding they could not suppress the
Within the “ Church ” there was seen only a practice, the Popes evidently thought that their next
scramble for temporalities ; such as might be seen best course was to profit by it. The rights of the
in a city abandoned to pillage, where each strives cchapters
hapters rand were sewere
iestspatrons s,demand,iand
eilandabolished
to appropriate the largest share of the spoil. The needy priests were seen crossing the Alps, with
Switzofer
ng ofbands
ecclesiastical benefices were put up to auction, in Papal briefs in their hands, demanding admission
effect, and knocked down to the highest bidder. into vacant benefices. From all parts of Switzer
This was found to be the easiest way of gathering land came loud complaints that the churches had
the gold of Christendom , and pouring it into the been invaded by strangers. Of the numerous body
great treasury at Rome— that treasury into which, of canons attached to the cathedral church of
like another sea , flowed all the rivers of the earth, Geneva, in 1527, one only was a native, all the rest
and yet like the sea it never was full. Some of were foreigners,
CHAPTER III.
CORRUPTION OF THE SWISS CHURCH .
The Government of the Pope - How the Shepherd Fed his Sheep - Texts from Aquinas and Aristotle - Preachers and
their Sermons- Council of Moudon and the Vicar - Canons of Neufchâtel - Passion -plays - Excommunication
employed against Debtors - Invasion of the Magistrates' Jurisdiction - Lausanne - Beauty of its Site - Frigntful
Disorders of its Clergy - Geneva and other Swiss Towns - A Corrupt Church the greatest Scourge of the World
Cry for Reform - The Age turns away from the True Reform - A Cry that waxes Louder, and a Corruption that
waxes Stronger .
Over the Churches of Switzerland,as over those of the Pope, might send yearly to Rome a money
the rest of Europe, the Pope had established a acknowledgment of the allegiance he owed to that
tyranny. He built this usurpation on such make great shepherd, whose seat was on the banks of
believes as the “ holy chair," the “ Vicar of Jesus the Tiber , but whose iron crook reached to the
Christ," and the “ infallibility ” thence deduced . extremities of Christendom .
He regulated all things according to his pleasure. But was that shepherd equally alive to what he
He forbade the people to read the Scriptures. He owed the flock ? Was the instruction which he
every daymade new ordinances, to the destruction took care to provide them with wholesome and
of the laws of God ; and all priests, bishops not abundant ? Is it to the pastures of the Word that
excepted, he bound to obey him by an oath of he conducted them ? The priests of those days
peculiar stringency. The devices were infinite had no Bible ; how then could they communicate
annats, reservations, tithes (double and treble), to others what they had not learned themselves ?
amulets , dispensations, pardons, rosaries , relics — If they entered a pulpit, it was to rehearse a fable,
by which provision was made whereby the humblest to narrate a legend, or to repeat a stale jest ; and
sheep, in the remotest corner of the vast fold of –
• The sale of benefices was as ordinary an affair, says
Ruchat (tom . i., p. 26), “ que celle des cochons au
i De Invent. Rer., lib. vi. 13 : “ Imaginibus magis fidunt, marché " - as that of swine in a market.
quam Christo ipsi; ” apud Ruchat, tom . i., p. 24. 3 Ruchat, tom . i., p. 26,
GREED OF THE SWISS PRIESTS. 417
they deemed their oratory amply repaid, if their this and similar occurrences — “ If Luther had not
audience gaped at the one and laughed at the come, the Pope by this time would have persuaded
other. If a text was announced, it was selected , men to feed themselves on dust.” .
not from Scripture, but from Scotus, or Thomas A raging greed, like a burning thirst, tormented
Aquinas, or the Moral Philosophy of Aristotle. the clergy, from their head downwards. Each
Could grapes grow on such a tree, or sweet waters several order becamethe scourge of the one beneath
issue from such a fountain ? it. The inferior clergy, pillaged by the superior,
But, in truth , few priests were so adventurous as the superior by their Sovereign Priest at Rome,
as to mount a pulpit, or attempt addressing a fleeced in their turn those under them . “ Having
congregation. The most part were dumb. They bought,” says the historian of the Swiss Reforma
left the duty of story-telling, or preaching, to the tion, “ the Church in gross, they sold it in detail.” 5
monks, and in particular to the Mendicants. " I Money, money was the mystic potency that set
must record,” says the historian Ruchat, “ a fact agoing and kept working the machine of Ro
to the honour of the Council of Moudon. Not a manism . There were churches to be dedicated,
little displeased at seeing that the cure of the town cemeteries to be consecrated, bells to be baptised :
was a dumb pastor, who left his parishioners with all this must be paid for. There were infants to be
out instruction , the Council, in November, 1535 , christened , marriages to be blessed, and the dead
ordered him to explain , at least to the common to be buried : nothing of all this could be done
people, the Ten Commandments of the Law of without money. There were masses to be said
God , every Sabbath, after the celebration of the for the repose of the soul ; there were victims to
office of the mass." ? Whether the curé's theological be rescued from the raging flames of purgatory :
acquirements enabled him to fulfil the Council's it was vain to think of doing this without money.
injunction we do not know . He might have There was, moreover, the privilege of sepulture
pleaded , as a set-off to his own indolence, a yet in the floor of the church - above all, near the
more scandalous neglect of duty to be witnessed not altar, where the dead man mouldered in ground
far off. At Neufchâtel, so pleasantly situated at preeminently holy, and the prayers offered for him
the foot of the Jura Alps, with its lake reflecting were specially efficacious : that was worth a great
on its tranquil bosom the image of the vine-clad sum , and such commonly was charged for it.
heights that environ it, was a college of canons. There were those who wished to eat flesh in Lent,
These ecclesiastics lived in grand style, for the foun - or in forbidden times, and there were those who
dation was rich , the air pleasant, and the wine felt it burdensome to fast at any season : well, tho
good. But, says Ruchat, “ it looked as if they Church had arranged to meet the wishes of both,
were paid to keep silence, for, though they were only, as was reasonable, such accommodation must
many, there was not one of them all that could be paid for. All needed pardon : well, here it is
preach.” 3 a plenary pardon ; the pardon of all one's sins up
In those enlightened days, the ballad-singers to the hour of one's death — but first the price has
and play-wrights supplemented the deficiencies of to be paid down. Well, the price has been paid ;
the preachers. The Church held it dangerous to the soul has taken its departure, fortified with a
put into the hands of the people the vernacular plenary absolution ; but this has to be rendered
Gospel, lest they should read in their own tongue yet more plenary by the payment of a supplemental
of the wondrous birth at Bethlehem , and the not sum — though why, we cannot well say, for now we
less wondrous death on Calvary , with all that lay touch the borders of a subject which is shrouded
between. But the Passion, and other Biblical in mystery, and which no Romish theologian has
events, were turned into' comedies and dramas, attempted to make plain . In short, as said the
and acted in public — with how much edification poet Mantuan, the Church of Rome is an “ enor
to the spectators, one may guess ! In the year mous market , stocked with all sorts of wares, and
1531, the Council of Moudon gave ten forins of regulated by the same laws which govern all the
Savoy to a company of tragedians, who played other markets of the world . The man who comes
the “ Passion ” on Palm Sunday, and the “ Resur- --
rection ” on Easter Monday. “ If Luther had · Rachat,tom . i., p. 29.
not come,” said a German abbé, calling to mind 6 “ Venalia Roma
Templa, Sacerdotes , Altaria , Sacra , Coronæ ,
Ignis, Thura, Preces, Cælum est venale , Deusque."
Ruchat, tom . i., p. 27 . (At Rome are on sale, temples, priests, altars, mitres,
Arch de Moud. Registr. ; apud Ruchat, tom . i., p. 27. crowns, fire (or, excommunications ], incense, prayers,
3 Ibid . Ibid . heaven , and God himself.)
TISM
to it with money may have everything ; but, alas ! audpower
Vreal ind crosiers
sou wbye fthe the lers ooff hher
er ibishops. In the
for him who comes without money, he can have year 1480 we find the inhabitants of the Pays-de
nothing." Vaud complaining to Philibert, Duke of Savoy,
Every one knows how simple was the discipline their liege lord, that his subjects who had themis
of the early Church , and how spiritual the ends to fortune to be in debt were made answerable, not in
which it was directed. The pastors of those days his courts, but to the officer of the Bishop of
wielded it only to guard the doctrine of the Church Lausanne, by whom they were visited with the
t ends waofs therror
fferencorruption
fafromr dithe dalousherperscommunion
e scan, and ons. For tpenalty excommunication. ThThee duke did not
he ty ofof excommunication.
from the contamination of scandalous persons. For take the matter so quietly as many others. He
fulminated a decree, dated “ Chambery, August
ployed in the fifteenth century in Switzerland, 31st," against this usurpation of his jurisdiction
and other countries of Europe. One abuse of it, on the part of the bishop.:
very common , was to employ it for compelling It remains only that we touch on what was the
payment of debts. The creditor went to the bishop saddest part of the corruption of those melancholy
and took out an excommunication against his days, the libertinism of the clergy. Its frightful
debtor. To the poor debtor this was a much more excess makes the full and open exposure of the
formidable affair than any civil process. The penal- scandal impossible. Oftener than once did the
ties reached the soul as well as the body, and Swiss cantons complain that their spiritual guides
extended beyond the grave. The magistrate had led worse lives than the laymen , and that, while
often to interfere, and forbid a practice which was they went about their church performances with an
not more an oppression of the citizen , than a mani- indevotion and coldness that shocked the pious,
fest invasion of his own jurisdiction. We find the they gave themselves up to profanity , drunkenness,
Council of Moudon, 7th July , 1532, forbidding a gluttony, and uncleanness.
certain Antoine Jayet, chaplain and vicar of the We shall let the men who then lived , and who
church, to execute any such interdiction against witnessed this corruption , and suffered from it,
any layman of the town and parish of Moudon, describe it. In the year 1477, some time after the
and promising to guarantee him against all conse- election of Benedict of Montferrand to the Bishop
quences before his superiors. Nor was it long till ric of Lausanne, the Bernese came to him on the
the Council had to make good their guarantee ; for 2nd of August, to complain of their clergy, whose
the same month , the vicar having failed to execute irregularities they were no longer able to bear.
one of these interdictions against a burgess of “ We see clearly," said they, “ that the clergy of
Moudon, the Council deputed two of their number our land are extremely debauched , and given up to
to defend him before the chapter at Lausanne, impurity, and that they practise their wickedness
which had summoned him before it to answer for openly, without any feeling of shame. They keep
his disobedience. A frequent consequence was their concubines, they resort at night to houses of
that corpses 'remained unburied . If the husband debauchery ; and they do all this with so much
died under excommunication for debt, the wife boldness, that it is plain they have neither honour
could not consign his body to the grave, nor the nor conscience, and are not restrained by the fear
son that of the father . The excommunication either of God or man. This afflicts us extremely.
must first be revoked. . Our ancestors have often made police regulationsto
This prostitution of ecclesiastical discipline was arrest these disorders , particularly when they saw
of very common occurrence, and inflicted a grievance that the ecclesiastical tribunals gave themselves no
that was widely felt, not only at the epoch of the care about the matter." A similar complaint was
Reformation, but all through the fifteenth century. lodged , in the year 1500, against the monks of the
It was one of the many devices by which the Roman Priory of Grandson , by the lords of Bern and
Church worked her way underneath the temporal Friburg. But to what avail ? Despite these com
power, and filched from it its rightful jurisdiction. plaints and police regulations, the manners of the
Thrones, judgment-seats, in short, the whole ma- clergy remained unreformed : the salt had lost its
chinery of civil government that Church left stand- savour, and wherewith could it be salted ? The
ing, but she contrived to place her own functionaries law of corruption is to become yet more corrupt.
in these chairs of rule. She talked loftily of the
kingly dignity, she styled princes the “ anointed 3 Ruchat, tom . i., p. 31 .
4 " L 'impiété, l'ivrognerie , la gourmandise et l'impureté,
of heaven ;" but she deprived their sceptres of all etaient parmi eux à leur comble ; ils le portaient plus
loin que les laïques.” (Ruchat, tom . i., p . 32.)
1 Arch . de Moud. Registr.; apud Ruchat, i. 30 . ? Ibid . • Arch . de Bern . et MS. amp., p . 18 ; apud Ruchat, i.33.
LAUSANNE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 419
So would it assuredly have been in Switzerland ment of their parishioners, sometimes quarrelled
-- from its corruption, corruption only would have when saying their offices , and fought in the church.
come in endless and ever grosser developments — The citizens who came to join in the cathedral ser
had not Protestantism come to sow with beneficent vice were , on occasion, treated by the canons to a
hand, and quicken with heavenly breath, in the fight, and stabbed with poignards. Certain ecclesi
bosom of society, the seeds from which was to astics had slain two of the citizens in one day, but
spring a new life. Men needed not laws to amend no reckoning had been held with them for the
the old , but a power to create the new . deed . The canons, especially , were notorious for
The examples we have given — and it is the their profligacy. Masked and disguised as soldiers,
violence of the malady that illustrates the power of they sallied out into the streets at night, brandish
the physician - are sufficiently deplorable ; but sad ing naked swords, to the terror, and at times the
as they are, they fade from view and pass from effusion of the blood , of those they encountered .
memory in presence of this one enormity, which an They sometimes attacked the citizens in their own
ancient document has handed down to us, and houses, and when threatened with ecclesiastical
which wemust glance at ; for we shall only glance, inflictions, denied the bishop's power and his right
not dwell, on the revolting spectacle. It will give to pronounce excommunication upon them . Certain
us some idea of the frightful moral gulf in which of them had been visited with excommunication,
Switzerland was sunk , and how inevitable would but they went on saying mass as before. In short,
have been its ruin had not the arm of the Reforma- the clergy were just as bad as they could possibly
tion plucked it from the abyss. be, and there was no crime of which many of them
On the northern shore of Lake Leman stands the had not at one time or another been guilty .
city of Lausanne. Its site is one of the grandest in The citizens further complained that, when the
Switzerland. Crowned with its cathedral towers, plague visited Lausanne, many had been suffered
the city looks down on the noble lake,which sweeps to die without confession and the Sacrament. The
along in a mighty crescent of blue, from where priests could hardly plead in excuse an excess of
Geneva on its mount of rock is dimly descried in work , seeing they found time to gamble in the
thewest, till it bathes the feet of the two mighty taverns, where they seasoned their talk with oaths,
Alps, the Dent du Midi and the Dent de Morcele, or cursed some unlucky throw of the dice. They
which like twin pillars guard the entrance of the revealed confessions, were adroit at the framing
Rhone valley. Near it, on this side, the country is of testaments, and made false entries in their own
one continuous vineyard, from amid which hamlets favour. They were the governors of the hospital,
and towns sweetly look out. Yonder, just dipping and their management had resulted in a great
into the lake, is the donjon of Chillon , recalling the impoverishment of its revenues.
story of Bonnévard , to whose captivity within its Unhappily, Lausanne was not an exceptional
walls the genius of Byron has given a wider than case. It exhibits the picture of what Geneva and
a merely Swiss fame. And beyond, on the other Neufchâtel and other towns of the Swiss Con
side of the lake, is Savoy, a rolling country, clothed federacy in those days were, although , we are
with noble forests and rich pastures, and walled in glad to be able to say, not in so aggravated a
on the far distance, on the southern horizon, by degree. Geneva, to which , when touched by the
the white peaks of the Alps. But what a blot Reformed light, there was to open a future so
in this fair scene was Lausanne ! We speak of the different, lay plunged at this moment in disorders ,
Lausanne of the sixteenth century. In the year under its bishop, Pierre de la Baume, and stood
1533 the Lausannese preferred a list of twenty-three next to Lausanne in the notoriety it had achieved
charges against their canons and priests,and another by the degeneracy of its manners. But it is
of seven articles against their bishop, Sebastien de needless to particularise . All round that noble
Mont-Faulcon . Ruchat has given the document in lake which, with its smiling banks and its mag
full, article by article, but parts of it will not bear nificent mountain boundaries — here the Jura , there
translation in these pages, so, giving those it con - the White Alps— forms so grand a feature of
cerns the benefit of this difficulty , we take the Switzerland , were villages and towns, from which
liberty of presenting it in an abridged form . went up a cry not unlike that which ascended from
The canons and priests , according to the state the Cities of the Plain in early days.
1 " Taken,” says Ruchat, “ from an original paper, ? Two or three years before the occurrence of this
which has been communicated to me by M . Olivier, plague, a pestilence had raged in Lausanne and its en
châtelain of La Sarraz.” virons. (Ruchat.)
This is but a partial lifting of the veil. Even ment, Wicliffe said : Here it is ; here is what you
conceding that these are extreme cases, still, what seek. You must forget the past thousand years ;
a terrible conclusion do they force upon us as you must look at what is written on this page ;
regards the moral state of Christendom ! And you will find in this Book the Pattern of the
only, but theof the Church ;
when we think that these polluting streams flowed Reformation of the Church ; and not the Pattern
from the sanctuary, and the instrumentality or- only, but the Power by which that Reformation
fication of society or
dained by God for the purification of society had can alone be realised .
become the main means of corrupting it, we are But the age would not look at it. Men said, Can
taught that, in some respects, the world has more any good thing come out of this Book ? The Bible
to fear from the admixture of Christianity with did well enough as the teacher of the Christians of
A SWISS PEASANT FAMILY.
error than the Church has. It was the world that the first century ; but its maxims are no longer
first brought this corruption into the Church ; but applicable, its models are antiquated. We of the
see what a terrible retaliation the Church now fifteenth century require something more profound,
takes upon the world ! and more suited to the times. They turned their
Onedoes not wonder that there is heard on every eyes to Popes, to emperors, to councils. These,
side, at this era , an infinite number of voices, lay alas ! were hills from which no help could come.
and cleric, calling for the Reformation of the And so for another century the cry for Reforma
Church . Yet the majority of those from whom tion went on, gathering strength with every
these demands came were but groping in the dark. passing year, as did also the corruption. The two
But God never leaves himself without a witness. went on by equal stages, the cry waxing ever
A century before this, he had put before the world , the louder and the corruption growing ever the
in the ministry of Wicliffe, plain, clear, and de- stronger, till at length it was seen that there was
monstrated, the one only plan of a true Reformation . no help in man. Then He who is mighty came
Putting his finger upon the page of the New Testa - down to deliver.
DAYBREAK IN SWITZERLAND. • 421
HIN
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VIEW IN ZURICH.
CHAPTER IV.
ZWINGLE'S BIRTH AND SCHOOL-DAYS.
OneLeader in Germany-Many in Winter
Switzerland — ValleyTraditionsof
of Tockenburg- Village ofZwingle
SwissValour- Wildhaus-Zwingle's Birth-His
- Effectof Scenery in mouldingZwingle's Character- Sentto SchoolatWesen -Outstripshis Teacher-Traditions
Parentage- Swiss Shepherds— Evenings- Listens- Sacred Removed
to Basle- Binzli—Zwingle goesto Bern -Lupullus— TheDominicans—Zwingle narrowly escapes being aMonk.
THERE is an aptthe land
attributesof resemblance
i n which between
weare the physical
now arrived, Swiss.
land wereThreeamonghundred
the f iyears
r s t i n ago,Europethe cities
t o of thisin
kindle
andIts greatthe eventful
snow- c ladstoryhillsofareits thereligious
f i r s t tawakening
o catch the thenounceradiance
the new of themorning
Reformed which faith,
was and to anto
returning
sun.thelightofmorning,and
They are seen announcelikethetorches,
toburning rising ofwhilethe ness
theworld. a multitudeThere ofsuddenly
lights. burstIn Germany
upon the there dark
valleysat mists their
and shadows
feet. So stillof thecovermoralthedawnplainsof andthe eminently
was but onegreatpre-leader. eminentLuther and oneup likepre
centre,towered
_ 36
some majestic Alp . Alone over all that land was burg. Then the peasants assemble by turns in each
seen his colossal figure. But in Switzerland one, other's houses, lit at night by a blazing fire of fir
and another, and a third stood up, and like Alpine wood or the gleam of candle. Gathering round the
peaks, catching the first rays, they shed a bright hearth , they beguile the long evenings with songs
and pure effulgence not only upon their own cities and musical instruments, or stories of olden days.
and cantons, but over all Christendom . They will tell of some adventurous exploit, when
In the south -east of Switzerland is the long and the shepherd climbed the precipice, or braved the
narrow valley of the Tockenburg. It is bounded by tempest , to rescue some member of the fold which
lofty mountains, which divide it on the north from had strayed from its companions. Or they will
the canton of Appenzell, and on the south from the narrate some yet braver deed done on the battle
Grisons. On the east it opens toward the Tyrolese field where their fathers were wont to meet the
Alps. Its high level does not permit the grain to spearmen of Austria , or the steel-clad warriors of
ripen or the vine to be cultivated in it, but its rich Gaul. Thus would they make the hours pass
pastures were the attraction of shepherds, and in swiftly by
process of time the village of Wildhaus grew up The house of the Amman of Wildhaus, Huldric
around its ancient church. In this valley, in a Zwingle, was a frequent resort of his neighbours
cottage which is still to be seen standing about a in the winter evenings. Round his hearth would
mile from the church, on a green meadow , its walls assemble the elders of the village,and each brought
formed of the stems of trees , its roof weighed down his tale of chivalry borrowed from ancient Swiss
with stones to protect it from the mountain gusts, ballad or story , or mayhap handed down by tra
with a limpid stream flowing before it, there lived dition . While the elders spoke, the young listened
three hundred years ago a man named Huldric with coursing pulse and flashing eyes. They told
Zwingle, bailiff of the parish. He had eight sons, of the brave men their mountains had produced of
the third of whom was born on New Year's day, old ; of the feats of valour which had been done
1584, seven weeks after the birth of Luther, and upon their soil ; and how their own valley of the
was named Ulric. Tockenburg had sent forth heroes who had helped
The man was greatly respected by his neighbours to roll back from their hills the hosts of Charles
for his upright character as well as for his office. the Bold. The battles of their fathers were fought
He was a shepherd, and his summers were passed over again in the simple yet graphic narratives of
panyw When they were loow their
on the mountains, in company with his sons, who the sons. The listeners saw these deeds enacted
aided him in tending his flocks. When the green before them . They beheld the fierce foreign pha
of spring brightened the vales, the herds were lanxes gathering round their mountains. They
brought forth and driven to pasture. Day by day, saw their sires mustering in city and on mountain,
as the verdure mounted higher on the mountain 's they saw them hurrying through narrow gorge, and
side, the shepherds with their flocks continued to shady pine-forest, and across their lakes, to repelthe
ascend. Midsummer found them at their highest invader ; they heard the shock of the encounter,
elevation , their herds browsing on the skirts of the the clash of battle, the shout of victory, and saw
eternal snows, where the melting ice and the the confusion and terrors of the rout. Thus the
vigorous sun of July nourished a luxuriantherbage. spirit of Swiss valour was kept alive ; bold sire
When the lengthening nights and the fading pas- was succeeded by son as bold ; and the Alps, as
turage told them that summer had begun to decline, they kindled their fires morning bymorning, beheld
they descended by the same stages as they had one generation of patriots and warriors rise up after
mounted, arriving at their dwellings in the val- another at their feet.
ley about the time of the autumnal equinox. In In the circle of listeners round his father's
Switzerland so long as winter holds its reign on the hearth in the winter evenings was the young Ulric
mountain -tops, and darkens the valleys with mists Zwingle. He was thrilled by these tales of the
and tempests , no labour can be done out of doors, deeds of ancient valour, some of them done in the
especially in high -lying localities like the Tocken - very valley where he heard them rehearsed . His
i Christoffel, Zwingli, or Rise of the Reformation in country's history, not in printed page ,but in tragic
action , passed before him . He could see the forms
Switzerland , p. 1 ; Clark 's ed ., Edin., 1858. D ’Aubigné,
bk. viii., chap . 1. of its heroes moving grandly along. They had
? Pallavicino asserts that he was obscurely born - fought,and bled , centuries ago ; their ashes had long
" nato bassamente " (tom . i., lib. i., cap . 19). His family since mingled with the dust of the vale , or been
was ancient and highly respected (Gerdesius, p. 101)
“ Issu d 'une honnête et ancienne famille," says Ruchat borne away by the mountain torrent ; but to him
(tom i., p. 71). they were still living. They never could die. If
TRAINING OF YOUNG ZWINGLE . 423
that soil which spring brightened with its flowers, forming of the future Reformer. They helped to
and autumn so richly covered with its fruits, was nurse that elevation of soul, that sublime awe of
free - if yonder snows, which kindled so grandly on Him who had “ set fast the mountains,” and that
the mountain 's brow , owned no foreign lord , it was intrepidity of mind which distinguished Zwingle
to these men that this was owing. This glorious in after-years. So thinks his biographer. “ I have
land inhabited by freemen was their eternal monu- often thought in my simplicity ,” says Oswald My
ment. Every object in it was to him associated conius, “ that from these sublime heights, which
with their names , and recalled them to his memory. stretch up towards heaven, he has taken something
To be worthy of his great ancestors, to write his heavenly and sublime.” “ When the thunder rolls
name alongside theirs, and have his exploits simi- through the gorges of the mountains, and leaps
larly handed down from father to son, became from crag to crag with crashing roar, then it is
henceforward his highest ambition. This brave, as if we heard anew the voice of the Lord God
lofty , liberty-loving nature, which strengthened from proclaiming, ' I am the Almighty God ; walk
year to year, was a fit stock on which to graft the before me, and be thou perfect.' When in the
love of a yet higher liberty, and the detestation of dawn of morning the icy mountains glow in light
a yet baser tyranny than any which their fathers divine, so that a sea of fire seems to surround
had repelled with the scorn of freemen when they all their tops, it is as if the Lord God of hosts
routed the phalanxes of the Hapsburg, or the treadeth upon the high places of the earth ,' and
legionaries of France . as if the border of his garment of light had trans
And betimes this liberty began to be disclosed figured the hills. It is then that with reverential
to him . His grandmother was a pious woman . awe we feel as if the cry came to us also , ‘ Holy ,
She would call the young Ulric to her, and making holy, holy , is the Lord God of Hosts ; the whole
him sit beside her,would introduce him to heroes earth is full of his glory .' Here under the magni
of a yet loftier type, by reciting to him sucb'portions ficent impressions of a mountain world and its
of sacred history as she herself had learned from wonders, there awoke in the breast of the young
the legends of the Church , and the lessons of the Zwingle the first awful sense of the grandeur and
Breviary. She would tell him , doubtless, of those majesty of God, which afterwards filled his whole
grand patriarchal shepherds who fed their flocks on soul, and armed him with intrepidity in the great
the hills of Palestine of old , and how at times an conflict with the powers of darkness. In the soli
August Being came down and talked with them . tude of the mountains, broken only by the bells of
She would tell him of those mighty men of valour his pasturing flocks, the reflective boy mused on
from the plough, the sheepfold , or the vine- the wisdom of God which reveals itself in all
yard , who, when the warriors of Midian, crossing creatures. An echo of this deep contemplation
the Jordan, darkened with their swarms the broad of nature, which occupied his harmless youth , we
Esdraelon , or the hordes of Philistia , from the find in a work which, in the ripeness of manhood ,
plain by the sea -shore, climbed the hills of Judah, he composed on “ The Providence of God .” “ The
drove back the invading hosts, and sent them with earth,' says he, the mother of all, shuts never
slaughter and terror to their homes. She would ruthlessly her rich treasures within herself ; she
take him to the cradle at Bethlehem , to the cross heeds not the wounds made on her by spade and
on Calvary, to the garden on the morning of the share. The dew , the rain , the rivers moisten , restore,
third day, when the doors of the sepulchre were quicken within her thatwhich had been brought to
seen to open , and a glorious form walked forth a stand-still in growth by drought, and its after
from the darkness of the tomb. She would show thriving testifies wondrously of the Divine power.
him the first missionaries hurrying away with the The mountains, too, these awkward, rude, inert
great news to the Gentile world , and would tell him masses,that give to the earth,as the bones to the flesh ,
how the idols of the nations fell at the preaching solidity, form , and consistency, that render impos
of the Gospel. Thus day by day was the young sible , or at least difficult, the passage from one place
Zwingle trained for his great future task. Deep in to another, which, although heavier than the earth
his heart was laid the love of his country, and next itself, are yet so far above it, and never sink , do they
were implanted the rudiments of that faith which not proclaim the imperishable might of Jehovah ,
alone could be the shield of his country's stable and speak forth the whole volumeof his majesty ? '" 3
and lasting independence.
The grand aspects of nature around him — the 1 Oswald Myconius, Vit. Zwing. Not to be confounded
tempest's roar, the cataract's dash , the mountain with Myconius the friend and biographer of Luther.
peaks - doubtless contributed their share to the ? De Providentia Dei. 3 Christoffel, p. 3.
'424 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM .
His father marked with delight the amiable pedagogues of the sixteenth century, who studied by
disposition , the truthful character, and the lively a stiff demeanour, a severe countenance, and the
genius of his son, and began to think that higher terrors of discipline to compel the obedience of their
occupations awaited him than tending flocks on his pupils, and inspire them with the love of learning.
native mountains. The new day of letters was In this case no spur was needed . The pupil from
breaking over Europe. Some solitary rays had the Tockenburg made rapid progress here as at
penetrated into the secluded valley of the Tocken- Wesen . He shone especially in the mimic debates
burg, and awakened aspirations in the bosom of its which the youth of that day, in imitation of the
shepherds. The Bailiff of Wildhaus, we may be wordy tournaments of their elders, often engaged in ,
sure, shared in the general impulse which was and laid the foundation of that power in disputa
moving men towards the new dawn. tion which he afterwards wielded on a wider arena.'
His son Ulric was now in his eighth or ninth Again the young Zwingle , distancing his school
year. It was necessary to provide him with better mates , stood abreast of his teacher. It was clear
instruction than the valley of the Tockenburg could that another schoolmust be found for the pupil of
supply. His uncle was Dean of Wesen, and his whom the question wasnot, What is he able to learn !
father resolved to place him under his superinten - but,Where shall we find one qualified to teach him !
dence. Setting out one day on their way to Wesen , The Bailiff of Wildhaus and the Dean of Wesen
the father and son climbed the green summits of once more took counsel touching the young scholar,
the Ammon , and now from these heights the young the precocity of whose genius had created for them
Ulric had his first view of the world lying around this embarrassment. Themost distinguished school
his native valley of the Tockenburg. On the south at that time in all Switzerland was that of Bern ,
rose the snowy crests of the Oberland. He could where Henry Woellin , or Lupullus, taught, with
almost look down into the valley of Glarus, which great applause,the dead languages. Thither it was
was to be his first charge ; more to the north were resolved to send the boy. Bidding adieu for a time
the wooded heights of Einsiedeln , and beyond to the banks of the Rhine, Zwingle re-crossed the
them the mountains which enclose the lovely Jura , and stood once more in sight of those ma
waters of Zurich . jestic snowy piles, which had been in a sort his
The Dean of Wesen loved his brother's child as companions from his infancy. Morning and night
his own son. He sent him to the public school of he could gaze upon the pyramidal forms of the
the place. The genius of the boy was quick, his Shrekhorn and the Eiger, on the tall peak of the
capacity large, but the stores of the teacher were Finster Aarhorn , on the mighty Blumlis Alp ,and
slender. Soon he had communicated to his pupil overtopping them all, the Jungfrau, kindling into
all he knew himself, and it became necessary to glory at the sun's departure , and burning in light
send Zwingle to another school. His father and long after the rest had vanished in darkness.
his uncle took counsel together, and selected that But it was the lessons of the school thatengrossed
of Basle. him . His teacher was accomplished beyond the
Ulric now exchanged his grand mountains, with measure of his day. He had travelled over Italy
their white peaks, for the carpet-like meadows, and Greece , and had extended his tour as far as
watered by the Rhine, and the gentle hills, with Syria and the Holy Sepulchre. He had notmerely
their sprinkling of fir-trees, which encompass Basle. feasted his eyes upon their scenery, he had mastered
Basle was one of those points on which the rising the long-forgotten tongues of these celebrated coun
day was concentrating its rays ,and whence they were tries. He had drunk in the spirit of the Roman
radiated over the countries around. It was the and Greek orators and poets, and the fervour of
seat of a University. It had numerous printing- uncient liberty and philosophy he communicated to
presses, which were reproducing the master-pieces his pupils along with the literature in which they
of the classic age. It was beginning to be the were contained . The genius of Zwingle expanded
resort of scholars ; and when the young student under so sympathetic a master. Lupullus initiated
from the Tockenburg entered its gates and took up him into the art of verse-making after the ancient
resiathingawithin
his residence
his new ait,tmohes! felt nate as rethat
fortudoubtless gardehent models. His poetic vein was developed, and his
style now began to assume that classic terseness
The young Zwingle was fortunate as regarded and chastened glow which marked it in after years.
Nor
the master under whose care he was placed at Nor was his talent formusic neglected .
Basle. Gregory Binzli,the teacher in St. Theodore's But the very success of the young scholar was
School, was a man of mild temper and warm heart,
10
and in these respects very unlike the ordinary 1 Osw . Mycon., Vit. Zwing. ? Christoffel, p. 5.
ZWINGLE AT SCHOOL IN VIENNA . 425
like to have cut short his career, or fatally changed fine voice, he was quick-witted ,and altogether such
its direction. With his faculties just opening into a youth as would be a vast acquisition to their order .
blossom , he was in danger of disappearing in a con - Could they only enrol him in their ranks, it would
vent. Luther at a not unsimilar stage of his career do more than a fine altar-piece, or a new ceremonial,
had buried himself in the cell, and would never have to draw crowds to their chapel, and gifts to their
been heard of more , had not a great storm arisen treasury. They invited him to take up his abode
in his soul and compelled him to leave it. If in their convent as a novitiate.
Zwingle shall bury himself as Luther did , will he Intelligence reached the Amman of Wildhaus of
be rescued as Luther was ? But how camehe into the snares which the Dominicans of Bern were
this danger ? laying for his son . He had imagined a future for
In Bern , as everywhere else, the Dominicans him in which, like his uncle the dean, he would be
and the Franciscans were keen competitors, the one seen discharging with dignity the offices of his
against the other, for public favour. Their claims Church ; but to wear a cowl, to become the mere
to patronage were mainly such as these — a showy decoy-duck of monks, to sink into a pantomimic
church, a gaudy dress, an attractive ceremonial;and performer, was an idea that found no favour in the
if they could add to these a wonder-working image, eyes of the bailiff. He spoilt the scheme of the
their triumph wasalmost secured . The Dominicans Dominicans, by sending his commands to his son to
now thought that they saw a way by which they return forth with to his home in the Tockenburg.
would mortify their rivals the Franciscans. They The Hand that led Luther into the convent guided
had heard of the scholar of Lupullus. He had a Zwingle past it.
CHAPTER V .
ZWINGLE 'S PROGRESS TOWARDS EMANCIPATION .
Zwingle returns Home - Goes to Vienna – His Studies and Associates - Returns to Wildhaus - Makes a Second Visit
to Basle - His Love of Music - The Scholastic Philosophy - Leo Juda - Wolfgang Capito - Ecolampadius Erasmus
- Thomas Wittembach - Stars of the Dawn - Zwingle becomes Pastor of Glarus - Studies and Labours among his
Parishioners - Swiss drawn to Fight in Italy - Zwingle's Visit to Italy - Its Lessons.
The young Zwingle gave instant obedience to the Loreti, commonly known as Glarean, a peasant's
injunction that summoned him home; but he was son , from Mollis ; and a Suabian youth , John
no longer the same as when he first left his father's Heigerlin , the son of a blacksmith , and hence called
house. He had not yet become a disciple of Faber, were at this time in Vienna, and were
the Gospel, but he had become a scholar. The Zwingle's companions in his studies and in his
solitudes of the Tockenburg had lost their charm amusements. All three gave promise of future
for him ; neither could the society of its shepherds eminence , and all three attained it ; but no one
any longer content him . He longed for more of the three rendered anything like the same
congenialfellowship . service to the world , or achieved the same lasting
Zwingle, by the advice of his uncle , was next fame, as the fourth , the shepherd 's son from the
sent to Vienna, in Austria . He entered the high Tockenburg. After a sojourn of two years at
school of that city, which had attained great Vienna, Zwingle returned once more (1502) to his
celebrity under the Emperor Maximilian 1. Here home at Wildhaus.
he resumed those studies in the Roman classics But his native valley could not long retain him .
which had been so suddenly broken off in Bern, The oftener he quaffed the cup of learning, themore
adding thereto a beginning in philosophy. He was he thirsted to drink thereof. Being now in his
not the only Swiss youth now living in the capital eighteenth year, he repaired a second time to Basle,
and studying in the schools of the ancient enemy in the hope of turning to use, in that city of
of his country's independence. Joachim Vadian,
the son of a rich merchant of St. Gall ; Henry | Bullinger, Chron .
M
426 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTIS .
scholars, the knowledge he had acquired. He their refinements the idle, hair-splitting sophistries
taught in the School of St. Martin's, and studied of the schoolman , with no other intention than
at the University. Here he received the degree that, if ever he should cometo close quarters with
of Master of Arts. This title he accepted more him , he might know his enemy,and beat him with
from deference to others than from any value which his own weapons." ? As one who quits a smiling
he himself put upon it. At no period did hemake and fertile field, and crosses the boundary of a
use of it, being wont to say, “ One is our Master, gloomy wilderness, where nothing grows that is
even Christ.” 1 good for food or pleasant to the eye, so did Zwingle
Frank and open and joyous, he drew around him feel when he entered this domain. The scholastic
a large circle of friends, among whom was Capito, philosophy had received the reverence of ages ; the
14
UN
THUR
HET
ZWINGLE AMONG HIS FRIENDS.
and Leo Juda,who afterwards becamehis colleague. great intellects of the preceding centuries had ex-,
His intellectual powers were daily expanding. But tolled it as the sum of all wisdom . Zwingle found
all was not toil with him ; taking his lute or his in it only barrenness and confusion ; the further he
horn, he would regale himself and his companions penetrated into it the more waste it became. He
with the airs of his native mountains; or he would turned away, and came back with a keener relish
sally out along the banks of the Rhine, or climb to the study of the classics. There he breathed a
the hills of the Black Forest on the other side of freer air, and there he found a wider horizon
that stream . around him .
To diversify his labours, Zwingle turned to the Between the years 1512 and 1516 there chanced
scholastic philosophy. Writing ofhim at this period, to settle in Switzerland a number of men of great
Myconius says : “ He studied philosophy here with and varied gifts, all of whom became afterwards
more exactness than ever, and pursued into all distinguished in the great movement of Reform .
i Christoffel, p. 8. ? Osw.Mycon., Vit.Zwing.
FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES OF ZWINGLE. 427
Let us rapidly recount their names. It was not of them , for Leo Juda was the senior of Zwingle, and
chance surely that so many lights shone out all at quitted Basle to becomepriest at St. Pilt in Alsace.
once in the sky of the Swiss. Leo Juda comes Butwe shall see them re-united ere long,and fight
first : he was the son of a priest of Alsace. His ing side by side, with ripened powers, and weapons
diminutive stature and sickly face hid a richly taken from the armoury of the Divine Word , in the
replenished intellect,and a bold and intrepid spirit. great battle of the Reformation.
11
1111
11111
11 0
01
R
A 110111
H D
CUIUS
IG DEC OLAMPADIUS a
JOHN ECOLAMPADIUS. (From Rolt's “ Lives of the Principal Reformers.")
The most loved of all the friends of Zwingle, he Another of those remarkable men who, from
shared his two master-passions, the love of truth various countries, were now directing their steps
and the love of music. When thehours of labour to Switzerland, was Wolfgang Capito. He was
were fulfilled, the two regaled themselves with song. born at Haguenau in Germany in 1478, and had
Leo had a treble voice, and struck the tymbal; to taken his degree in the three faculties of theology,
the trained skill and powerful voice of Ulric all medicine, and law . In 1512 he was invited to
instruments and all parts came alike. Between become cure of the cathedral church of Basle.
them therewas formed a covenant of friendship that Accepting this charge he set to studying the Epistle
lasted till death. The hour soon came that parted to the Romans, in order to expound it to his
hearers, and while so engaged his own eyes opened him last, he was the first to arrive. Thomas Wit
to the errors of the Roman Church. By the end of tembach was a native of Bienne, in Switzerland.
1517 so matured had his views become that he He studied at Tubingen, and had delivered lectures
found he no longer could say mass , and forbore the in its high school. In 1505 he came to that
practice.? city on the banks of the Rhine, around which its
John Hausschein — which signifies in German the scholars, and its printers scarcely less, were shedding
“ light of the house," and in Greek, Ecolampadius such a halo. It was at the feet of Wittembach
i hiins p1482,
- T wasfamborn roche at Weinsberg, in Franconia . that Ulric Zwingle, on his second visit to Basle,
Hishisfamilyly, originally from Basle, was wealthy. So found Leo Juda. The student from the Tocken
rapid was his progress in the belles lettres, that at burg sat him down at the feet of the same teacher,
the age of twelve he composed verses which were and no small influence was Wittembach destined to
admired for their elegance and fire. He went exert over him . Wittembach was a disciple of
abroad to study jurisprudence at the Universities of Reuchlin, the famous Hebraist. Basle had already
Bologna and Heidelberg. At the latter place he opened its gates to the learning of Greece and
so recommended himself by his exemplary conduct Rome, but Wittembach brought thither a yet
and his proficiency in study, that he was appointed higher wisdom . Skilled in the sacred tongues,he
preceptor to the son of the Elector Palatine Philip. had drunk at the fountains of Divine knowledge
In 1514 he preached in his own country. His per - to which these tongues admitted him . There
formance elicited an applause from the learned , was an older doctrine, he affirmed, than that
which he thought it little merited, for he says of it which Thomas Aquinas had propounded to the
that it was nothing else than a medley of super - men of the Middle Ages - an older doctrine even
stition . Feeling that his doctrine was not true, he than that which Aristotle had taught to the men of
resolved to study the Greek and Hebrew languages , Greece . The Church had wandered from that old
that he might be able to read the Scriptures in the doctrine, but the time was near when men would
original. With this view he repaired to Stuttgart, come back to it . That doctrine in a single sentence
to profit by the instructions of the celebrated was that “ the death of Christ is the only ransom
scholar Reuchlin , or Capnion. In the year follow . for our souls.” 4 When these words were uttered ,
ing (1515) Capito ,who was bound to (Ecolampadius the first seed of a new life had been cast into the
in the ties of an intimate friendship , had made heart of Zwingle.
Christopher of Uttenheim , Bishop of Basle, ao To pause a moment: the names we have recited
quainted with his merits, and that prelate addressed were the stars of morning. Verily, to the eyes of
to him an invitation to become preacher in that men that for a thousand years had dwelt in dark
city , where we shall afterwards meet him . ness, it was a pleasant thing to behold their light.
About the same time the celebrated Erasmus With literal truth may we apply the words of the
came to Basle, drawn thither by the fame of its great poet to them , and call their effulgence “ holy :
printing-presses. He had translated, with simplicity the offspring of heaven first-born." Greater lumi
and elegance, the New Testament into Latin from naries were about to come forth , and fill with their
the original Greek , and he issued it from this city, splendour that firmanent where these early harbin
accompanied with clear and judicious notes, and a gers of day were shedding their lovely and welcome
dedication to Pope Leo X . To Leo the dedication rays. But never shall these first pure lights be
was appropriate as a member of a house which had forgotten or blotted out. Many names, which war
given many munificent patrons to letters, and no has invested with a terrible splendour, and which
less appropriate ought it to have been to him as now attract the universal gaze, grow gradually dim ,
head of the Church . The epistle dedicatory is dated and at last will vanish altogether. But history will
Basle, February 1st, 1516 . Erasmus enjoyed the trim these “ holy lights ” from century to century,
aid of Ecolampadius in this labour, and the great and keep them burning throughout the ages ; and
scholar acknowledges , in his preface to the para - be the world's day ever so long and ever so bright,
phrase, with much laudation, his obligations to the the stars that ushered in its dawn will never cease
theologian. to shine.
We name yet another in this galaxy of lights We have seen the seed dropped into the heart of
which was rising over the darkness of this land,
and of Christendom as well. Though we mention 4 “ Jesum Christum nobis a Patre justitiam et satis
factionem pro peccatis mundi factum est ” (Jesus Christ
1 Ruchat, tom . i., p. 67. is made by the Father our righteousness and the satis.
? Hottinger, 16 . Ruchat,tom . i., pp. 76, 77. faction for the sins of the world ). -Gerdesius, tom . i.,
3 Hottinger, 16 , 17. Ruchat, tom . i., p . 77. pp. 100 - 102
ZWINGLE BECOMES PASTOR OF GLARUS . 429
Zwingle ; the door now opened by which he was seminary for young men . A gross licentiousness
ushered into the field in which his great labours of manners, united with a fiery martial spirit,
were to be performed . At this juncture the pastor acquired in the Burgundian and Suabian wars, had
of Glarus died . The Pope appointed his equerry, distinguished the inhabitants of Glarus before his
Henri Goldli, to the vacant office ; ' for the paltry arrival amongst them . An unwonted refinement
post on the other side of the Alps must be utilised . of manners now began to characterise them , and
Had it been a groom for their horses, the shepherds many eyes were turned to that new light which
of Glarus would most thankfully have accepted the had so suddenly broken forth in this obscure valley
Pope's nominee ; but what they wanted was a amid the Alps.
teacher for themselves and their children , and There came a pause in his classical studies and
having heard of the repute of the son of the Bailiff his pastoral work. The Pope of the day, Julius II.,
of Wildhaus, their neighbour, they sent back the was warring with the King of France, Louis XII.,
equerry to his duties in the Pontifical stables, and and the Swiss were crossing the Alps to fight for
invited Ulric Zwingle to become their pastor. He “ the Church." The men of Glarus, with their
accepted the invitation , was ordained at Constance, cardinal-bishop, in casque and coat of mail, at their
and in 1506 , being then in his twenty -second year, head, obeying a new summons from the warlike
he arrived at Glarus to begin his work. His parish Pontiff, marched in mass to encounter the French
embraced nearly a third of the canton. on the plains of Italy . Their young priest, Ulric
“ He became a priest,” says Myconius, “ and de- Zwingle , was compelled to accompany them . Few
voted himself with his whole soul to the search of these men ever returned : those who did , brought
after Divine truth , for he was well aware how much back with them the vices they had learned in Italy ,
he must know to whom the flock of Christ is en - to spread idleness,profligacy,and beggary over their
trusted.” As yet, however, he was a more ardent native land. Switzerland was descending into an
student of the ancient classics than of the Holy abyss. Ulric's eyes began to be opened to the
Scriptures. He read Demosthenes and Cicero,that cause which was entailing such manifold miseries
he might acquire the art of oratory. He was upon his country. He began to look more closely
especially ambitious of wielding the mighty power at the Papal system , and to think how he could
of eloquence. He knew what it had accomplished avert the ruin which, mainly through the intrigues
in the cities of Greece, that it had roused them to of Rome, appeared to impend over Swiss indepen
resist the tyrant, and assert their liberties : might dence and Swiss morals. He resumed his studies.
it not achieve effects as great, and not less needed . A solitary ray of light had found its way in the
in the valleys of Switzerland ? Cæsar, Livy, manner we have already shown into his mind. It
Tacitus, and the other great writers of Rome he had appeared sweeter than all the wisdom which
was perfectly familiar with. Seneca he called a he had acquired by the laborious study of the
" holy man.” The beautiful genius, the elevation ancients, whether the classic writers, whom he
of soul, and the love of country which distinguished enthusiastically admired, or the scholastic divines ,
some of the great men of heathendom , he attri- whom he held but in small esteem . On his return
buted to the influence of the Holy Ghost. God , from the scenes of dissipation and carnage which
he affirmed, did not confine his influence within the had met his gaze on the south of the Alps, he
limits of Palestine, he covered therewith the world . resumed the study of Greek , that he might have
" If the two Catos," said he, “ Scipio and Camillus, free access to the Divine source whence he knew
had not been truly religious, could they have been that solitary ray had come.
so high-minded ?” . This was a moment big with the fate of Zwingle ,
He founded a Latin school in Glarus, and took of his native Switzerland , and in no inconsiderable
the conduct of it into his own hands. Hegathered degree of the Church of God. The young priest of
into it the youth of all the best families in his Glarus now placed himself in presence of the Word
extensive parish , and so gained them to the cause ofGod . If he shall submit his understanding and
of letters and of noble aims. As soon as his pupils open his heart to its influence , all will be well ;
were ripe, he sent them either to Vienna, in the but if, offended by its doctrines, so humbling to the
University of which Vadian , the friend of his youth, pride of the intellect, and so distasteful to the un
had risen to the rank of rector, or to Basle , where renewed heart, he shall turn away, his condition
Glarean, another of his friends, had opened a will be hopeless indeed. He has bowed before
- - -- - Aristotle : will hebow before a Greater speaking in
1 Christoffel,p.9. ? Iwing. Epp ., p. 9. this Word ?
CHAPTER VI.
ZWINGLE IN PRESENCE OF THE BIBLE.
Zwingle's profound Submission to Scripture - The Bible his First Authority - This a Wider Principle than Luther's
His Second Canon - The Spirit the Great Interpreter – His use of the Fathers - Light - The Swiss Reform presents
a New Type of Protestantism -German Protestantism Dogmatic - Swiss Protestantism Normal- Duality in the
False Religion of Christendom - Met by the Duality of Protestantism - Place of Reason and of Scripture.
The point in which Zwingle is greatest, and in would , he asserted , reveal it to every earnest and
which he is second to none among the Reformers, prayerful reader of it.
is this, even his profound deference to the Word This was the starting-point of Ulric Zwingle.
of God. There had appeared no one since our “ The Scriptures,” said he, “ come from God , not
own Wicliffe who had so profoundly submitted from man , and even that God who enlightens will
himself to its teaching. When he came to the give thee to understand that the speech comes from
Bible, he came to it as a Revelation from God, in God. The Word of God . . . . . cannot fail ; it
the full consciousness of all that such an admission is bright, it teaches itself, it discloses itself, it
implies, and prepared to follow it out to all its illumines the soul with all salvation and grace,
practical consequences. He accepted the Bible as comforts it in God, humbles it, so that it loses and
a first authority , an infallible rule, in contradis- even forfeits itself, and embraces God in itself.”?
tinction to the Church or tradition , on the one These effects of the Bible, Zwingle had himself
hand, and to subjectivism or spiritualism on the experienced in his own soul. He had been an en
other. This was the great and distinguishing prin - thusiastic student of the wisdom of the ancients : he
ciple of Zwingle, and of the Reformation which he had pored over the pages of the scholastic divines;
founded — THE SOLE AND INFALLIBLE AUTHORITY OF but not till he came to the Holy Scriptures, did he
HOLY SCRIPTURE. It is a prior and deeper prin - find a knowledge that could solve his doubts and
ciple than that of Luther. It is before it in logical stay his heart. “ When seven or eight years ago,"
sequence , and it is more comprehensive in its we find bim writing in 1522, “ I began to give
range ; for even Luther's article of a standing or a myself wholly up to the Holy Scriptures, philosophy
falling Church, “ justification by faith alone,” must and theology (scholastic) would always keep sug
itself be tried by Zwingle's principle , and must gesting quarrels to me. At last I came to this,
stand or fall according as it agrees therewith. Is that I thought, Thou must let all that lie, and
the free justification of sinners part of God's Reve- learn the meaning of God purely out of his own
lation ? That question we must first decide, before simple Word.' Then I began to ask God for his
admitting the doctrine itself. The sole infallible light, and the Scriptures began to be much easier to
authority of the Bible is therefore the first of all me, although I am but lazy." ?
theological principles, being the basis on which all Thus was Zwingle taught of the Bible. The
the others stand . ancient doctors and Fathers of the Church he did
This was Zwingle's first canon : what was his not despise, although he had not yet begun to study
second ? Having adopted a Divine rule, he adopted them . Of Luther he had not even heard the name.
also a Divine Interpreter. He felt that it would be Calvin was then a boy about to enter school.
of but little use that God should speak ifman were From neither Wittemberg nor Geneva could it be
authoritatively to interpret. He believed in the said that the light shone upon the pastor of Glarus,
Bible's self-evidencing power, that its true meaning for these cities themselves were still covered with
was to be known by its own light. He used every the night. The day broke upon him direct from
help to ascertain its sense fully and correctly : he heaven. It shone in no sudden burst ; it opened in
studied the languages in which it was originally a gradual dawn ; it continued from one studious
given ; he read the commentaries of learned and year to another to grow . At last it attained its
pious men ; but he did not admit that any man , or
body of men , had a peculiar and exclusive power 1 Zwingli Opp., ed . Schuler et Schulthess, i. 81; apud
of perceiving the sense of Scripture, and of authori- Dorner, Hist. Prot. Theol., vol. i., p. 287.
tatively declaring it. The Spirit who inspired it ? Ibid ., i. 79 ; apud Dorner, vol. i., p. 287 .
THE GËRMAN AND THE SWISS REFORMATION. 431
noon ; and then no one of the great minds of the Zwingle, on the other hand , began his by throw
sixteenth century excelled the Reformer of Switzer- ing down the gage of battle to the scholastic
land in the simplicity , harmony, and clearness of divinity .
his knowledge. Luther 's hygemonic or dominating principle was
In Ulric Zwingle and the Swiss Reformation we justification by faith alone, by which he overthrow
are presented with a new type of Protestantism — a the monkish fabric of human merit. Zwingle 's
type different from that which we have already seen dominating principle was the sole authority of the
at Wittemberg . The Reformation was one in all Word of God , by which he dethroned reason from the
the countries to which it extended ; it was one in supremacy which the schoolmen had assigned her,
what it accepted ,as well as in what it rejected ; but and brought back the understanding and the con
it had, as its dominating and moulding principle, science to Divine revelation. This appears to us
one doctrine in Germany, another in Switzerland, the grand distinction between theGerman and the
and hence it came to pass that its outward type or Swiss Reformation. It is a distinction not in sub
aspect was two-fold . Wemay say it was dogmatic stance or in nature, but in form , and grew out of
in the one country, normal in the other. the state of opinion in Christendom at the time,
This duality was rendered inevitable by thestate and the circumstance that the prevailingsuperstition
of the world . In the Christendom of that day took the monkish form mainly, though not exclu
there were two greatcurrents of thought — there was sively , in the one half of Europe, and the scholastic
the superstitious or self-righteous current, and there form in the other. The type impressed on each
was the scholastic or rationalistic current. Thus on the German and on the Swiss Reformation
the error which the Reformation sought to with at this initial stage, each has continued to wear
stand wore a two-fold type, though at bottom one, more or less all along.
for the superstitious element is as really human as Nor did Zwingle think that he was dishonouring
the rationalistic. Both had been elaborated into a reason by assigning it its true place and office as
scheme by which man might save himself. On the respects revelation. If we accept a revelation at
side of self-righteousness man was presented with a all, reason says we must accept it wholly. To say
system of meritorious services, penances, payments, that we shall accept the Bible's help only where we
and indulgences by which he might atone for sin , do not need its guidance ; thatwe shall listen to its
and earn Paradise. On the scholastic side he was teachings in those things that we already know , or
presented with a system of rules and laws, by might have known, had we been at pains to search
which hemightdiscover all truth , become spiritually them out ; but that it must be silent on all those
illuminated , and make himself worthy of the mysteries which our reason has not and could not
Divine favour. These were the two great streams have revealed to us, and which , now that they are
into which the mighty flood of human corruption revealed , reason cannot fully explain — to act thus is
had parted itself. to make reason despicable under pretence of honour
Luther began his Reformation in the way of ing it. For surely it is not reasonable to suppose
declaring war against the self-righteous principle : thatGod would havemade a special communication
-- to us, if he had had nothing to disclose save what
1 Zwingle 's own words, as given in his Works, tom . i., we already knew , or might have known by the
p. 37, are — " Cæpi ego evangelium prædicare anno salutis exercise of the faculties he has given us. Reason
decimo sexto supra millesimum et quingentesimum , eo bids us expect, in a Divine revelation, announce
silicet tempore, cum Lutheri nomen in nostris regionibus
Ne auditum quidem adhuc erat " ( I began to preach the ments not indeed contradictory to reason , but above
Gospel in the year of grace 1516 , at that time namely reason ; and if we reject the Bible because it con
when even the name of Luther had not been heard in tains such announcements, or reject those portions
our country) . Wolfgang's words are, as given in Capito's of it in which these announcements are put forth ,
letter to Bullinger - “ Nam antequam Lutherus in lucem
emerserat, Zwinglius et ego inter nos communicavimus we act irrationally. We put dishonour upon our
de Pontifice dejiciendo, etiam dum ille vitam degeret in reason . Wemake that a proof of the Bible's false
Eremitorio " (For before Luther had appeared in public , hood which is one of the strongest proofs of its truth .
Zwingle and I had conversed together regarding the
overthrow of the Pope, even when he lived in the Her The Bible the first authority , was the fundamental
mitage).--Gerdesius, tom . i., p. 193. principle of Zwingle's Reformation.
T
MI
LI
FRANCIS TIME
FRANCIS I. OF FRANCE. (From the Portrait by Titian.)
CHAPTER VII.
EINSIEDELN AND ZURICH .
Visit to Erasmus - The Swiss Fight for the Pope - Zwingle Accompanies them - Marignano - Its Lessons- Zwingle
invited to Einsiedeln - Its Site - Its Administrator and Abbot - Its Image - Pilgrims — Annual Festival - Zwingle's
Sermon - A Stronghold of Darkness converted into a Beacon of Light - Zwingle called to Zurich - The Town and
Lake - Zwingle's First Appearance in its Pulpit - His Two Grand Principles , Effects of his Preaching - His Pulpit
a Fountain of National Regeneration.
Two journeys which Zwingle made at this time his thirst whetted for a yet greater acquaintance
had a marked effect upon him . The one was to with the knowledge which these tongues contained.
Basle, where Erasmus was now living. His visit The other journey was of another character ,as
to the prince of scholars gave him equal pleasure well as in another direction. Louis XII. of France
and profit. He returned from Basle, his enthusiasm was now dead ; Julius II. of Rome had also gone to
deepened in the study of the sacred tongues, and his account ; and the warwhich these two potentates
22
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had waged with each other they left as a legacy discountenanced the superstitious usages of his
to their successors. Francis I. took up the quarrel Church, and in his heart had no great affection for
- rushed into Italy — and the Pope, Leo X ., sum - the mass, and in fact had dropped the celebration
moned the Swiss to fight for the Church , now of it. One day, as some visitors were urging him
threatened by the French. Inflamed by the elo to saymass, he replied, “ If Jesus Christ is verita
quence of their warlike cardinal,Matthew Schinner, bly in the Host, I am not worthy to offer him in
Bishop of Sion, even more than drawn by the gold sacrifice to the Father ; and if he be not in the Host,
of Rome, the brave mountaineers hastened across I should be more unhappy still, for I should make
the Alps to defend the “ Holy Father.” The pastor the people adore bread in place of God.” ?
of Glarus went with them to Italy , where one day Ought he to leave Glarus, and bury himself on
he might be seen haranguing the phalanxes of his a solitary mountain -top ? This was the question
countrymen, and another day, sword in hand, fight Zwingle put to himself. He might, he thought, as
ing side by side with them on the battle -field - a well go to his grave at once ; and yet, if he accepted
blending of spiritual and military functions less the call, it was no tomb in which he would be
repulsive to the ideas of that age than to those of shutting himself up. It was a famed resort of pil
the present. But in vain the Swiss poured out their grims, in which he might hope to prosecute with
blood. The great victory which the French achieved advantage the great work of enlightening his coun
at Marignano inspired terror in the Vatican , filled trymen. He therefore decided to avail himself of
the valleys of the Swiss with widows and orphans, the opportunity thus offered for carrying on his
and won for the youthfulmonarch of France a renown mission in a new and important field .
in arms which he was destined to lose, as suddenly The Convent of Einsiedeln was situated on a little
as he had gained it, on the fatal field of Pavia . hill between the Lakes of Zurich and Wallenstadt.
But if Switzerland had cause long to remember Its renown was inferior only to that of the far
the battle of Marignano, in which so many of her famed shrine of Loretto. “ It was themost famous,"
sons had fallen, the calamity was converted at a says Gerdesius, “ in all Switzerland and Upper
future day into a blessing to her. Ulric Zwingle Germany." 3 An inscription over the portal an
had thoughts suggested to him during his visit to nounced that “ Plenary Indulgences ” were to be
Italy which bore fruit on his return. The virtues obtained within ; and moreover -- and this was its
that flourished at Rome, he perceived, were ambi- chief attraction — it boasted an image of the Virgin
tion and avarice, pride and luxury. These were which had the alleged power of working miracles.
not, he thought, by any means so precious as to Occasional parties of pilgrimswould visit Einsiedeln
need to be nourished by the blood of the Swiss. at all seasons, but when the great annual festivalof
What a folly ! what a crime to drag the flower of its “ Consecration " came round, thousands would
the youth of Switzerland across the Alps, and flock from all parts of Switzerland , and from places
slaughter them in a cause like this ! He resolved still more remote , from France and Germany, to
to do his utmost to stop this effusion of his country this famous shrine. On these occasions the valley
men 's blood. He felt, more than ever, how neces- at the foot of the mountain became populous as
sary was a Reformation , and he began more dili- a city ; and all day long files of pilgrims would be
gently than before to instruct his parishioners in seen climbing the mountain , carrying in the one
the doctrines of Holy Scripture. hand tapers to burn in honour of “ Our Lady of
He was thus occupied , searching the Bible, and Einsiedeln ," and in the other money to buy the par
communicating what, from time to time, he dis- dons which were sold at her shrine. Zwingle was
covered in it to his parishioners , when he was deeply moved by the sight. He stood up before
invited (1516 ) to be preacher in the Convent of that great multitude that congregation gathered
Einsiedeln . Theobald , Baron of Gherolds-Eck, from so many of the countries of Christendom — and
was administrator of this abbey, and lord of the boldly proclaimed that they had come this long
place. He was a lover of the sciences and of journey in vain ; that they were no nearer the God
learned men , and above all of those who to a know who hears prayer on this mountain -top than in the
ledge of science joined piety. From him came the valley ; that they were on no holier ground in the
call now addressed to the pastor of Glarus, drawn precincts of the Chapel of Einsiedeln than in their
forth by the report which the baron had received of own closets ; that they were spending “ their money
the zeal and ability of Zwingle. Its abbot was for that which is not bread, and their labour for
Conrad de Rechenberg, a gentleman of rank , who that which satisfieth not," and that it was not a
i Ruchat, tom .i., p. 7th * Ruchat, tom . i., p . 75. Hist. Ren . Ereny , i. 104.
ZWINGLE CALLED TO ZURICH . 435
pilgrim 's gown but a contrite heart which was Einsiedeln . But so far from being grieved at the
pleasing to God . Nor did Zwingle content himself loss of his livelihood, it rejoiced Zwingle to think
with simply reproving the grɔvelling superstition that his work was prospering. The Papal authori
and profitless rites which the multitudes whom this ties offered him no obstruction , although they
great festival had brought to Einsiedeln substituted could hardly shut their eyes to what was going on.
for love to God and a holy life. He preached to Rome needed the swords of the cantons. She
them the Gospel. He had pity on the many who knew the influence which Zwingle wielded over his
came really seeking rest to their souls. He spoke countrymen, and she thought by securing him to
to them of Christ and him crucified. He told them secure them ; but her favours and flatteries, be
that he was the one and only Saviour ; that his stowed through the Cardinal-Bishop of Sion , and
death had made a complete satisfaction for the sins the Papal legate , were totally unavailing to turn
of men ; that the efficacy of his sacrifice lasts through him from his path. He continued to prosecute
all ages, and is available for all nations ; and that his ministry, during the three years of his abode at
there was no need to climb this mountain to obtain this place , with a marked degree of success.
forgiveness ; that the Gospel offers to all, through By this course of discipline Zwingle was being
Christ, pardon without money and without price. gradually prepared for beginning the Reformation
This “ good news” it was worth coming from the of Switzerland. The post of Preacher in the Col
ends of the earth to hear. Yet there were those lege of Canons which Charlemagne had established
among this crowd of pilgrims who were not able to at Zurich became vacant at this time, and on the
receive it as “ good news.” They had made a long 11th of December, 1518, Zwingle was elected, by
journey, and it was not pleasant to be told at the a majority of votes, to the office.
end of it that they might have spared their pains The “ foundation " on which Zwingle was now
and remained at home. It seemed, moreover, too admitted was limited to eighteen members. Ac.
cheap a pardon to be worth having. They would cording to the terms of Charlemagne's deed they
rather travel the old road to Paradise by penances , were “ to serve God with praise and prayer, to
and fasts, and alms-deeds, and the absolutions of the furnish the Christians in hill and valley with the
Church, than trust their salvation to a security so means of public worship , and finally to preside
doubtful. To these men Zwingle's doctrine seemed over the Cathedral school,” which , after the name
like a blasphemy of the Virgin in her own chapel of the founder, was called the Charles 'School. The
But there were others to whom the preacher's Great Minster, like most other ecclesiastical insti
words were as “ cold water " to one athirst. They tutions, quickly degenerated, and ceased to fulfil
had made trial of these self-righteous perform the object for which it had been instituted. Its
ances, and found their utter inefficacy. Had they canons, spending their time in idleness and amuse
not kept fast and vigil till they were worn to a ment, in falconry and hunting the boar, appointed
skeleton ? Had they not scourged themselves till the a leut-priest with a small salary , supplemented by
blood flowed ? But peace they had not found : the the prospect of ultimate advancement to a canon
sting of an accusing conscience was not yet plucked ship, to perform the functions of public worship.
out. They were thus prepared to welcome the This was the post that Zwingle was chosen to fill.
words of Zwingle. A Divine influence seemed to At the time of his election the Great Minster had
accompany these words in the case of many. They twenty-four canons and thirty -six chaplains. Felix
disclosed, it was felt, the only way by which they Hammerlin , the precentor of this foundation , had
could ever hope to obtain eternal life, and returning said of it in the first half of the fifteenth century :
to their homes they published abroad the strange “ A blacksmith can, from a number of old horse
but welcome tidings they had heard. Thus it came shoes, pick out one and make it useable ; but I
to pass that this, the chief stronghold of darkness know no smith who, out of all these canons, could
in all Switzerland, was suddenly converted into a make one good canon .” 3 We may be sure that
centre of the Reformed light. “ A trumpet had there were some of a different spirit among the
been blown,” and a “ standard lifted up " upon the canons at the time of Zwingle’s election, otherwise
tops of the mountains. the chaplain of Einsiedeln would never have been
Zwingle continued his course. The well-worn chosen as Preacher in the Cathedral of Zurich.
pilgrim -track began to be disused , the shrine to Z urich is pleasantly situated on the shores of the
which it led forsaken ; and as the devotees dimin- lake of that name. This is a noble expanse of
ished, so too did the revenues of the priest of water, enclosed within banks which gwell gently
Ruchat, tom . i., p . 94 . : Christoffel, pp. 28, 29. 3 Christoffel, p. 111.
upwards, clothed here with vineyards, there with emotions which proceeded from the cathedral pulpit
pine-forests, from amid which hamlets and white of Zurich . Did the preacher , as was his delight,
villas gleam out and enliven the scene, while in enlarge, in simple, clear, yet earnest wordswords
the far-off horizon the glaciers are seen blending whose elegance charmed the learned , as they in
with the golden clouds. On the right the region structed the illiterate - on a “ free salvation,” the
is walled in by the craggy rampart of the Albis audience bent forward and drank in every syllable.
Alp , but the mountains stand back from the shore, . Not all, however ; for there were those among
and by permitting the light to fall freely upon the Zwingle's hearers, and some even who had promoted
bosom of the lake, and on the ample sweep of its his election, who saw that if this doctrine were
lovely and fertile banks, give a freshness and airi- generally received it would turn the world upside
ness to the prospect as seen from the city, which down. Popes must doff their tiara, and renowned
strikingly contrasts with the neighbouring Lake of doctors and monarchs of the schools must lay down
Zug, where the placid waters and the slumbering their sceptre.
shore seem perpetually wrapped in the shadows of The intrepid preacher would change his theme;
the greatmountains. and, while the fire of his eye and the sternness of
Zurich was at that time the chief town of the his tones discovered the indignation of his spirit.
Swiss Confederation . Every word spoken here had he would reprove the pride and luxury which were
thus double power. If at Einsiedeln Zwingle had corrupting the simplicity of ancient manners, and
boldly rebuked superstition, and faithfully preached impairing the vigour of ancient virtue. When
the Gospel, he was not likely to show either less there was more piety at the hearth , there was more
intrepidity or less eloquence now that he stood at valour in the field . On glancing abroad , and point.
the centre of Helvetia, and spoke to all its cantons. ing to the tyranny that flourished on the south
He appeared in the pulpit of the Cathedral of of the Alps, he would denounce in yet more scathing
Zurich for the first time on the 1st of January, tones that hypocritical ambition which, for its own
1519. It was a singular coincidence, too, that this aggrandisement,was rending their country in pieces ,
was his thirty -fifth birthday. He was of middle dragging away its sons to water foreign lands with
size, with piercing eyes, sharp-cut features, and their blood, and digging a grave for its morality
The crowdes not so much his the yet viler yok
clear ringing voice. The crowd was great, for his and its independence. Their sires had broken the
fame had preceded him . It was not so much his yoke of Austria , it remained for them to break
reputed eloquence which drew this multitude the yet viler yoke of the Popes. Nor were these
around him , including so many who had long appeals without effect. Zwingle's patriotism ,kindled
ceased to attend service, as the dubious renown , at the altar, and burning with holy and vehement
as it was then considered , of preaching a new flame, set on fire the souls of his countrymen . The
Gospel. He commenced his ministry by opening knitted brows and flashing eyes of his audience
the New Testament, and reading the first chapter showed that his words were telling, and that he
of the Gospel according to St.Matthew ,' and he con - had awakened something of the heroic spirit which
tinued his expositions of this Gospel on successive the fathers of the men he was addressing had
Sabbaths,till he had arrived at the end of the book. displayed on the memorable fields of Mortgarten
The life, miracles, teaching, and passion of Christ and Sempach .
were ably and earnestly laid before his hearers. It was seen that a fountain of new life had been
The two leading principles of his preaching at opened at the heart of Switzerland . Zwingle had
Zurich, asatGlarus and Einsiedeln ,were theWord become the regenerator of the nation . Week by
of God the one infallible authority, and the death of week a new and fresh impulse was being propagated
Christ the one complete satisfaction . Making these from the cathedral, throughout not Zurich only,
his rallying-points, his address took a wide range, but all the cantons ; and the ancient simplicity and
as suited his own genius, or as was demanded by bravery of the Swiss, fast perishing under the wiles
the condition of his hearers, and the perils and of Rome and the corrupting touch of French gold ,
duties of his country. Beneath him , crowding were beginning again to flourish . “ Glory be to
every bench , sat all ranks and conditions - states . God !" men were heard saying to one another,asthey
men, burgomasters, canons, priests, scholars , mer- retired from the cathedral where they had listened
chants, and artisans. As the calm face of ocean to Zwingle, says Bullinger, in his Chronicle, “ this
reflects the sky which is hung above it, so did the man is a preacher of the truth . He will be our
rows of upturned faces respond to the varied Moses to lead us forth from this Egyptian darkness."
1 Ruchat,tom . i., p. 105. ? Osw . Mycon., Vit. Zwing.
A SWISS TETZEL. 437
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PARDON -MONGER AND THE PLAGUE.
The Two Proclamations - Pardon for Money and Pardon of Grace - Contemporaneous — The Cordelier Samson sent
to Switzerland - Crosses St. Gothard - Arrives in Uri - Visits Schwitz - Zug - Bern - A General Release from
Purgatory - Baden - Ecce Volant ! - Zurich -- Samson Denied Admission Returns to Rome- The Great Death
Ravages -- Zwingle Stricken - At the point of Death - Hymn - Restored - Design of the Visitation .
It is instructive to mark that at the very moment stripped of its influence, and the keys wrested from
when Rome was preparing for opening a great the hands of its occupant, is seen in the rise of
market in Christendom for the pardon of sin , so so many evangelists, filled with knowledge and
many preachers should be rising up, one in this intrepidity, to publish that Gospel of which it had
country and another in that, and , without concert been foretold that, like the lightning, it should
or pre-arrangement, beginning to publish the old shine from the east even unto the west.
Gospel that offers pardon withoutmoney. The same We have already seen how contemporaneous in
year, we may say, 1517, saw the commencement Germany were the two great preachings — forgive
of both movements. In that year Rome gathered ness for money, and forgiveness through grace. They
together her hawkers, stamped her indulgence were nearly as contemporaneous in Switzerland .
tickets, fixed the price of sins, and enlarged her The sale of indulgences in Germany was given to
coffers for the streams of gold about to flow into the Dominicans ; in Switzerland this traffic was
them . Woe to the nations ! the great sorceress was committed to the Franciscans. The Pope com
preparing new enchantments ; and the fetters that missioned Cardinal Christopher, of Forli, general of
bound her victimswere about to be made stronger. the order, as superintendent-in -chief of the distri
But unknown to Rome, at that very hour, bution in twenty -five provinces ; and the cardinal
numbers of earnest students, dispersed throughout assigned Switzerland to the Cordelier Bernardin
Christendom , were poring over the page of Scripture, Samson, guardian of the convent at Milan.” Samson
and sending up an earnest cry to God for light to had already served in the trade under two Popes, and
enable them to understand its meaning. That with great advantage to those who had employed
prayer was heard. There fell from on high a bright him . He had transported across the mountains, it
light upon the page over which they bent in study. was said , from Germany and Switzerland, chests
Their eyes were opened ; they saw it all — the cross, filled with gold and silver vessels, besides what he
the all-perfect and everlasting sacrifice for sin - had gathered in coin , amounting in eighteen years
and in their joy , unable to keep silence, they ran to to no less a sum than eight hundred thousand
tell the perishing tribes of the earth that there was dollars. Such were the antecedents of the man
“ born unto them a Saviourwho is Christ the Lord.” who now crossed the Swiss frontier on the errand
" Certain historians have remarked ,” says Ruchat, of vending the Pope's pardons, and returning with
" that this year, 1517, there fell out a prodigy at the price to those who had sent him , as he thought,
Rome that seemed to menace the ‘Holy Chair 'with but in reality to kindle a fire amid the Alps,
some great disaster. As the Pope was engaged in which would extend to Rome, and do greater injury
the election of thirty-one new cardinals, all suddenly to the “ Holy Chair ” than the lightning which had
there arose a horrible tempest. There came the grazed it, and passed on to consume the keys in the
loud peals of the thunder and the lightning's hands of the statue of St. Peter.
terrific flash. One bolt struck the angel on the “ Hedischarged hismission in Helvetia with not
top of the Castle of St. Angelo , and threw it down ; less impudence,” says Gerdesius, “ than Tetzel in
another, entering a church, shivered the statue of Germany."d Forcing his way (1518) through the
the infant Jesus in the arms of his mother ; and snows of the St. Gothard, and descending along the
a third tore the keys from the hands of the statue stream of the Reuss, he and his band arrived in
of St. Peter.” Without, however, laying stress the canton of Uri. A few days sufficing to fleece
upon this, a surer sign that this chair, before which
the nations had so long bowed, was about to be Ruchat, tom . i., p. 92. 3 Ibid .
4 Hist. Ren . Evang., tom . i., pp . 106 , 122.
Ruchat, tom . i., p. 90. Pallavicino , tom . i., lib . i., cap. 19, p . 80.
these simple mountaineers,the greedy troop passed afterwards the case of those who had none. Hav.
on to Schwitz, there to open the sale of their mer ing finished atZug, he travelled over the Oberland,
chandise. Zwingle, who was then at Einsiedeln, gathering the hard cash of the peasants and giving
heard of the monk's arrivaland mission, and set out them the Pope's pardons in return. The man and
to confront him . The result was that Samson was his associates got fat on the business ; for whereas
obliged to decamp, and from Schwitz went on to when they crossed the St. Gothard, lank, haggard,
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Zug. On the shoresof this lake, over whose still and in rags, they looked like bandits, they were
waters the lofty Rossberg and the Righi Kulm now in flesh, and daintily appareled. Directing his
hang a continual veil of shadows,and Romé a yet course to Bern , Samson had some difficulty in
deeper veil of superstition and credulity, Samson finding admission for himself and his wares into
set up his stage, and displayed his wares. The that lordly city. A little negotiation with friends
little towns on the lake sent forth their population inside,however, opened itsgates. He proceeded to
in such crowds as almost to obstruct the sale, and the cathedral church, which washung with banners
Samson had to entreat that a way might be opened on which the arms of the Pope were blazoned in
for those who had money, promising to consider union with those of the cantons, and there he said
PARDONS GREAT AND SMALL. 439
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about for which the paper indulgences were sold, are ? Ruchat, tom .i., p.95.
village seven fathoms deep in the earth. They — “ See how they fly !” These were the souls es
had recourse to Samson to lift off a malediction caping through the open gates of purgatory and
which had already brought so many woes upon winging their way to Paradise. It struck a wag
them , and the last and most dreadful of which yet who was present that he would give a practical
awaited them . The lords of Bern used their commentary on the flight of the souls to heaven .
mediation for the poor people. The good monk He climbed to the top of the steeple , taking with
was compassionate. He granted , but of course not him a bag of feathers,which he proceeded to empty
without a sum of money, a plenary indulgence, into the air. As the feathers were descending like
which removed the excommunication of the nuncio, snow -flakes on Samson and his company, the man
and permitted the inhabitants to sleep in peace . exclaimed, “ Ecce volant !" _ “ See how they fly !"
Whether it is owing to Samson's indulgence we The monk burst into a rage. To have the grace
shall not say, but the fact is undeniable that the of holy Church so impiously travestied was past
little town of Aarberg is above ground to this day, endurance. Such horrible profanation of the
At Bern, so pleased was the monk with his success, wholesome institution of indulgences, he declared,
that he signalised his departure with a marvellous deserved nothing less than burning. But the
feat of generosity . The bells were tolling his leave- citizens pacified him by saying that the man's wits
taking, when Samson caused it to be proclaimed that were at times disordered. Be this as it may, it
he “ delivered from the torments of purgatory and had turned the laugh against Samson, who de
of hell all the souls of the Bernese who are dead, parted from Baden somewhat crestfallen.
whatever may have been the manner or the place of Samson continued his journey, and gradually
their death.” What sums it would have saved the approached Zurich. At every step he dispensed his
good people of Bern, had he made that announce - pardons, and yet his stock was no nearer being
ment on the first day of his visit ! At Bern, exhausted than when he crossed the Alps. On the
Lupullus, formerly the schoolmaster, now canon, way he was told that Zwingle was thundering
and whom we have already met with as one of against him from the pulpit of the cathedral. He
Zwingle's teachers, was Samson 's interpreter. went forward, notwithstanding. He would soon
“ When the wolf and the fox prowl about to put the preacher to silence. As he came nearer,
gether," said one of the canons to De Wattville, the Zwingle waxed the bolder and the plainer. “ God
provost, “ your safest plan,my gracious lord , is to only can forgive," said the preacher, with a solem
shut up your sheep and your geese.” These re - nity that awed his hearers; “ none on earth can
marks, as they broke no bones, and did not spoil pardon sin . You may buy this man's papers , but
his market, Samson bore with exemplary good- be assured you are not absolved. He who sells
nature. indulgences is a sorcerer , like Simon Magus ; a
From Bern, Samson went on to Baden . The false prophet, like Balaam ; an ambassador of the
Bishop of Constance, in whose diocese Baden was king of the bottomless pit, for to those dismal
situated , had forbidden his clergy to admit the portals rather than to the gates of Paradise do
indulgence-monger into their pulpits, not because he indulgences lead.” .
disapproved his trade, but because Samson had not Samson reached Zurich to find its gates closed,
asked his permission before entering his diocese , and the customary cup of wine- a hint that he was
or had his commission countersigned by him . The not expected to enter — waiting him . Feigning to
Curé of Baden , however , had not courage to shut be charged with a special message from the Pope
the door of his pulpit in the face of the Pope's com - to the Diet, he was admitted into the city . At
missioner. his audience it was found that he had forgotten his
After a brisk trade of some days, the monk message, for the sufficient reason that he had never
proposed to signalise his departure by an act of received any. He was ignominiously sent away
grace, similar to that with which he had closed without having sold so much as a single pardon
his performances in Bern. After mass, he formed in Zurich . Soon thereafter he re-crossed the Alps,
a procession, and putting himself at its head, he dragging over their steeps a wagon -full of coin , the
marched round the churchyard, himself and troop fruits of his robbery, and returned to his masters
chanting the office for the dead. Suddenly he in Italy.5
stopped, looked fixedly up into the sky, and after he was not long gone when another visitant
a minute's pause, he shouted out, “ Ecce volant!" appeared in Switzerland, sent of God to purify and
? Ruchat, tom . i.,p. 97. 3 Ruchat, tom . i., p. 106. Gerdesius, tom . i., p. 126.
• Ibid ., pp. 97, 98. Gerdesius, tom . i., p. 124, i Pallavicino , tom . i., p . 80.
SERIOUS ILLNESS OF ZWINGLE . 441
invigorate the movement to scatter the good seed Jesus, uplift

on the soil which Zwingle had ploughed and And shelter me,
broken up. That visitant was the plague or “ Great “ Willest Thou, then ,
Death.” It broke out in the August of that same Death conquer mo
year, 1519. As it spread from valley to valley, in In my noon -day ? . . .
So let it be !
flicting frightful ravages, men felt what a mockery
were the pardons which thousands, a few months " Oh ! may I die,
before, had flocked to purchase. It reached Zurich , Since I am Thino ;
and Zwingle, who had gone to the baths of Pfeffers Thy home is made
For faith like mine."
to recruit his health, exhausted by the labours of
the summer , hastened back to his flock . He was Thus he examined, at that awful moment, the
hourly by the bedsides of the sick or the dying. foundations of his faith ; he lifted his eyes to the
fell friends,
On every side of him fell ae himself had cross ; he knew whom he had believed ; and being
friends, acquaintances,
stricken down by the destroyer. He himself had now no p moretr firmlyharpersuadedga than ever of the
s el's uth, om the tes
hitherto escaped his shafts, but now he too was Gospel's truth, having put it to the last awful
attacked. He lay at the point of death . Utterly test, he returned from the gates of the grave to
prostrate, all hope of life was taken away. It was preach it with even more spirituality and fervour
at this moment that he penned his little hymn, so than before. Tidings of his death had been circu
simple, yet not a little dramatic, and breathing a lated in Basle, in Lucerne - in short, all the cities
resignation so entire, and a faith so firm of the Confederation. Everywhere men heard
with dismay that the great preacher of Switzerland
“ Lo ! at the door had gone to his grave. Their joy was unaffectedly
I hear Death's knock ! great when they learned that the news was not
Shield me, O Lord , true, and that Zwingle still lived. Both the
My strength and rock. Reformer and the country had been chastened ,
“ The hand once nailed solemnised, purified , and prepared for what awaited
Upon the troe, them .
CHAPTER IX .
EXTENSION OF THE REFORMATION TO BERN AND OTHER SWISS TOWNS.
A Solemn Meeting - Zwingle Preaches with greater Life - Human Merit and Gospel Virtue — The Gospel Annihilates
the one, Nourishes the other - Power of Love - Zwingle's Hearers Increase - His Labourg - Conversions - Extension
of the Movement to other Swiss Towns - Basle - Lucerne - Oswald Myconius - Labours in Lucerne - Opposition
Is Thrust out- Bern - Establishment of the Reformation there.
WHEN Zwingle and the citizens of Zurich again brighter. Zwingle spoke as he had never spoken
assembled in their cathedral, it was a peculiarly before,and his audience listened as they had listened
solemn moment for both. They were just emerging on no former occasion.
from the shadow of the “ Great Death ." The · Zwingle now opened a deeper vein in his minis
preacher had risen from a sick -bed which had try. He touched less frequently upon the evils of
nearly passed into a death-bed , and the audience foreign service. Not that he was less the patriot,
had come from waiting beside the couches on which but being now more the pastor, he perceived that
they had seen their relations and friends breathe a renovated Christianity was not only the most
their last. The Reformed doctrine seemed to have powerful renovator of his country's morals, but the
acquired a new value. In the awful gloom through surest palladium of its political interests. The fall
which they had just passed , when other lights had and the recovery of man were his chief themes.
gone utterly out, the Gospel had shone only the “ In Adam we are all dead," would he say — “ sunk
1 Bullinger , p. 87 . 2 Zwing. Epp., p. 91.
in corruption and condemnation .” This was a with its cowls, its beads, its scourges , its purgatorial
somewhat inauspicious commencement of a Gospel fires, which had given much uneasiness to the flesh,
of “ good news,” for which , after the terrors in - but brought no relief to the conscience ; and the
cident to the scenes which the Zurichers had sweet light of the Gospel opening so full of refresh
witnessed, so many of them thirsted . But Zwingle ing to their souls.
went on to proclaim a release from prison - an T he cathedral, although a spacious building,
opening of the sepulchre. But dead men do not could not contain the crowds that flocked to it.
open their own tombs. Christ was their life. He Zwingle laboured with all his might to consolidate the
morang He admirably combined prudence with
him must the erlastingly effects can movement.
had become so by his passion, which was “ an
eternal sacrifice, and everlastingly effectual to his zeal. He practised the outward forms of the
heal." ! To him must they come. “ His sacrifice Church in the pale of which he still remained . He
satisfies Divine justice for ever in behalf of all who said mass : he abstained from flesh on fast-days:but
rely upon it with firm and unshaken faith .” Are all the while he laboured indefatigably to diffuse a
men then to live in sin ? Are they to cease to knowledge of Divine truth , knowing that as the new
cultivate holiness ? No. Zwingle went on to growth developed , the old , with its rotten timber,
show that, although this doctrine annihilates human and seared and shrivelled leaves, would be cast off.
merit, it does not annihilate evangelical virtue : As soon as men should come to see that a free par
that, although no man is saved for his holiness, no don was offered to them in the Bible, they would no
man will be saved withoutholiness: that as God be- longer scourge themselves to merit one, or climb the
stows his salvation freely , so we give our obedience mountain of Einsiedeln with money in their hand to
freely : on the one side there is life by grace, and on buy one. In short, Zwingle's first object, which he
the other works by love. ever kept clearly in view , was not the overthrow of
And then, going still deeper down , Zwingle the Papacy, but the restoration of CHRISTIANITY .
would disclose that principle which is at once He commenced a week-day lecture for the pea
the strongest and the sweetest in all the Gospel sants who came to market on Friday. Beautifully
system . What is that principle ? Is it law ? No. consecutive and logical was his Sunday course of
Law comes like a tyrant with a rod to coerce the instruction. Having opened to his flock the Gospel
unwilling, and to smite the guilty. Man is both in his expositions of St. Matthew , he passed on
unwilling and guilty . Law in his case, therefore, to the consideration of the Acts of the Apostles,
can but engender fear : and that fear darkens his that he might show them how Christianity was
mind, enfeebles his will, and produces a cramped , diffused. He next expounded the Epistles, that
oringing, slavish spirit, which vitiates all he does he might have an opportunity of inculcating the
It is the Medusa -head that turns him into stone. Christian graces, and showing that the Gospel is
What then is the principle ? It is love. But not only a “ doctrine,", but also a “ life." He then
how comes love to spring up in the heart of a guilty took up the Epistles of St. Peter , that he might
and condemned man ? It comes in this wise. The reconcile the two apostles, and show the harmony
Gospel turns man's eye upon the Saviour. He sees that reigns in the New Testament on the two great
Him enduring His passion in his stead, bearing the subjects of “ Faith” and “ Works ;" and last of all
bitter tree , to bestow upon him a free forgiveness, he expounded the Epistle to the Hebrews, showing
and life everlasting. That look enkindles love. the harmony that subsists between the two Dis
That love penetrates his whole being, quickening, pensations, that both have one substance, and that
purifying, and elevating all his powers , filling the one substance is the Gospel— Salvation of Grace
understanding with light, the will with obedience, and that the difference lay only in the mode of
the conscience with peace, the heart with joy, and revelation, which was by type and symbol in the
making the life to abound in holy deeds, fruitful one case, by plain literal statements in the other.
alike to God and man. Such was the Gospel that “ Here they were to learn," says Zwingle, “ that
was now preached in the Cathedral of Zurich. Christ is our alone true High Priest. That was
The Zurichers did not need any argument to con- the seed I sowed ; Matthew , Luke, Paul, Peter
vince them that this doctrine was true. They read have watered it, but God caused it to thrive."
its truth in its own light. Its glory was not of And in a letter to Myconius, of December 31st,
earth, but of the skies, where was the place of its 1519, he reports that " atZurich upwards of 2,000
birth . An unspeakable joy filled their hearts when souls had already been so strengthened and nou
they saw the black night of monkery departing, rished by the milk of the truth , that they could
1 Zwing. Opp .,i.206 ; apud D’Aubigné, ii.351. : Christoffel, pp. 40, 42.
MYCONIUS REJECTED BY LUCERNE . 443
now bear stronger food, and anxiously longed for disciples in this seat of learning rapidly increased .
it.” Thus, step by step , did Zwingle lead his Still it had a long and sore fight before obtaining
hearers onward from the first principles to the the mastery. The aristocracy were powerful : the
higher mysteries of Divine revelation . clergy were not less so : the University threw its
A movement like this could not be confined might into the same scale. Here was a triple
within the walls of Zurich , any more than day can rampart, which it cost the truth much effort to
break and valley and mountain -top not catch the scale. Hedio , who succeeded Capito, was himself
radiance. The seeds of this renovation were being succeeded by Ecolampadius, the greatest of the
cast by Zwingle into the air ; the winds were waft- three. Ecolampadius laboured with zeal and
ing them all over Switzerland, and at many points waited in hope for six years. At last, in 1528,
labourers were preparing a soil in which they might Basle, the last of all the Helvetic cantons, decreed
take root and grow . It was in favour of themove- its acceptance of the Reformed faith ."
ment here that the chief actors were not, as else- At Lucerne, Myconius endeavoured to sow the
where, kings, ministers , and princes of the Church , good seed of the Gospel; but the soil was un
but the people. Let us look around and note the kindly , and the seed that sprang up soon withered .
beginnings of this movement, by which so many of It was choked by the love of arms and the power of
the Helvetic cantons were, at no distant day, to be superstition . Oswald Geishauser -- for such was his
emancipated from the tyranny of the Papal supre - name till Erasmus hellenised it into Myconius — was
macy, and the superstitions of the Papal faith. one of the sweetest spirits and most accomplished
We begin on the northern frontier. There was at minds of that age. He was born at Lucerne
that timeat Basle a brilliant cluster ofmen. Among (1488 ), and educated at Basle, where he became
the first, and by much the most illustrious of them Rector of St. Peter 's School. In 1516 he left
all, was Erasmus, whose edition of the New Testa - Basle ,and became Rector of the Cathedral Schoolat
ment (1516 ) may be said to have opened a way for Zurich. He was the first of those who sought to
the Reformation. The labours of the celebrated dispel the ignorance of his native Switzerland by
printer Frobenius were scarcely less powerful. He labouring, in his vocation as schoolmaster,to intro
printed at Basle the writings of Luther, and in a duce at once the knowledge of ancient letters and
short time spread them in Italy, France, Spain , and the love of Holy Scripture. He had previously
England. Among the second class, themore dis- contracted a friendship with Zwingle, and it was
tinguished were Capito and Hedio. They were warm mainly through his efforts and counsel that the
friends and admirers of Zwingle, and they adopted Preacher of Einsiedeln was elected to fill the vacant
in Basle the same measures for the propagation of office at Zurich . The two friends worked lovingly
the Reformed faith which the latter was prosecuting together, but at length it was resolved that My
with so much success at Zurich. Capito began to ex- conius should carry the light to his native city
pound daily to the citizens the Gospel according to of Lucerne. The parting was sad, but Myconius
St. Matthew , and with results thus described in a obeyed and set out.
letter of Hedio 's to Zwingle in 1520 : “ This most He hoped that his office as head -master in the
efficacious doctrine of Christ penetrates and warms collegiate school of this city would afford him
the heart." ? Theaudiences increased . The doctors opportunities of introducing a higher knowledge
and monks conspired against the preacher, and than that of Pagan literature among the citizens
raised tumults. The Cardinal-Archbishop of Mainz, around the Waldstatter Lake. He began his
desiring to possess so great a scholar, invited Capito work very quietly . The writings of Luther had
to Mainz. On his departure, however, the work preceded him , but the citizens of Lucerne, the
did not cease . Hedio took it up, and beginning strenuous advocates at once of a foreign service and
where Capito had stopped , went on to expound the a foreign faith, abandoned these books as if they
Gospel with a courageous eloquence, to which the had proceeded from the pen of a demon. The
citizens listened , although the monks ceased not to expositions of Myconius in the school awakened
warn them against believing those who told them instant suspicion . “ Wemust burn Luther and the
that the sum of all Christian doctrine was to be schoolmaster," said the citizens to one another.
found in the Gospel. Scotus, said they, was a Myconius went on , notwithstanding, not once
greater doctor than St. Paul. So broke the dawn mentioning Luther 's name, but quietly conveying
of the Reformation in Basle . The number of its to the youth around him a knowledge of the
Puchat, tom . i., p. 108. ? Gerdesins, tom . ii., p . 229 . 5 Gerdesius, tom . ii., sec. 106, 120 , 121.
* Scultet, p . 67. Gerdesius, tom . i ., p. 229. & Letter to % winyle , 1320 Gerlesins, tom . ii., p . 231.
SAMSON SELLING INDULGENCES.
Gospel. The whisperings soon grew into accusa- Bern knew to choose the better part which Lu
tions. At last they burst out in fierce threats. cerne had rejected. Its citizens had won renown
“ I live among ravenous wolves,” we find him in arms; their city had never opened its gates to an
writing in December, 1520. He was summoned enemy, but in the morning of the sixteenth century
before the council. “ He is a Lutheran ,” said one it was conquered by the Gospel, and the victory
accuser ; “ he is a seducer of youth ,” said another. which truth won at Bern was the more important
The council enjoined him not to read anything of that it opened a door for the diffusion of the Gospel
Luther's to his scholars — not even to mention his throughout Western Switzerland.
name — nay, not even to admit the thought of him It was the powerful influence that proceeded
into his mind. The lords of Lucerne set no nar- from Zurich which originated the Reformed move
row limits to their jurisdiction. The gentle spirit ment in the warlike city of Bern. Sebastian
of the schoolmaster was ill-fitted to buffet the Meyer had “ by little and little opened the gates of
tempests that assailed him on every side. He had the Gospel” to the Bernese. But eminently the
offered the Gospel to the citizens of Lucerne, and Reformer of this city was Berthold Haller. He
although a few had accepted it , and loved him for was born in Roteville, Wurtemberg, and studied
its sake, the great majority had thrust it from at Pforzeim , where he was a fellow -student of
them . There were other cities and cantons that, Melancthon. In 1520 he came to Bern , and was
he knew , would gladly welcome the truth which made Canon and Preacher in the cathedral. He
Lucerne had rejected . He resolved , therefore, to possessed in ample measure all the requisites for
shake off the dust from his feet as a witness against influencing public assemblies. He had a noble
it,and depart. Before he had carried his resolution figure, a graceful manner, a mind richly endowed
into effect, the council furnished him with but too with the gifts of nature, and yet more richly
good evidence that the course he had resolved upon furnished with the acquisitions of learning. After
was the path of duty. He was suddenly stripped the example of Zwingle , he expounded from the
of his office, and banished from the canton. He pulpit the Gospel as contained in the evangelists.
quitted the angrateful city , where his cradle had But the Bernese partook not a little of the rough
been placed, and in 1522 he returned to Zwingle at and stubborn nature of the animal that figures in
Zurich.: Lucerne failed to verify the augury of its their cantonal shield . The clash of halberds and
name, and the light that departed with its noblest swords had more attraction for their ears than the
son has never since returned . sound of the Gospel. Haller's heart at times grem
faint. He would pour into the bosom of Zwingle
i Gerdesius, tom . ii., p. 232. all his fears and griefs. He should perish one day
2 “ Ne Lutherum discipulis legerem ; ne nominarem , by the teeth of these bears : so he wrote. " No."
imo ne in mentem eum admitterem .” (Gerdesius, tom . ii.,
p . 232 .) * Gerdesius, tom . ii., p . 237.
3 Gerdesiva,tom . ii., p . 233. D ’Aubigné, vol. ii., p.400. 5 Ibid ., tom . ii., p . 236 - Effigies .
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would Zwingle reply , in ringing words that made rewarded by seeing in 1528 the city and powerful
him ashamed of his timidity, “ you must tame canton of Bern, the first after Zurich of all the
these bear-cubs by the Gospel. You must neither cantons of Helvetia , pass over to the side of Pro
be ashamed nor afraid of them . For whosoever is testantism .
ashamed of Christ before men, of him will Christ be The establishment of the Protestant worship at
ashamed before his Father.” Thus would Zwingle Bern formed an epoch in the Swiss Reformation .
lift up the hands that hung down , and set them That event had been preceded by a conference
working with fresh vigour. The sweetness of the which was numerously attended , and at which the
Gospel doctrine was stronger than the sternness distinctive doctrines ofthe two faiths were publicly
of Bernese nature. The bear-cubs were tamed . discussed by the leading men of both sides. The
Reanimated by the letters of Zwingle, and the deputies had their views cleared and their zeal
arrival from Nuremberg of a Carthusian monk stimulated by these discussions, and on their return
named Kolb,' with hoary head but a youthful to their several cantons, they set themselves with
heart, fired with the love of the Gospel, and fresh vigour to complete , after the example of
demanding, as his only stipend, the liberty of Bern , the work of reformation. For ten years
preaching it, Haller had his zeal and perseverance previously it had been in progress in most of them ,
CHAPTER X .
SPREAD OF PROTESTANTISM IN EASTERN SWITZERLAND.
St. Gall - The Burgomaster - Purgation of the Churches - Canton Glarus - Valley of the Tockenburg - Embraces Pro .
testantism - Schwitz about to enter theMovement - Turns back - Appenzell - Six of its Eight Parishes embrace the
Gospel - The Grisons - Coire - Becomes Reformed - Constance - Schaffhausen - The German Bible - Its Influence
- The Five Forest Cantons — They Crouch down under the Old Yoke.
The light radiating from Zurich is touching the soon spent itself ; and the preachers returning from
mountain-tops of Eastern Switzerland, and Pro - a conference at Baden with fresh courage, the re
testantism is about to make great progress in this formation of the canton was completed. The images
part of the land. At this time Joachim Vadian, were removed from the Church of St. Lawrence, and
of a noble family in the canton of St. Gall, re - the robes, jewels, and gold chains which adorned
turning from his studies in Vienna, put his hand them sold to found alms-houses.? In 1528 we find
to the plough of the Reformation. Although he Vadian writing,“ Our temples at St.Gall are purged
filled the office of burgomaster , he did not disdain from idols,and the glorious foundations of the build
to lecture to his townsmen on the Acts of the ing of Christ are being more laid every day."
Apostles, that he might exhibit to them the model In the canton of Glarus the Reformed move
of the primitive Church - in simplicity and uncor- ment had been begun by Zwingle himself. On his
ruptedness , how different from the pattern of their removal to Einsiedeln , three evangelists who had
own day !3 A contemporary remarked , “ Here in been trained under him came forward to carry
St. Gall it is not only allowed to hear the Word of on the work . Their names were — Tschudi, who
God , but the magistrates themselves preach it." 4 laboured in the town of Glarus ; Brunner, in Mollis ;
Vadian kept up an uninterrupted correspondence and Schindler, in Schwanden . Zwingle had sown
with Zwingle , whose eye continually watched the the seed : these three gathered in the harvest.
progress of the work in all parts of the field , and The rays of truth penetrated into Zwingle's
whose pen was ever ready to minister encourage
ment and direction to those engaged in it. A 5 Gerdesius, tom . ii., p . 238. Christoffel, pp. 186– 192.
sudden and violent outburst of Anabaptism en- D’Aubigné, vol. ii., p. 359; vol.ii., pp.259 – 261.
dangered the cause in St. Gall, but the fanaticism 6 See summary of Disputation in Gerdesius, tom . i .,
sec. 118.
7 D ’Aubigné, vol. iii., p . 320 .
i Gerdesius, tom . ii., p. 322. ? Ibid ., p .230 . 8 Gerdesius, tom . ii., p. 367, foot-note.
3 Ibid., p . 246 . 4 Christoffel, p. 180. . Christoffel, pp. 173, 174 .
CONTINUED ADVANCE OF THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 447
native valley of the Tockenburg. With intense Rome to draw .” Their opportunity was let slip .
interest did he watch the issue of the struggle They spurned the advice of Zwingle not to sell
between the light and the darkness on a spot to their blood for gold, by sending their sons to fight
which he was bound by the associations of his for the Pope, as he was now soliciting them not
youth, and by many ties of blood and friendship. to do. Schwitz became one of the most hostile
Knowing that the villagers were about to meet of all the Helvetic cantons to the Reformer and
to decide whether they should embrace the new his work.
doctrine, or continue to worship as their fathers had But though the cloud still continued to rest on
done, Zwingle addressed a letter to them , in whichSchwitz , the light shone on the cantons around
he said , “ I praise and thank God , who has calledand beyond it.
me to the preaching of his Gospel, that he has led Appenzell opened its mountain fastnesses for the
you, who are so dear to my heart , out of the entrance of the heralds of the Reformed faith.
Egyptian darkness of false human doctrines, to Walter Klarer, a native of the canton , who had
the wondrous light of his Word ; ” and he goes on studied at Paris,and been converted by the writings
earnestly to exhort them to add to their profes- of Luther, began in 1522 to preach here with great
sion of the Gospel doctrine the practice of every zeal. He found an efficient coadjutor in James
Gospel virtue, if they would have profit, and the Schurtanner, minister at Teufen . We find Zwingle
Gospel praise. This letter decided the victory writing to the latter in 1524 as follows : “ Bemanly
of Protestantism in the Reformer's native valley. and firm , dear James, and let not yourself be over
The council and the community in the same sum - come, that you may be called Israel. Wemust con .
mer, 1524, made known their will to the clergy, tend with the foe till the day dawn, and the powers
" that the Word of God be preached with one of darkness hide themselves in their own black
accord.” The Abbot of St.Gall and the Bishop of night. . . . It is to be hoped that, although
Coire sought to prevent effect being given to these your canton is the last in the order of the Confede
instructions. They summoned three of the preachers racy,” it will not be the last in the faith . For these
- Melitus, Doering, and Farer - before the chapter, people dwell not in the centre of a fertile country,
and charged them with disobedience . The accused where the dangers of selfishness and pleasure aro
answered in thespirit of St. Peter and St. John before greatest, but in a mountain district where a pious
the council, “ Convince us by the Word of God, and simplicity can be better preserved , which guileless
we will submit ourselves not only to the chapter, simplicity , joined to an intelligent piety , affords the
but to the least of our brethren ; but contrariwise best and surest abiding-place for faith.” The au
we will submit to no one — no, not even to the diences became too large for the churches to contain .
mightiest potentate.” The two dignitaries declined The Gospel needs neither pillared aisle nor fretted
to take up the gage which the three pastors had roof, said they ; let us go to the meadow . They
thrown down. They retired, leaving the valley of assembled in the open fields, and their worship lost
the Tockenburg in peaceful possession ofthe Gospel. nothing of impressiveness, or sublimity , by the
In the ancient canton of Schwitz, which lay change. The echoes of their mountains awoke
nearer to Zurich than the places of which we have responsive to the voice of the preacher proclaiming
just spoken, there were eyes that were turned in the the “ good tidings,” and the psalm with which their
direction of the light. Some of its citizens ad- service was closed blended with the sound of the
dressed Zwingle by letter, desiring him to send men torrents as they rolled down from the summits.3
to them who might teach them the new way. Out of the eight parishes of the canton, six em
“ They had begun to loathe," they said , “ the dis- braced the reform .
coloured stream of the Tiber, and to thirst for those Following the course of the Upper Rhine, the
waters whereof they who had once tasted wished Protestant movement penetrated to Coire, which
evermore to drink.” Schwitz, however, did not nestles at the foot of the Splugen pass. The soil
intend to take her stand by the side of her sister had been prepared here by the schoolmaster
Zurich , in the bright array of cantons that had Salandrinus, a friend of Zwingle. In 1523 the
now begun to march under the Reformed banner . Diet met at Coire to take into consideration the
The majority of her citizens, content to drink at abuses in the Church , and to devise means for their
the muddy stream from which some had turned removal. Eighteen articles were drawn up and
away, were not yet prepared to join in the request,
“ Give us of this water, that we may go no more to ? Appenzell joined the Swiss league in 1513, and was
the last in order of the so- called old cantons.
i Gerdesius, tom . ii., pp . 368, 394. Christoffel, pp . 175, 178. 3 Christoffel, pp . 179 – 181.
confirmed in the year following, of which we give more mass-priests. The issue was that the canton
only the first as being the most important : “ Each was won. “ Christ waxed strong everywhere in
clergyman shall, for himself, purely and fully preach these mountains," writes Salandrinus to Zwingle,
the Word of God and the doctrine of Christ to his “ like the tender grass in spring."
people, and shall notmislead them by the doctrines Nor did the reform find here its limits. Napoleon
of human invention. Whoever will not or can - had not yet cut a path across these glacier-crowned
not fulfil this official duty shall be deprived of his mountains for his cannon to pass into Italy, but the
living,and draw no part of the same." In virtue Gospel, without waiting for the picks and blasting
of this decision , the Dean of St.Martin's, after a agencies of the conqueror to open its path, climbed
humiliating confession of his inability to preach , these mighty steeps and took possession of the
was obliged to give way to Zwingle's friend, John Grisons, the ancient Rhætia. The bishop fled to
Dorfman, or Comander - a man of great courage, the Tyrol ; religious liberty was proclaimed in the
and renowned for his scholarship — who now be- territory ; the Protestant faith took root, and here
came the chief instrument in the reform of the where are placed the sources of those waters which ,
city and canton. Many of the priests were won rushing down the mountains' sides, form rivers in
to the Gospel : those who remained on the side of the valleys below , were opened fountains of living
Rome, with the bishop at their head, attempted to waters. From the crest of the Alps, where it had
organise an opposition to the movement. Their now seated itself, the Gospel may be said to have
violence was so great that the Protestant preacher, looked down upon Italy. Not yet, however, was
Comander, had to be accompanied to the church by that land to be given to it.”
an armed guard , and defended , even in the sanc- It is interesting to think that the light spread on
tuary, from insult and outrage. In the country the east as far as to Constance and its lake, where
districts, where more than forty Protestant evan- a hundred years before John Huss had poured out
gelists , “ like fountains of living water, were his blood. After various reverses the movement of
refreshing hill and dale,” the same precautions had reform was at last crowned , in the year 1528, by the
to be taken. Finding that the work was progress- removal of the images and altars from the churches,
ing nevertheless, the bishop complained of the and •he abolition of all ceremonies, including that
preachers to the Diet, as " heretics, insurrectionists, of the mass itself.* All the districts that lie along
sacrilegists, abusers of the holy Sacraments , and the banks of the Thur, of the Lake of Constance,
despisers of the mass-sacrifice,” and besought the and of the Upper Rhine, embraced the Gospel. At
aid of the civil power to put them down. When Mammeren, which adjoins the spotwhere the Rhine
Zwingle heard of the storm that was gathering, he issues from the lake, the inhabitants flung their
wrote to the magistrates of Coire with apostolic images into the water. The statue of St. Blaise,
vigour, pointing to the sort of opposition that was on being thrown in, stood upright for a short while,
being offered to the Gospel and its preachers in and casting a reproachful look at the ungrateful and
their territories,and he charged them ,asthey valued impious men who had formerly worshipped and
the light now beginning to illuminate their land , were now attempting to drown it, swam across the
and dreaded being plunged again into the old lake to Catahorn on the opposite shore. So does a
darkness, in which the Truth had been held cap- monk named Lang, whom Hottinger quotes, relate."
tive, and its semblance palmed upon them , to the After a protracted struggle, Protestantism gained
cozening them of their worldly goods, and, as the victory over the Papacy in Schaffhausen . The
he feared he had ground to add, of their souls' chief labourers there were Sebastian Hoffmeister,
salvation , that they should protect the heralds of Sebastian Hoffman , and Erasmus Ritter. On the
the Gospel from insult and violence. Zwingle's Reformed worship being set up there, after the
earnest appeal produced a powerful effect in all model of Zurich in 1529, the inhabitants of Eastern
the councils and communities of the Grisons ; and Switzerland generally may be said to have enjoyed
when the bishop, through the Abbot of St. Luzi, the light of Protestant truth . The change that had
presented his accusation against the Protestant passed over their land was like that which spring
preachers, in the Diet which met at Coire on
Christmas Day, 1525, craving that they should be
be Ruchat,tom . i., pp. 228 - 230. Christoffel, pp. 183, 185.
condemned without a hearing, that assembly an - ? Scultet., Annal., Dec. i., p. 290 ; apud Gerdesius, tom .
swered with dignity , “ The law which demands ii., pp.292 and 304 ,306 . Christoffel, pp. 182– 185.
that no one be condemned unheard, shall also be 3 Gerdesius, tom . ii., pp. 292, 293 .
observed in this instance." There followed a public 4 Hottinger, Helv., pp. 380 - 384. Sleidan, lib. vi.; apud
Gerdesius, tom . ü .. p . 363.
'sputation at Ilanz, and the conversion of seven 6 D ’Aubigné, vol. iv., p . 306 .
THE BIBLE AND THE SWISS REFORMATION . 449
brings with it,when the snows melt, and the tor- than to change the opinions and customs of a na
rents gush forth , and the flowers appear, and all is tion, and the task is ten times more Herculean
fertility and verdure up to the very margin of the when these opinions and customs are stamped with
glacier. Yet more welcome was this spiritual the veneration of ages. It was a work of this
spring-time, and a higher joy did it inspire. The magnitude which was accomplished in Switzerland
winter — the winter of ascetic severities, vain mum - in the short space of ten years. The truth entered ,
meries , profitless services, and burdensome rites and the heart was cleansed from the pollution of
was past , and the sweet light of a returning lust, the understanding was liberated from the
spring-time now shone upon the Swiss. From the yoke of tradition and human doctrines, and the
husks of superstition they turned to feed on the conscience was relieved from the burden of mo
bread and water of life. nastic observances. The emancipation was com
Perhaps the most efficient instrument in this plete as well as speedy ; the intellect,the heart, the
reform remains to be mentioned . In every canton conscience, all were renovated ; and a new era of
a little band of labourers arose at the moment political and industrial life was commenced that
when they were needed . All of them were men same hour in the Reformed cantons.
of intrepidity and zeal, and most of them were Unhappily , the five Forest Cantons did not share
pre-eminent in piety and scholarship. In this in this renovation. The territory of these cantons
distinguished phalanx, Zwingle was the most dis - contains, as every traveller knows, the grandest
tinguished ; but in those around him there were scenery in all Switzerland. It possesses the higher
worthy companions in arms, well entitled to fight distinction of having been the cradle of Swiss inde
side by side with him . But the little army was pendence. But those who had contended on many
joined by another combatant, and that combatant a bloody field to break the yoke of Austria, were
was one common to all the German-speaking can - content, in the sixteenth century, to remain under
tons — the Word of God. Luther's German edition the yoke of Rome. They even threatened to bring
of the New Testament appeared in 1522. Intro - back the Austrian arms, unless the Reformed cantons
duced into Switzerland, it became the mightiest would promise to retrace their steps, and return to
instrumentality for the furtherance of the move the faith they had cast off. It is not easy to explain
ment. It came close to the conscience and heart of why the heroes of the fourteenth century should
the people. The pastor could not be always by have been so lacking in courage in the sixteenth .
their side, but in the Bible they had an instructor Their physical courage had been nursed in the pre
who never left them . By night as well as by day sence of physical danger. They had to contend
this voice spoke to them , cheering, inspiring, and with the winter storms,with the avalanches and the
upholding them . Of the dissemination of the Holy mountain torrents ; this made them strong in limb
Scriptures in the mother tongue, Zwingle said, and bold in spirit. But the same causes which
“ Every peasant's cottage became a school, in which strengthen physical bravery sometimes weaken
the highest art of all was practised , the reading of moral courage. They were insensible to the yoke
the Old and New Testament ; for the right and that pressed upon the soul. If their personal
true Schoolmaster of his people is God, without liberty or their material interests were assailed , they
whom all languages and all arts are but nets of were ready to defend them with their blood ; but
deception and treachery. Every cow and goose the higher liberty they were unable to appreciate.
herd became thereby better instructed in the know - Their more secluded position shut them out from
ledge of salvation than the schoolmen ." From the the means of information accessible to the other
Bible eminently had Zwingle drawn his knowledge cantons. But the main cause of the difference lay
of truth. He felt how sweetly it works, yet how in the foreign service to which these cantons were
powerfully it convinces; and he desired above all specially addicted. That service had demoralised
things that the people of Switzerland should repair them . Husbanding their blood that they might sell
to the same fountains of knowledge. They did so, it for gold , they were deaf when liberty pleaded .
and hence the solidity , as well as the rapidity , of Thus their grand mountains became the asylum of
the movement. There is no more Herculean task the superstitions in which their fathers had lived ,
and the bulwark of that base vassalage which the
1 Christoffel, p. 173 . other cantons had thrown off.
CHAPTER XI.
THE QUESTION OF FORBIDDEN MEATS.
The Foreign Enlistments - The Worship at Zurich as yet Unchanged - Zwingle makes a Beginning - Fasts and For.
bidden Meats - Bishop of Constance Interferes -- Zwingle 's Defence-- The Council of Two Hundred - The Council
gives no Decision - Opposition organised against Zwingle - Constance, Lausanne, and the Diet against Zwingle
First Swiss Edict of Persecution - Diet Petitioned to Cancel it - The Reformed Band - Luther Silent - Zwingle
Raises his Voice -- The Swiss Printing - press.
Our attention must again be directed to the centre and the festivals were duly honoured as they came
of the movement at Zurich . In 1521 we find the round . Zwingle was content, meanwhile, to sow
work still progressing, although at every step it the seed. Heprecipitated nothing, for he saw that
provokes opposition and awakens conflict. The till the understanding was enlightened, and the
first trouble grew out of the affair of foreign ser - heart renovated, outward change would nought
vice. Charles V . and Francis I. were on the point avail. But now , after four years'inculcation of the
of coming to blows on the plains of Italy. On the truth , he judged that his flock should be prepared
outlook for allies , they were making overtures to to apply the principles he had taught them . He
the Swiss. The men of Zurich promised their made a beginning with the smaller matters . In
swords to the emperor. The other cantons engaged expounding the fourth chapter of the first Epistle to
theirs to the French . Zwingle, as a patriot and a Timothy, Zwingle took occasion to maintain that
Christian minister, denounced a service in which fasts appointed by the Church , in which certain
Swiss would meet Swiss, and brother shed the blood meats were forbidden to be eaten at certain times ,
of brother in a quarrel which was not theirs. To had no foundation in the Bible. Certain citizens
what purpose should he labour in Switzerland by of Zurich, sober and worthy men for the most part,
the preaching of the Gospel to break the yoke of the resolved to reduce Zwingle's doctrine to practice.
Pope, while his fellow -citizens were shedding their They ate flesh on forbidden days. The monks took
blood in Italy to maintain it ? Nevertheless, the alarm . They saw that the whole question of
solicitations of the Cardinal-Archbishop of Sion, ecclesiastical ordinances was at stake. If men
who had sent an agent into the canton to enlist could eat forbidden meats without purchasing per
recruits for the emperor, to whom the Pope had mission from the Church , might not her commands
now joined himself in alliance, prevailed , and a be set at nought on other weightier points ? What
body of 2,700 Zurichers marched out at the gates, helped to increase the irritation were the words of
bound on this enterprise. They won no laurels in Zwingle, in his sermon, which had given special
the campaign ; the usual miseries -- wounds and umbrage to the war party :- “ Many think that to
death , widows and orphans, vices and demoralisa- eat flesh is improper, nay, a sin , although God has
tion - formed its sequel, and many a year passed nowhere forbidden it ; but to sell human flesh for
before another body of Zurichers left their home slaughter and carnage , they hold to be no sin at
on a similar errand. Zwingle betook himselt more all.” 3
earnestly to the preaching of the Word of God, It began to be clear how Zwingle's doctrine
persuaded that only this could extinguish that love would work ; its consequences threatened to be
of gold which was entangling his countrymen with very alarming, indeed . The revenues of the clergy
foreign princes, and inspire them with a horror of it would diminish, and it would withdraw the hal
these mercenary and fratricidal wars into which berds of the Swiss from the service of Rome and
this greed of sordid treasure was plunging them , to her allies. The enemies of the Reformation, who
the ruin of their country. up to this time had watched the movement at
The next point to be attacked by the Reformer Zurich in silence, but in no little uneasiness, began
was the fast-days of the Church . Hitherto no now to bestir themselves. The Church's authority
change had been made in the worship at Zurich. and their own pockets were invaded . Numerous
The altar with its furniture still stood ; mass was foes arose to oppose Zwingle.
still said ; the images still occupied their niches ; The tumult on this weighty affair of “ forbidden
i Christoffel, pp. 51, 52. ? Ruchat, tom . i., p. 133. 3 Christoffel, p. 58.
ZWINGLE MEETS HIS ACCUSERS. 451
meats” increased, and the Bishop of Constance, in
s h a t y Aity the best safe
then,” he asked , “ Christianity the best safeguard
l
whose diocese Zurich was situated , sent his suffra- were aboli secur ?i
of the general security ? Although all ceremonies
mappeared (April orige
gan, Melchior Bottli, and two others , to arrange
matters. The suffragan -bishop appeared (April 9th,
were abolished , would Christianity therefore cease
to exist ? May not the people be led by another
1522) before the Great Council of Zurich. He path than ceremonies to the knowledge of the truth ,
A
25
ENDO
DATIONTOVALU
Chantal
alt
VIEW OF EINSIEDELN ABBEY.
accused Zwin- even by the

gle, without path which
mentioning Christ and his
him by name, apostles pur
of preaching sued ?" He
novelties sub- concluded by
versive of the asking that
public peace ; and that if he were allowed to teach people should be at liberty to fast all the days of
men to transgress the ordinances of the Church, a the year, if so it pleased them , but that no one
time would soon come when no law would be should be compelled to fast by the threat of excom
obeyed, and a universal anarchy would overwhelm munication. The suffragan had no other reply
all things.' Zwingle met the charge of sedition and than to warn the councillors not to separate them
disorder by pointing to Zurich, “ in which he had selves from a Church out of which there was no
now been four years, preaching theGospel of Jesus, salvation. To this the quick retort of Zwingle
and the doctrine of the apostles, with the sweat of was, “ that this need not alarm them , seeing the
his brow , and which was more quiet and peaceful Church consists of all those in every place who
than any other town in the Confederacy.” “ Is not believe upon the Lord Jesus — the Rock which
| Ruchat, tom .i., p. 134. 2 Ruchat, tom . i.,pp. 134, 135.
St. Peter confessed ;- it is out of this Church ," said in the bishop's address, that the people, whose
he, “ that there is no salvation .” The immediate minds the pastoral was intended to influence, could
result of this discussion - - an augury of greater hardly avoid concluding that the one was the cause
things to come— was the conversion of one of the of the other, and that if they should imbibe the
deputies of the bishop to the Reformed faith — heresy, their certain doom was to fall by the scimitar
John Vanner. of the Turk .
The Council of Two Hundred broke up without The third attack was meant to support the
pronouncing any award as between the two parties. second. It came from the Bishop of Lausanne,and
It contented itself with craving the Pope, through also took the shape of a pastoral letter to the clergy
the Bishop of Constance , to give some solution of of his diocese. It forbade all men , under pain of
the controverted point, and with enjoining the being denied the Sacrament in their last hours, and
faithful meanwhile to abstain from eating flesh in refused Christian burial, to read the writings of
Lent. In this conciliatory course , Zwingle went Zwingle or of Luther, or to speak a word in private
thoroughly with the council. This was the first or public, to the disparagement of the “ holy rites
open combat between the champions of the two and customs of the Church .” By these means, the
faiths ; it had been fought in presence of the Roman ecclesiastics hoped utterly to discredit
supreme council of the canton ; the prestige of Zwingle with the people. They only extended the
victory, all men felt, remained with the Reformers, reputation they meant to ruin . The pastoral was
and the ground won was not only secured, but ex- taken to pieces by Zwingle in a tractate, entitled
tended by a treatise which Zwingle issued a few Archeteles (the beginning and the end), which
days thereafter on the free use of meats.” overflowed with hard argument and trenchant
Rome resolved to return to the charge. She humour. The stereotyped and vapid phrases in
saw in Zurich a second Wittemberg, and she which the bishops indulged, fell pointless compared
thought to crush the revolt that was springing up with the convincing reasonings of the Reformer,
there before it had gathered strength. When backed as these were by facts drawn from the flag
Zwingle was told that a new assault was preparing rant abuses of the Church, and the oppressions
against him , he replied , “ Let them come on ; I fear under which Switzerland groaned, and which were
them as the beetling cliff fears the waves that too patent to be denied by any save those who
thunder at its feet.” It was arranged that Zwingle had a hand in their infliction, or were interested in
should be attacked from four different quarters at their support.
once. The end of the Zurich movement, it was The first three attacks having failed to destroy
believed , was near. Zwingle, or arrest his work, the fourth was now
The first attacking galley was fitted out in the launched against him . It was the most formidable
port of Zurich ; the other three sailed out of the of the four. The Diet, the supreme temporal power
episcopal harbour of Constance. One day,the aged in the Swiss Confederacy , was then sitting at Baden.
Canon Hoffman tabled in the chapter of Zurich a To it the Bishop of Constance carried his complaint,
long accusatory writing againstthe Reformer. This importuning the court to suppress by the secular
which was the opening move of the projected cam - arm the propagation of the new doctrines by
paign , was easily met. A few words of defence Zwingle and his fellow -labourers. The Diet was
from Zwingle, and the aged canon was fain to flee not likely to turn a deaf ear to the bishop's solici
before the storm which , at the instigation of others, tations. The majority of its members were pen
he had drawn upon himself. “ I gave him ," writes sioners of France and Italy , the friends of the
Zwingle to Myconius, “ a shaking such as an ox “ foreign service" of which Zwingle was the
does, when with its horns it tossos a heap of straw declared and uncompromising foe. They regarded
up in the air." the preacher of Zurich with no favourable eye.
The second attack came from the Bishop of Con - Only the summer before (1522), the Diet, at its
stance. In a pastoral letter which he issued to his meeting in Lucerne, had put upon its records an
clergy, he drew a frightful picture of the state of order “ that priests whose sermons produced dis
Christendom . On the frontier stood the Turk ; and sension and disorder among the people should desist
in the heart of the land were men , more dangerous from such preaching." This was the first perse
than Turks, sowing “ damnable heresies." The cuting edict which disgraced the statute-book of
two, the Turk and the heresies , were so mixed up Helvetia.
i Christoffel, pp . 58 – 62. 3 Ruchat, tom . i., p. 138. Gerdesius, tom . i., p. 273.
• Gerdesius, tom i., p .270. Ruchat,tom . i., p. 135. 4 Christoffel, pp . 66 , 67. 5 Ruchat, tom . i., p . 140,
THE AGENCY OF THE PRINTING -PRESS IN ZWINGLE'S WORK. 453
It had remained a dead letter hitherto, but now laden , and lent a greater luxuriance to its boughs.
the Diet resolved to put it in force, and made a Its branches spread wider and yet wider around,
beginning by apprehending and imprisoning Urban and its fibres going still deeper into the soil, it
Weiss, a Protestant pastor in the neighbourhood firmly rooted itself in the land of the Swiss.
of Baden . Themonks, who saw that the Diet had The friends of the Reformation in Germany were
taken its side in the quarrel between Rome and the greatly encouraged and emboldened by what was
Gospel, laid aside their timidity , and assuming the now taking place in Switzerland. If Luther had
aggressive, strove by clamour and threats to excite suddenly and mysteriously vanished , Zwingle's
the authorities to persecution . voice had broken the silence which had followed the
The Reformer of Zurich did not suffer himself disappearance of the former. If the movement
to be intimidated by the storm that was evidently stood still for the time on theGerman plains, it was
brewing. He saw in it an intimation of the Divine progressing on the mountains of Switzerland.
will that he should not only display the banner of The hopes of the Protestants lived anew . The
truth more openly than ever in the pulpit of Zurich, friends of truth everywhere could not but mark
but that he should wave it in the sight of the whole the hand of God in raising up Zwingle when
Confederacy. In the June following, he summoned Luther had been withdrawn , and saw in it an indi
a meeting of the friends of the Gospelat Einsiedeln . cation of the Divine purpose, to advance the cause
This summons was numerously responded to. of Protestantism , although emperorsand Diets were
Zwingle submitted two petitions to theassembly, to “ taking counsel together" against it. The perse
be signed by its members , one addressed to the Diet , cuted in the surrounding countries , turning their
and the other to the Bishop of the diocese . The eyes to Switzerland , sought under the freer forms
petitions, which were in substance identical, prayed and more tolerant spirit of its government that
" that the preaching of the Gospel might not be protection which they were denied under their own.
forbidden , and that it might be permitted to the Thus from one day to another the friends of the
priests to marry.” A summary of the Reformed movement multiplied in Helvetia .
faith accompanied these petitions, that the members The printing-press was a powerful auxiliary to
of the Diet might know what it was they were the living agency at work in Switzerland. Zurich
asked to protect, and an appeal was made to their and Basle were the first of the Swiss towns to
patriotism , whether the diffusion of doctrines so possess this instrumentality. There had been, it is
wholesome, drawn from their original fountains in true, a printing-press in Basle ever since the
the Sacred Scriptures, would not tend to abolish establishment of its University , in 1460, by Pope
the many evils under which their country con - Pius II. ; but Zurich had no printing-press till
fessedly groaned , and at once purify its private 1519, when Christopher Froschauer, from Bavaria ,
morals, and reinvigorate and restore its public established one. Arriving in Zurich, Froschauer
virtue. purchased the right of citizenship , and made the
These petitions were received and no further city of his adoption famous by the books he issued
cared for by those to whom they were presented . from his press. Hebecamein this regard the right
Nevertheless, their influence was great with the hand of Zwingle, to whom he afforded all the
lower orders of the clergy, and the common people. facilities in his power for printing and publishing
The manifesto that accompanied them laid bare the his works. Froschauer thus did great service to
corruption which had taken place in the national the movement. The third city of Switzerland to
religion, and the causes at work in the deterioration possess a printing-press was Geneva. A German
of the national spirit, and became a banner round named Koln , in 1523, printed there, in the Gothic
which the friends of Gospel truth , and the cham - character, the Constitutions of the Synod of the
pions of the rights of conscience, leagued themselves. Diocese of Lausanne, by order of the bishop , Se
Thus banded together, they were abler to withstand bastien de Mont-Faulcon. The fourth city of the
their enemies. The cause grew and waxed strong Swiss which could boast a printing establishment
by the efforts it made to overcome the obstacles it was Neufchâtel. There lived Pierre de Wingle,
encountered. Its enemies became its friends. The commonly called Pirot Picard ,who printed in 1535
storms that warred around the tree Zwingle had the Bible in French, translated by Robert Olivetan,
planted , instead of overturning it, cleared away the the cousin of Calvin . This Bible formed a large
mephitic vapours with which the air around it was folio, and was in the Gothic character.”
Ruchat, tom . i., p. 141. Gerdesius, tom .i.,pp.270 – 277. · Ruchat, tom . i.,pp. 150, 152.
CHAPTER XII.
PUBLIC DISPUTATION AT ZURICH .
Leo Juda and the Monk - Zwingle Demands a Public Disputation - Great Council Grants it - Six Hundred Members
Assemble - Zwingle's Theses - PresidentRoist - Deputiesof the Bishop of Constance - Attempt to Stifle Discussion
- Zwingle's Challenge -- Silence - Faber Rises -- Antiquity - Zwingle's Reply - Hoffman 's Appeal - Leo Juda - Doctor
of Tubingen - Decree of Lords of Zurich - Altercation between Faber and Zwingle - End of Conference.
Early in the following year (1523) the movement — the question as to which is the true Gospel - to
at Zurich advanced a step. An incident, in itself the Great Council of Zurich, the supreme civil
of small moment, furnished the occasion . Leo authority in the State ?
Juda, the school-companion of Zwingle at Basle, Zwingle in doing so did not renounce his theory,
had just come to Zurich to assumethe Curacy of St. but in reconciling his practice with his theory , in
Peter's. One day the new pastor entered a chapel the present instance , it is necessary to take into
where an Augustine monk was maintaining with account the following considerations. It was not
emphasis, in his sermon , “ that man could satisfy possible for the Reformer of Zurich in the circum
Divine justice himself.” “ Most worthy father," stances to realise his ideal; there was yet no Church
cried Leo Juda, but in calm and friendly tones, organisation ; and to submit such a question at
“ hear me a moment ; and ye, good people , give ear, large to the general body of the professors of the
while I speak as becomes a Christian .” In a brief Reformed faith would have been, in their immature
address he showed them , out of the Scriptures, how state of knowledge, to risk - nay, to invite - divi
far beyond man's power it was to save himself. A sions and strifes. Zwingle, therefore, chose in
disturbance broke out in the church, some taking preference the Council of Two Hundred as part of
the side of the monk, and others that of the Curate the Reformed body — as, in fact , the ecclesiastical
of St. Peter's. The Little Council summoned both and political representative of the Church. The
parties before them . This led to fresh disturbances. case obviously was abnormal. Besides, in sub
Zwingle, who had been desirous for some time to mitting this question to the council, Zwingle
have the grounds of the Reformed faith publicly expressly stipulated that all arguments should be
discussed , hoping thereby to bear the banner of drawn from the Scriptures ; that the council should
truth onwards, demanded of the Great Council a decide according to the Word of God ; and that the
public disputation. Not otherwise, he said , could Church , or ecclesiastical community , should be free
the public peace bemaintained , or a wise rule laid to accept or reject their decision, according as they
down by which the preachers might guide them - might deem it to be founded on the Bible.
selves. He offered , if it was proved that he was in Practically, and in point of fact, this affair was a
error, not only to keep silence for the future, but conference or disputation between the two great re
submit to punishment; and if, on the other hand, it ligious parties in presence of the council - not that
should be shown thathis doctrinewas in accordance the council could add to the truth of that which
with the Word of God, he claimed for the public drew its authority from the Bible exclusively. It
preaching of it protection from the public authority. judged of the truth or falsehood of the matter sub
Leave was given to hold a disputation , sum mitted to it, in order that it might determine the
monses were issued by the council to the clergy far course it becamethe council to pursue in the exer
and near ; and the 29th day of January, 1523, was cise of its own functions as the rulers of the
fixed on for the conference. canton . It must hear and judge not for spiritual
It is necessary to look a little closely at what but for legal effects. If the Gospel which Zwingle
Zwingle now did , and the grounds and reasons of and his fellow -labourers are publishing be true, the
his procedure. The Reformer of Zurich held that council will give the protection of law to the
the determination of religious questions appertains preaching of it.
to the Church, and that the Church is made up of That this was the light in which Zwingle under
all those who profess Christianity according to the stood the matter is plain, we think, from his own
Scriptures. Why then did he submit this matter words. “ The matter," says he, “ stands thus. We,
i Gerdesius, tom . i., p. 279. Christoffel, pp . 95 , 96 . ? Puchat, tom . i., p. 160.
A PUBLIC CONFERENCE AT ZURICH . 455
the preachers of the Word of God in Zurich, on shut at an early hour ; the students were warned
the one hand, give the Council of Two Hundred that noise and riot on the street would be punished ;
plainly to understand , that we commit to them all persons of ill-fame were sent out of the town,
that which properly it belongs to the whole Church and two councillors, whose immoralities had sub
to decide, only on the condition that in their con - jected them to public criticism , were forbidden,
sultations and conclusion they hold themselves to meanwhile, attendance in the council chamber.
the Word of God alone ; and , on the other hand, These things betoken that already the purifying
that they only act so far in the name of the Church, breath of the Gospel, more refreshing than the
as the Church tacitly and voluntarily adopts their cool breeze from the white Alps on lake and city
conclusions and ordinances." Zwingle discovers , in in the heat of summer, had begun to be felt in
the very dawn of the Reformation, wonderfully Zurich. Zwingle's enemies called it “ a Diet of
clear views on this subject ; although it is true vagabonds," and loudly prophesied that all the
that not till a subsequent period in the history of beggars in Switzerland would infallibly grace it
Protestantism was the distinction between things with their presence . Had themagistrates of Zurich
spiritual and things secular, and, correspondingly , expected guests of this sort, they would have pre
between the authorities competent to decide upon pared for their coming after a different fashion .
the one and upon the other, clearly and sharply Zwingle prepared for the conference which he
drawn ; and, especially, not till a subsequent period had been the main instrument of convoking, by
were the principles that ought to regulate the exer- composing an abridgment of doctrine, consisting
cise of the civil power about religious matters - in of sixty-seven articles , which he got printed, and
other words, the principles of toleration — discovered offered to defend from the Word of God . The first
and proclaimed . It is in Switzerland, and at article struck at that dogma of Romanism which
Zurich , that we find the first enunciation of the declares that “ Holy Scripture has no authority
liberal ideas of modern times. unless it be sanctioned by the Church.” The
The lords of Zurich granted the conference others were not less important, namely , that Jesus
craved by Zwingle, and published a formal decree Christ is our only Teacher and Mediator ; that he
to that effect. They invited all the curés or alone is the Head of believers ; that all who are
pastors, and all ecclesiastics of whatever degree, in united to him are members of his body, children
all the towns of the canton. The Bishop of Con- of God, and members of the Church ; that it is by
stance , in whose diocese Zurich was situated , was power from their Head alone that Christians can
also respectfully asked to be present, either in do any good act ; that from him , not from the
person or by deputy . The day fixed upon was the Church or the clergy, comes the efficacy that sancti
29th of January. The disputation was to be con - fies ; that Jesus Christ is the one sovereign and
ducted in the German language, all questions were eternal Priest; that the mass is not a sacrifice ; that
to be determined by the Word of God , and it was every kind of food may be made use of on alldays ;
added that after theconference had pronounced on all thatmonkery, with all that appertains to it — frocks,
the questions discussed in it, only what was agree. tonsures, and badges — is to be rejected ; that Holy
able to Scripture was to be brought into the pulpit.” Scripture permits all men, without exception , to
That an ecclesiastical Diet should convene in marry ; that ecclesiastics, as well as others, are
Zurich , and that Rome should be summoned before bound to obey the magistrate ; that magistrates have
it to show cause why she should longer retain the received power from God to put malefactors to
supremacy she had wielded for a thousand years, death ; that God alone can pardon sin ; thathe gives
appeared to the men of those times a most extra pardon solely for the love of Christ ; that the
ordinary and , indeed, portentous event. It made pardon of sins for money is simony ; and, in fine,
a great stir all over Switzerland. “ There was that there is no purgatory after death .“
much wondering,” says Bullinger in his Chronicle, By the publication of these theses, Zwingle
" what would comeout of it.” The city in which struck the first blow in the coming campaign, and
it was to be held prepared fittingly to receive the opened the discussions in the canton before the
many venerable and dignified visitors who had been conference had opened them in the Council Hall of
invited . Warned by the examples of Constance Zurich .”
and Basle, Zurich made arrangements for main
taining public decorum during the session of the 3 This article would appear to be directed against the
conference. The public-houses were ordered to be teaching of the Anabaptists, who began to appear about
the year 1522
4 Ruchat, tom i., p . 161.
Christoffel, p . 96. : Ruchat, tom . i., p. 160. 5 Gerdesius, tom . i., p . 279. Christoffel, p. 99.
.
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PRESIDENT ROIST. 457
When the day (29th January, 1523) arrived, says Christoffel, “ a hoary-headed warrior, who had
600 persons assembled in the Town Hall. They fought with Zwingle at Marignano." He had a
met at the early hour of six . The conference son named Gaspar, a captain in the Pope's body
included persons of rank , canons, priests, scholars, guard , nevertheless he himself was a staunch Re
strangers, and many citizens of Zurich. The Bishop former, and adhered faithfully to Zwingle, although
of Constance, the diocesan , was invited , but ap Pope Adrian had tried to gain him by letters full
mei
THE COUNCILLORS DISSOLVING THE AUGUSTINE ORDER OF MONKS IN ZURICH .
peared only by his deputies, John Faber, Vicar- of praise. In a vacant space in the middle of the
General, and James von Anwyl, knight, and Grand assembly sat Zwingle alone at a table. Bibles in
Master of the Episcopal Court at Constance. the Latin , Greek, and Hebrew languages lay open
Deputies of the Reformation appeared only from before him . All eyes were turned upon him . He
Bern and Schaffhausen ; so weak as yet was the was there to defend the Gospel he had preached ,
cause in the Swiss cantons. which so many, now face to face with him , had
The burgomaster, Marx Roist, presided. Hewas, loudly denounced as heresy and sedition , and the
1 Hotting., 106 , 107. Ruchat, tom . i., p. 160. 2 Ruchat, tom .i., p. 161.
39
cause of the strifes that were beginning to rend the mine all questions by this, the alone infallible rule,
cantons. His position was not unlike that of as any Council they were ever likely to see in
Luther at Worms. The cause was the same, only Christendom ?"
the tribunal was less august, the assemblage less A long pause followed Zwingle's address. He
brilliant, and the immediate risks less formidable. stood unaccused in the midst of those who had so
But the faith that upheld the champion of Worms loudly blamed and condemned him out of doors.
also animated the hero of Zurich. Tull . Again he challenged his opponents : he challenged
The venerable president rose. He stated briefly them a second time, he challenged them a third
why the conference had been convoked , adding, “ If time. No one spoke. At length Faber rose --
any one has anything to say against the doctrine not to take up the gauntlet which Zwingle had
of Zwingle , now is the time to speak.”1 All eyes thrown down, but to tell how he had discomfited in
were turned on the bishop's representative, John argument the pastor of Fislisbach, whom , as we
Faber. Faber had formerly been a friend of have already said , the Diet at Baden had im
Zwingle ,but having visited Romeand been flattered prisoned ; and to express his amazement at the
by the Pope, he was now thoroughly devoted to the pass to which things had come, when the ancient
Papal interests , and had become one of Zwingle's usages which had lasted for twelve centuries were
bitterest opponents. forsaken, and it was calmly concluded “ that Chris
Faber sat still, but James von Anwyl rose. He tendom had been in error fourteen hundred years !"
tried to throw oil upon the waters , and to allay the The Reformer quickly replied that error was not
storm raging, not indeed in the council chamber - less error because the belief of it had lasted fourteen
for there all was calm - -but in Zurich. The deputies, hundred years, and that in the worship of God
he said , were present not to engage in controversy, antiquity of usage was nothing, unless ground or
but to learn the unhappy divisions that were rend- warrant for it could be found in the Sacred Scrip
ing the canton, and to employ their power in healing tures.5
them . He concluded by dropping a hint of a He denied that the false dogmas and the idola
General Council, that was soon to meet, and whichtrous practices which he was combating came from
would amicably arrange this whole matter. the first ages , or were known to the early Christians.
Zwingle saw through a device which threatened They were the growth of times less enlightened and
to rob him of all the advantage that he hoped to men less holy. Successive Councils and doctors, in
gain from the conference. “ This was now ," he comparatively modern times, had rooted up the
said , “ his fifth year in Zurich. He had preached good and planted the evil in its room . The pro
God's message to men as contained in his own hibition of marriage to priests he instanced as a
Word ;” and , submitting his theses , he offered to case in point.
make good before the assembly their agreement Master Hoffman, of Schaffhausen , then rose. He
with the Scriptures ; and looking round upon all, had been branded , he said , as a heretic at Lau
said , “ Go on then, in God 's name. Here I am to sanne, and chased from that city for no other
answer you.”? Thus again challenged , Faber, who offence than having preached , agreeably to the
wore a red hat, rose, but only to attempt to stifle Word of God, against the invocation of the saints
discussion, by holding out the near prospect of a Therefore he must adjure the Vicar-General, Faber,
General Council. “ It would meet at Nuremberg in the name of God, to show him those passages in
within a year's time.” 3 the Bible in which such invocation is permitted and
“ And why not," instantly retorted the Reformer , enjoined. To this solemn appeal Faber remained
" at Erfurt or Wittemberg ?” Zwingle entered fully silent.
into the grounds of his doctrine, and closed by Leo Juda next came forward. He had but
expressing his convictions that a General Council recently come to Zurich , he said , as a labourer with
they would not soon see , and that the one now Zwingle in the work of the Gospel. He was not
convened was as good as any the Pope was likely able to see that the worship of the Church of Rome
to give them . Had they not in this conference, had any foundation in Scripture. He could not
doctors, theologians, jurisconsults, and wise men, recommend to his people any other intercessor than
just as able to read the Word of God in the original the one Mediator, even Christ Jesus, nor could he
Hebrew and Greek, and as well qualified to deter- bid them repose on any other expiation of their
i Gerdesius, tom . i., p . 279. 4 Ruchat, tom . i., p. 163.
Christoffel, p . 102. i Christoffel, pp . 105, 106 .
3 Ruchat, tom . i., p . 162. 6 Ruchat, tom . i., p. 164.
END OF THE CONFERENCE AT ZURICH . 459
sins than his death and passion on the cross. If bulls of the Popes nor the edicts of the Emperor
this belief of his was false , he implored Faber to to turn them from it. This closed the morning's
show him from the Word of God a better way. proceedings.
This second appeal brought Faber to his feet. After dinner the conference re-assembled to hear
But, so far as proof or authority from the Bible the decree of the lords of Zurich . The edict was
was concerned, he might as well have remained read. It enjoined, in brief, that all preachers both
silent. Not deigning even a glance at the Canon of in the city and throughout the canton , laying aside
Inspiration , he went straight to the armoury of the the traditions of men , should teach from the pulpit
Roman Church . He pleaded first of all the unani- only what they were able to prove from the Word
mous consent of the Fathers, and secondly the of God . “ But," interposed a country cure,
Litany and canon of the mass, which assures us “ what is to be done in the case of those priests who
that we ought to invoke the mother of God and all are not able to buy those books called the New
Testament ?"in tSohe dmuch
the saints. Coming at last to the Bible, but only to Testament octrinefors olhisied Zfitness
wingle,isto if he
to instruct
misinterpret it, he said that the Virgin herself had his hearers in the doctrines of a book which he had
authorised this worship, inasmuch as she had fore- never seen. No priest, replied Zwingle, is so poor
told that it would be rendered to her in all coming as to be unable to buy a New Testament, if he
time : " From henceforth all generations shall call seriously wishes to possess one ; or, if he be really
me blessed." 1 And not less had her cousin Eliza - unable, he will find some pious citizen willing to
beth sanctioned it when she gave expression to her lend him the money.
surprise and humility in these words : “ Whence is The business was at an end, and the assembly was
this to me, that the mother of my Lord should about to separate. Zwingle could not refrain giving
come to me?” ? These proofs he thought ought to thanks to God that now his native land was about
suffice, and if they were not to be held as establish - to enjoy the free preaching of the pure Gospel.
ing his point, nothing remained for him but to hold But the Vicar-General, as much terrified as Zwingle
his peace. was gladdened by the prospect, was heard to
The Vicar-General found a supporter in Martin mutter that had he seen the theses of the pastor of
Blantsch , Doctor of Tubingen . He was one of Zurich a little sooner, he would have dealt them a
those allies who are more formidable to the cause complete refutation , and shown from Scripture the
they espouse than to that which they combat. “ It authority of oral traditions, and the necessity of a
was a prodigious rashness," said Dr. Blantsch,
censure or condemn usages established by ounc“iltos wZwingle
by CCouncils
living judge on earth
Faberhim;" ctoomdointogsoledecide
as saidbegged controversies.
; butyet.
even ! “ No, not
which had assembled by the inspiration of the Holy here,” said Faber ; “ come to Constance.” “ With
Ghost. The decisions of the first four General all my heart,” replied Zwingle ; but he added in a
Councils ought to receive the same reverence as the quiet tone, and the Vicar-General could hardly be
Gospel itself : so did the canon law enjoin (Distinc- insensible to the reproach his words implied , “ You
tion XV .) ; for the Church , met in Council by the must give me a safe conduct, and show me the
Holy Spirit, cannot err. To oppose its decrees was same good faith at Constance which you have
to oppose God . He that heareth you heareth me, experienced at Zurich ; and further, I give you
and he that despiseth you despiseth me.' " 4 warning that I will accept no other judge than
It was not difficult for Zwingle to reply to Holy Scripture.” “ Holy Scripture !” retorted
arguments like these. They presented a pompous Faber, somewhat angrily ; " there are many things
array of Councils, canons, and ages ; but this against Christ which Scripture does not forbid :
procession of authorities, so grandly marshalled , for example, where in Scripture do we read that a
lacked one thing — an apostle or evangelist to head man may not take his own or his sister's daughter
it. Lacking this, what was it ? Not a chain of to wife ? ” “ Nor," replied Zwingle , “ does it stand
living witnesses, but a procession of lay figures. in Scripture that a cardinal should have thirty
Seeing this discomfiture of the Papal party, Sebas- livings. Degrees of relationship further removed
tien Hoffman, the pastor of Schaffhausen , and than the one you have just specified are forbidden ,
Sebastien Meyer, of Bern , rose and exhorted the
Zurichers to go bravely forward in the path on 5 Ruchat, tom . i., p. 167. Sleidan , bk . iii., p. 57. Gerde
which they had entered, and to permit neither the sius, tom . i., p . 279 : “ Ut traditionibus hominum omissis,
Evangelium pure doceatur e Veteris et Novi Testamenti
libris” (That, laying aside the traditions of man , the
1 Luke i. 48. ? Ibid . i. 43. pure Gospel may be taught from the books of the Old
3 Ruchat, tom . i., p . 105 . and New Testament).
4 Luke x . 16 . 6 Zwing. Op.,621, 622 ; apud Ruchat, tom . i., p. 167 .
therefore we conclude that nearer degrees are so .” ture, adding, “ Men might live in peace and concord
He ended by expressing his surprise that the and holiness, even if there were no Gospel.” The
Vicar-General should have come so long a way to Vicar-General, by this last remark, had crowned his
deliver such sterile speeches. own discomfiture. The audience could no longer re
Faber, on his part, taunted the Reformer with strain their indignation. They started to their feet
always harping upon the same string, even Scrip- and left the assembly-hall. So ended the conference.
CHAPTER XIII.
DISSOLUTION OF CONVENTUAL AND MONASTIC ESTABLISHMENTS.
Zwingle's Treatise - An After -fight- Zwingle 's Pulpit Lectures - Superstitious Usages and Payments Abolished ,
Gymnasium Founded - Convents Opened - Zwingle on Monastic Establishments - Dissolution of Monasteries
- Public Begging Forbidden - Provision for the Poor.
A VICTORY had been gained, but Zwingle was of sale, and Faber gained as little in this after-fight as
opinion that he had won it somewhat too easily . he had done in the main battle.
He would have preferred the assertion of the The Reformer did not for a moment pause or
truth by a sharp debate to the dumb opposition of lose sight of his grand object, which was to restore
the priests. He set to work, however, and in a the Gospel to its rightful place in the sanctuary,
few months produced a treatise on the established and in the hearts of the people. He had ended his
ordinances and ceremonies, in which he showed exposition of the Gospel of St. Matthew . He pro
how utterly foundation was lacking for them in ceeded next to the consideration of the Acts of the
the Word of God. The luminous argument and Apostles, that he might be able to show his hearers
the “ sharp wit” of the volume procured for it an the primitive model of the Church , and how the
instant and wide circulation . Men read it, and Gospel was spread in the first ages. Then he went
asked why these usages should be longer continued. on to the 1st Epistle to Timothy, that he might
The public mind was now ripe for the changes in unfold the rules by which all Christians ought to
the worship which Zwingle had hitherto abstained frame their lives . He turned next to the Epistle
from making. This is a dangerous point in all such to the Galatians, that he might reach those who,
movements. Not a few Reformations have been like some in St. Paul's days, had still a weakness
wrecked on this rock. The Reformer of Zurich for the old leaven ; then to the two Epistles of
was able , partly by aid of the council, partly by St. Peter, that he might show his audience that
the knowledge he had sown among the people , to St. Peter's authority did not rise above that of St.
steer his vessel safely past it. He managed to Paul, who, on St. Peter 's confession , had fed the
restrain the popular enthusiasm within its legiti. flock equally with himself. Last of all he expounded
mate channel, and he made that a cleansing stream the Epistle to the Hebrews, that he might fix the
which otherwise would have become a devastating eyes of his congregation on a more glorious priest
torrent.
hood than that of the Jews of old , or that of Rome
Faber took care that the indignation his extra in modern times , even the great Monarch and Priest
ordinary arguments had awakened in the Zurichers of his Church , who by his one sole sacrifice had
should not cool down. Like the Parthian, he shot sanctified for ever them that believe.
his arrows in his flight. No sooner was the Vicar- Thus did he place the building which he was
General back in Constance , than he published a labouring to rear on the foundations of the
report of the conference, in which he avenged his prophets and apostles, Jesus Christ himself being
defeat by the most odious and calumnious attacks the chief corner -stone. And now it seemed to
on Zwingle and the men of Zurich. This libel was
answered by certain of the youth of Zurich , in a Ruchat, tom . i., p . 168. Christoffel, pp. 107, 108.
book entitled the Hawk -pluckings. It was “ a sharp D 'Aubigné. vol. üi.. pp. 226, 227 .
polemic, full of biting wit.” It had an immense Christoffel, p. 109.
MONKHOOD ABOLISHED IN ZURICH . 461
him that the time for practical reformation had when spring sets in , so did the monastic asceticism
arrived. of Zurich give way before the warm breath of
This work began at the cathedral, the institution evangelism . Zwingle had shown from the pulpit
with which he himself was connected. The original that these institutions were at war alike
h with s the
letter of grant from Charlemagne limited the num . the eavier of wance
laws of nature, the affections of the heart, and the
ber of canons upon this foundation to thirteen . precepts of Scripture. From the interior of some
There were now more than fifty canons and chap- of these places, cries were heard for deliverance
lains upon it. These had forgotten their vow , at from the conventual vow . The council of Zurich ,
entry, framed in accordance with the founder's 17th June, 1523, granted their wish , by giving
wish , “ to serve God with praise and prayer,” and permission to the nuns to return to society . There
" to supply public worship to the inhabitants of was no compulsion ; the convent door was open ;
hill and valley .” Zwingle was the only worker on the inmates might go or they might remain . Many
this numerous staff'; almost all the rest lived in quitted the cloister , but others preferred to end
downright idleness, which was apt on occasion to their days where they had spent their lives."
degenerate into something worse. The citizens Zwingle next set about paving the way for the
grumbled at the heavy rents and numerous dues dissolution of the monastic houses. He began by
which they paid to men whose services were so ' diffusing rational ideas on the subject in the public
inappreciable. Feeling the justice of these com - mind. A priest, it has been argued , said he, must
plaints, Zwingle devised a plan of reform , which in some way distinguish himself from other men.
the council passed into a law , the canons them . Hemust have a bald pate, or a cowl, or a frock ,
selves concurring. The more irritating of the or wooden shoes, or go bare-foot. No, said
taxes for the ecclesiastical estate were abolished. Zwingle, he who distinguishes himself from others
No one was any longer to be compelled to pay for by such badges but raises against himself the charge
baptism , for extremeunction , for burial, for burial- of hypocrisy. I will tell you Christ's way : it is to
candles, for grave-stones, or for the tolling of the excel in humility and a useful life. With that
great bell of the minster. The canons and chap- ornament we shall need no outward badge ; the very
lains who died off were not to be replaced ; only a children will know us, nay, the devil himself will
competent number were to be retained, and these know us to be none of his. When we lose our
were to serve as ministers of parishes. The amount true worth and dignity, then we garnish ourselves
of benefices set free by the decease of canons was with shorn crowns, frocks, and knotted cords ; and
to be devoted to the better payment of the teachers men admire our clothes, as the children stare at the
in the Gymnasium of Zurich , and the founding of gold -bespangled mule of the Pope. I will tell you
an institution of a higher order for the training of a labour more fruitful both to one's self and to
pastors, and the instruction of youth generally in others than singing matins, aves, and vespers : even
classical learning. to study the Word of God, and not to cease till its
In place of the choir-service, mumbled drowsily light shine into the hearts of men.”
over by the canons, came the “ prophesying ” or “ To snore behind the walls of a cloister,” he
exposition of Scripture (1525), which began at continued , “ is not to worship God. But to visit
eight every morning, and was attended by all the widows and orphans, that is to say, the destitute in
city clergy, the canons, the chaplains, and scholars.3
their affliction , and to keep one's self unspotted
Of the new school mentioned above, Oswald from the world , that is to worship God. The
Myconius remarks that “ had Zwingle survived, it world in this place (James i. 27 ) does not mean
would not have found its equal anywhere." As it hill and valley, field and forest, water , lakes , towns
was, this school was a plant that bore rich fruit and villages, but the lusts of the world , as avarice ,
after Zwingle was in his grave. Of this the best pride, uncleanness , intemperance. These vices are
proof is the glory that was shed on Zurich by the more commonly to be met with within the walls of
numbers of her sons who became illustrious in a convent than in the world abroad. I speak not
Church and State , in literature and science. of envy and hatred which have their habitation
Reform was next applied to the conventual and among this crew , and yet these are all greater sins
monastic establishments. They fell almost without than those they would escape by fleeing to a cloister
a blow . Asmelts the ice on the summit of the Alps . . . . Therefore let the monks lay aside all their
badges, their cowls, and their regulations, and let
1 Ruchat, tom . i., p. 169. them put themselves on a level with the rest of
Ibid ., tom . i., p. 181.
3 Christoffel, pp . 101 – 113. 4 Christoffel, p . 115 .
· 462 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM .
Christendom , and unite themselves to it, if they inclination,” says Christoffel, “ were made to study :
would truly obey the Word of God.” ! the others had to learn a trade. The strangers
In accordance with these rational and Gospel were furnished with the necessary travelling money
principles, came a resolution passed by the council to go to their homes, or to re-enter a cloister in
in December, 1524, to reform themonasteries. their own country ; the frail and aged had a com
It was feared that the monks would offer resis- petent settlement made upon them , with the
tance to the dissolution of their orders, but the
council laid their plans so wisely, that before the
ut the attend
condititheoneattached
condition Reformedthatservice,
Reformed ice, andanwereivesgive.regularly
servthey he wealthtoto
Toffence
fathers knew that their establishments were in none either by their doctrines or lives. The wealth
danger the blow had been struck. On a Saturday of the monasteries was for themost part applied to
el
IN
EDALE
.
TEEN
M
et
til
SWAIN
HOTTINGER DESTROYING THE IMAGE.
afternoon the members of council, accompanied by the relief of the poor or the sick , since forsooth the
delegates from the various guilds, the three city cloisters called themselves the asylums of the poor ;
ministers, and followed by the town militia , pre- and only a small part was reserved for the churches
sented themselves in the Augustine monastery. and the schools."
They summoned the inmates into their presence, “ Every kind of door and street beggary was
and announced to them the resolution of the coun - fórbidden,” adds Christoffel, “ by an order issued in
cil dissolving their order. Taken unawares, and 1525, while at the same time a competent support
awed by the armed men who accompanied the was given to the home and stranger poor. Thus,
council, the monks at once yielded. So quietly fell for example, the poor scholars were not allowed
loindows,as of the
the death -blow on the monkish establishments of anye longer
Zurich." th win athenywindows,as
to beg their living by singing beneath
was customary before the Reforma
“ The younger friars who showed talent and tion . Instead of this a certain number of them
(sixteen from the canton Zurich, four strangers)
i Christoffel, pp. 118, 119. ? Ibid ., p. 119. received daily soup and bread, and two shillings
ZWINGLE IS PUBLICLY MARRIED. 463
weekly. Stranger beggars and pilgrims were in the law , among others Leo Juda, Zwingle's
allowed only to pass through the town, and nowhere friend. Zwingle himself had contracted in 1522 a
to beg.” In short, the entire amount realised by private marriage, according to the custom of the
the dissolution of the monastic orders was devoted times, with Anna Reinhard , widow of John Meyer
to the relief of the poor, the ministry of the sick , von Knonau , a lady of great beauty and of noble
and the advancement of education . The council character. On the 2nd of April, 1524 , he publicly
did not feel at liberty to devote these funds to any celebrated his marriage in the minster church .
merely secular object. “ We shall so act with Zwingle had made no secret whatever of his pri
HILLS
TERRE
M
T
V
11B
-30 DIV 3H
1WIN
CRYPT OF THE CATHEDRAL OP BASLE (1505).
cloister property,” said they, “ that we can neither vate espousals, which were well known to both
be reproached before God nor the world . We friend and foe , but the public acknowledgment of
might not have the sin upon our consciences of them was hailed by the former as marking the
applying the wealth of one single cloister to fill the completion of another stage in the Swiss Reforma
coffers of the State.” tion .3
The abrogation of the law of celibacy fittingly Thus step by step the movement advanced. Its
followed the abolition of the monastic vow . This path was a peaceful one. That changes so great
was essential to the restoration of the ministerial in a country where the government was so liberal,
office to its apostolic dignity and purity. Many of and the expression of public opinion so unrestrained,
the Reformed pastors took advantage of the change should have been accomplished without popular
i Christoffel, pp. 119, 120. 3 See D 'Aubigné, viii. 13 , foot-note, and Christoffel,
2 Ibid ., p. 120, foot-note. pp. 122, 123, on the timeand manner of Zwingle's marriage.
tumults, is truly marvellous. This nust beascribed public opinion, would be willingly obeyed . In this
mainly to the enlightened maxims that guided the way Zwingle had already accomplished a host of
procedure of the Reformer. When Zwingle wished reforms. He had opened the door of the convents;
to do away with any oppressive or superstitious he had suppressed the monastic orders ; he had
observance, he sifted and exposed the false dogma restored hundreds of idle men to useful indus
on which it was founded, knowing that when he try ; he had set free thousands of pounds for the
had overthrown it in the popular belief, it would erection of hospitals and the education of youth ;
soon fall in the popular practice . When public and he had closed a fountain of pollution, only the
sentiment was ripe, the people would go to the more defiling because it issued from the sanctuary,
legislative chamber, and would there find the and restored purity to the altar, in the repeal of
magistrates prepared to put into the form of law the law of clerical celibacy. But the Reformation
what was already the judgment and wish of the did not stop here. More arduous achievements
community ; and thus the law , never outrinning awaited it.
CHAPTER XIV .
DISCUSSION ON IMAGES AND THE MASS.
Christ's Death - Zwingle's Fundamental Position - Iconoclasts - Hottinger - Zwingle ' on Image-worship - Conference
of all Switzerland summoned - 900 Members Assemble- - Preliminary Question - The Church - Discussion on
Images - Books that Teach Nothing - The Mass Discussed - It is Overthrown - Joy of Zwingle - Relics Interred.
The images were still retained in the churches , man ,” says Bullinger, “ and well versed in his
and mass still formed part of the public worship. Bible.” One day as Hottinger stood surveying the
Zwingle now began to prepare the public mind for image, its owner happened to come up, and Hottin .
a reform in both particulars - - to lead men from the ger demanded of him “ when he meant to take that
idol to the one true God ; from the mass which the thing away ?” “ Nobody bids you worship it,
Church had invented to the Supper which Christ Nicholas,” was the reply. “ But don't you know,"
had instituted. The Reformer began by laying said Hottinger , “ that the Word of God forbids
down this doctrine in his teaching, and afterwards images ?” “ If,” replied the owner, “ you feel
more formally in eighteen propositions or conclu - yourself empowered to remove it, do so." Hottinger
sions which he published — “ that Christ,who offered took this for consent, and one morning afterwards,
himself once for all upon the cross, is a sufficient the shoemaker, coming to the spot with a party of
and everlasting Sacrifice for the sins of all who his fellow -citizens, dug a trench round the crucifix ,
believe upon him ; and that, therefore, the mass is when it fell with a crash. A violent outcry was
not a sacrifice , but the memorial of Christ's once raised by the adherents of the old faith against these
offering upon the cross, and the visible seal of our iconoclasts. “ Down with these men !” they shouted ;
redemption through him .” This great truth re. “ they are church -robbers, and deserving of death."
ceived in the public mind, he knew that the mass The commotion was increased by an occurrence
must fall. that soon thereafter happened. Lawrence Meyer,
But all men had not the patience of Zwingle. A Vicar of St. Peter's, remarked one day to a fellow
young priest, Louis Hetzer, of fiery zeal and im - vicar, that when he thought of the people at the
petuous temper, published a small treatise on church-door, pale with hunger, and shivering from
images, which led to an ebullition of popular feeling. want of clothes, he had a great mind to knock
Outside the city gates, at Stadelhofen , stood a
crucifix , richly ornamented , and with a frequent . Christoffel, p . 126. Hottinger was afterwards mar
crowd of devotees before it. It gave annoyance to tyred at Lucerne. But this, and other events outside
not a few of the citizens, and among others to a the canton of Zurich , will come more fully under our
shoemaker , named Nicholas Hottinger, “ a worthy notice when we advance to the second stage of the Swiss
Reformation - that, namely, from the establishment of
the Protestant faith at Zurich , 1525, to the battle of
* Zring.Op., tom .i.,fol.35. Gerdesius, tom .i.,p.280. Kappel, 1531.
ZWINGLE ON IMAGES. 465
down the idols on the altars, and take their silken “ Further," argued Zwingle, “ we burn costly in
robes and costly jewels, and therewith buy food cense before them , as did the heathen to their idols.
and raiment for the poor. On Lady-day, before Here we commit a two-fold sin . If we say that thus
three o 'clock in the morning, the plates, rolls, we honour the saints, it was thus that the heathen
images, and other symbols had all disappeared honoured their idols. If we say that it is God we
from St. Peter's Church . Suspicion , of course, fell honour, it is a form of worship which no apostle or
upon the vicar. The very thing which he had evangelist ever offered to him .”
confessed having a strong desire to do, had been “ Like the heathen , do we not call those images by
done ; and yet it may have been another and not the names of those they represent ? We name one
the vicar who did it, and as the deed could not be piece of carved wood the Mother of God, another
traced to him , nothing more came of it so far as St. Nicholas, a third Holy Hildegarde, and so on.
Meyer was concerned." Have we not heard of men breaking into prisons
Still the incident was followed by important con- and slaying those who had taken away their images ,
sequences. Zwingle had shrunk from the discussion and when asked why they did so , they replied,
of the question of worshipping by images, butnow “Oh, they have burned or stolen our blessed Lord
he felt the necessity of declaring his sentiments. God and the saints ' ? Whom do they callour Lord
He displayed in this, as in every reform which he God ? The idol.”
instituted, great breadth of view , and singular “ Do we not give to these idols what we ought to
moderation in action. As regarded images in give to the poor ? We form them of massy gold
churches, he jocularly remarked that they did not or silver, or we overlay them with some precious
hurt himself, for his short-sightedness prevented him metal. We hang rich clothing upon them , we
seeing them . He was no enemy to pictures and adorn them with chains and precious jewels. We
statues, if used for purposes purely æsthetic. The give to the bedizened image what we ought to give
power of bodying forth beautiful forms, or lofty to the poor, who are the living images of God .”
ideas, in marble or on canvas, was one of the good “ But, say the Papists,” continued Zwingle,
gifts of God. He did not, therefore , condemn the “ images are the books of the simple. Tell me,
glass paintings in the church windows, and similar where hasGod commanded us to learn out of such
ornaments in sacred buildings, which were as little a book ? How comes it that we have all had the
likely to mislead the people as the cock on the cross so many years before us, and yet have not
church steeple, or the statue of Charles the Great learned salvation in Christ, or true faith in
at the minster. And even with regard to images God ? Place a child before an image of the Saviour
which were superstitiously used, he did not approve and give it no instruction. Will it learn from the
their unauthorised and irregular destruction. Let image that Christ suffered for us ? It is said , Nay,
the abuse be exposed and sifted , and it would fall but it must be taught also by theWord. Then the
of itself. “ The child is not let down from the admission is made that it must be instructed not
cradle,” said he, “ till a rest has been presented to by the image, but by the Word .”
it to aid it in walking.” When the knowledge of “ It is next insisted the images incite to devotion.
the one true God has entered the heart , the man But where has God taught us that we should do
will no longer be able to worship by an image. him such honour through idols, and by the per
“ On the other hand,” said he, “ all images must formance of certain gestures before them ? God
be removed which serve the purposes of a supersti- everywhere rejects such worship . . . There
tious veneration, because such veneration is idolatry . fore, while the Gospel is preached , and men are
First of all, where are the images placed ? Why, instructed in the pure doctrine, the idols ought to
on the altar, before the eyes of the worshippers. be removed that men may not fall back into the
Will the Romanists permit a man to stand on the same errors, for as storks return to their old nests,
altar when mass is being celebrated ? Not they. so do men to their old errors, if the way to them :
Images, then , are higher than men, and yet they be not barred ."?
have been cut out of a willow -tree by the hands of
men . But further, the worshippers bow to them ,
and bare the head before them . Is not that the So? Ruchat, tom . i., p . 183. Christoffel, pp . 126 - 130 .
did Zwingle, at the beginning of the sixteenth
very act which God has forbidden ? Thou shalt century, reason on the question of the worshipping of
not bow down unto them .' Consider if this be not God by images. He was followed in the same line of
argument by the French and English divines who rose
open idolatry.” later in the same century. And at this day the Pro
testant controversialist can make nise of but the same
i Christoffel, p. 126 . weapons that Zwingle employed .
To calm the public excitement, which was daily htion
tive
adwaiof Rome, ich
beliehand recover hem *the rights and
the er fforor tthem
growing stronger , the magistrates of Zurich re- liberties in which the Scriptures had vested the
solved to institute another disputation in October primitive believers, but of which the Papal See
of that same year, 1523. had despoiled them ."
The two points which were to be discussed were The discussion on images was now opened. The
Images and the Mase. It was meant that this thesis which the Reformer undertook to maintain ,
convocation should be even more numerous than and for which he had prepared the public mind of
the former. The Bishops of Constance, Coire, and Zurich by the teachings stated above, was " that
Basle were invited . The governments of the twelve the use of images in worship is forbidden in the
cantons were asked to send each a deputy. When Holy Scriptures, and therefore ought to be done
the day arrived, the 26th of October , not fewer than away with .” This battle was an easy one, and
900 persons met in the Council Hall. None of the Zwingle left it almost entirely in the hands of Leo
bishops were present. Of the cantons only two, Juda. The latter established the proposition in a
Schaffhausen and St. Gall, sent deputies. Never - clear and succinct manner by proofs from the Bible.
theless, this assembly of 900 included 350 priests. At this stage the combat was like to have come to
At a table in the middle sat Zwingle and Leo an end for want of combatants. The opposite
Juda, with the Bible in the original tongues open party were most unwilling to descend into the
before them . They were appointed to defend the arena. One and then another was called on by
theses, which all were at liberty to impugn . name, but all hung back. The images were in an
There was a preliminary question, Zwingle felt, evil case ; they could not speak for themselves, and
which met them on the threshold : namely, what their advocates seemed as dumb as they. At
authority or right had a conference like this to length one ventured to hint that “ one should not
determine points of faith and worship ? This had take the staff out of the hand of the weak Christian ,
been the exclusive prerogative of Popes and Coun - on which he leans, or one should give him another,
cils for ages. If the Popes and Councils were right, else he falls to the ground.” “ Had useless parsons
then the assembly now met was an anarchical one : and bishops," replied Zwingle , “ zealously preached
if the assembly was right, then Popes and Councils the Word of God , as has been inculcated upon
had been guilty of usurpation by monopolising a them , it were not come to this, that the poor igno
power which belonged to more than themselves. rant people, unacquainted with the Word, must
In Polis unace
This led Zwingle to develop his theory of the learn Christ only through paintings on the wall or
Church ; whence came she ? what were her powers, wooden figures.” The debate, if such it could be
and of whom was she composed ? called , and the daylightwere ending together. The
The doctrine now propounded for the first time president, Hoffmeister of Schaffhausen , rose. “ The
by Zwingle, and which has come since to be the Almighty and Everlasting God be praised,” said
doctrine held on this head by a great part of Re- he, “ that he hath vouchsafed us the victory ."
formed Christendom , was, in brief, that the Church Then turning to the councillors of Zurich, he ex
is created by the Word ofGod ; that her one and horted them to remove the images from the churches,
only Head is Christ ; that the fountain of her laws, and declared the sitting at an end. “ Child 's play,"
and the charter of her rights, is the Bible ; and said Zwingle, “ this has been ; now comes a weightier
that she is composed of all those throughout the and more importantmatter."
world who profess the Gospel. That matter was the mass. Truly was it styled
This theory carried in it a great ecclesiastical “ weightier." For more than three centuries it had
revolution. It struck a blow at the root of the held its place in the veneration of the people, and
Papal supremacy. It laid in the dust the towering had been the very soul of their worship . Like a
fabric of the Roman hierarchy. The community skilful and wary general, Zwingle had advanced his
at Zurich , professing their faith in the Lord Jesus attacking lines nearer and nearer that gigantic for
and their obedience to his Word, Zwingle held to tress againstwhich he was waging successfulbattle.
be the Church — the Church of Zurich — and he Hehad assailed first the outworks ; now he was to
maintained that it had a right to order all things strike a blow at the inner citadel. Should it fall, he
conformable to the Bible. Thus did he withdraw would regard the conquest as complete,and thewhole
the flock over which he presided from the jurisdic- of the contested territory as virtually in his hands.
i Sleidan, bk . iv ., p . 66 . 4 Christoffel, p . 132.
2 Gerdesius, tom . i., p. 290 . 5 Gerdesius, tom . i., p. 291. Christoffel, p. 133.
? Richat, tom . i., pp . 182,183. 6 Christoffel, pp. 132 - 135 .
SUCCESSFUL ISSUE OF ZWINGLE'S PROPOSED REFORMS. 467
On the 27th of September, the discussion on sacrifice, replied that they could not. The heads
the mass was opened. We have given above of the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustines
Zwingle's fundamental proposition, which was to of Zurich said that they had nothing to oppose
this effect, that Christ's death on the cross is an to the theses of Zwingle. A few of the country
all-sufficient and everlasting sacrifice, and that priests offered objections, but of so frivolous a
therefore the Eucharist is not a sacrifice, but a kind that it was felt they did not merit the brief
memorial. “ He considered the Supper to be a refutation they received . Thus was the mass over
remembrance instituted by Christ, at which he will thrown.
be present, and whereby he, by means of his This unanimity deeply touched the hearts of all.
word of promise and outward signs, will make the Zwingle attempted to express his joy , but sobs
blessing of his death, whose inward power is eternal, choked his utterance. Many in that assembly
to be actually effective in the Christian for the wept with him . The grey -headed warrior Hoff
strengthening and assurance of faith.” ] This cut meister, turning to the council, said , “ Ye, my lords
the ground from beneath “ transubstantiation " and of Zurich, ought to take up the Word of God
the “ adoration of the Host." Zwingle led the boldly ; God the Almighty will prosper you there
debate. He expressed his joy at the decision of in ." These simple words of the veteran soldier,
the conference the day before on the subject of whose voice had so often been heard rising high
images , and went on to expound and defend his above the storm of battle, made a deep impression
views on the yet graver matter which it was now upon the assembly .'
called to consider. “ If the mass is no sacrifice,” No sooner had Zwingle won this victory than ho
said Stienli of Schaffhausen, “ then have all our found that he must defend it from the violence of
fathers walked in error and been damned !” “ If those who would have thrown it away. Hemight
our fathers have erred ,” replied Zwingle, “ what have obtained from the council an order for the
then ? Is not their salvation in the hands of God, instant removal of the images, and the instant sup
like that of all men who have erred and sinned ? pression of the mass, but with his characteristic
Who authorises us to anticipate the judgment of caution he feared precipitation. He suggested that
God ? The authors of these abuses will, without both should be suffered to continue a short while
doubt, be punished by God ; but who is damned, longer, that timemight be given him more fully to
and who is not, is the prerogative of God alone to prepare the public mind for the change. Mean
decide. Let us not interfere with the judgments while , the council ordered that the images should
of God . It is sufficiently clear to us that they be covered and veiled ,” and that the Supper
have erred.” ? When he had finished, Dr. Vadian, should be dispensed in bread and wine to those
who was president for the day, demanded if there who wished it in that form . It was also enacted
was any one present prepared to impugn from that public processions of religious bodies should
Scripture the doctrine which had been maintained be discontinued , that the Host should not be
in their hearing. He was answered only with carried through the streets and highways, and that
silence. He put the question a second time. The the relics and bones of saints should be decently
greater number expressed their agreement with buried ."
Zwingle. The Abbots of Kappel and Stein “ re
no." The Provost of the Chapter of 3 Ruchat, tom . i., p. 184 . .
4 Gerdesius, tom . i., pp . 291, 292. Christoffel, pp .
Zurich quoted in defence of the mass a passage 137 – 139 .
from the apocryphal Epistle of St. Clement and 5 Ibid ., tom . i., pp. 292, 293. Christoffel, pp. 142, 143.
St. James. Brennwald , Provost of Embrach , They boasted having in the cathedral the bodies of
avowed himself of Zwingle's sentiments. The When St. Felix and St. Regulus, martyrs of the Theban legion .
their coffins were opened they were found to con
Canons of Zurich were divided in opinion . The tain some bones mixed with pieces of charcoaland brick .
chaplains of the city , on being asked whether they The bones were committed to the earth . “ Nevertheless,"
could prove from Scripture that the mass was a says Ruchat, “ the Papists in latter times have given out
that the bodies of the martyrs were carried to Ursern , in
the canton of Uri, since the Reformation , and they were
I Dorner, Hist. Prot. Theol., vol. i., p. 309. exhibited there on the 11th April, 1688 .” (Ruchat, tom . i.,
Christoffel, p. 137. p . 193.)
am
ELEFAN
BENG
TELLI
104
WO
U21
ht
Bar
VIEW OF LAKE ZUG.
CHAPTER XV.
ESTABLISHMENT OF PROTESTANTISM
IN ZURICH. sle.
TheGreater
AbductionReforms- Purification
of the Pastor of Burgof– the
TheChurches
Wirths— -Their
Threatening Messageof
Condemnation the Forest- Cantons
and Execution Zwingle -Zurich
Demands's the
Reply
Non
celebration of the Mass - Am -Gruet Opposes - Zwingle's Argument- Council's Edict - A Dream - The Passover
-First -Celebration
Synods
the Supper
Prosperity ofof Zurich .
in Zurich - Its Happy Influence- Socialand Moral Regulations- Two Annual
At last the hour arrived to carry out the greater tells us, witnessed the act with tears, deeming it
reforms. On the 20th of June, 1524, a procession a fearful impiety. “ Some of these people," says
composed of twelve councillors,the three city pas- Christoffel, “ hoped that the images would of their
tors, the city architect, smiths, lock -smiths, joiners own accord return to their vacant places, and
been seen traversing the
and masons, might, andhavevisiting this proof of their
astound the iconoclasts by images,
streets of Zurich its several churches. miraculous power.” As the instead of re
On entering, they locked the door from the inside, mounting to their niches, lay broken and shivered,
took down the crosses, removed the images,defaced they lost credit with their votaries, and so passed
the frescoes, and re-stained the walls. “ The re- were cured of their superstition. The affair
many
formed,” says Bullinger, “ were glad , accounting off without the least disturbance. In all the
this proceeding an act of worship done to the true
God.” But the superstitious, the same chronicler Christoffel, p. 143. See also foot-note.
REMOVAL OF IMAGES IN ZURICH. 469
country churches under the jurisdiction of Zurich, the “ ampler ether and the diviner air” of the
the images were removed with the same order and Reformed doctrine, which condemned, in unmis
wood was burned, and
quiet as in the capital. The robes that adorned takable language, the use of graven images for
the costly ornaments andand the
rich
proceeds devoted to any purpose whatever. The voice of Scripture
the idols were sold, was plain on the subject, and the Protestants of
the support ofthe poor,“ those images of Christ.” Zurich — now that the scales had fallen from their
G TAS
P
GADO
N
GALERIJA
HI
THUR 41
CELEBRATION OF THE LORD'S SUPPER IN THE PROTESTANT FORM BY THE ZURICHERS.

The act was not without significance ; nay, eyes— saw that they were to worship God, and
rather, rightly considered, it was among the more him only, in spirit and in truth , in obedience to
important reformations that had been hitherto the commandments of the Almighty, and in ac
brought to pass in the canton. It denoted the cordance with the teaching of Jesus Christ.
emancipation of the people from the bonds of a Again there came a pause. The movement
degrading superstition. Men and women breathed rested for a little at the point it had reached . The
interval was filled up with portentous events.
Sleidan, bk . iv., p. 73. Zwing. Op., tom . i., fol. 261. The Diet of the Swiss Confederation, which met
Gerdesius, tom . i., p. 294, also p. 305. Christoffel, pp. that year at Zug, sent a deputation to Zurich to
143, 144. say that they were resolved to crush the new doc
40
trine by tforce
st in aand
heir pofersiarms, nd tthat
he they would hold to-day go to him who is our Father, and the Father
all who should persist in these innovations answer of all believers, and with him we shall enjoy an
able with their goods, their liberties, and their lives. everlasting life." Being come to the place of execu
Zurich bravely replied that in the matter of religion tion , they mounted the scaffold with firm step, and
they must follow the Word of God alone. When bidding each other farewell till they should again
this answer was carried back to the Diet the meet in the eternal mansions, they bared their
members trembled with rage. The fanaticism of necks, and the executioner struck . The spectators
the cantons of Lucerne, Schwitz , Uri, Unterwalden, could not refrain from shedding floods of tears
Friburg, and Zug was rising from one day to when they saw their heads rolling on the scaffold."
another, and soon blood would be spilt. Zwingle was saddened but not intimidated by
One night Jean Oexlin , the pastor of Burg , near these events. He saw in them no reason why he
Stein on the Rhine, was dragged from his bed and should stop, but on the contrary a strong reason
carried away to prison. The signal-gun was fired , why he should advance in the movement of Re
the alarm -bells were rung in the valley, and the formation . Rome shall pay dear for the blood she
parishioners rose in mass to rescue their beloved has spilt ; so Zwingle resolves ; he will abolish the
pastor.” Somemiscreants mixed in the crowd, riot mass, and complete the Reformation of Zurich.
ing ensued, and the Carthusian convent of Ittingen On the 11th of April, 1525 , the three pastors of
was burned to the ground. Among those who had Zurich appeared before the Council of Two Hundred ,
been attracted by the noise of the tumult, and who and demanded that the Senate should enact that at
had followed the crowd which sought to rescue the the approaching Easter festival the celebration of
pastor of Burg, carried away by the officers of a the Lord's Supper should take place according to its
bailiff whose jurisdiction did not extend to the original institution. The Under-Secretary of State,
village in which he lived, were an old man named Am -Gruet, started up to do battle in behalf of the
Wirth, Deputy-Bailiff of Stammheim , and his two threatened Sacrament. “ This is my body,'” said
sons,Adrian and John , preachers of the Gospel,and he, quoting the words of Christ, which he insisted
distinguished by the zeal and courage with which were a plain and manifest assertion that the bread
they had prosecuted that good work . They had for was the real body of Christ. Zwingle replied that
some timebeen objects of dislike for their Reformed Scripture must be interpreted by Scripture , and
sentiments. Apprehended by the orders of the reminded him of numerous passages where is has
Diet, they were charged with the outrage which the force of signifies, and among others he quoted
they had striven to the utmost of their power to the following : " The seed is the Word,” “ The field
prevent. Their real offence was adherence to the is the world ,” “ I am the Vine," " The Rock vas
Reformed faith . They were taken to Baden, put Christ.” 6 The secretary objected that these pas
to the torture, and condemned to death by the sages were taken from parables and proved nothing.
Diet. The younger son was spared , but the father No, it was replied, the phrases occur after the
and the elder son , along with Burkhard Rueti- parable has ended , and the figurative language been
mann, Deputy-Bailiff of Nussbaumen,were ordered put aside. Am -Gruet stood alone. The council
for execution . were already convinced : they ordered that the mass
While on their way to the place where they should cease, and that on the following day, Maun
were to die, the Cure of Baden addressed them , day Thursday, the Lord's Supper should be cele
bidding them fall on their knees before the image in brated after the apostolic institution.”
front of a chapel they were at the moment passing. The scene in which Zwingle had been so intently
“ Why should I pray to wood and stone ?" said the occupied during the day, presented itself to him
younger Wirth ; " my God is the living God, to when asleep. He thought that he was again in the
him only will I pray. Be you yourself converted Council Chamber disputing with Am -Gruet. The
to him , for you have not worn the grey frook longer secretary was urging his objection ,and Zwinglewas
than I did ; and you too must die.” It so hap- unable to repel it. Suddenly , a figure stood before
pened that the priest died within the year.3 Turning him and said , “ O , slow of heart to understand,
to his father, the younger Wirth said , “ My dear why don't you reply to him by quoting Exodus,
father, from this moment you shall no longer be my
father, and I shall no longer be your son ; but we 4 Ruchat, tom . i., p. 221. Sleidan, bk. iv., p . 77. Chris
shall be brothers in Jesus Christ, for the love of toffel, pp . 214221.
whom we are now to lay down our lives . We shall Gerdesius, tom . i., p. 318.
6 Ruchat, tom . i., p. 245.
i Sleidan, bk. iv., p . 82. Gerdesius, tom . i., p. 321.
1 Ruchat, tom . i., p . 217. ? Ibid., p . 218 . 3 Ibid ., p . 221. Christoffel, p . 146 .
COMPLETION OF THE REFORMATION IN ZURICH . 471
chap. xii., verse 11 — Ye shall eat it (the lamb] in Church unceasingly quarrelled with each other ; the
haste, it is the Lord's Passover ' ?" I Roused from brotherly love of the first centuries of Christianity
sleep by the appearance of the figure , he leaped returned to the Church with the Gospel. Enemies
out of bed,turned up the passage in the Septuagint renounced old deep-rooted hatred, and embraced in
and found there the same word dori (is ) used with an ecstacy of love and a sense of common brother
regard to the institution of the Passover which is hood, by the partaking in common of the hallowed
employed in reference to the institution of the bread. “ Peace has her habitation in our town,'
Supper. All are agreed that the lamb was simply wrote Zwingle to (Ecolampadius ; ‘ no quarrel, no
the symbol and memorial of the Passover : why hypocrisy, no envy, no strife. Whence can such
should the bread be more in the Supper ? The two union come but from the Lord, and our doctrine,
are but one and the same ordinance under different which fills us with the fruits of peace and piety ?!” 4
forms. The following day Zwingle preached from This ecclesiastical Reformation brought a social
the passage in Exodus, arguing that that exegesis one in its wake. Protestantism was a breath of
must be at fault which finds two opposite meanings healing — a stream of cleansing in all countries to
in the same word , used , as it here is, in the same which it came. By planting a renovating principle
form of expression, and recording the institution of in the individual heart, Zwingle had planted a
the same ordinance. If the lamb was simply a principle of renovation at the heart of the com
symbol in the Passover, the bread can be nothing munity ; but he took care to nourish and conserve
more in the Supper ; but if the bread in the Supper that principle by outward arrangements. Mainly
was Christ , the lamb in the Passover was Jehovah. through his influence with the Great Council, aided
So did Zwingle argue in his sermon, to the con - by the moral influence the Gospel exercised over its
viction of many of his hearers. members, a set of regulations and laws were framed ,
In giving an account of the occurrence after- calculated to repress immorality and promote virtue
wards, Zwingle playfully remarked that he could in the canton. The Sunday and marriage, those
not tell whether the figure was white or black.? twin pillars of Christian morality, Zwingle re
His opponents, however , had no difficulty in deter - stored to their original dignity. Rome had made
mining that the figure was black, and that Zwingle the Sunday simply a Church festival : Zwingle
received his doctrine from the devil. replaced it on its first basis - the Divine enact
supper was torche Duntestant form . The
On the Thursday of Easter-week the Sacrament ment ; work was forbidden upon
of the Supper was for the first time dispensed in allowed , specially in harvest-time, in certain great
it, although
exigenci
altar was replaced by a table covered with a white were to esjudge.
of Marriage,
h whic we
Zurich according to the Protestant form . The exigencies of which the whole Christian community
which Rome had dese
cloth , on which were set wooden plates with crated by her doctrine of " holy celibacy,” and by
unleavened bread, and wooden goblets filled with making it a Sacrament, in order, it was pretended,
wine. The pyxes were disused , for, said they, to cleanse it, Zwingle re-vindicated by placing it
Christ commanded “ the elements ” not to be en - upon its original institution as an ordinance of
closed but distributed . The altars, mostly of God, and in itself holy and good. All questions
marble, were converted into pulpits, from which touching marriage he made subject to a small
the Gospel was preached . The service began with special tribunal. The confessional was abolished.
a sermon ; after sermon, the pastor and deacons took “ Disclose your malady," said the Reformer, “ to
their place behind the table ; the words of institu - the Physician who alone can heal it.” Most of
tion (1 Cor. xi. 20 — 29) were read ; prayers were the holy -days were abrogated. All, of whatever
offered , a hymn was sung in responses, a short ad - rank , were to attend church , at least once, on
dress was delivered ; the bread and wine were then Sunday. Gambling, profane swearing, and all
carried round, and the communieants partook of excess in eating and drinking were prohibited under
them kneeling on their footstools." penalties. To support this arrangement the small
“ This celebration of the Lord's Supper," says inns were suppressed, and drink was not allowed to
Christoffel, “ was accompanied with blessed results. be sold after nine o'clock in the evening. Grosser
An altogether new love to God and the brethren immoralities and sins were visited with excommuni
sprang up, and the words of Christ received spirit cation , which was pronounced by a board of moral
and life. The different orders of the Roman control, composed of the marriage-judges, the
magistrates of the district, and the pastors — a
1 Ruchat, tom . i., p. 246. Gerdesius, tom . i., p. 322. commingling of civil and ecclesiastical authority
? " Ater an albus, nihil memini, somnium enim narro."
(Gerdesius, tom . i., p . 322.)
3 Ruchat, tom . i., p. 247. Christoffel, p . 149. 4 Christoffel, pp. 147, 148.
472 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM ,
not wholly in harmony with the theoretic views of great spiritual pioneer gone before. Its beneficent
the Reformer, but he deemed that the peculiar results were speedily apparent. “ Under its pro
relations of the Church to the State made this teoting and sheltering influence,” says Christoffel,
arrangement necessary and justifiable for the time. “ there grew up and flourished those manly and
Above all he was anxious to guard the morals hardy virtues which so richly adorned the Church
of the pastors, as a means of preserving untarnished of the Reformation at its commencement." An era
the grandeur and unimpaired the power of the Word of prosperity and renown now opened on Zurich .
preached , knowing that it is in the Church usually Order and quiet were established , the youth were
that the leprosy of national declension first breaks instructed, letters were cultivated,arts and industry
out. An act of council, passed in 1528, appointed flourished , and the population, knit together in the
two synodal assemblies to be held each year - one in bonds of a holy faith, dwelt in peace and love.
spring, the other in autumn. All the pastors were They were exempt from the terrible scourge which
to convene, each with one or two members of his so frequently desolated the Popish cantons around
congregation . On the part of the council the them . Zwingle had withdrawn them from the
synod was attended by the burgomaster, six coun- “ foreign service," so demoralising to their pa
cillors, and the town-clerk . The court mainly occu- triotism and their morality, and while the other
pied itself with inquiries into the lives, the doctrine, cantons were shedding their blood on foreign
and the occupations of the individual pastors, with fields, the inhabitants of the canton of Zurich
the state of morals in their several parishes.? were prosecuting the labours of peace, enriching
Thus a vigorous discipline was exercised over all their territory with their activity and skill, and
classes, lay and cleric. This régime would never making its capital, Zurich , one of the lights of
have been submitted to, had not the Gospel as a Christendom .
Book Ainth .
HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM FROM THE DIET OF WORMS, 1521, TO THE AUGSBURG
CONFESSION , 1530 .
CHAPTER 1.
THE GERMAN NEW TESTAMENT.
Man Silenced - God about to Speak - Political Complications - Truth in the Midst of Tempests - Luther in the Warte
burg - Lessons taught him - Solyman - Relation of the Turk to theReformation - Leo X . Dies -- Adrian of Utrecht
What the Romans think of their New Pope - Adrian 's Reforms— Luther's Idleness - Commences the Translation
of theNew Testament, Beauty of the Translation - A Second Revelation - Phantoms.
THE history of the Reformation in Germany once has landed us, we feel, on the threshold of a new
more claims our consideration. The great move development of the grand drama. On both sides a
ment of the human soul from bondage, which so position has been taken up from which there is no
grandly characterised the sixteenth century, we retreat ; and a collision , in which one or other of the
have already traced in its triumphant march from parties must perish , now appears inevitable. The
the cell of the Augustine monk to the foot of the new forces of light and liberty, speaking through the
throne of Charles V ., from the door of the Schloss- mouth of their chosen champion , have said , “ Here
kirk at Wittemberg to the gorgeous hall of Worms, we stand, we cannot go back .” The old forces of
crowded with the powers and principalities of superstition and despotism , interpreting themselves
Western Europe. through their representatives, the Pope and the
The moment is one of intensest interest, for it emperor, have said with equal decision , “ You shall
not advance."
i Christoffel, pp. 151 – 165. The hour is come, and the decisive battle which
THE AGE OF GREAT MONARCHS. 473
is to determine what awaits the world , liberty or policy moved him , to Rome and to the Refor
bondage, cannot be postponed. The lists have been mation. The wise Frederick was exercising kingly
set, the combatants have taken their places, the sig - power in Saxony, and by his virtues earning a last
nal has been given ; another moment and we shall ing fame for himself, and laying the foundation of
hear the sound of the terrible blows, as they echo lasting power for his house. The elegant, self
and re-echo over the field on which the champions indulgent, and sceptical Leo X . was master of the
close in deadly strife. But instead of the shock of ceremonies at Rome. Asia owned the sceptre of
battle, suddenly a deep stillness descends upon the Solyman the Magnificent. Often were his hordes
scene, and the combatants on both sides stand seen hovering, like a cloud charged with lightning,
motionless. He who looketh on the sun and he on the frontier of Christendom . When a crisis
shineth not has issued his command to suspend the arose in the affairs of the Reformation, and the
conflict. As of old “ the cloud ” has removed and kings obedient to the Roman See had united their
come between the two hosts, so that they come not swords to strike, and with blow so decisive that
near the one to the other . they should not need to strike a second time, the
But why this pause ? If the battle had been Turk, obeying One whom he knew not, would
joined that moment, the victory, according to every straightway present himself on the eastern limits
reckoning of human probabilities, would have re- of Europe, and in so menacing an attitude, that the
mained with the old powers. The adherents of swords unsheathed against the poor Protestants had
the new were not yet ready to go forth to war. to be turned in another quarter. The Turk was
They were as yet immensely inferior in numbers . the lightning-rod that drew off the tempest. Thus
Their main unfitness, however, did not lie there , but did Christ cover his little flock with the shield of
in this, that they lacked their weapons. The arms the Moslem .
of the other were always ready. They leaned upon The material resources at the command of these
the sword, which they had already unsheathed. potentates were immense. They were the lords of
The weapon of the other was knowledge - -the the nations and the leaders of the armies of Chris
Sword of the Spirit , which is the Word of God. tendom . It was in the midst of these ambitions
That sword had to be prepared for them : the Bible and policies, that it seemed good to the Great
had to be translated ; and when fully equipped with Disposer that the tender plant of Protestantism
this armour, then would the soldiers of the Reforma- should grow up. One wonders that in such a posi
tion go forth to battle, prepared to withstand all the tion it was able to exist a single day. The Truth
hardships of the campaign , and finally to come took root and flourished, so to speak , in the midst
victorious out of the “ great fight of afflictions" of a hurricane. How was this ? Where had it
which they were to be called, though not just yet, defence ? The very passions that warred like great
to wage. tempests around it, became its defence. Its foes
If, then , the great voice which had spoken in were made to check and counter-check each other.
Germany, and to which kings, electoral princes, Their furious blows fell not upon the truth at
dukes , prelates , cities and universities, had listened, which they were aimed , and which they were
and the mighty echoes of which had come back meant to extirpate ; they fell upon themselves.
from far-distant lands, was now silent, it was that Army was dashed against army; monarch fell before
a Greater voice might be heard. Men must be pre - monarch ; one terrible tempest from this quarter
pared for that voice. All meaner sounds must be met another terrible tempest from the opposite
hushed. Man had spoken, but in this silence God quarter, and thus the intrigues and assaults of kings
himself was to speak to men, directly from his and statesmen became a bulwark around the prin
own Word a. nd of mave of greatme on the more ciple which it was the object of these mighty ones to
Let us first cast a glance around on the political undermine and destroy. Now it is the arm of her
world . It was the age of greatmonarchs. Master great persecutor, Charles V ., that is raised to defend
of Spain , and of many other realms in both the the Church , and now it is beneath the shadow of
Eastern and the Western world , and now also Solyman the Turk that she finds asylum . How
Eastern
possessor of the imperial diadem , was the taci- visible the hand of God ! How marvellous his
turn , ambitious, plodding, and politic Charles V . providence !
Francis I., the most polished, chivalrous, and Luther never wore sword in his life, except
war-like knight of his time, governed France. when he figured as Knight George in the Wart
The self-willed , strong-minded , and cold -hearted burg, and yet he never lacked sword to defend
Henry VIII. was swaying the sceptre in Eng- him when he was in danger. Hewas dismissed from
land, and dealing alternate blows, as humour and the Diet at Worms with two powerful weapons
unsheathed above his head — the excommunication Other lessons was Luther here taught. The
of the Pope and the ban of the emperor. One is work appointed him demanded a nature strong,
enough surely ; with both swords bared against impetuous, and fearless ; and such was the tem
him , how is it possible that he can escape de- perament with which he had been endowed. His
struction ? Yet amid the hosts of his enemies, besetting sin was to under-estimate difficulties, and
when they are pressing round him on every to rush on , and seize the end before it wasmatured.
side, and are ready to swallow him up, he How different from the prudent, patient, and cir
maa
UU
Ce
UUUU
កកកាកាតាកាកាត់កាកាកគតិ
JUUU
D
C
SMAAMCanon
G
HENRY VIII. OF ENGLAND.

(From a Painting in the RoyalGallery at Kensington.)
suddenly becomes invisible ; he passes through the cumspect Zwingle ! The Reformer of Zurich never
midst of them , and enters unseen the doors of his moved a step till he had prepared his way by
hiding-place. instructing the people, and carrying their under
This was Luther's second imprisonment. It was standings and sympathies with him in the changes
a not less essential part of his training for his great he proposed for their adoption . The Reformer of
work than was his first. In his cell at Erfurt he Wittemberg, on the other hand, in his eager
had discovered the foundation on which, as a sinner, ness to advance, would not only defy the strong,
he must rest. In his prison of the Wartburg he he at times trampled upon the weak, from lack of
is shown the one foundation on which the Church sympathy and considerateness for their infirmities.
must be reared — the Bible . He assumed that others would see the point as
A BENEFICIAL PAUSE. 475
cthathad himselfsaw
learly asheattended him so astonishingsuccess
itf.ar The— the Pope defied,the must distilThisas thedew.
needed. enforced It waslightthattheworld
pause profitable
wasmoreto themove
eniperor vanquished,and nations rallying to him — to the Reformer, and more profitable
B
C
S
N
SE
YA
O
ST
N
STRE
VIEW IN THURINGIA - THE WARTBURG IN THE DISTANCE.

wasdeveloping
neglectofthose these strong characteristics
gentler,butmore efficacious tquali-
o the ment,
labour thanwhichtheevenbusiesttheandgreatmostpowers
successfulof Luther
yearof
tthati
ies ,withoutwhich enduring success
n which he wasengaged in a work Thelike hcouldis ownhaveachieved.
is unattainable. heart, and distinguishHewas nowbetweenled towhatexaminehad
servant of the Lord must not strive. His speech been theworkingofpassion,andwhat theworking
of the Spirit of God . Above all he was led to left Germany not a little disgusted at finding its
the Bible. His theological knowledge was thus ex - princes so little obsequious to his will, and so much
tended and ripened . His nature was sanctified disposed to fetter him in the exercise of his imperial
and enriched , and if his impetuosity was abated , prerogative.
his real strength was in the same proportion in Matters were still more embroiled by the war
creased. The study of the Word of God revealed that nextbroke out between Charles and Francis I.
to him likewise, what he was apt in his conflicts The opening scenes of the conflict lay in the
to overlook , that there was an edifice to be built Pyrenees, but the campaign soon passed into Italy,
up as well as one to be pulled down, and that this and the Pope joining his arms with those of the
was the nobler work of the two, emperor, the French lost the Duchies of Parma,
His trium , which the Wartbum was not the
The sword of the emperor was not the only
peril from which the Wartburg shielded Luther,
Piacenza, and Milan, which they had held for six
years, and the misfortune was crowned by their
His triumph at Worms had placed him on a pin - being driven out of Lombardy. And now came
nacle where he stood in the sight of all Christendom . sorrow to the Pope ! Great was the joy of Leo X .
He was in danger of becoming giddy and falling at the expulsion of the French. His arms had
into an abyss, and dragging down with him the triumphed, and Parma and Piacenza had been
cause he represented. Therefore was he suddenly restored to the ecclesiastical State. He received
withdrawn into a deep silence , where the plaudits the tidings of this good fortune at his country seat
with which the world was ringing could not reach of Malliana. Coming as they did on the back of the
him ; where he was alone with God ; and where he emperor's edict proscribing Luther, they threw him
could not but feel his insignificance in the presence into an ecstacy of delight. The clouds that had
of the EternalMajesty. lowered upon his house appeared to be dispersing.
While Luther retires from view in the Wartburg, “ He paced backwards and forwards, between the
let us consider what is passing in the world . All window and a blazing hearth , till deep into the night
its movements revolve around the one great central -- it was the month of November.” He watched
movement, which is Protestantism . The moment the public rejoicings in honour of the victory. He
Luther entered within the gates of the Wartburg hurried off to Rome, and reached it before the fêtes
the political sky became overcast, and dark clouds there in course of celebration had ended. Scarce had
rolled up in every quarter. First Solyman, “ whom he crossed the threshold of his palace when he was
thirteen battles had rendered the terror of Ger- seized with illness. He felt that the hand of death
many,” ! made a sudden irruption into Europe. He was upon him . Turning to his attendants he said,
gained many towns and castles , and took Belgrade, “ Pray for me, that I may yet make you all happy.”
the bulwark of Hungary, situated at the confluence The malady ran its course so rapidly that he died
of the Danube and the Save. The States of the without the Sacrament. The hour of victory was
Empire, stricken with fear, hastily assembled at suddenly changed into the hour of death , and the
Nuremberg to concert measures for the defence of feux-de-joie were succeeded by funeral bells and
Christendom , and for the arresting of the vic- mourning plumes. Leo had reigned with magnifi
torious march of its terrible invader. This was cence — he died deeply in debt, and was buried amid
work enough for the princes. The execution of manifest contempt. The Romans, says Ranke,
the emperor's edict against Luther, with which they never forgave him “ for dying without the Sacra
had been charged, must lie over till they had found ments. They pursued his corpse to its grave with
means of compelling Solyman and his hordes to insult and reproach , Thou hast crept in like a
return to their own land. Their swords were about fox,' they exclaimed , like a lion hast thou ruled us,
to be unsheathed above Luther's head, when lo , and like a dog hast thou died ."" 5
some hundred thousand Turkish scimitars are un - '
sheathed above theirs ! 3 Robertson,Hist. of Charles V., vol. i., p .115; Edin.,1829.
While this danger threatened in the East,another 4 Ranke, Hist. of Popes, vol. i., p. 66 ; Bohn's ed., 1847.
suddenly appeared in the South . News came from Ibid ., vol. i., p. 67. “ He has died like a heretic
without confession and without the Sacrament," said
Spain that seditions had broken out in that country the
in the emperor's absence ; and Charles V ., leaving madepopulace. Thedistich
the following celebrated
upon Italian poet, Sannazaro,
the occurrence :
Luther for the time in peace, was compelled to “ Sacra, sub extremâ, si forte requiris, hora,
hurry homeby sea in order to compose the dissen Cur Leo non potuit sumere ? Vendiderat.”
sions thatdistracted his hereditary dominions. He
(Are you curious to know why Pope Leo did not receive
the Sacrament in his last hour ? The reason is, he had
I Müller, vol. iii., p. 55. 2 Sleidan, p . 51. sold it .)
POPE ADRIAN VI. 477
The nephew of the deceased Pope, Cardinal Giu - there were prayers and beads. Hewill be the ruin
lio de Medici, aspired to succeed his uncle. But of us, said the Romans of their new Pope.3
a more powerful house than that of Medici now The humble, pious, sincere Adrian aspired to
claimed to dispose of the tiara . The monarchs of restore, not to overthrow the Papacy. His pre
Spain were more potent factors in European decessor had thought to extinguish Luther's move
affairs than the rich merchant of Florenoe. The mont by the sword ; the Hollander judged that he
conclave had lasted long, and Giulio de Medici, had found a better way. He proposed to suppress
desparity, and proposed the tutor, should be was un. heresy
despairing of his own election , made a virtue of one Reformation by originating another. Hebegan
necessity, and proposed that the Cardinal of Tortosa , with a startling confession : “ It is certain that the
who had been Charles's tutor, should be elevated Pope may err in matters of faith in defending
to the Pontificate. The person named was un- heresy by his opinions or decretals.” 4 This ad
known to the cardinals. He was a native of mission,meant to be the starting-point of a moderate
Utrecht.' He was entirely without ambition, aged, reform , is perhaps even more inconvenient at this
austere. Eschewing all show , he occupied himself day than when first made. The world long after
wholly with his religious duties, and a faint smile wards received the “ Encyclical and Syllabus” of
was the nearest approach he ever made to mirth . Pius IX ., and the “ Infallibility Decree" of July
Such was the man whom the cardinals, moved by 18, 1870,which teach the exactly opposite doctrine,
soine sudden and mysterious impulse, or it may be even that the Pope cannot err in matters of faith and
responsive to the touch of the imperial hand, united morals. If Adrian spoke true, it follows that the
in raising to the Papal chair. He was in all points Pope may err ; if he spoke false, it equally follows
the opposite of the magnificent Leo.? that the Pope may err ; and what then are we to
Adrian VI. - for under this title did he reign - make of the decree of the Vatican Council of 1870,
was of humble birth, but his talents were good which, looking backwards as well as forwards, de
and his conduct was exemplary . He began his clares that error is impossible on the part of the
public life as professor at Louvain . He next Pope ?
became tutor to the Emperor Charles, by whose Adrian wished to reform the Court of Rome as
influence, joined to his own merits, he was made well as the system of the Papacy. He set about
Cardinal of Tortosa. He was in Spain , on the purging the city of certain notorious classes, ex
emperor's business , when the news of his election pelling the vices and filling it with the virtues.
reached him . The cardinals, who by this timewere Alas ! he soon found that he would leave few in
alarmed at their own deed, hoped the modest man Rome save himself. His reforms of the system
would decline the dazzling post. They were disap - fared just as badly, as the sequel will show us. If
pointed. Adrian, setting out for Romewith his old he touched an abuse, all who were interested in its
housekeeper, took possession of the magnificent maintenance — and they were legion — rose in arms
apartments which Leo had so suddenly vacated. to defend it . If he sought to loosen but one stone,
He gazed with indifference , if not displeasure, upon the whole edifice began to totter. Whether these
the ancient masterpieces , the magnificent pictures, reforms would save Germany was extremely pro
and glowing statuary, with which the exquisite blematical : one thing was certain , they would lose
taste and boundless prodigality of Leo had enriched Italy . Adrian, sighing over the impossibilities that
the Vatican. The “ Laocoon " was already there; surrounded him on every side, had to confess that
but Adrian turned away from that wonderful group, this middle path was impracticable, and that his
which some have pronounced the chef-d'oeuvre of only choice lay between Luther's Reform on the
the chisel, with the cold remark, “ They are the one hand, and Charles V .'s policy on the other.
idols of the heathen .” Of all the curious things in He cast himself into the arms of Charles.
the vast museum of the Papal Palace, Adrian VI. Our attention must again be directed to the
was esteemed the most curious by the Romans. Wartburg. While the Turk is thundering on
They knew not what to make of the new master the eastern border of Christendom , and Charles
the cardinals had given them . His coming (August, and Francis are fighting with one another in
1522) was like the descent of a cloud upon Rome; Italy, and Adrian is attempting impossible re
it was like an eclipse at noonday. There came
a sudden collapse in the gaieties and spectacles of 3 Pallavicino, tom . i., lib . ii., cap. 3, p . 126 . Ranke,
the Eternal City. For songs and masquerades. vol. i., p. 70. D ’ Aubigné, vol. iii., p . 122.
4 Comm . in lib. iv ., Sententiarum Quest. de Sacr. Confirm . ;
Romæ, 1522 ; apud D 'Aubigné, bk. X., chap. 2.
i Pallavicino, tom . i., lib . ii., cap. 2, p. 123. • Pallavicino , tom . i., cap . 4 . Platina , Vit. Ad . VI.,
: Sleidan , p . 56. Ranke, vol. i., pp. 68, 69. No. 222, Som . Pont.
forms at Rome, Luther is steadily working in few cared to procure these versions. Amid the
his solitude. Seated on the ramparts of his harassments of Wittemberg, Luther could not
castle , looking back on the storm from which he have executed this work ; here he was able to do it.
had just escaped, and feasting his eyes on the quiet He had intended translating also the Old Testa
forest glades and well-cultivated valleys spread ment from the original Hebrew , but the task was
out beneath him , his first days were passed in a beyond his strength ; he waited till he should be
delicious calm . By-and-by he grew ill in body and able to command learned assistance ; and thankful
troubled in mind , the result most probably of the he was that the same day that opened to him the
sudden transition from intense excitement to pro - gates of the Wartburg, found his translation of the
found inaction . He bitterly accused himself of New Testament completed.
idleness. Let us see what it was that Luther But the work required revision,and after Luther's
denominated idleness. “ I have published," he return to Wittemberg he went through it all, verse
writes on the 1st of November , " a little volume by verse ,with Melancthon. By the 21st of Septem
against that of Catharinus on Antichrist, a treatise ber, 1522, the whole of the New Testament in
in German on confession, a commentary in Ger- German was in print, and could be purchased at the
man on the 67th Psalm , and a consolation to moderate sum of a florin and a half. The more
the Church of Wittemberg. Moreover, I have arduous task of translating the Old Testament
in the press a commentary in German on the was now entered upon . No source of information
Epistleift an public reprindulgences he has accom
Epistles and Gospels for the year ; I have just was neglected in order to produce as perfect a
sent off a public reprimand to the Bishop of rendering as possible , but some years passed away
Mainz on the idol of Indulgences he has raised before an entire edition of the Sacred Volume in
up again at Halle ;' and I have finished a com - German was forthcoming. Luther's labours in
mentary on the Gospel story of the Ten Lepers. connection with the Scriptures did not end here.
All these writings are in German .” This was the To correct and improve his version was his con
indolence in which he lived . From the region of the tinual care and study till his life's end. For this
air, from the region of the birds, from the mountain , he organised a synod or Sanhedrim of learned men,
from the Isle of Patmos, from which he dated his consisting of John Bugenhagen , Justus Jonas,
letters, the Reformer saw all that was passing in Melancthon , Cruciger, Aurogallus, and George
the world beneath him . He scattered from his Rover, with any scholar who might chance to visit
mountain -top, far and wide over the Fatherland, Wittemberg. This body met once every week
epistles , commentaries, and treatises, counsels and before supper in the Augustine convent, and ex
rebukes. It is a proof how alive he had become to changed suggestions and decided on the emenda
the necessities of the times, that almost all his books tions to be adopted. When the true meaning
in the Wartburg were written in German. of the original had been elicited , the task of
But a greater work than all these did Luther clothing it in German devolved on Luther alone.
by-and-by set himself to do in his seclusion. There The most competent judges have pronounced the
was one Book — the Book of books— specially needed highest eulogiums on Luther's version. It was
at that particular stage of the movement, and that executed in a style of exquisite purity, vigour, and
Book Luther wished his countrymen to possess in beauty. It fixed the standard of the language. In
their mother tongue. He set about translating the this translation the German tongue reached its per
New Testament from the original Greek into Ger- fection as it were by a bound. But this was the
man ; and despite his other vast labours , he pro- least of the benefits Luther's New Testament in
secuted with almost superhuman energy this task , German conferred upon his nation. Like another
and finished it before he left the Wartburg. At Moses, Luther was taken up into this Mount, that
tempts had been made in 1477, in 1490, and he might receive the Law , and give it to his people.
in 1518 to translate the Holy Bible from the Luther's captivity was the liberation of Germany.
Vulgate ; but the rendering was so obscure, the Its nations were sitting in darkness when this
printing so wretched, and the price so high, that new day broke upon them from this mountain -top.
- For what would the Reformation have been
1 The Archbishop of Mainz had resumed the sale of
indulgences. The money raised was to be devoted to
combating the Mussulman hordes. Luther, from the 3 These versions were published , says Seckendorf, at
Wartburg, sent a severe letter to the archbishop, to Nuremberg , in the years stated in the text, but they were
which he returned a meek reply , promising amendment wholly useless, for not only was the typology of these
touching thematter which had drawn upon him Luther's versions execrable, but the people were not permitted to
reprimand . read them . (Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 51, p . 204. )
2 Michelet, Life of Luth ., pp. 103, 104 ; Lond., 1846. 4 Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 51, p . 204.
LUTHER 'S TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE. 479
without the Biblekameteor which would have tors have acknowledged that they had understood
shone for one moment, and the next gone out in better the true sense of the Bible than from
darkness." all the commentaries which others have written
“ From the innumerable testimonies to the beauty upon it.'" 3
of Luther's translation of the Bible,” says Secken - These manifold labours, prosecuted without inter
dorf, “ I select but one, that of Prince George of mission in the solitude of the Castle of the Wart
Anhalt, given in a public assembly of this nation. burg, brought on a complete derangement of the
*What words,' said the prince, can adequately set bodily functions, and that derangement in turn en
forth the immense blessing we enjoy in the whole gendered mental hallucinations. Weakened in body,
Bible translated by Dr. Martin Luther from the feverishly excited in mind, Luther was oppressed
original tongues ? So pure, beautiful, and clear is by fears and gloomy terrors. These his dramatic
it, by the special grace and assistance of the Holy idiosyncrasy shaped into Satanic forms. Dreadful
Spirit, both in its words and its sense, that it is noises in his chamber at night would awake him
as if David and the other holy prophets had lived from sleep. Howlings as of a dog would be heard
in our own country, and spoken in the German at his door, and on one occasion as he sat trans
tongue. Were Jerome and Augustine alive at this lating the New Testament, an apparition of the
day, they would hail with joy this translation, and Evil One, in the form of a lion , seemed to be
acknowledge that no other tongue could boast so walking round and round him , and preparing to
faithful and perspicuous a version of the Word of spring upon him . A disordered system had called
giving us the Greek version of the Septuagint, and
up the tem,buta rehand,which had the unmiend to
God . We acknowledge the kindness of God in up the terrible phantasm ; yet to Luther it was no
phantasm , but a reality. Seizing the weapon that
also the Latin Bible of Jerome. But how many came first to his hand , which happened to be his
defects and obscurities are there in the Vulgate ! inkstand, Luther hurled it at the unwelcome
Augustine, too, being ignorant of the Hebrew , intruder with such force, that he put the fiend to
has fallen into not a few mistakes. But from flight, and broke the plaster of the wall. Wemust
the version of Martin Luther, many learned doc. at least admire his courage.
CHAPTER II.
THE ABOLITION OF THE MASS.
Friar Zwilling - Preaches against the Mass - Attacks the Monastic Orders - Bodenstein of Carlstadt- Dispenses the
Supper - Fall of the Mass at Wittemberg - Other Changes — The Zwickau Prophets - Nicholas Stork - Thomas
Munzer - Denounce Infant Baptism -- The New Gospel - Disorders at Wittemberg - Rumours wafted to the
Wartburg - Uneasiness of Luther - He Leaves the Wartburg - Appears at Wittemberg --His Sermon - A Week
of Preaching A Great Crisis - It is Safely Passed .
The master-spirit was withdrawn,but the work did claimed was substantially the samewith that which
not stop . Events of great importance took place Zurich was teaching in Switzerland,that the Supper
at Wittemberg during Luther's ten months'sojourn is not a sacrifice, but a memorial. He condemned
in the Wartburg. The Reformation was making private masses, the adoration of the elements, and
rapid advances. The new doctrine was finding out required that the Sacrament should be administered
ward expression in a new and simpler worship. in both kinds. The friar gained converts both
Gabriel Zwilling, an Augustine friar , put his within and outside the monastery. The monks .
humble hand to the work which the great monk
had begun. He began to preach against the mass 3 Seckendorf, lib . i., sec. 51 ; Additio.
4 The cicerone of the Wartburg was careful to draw
in the convent church --the same in which Luther's the author's attention, as he does thatof every visitor, to
voice had often been heard. The doctrine he pro the indentation in the wall produced , as he affirms,by
Luther's inkstand. The plaster, over against the spot
Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 51, p . 203. where Luther must have sat, is broken and blackened as
Melan., Vit. Luth ., p . 19 ; Vratislaviæ , 1819. if by the sharp blow of some body of moderate weight.
OF HISTORY
PROTESTANTISM .
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ANDREW BODENSTEIN, COMMONLY CALLED CARLSTADT. 481
University,
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JOHN BUGENHAGEN (POMERANUS), DOCTOR AND PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AT WITTEMBERG

all the which
things ancientneither
usages,theyand norestablish
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it with Vows” appeared.
somedoubtfulness,
The hisfriar,firstemboldened
tended efforts, by thenextsuccessthe monastic
attacked that at butthelibertybepractical
atshould toobligedquitconclusion
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warrantitself. Hedenounced
and thethe““ cloakvow” ” asas covering
without
i41n theBible, At this point, Andrew Bodenstein of Carlstadt,
commonly called Carlstadt, Archdeacon of Wittem into the fire. The latter piece of reform was not
berg, came forward to take a prominent part in accomplished without violent tumults.
these discussions. Carlstadt was bold , zealous, The echoes of these tumults reverberated in the
honest,but not without a touch of vanity. So long Wartburg. Luther began to fear that the work of
as Luther was present on the scene, his colossal Reformation was being converted into a work of
figure dwarfed that of the archdeacon ; but the demolition. His maxim was that these practical
greater light being withdrawn for the time, the reforms, however justifiable in themselves, should
lesser luminary aspired to mount into its place. not outrun the public intelligence ; that, to the er.
The " little sallow tawny man ” who excelled neither tent to which they did so , the reform was not real,
in breadth of judgment, nor in clearness of ideas, nor but fictitious : that the error in the heart must first
in force of eloquence, might be seen daily haranguing be dethroned , and then the idol in the sanctuary
the people, on theological subjects , in an inflated would be cast out. On this principle he continued
and mysterious language, which, being not easily to wear the frock of his order, to say mass,to ob
comprehensible, was thought by many to envelope serve his vow as a celibate, and to do other things
a rare wisdom . His efforts in the main were in the the principle of which he had renounced, though
right direction. He objected to clerical and monas- the time, he judged, had not arrived for dropping
tic celibacy, he openly declared against private the form . Moderation was a leading characteristie
masses, against the celebration of the Sacrament in of all the Reformers. Zwingle,as we have already
one kind, and against the adoration of the Host. seen, followed the same rule in Switzerland. His
Carlstadt took an early opportunity of carrying naïve reply to one who complained of the images
his views into practice . On Christmas Day, 1521, in the churches , showed considerable wisdom . “ As
he dispensed the Sacrament in public in all the sim - for myself,” said Zwingle , “ they don't hurt me, for
plicity of its Divine institution . He wore neither I am short-sighted.” In like manner Luther held
cope nor chasuble. With the dresses he discarded that external objects did not hurt faith , provided the
also the genuflexions, the crossings, kissings, and heart did not hang upon them . Immensely dif
other attitudinisings of Rome ; and inviting all ferent, however, is the return to these things after
who professed to hunger and thirst for the grace of having been emancipated from them .”
God, to come and partake, he gave the bread and At this juncture there appeared at Wittemberg
the wine to the communicants, saying, “ This is the a new set of reformers, who seemed bent on restor
body and blood of our Lord .” He repeated the ing human traditions, and the tyranny of man from
act on New Year's Day, 1522, and continued ever a point opposite to that of the Pope. These men
afterwards to dispense the Supper with the same are known as the “ Zwickau Prophets,” from the
simplicity .' Popular opinion was on his side, and little town of Zwickau, in which they took their
in January, the Town Council, in concurrence with rise. The founder of the new sect was Nicholas
the University, issued their order, thathenceforward Stork, a weaver. Luther had restored the authority
the Supper should be dispensed in accordance with
of the Bible ; this was the corner -stone of his
the primitive model. The mass had fallen. Reformation. Stork sought to displace this corner
With the mass fell many things which grew out stone. The Bible , said he, is of no use. And what
of it, or leaned upon it. No little glory and power did he put in the room of it ? A new revelation
departed from the priesthood. The Church festivals which he pretended had been made to himself.
were no longer elaborate. In the place of incense The angel Gabriel, he affirmed , had appeared to
and banners, of music and processions, came the him in a vision, and said to him , “ Thou shalt sit
simple and sublime worship of the heart. Clerical on my throne.” A sweet and easy way, truly, of
celibacy was exchanged for virtuous wedlock . receiving Divine communications ! as Luther could
Confessions were carried to that Throne from not help observing, when he remembered his own
which alone comes pardon . Purgatory was first agonies and terrors before coming to the knowledge
doubted, then denied, and with its removal much of the truth .3
of the bitterness was taken out of death . The Stork was joined by Mark Thomas, another
saints and the Virgin were discarded, and lo ! weaver of Zwickau ; by Mark Stubner, formerly a
as when a veil is withdrawn, men found them - student at Wittemberg ; and by Thomas Munzer,
selves in the presence of the Divine Majesty. who was the preacher of the “ new Gospel.” That
The images stood neglected on their pedestals, Gospel comprehended whatever Stork was pleased
or were torn down, ground to powder, or cast
? Sleidan, bk. iii., p . 52. Seckendorf, lib.i.,sec. 49,p. 197.
Seckendorf, lib. i.,sec.54; Additio i. 3 Michelet, Life of Luth., p. 114.
A CRISIS IN THE REFORMATION . 483
to say had been revealed to him by the angel every hour that elapsed , and found him still in
Gabriel. He especially denounced infant baptism the Wartburg, made the confusion and mischief at
as an invention of the devil, and called on all dis- Wittemberg worse. At last, to his great joy, he
ciples to be re-baptised, hence their name “ Ana- finished his German version of the New Testament,
baptists." The spread of their tenets was followed and on the morning of the 3rd March , 1522, he
by tumults in Zwickau. The magistrates inter- passed out at the portal of his castle. He
fered : the new prophets were banished : Munzer might be entering a world that would call for his
went to Prague ; Stork , Thomas, and Stubner took blood ; the ban of the Empire was suspended over
the road to Wittemberg. him ; the horizon was black with storms; neverthe
Stork unfolded gradually the whole of that re- less he must go and drive away the wolves that had
velation which he had received from the angel, but entered his fold . He travelled in his knight's
which he had deemed it imprudent to divulge all at incognito — a red mantle, trunk-hose, doublet,
once. The “ new Gospel,” when fully put before feather, and sword — not without adventures by the
men ,was found to involve the overthrow of all esta- way. On Friday, the 7th of March , he entered
blished authority and order in Church and State ; Wittemberg.
men were to be guided by an inward light, of which The town, the University , the council, were elec
the new prophets were the medium . They foretold trified by the news of his arrival. “ Luther is
that in a few years the present order of things come,” said the citizens, as with radiant faces they
would be brought to an end , and the reign of the exchanged salutations with one another in the
saints would begin . Stork was to be the monarch streets. A tremendous load had been lifted off the
of the new kingdom . Attacking Protestantism minds of all. The vessel of the Reformation was
from apparently opposite poles, there was neverthe- drifting upon the rocks ; some waited in terror,
less a point in which the Romanists and the others in expectation for the crash, when suddenly
Zwickau fanatics met - namely, the rejection of the pilot appeared and grasped the helm .
Divine revelation , and the subjection of the con - At Worms was the crisis of the Reformer : at
science to human reason — the reason of Adrian Wittemberg was the crisis of the Reformation. Is
VI., the son of the Utrecht mechanic, on the one it demolition, confusion, and ruin only which Pro
side,and the reason of Nicholas Stork, the Zwickau testantism can produce ? Is it only wild and unruly
weaver, on the other. passions which it knows to let loose ? Or can it
These men found disciples in Wittemberg. The build up ? Is it able to govern minds, to unite
enthusiasm of Carlstadt was heated still more ; hearts, to extinguish destructive principles, and
many of the youth of the University forsook their plant in their stead reorganising and renovating
studies ,deeming them useless in presence of an inter- influences ? This was to be the next test of the
ral illumination which promised to teach them all Reformation . The disorganisation reigning at Wit
they needed to know without the toil of learning temberg was a greater danger than the sword of
The elector was dismayed at this new outbreak : Charles V . The crisis was a serious one.
Melancthon was staggered , and felt himself power- On the Sunday morning after his arrival, Luther
less to stem the torrent. The enemies of the entered the parish church , and presented himself
Reformation were exultant, believing that they with calm dignity and quiet self-composure in the
were about to witness its speedy disorganisation old pulpit. Only ten short months had elapsed
and ruin . Tidings reached the Wartburg of what since he last stood there ; but what events had
was going on at Wittemberg. Dismay and grief been crowded into that short period ! The Diet at
seized Luther to see his work on the point of being Worms: the Wartburg : the funeral of a Pope :
wrecked. He was distracted between his wish to the irruption of the Turk : the war between France
finish his translation of the New Testament, and and Spain ; and, last and worst of all, this outbreak
his desire to return to Wittemberg , and combat on atWittemberg, which threatened ruin to that cause
the spot the new -sprung fanaticism . All felt that which was the one hope of a world menaced by so
he alone was equal to the crisis, and many voices many dangers.
were raised for his return . Every line he trans- Intense excitement, yet deep stillness, reigned in
lated was an additional ray of light, to fall in due the audience. No element of solemnity was absent.
SiTnhce Ymaostrtehehasnagme,trey,odseitngcheitnhtehm,e htohu.enReformation
time upon the darkness of his countrymen. How The moment was very critical. The Reformation
could he tear himself from such a task ? And yet seemed to hang trembling in the balance. The
man was the same, yet chastened, and enriched.
i Seckendorf, lib. i., sec. 48 ; Additio, pp. 192, 193 . Since last he stood before them , he had become
? Sleidan , bk ., iii., p . 52 . invested with a greater interest, for his appearance
at Worms had shed a halo not only around himself, must be their great leader. By the Word, and not
but on Germany also : the invisibility in which he the sword, was the Reformation to be propag-ted .
had since dwelt, where, though they saw him not, “ Were I to employ force," he said , “ what shculd
they could hear his voice , had also tended to in - I gain ? Griniace, formality , apings, human ordi
orease the interest. And now , issuing from his nances, and hypocrisy . . but sincerity of
concealment, he stood in person before them , like heart, faith, charity, not at all. Where these tb.ee
one of the old prophets who were wont to appear are wanting, all is wanting, and I would not givea
suddenly at critical moments of their nation. pear-stalk for such a result." 1.
Never had Luther appeared grander, and never With the apostle he failed not to remind his
was he more truly great. He put a noble re- hearers that the weapons of their warfare werenot
straint upon himself. He who had been as an carnal, but spiritual. The Word must be freely
“ iron wall ” to the emperor, was tender as a preached ; and this Word must be left to work in
mother to his erring flock. He began by stating, the heart ; and when the heart was won, then the
in simple and unpretending style, what he said man was won , but not till then. The Word of
were the two cardinal doctrines of revelation - God had created heaven and earth , and all things,
the ruin of man, and the redemption in Christ and that Word must be the operating power, and
“ He who believes on the Saviour," he remarked , “ not we poor sinners.” His own history he held
“ is freed from sin ." Thus he returned with to be an example of the power of the Word . He
them to his first starting-point, salvation by free declared God's Word , preached and wrote against
grace in opposition to salvation by human merit, indulgences and Popery, but never used force ; but
and in doing so he reminded them of what it was this Word , while he was sleeping, or drinking his
that had emancipated them from the bondage of tankard of Wittemberg ale with Philip and Ams
penances, absolutions, and so many rites enslaving dorf, worked with so mighty a power, that the
to the conscience ,and had broughtthem into liberty Papacy had been weakened and broken to such a
and peace. Coming next to the consideration of the degree as no prince or emperor had ever been able
abuse of that liberty into which they were at that to break it. Yet he had done nothing: the Word
moment in some danger of falling, he said , faith had done all.
was not enough, it becamethem also to have charity. This series of discourses was continued all the
Faith would enable each freely to advance in know week through. All the institutions and ordinances
ledge, according to the gift of the Spirit and his of the Church of Rome, the preacher passed in re
own capacity ; charity would knit them together, view , and applied the same principle to them all.
and harmonise their individual progress with their After the consideration of the question of the mass,
corporate unity . He willingly acknowledged the he went on to discuss the subject of images,
advance they had made in his absence ; nay, some of monasticism , of the confessional, of forbidden
of them there were who excelled himself in the meats , showing that these things were alreadyabro
knowledge of Divine things ; but it was the duty of gated in principle, and all that was needed to
the strong to bear with the weak . Were there abolish them in practice, without tumult, and
those among them who desired the abolition of the without offence to any one, was just the diffusion
mass, the removal of images , and the instant and of the doctrine which he preached. Every day
entire abrogation of all the old rites ? He was the great church was crowded , and many flocked
with them in principle. He would rejoice if this from the surrounding towns and villages to these
day there was not one mass in all Christendom , nor discourses.
an image in any of its churches ; and he hoped this The triumph of the Reformer was complete. He
state of things would speedily be realised . But had routed the Zwickau fanatics without even
there were many who were not able to receive this, naming them . His wisdom , his moderation , his
who were still edified by these things, and who tenderness of heart, and superiority of intellect
would be injured by their removal. They must pro - carried the day, and the new prophets appeared in
ceed according to order, and have regard to weak comparison small indeed. Their " revelations” were
brethren . “ My friend," said the preacher, address - exploded, and the Word of God was restored to its
ing himself to the more advanced , “ have you been supremacy. It was a great battle - greater in some
long enough at the breast ? It is well. But permit respects than that which Luther had fought at
your brother to drink as long as yourself.” Worms. The whole of Christendom was interested
He strongly insisted that the “ Word ” which he in the result. AtWorms the vessel of Protestantism
had preached to them , and which he was about to
give them in its written form in their mother tongue, i 1 Luth. Opp.(L) xviii. 225 ;apud D'Aubigné,iii.67,68.
MELANCTHON'S “ COMMON -PLACES.” 485
was in danger of being dashed upon the Scylla ticism . Luther had guided it past the rocks in the
of Papal tyranny : at Wittemberg it was in former instance : in the present he preserved it from
jeopardy of being engulfed in the Charybdis of fana- being swallowed up in the whirlpool.
CHAPTER III.
POPE ADRIAN AND HIS SCHEME OF REFORM .
Calm Returns - Labours of Luther - Translation of Old Testament - Melancthon's Common -places - First Protestant
System - Preachers - Books Multiplied - Rapid Diffusion of the Truth - Diet at Nuremberg - Pope Adrian Afraid
of the Turk - Still more of Lutheranism - His Exhortation to the Diet - His Reforms put before the Diet- They
are Rejected - The " Hundred Grievances ” - Edict of Diet permitting the Gospel to be Preached - Persecution
First Three Martyrs of Lutheran Reformation - Joy of Luther - Death of Pope Adrian .
The storm was quickly succeeded by a calm . All and presenting them in the form of a system . It
things resumed their wonted course at Wittemberg. was the first attempt of the kind. His genius
The fanatics had shaken the dust from their feet admirably fitted him for this work . He was more
and departed, predicting woe against a place which of the theologian than Luther, and the grace of his
had forsaken the “ revelations ” of Nicholas Stork style lent a charm to his theology, and enabled him
to follow the guidance of the Word of God. The to find readers among the literary and philosophical
youth resumed their studies, the citizens returned classes. The only systems of divinity the world
to their occupations; Luther went in and out of had seen, since the close of the primitive age, were
his convent, busied with writing, preaching, and those which the schoolmen had given to it. These
lecturing, besides that which came upon him daily , had in them neither light nor life ; they were dry
" the care of all the churches." Onemain business and sapless, a wilderness of subtle distinctions and
that occupied him , besides the revision of his Ger - doubtful speculations. The system of Melancthon ,
man New Testament, and the passing of it through drawn from the Bible , exhibiting with rare clear.
the press, was the translation, now undertaken , of ness and beauty the relationships of truth , con
the Old Testament. This was a greater work , and trasted strikingly with the dark labyrinth of
some years passed away before it was finished . scholasticism . The Reformation theology was not
When at last, by dint of Herculean labour, it was a chaos of dogmas, as some had begun to suppose
given to the world , it was found that the idiomatic it, but a majestic unity .
simplicity and purity of the translation permitted In proportion as Protestantism strengthened itself
the beauty and splendour of Divine truth to shine at its centre , which was Wittemberg, it was diffused
through , and its power to be felt. Luther had now more and more widely throughout Germany, and
the satisfaction of thinking that he had raised beyond its limits. The movement was breaking
an effectual barrier against such fanaticism as out on all sides, to the terror of Rome, and the
that of Zwickau, and had kindled a light which discomfiture of her subservient princes. The Au
no power on earth would be able to put out, and gustine convents sent numerous recruits to carry
which would continue to wax brighter and shine on the war. These had been planted , like Papal
ever wider till it had dispelled the darkness of barracks, all over Germany, but now Rome's ar
Christendom . tillery was turned against herself. This was
In 1521 came another work, the Commonplaces specially the case in Nuremberg, Osnabruck, Ratis
of Melancthon, which , next after the German bon, Strasburg, Antwerp, and in Hesse and Wur
translation of the Bible, contributed powerfully temberg. The light shone into the convents of
to the establishment of Protestantism . Scattered the other orders also, and their inmates, laying
through a hundred pamphlets and writings were down their cowls and frocks at the gates of their
the doctrines of the Reformation - in other words, monasteries, joined their brethren and became
the recovered truths of Holy Scripture. Melanc- preachers of the truth. Great was the wrath of
thon set about the task of gathering them together, Romewhen she saw her soldiers turning their arms
against her. A multitude of priests became obedient proclaiming the new doctrines to immense crowds,
to the faith , and preached it to their flocks. In in the market-place , in burial-grounds, on moun
other cases flocks forsook their priests, finding that tains, and in meadows. . At Gosslar a Wittemberg
LITTLE GATE OF A PARISH CHURCH , NUREMBERG . BALCONY OF THE ARMOURY, NUREMBERG .
they continued to inculcate the old superstitions and student preached in a meadow planted with lime
perform the old ceremonies. A powerful influence trees, which procured for his hearers the designation
was acting on the minds of men, which carried of the “ Lime-tree Brethren.”
them onward in the path of the Reformed faith , The world 's winter seemed passing rapidly away.
TELEFOANE
PART OF THE CITY WALLS, NUREMBERG .
despite threats and dangers and bitter persecutions. Everywhere the ice was breaking up ; the skies
Whole cities renounced the Roman faith and con - were filling with light ; and its radiance was
fessed the Gospel. The German Bible and the refreshing to the eyes and to the souls of men !
writings of Luther were read at all hearths and by The German nation, emerging from torpor and
all classes, while preachers perambulated Germany ignorance, stood up, quickened with a new life, and
THE REFORMATION AND THE LITERATURE OF GERMANY. 487
endowed with a marvellous power. A wondrous the last-named year (1523) only twenty Roman
and sudden enlightenment had overspread it. It Catholic publications appeared .” ! It was Protes
was astonishing to see how the tastes of the people tantism that called the literature of Germany into
were refined, their perceptions deepened, and their existence.
judgments strengthened. Artisans, soldiers— nay, An army of book-hawkers was extemporised .
even women — with the Bible in their hand , would sp readmen
These ther's wrthe
of Luseconded iti efforts publishers in the
horts of publishers
put to flight a whole phalanx Rofopriests and
me butt wh doctors
o ors spread of Luther's writings, which, clear and terse,
who strove to do battle for Rome,, bu who lknew glowing with the fire of enthusiasm , and rich with
only to wield the old weapons. The printing-press, the gold of truth, brought with them an invigora
like a battering-ram of tremendous force, thundered tion of the intellect as well as a renewal of the
SE . TAYLOR
A WITTEMBERG STUDENT PREACHING IN LIME- TREE MEADOW .
night and day against the walls of the old fortress. heart. They were translated into French , English ,
“ The impulse which the Reformation gave to Italian , and Spanish , and circulated in all these
popular literature in Germany,” says D 'Aubigné, countries. Occupying a middle point between the
** was immense. Whilst in the year 1513 only first and second cradles of the Reformation, the
thirty-five publications had appeared, and thirty Wittemberg movement covered the space between,
seven in 1517, the number of books increased with touching the Hussites of Bohemia on the one side,
astonishing rapidity after the appearance of Luther 's and the Lollards of England on the other.
* Theses.' In 1518, we find seventy-one different We must now turn our eyes on those political
works ; in 1519, one hundred and eleven ; in 1520, events which were marching alongside of the
two hundred and eight ; in 1521, two hundred and Protestant movement. The Diet of Regency which
cleven ; in 1522, three hundred and forty-seven ; the emperor had appointed to administer affairs
and in 1523, four hundred and ninety -eight. These during his absence in Spain was now sitting at
publications were nearly all on the Protestant
side, and were published at Wittemberg. In 1 D'Aubigné, bk, ix., chap, 11.
against her. A multitude ofpriests became obedient proclaiming the new doctrines to immense crowds,
to the faith, and preached it to their flocks. In in the market-place, in burial-grounds, on moun
other cases flocks forsook their priests, finding that tains, and in meadows. At Gosslar a Wittemberg
LITTLE GATE OF A PARISH CHURCH , NUREMBERG. BALCONY OF THE ARMOURY, NUREMBERG ,
they continued to inculcate the old superstitionsand student preached in a meadow planted with lime
perform the old ceremonies. A powerful influence trees, which procured for his hearer's the designation
was acting on the minds of men, which carried of the “ Lime-tree Brethren."
them onward in the path of the Reformed faith, The world 's winter seemed passing rapidly away.
SURGIRUPAL
2
KE
30
PART OF THE CITY WALLS, NUREMBERG .

despite threats and dangers and bitter persecutions. Everywhere the ice was breaking up ; the skies
Whole cities renounced the Roman faith and con- were filling with light ; and its radiance was
fessed the Gospel. The German Bible and the refreshing to the eyes and to the souls of men !
writings of Luther were read at all hearths and by The German nation, emerging from torpor and
all classes, while preachers perambulated Germany ignorance,stood up, quickened with a new life, and
THE REFORMATION AND THE LITERATURE OF GERMANY. 487
endowed with a marvellous power. A wondrous the last-named year (1523) only twenty Roman
and sudden enlightenment had overspread it. It Catholic publications appeared.” It was Protes
was astonishing to see how the tastes of the people tantism that called the literature of Germany into
were refined, their perceptions deepened, and their existence.
judgments strengthened. Artisans, soldiers — nay, An army of book -hawkers was extemporised.
even women — with the Bible in their hand, would These men seconded the efforts of publishers in the
put to flight a whole phalanx of priests and doctors spread of Luther's writings, which, clear and terse ,
who strove to do battle for Rome, but who knew glowing with the fire of enthusiasm , and rich with
only to wield the old weapons. The printing-press, the gold of truth, brought with them an invigora
like a battering-ram of tremendous force ,thundered tion of the intellect as well as a renewal of the
I
N
I
M
RSE . TAYLOR
A WITTEMBERG STUDENT PREACHING IN LIME- TREE MEADOW .
night and day against the walls of the old fortress. heart. They were translated into French, English,
“ The impulse which the Reformation gave to Italian , and Spanish , and circulated in all these
popular literature in Germany," says D 'Aubigné, countries. Occupying a middle point between the
" was immense. Whilst in the year 1513 only first and second cradles of the Reformation , the
thirty-five publications had appeared, and thirty - Wittemberg movement covered the space between ,
seven in 1517, the number of books increased with touching the Hussites of Bohemia on the one side,
astonishing rapidity after the appearance of Luther's and the Lollards of England on the other.
“ Theses.' In 1518, we find seventy -one different protest which were marchinges on those political
We must now turn our eyes on those political
works; in 1519, one hundred and eleven ; in 1520, events which were marching alongside of the
undred and
two hundred and eight ; in 1521, two hundred and Protestantmovement. The Diet of Regency which
cleven ; in 1522, three hundred and forty -seven ; the emperor had appointed to administer affairs
and in 1523, four hundred and ninety -eight. These during his absence in Spain was now sitting at
publications were nearly all on the Protestant
side, and were published at Wittemberg. In D'Aubigné, bk, ix.,chap, 11.
Nuremberg. The main business which had brought of the sermons, the Diet replied that Nuremberg
it together was the inroads of the Turk. The pro - was a free city, and that the magistrates mostly
gress of Solyman's arms was fitted to strike the were Lutheran . He next intimated his intention
European nations with terror. Rhodes had been of apprehending the preachers by his own authority,
captured ; Belgrade had fallen ; and the victorious in the Pontiff's name; but the Archbishop of
leader threatened to make good his devastating Mainz, and others, in consternation at the idea
march into the very heart of Hungary. Louis, the of a popular tumult, warned the nuncio against
king of that country, sent his ambassador to the à project so fraught with danger , and told him
Diet to entreat help against the Asiatic conqueror. that if he attempted such a thing, they would
At the Diet appeared , too, Chieregato, the nuncio quit the city without a moment's delay, and leave
of the Pope. him to deal with the indignant burghers as best
Adrian VI., when he cast his eyes on the Tartar he could .
hordes on the eastern frontier, was not without Baffled in these attempts, and not a little mor
fears for Rome and Italy ; but he was still more tified that his own office and his master's power
alarmed when he turned to Germany, and con- should meet with so little reverence in Germany,
templated the appalling spread of Lutheranism .: the nuncio began , but in less arrogant tone, to
Accordingly , he instructed his ambassador to de- unfold to the Diet the other instructions of the
mand two things — first, that the Diet should Pope; and more especially to put before its members
concert measures for stopping the progress of the the promised reforms which Adrian had projected
Sultan of Constantinople ; but, whatever they when elevated to the Popedom . The Popes have
might do in this affair, he emphatically demanded often pursued a similar line of conduct when they
that they should cut short the career of the monk really meant nothing ; but Adrian was sincere. To
of Wittemberg. convince the Diet that he was so , he made a very
In the brief which , on the 25th of November, ample confession of the need of a reform . “ We
1522, Adrian addressed to the “ Estates of the know ," so ran the instructions put into the hands
sacred Roman Empire, assembled at Nuremberg," of his nuncio on setting out for the Diet, “ that for
he urged his latter and more important request, a considerable time many abominable things have
“ to cut down this pestilential plant that was found a place beside the Holy Chair - abuses in
spreading its boughs so widely . . . to remove spiritual things — exorbitant straining at preroga
this gangrened member from the body," by remind - tives — evil everywhere. From the head the malady
ing them that “ the omnipotent God had caused the has proceeded to the limbs ; from the Pope it has
· earth to open and swallow up alive the two schis extended to the prelates ; we are all gone astray,
matics , Dathan and Abiram ; that Peter , the prince there is none that hath done rightly, no, not
of apostles , had struck Ananias and Sapphira with one."
sudden death for lying against God . . . that At the hearing of these words the champions of
their own ancestors had put John Huss and Jerome the Papacy hung their heads ; its opponents held
of Prague to death , who now seemed risen from the up theirs. We need hesitate no longer, said the
dead in Martin Luther." Lutheran princes of the Diet ; it is not Luther only,
But the Papal nuncio, on entering Germany, but the Pope, that denounces the corruptions of the
found that this document, dictated in the hot air of Church : reform is the order of the day, not merely
Italy , did not suit the cooler latitude of Bavaria . at Wittemberg, but at Rome also.
As Chieregato passed along the highway on his There was all the while an essential difference
mule, and raised his two fingers, after the usual between these two men , and their reforms: Adrian
manner, to bless the wayfarer, the populace would would have lopped off a few of the more rotten
mimic his action by raising theirs, to show how of the branches ; Luther was for uprooting the evil
little they cared either for himself or his benedic- tree , and planting a good one in its stead. This
tion. This was very mortifying, but still greater was a reform little to the taste of Adrian , and so,
mortifications awaited him . When he arrived at before beginning his own reform , he demanded that
Nuremberg , he found, to his dismay, the pulpits Luther's should be put down. It was needful,
occupied by Protestant preachers,and the cathedrals Adrian doubtless thought, to apply the pruning
crowded with most attentive audiences. When he knife to the vine of the Church , but still more
complained of this, and demanded the suppression needful was it to apply the axe to the tree of
1 Sleidan , bk. iii., p . 55 . 3 Sleidan, bk. iv., p. 59. Pallavicino, tom . i., lib.ï ,
2 Pallavicino,tom .i., lib .i .,cap.7, p. 140. Sleidan, iii. 55 . cap. 7, p. 141.
THE DIET AND THE POPE. 480
Lutheranism . For those who would push reform Till the Diet should arrange its affairs with the
with too great haste, and to too great a length, he Pontiff, it resolved that the Gospel should continue
had nothing but the stake, and accordingly he to be preached. What a triumph for Protestantism !
called on the Diet to execute the imperial edict But a year before , at Worms, the German princes
of death upon Luther, whose heresy he described had concurred with Charles V . in the edict of death
as having the same infernal origin , as disgraced by passed on Luther. Now , not only do they refuse
the sameabominable acts, and tending to the same to execute that edict, but they decree that the pure
tremendous issue, as that of Mahomet. As re- Gospel shall be preached . This indicates rapid
garded the reform which he himself meditated , he progress. Luther hailed it as a triumph , and the
took care to say that he would guard against the echoes of his shout came back from the Swiss hills
two evils mentioned above ; he would neither be in the joy it awakened among the Reformers of
too extreme nor too precipitate ; " he must proceed that country .
gently , and by degrees,” step by step - -which In due course the recess, or decree, of the Diet
Luther, who translated the brief of Adrian into of Nuremberg reached the Seven-hilled City , and
German, with marginal notes, interpreted to mean , was handed in at the Vatican. The meek Adrian
a few centuries between each step. was beside himself with rage. Luther was not to
The Pope had communicated to the Diet, some be burned ; a General Council was demanded ; a
what vaguely, his projected measure of reformation , hundred grievances, all duly catalogued, must be
and the Diet felt the more justified in favouring redressed ; and there was, moreover, a quiet
Adrian with their own ideas of what that measure hint that if the Pope did not look to this
ought to be. First of all they told Adrian that to matter in time, others would attend to it. Adrian
think of executing the Edict of Worms against sat down, and poured out a torrent of invectives
Luther would be madness. To put the Reformer to and threatenings, than which nothing more fierce
death for denouncing the abuses Adrian himself and bitter had ever emanated from the Vatican.
had acknowledged, would not be more unjust than Frederick of Saxony, against whom this fulmination
it would be dangerous. Itwould be sure to provoke was thundered, put his hand upon his sword's hilt
an insurrection that would deluge Germany with when he read it. “ No," said Luther , the only one
blood. Luther must be refuted from Scripture, for of the three who was able to command his temper ,
his writings were in the hands and his opinions “ wemust have no war. No one shall fight for the
were in the hearts of many of the population . They Gospel.” Peace was preserved .
knew of but one way of settling the controversy - The rage of the Papal party was embittered by
a General Council, namely ; and they demanded that the checks it was meeting with . War had been
such a Council should be summoned , to meet in some averted , but persecution broke out. At every step
neutral German town, within the year, and that the Reformation gathered new glory. The courage
the laity as well as the clergy should have a seat of the Reformer and the learning of the scholar
and voice in it. To this not very palatable request had already illustrated it, but now it was to be
the princes appended another still more unpalatable glorified by the devotion of the martyr. It was not
- the “ Hundred Grievances," as it was termed,and in Wittemberg that the first stake was planted.
which was a terrible catalogue of the exactions, Charles V . would have dragged Luther to the pile,
frauds, oppressions, and wrongs that Germany had nay, he would have burned the entire Wittemberg
endured at the hands of the Popes, and which it school in one fire, had he had the power ; but he
had long silently groaned under, but the redress
of which the Diet now demanded , with certification 4 " Che in questo tempo si predicasse piamente e man .
suetamente il puro Evangelio e la Scrittura approvata
that if within a reasonable time a remedy was not secondo l' esposizione approvata e ricevuta dalla Chiesa "
forthcoming, the princes would take the matter into – That in the meantime the pure Gospel be preached
their own hands. piously and soberly, according to the exposition of
The Papal nuncio had seen and heard sufficient Scripture received and approved by the Church . (Pal
lavicino ,lib. i ., cap .8. p . 146.) The decreewas ambiguous,
to convince him that he had stayed long enough at remarks Pallavicino. Each put his own interpretation
Nuremberg. He hastily quitted the city, leaving upon the phrase " the pure Gospel.” The phrase " ex
position hitherto in use " was also variously interpreted .
it to some other to be the bearer of this ungracious According, said some, to the manner of Thomas Aquinas
message to the Pontiff. and other mediæval doctors ; according, said others, to
that of the more ancient, Cyprian , Augustine, & c. The
decree, nevertheless, helped to shield the Protestant
i Pallavicino, tom . i., p. 141. preachers.
. Sleidan , bk . iv., p. 60 . o See Adrian's energetic epistle, in D ’Aubigné, pp .
; Ibid ., bk. iv ., p . 63. Pallavicino, lib. ii., cap. 8. 132 – 135 ; Edin ., 1846.
TISM
could act in Germany only so far as the princes kindled , and even amid the flames the psalm as
went with him . It was otherwise in his hereditary cended from their lips, and joy continued to light
dominions of the Low Countries ; there he could up their countenances. So died the first martyrs of
do as he pleased ; and there it was that the storm , the Reformation - illustrious heralds of those hun
after muttering awhile, at last burst out. At dreds of thousands who were to follow them by the
Antwerp the Gospel had found entrance into the same dreadful road — not dreadful to those who walk
Augustine convent, and the inmates not only em - by faith — to the everlasting mansion of the sky.
braced the truth, but in some instances began to Three confessors of the Gospel had the stake
preach it with power. This drew upon the convent consumed ; in their place it had created hundreds.
the eyes of the inquisitors who had been sent into “ Wherever the smoke of their burning blew ," said
Flanders. The friars were apprehended , imprisoned, Erasmus, “ it bore with it the seeds of heretics."
and condemned to death . One recanted ; others Luther heard of their death with thanksgiving. A
managed to escape ; but three — Henry Voes, John cause which had produced martyrs bore the sealof
Esch, and Lambert Thorn - braved the fire. They Divine authentication, and was sure of victory.
were carried in chains to Brussels, and burned in Adrian of Rome, too, lived to hear of the death
the great square of that city on the 1st of July, of these youths. The persecutions had begun, but
1523. They behaved nobly at the stake. While Adrian's reforms had not yet commenced. The
the multitude around them were weeping, they world had seen the last of these reforms in the
sang songs of joy. Though about to undergo a ter- lurid light that streamed from the stake in the
rible death, no sorrow darkened their faces ; their great square of Brussels. Adrian died on the 14th
looks, on the contrary, bespoke the gladness and of September of the same year, and the estimation
triumph of their spirits. Even the inquisitors were in which the Romans held him may be gathered
deeply moved, and waited long before applying the from the fact that, during the night which suc
torch, in the hope of prevailing with the youths to ceeded the day on which he breathed his last, they
retract and save their lives. Their entreaties could adorned the house of his physician with garlands,
extort no answer but this — “ We will die for the and wrote over its portals this inscription — " To
name of Jesus Christ.” At length the pile was the saviour of his country.”
CHAPTER IV.
POPE CLEMENT AND THE NUREMBERG DIET.
The New Pope- Policy of Clement - Second Diet at Nuremberg - Campeggio - His Instructions to the Diet, The
" Hundred Grievances ” - Rome's Policy of Dissimulation - Surprise of the Princes — They are Asked to Execute
the Edict of Worms- Device of the Princes --A General Council — Vain Hopes — The Harbour - Still at Sea
Protestant Preaching in Nuremberg - Proposal to hold a Diet at Spires - Disgust of the Legate - Alarm of the
Vatican - Both Sides Prepare for the Spires Diet.
ADRIAN was dead . His scheme for the reform of of a " saint" to fill the Papal chair. Clement VII.
the Papacy, with all the hopes and fears it had took care to let the world know that its present
excited, descended with him to the grave. Car- occupant was a “ man of affairs ” - no austere man,
dinal Guilio de Medici, an unsuccessful candidate with neither singing nor dancing in his palace ; no
at the last election, had better fortune this time, senile dreamer of reforms; but one who knew both
and now mounted the Pontifical throne. The new to please the Romans and to manage foreign courts.
Pope, who took the title of Clement VII., made “ But it is in the storm that the pilot proves his
haste to reverse the policy of his predecessor. Pal- skill,” says Ranke. Perilous times had come.
lavicino was of opinion that the greatest evils and The greatwinds had begun to blow , and the nations
dangers of the Papacy had arisen from the choice were labouring, as the ocean heaves before a ten
1 The execution of the third, Lambert Thorn, followed Sleidan, bk. iv ., pp. 63,64.
that of the first two by a few days. 3 Ranke, vol. i., p . 75.
CARDINAL CAMPEGGIO IN NUREMBERG . 491
pest. Two powerful kings were fighting in Italy ; even in a universal uprising of peoples against
the Turk was brandishing his scimitar on the their rulers, and the destruction ofGermany. As
Austrian frontier ; but the quarter of the sky that for the Turk, it was unnecessary for him to say
gave Clement VII. the greatest concern was Wit much. The mischief he threatened Christendom
temberg. There a storm was brewing which would with was plain to all men.
try his seamanship to the utmost. Leo X . had The princes heard him with respect, and thanked
trifled with this affair. Adrian VI. had imagined him for his good will and his friendly counsels ;
that he had only to utter the magic word “ reform ," but to come to the matter in hand , the German
and the billows would subside and the winds sink nation, said they, sent a list of grievances in
to rest. Clement would prove himself an abler writing to Rome ; they would like to know if the
pilot; he would act as a statesman, as a Pope. Pope had returned any answer, and what it was.
Early in the spring of 1524, the city of Nurem - Campeggio , though he assumed an air of surprise,
berg was honoured a second time with the presence had expected this interrogatory to be put to him ,
of the Imperial Diet within its walls. The Pope's and was not unprepared for the part he was to act.
first care was to send a right man as legate to this “ As to their demands,” he said , " there had been
assembly . He selected Cardinal Campeggio, a man only three copies of them brought privately to
of known ability, of great experience, and of weight Rome, whereof one had fallen into his hands ; but
of character — the fittest, in short, his court could the Pope and college of cardinals could not believe
furnish. His journey to the Italian frontier was that they had been framed by the princes ; they
like a triumphal march. Butwhen he entered upon thought that some private persons. had published
German soil all these tokens of public enthusiasm them in hatred to the court of Rome; and thus he
forsook him , and when he arrived at the gates of had no instructions as to that particular." 3
Nuremberg he looked in vain for the usual pro - The surprise the legate's answer gave the Diet,
cession of magistrates and clergy, marshalled under and the indignation it kindled among its members,
cross and banner, to bid him welcome. Alas ! how may be imagined.
the times had changed ! The proud ambassador of The Emperor Charles, whom the war with Francis
Clement passed quietly through the streets, and kept in Spain , had sent his ambassador, John Hun
entered his hotel, as if he had been an ordinary naart , to the Diet to complain that the decree of
traveller. Worms, which had been enacted with their unani
The instructions Campeggio bad received from mous consent, was not observed , and to demand
his master directed him to soothe the Elector that it be put in execution — in other words, that
Frederick , who was still smarting from Adrian's Luther be put to death , and that the Gospel be
furious letter ; and to withhold no promise and proscribed in all the States of the Empire. Cam .
neglect no art which might prevail with the Diet, peggio had made the same request in his master's
and make it subservient. This done, he was to name.
strike at Luther. If they only had the monk at Impossible ! cried many of the deputies ; to
the stake, all would be well. attempt such a thing would be to plunge Germany
The able and astute envoy of Clement acted his into war and bloodshed .
part well. He touched modestly on his devotion Campeggio and Hunnaart insisted , nevertheless,
to Germany, which had induced him to accept this that the princes should put in force the edict against
painful mission when all others had declined it. Luther and his doctrines, to which they had been
He described the tender solicitude and sleepless consenting parties. What was the Diet to do ?
care of his master, the Pope, whom he likened now It could not repeal the edict, and it dared not
to a pilot , sitting aloft, and watching anxiously, enforce it. The princes hit upon a clever device
while all on board slept ; and now to a shepherd,
driving away the wolf, and leading his flock into ? Sleidan , bk. iv ., p . 68.
3 Ibid ., bk. iv ., p. 69. Fra -Paolo Sarpi, livr. i., pp.64,65.
good pastures. He could not refrain from ex " It is evident,” says the French translator and editor
pressing “ his wonder that so many great and (Pierre François le Courayer) of Sarpi' s History of the
honourable princes should suffer the religion , rites, Council of Trent, “ that both the Pope and the legate
themselves justified in this falsehood for the
and ceremonies wherein they were born and bred, believed
good of the cause. For it is not doubted that the
and in which their fathers and progenitors had Hundred Grievances ' had been received at the court of
died , to be abolished and trampled upon .” He Rome, and Pallavicino even does not leave us ignorant
begged them to think where all this would end, their that the legate was instructed to dissemble the fact of
reception , in order to treat on more favourable
terms with the princes."
· Cochlæus, p . 82. D'Aubigné, vol. ii., p . 143. * Pallavicino, lib . ii., cap. 10 , p . 155 .
for silencing the Pope who was pushing them on , the next demand of the Nuremberg Diet was for
and appeasing the people who were holding them a General Council. There was a traditional belief
back. They passed a decree saying that the Edict in the omnipotency of this expedient to correct all
of Worms should be vigorously enforced, as far as abuses and end all controversies. When the sky
possible." (Edipus himself could hardly have said began to lower, and a storm appeared about to
what this meant. Practically it was the repeal of sweep over Christendom , men turned their eyes to
O
T
T
U
T
AMMO
THE PAPAL NUNCIO CHIEREGATO IN NUREMBERG .
the edict ; for the majority of the States had a Council, as to a harbour of refuge : once within
declared that to enforce it was not possible. it, the labouring vessel would be at rest— tossed no
Campeggio and Hunnaart, the Spanish envoy longer upon the billows. The experiment had been
from Charles V., had gained what was a seeming tried again and again , and always with the same
victory, but a real defeat. Other defeats awaited result, and that result failure— signal failure. In
them . the recent past were the two Councils of Constance
Having dexterously muzzled the emperor's ban, and Basle. These had ended, like all that pre
ceded them , in disappointment. Much had been
Cochlæus, p . 84 . D’Aubigné, vol. iii., p. 145. looked for from them , but nothing had been
M
O
42
U
Er
We
R
NUREMB
CENTURY ALA
AY ERG
IXTEENT
SIN-DGA,T:. IME H
M
494 . HISTORY OF PROTESTANTIS .
realised. They appeared in the retrospect like himself divinely invested with the government of
goodly twin trees, laden with leaves and blossoms, the Church.
but they brought no fruit to perfection. With The Papal legate and the envoy of Charles V .
regard to Constance, if it had humiliated three offered a stout resistance to the proposed resolution
Popes, it had exalted a fourth , and he the haugh of the princes. They represented to them what an
tiest of them all ; and as for Reformation , had affront it would be to the Papal chair , what a
not the Council devoted its whole time and power manifest attack upon the prerogatives of the
to devising measures for the extinction of that Pontiff. The princes, however, were not to be
reforming spirit which alone could have remedied turned from their purpose. They decreed that a
the evils complained of ? There was one man Diet should assemble at Spires, in November, and
there worth a hundred Councils : how had they that meanwhile the States and free towns of
dealt with him ? They had dragged him to the Germany should express their mind as regarded
stake, and all the while he was burning, cursed the abuses to be corrected and the reforms to be
him as a heretic ! And what was the consequence? instituted, so that, when the Council met, the Diet
Why, that the stream of corruption, dammed up might be able to speak in the name of the Father
for a moment, had broken out afresh , and was now land, and demand such Reformation of the Church
flowing with torrent deeper, broader, and more as the nation wished .
irresistible than ever . But the majority of the Meanwhile the Protestant preachers redoubled
princes convened at Nuremberg were unable to their zeal ; morning and night they proclaimed the
think of other remedy, and so, once again , the old Gospel in the churches. The two great cathedrals
demand was urged — a General Council, to be held of Nuremberg were filled to overflowing with an
on German soil. attentive audience. The Lord 's Supper was dis
However, the princes will concert measures in pensed according to the apostolic mode, and 4 ,000
order that this time the Council shall not be abor- persons, including the emperor's sister, the Queen
tive ; now at last, it will give the world a Pope who of Denmark , and others of rank , joined in the
shall be a true father to Christendom , together with celebration of the ordinance. The mass was for
a pious, faithful, and learned hierarchy, and holy saken ; the images were turned out of doors ; the
and laborious priests — in short, the “ golden age," Scriptures were explained according to the early
so long waited for. The princes will summon a Fathers ; and scarce could the Papal legate go or
Diet - a national and lay Diet - to meet at Spires, return from the imperial hall, where the Diet held
in November of this year. And, further, they will its meetings, without being jostled in the street
take steps to evoke the real sentiments of Germany by the crowds hurrying to the Protestant sermon.
on the religious question, and permit the wishes The tolling of the bells for worship , the psalm
of its several cities and States to be expressed in pealed forth by thousands of voices, and wafted
the Diet ; and, in this way, a Reformation will be across the valley of the Pegnitz to the imperial
accomplished such as Germany wishes. The princes château on the opposite height, sorely tried the
believed that they were ending their long and equanimity of the servants of the Pope and the
dangerous navigation. They were at last in sight emperor. Campeggio saw Nuremberg plungins;
of the harbour. every day deeper into heresy ; he saw the authority
So had they often thought before , but they had of his master set at nought, and the excommuni
awakened to find that they were still at sea, with cated doctrines every hour enlisting new adherents,
the tempest gathering overhead , and the white reefs who feared neither the ecclesiastical anathema nor
gleaming pale through the waters below . They the imperial ban. He saw all this with indigna
were destined to repeat this experience once more. tion and disgust, and yet he was entirely without
The very idea of such a Diet as was projected was power to prevent it.
an insult to the Papacy. For a secular assembly Germany seemed nearer than it had been at any
to meet and discuss religious questions, and settle previous moment to a national Reformation . It
ecclesiastical reforms, was to do a great deal more promised to reach the goal by a single bound.
than paving the way for a General Council ; it was A few months, and the Alps will do more than
to assume its powers and exercise its functions ; divide between two countries, they will divide
it was to be that Council itself — nay, it was to between two Churches. No longer will the bulls
go further still, it was to seat itself in the chair and palls of the Pope cross their snows, and no
of the Pontiff, to whom alone belonged the de- longer will the gold of Germany flow back to swell
cision in all matters of faith . It was to pluck the the wealth and maintain the pride of the city
sceptre from the hands of the man who held whence they come. The Germans will find for
CHARLES'S AND CLEMENTS AUTHORITY IN GERMANY. 495
themselves a Church and a creed , without asking of the princes excited the greatest terror and rage.
humbly the permission of the Italians. They will Clement comprehended at a glance the full extent
choose their own pastors, and exercise their own of the disaster that threatened his throne. All
government ; and leave the Shepherd of the Tiber Germany was becoming Lutheran ; the half of his
to care for his flock on the south of the moun - kingdom was about to be torn from him . Not a
tains, without stretching his crosier to the north stone must be left unturned, not an art known in
of them . This was the import of what the Diet the Vatican must be neglected, if by anymeans the
had agreed to do. meeting of the Diet at Spires may be prevented.
We do not wonder that Campeggio and Hun - To Spires all eyes are now turned, where the
naart viewed the resolution of the princes with fate of the Popedom is to be decided. On both
tum n had
dismay. In truth , the envoy of the emperor sides there is the bustle of anxious preparation .
y whes
about as much cause to be alarmeded asas the anuncio The princes invite the cities and States to speak
of the Pope. Charles's authority in Germany was boldly out, and declare their grievances, and say
tottering as well as Clement's ; for if the States what reforms they wish to have enacted. In the
should break away from the Roman faith, the opposite camp there is, if possible, still greater
emperor's sway would be weakened — in fact, all activity and preparation. The Pope is sounding
but annihilated ; the imperial dignity would be an alarm , and exhorting his friends, in prospect of
shorn of its splendour ; and those great schemes, this emergency, to unite their counsels and their
in the execution of which the emperor had counted arms. While both sides are busy preparing for
confidently on the aid of the Germans, would have the eventful day, we shall pause, and turn our
to be abandoned as impracticable. attention to the city where the Diet just breaking
But it was in the Vatican that the resolution up had held its sittings.
CHAPTER V .1
NUREMBERG .
Three Hundred Years Since- Site of Nuremberg - Depôt of Commerce in Middle Ages - Its Population - Its Patricians
and Plebeians — Their Artistic Skill - Nuremberg a Free Town - Its Burgraves- Its Oligarchy - Its Subject Towns
- Fame of its Arts - Albert Dürer - Hans Sachs - Its Architecture and Marvels – Enchantment of the Place
Rath -Haus - State Dungeons - Implements of Torture.
NUREMBERG three hundred years ago was one of from monotony ; and the facilities for hunting and
themore famous of the cities of Europe. It invites other exercises which it afforded ,made it a pleasant
our study as a specimen of those few fortunate residence, and often drew thither the emperor and
communities which, preserving a feeble intelligence his court. With the court came, of course , other
in times of almost universal ignorance and bar- visitors. The presence of the emperor in Nurem
barism , and enjoying a measure of independence in berg helped to assemble men of genius and culture
an age when freedom was all but unknown , were within its walls, and invested it, moreover, with
able, as the result of the exceptional position they no little political importance .
occupied, to render services of no mean value to Nuremberg owed more to another cause, namely,
the civilisation and religion of the world. its singularly central position. Being set down on
The distinction and opulence which Nuremberg one of the world 's greatest highways, it formed the
enjoyed , in the fifteenth century and onward to the centre of a network of commercial routes, which
time of the Reformation , it owed to a variety of ramified over a large part of the globe, and em
causes. Its salubrious air ; the sweep of its vast braced the two hemispheres.
plains, on all sides touching the horizon , with a Situated on the great Franconian plain — a plain
single chain of purple hills to redeem the landscape which was the Mesopotamia of the West, seeing
that, like the OrientalMesopotamia, it lay between
1 This chapter is founded on notes made on the spot two great rivers, the Danube and the Rhine
by the author in 1871. Nuremberg became one of the great emporiums of
the commerce carried on between Asia and Europe. The plebeians were mostly craftsmen , but crafts
In those ages, when roads were far from common , men of exceeding skill. No artificers in all Europe
and railways did not exist at all, rivers were the could compete with them . Since the great sculptors
main channels of communication between nation of Greece, there had arisen no race of artists which
and nation , and the principal means by which could wield the chisel like the men of Nuremberg.
they effected an interchange of their commodities. Not so bold perhaps as their Greek predecessors,
The products of Asia and the Levant entered the their invention was as prolific and their touch as
mouths of the Danube by the Black Sea, and, exquisite. They excelled in allmanner of cunning
ascending that stream into Germany, they were workmanship in marble and bronze, in metal and
carried across the plain to Nuremberg. From Vu- ivory , in stone and wood. Their city of Nuremberg
remberg this merchandise was sent on its way to they filled with their creations, which strangers
the Rhine, and , by the numerous outlets of that from afar came to gaze upon and admire. The
river, diffused among the nations of the north-west fame of its artists was spread throughout Europe,
of Europe. The commerce of the Adriatic reached and scarce was there a town of any note in any
Nuremberg by another route which crossed the kingdom in which the “ Nuremberg hand ” was not
Tyrol. Thus many converging lines found here to be seen unmistakably certified in some embodi
their common meeting-place, and from hence ra- ment of quaintness, or of beauty, or ofutility.?
diated over the West. Founded in the beginning A more precious possession still than either its
of the tenth century, the seat of the first Diet exquisite genius or its unrivalled art did Nurem
of the Empire, the meeting-place moreover of berg boast : liberty even — liberty, lacking which
numerous nationalities, the depôt of a vast and genius droops, and the right hand forgets its
enriching commerce , and inhabited by a singularly cunning. Nuremberg was one of the free cities
quick and inventive population, Nuremberg rose of Germany. In those days there were not fewer
steadily in size and importance. The fifteenth than ninety-three such towns in the Empire. They
century saw it a hive of industry, a cradle of art, were green oases in the all but boundless desert
and a school of letters. of oppression and misery which the Europe of those
In the times we speak of, Nuremberg had a days presented . They owed their rise in part to
population of 70,000. This, in our day, would not war, but mainly to commerce. When the emperors
suffice to place a city in the first rank ; but it was on occasion found themselves hard pushed, in the
different then , when towns of only 30,000 were long war which they waged with the Popes, when
accounted populous. Frankfort-on -the-Maine could their soldiers were becoming few and their ex
not boast of more than half the population of chequer empty, they applied to the towns to furnish
Nuremberg . But though large for its day, the them with the means of renewing the contest.
number of its population contributed but little They offered them charters of freedom on con
to the city 's eminence. Its renown rested on higher dition of their raising so many men-at-arms, or
grounds, even the enterprise, the genius, and the paying over a certain sum to enable them to con
wealth of its inhabitants. tinue their campaigns. The bargain was a welcome
Its citizens were divided into two classes, the one on both sides. Many of these towns had to
patrician and the plebeian . The line that separated buy their enfranchisement with a great sum , but a
the two orders was immovable. No amount of
wealth or of worth could lift up the plebeian into one is surprised to learn how many of the arts in
the patrician rank. In the same social grade in daily use were invented in Nuremberg. The oldest speci
which the cradle of the citizen had been placed mens of stained glass are said to be here. Playing-cards
must the evening of life find him . The patricians were manufactured here as early as 1380. In 1390 a
citizen of Nuremberg built a paper-mill, undoubtedly
held their patents of nobility from the emperor, the first in Germany. There are records of cannon being
a circumstance of which they were not a little cast here as early as 1356. Previously cannon were con
structed of iron bars placed lengthwise and held together
proud, as attesting the descent of their families by hoops. The celebrated cannon “ Mons Meg," at
from very ancient times. They inhabited fine Edinburgh Castle, is constructed after that fashion. The
mansions, and expended the revenues of their common opinion , supported by Polydore Virgil and other
estates in a princely splendour and a lavish hospi learned writers, is that gunpowder was also invented
at Nuremberg, by a Franciscan friar named Berthold
tality, delighting greatly in fêtes and tournaments , Schwartz, in 1378. Here the first watches were made,
but not unmindful the while of the claims to in 1500; they were called “ Nuremberg eggs." Here the
patronage which the arts around them possessed , air-gun was invented , 1560 ; the clarionet, 1690. Here
and the splendours of which invested their city Erasmus Ebner, in 1556 , hit upon that particular alloy of
metals which forms brass. The brass of former times
with so great a halo. was a different combination .
HISTORY OF NUREMBERG . 497
little liberty is worth a great deal of gold. Thus seven cities, and 480 boroughs and villages, of all
it was on the red fields of the period that their of which Nuremberg was mistress . When we take
freedom put forth its earliest blossoms; and it into account the fertility of the land, and the ex
was amid the din of arms that the arts of peace tensiveness of the trade that enriched the region ,
grew up. and in which all these towns shared, we see in
But commerce did more than war to call into Nuremberg and its dependencies a principality
existence such towns as Nuremberg. With the far from contemptible in either men or resources.
prosecution of foreign trade came wealth , and with “ The kingdom of Bohemia ," says Gibbon, “ was
wealth came independence and intelligence. Men less opulent than the adjacent city of Nuremberg."
began to have a glimpse of higher powers than Lying in the centre of Southern Germany, the
those of brute force, and of wider rights than any surrounding States in defending themselves were
included within the narrow circle of feudalism . defending Nuremberg , and thus it could give its
They bought with their money , or they wrested undivided attention to the cultivation of those arts
by their power, charters of freedom from their in which it so greatly excelled , when its less happily
sovereigns, or their feudal barons. They consti- situated neighbours were wasting their treasure and
tuted themselves into independent and self-governed pouring out their blood on the battle- field .
bodies. They were, in fact, republics on a small The “ Golden Bull,” in distributing the imperial
scale , in the heart of great monarchies. Within honours among the more famous of the German
the walls of their cities slavery was abolished, laws cities , did not overlook this one. If it assigned
were administered , and rights were enjoyed. Such to Frankfort the distinction of being the place of
towns began to multiply as it drew towards the the emperor's “ election ," and if it enacted to Augs
era of the Reformation, not in Germany only, but burg the honour of seeing him crowned , it required
in France, in Italy, and in the Low Countries , and that the emperor should hold his first court in
they were among the first to welcome the approach Nuremberg. The castle of the mediæval emperors
of that great moral and social renovation. is still to be seen. It crowns the height which
Nuremberg, which held so conspicuous a place rises on the northern bank of the Pegnitz, imme
in this galaxy of free towns, was first of all diately within the city-gate , on the right, as one
governed by a Burgrave, or Stadtholder. It is a enters from the north, and from this eminence it
curious fact that the royal house of Prussia make overlooks the town which lies at its feet , thickly
their first appearance in history as the Burgraves planted along the stream that divides it into two
of Nuremberg. That office they held till about equal halves. The builder of the royal château
the year 1414, when Frederick IV . sold his right, obviously was compelled to follow , not the rules of
together with his castle, to the Nurembergers, and architecture, but the angles and irregularities of
with the sum thus obtained purchased the Mar- the rock on which he placed it, and there it is, a
quisate of Brandenburg . This was the second strong, uncouth , unshapely fabric, forming a striking
stage in the advance of that house to the pinnacle contrast to the many graceful edifices in the city
of political greatness to which it long afterwards on which it looks down .
attained . In this city was the Diet at this time assembled.
When the reign of the burgrave came to an end. It was the seat (938) of the first Diet of the
a republic, or rather oligarchy, next succeeded as Empire, and since that day how often had the
the form of government in Nuremberg. First of grandees , the mailed chivalry, and the spiritual
all was a Council of Three Hundred , which had princedoms of Germany gathered within its walls !
the power of imposing taxes and contributions, and One can imagine how gay Nuremberg was on these
of deciding on the weighty question of peace and occasions,when the banner of the emperor floated
war. The Council of Three Hundred annually on its castle, and warders were going their rounds
elected a smaller body, consisting of only thirty on its walls, and sentinels were posted in its
members, by whom the ordinary government of flanking towers,and a crowd of lordly and knightly
the city was administered. The Great Council was company, together with a good deal that was
composed of patricians, with a sprinkling of the neither lordly nor knightly , were thronging its
more opulent of the merchants and artificers. The streets, and peering curiously into its studios and
Council of Thirty was composed of patricians only. workshops, and ransacking its marts and ware
Further , Nuremberg had a considerable territory houses, stocked with the precious products of far
around it, of which it was the capital, and which distant climes. Nor would the Nurembergers be
was amply studded with towns. Outside its walls - - . - - - --- - - ---
was a circuit of some hundred miles, in which were Declineand Fall, vol. ix., p. 216 ; Edin ., 1832 .
slow to display to the eyes of their visitors the sculptor, and mathematician. This man of genius
marvels of their art and the products of their embraced the faith of Protestantism , and became
which they
enterprise, in both of which were atat that
they were that a friend ofim Luther. Hishohouse is still shown, near
time unequalled on this side the Alps. Nuremberg the old
the perial castle,
old imperial castle,hardrkbys,the a few remagatei
onlynorthern
was, in its way, on these occasions an international of the city. Of his great works, only a few remain
exhibition , and not without advantage to both in Nuremberg ; they have mostly gone to enrich
exhibitor and visitor, stimulating, as no doubt it other cities, that were rich enough to buy what
did , the trade of the one, and refining the taste of Albert Dürer's native town was not wealthy
the other. The men who gathered at these times enough in these latter times to retain .
to Nuremberg were but too accustomed to attach In Nuremberg, too, lived Hans Sachs, the poet,
glory to nothing save tournaments and battle-fields ; also a disciple of the Gospel and a friend of Luther.
but the sight of this city, so rich in achievements The history of Sachs is a most romantic one. He
of another kind, would help to open their eyes, was the son of a tailor in Nuremberg, and was
and show them that there was a more excellent born in 1494, and named Hans after his father.
SS
THE RIVER PEGNITZ, INTERSECTING THE CITY OF NUREMBERG .
way to fame, and that the chisel could win triumphs Hans adopted the profession of a shoemaker, and
which , if less bloody than those of the sword, were the house in which he worked still exists, and is
far more beneficial to mankind, and gave to their situated in the same quarter of the town with that
authors a renown that was far purer and more of Albert Dürer. But the workshop of Hans Sachs
lasting than that of arms. could not hold his genius. Quitting his stall one
Now it was the turn of the Nurembergers them - day, he sallied forth bent on seeing the world . He
selves to wonder. The Gospel had entered their passed some time in the brilliant train of the
gates, and many welcomed it as a " pearl ” more Emperor Maximilian. He returned to Nurem
to be esteemed than the richest jewel or the finest berg and married. The Reformation breaking
fabric that India or Asia had ever sent to their forth, his mind opened to the glory of the truth,
markets. It was to listen to the new wonders and then it was that his poetic imagination, in
now for the first time brought to their knowledge, vigorated and sanctified, burst out in holy songs,
that the citizens of Nuremberg were day by day which resounded through Germany, and helped to
crowding the Church of St. Sebaldus and the prepare the minds of men for the mighty revolu
Cathedral of St. Lawrence. Among these multi- tion that was going forward. “ The spiritual songs
tudes, now hanging on the lips of Osiander and of Hans Sachs,” says D 'Aubigné, “ and his Bible
other preachers, was Albert Dürer, the great painter, in verse , were a powerful help to this great work.
THE MEDIÆVAL CITIES OF EUROPE. 499
It would perhaps be hard to decide who did the derful mosque, fashioned out of the spolia opima
most for it— the Prince-Elector of Saxony, ad- of Africa and the Levant, and spread around this
ministrator of the Empire, or the Nuremberg unique temple is perhaps the greatest labyrinth of
shoemaker !" narrow and winding lanes that anywhere exists.
Here, too, and about the same period, lived There is Grenada, whose streets and fountains and
Peter Vischer, the gardens are still redo
sculptor and caster in lent of theMoor, and
bronze ; Adam Craft, which borrows a fur
the sculptor, whose ther glory from the
“ seven pillars ” are two magnificent ob
still to be seen in the jects by which it is
2
Church of St. Claire ; overhung— the one of
W
AX W w
A
2
AC
Veit Stoss, the carver ONA
art, the Alhambra,
W
in wood ; and many VA
A
Y
whose unique and
besides, quick of eye dazzling beauty it has
1
0
and cunning of hand , defied the spoiler to

whose names have destroy ; and the other
D
perished, now live in of nature, the Sierra

HET
their works alone, Nevada, which towers

which not only served aloft in snowy gran
S
as models to the men deur, and greets its

of their own age, but brother Atlas across
have stimulated the the Straits. And,not
ingenuity and im to multiply instances,
proved the taste of SH
there is Malaga, a
UTAN
many in ours. relic of a still more
On another ground ancient time than the
GLA
Nuremberg is worth Moorish age, showing

our study. It is per us how the Phæni
LEA
haps the best- pre cians built, and what

WALD
AN
served mediæval town SI sort ' of cities were
north of the Alps. LES upon the earth when
.3
To visit it then , PRIDE

civilisation was con
though only in the fined to the shores
To
page of the describer, 3 of the Mediterranean,

is to see the very and the mariner had
scenes amid which not yet ventured to
some of the great steer his bark beyond
events of the Refor the “ Pillars of Her
mation were trans cules."
acted , and the very TE But there is no city
streets on which their in Northern Europe
actors walked and the - no relic of the
houses in which they architecture of the
lived. In Spain there ST. SED
ST. SEBALD'S CHURCH, NUREMBERG. Germanic nations,
remain to this day when that architec
cities of an age still more remote, and an archi- ture was in its prime, or had but recently begun to
tecture still more curious. There is Toledo, whose decline, at all to be compared with Nuremberg.
seven -hilled site, washed by the furious torrent of As it was when the emperor trod its streets, and
the Tagus, lifts high in the air, and sets in bold the magnificence of Germany was gathered into it ,
relief against the sky, its many beautiful structures and the flourish of trumpets and the roll of drums
- its lovely Alcazar, its cathedral roofs, its ruined blended with the peaceful din of its chisels and
synagogues, its Moorish castles — the whole looking hammers, so is it now . The same portals with
more like the creation of a magician than the work their rich carvings ; the same windows with their
of the mason. There is Cordova, with its won - deepmullions; the same fountainswith their curious
devices and
amatic devices
emblematic and pictinurbronze
and groups, esque gaorbonind After a time the place , so full of fanciful and
stone ; the same peaked and picturesque gables ; droll and beautiful imaginings, begins to act upon
like ana enchantment. The spirit that lives in
one like
the same lofty roofs, running up into the sky and one
presenting successive rows of attic windows, their these creations is as unabated as if the artist had
fronts all richly embellished and hung with dra - just laid down his chisel. One cannot persuade
peries of wreathed work , wrought in stone by the one's self that the hands that fashioned them have
hands of cunning men - in short, the same assem - long ago mouldered into dust. No ; their authors
blage of curious, droll, beautiful, and majestic are living still, and one looks to see them walk out
objects which were before the eyes of the men at their doors, and feels sure that one would know
who have been four centuries in their grave, meet them — those cunning men, that race of geniuses,
the eye of the traveller at this day. whose wit and wisdom , whose humour and drollery
In the middle of the city is the depression or and mirth burst out and overflowed till the very
valley through which the stream of the Pegnitz stones of their city laughed along with them .
flows. There the buildings cluster thick together, Where are all these men now ? All sleeping to
forming a perfect labyrinth of winding lanes, with gether in the burial-ground, about a mile and a
no end of bridges and canals, and while their half outside the city gate, each in his narrow cell,
peaked roofs tower into the air their bases dip into the skill of their right hand forgotten, but the spell
the water . The rest of the city lies on the two of their power still lingering on the city where they
slopes that run up from the Pegnitz , on either lived, to fascinate and delight and instruct the men
bank, forming thus two divisions which look at of after-times.
each other across the intervening valley . In this Of the edifices of Nuremberg we shall visit only
part of Nuremberg the streets are spacious, the one — the Rath -Haus, or Hôtel de Ville, where the
houses of stone, large and massy , and retaining Diets of the Empire held their sittings, and where,
the remarkable feature we have already mentioned of course, the Diet that had just ended in the
- exceedingly lofty roofs ; for in some instances resolution which so exasperated Campeggio and
six storeys of upright mason-work are surmounted terrified the Vatican had held its deliberations.
by other six storeys of slanting roof, with their It is a magnificent pile, in the Italian style, and
complement of attic windows, suggesting the idea externally in perfect preservation . A lofty portal
of a house upon a house, or of two cities, the one gives admission to a spacious quadrangle. This
upon the ground , the other in the air, and forming no building was erected in 1619, but it includes an
unmeet emblem of the ancient classification of the older town -hall of date 1340. To this older portion
citizens of Nuremberg into plebeian and patrician. belongs the great saloon, variously used in former
To walk through Nuremberg with the hasty step times as a banqueting hall, an audience chamber,
and cursory eye with which a mere modern town and a place of conference for the Diet. Its floor
may be surveyed is impossible. The city , amid all looks as if it would afford standing-room for all the
its decay, is a cabinet of rare curiosities, a gallery citizens of Nuremberg . But vastness is the only
of master-pieces. At every step one is brought up attribute now left it of its former splendour. It is
by some marvel or other--a witty motto ; a quaint long since emperor trod that floor , or warrior
device ; a droll face ; a mediæval saint in wood, blow to the prosperity of Nuremberg. The mariner's
lying as lumber , it may be, in some workshop ; compass, as every one knows, revolutionised the carrying
a bishop, or knight, or pilgrim , in stone, who has trade of the world , closing old channels of commerce and
seen better days ; an elegant fountain , at which opening new . After this invention , ships freighted in
the harbours of the East unloaded only when they
prince or emperor may have stopped to drink , reached the ports of the Western world . The commerce
giving its waters as copiously as ever ; a superb that had flowed for centuries across the plain on which
portal, from which patrician may have walked forth Nuremberg stood ,making it one of its main depôts,was
when good Maximilian was emperor ; or rich oriel after this carried through the Straits or round the Cape ;
oriel, and Nuremberg would now have been like a stranded
at which bright eyes looked out when gallant galleon from which the tide had receded , but for the
knight rode past ; or some palatial mansion that scientific and artistic genius of her sons. They still con
speaks of times when the mariner's compass was tinued , by their skill and industry , to supply the other
cities of Europe with those necessary or luxurious articles
unknown, and the stream of commerce on its way
way which they had not yet learned to create for themselves.
to the West flowed through Nuremberg, and not The railroad is bringing back, in part at least,the trade
as now round the Cape, or through the Straits of and wealth that Nuremberg lost by the mariner 's com
Gibraltar.' pass. It is the centre of the trade between Southern
and Northern Germany ; besides, it has not wholly lost
the artistic skill and mechanical industry for which it
I The discovery of the mariner's compass gave a great was so famous in olden times,
THE TORTURE-CHAMBERS OF NUREMBERG . 501
feasted under that roof, or Diet assembled within a roomier cell. We enter it, and the guide throws
those walls. Time's effacing finger has been busy the glare of his lantern all round, and shows us
with it, and what was magnificence in the days of the apparatus of torture, which rots here unused ,
the emperor, is in ours simply tawdriness. The though not unused in former days. It is a gaunt
paintings on its walls and roof, some of which are iron frame, resembling a long and narrow bedstead ,
from the pencil of Albert Dürer, have lost their fitted from end to end with a series of angular
brilliance, and are now little better than mere rollers. The person who was to undergo the
patches of colour. The gloss has passed from the torture was laid on this horizontal rack. With
silks and velvets of its furniture ; the few chairs
ent every motion of his body to and fro, the rolling
that remain are rickety and worm -eaten ificone ofprisms
ma,gnand us on which he
on which he rested grazed the vertebræ
fcars to trust one's self to nthem
ded . A magnificent of his back , causing great suffering. This was
chandelier still hangs uspe
ings ssuspended forfrom the roof, its one mode of applying the rack, but the next was
gilding sadly tarnished , its lights burned out ; and more frightful. The feet of the poor victim were
suggesting, as it does, to the mind the gaiety of fastened at one end ; at the other his arms were
the past, makes the dreariness and solitariness of extended over his head , and tied with a rope,
the present to be only the more felt. So passes which wound round a windlass. The windlass was
the glory of the world , and so has passed the worked by a lever ; the executioner puts his hand
imperial grandeur which often found in this hall on the lever ; the windlass revolves ; the rope
a stage for its display. tightens ; the limbs of the victim are stretched.
Let us visit the dungeons immediately below the Another wrench : his eyes flash, his lips quiver,
building. This will help us to form some idea of his teeth are clenched ; he groans, he shrieks;
the horrors through which Liberty had to pass in the joints start from their sockets ; and now the
her march down to modern times. Our guide livid face and the sinking pulse tell that the
leaves us for a few minutes, and when he returns torture has been prolonged to the furthest limit
he is carrying a bunch of keys in one hand and a of physical endurance. The sufferer is carried
lantern in the other. We descend a flight of stairs, back to his cell. When , in the course of a few
and stand before a great wooden door. It is weeks, his mangled body has regained a little
fastened crosswise with a heavy iron bar, which strength , he is brought out a second time, and
the guide removes. Then , selecting a key from laid upon the same bed of torture to undergo the
the bunch, he undoes one lock , then another, and same dreadful ordeal. .
heaving back the ponderous door, we enter and take Let us go forward a little further into this sub
our first step into the gloom . We traverse a long terranean realm . We comeat length to the central
dark corridor ; at the end of it we come to another chamber. It is much more roomy than the others .
massy door, secured like the first by a heavy Its air is dank and cold , and the water is filtering
cross-beam . The guide undoes the fastenings, and through the rock overhead . It is full of darkness,
with a creak which echoes drearily through the but there are worse things in it than darkness,
vaulted passage, the door is thrown open and which we can see by the help of our guide's lantern.
gives us admittance. We descend several flights Against the wall leans what seems a ladder ; it
of stairs. The last ray of light has forsaken us a is a machine of torture of the kind we have
long while ago, but we go forward by the help of already described, only used vertically instead of
the lantern. What a contrast to the gilded and horizontally . The person is hauled up by a rope,
painted chambers above ! with a weight attached to his feet, and then he is
On either hand as we go on are the silent stone let suddenly down, the rolling prisms grazing, as
walls ; overhead is the vaulted roof ; at every before, his naked back in his rapid descent.
other pace the guide stops, and calls our attention There is yet another “ torture " in this horrible
to doors in the wall on either hand, which open chamber. In the centre of the roof is an iron ring.
into numerous side chambers, or vaulted dungeons, Through the ring passes a strong iror: chain , which
for the reception of prisoners. To lie here, in hangs down and is attached to a windlass. On the
this living grave, in utter darkness, in cold and floor lies a great block of stone with a ring in it.
misery, was dreadful enough ; but there were more This block was attached to the feet of the victim ;
horrible things near at hand , ready to do their his hands were tied behind his back with the iron
terrible work , and which made the unhappy oc- chain ; and , thus bound, he was pulled up to the
capants of these cells forget all the other horrors roof, and suddenly let fall to within a foot or so
of their dismal abode. of the floor. The jerk was so severe as commonly
Passing on a pace or two further, we come to to dislocate his limbs.
The unhappy man when suspended in this fashion from actual observation, the whole apparatus of
could be dealt with as his tormentors chose. They torture is still shown in the subterranean chambers
could tear his flesh with pincers , scorch his feet that were used by the agents of the “ Holy Office."
with live coals, insert burning matches beneath We reserve the description of these dungeons, with
his skin , flay him alive, or practise upon him any their horrible instruments, till we come to speak
barbarity their malignity or cruelty suggested. The more particularly of the Inquisition. Even the
subject is an ungrateful one, and we quit it. These political prisons are sufficiently dismal. It is sad
cells were reserved for political offenders. They to think that such prisons existed in the heart of
were accounted too good for those tainted with Germany, and in the free town of Nuremberg, in
heretical pravity . Deeper dungeons, and more the sixteenth century . The far-famed prisons of
horrible instruments of torture, were prepared for Venice ” — and here too we speak from actual
the confessors of the Gospel. The memorials of inspection - are not half so gloomy and terrible.
the awful cruelties perpetrated on the Protestants These dungeons in Nuremberg show us how stern
of the sixteenth century are to be seen in Nurem - a thing government was in the Middle Ages, before
berg at this day. The “ Holy Offices ” of Spain the Reformation had come with its balmy breath
and Italy have been dismantled , and little now to chase away the world 's winter, and temper the
remains save the walls of the buildings in which rigours of law , by teaching mercy as well as ven
the business of the Inquisition was carried on ; but, geance to the ruler. These things show how diffi
strange to say, in Nuremberg, as we can testify cult it was to be a patriot in the sixteenth century !
CHAPTER VI.
THE RATISBON LEAGUE AND REFORMATION .
Protestantism in Nuremberg - German Provinces Declare for theGospel - Intrigues of Campeggio - Ratisbon League
- Ratisbon Scheme of Reform - Rejected by the German Princes - Letter of Pope Clement to the Emperor
The Emperor's Letter from Burgos - Forbids the Diet at Spires – German Unity Broken - Two Camps - Persecution
- Martyrs.
NUREMBERG had thrown itself heartily into the forth and placed upon it: prayer was offered, a psalm
tide of the Reform movement. It was not to be sung, and the elements were dispensed, while some
kept back either by the muttered displeasure of 4 ,000 communicants came forward to partake. The
the Pope's legate , or the more outspoken threaten- spectacle caused infinite disgust to Campeggio , but
ings of the emperor's envoy. The intelligent how to prevent it he knew not. Hunnaart thought,
citizens of Nuremberg felt that Protestantism doubtless , that had his master been present this
brought with it a genial air, in which they could would not have been ; these haughty citizens
more freely breathe. It promised a re -invigoration would not have dared to flaunt their heresy in the
to their city, the commerce of which had begun face of the emperor. But Charles was detained
to wane, and its arts to decline, as the conse- by his quarrels with Francis I. and the troubles in
quence of the revolutions which the mariner's Spain .
compass had brought with it. Their preachers From the hour the Diet broke up, both sides
appeared daily in the pulpit ; crowded congre- began busily to prepare for the meeting at Spires
gations daily assembled in the large Church of in November. The princes, on their return to
St. Sebald , on the northern bank of the Pegnitz , their States, began to collect the suffrages of their
and in the yet more spacious Cathedral of St. people on the question of Church Reform ; and the
Lawrence, in the southern quarter of the city. legate, on his part, without a day's delay, began
The tapers were extinguished ; the images stood his intrigues to prevent the meeting of an assembly
neglected in their niches, or were turned out of which threatened to deliver the heaviest blow his
doors ; neither pyx, nor cloud of incense , nor con- master's authority had yet received .
secrated wafer was to be seen ; the altar had been The success of the princes friendly to the Re
changed into a table ; bread and winewere brought formed faith exceeded their expectations. The all
THE RATISBON REFORMATION . 503
but unanimous declaration of the provinces was, As a set-off against these stern measures , they
“ We will serve Rome no longer.” Franconia , promised a few very mild reforms. The ecclesi
Brandenburg, Henneburg , Windsheim , Wertheim , astical imposts were to be lightened , and the
and Nuremberg declared against the abuses of the Church festivals made somewhat less numerous.
mass , against the seven Popish Sacraments, against And, not able apparently to see that they were
the adoration of images, and, reserving the un - falling into the error which they condemned in the
kindliest cut for the last, against the Papal proposed Diet at Spires, they proceeded to enact
supremacy. These dogmatic changes would draw a standard of orthodoxy, consisting of the first
after them a host of administrative reforms. The four Latin Fathers— Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine,
pretext for the innumerable Romish exactions, of and Gregory — whose opinions were to be the rule
which the Germans so loudly complained , would according to which all preachers were to interpret
be swept away. No longer would come functions Scripture. Such was the Ratisbon Reformation ,
and graces from Rome, and the gold of Germany as it came afterwards to be called .
would cease to flow thither in return . The Pro- The publication of the legate's project was viewed
testant theologians were overjoyed . A few months, as an insult by the princes of the opposite party .
and the national voice, through its constituted organ What right, they asked, have a few princes and
the Diet , will have pronounced in favour of Re- bishops to constitute themselves the representatives
form . The movement will be safely piloted into of the nation , and to make a law for the whole
the harbour. of Germany ? Who gave them this authority ?
The consternation of the Romish party was in Besides, what good will a Reformation do us that
proportion. They saw the gates of the North removes only the smaller abuses, and leaves the
opening a second time, and the German hosts in great altogether imtouched ? It is not the humbler
full march upon the Eternal City. What was to clergy, but the prelates and abbots who oppress
be done ? Campeggio was on the spot ; and it was us, and these the Ratisbon Convention leaves
fortunate for Rome that he was so , otherwise the flourishing in their wealth and power. Nor does
subsequent intervention of the Pope and the this Reform give us the smallest hope that we shall
emperor might have come too late. The legate be protected in future from the manifold exactions
adopted the old policy of “ divide and conquer.” of the Roman court. In condemning the lesser
Withdrawing from a Diet which contemplated evils , does not the League sanction the greater ?
usurping the most august functions of his master, Even Pallavicino has acknowledged that this judg
Campeggio retired to Ratisbon, and there set to work ment of the princes on the Ratisbon Reformation
to form a party among the princes of Germany. was just ,when he says that “ the physician in the
He succeeded in drawing around him Ferdinand , cure of his patient ought to begin not with the
Archduke of Austria, the Dukes of Bavaria , the small, but the great remedies." 3
Archbishop of Salzburg, and the Bishops of Trent The legate had done well, and now the Pope,
and Ratisbon. These were afterwards joined by who saw that he must grasp the keys more firmly,
most of the bishops of Southern Germany. Cam - or surrender them altogether, followed up with
peggio represented to this convention that the vigour the measures of Campeggio. Clement VII.
triumph of Wittemberg was imminent, and that wrote in urgent terms to Charles V ., telling him
with the fall of the Papacy was bound up the that the Empire was in even greater danger from
destruction of their own power, and the dissolu - these audacious Germans than the tiara. Charles
tion of the existing order of things. To avert did not need this spur. He was sufficiently alive
these terrible evils, they resolved, the 6th of July , to what was due to him as emperor. This proposal
to forbid the printing of Luther's books ; to permit of the princes to hold a Diet irrespective of the
no married priests to live in their territories ; to emperor's authority stung him to the quick. .
recall the youth of their dominions who were The Pope's letter found the emperor at Burgos,
studying at Wittemberg ; to tolerate no change in the capital of Old Castile. The air of the place
the mass or public worship ; and, in fine, to put was not favourable to concessions to Lutheranism .
into execution the Edict of Worms against Luther. Everything around Charles — a cathedral of un
They concluded, in short, to wage a war of exter rivalled magnificence , the lordly priests by which
mination against the new faith .” it was served , the devotion of the Castilians, with
other tokens of the pomp and power of Catholicism
i D ' Aubigné, bk. X., chap. 5.
Pallavicino, lib . ii., cap. 11. Sleidan , bk . iv., p. 74. 3 Fra -Paolo Sarpi, livr. i., p. 68. Pallavicino, lib. ii.,
Fra- Paolo Sarpi, livr. i., p . 67 ; Basle , 1738 . cap . 11.
- must have inspired him with even more than his meeting of the Diet at Spires, under penalty of
usual reverence for the old religion , and made the high treason and ban of the Empire. The princes
project of the princes appear in his eyes doubly a eventually submitted , and thus the projected Diet,
crime. He wrote in sharp terms to them , saying which had excited so great hopes on the one side
that it belonged to him as emperor to demand of and so great alarm on the other,never met."
the Pope that a Council should be convoked ; that The issue of the affair was that the unity of
he and the Pope alone were the judges when it Germany was broken. From this hour, there were
was a fitting time to convoke such an assembly, a Catholic Diet and a Protestant Diet in the
Te
E
V
ALBERT DÜRER.
and that when he saw that a Council could be Empire - a Catholic Germany and a Protestant
held with profit to Christendom hewould ask the Germany. The rent was made by Campeggio, and
Pope to summon one ; that, meanwhile, till a what he did was endorsed and completed by
General Council should meet, it was their duty Charles V . The Reformation was developing
peacefully in the Empire ; the majority of the
to acquiesce in the ecclesiastical settlement which
had been made at Worms; that at that Diet all Diet was on its side ; the several States and cities
the matters which they proposed to bring again were rallying to it ; there was the promise that
into discussion at Spires had been determined , and soon it would be seen advancing under the ægis
that to meet to discuss them over again was to of a united Fatherland : but this fair prospect
unsettle them . In fine, he reminded them of the
Edict of Worms against Luther, and called on Sleidan, bk. iv.,pp,75,76. Pallavicino lib. ii.,cap.10.
them to put it in execution . He forbade the Fra -Paolo Sarpi, livr. i., pp, 69, 70.
PERSECUTION OF PROTESTANTS. 505
was suddenly and fatally blighted by the formation duke Ferdinand and the Papal legate journeyed
of an Anti-Protestant League. The unity thus together to Vienna. On the road thither, they
broken has never since been restored. It must came to an understanding as to the practical steps
not be overlooked that this was the doing of the for carrying out the league. What these were was
Romanist party. soon apparent. Gaspard Tauber, of Vienna , whose
What a deplorable event ! exclaims the reader. crime was the circulating of Luther's books, was
And truly it was. It had to be expiated by the among the first to suffer. An idea got abroad that
wars, the revolutions, the political and religious he would recant. Two pulpits were erected in the
strifes of three centuries. Christendom was entering churchyard of St. Stephen 's. From the one Tauber
on the peaceful and united rectification of the errors was to read his recantation, and from the other a
Al
RE
VIEW or BURGOS, SITOWING THE CATHEDRAL.
of ages- the removal of those superstitious beliefs priest was to magnify the act as a new trophy of
which had poisoned the morals of the world , and the power of the Roman Church . Tauber rose in
furnished a basis for ecclesiastical and political presence of the vast multitude assembled in the
despotisms. And, with a purified conscience, there grave-yard , who awaited in deep silence the first;
would have comean enlarged and liberated intellect, words of recantation . To their amazement hemade
the best patron of letters and art, of liberty and of a bolder confession of his faith than ever. Hewas
industry. With the rise of these two hostile camps, immediately dragged to execution, decapitated , and
the world's destinies were fatally changed . Hence- his body thrown into the fire and consumed. His
forward Protestantism must advance by way of the Christian intrepidity on the scaffold made a deep im
stake. But,lacking these many heroic deaths, these pression on his townsmen. At Buda, in Hungary,a
hundreds of thousands of martyrs,what a splendour Protestant bookseller was burned with his books
would have been lacking to Protestantism ! piled up around him . Hewas heard amid the flames
The conferences at Ratisbon lasted a fortnight, proclaiming the joy with which he suffered for the
and when at length they came to an end , the Arch - sake of Christ. An inquisitor, named Reichler,
43
traversed Wurtemberg , hanging Lutherans on the from the monastery at Antwerp in 1523,when the
trees, and nailing the Reformed preachers to posts converts Esch and Voes were seized and burned ,
by the tongue, and leaving them to die on the spot, he preached the Gospel for two years in Bremen.
or set themselves free at the expense of self-muti- His fame as a preacher extending, he was invited
lation, and the loss of that gift by which they had to proclaim the Reformed doctrine to the unin
served Christ in the ministry of the Gospel. In structed people of the Dittmarches country. He
the territories of the Archbishop of Salzburg, a repaired thither, and had appeared only once in
Protestant who was being conducted to prison was the pulpit, when the house in which he slept was
released by two peasants, while his guards were surrounded at midnight by a mob, heated by the
carousing in an alehouse. The peasants were be- harangues of the prior of the Dominicans and the
headed outside the walls of the city without form fumes of Hamburg beer. He was pulled out of
of trial. There was a Reign of Terror in Bavaria . bed , beaten with clubs, dragged on foot over many
It was not on those in humble life only that the miles of a road covered with ice and snow , and
storm fell ; the magistrate on the bench , the baron finally thrown on a slow fire and burned .' Such
in his castle found no protection from the persecutor. were the means which the “ Ratisbon Reformers "
The country swarmed with spies , and friend dared adopted for repressing Protestantism , and uphold
not confide in friend. ing the old order of things. “ The blood he is
This fanatical rage extended to some parts of shedding," exclaimed Luther, on being told of
Northern Germany. The tragical fate of Henry these proceedings, “ will choke the Pope at last,
van Zutphen deserves a short notice. Escaping with his kings and kingdoms."
CHAPTER VII.
LUTHER' S VIEWS ON THE SACRAMENT AND IMAGE-WORSHIP.
New Friends - Philip , Landgrave of Hesse- Meeting between him and Melancthon - Joins the Reformation --Duke
Ernest, & c. - Knights of the Teutonic Order - Their Origin and History - Royal House of Prussia - Free Cities
Services to Protestantism - Division - CarlstadtOpposes Luther on the Sacrament- Luther's Early Views - Recoil
-
- Essence of Paganism - Opus Operatum — Calvin and Zwingle's View - Carlstadt Leaves Wittemberg and goes to
- -
Orlamund - Sceneat the Inn at Jena - Luther Disputes at Orlamund on Image-worship - Carlstadt Quits Sarony
-
-- Death of the Elector Frederick .
While its enemies were forming leagues and un- knight at the head of the first party, dashing
sheathing their swords against the Reformation, forward , placed himself by the side of the illustrions
new friends were hastening to place themselves on doctor, and begged him to turn his horse's head ,
its side. It was at this hour that some of the and accompany him a short way on the road . The
more powerful princes of Germany stepped out prince who now accosted Melancthon was the young
from the ranks of the Romanists, and inscribed Landgrave of Hesse. Philip of Hesse had felt
the “ evangel ” on their banners, declaring that the impulses of the times, and was inquiring
henceforward under this “ sign ” only would they whether it was not possible to discover a better
fight. Over against the camp formed by Austria way than that of Rome. He had been presentat
and Bavaria was pitched that of the Landgrave of the Diet of Worms; had been thrilled by the
Hesse and the free cities. address of Luther ; he had craved an intervier
One day in June, 1524, a knightly cavalcade with him immediately after, and ever since bad
was passing along the high-road which traverses kept revolving the matter in his heart. A chances
the plain that divides Frankfort from the Taunus as it seemed, had now thrown Melancthon in his
mountains. The party were on their way to the way. He opened his mind to him as he iode
games at Heidelberg. As they rode along, two
solitary travellers on horseback were seen ap Sleidan, bk. iv., p. 75. Luth . Opp., lib. xis., p. $30.
proaching. On coming nearer , they were recognised D'Aubigné, vol. ii., pp. 151 – 155 ; Glas., 1855.
to be Philip Melancthon and his friend. The ? Luther to Hausmann, 1524, p . 563.
NEW ACCESSIONS TO PROTESTANTISM . 507
along by his side, and, in reply , the doctor gave solve the order," said the Reformer ; “ take a wife ;
the prince a clear and comprehensive outline of the and erect your quasi-religious domain into a secular
Reformed doctrine. This oral statement Melanc- and hereditary duchy.” Albert, adopting the counsel
thon supplemented, on his return to Wittemberg , of Luther, opened to himself and his family the
by a written " epitome of the renovated doctrines road that at a future day was to conduct to the
of Christianity,” the study ofwhich made the land imperial crown. He renounced his order of monk
grave resolve to cast in his lot with Protestantism . hood, professed the Reformed faith , married a
He embraced it with characteristic ardour, for he princess of Denmark, and declared Prussia an
did nothing by halves. He made the Gospel be hereditary duchy, doing homage for it to the
preached in his dominions, and as he brought to crown of Poland. He was put under the ban of
the cause the whole energy of his character, and the Empire ; but retained, nevertheless, possession
the whole influence of his position, he rendered of his dominions. In process of time this rich
it no ordinary services. In conflicts to come, his inheritance fell to the possession of the electoral
plume was often seen waving in the thick of the branch of his family ; all dependence on the crown
battle. of Poland was cast off'; the duchy was converted
About the same time, other princes transferred into a kingdom , and the title of duke exchanged
the homage of their hearts and the services of their for the loftier one of king. The fortunes of the
lives to the same cause. Among these were Duke house continued to grow till at last its head took
Ernest of Luneburg, who now began to promote his place among the great sovereigns of Europe.
the reformation of his States ; the Elector of the Another and higher step awaited him . In 1870,
Palatinate ; and Frederick I. of Denmark, who, at the close of the Franco-German war, the King
as Duke of Schleswig and Holstein , ordained that of Prussia became Emperor of Germany.3
all under him should be free to worship God as In the rear of the princes, and in some instances
their consciences might direct. in advance of them , came the free cities. We
These accessions were followed by another, on have spoken of their rise in a former chapter.
which time has since set the print of vast im - They eminently prepared the soil for the reception
portance. Its consequences continue to be felt of Protestantism . They were nurseries of art,
down to our own times. The knight who now cultivators of knowledge, and guardians of liberty.
transferred his homage to the cause of Protestantism We have already seen that at Nuremberg, during
was the head of the house of Prussia , then Mar- the sittings of the Diet, and despite the presence
grave of Brandenburg . of the legate of the Pope and the ambassador of
The chiefs of the now imperial house of Prussia the emperor, Protestant sermonswere daily preached
were originally Burgraves of Nuremberg . They in the two cathedral churches ; and when Cam
sold, as
sold , as we have already said , this dignity, and peggio threatened to apprehend and punish the
they receraveship of the
the price they received for it enabled them to preachers in the name of his master, the munici
purchase the Margraveship of Brandenburg. In pality spiritedly forbade him to touch a hair of
1511, Albert, the then head of the house of Bran - their heads. Other towns followed the example
denburg, became Grand Master of the Teutonic of Nuremberg. The Municipal Diets of Ulm and
Order. This was perhaps the most illustrious of Spires (1524) resolved that the clergy should be
all those numerous orders of religious knights , or sustained in preaching the pure Gospel, and bound
monks, which were founded during the frenzy of themselves by mutual promise to defend each
the Crusades,” in defence of the Christian faith other against any attempt to execute the Edict
against heathens and infidels. They wore a white of Worms.
cross as their badge. Albert, the present Grand At the very moment that Protestantism was
Master, while attending the Diet at Nuremberg, receiving these powerful accessions from without,
had listened to the sermons of Osiander, and had a principle of weakness was being developed within .
begun to doubt the soundness of the Roman creed, The Reformers , hitherto a united phalanx, began
and , along with that, the lawfulness of his vow to be parted into two camps- -the Lutheran and
as Grand Master of the Teutonic monks. He the Reformed . It is now that we trace the incipient
obtained an interview with Luther , and craved his rise of the two powerful parties which have con
advice. “ Renounce your Grand-Mastership ; dis- tinued , down to our day, to divide the Protestant
- - - - -- world , and to retard the march of the Reformation .
I Camerarius, p. 94.
2 The order was instituted in A.D . 1190, and the first
Master was chosen in the camp before Ptolemais . 3 Robertson , Hist. Charles V., bk . iv . Sleidan , bk . v.,
( Sleidan .) pp . 98 , 99,
emblematic devices and groups, in bronze or in After a time the place, so full of fanciful and
the same lofty roofs, running up into the sky and one like an enchantment. The spirit that lives in
fronts all richly embellished and hung with dra- just laid down his chisel. One cannot persuade
peries of wreathed work , wrought in stone by the one's self that the hands that fashioned them have
hands of cunning men - in short, the same assem long ago mouldered into dust. No ; their authors
objects which were before the eyes of the men at their doors , and feels sure that one would know
who have been four centuries in their grave, meet them — those cunning men , that race of geniuses,
forming a perfect labyrinth of winding lanes , with gether in the burial-ground, about a mile and a
no end of bridges and canals, and while their half outside the city gate, each in his narrow cell,
the water. The rest of the city lies on the two of their power still lingering on the city where they
slopes that run up from the Pegnitz, on either lived, to fascinate and delight and instruct the men
each other across the intervening valley. In this Of the edifices of Nuremberg we shall visit only
houses of stone, large and massy , and retaining Diets of the Empire held their sittings, and where,
the remarkable feature we have already mentioned of course , the Diet that had just ended in the
six storeys of upright mason -work are surmounted terrified the Vatican had held its deliberations.
complement of attic windows, suggesting the idea externally in perfect preservation. A lofty portal
upon the ground , theother in the air, and forming no building was erected in 1619, but it includes an
unmeet emblem of the ancient classification of the older town-hall of date 1340. To this older portion
may be surveyed is impossible. The city, amid all looks as if it would afford standing-room for all the
its decay, is a cabinet of rare curiosities, a gallery citizens of Nuremberg. But vastness is the only
by some marvel or other — a witty motto ; a quaint long since emperor trod that floor, or warrior
device ; a droll face ; a mediæval saint in wood ,
lying as lumber, it may be, in some workshop ; blow to the prosperity of Nuremberg . The mariner's
compass, as every one knows, revolutionised the carrying
a bishop, or knight, or pilgrim , in stone, who has trade of the world, closing old channels of commerce and
prince or emperor may have stopped to drink, reached
giving its waters as copiously as ever ; a superb that had the portsforof centuries
flowed the Western world.
across The commerce
the plain on which
portal, from which patrician may have walked forth Nuremberg stood , making it one of its main depôts, was
when good Maximilian was as emperor
emperor .; or
or rich
rich oriel after this carried through the Straits or round the Cape
oriel, and Nuremberg would now have been like a str .
at which bright eyes looked out when gallant galleon from which the tide had receded , but fo
knight rode past ; or some palatial mansion that scientific and artistic genius of her sons. They stil
speaks of times when the mariner's compass was tinued , by their skill and industry, to supply th
cities of Europewith those necessary or luxuriou
unknown, and the stream of commerce on its way which they had not yet learned to create for the
to the West flowed through Nuremberg, and not The railroad is bringing back, in part at least,
as now round the Cape, or through the Straits of and wealth that Nuremberg lost by the marii
Gibraltar. pass. It is the centre of the trade between
and Northern Germany ; besides, it has not w
the artistic skill and mechanical industry fc
THE TORTURE-CHAMBERS OF NUREMBERG. 501
those walls. Time's effacing finger has been busy the glare of his lantern all round , and shows us
ffrom
roillithe Tnowhe gllittle
andu areof Albert
an , pencil osDürer,
siturbetter
e ;have tlost
the than dtheir
one
e, anmere fitted from end to end with a series of angular
brilliancece, and r. rollers. The person who was to undergo the
silks and velvets of its furniture ; the few chairs every motion of his body to and fro , the rolling
that remain are rickety and worm -eaten , and one prisms on backewhich he rested grazed the vertebræ
fcars to trust one's self to them . A magnificent his back,
ofof his r causing great suffering. This was
chandelier still hangs suspended from the roof, its one mode of applying the rack, but the next was
gilding sadly tarnished, its lights burned out ; and more frightful. The feet of the poor victim were
the past, makes the dreariness and solitariness of extended over his head, and tied with a rope,
imperial grandeur which often found in this hall on the lever ; the windlass revolves ; the rope
a stage for its display. tightens ; the limbs of the victim are stretched .
building. This will help us to form some idea of his teeth are clenched ; he groans, he shrieks ;
leaves us for a few minutes, and when he returns torture has been prolonged to the furthest limit
he is carrying a bunch of keys in one hand and a of physical endurance . The sufferer is carried
the guide removes. Then, selecting a key from laid upon the same bed of torture to undergo the
the bunch, he undoes one lock, then another, and samedreadful ordeal.
heaving back the ponderousdoor,we enter and take Let us go forward a little further into this sub
our first step into gloom . We traverse a long terranean realm . We come at length to the central
dark corridor ; of it we come to an chamber. It is much more roomy than the others.
massy door, the first by a air is dank and cold , and the water is filtering
er do tening gh the rock overhead. It is full of darkness,
ak ere are worse things in it than darkness ,
can see by the help of our guide's lantern .
he wall leans what seems a ladder ; it
e of torture of the kind we have
1, only used vertically instead of
person is hauled up by a rope,
d to his feet, and then he is
rolling prisms grazing, as
his rapid descent.
orture" in this horrible
the roof is an iron ring.
rong iroi: chain , which
o a windlass. On the
tone with a ring in it.
he feet of the victim ;
s back with the iron
vas pulled up to the
within a foot or so
severe as commonly
emblematic devices and groups, in bronze or in After a time the place, so full of fanciful and
the same lofty roofs, running up into the sky and one like an enchantment. The spirit that lives in
fronts all richly embellished and hung with dra just laid down his chisel. One cannot persuade
peries of wreathed work, wrought in stone by the one's self that the hands that fashioned them have
hands of cunning men -- in short, the same assem - long ago mouldered into dust. No ; their authors
objects which were before the eyes of the men at their doors, and feels sure that one would know
who have been four centuries in their grave, meet them — those cunning men, that race of geniuses,
forming a perfect labyrinth of winding lanes, with gether in the burial-ground, about a mile and a
no end of bridges and canals, and while their half outside the city gate , each in his narrow cell,
the water. The rest of the city lies on the two of their power still lingering on the city where they
slopes that run up from the Pegnitz, on either lived , to fascinate and delight and instruct the men
each other across the intervening valley. In this Of the edifices of Nuremberg we shall visit onlycam
held theird just peggiorations
houses of stone, large and massy, and retaining Diets of the Empire held their sittings, and where,
the remarkable feature we have already mentioned of course , the Diet that had just ended in the
six storeys of upright mason-work are surmounted terrified the Vatican had held its deliberations.
complement of attic windows, suggesting the idea externally in perfect preservation. A lofty portal
upon the ground, the other in the air,and forming no building was erected in 1619, but it includes an
unmeet emblem of the ancient classification of the older town-hall of date 1340. To this older portion
may be surveyed is impossible. The city, amid all looks as if it would afford standing-room for all the
its decay, is a cabinet of rare curiosities, a gallery citizens of Nuremberg. But vastness is the only
by somemarvel or other — a witty motto ; a quaint long since emperor trod that floor, or warrior
device ; a droll face ; a mediæval saint in wood, blow to the prosperity of Nuremberg. The mariner 's
lying as lumber, it may be, in some workshop ; compass, as every one knows, revolutionised the carrying
a bishop , or knight, or pilgrim , in stone, who has trade of the world , closing old channels of commerce and
prince or emperor may have stopped to drink, reached the ports of the Western world . The commerce
giving its waters as copiously as ever ; a superb that had flowed for centuries across the plain on which
portal, from which patrician may have walked forth Nuremberg stood , making it one of its main depôts, was
after this carried through the Straits or round the Cape ;
when good Maximilian was emperor ; or rich oriel, and Nuremberg would now have been like a stranded
at which bright eyes looked out when gallant galleon from which the tide had receded , but for the
knight rode past ; or some palatial mansion that scientific and artistic genius of her sons. They still con
speaks of times when the mariner's compass was tinued , by their skill and industry, to supply the other
cities of Europe with those necessary or luxurious articles
unknown, and the stream of commerce on its way which they had not yet learned to create for themselves.
to theWest flowed through Nuremberg, and not The railroad is bringing back, in part at least, the trade
as now round the Cape , or through the Straits of and wealth that Nuremberg lost by the mariner's com
Gibraltar. pass. It is the centre of the trade between Southern
and Northern Germany ; besides, it has not wholly lost
the artistic skill and mechanical industry for which it
THE TORTURE-CHAMBERS OF NUREMBERG . 501
those walls. Time's effacing finger has been busy the glare of his lantern all round , and shows us
from the pencil of Albert Dürer, have lost their fitted from end to end with a series of angular
brilliance, and are now little better than mere rollers. The person who was to undergo the
silks and velvets of its furniture ; the few chairs every motion of his body to and fro, the rolling
that remain are rickety and worm -eaten, and one prisms on which he rested grazed the vertebræ
fcars to trust one's self to them . A magnificent of his back , causing great suffering. This was
chandelier still hangs suspended from the roof, its one mode of applying the rack, but the next was
S and some saiets and
gilding sadly tarnished , its lights burned out ; and more frightful. The feet of the poor victim were
the past, makes the dreariness and solitariness of extended over his head, and tied with a rope,
imperial grandeur 'which often found in this hall on the lever ; the windlass revolves ; the rope
a stage for its display. tightens ; the limbs of the victim are stretched .
building. This will help us to form some idea of his teeth are clenched ; he groans, he shrieks ;
leaves us for a few minutes , and when he returns torture has been prolonged to the furthest limit
he is carrying a bunch of keys in one hand and a of physical endurance. The sufferer is carried
the guide removes. Then, selecting a key from laid upon the same bed of torture to undergo the
the bunch, he undoes one lock , then another, and same dreadful ordeal.
heaving back the ponderous door,weenter and take Let us go forward a little further into this sub
our first step into the gloom . We traverse a long terranean realm . We comeat length to the central
dark corridor ; at the end of it we come to another chamber. It is much more roomy than the others.
massy door, secured like the first by a heavy Its air is dank and cold , and the water is filtering
cross-beam . The guide undoes the fastenings, and through the rock overhead. It is full of darkness,
with a creak which echoes drearily through the but there are worse things in it than darkness,
vaulted passage, the door is thrown open and which we can see by the help of our guide's lantern.
gives us admittance. We descend several flights Against the wall leans what seems a ladder ; it
of stairs. The last ray of light has forsaken us a is a machine of torture of the kind we have
long while ago, but we go forward by the help of already described, only used vertically instead of
the lantern . What a contrast to the gilded and horizontally . The person is hauled up by a rope,
painted chambers above ! with a weight attached to his feet, and then he is
On either hand as we go on are the silent stone let suddenly down, the rolling prisms grazing, as
walls ; overhead is the vaulted roof; at every before, his naked back in his rapid descent.
other pace the guide stops, and calls our attention There is yet another “ torture ” in this horrible
to doors in the wall on either hand , which open chamber. In the centre of the roof is an iron ring.
into numerous side chambers, or vaulted dungeons, Through the ring passes a strong iroi: chain , which
for the reception of prisoners. To lie here, in hangs down and is attached to a windlass . On the
this living grave, in utter darkness, in cold and floor lies a great block of stone with a ring in it.
misery , was dreadful enough ; but there were more This block was attached to the feet of the victim ;
horrible things near at hand , ready to do their his hands were tied behind his back with the iron
terrible work , and which made the unhappy oc- chain ; and, thus bound , he was pulled up to the
capants of these cells forget all the other horrors roof, and suddenly let fall to within a foot or so
of their dismal abode. of the floor. The jerk was so severe as commonly
Passing on a pace or two further, we come to to dislocate his limbs.
The unhappyman when suspended in this fashion from actual observation , the whole apparatus of
could be dealt with as his tormentors chose. They torture is still shown in the subterranean chambers
could tear his flesh with pincers, scorch his feet that were used by the agents of the “ Holy Office."
with live coals, insert burning matches beneath Wereserve the description of these dungeons, with
his skin, flay him alive, or practise upon him any their horrible instruments , till we come to speak
barbarity their malignity or cruelty suggested . The more particularly of the Inquisition . Even the
subject is an ungrateful one, and we quit it. These political prisons are sufficiently dismal. It is sad
cells were reserved for political offenders. They to think that such prisons existed in the heart of
were accounted too good for those tainted with Germany, and in the free town of Nuremberg, in
heretical pravity . Deeper dungeons, and more the sixteenth century. The far-famed " prisons of
horrible instruments of torture, were prepared for Venice " — and here too we speak from actual
the confessors of the Gospel. The memorials of inspection - are not half so gloomy and terrible.
the awful cruelties perpetrated on the Protestants These dungeons in Nuremberg show us how stern
of the sixteenth century are to be seen in Nurem - a thing government was in the Middle Ages, before
berg at this day. The “ Holy Offices ” of Spain the Reformation had come with its balmy breath
and Italy have been dismantled , and little now to chase away the world 's winter, and temper the
remains save the walls of the buildings in which rigours of law , by teaching mercy as well as ven
the business of the Inquisition was carried on ; but, geance to the ruler. These things show how diffi
strange to say, in Nuremberg, as we can testify cult it was to be a patriot in the sixteenth century !
CHAPTER VI.
THE RATISBON LEAGUE AND REFORMATION .
Protestantism in Nuremberg -German Provinces Declare for the Gospel - Intrigues of Campeggio - Ratisbon League
- Ratisbon Scheme of Reform - Rejected by the German Princes - Letter of Pope Clement to the Emperor
The Emperor's Letter from Burgos - Forbids the Diet at Spires – German Unity Broken - Two Camps - Persecution
- Martyrs.
NUREMBERG had thrown itself heartily into the forth and placed upon it : prayer was offered ,a psalm
tide of the Reform movement. It was not to be sung, and the elements were dispensed , while some
kept back either by the muttered displeasure of 4 ,000 communicants came forward to partake. The
the Pope's legate, or the more outspoken threaten- spectacle caused infinite disgust to Campeggio, but
ings of the emperor's envoy. The intelligent how to prevent it he knew not. Hunnaart thought,
citizens of Nuremberg felt that Protestantism doubtless, that had his master been present this
brought with it a genial air, in which they could would not have been ; these haughty citizens
more freely breathe. It promised a re-invigoration would not have dared to flaunt their heresy in the
to their city, the commerce of which had begun face of the emperor. But Charles was detained
to wane, and its arts to decline, as the conse- by his quarrels with Francis I. and the troubles in
quence of the revolutions which the mariner's Spain .
compass had brought with it. Their preachers From the hour the Diet broke up, both sides
appeared daily in the pulpit ; crowded congre- began busily to prepare for the meeting at Spires
gations daily assembled in the large Church of in November. The princes, on their return to
St. Sebald , on the northern bank of the Pegnitz, their States, began to collect the suffrages of their
and in the yet more spacious Cathedral of St. people on the question of Church Reform ; and the
Lawrence, in the southern quarter of the city. legate, on his part, without a day's delay, began
The tapers were extinguished ; the images stood his intrigues to prevent the meeting of an assembly
neglected in their niches, or were turned out of which authority tohaddeliver
maeter'sthreatened yet recetheived.heaviest blow his
doors ; neither pyx, nor cloud of incense, nor con - master's authority had yet received.
secrated wafer was to be seen ; the altar had been The success of the princes friendly to the Re
changed into a table ; bread and wine were brought formed faith exceeded their expectations. The all
THE RATISBON REFORMATION . 503
but unanimous declaration of the provinces was, As a set-off against these stern measures , they
“ We will serve Rome no longer.” Franconia , promised a few very mild reforms. The ecclesi
Brandenburg, Henneburg, Windsheim , Wertheim , astical imposts were to be lightened , and the
and Nuremberg declared against the abuses of the Church festivals made somewhat less numerous.
mass, against the seven Popish Sacraments , against And, not able apparently to see that they were
the adoration of images, and, reserving the un- falling into the error which they condemned in the
kindliest cut for the last, against the Papal proposed Diet at Spires, they proceeded to enact
supremacy. These dogmatic changes would draw a standard of orthodoxy, consisting of the first
after them a host of administrative reforms. The four Latin Fathers — Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine,
pretext for the innumerable Romish exactions, of and Gregory — whose opinions were to be the rule
which the Germans so loudly complained, would according to which all preachers were to interpret
be swept away. No longer would come functions Scripture. Such was the Ratisbon Reformation,
and graces from Rome, and the gold of Germany as it cameafterwards to be called .
would cease to flow thither in return. The Pro- The publication of the legate's project was viewed
testant theologians were overjoyed. A few months, as an insult by the princes of the opposite party.
and the nationalvoice, through its constituted organ What right, they asked , have a few princes and
the Diet , will have pronounced in favour of Re- bishops to constitute themselves the representatives
form . The movement will be safely piloted into of the nation, and to make a law for the whole
the harbour. of Germany ? Who gave them this authority ?
The consternation of the Romish party was in Besides, what good will a Reformation do us that
proportion. They saw the gates of the North removes only the smaller abuses , and leaves the
opening a second time, and the German hosts in great altogether imtouched ? It is not the humbler
full march upon the Eternal City. What was to clergy, but the prelates and abbots who oppress
be done ? Campeggio was on the spot ; and it was us, and these the Ratisbon Convention leaves
fortunate for Rome that he was so , otherwise the flourishing in their wealth and power. Nor does
subsequent intervention of the Pope and the this Reform give us the smallest hope that we shall
emperor might have come too late. The legate be protected in future from the manifold exactions
adopted the old policy of “ divide and conquer.” of the Roman court. In condemning the lesser
Withdrawing from a Diet which contemplated evils, does not the League sanction the greater ?
usurping the most august functions of his master, Even Pallavicino has acknowledged that this judg
Campeggio retired to Ratisbon, and there set to work ment of the princes on the Ratisbon Reformation
to form a party among the princes of Germany. was just, when he says that “ the physician in the
He succeeded in drawing around him Ferdinand , cure of his patient ought to begin not with the
Archduke of Austria, the Dukes of Bavaria , the small, but the great remedies." 3
Archbishop of Salzburg, and the Bishops of Trent The legate had done well, and now the Pope,
and Ratisbon. These were afterwards joined by who saw that hemust grasp the keys more firmly ,
most of the bishops of Southern Germany. Cam - or surrender them altogether, followed up with
peggio represented to this convention that the vigour the measures of Campeggio. Clement VII.
triumph of Wittemberg was imminent, and that wrote in urgent terms to Charles V ., telling him
with the fall of the Papacy was bound up the that the Empire was in even greater danger from
destruction of their own power, and the dissolu - these audacious Germans than the tiara. Charles
tion of the existing order of things. To avert did not need this spur. He was sufficiently alive
these terrible evils, they resolved, the 6th of July, to what was due to him as emperor. This proposal
to forbid the printing of Luther's books ; to permit of the princes to hold a Diet irrespective of the
no married priests to live in their territories ; to emperor's authority stung him to the quick.
recall the youth of their dominions who were The Pope's letter found the emperor at Burgos,
studying at Wittemberg ; to tolerate no change in the capital of Old Castile. The air of the place
the mass or public worship ; and, in fine, to put was not favourable to concessions to Lutheranism .
into execution the Edict of Worms against Luther. Everything around Charles — a cathedral of un
They concluded , in short, to wage a war of exter- rivalled magnificence, the lordly priests by which
mination against the new faith.” it was served , the devotion of the Castilians, with
other tokens of the pomp and power of Catholicism
i D 'Aubigné, bk . X ., chap. 5 .
> Pallavicino, lib . ii., cap. 11 . Sleidan , bk , iv ., p . 74. 3 Fra -Paolo Sarpi, livr. i., p . 68. Pallavicino, lib. i .,
Fra- Paolo Sarpi, livr. i., p . 67 ; Basle, 1738. cap. 11.
_ must have
-must for thhime oldwithreligievenonismore
haveininspired doublyhisa meeting of the Diet at Spires, under penalty of
eyes than
usual reverence for the old religion, and made the high treason and ban of the Empire. The princes
project of the princes appear in his eyes doubly a eventually submitted , and thus the projected Diet,
which had excited
crime. He wrote in sharp terms to them , saying which had excited so great hopes on the one side
that it belonged to him as emperor to demand of and so great alarm on the other, never met.
the Pope that a Council should be convoked ; that The issue of the affair was that the unity of
he and the Pope alone were the judges when it Germany was broken . From this hour, there were
was a fitting time to convoke such an assembly, a Catholic Diet and a Protestant Diet in the
FESTAS
DER
.
ALBERT DÜRER.
and that when he saw that a Council could be Empire -- a Catholic Germany and a Protestant
held with profit to Christendom he would ask the Germany. The rent was made by Campeggio, and
Pope to summon one ; that, meanwhile, tilla what he did was endorsed and completed by
General Council should meet, it was their duty Charles V . The Reformation was developing
to acquiesce in the ecclesiastical settlement which peacefully in the Empire ; the majority of the
had been made at Worms ; that at that Diet all Diet was on its side ; the several States and cities
the matters which they proposed to bring again were rallying to it ; there was the promise that
into discussion at Spires had been determined , and soon it would be seen advancing under the ægis
that to meet to discuss them over again was to of a united Fatherland : but this fair prospect
unsettle them . In fine, he reminded them of the
Edict of Worms against Luther, and called on Sleidan, bk. iv., pp,75, 76. Pallavicino lib. ii.,cap.10.
them to put it in execution . He forbade the Fra-Paolo Sarpi, livr. i., pp, 69,70.
PERSECUTION OF PROTESTANTS. 505
was suddenly and fatally blighted by the formation duke Ferdinand and the Papal legate journeyed
of an Anti-Protestant League. The unity thus together to Vienna. On the road thither, they
broken has never since been restored. It must came to an understanding as to the practical steps
not be overlooked that this was the doing of the for carrying out the league. What these were was
Romanist party. soon apparent. Gaspard Tauber , of Vienna, whose
What a deplorable event ! exclaims the reader. crime was the circulating of Luther's books, was
And truly it was. It had to be expiated by the among the first to suffer. An idea got abroad that
wars , the revolutions, the political and religious he would recant. Two pulpits were erected in the
strifes of three centuries. Christendom was entering churchyard of St. Stephen 's. From the one Tauber
on the peaceful and united rectification of the error's was to read his recantation, and from the other a
VIEW OF BURGOS, SILOWING THE CATHEDRAL.
of ages -- the removal of those superstitious beliefs priest was to magnify the act as a new trophy of
which had poisoned the morals of the world, and the power of the Roman Church. Tauber rose in
furnished a basis for ecclesiastical and political presence of the vast multitude assembled in the
despotisms. And , with a purified conscience, there grave-yard, who awaited in deep silence the first
would have come an enlarged and liberated intellect, words of recantation. To their amazement hemade
the best patron of letters and art, of liberty and of a bolder confession of his faith than ever. He was
industry. With the rise of these two hostile camps, immediately dragged to execution, decapitated , and
the world 's destinies were fatally changed. Hence- his body thrown into the fire and consumed. His
forward Protestantism must advance by way of the Christian intrepidity on the scaffold made a deep im
stake. But, lacking these many heroic deaths, these pression on his townsmen. At Buda, in Hungary, a
hundreds of thousands of martyrs,what a splendour Protestant bookseller was burned with his books
would have been lacking to Protestantism ! piled up around him . Hewas heard amid the flames
The conferences at Ratisbon lasted a fortnight, proclaiming the joy with which he suffered for the
and when at length they came to an end , the Arch - sake of Christ. An inquisitor, named Reichler ,
43
traversed Wurtemberg , hanging Lutherans on the from the monastery at Antwerp in 1523,when the
trees, and nailing the Reformed preachers to posts o prochainEsch
tconverts er fowere
as a pandreachVoes years and
r twoseized urn ,
and bburned
by the tongue, and leaving them to die on the spot, he preached the Gospel for two years in Bremen.
or set themselves free at the expense of self-muti. His fame as a preacher extending, he was invited
lation, and the loss of that gift by which they had to proclaim the Reformed doctrine to the unin
served Christ in the ministry of the Gospel. In structed people of the Dittmarches country. He
the territories of the Archbishop of Salzburg , a repaired thither, and had appeared only once in
Protestant who was being conducted to prison was the pulpit, when the house in which he slept was
released by two peasants, while his guards were surrounded at midnight by a mob, heated by the
carousing in an alehouse. The peasants were be- harangues of the prior of the Dominicans and the
headed outside the walls of the city without form fumes of Hamburg beer. He was pulled out of
of trial. There was a Reign of Terror in Bavaria . bed , beaten with clubs, dragged on foot over many
It was not on those in humble life only that the miles of a road covered with ice and snow , and
storm fell ; the magistrate on the bench , the baron finally thrown on a slow fire and burned. Such
in his castle found no protection from the persecutor. were the means which the “ Ratisbon Reformers "
The country swarmed with spies, and friend dared adopted for repressing Protestantism , and uphold
not confide in friend. ing the old order of things. “ The blood he is
This fanatical rage extended to some parts of shedding,” exclaimed Luther, on being told of
Northern Germany. The tragical fate of Henry these proceedings, “ will choke the Pope at last,
van Zutphen deserves a short notice. Escaping with his kings and kingdoms." .
CHAPTER VII.
LUTHER 'S VIEWS ON THE SACRAMENT AND IMAGE-WORSHIP.
New Friends- Philip, Landgrave of Hesse - Meeting between him and Melancthon - Joins the Reformation - Duke
Ernest, & c. - Knights of the Teutonic Order - Their Origin and History - Royal House of Prussia - Free Cities 1
Services to Protestantism - Division - Carlstadt Opposes Luther on the Sacrament - Luther's Early Views–
•
Recoil
- Essence of Paganism - Opus Operatum - Calvin and Zwingle 's View - Carlstadt Leaves Wittemberg and goes to
Orlamund — Scene at the Inn at Jena - Luther Disputes at Orlamund on Image-worship - Carlstadt Quits Salony
- Death of the Elector Frederick .
While its enemies were forming leagues and un- knight at the head of the first party, dashing
sheathing their swords against the Reformation , forward, placed himself by the side of the illustrious
new friends were hastening to place themselves on doctor, and begged him to turn his horse's heail,
its side. It was at this hour that some of the and accompany him a short way on the road. The
more powerful princes of Germany stepped out princewho now accosted Melancthon was the young
from the ranks of the Romanists, and inscribed Landgrave of Hesse. Philip of Hesse had felt
the “ evangel ” on their banners, declaring that the impulses of the times, and was inquiring
henceforward under this " sign ” only would they whether it was not possible to discover a better
fight. Over against the camp formed by Austria way than that of Rome. He had been present at
and Bavaria was pitched that of the Landgrave of the Diet of Worms; had been thrilled by the
Hesse and the free cities. address of Luther; he had craved an interview
One day in June, 1524, a knightly cavalcade with him immediately after, and ever since hal
was passing along the high-road which traverses kept revolving the matter in his heart. A chance:
the plain that divides Frankfort from the Taunus as it seemed , had now thrown Melancthon in bin
mountains. The party were on their way to the way. He opened his mind to him as he rode
games at Heidelberg. As they rode along, two
solitary travellers on horseback were seen ap - 1 Sleidan bk. iv .. . 75. Luth. Opp .. lib. sir.. p. Ja
proaching. On coming nearer, they were recognised D 'Aubigné, vol. iii., pp. 151 – 155; Glas., 1855.
to be Philip Melancthon and his friend. The ? Luther to Hausmann, 1524 , p. 563.
NEW ACCESSIONS TO PROTESTANTISM . 507
along by his side, and, in reply, the doctor gave solve the order," said the Reformer; “ take a wife;
the prince a clear and comprehensive outline of the and erect your quasi-religious domain into a secular
Reformed doctrine. This oral statement Melanc- and hereditary duchy.” Albert ,adopting the counsel
thon supplemented , on his return to Wittemberg, of Luther, opened to himself and his family the
by a written “ epitome of the renovated doctrines road that at a future day was to conduct to the
of Christianity ,” the study of which made the land - imperial crown. He renounced his order of monk
grave resolve to cast in his lot with Protestantism . hood, professed the Reformed faith , married a
He embraced it with characteristic ardour, for he princess of Denmark, and declared Prussia an
did nothing by halves. He made the Gospel be hereditary duchy, doing homage for it to the
preached in his dominions, and as he brought to crown of Poland. He was put under the ban of
the cause the whole energy of his character, and the Empire ; but retained , nevertheless, possession
the whole influence of his position, he rendered of his dominions. In process of time this rich
it no ordinary services. In conflicts to come, his inheritance fell to the possession of the electoral
plume was often seen waving in the thick of the branch of his family ; all dependence on the crown
battle. of Poland was cast off'; the duchy was converted
About the same time, other princes transferred into a kingdom , and the title of duke exchanged
the homage of their hearts and the services of their for the loftier one of king. The fortunes of the
lives to the same cause. Among these were Duke house continued to grow till at last its head took
Ernest of Luneburg, who now began to promote his place among the great sovereigns of Europe.
the reformation of his States ; the Elector of the Another and higher step awaited him . In 1870 ,
Palatinate ; and Frederick I. of Denmark , who, at the close of the Franco -German war, the King
as Duke of Schleswig and Holstein , ordained that of Prussia became Emperor of Germany.
all under him should be free to worship God as In the rear of the princes, and in some instances
their consciences might direct. in advance of them , came the free cities. We
These accessions were followed by another, on have spoken of their rise in a former chapter.
which time has since set the print of vast im They eminently prepared the soil for the reception
portance. Its consequences continue to be felt of Protestantism . They were nurseries of art,
down to our own times. The knight who now cultivators of knowledge, and guardians of liberty.
transferred his homage to the cause of Protestantism We have already seen that at Nuremberg, during
was the head of the house of Prussia , then Mar- the sittings of the Diet, and despite the presence
grave of Brandenburg. of the legate of the Pope and the ambassador of
The chiefs of the now imperial house of Prussia the emperor, Protestant sermons were daily preached
were originally Burgraves of Nuremberg . They in the two cathedral churches , and when Cam
sold , as we have already said , this dignity, and peggio threatened to apprehend and punish the
the price they received for it enabled them to preachers in the name of his master, the munici
purchase the Margraveship of Brandenburg. In pality spiritedly forbade him to touch a hair of
1511, Albert, the then head of the house of Bran- their heads. Other towns followed the example
denburg, became Grand Master of the Teutonic of Nuremberg. The Municipal Diets of Ulm and
Order. This was perhaps the most illustrious of Spires (1524) resolved that the clergy should be
all those numerous orders of religious knights, or sustained in preaching the pure Gospel, and bound
monks, which were founded during the frenzy of themselves by mutual promise to defend each
the Crusades," in defence of the Christian faith other against any attempt to execute the Edict
against heathens and infidels. They wore a white of Worms.
cross as their badge. Albert, the present Grand At the very moment that Protestantism was
Master, while attending the Diet at Nuremberg , receiving these powerful accessions from without,
had listened to the sermons of Osiander, and had a principle of weaknesswas being developed within .
begun to doubt the soundness of the Roman creed , The Reformers, hitherto a united phalanx, began
and, along with that, the lawfulness of his vow to be parted into two camps- -the Lutheran and
as Grand Master of the Teutonic monks. He the Reformed. It is now thatwe trace the incipient
obtained an interview with Luther, and craved his rise of the two powerful parties which have con
advice. “ Renounce your Grand-Mastership ; dis tinued, down to our day, to divide the Protestant
world , and to retard the march of the Reformation .
i Camerarius, p . 94.
2 The order was instituted in A.D. 1190, and the first
Master was chosen in the camp before Ptolemais . 3 Robertson , Hist. Charles V., bk. iv . Sleidan , bk . v.,
(Sleidan.) pp . 98, 99.
The difference was at first confined to twomen . of his Spirit in them that by faith receive them .”
Luther and Carlstadt had combated by the side of This draws a clear line of distinction between the
each other at Leipsic against Dr. Eck ; unhappily institutions of the Reformed Church and the rites
they differed in their views on the Sacrament of of Paganism and Romanism . It was a doctrine
the Supper, and began to do battle against each of Paganism that there was a magical or necro
other. Few there are who can follow with equal mantic influence in all its observances, in virtue
steps the march of Truth , as she advances from the of which a purifying change was effected upon the
material and the symbolical to the position of a soul of the worshipper. This idea was the essence
pure principle. Some lag behind, laying fully as of Paganism . In the sacrifice, in the lustral water,
much stress upon the symbol as upon the verity in every ceremony of its ritual, there resided an
it contains ; others outstrip Truth , as it were, by invisible but potent power, which of itself renewed
seeking to dissociate her from that organisation or transformed the man who did the rite, or in
which God has seen to be necessary for her action whose behalf it was done. This doctrine descended
upon the world . The fanatics, who arose at this to Romanism . In all its priests, and in all its
stage of the Reformation, depreciated the Word rites, there was lodged a secret, mysterious, super
and the Sacraments, and, in short, all outward human virtue, which regenerated and sanctified
ordinances, maintaining that religion was a thing men . It was called the “ opus operatum ,” because,
exclusively of spiritual communion, and that men according to this theory, salvation came simply by
were to be guided by an inward light. Luther the performance of the rite — the “ doing of the
saw clearly that this theory would speedily be the work .” It was not the Spirit that regenerated
destruction not of what was outward only in man, nor was faith on his part necessary in order
religion, but also of what was inward and spiritual. to his profiting ; the work was accomplished by the
A recoil ensued in his sentiments. He not only sole and inherent potency of the rite . This doctrine
paused in his career, he went back ; and the retro - converts the ordinances of the Gospel into spells,
gression which we henceforth trace in him was and makes their working simply magical.
not merely a retrogression from the new mystics, · Luther was on the point of fully emancipating
but from his former self. The clearness and bold himself from this belief. As regards the doctrines
ness which up till this time had characterised his of Christianity, he did fully emancipate himself
judgment on theological questions now forsook him , from it. His doctrine of justification by faith alone
and something of the old haze began to gather implied the total renunciation of this idea ; but,
round him and cloud his mind. as regards the Sacraments , he did not so fully
At an earlier period of his career (1520), in his vindicate his freedom from the old beliefs. With
work entitled the Babylonian Captivity, he had reference to the Supper, he lost sight of the grand
expressed himself in terms which implied that the master-truth which led to the emancipation of him
spiritual presence of Christ in the Sacrament was self and Christendom from monkish bondage. He
the only presence he recognised there, and that could see that faith alone in Christ's obedience and
faith in Christ thus present was the only thing death could avail for the justification , the pardon ,
necessary to enable one to participate in all the and the eternal salvation of the sinner ; and yet
benefits of the Lord 's Supper. This doctrine is in he could not see that faith alone in Christ, as
nowise different from that which was afterwards spiritually present in the Supper, could avail for
taught on this head by Calvin , and which Luther the nourishment of the believer. Yet the latter is
so zealously opposed in the case of Zwingle and but another application of Luther's great cardinal
the theologians of the Swiss Reformation. Un- doctrine of justification by faith .
happily, Luther having grasped the true idea of The shock Luther received from the extremes
the Lord's Supper, again lost it. He was unable to which the Anabaptists proceeded in good part
to retain permanent possession of the ground which accounts for this result. He saw , as he thought,
he had occupied for a moment, as it were ; he fell the whole of Christianity about to be spiritualised,
back to the old semi-materialistic position , to the and to lose itself a second time in the mazes of
arrestment of his own career, and the dividing of mysticism . He retreated , therefore , into the doc
the Protestant army. trine of impanation or consubstantiation, which
It is a grand principle in Protestantism that the the Dominican , John of Paris, broached in the
ordinances of the Church become to us “ effectual end of the thirteenth century . According to this
means" of salvation, not from “ any virtue in tenet, the body and blood of Christ are really
them ,” or “ in him that administers them ,” but and corporeally present in the elements, but the
solely by the “ blessing of God ," and the “ working substance of the bread and wine also remains
LUTHER AND CARLSTADT AT JENA. 509
lood of held
Lelements
Luther hristthat
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is tthehe violence f his harangues ; commotions were
sent Luther to Orlamund
consecration , the bread was both bread and the to smooth the troubled waters. A little reflection
flesh of Christ, and the wine both wine and the might have taught Frederick that his presence was
blood of Christ. He defended his belief by a more likely to bring on a tempest ; for the Re
literal interpretation of the words of institution, former was beginning to halt in that equanimity
" This is my body." " I have undergone many and calm strength which, up till this time, he had
hard struggles," we find him saying, “ and would been able to exercise in the face of opposition .
fain have forced myself into believing a doctrine Luther on his way to Orlamund travelled by
whereby I could have struck a mighty blow at the Jena, where he arrived on 21st August, 1524.
Papacy. But the text of Scripture is too potent From this city he wrote to the elector and Duke
for me; I am a captive to it, and cannot get John, exhorting them to employ their power in
away.” curbing that fanatical spirit, which was beginning
Carlstadt refused to bow to the authority of the to give birth to acts of violence. The exhortation
great doctor on this point. He agreed with the was hardly needed , seeing he was at that moment
Luther of 1520, not with the Luther of 1524. on a mission from the elector for that very end. It
Carlstadt held that there was no corporeal presence shows, however, that in Luther's opinion the Refor
of Christ in the elements ; that the consecration mation ran more risk from themadness of the fanatic
effects no change upon the bread and wine ; that than from the violence of the persecutor. “ The
the Supper is simply commemorative of the death fanatic,” he said in his letter, “ hates the Word of
of Christ, and nourishes the communicant by God , and exclaims, ‘ Bible , Bubel, Babel !'? What
vividly representing that transaction to his faith kind of tree is that which bears such fruit as
Carlstadt's views differed widely from those of the breaking open of churches and cloisters , and
Luther, but they fell short of the doctrine of the the burning of images and saints ? Christians
Supper, as it came afterwards to be settled in the ought to use the Word, not the hand . The New
controversies that ensued , and finally held by Testament method of driving out the devil is to
Zwingle and Calvin . convert the heart, and then the devil falls and all
Carlstadt finding himself fettered , as may well his works."
be conceived , in the declaration of his opinions at Next day he preached against insurrectionary
Wittemberg, sought a freer stage on which to tumults, iconoclast violence, and the denial of the
ventilate them . Early in 1524 he removed to real presence in the Eucharist. Afterwards, as he
Orlamund ,and there began to propagate his views. was seated at dinner with the pastor of Jena and
Wedo not at this stage enter on the controversy. the city functionaries, a paper was handed in to
It will come before us afterwards, when greater him from Carlstadt. “ Let him come in ,” said
champions than Carlstadt shall have stepped into Luther. Carlstadt entered. “ You attacked me to
the arena , and when accordingly we can review , day,” said Carlstadt to the Reformer, “ as an author
with much greater profit and advantage, the suc of sedition and assassination ; it is false !” “ I did
cessive stages of this great war,waged unhappily not name you,” rejoined Luther ; “ nevertheless, if
within the camp of the Reformation . the cap fits you, you may put it on .” “ I am able
One passage at arms we must however record. to show ," said Carlstadt, “ that you have taught
No longer awed by Luther's presence , Carlstadt's contradictions on the subject of the Eucharist.”
boldness and zeal waxed greater every day. Not “ Prove your assertion,” rejoined Luther. “ I am
content with opposing the Wittemberg doctrine of willing to dispute publicly with you,” replied Carl
the Supper, he attacked Luther on the subject of stadt, “ at Wittemberg or at Erfurt, if you will
images . The old leaven ofmonkhood — the strength grant me a safe -conduct.” “ Never fear that,"
of which was shown in the awful struggles he had said Luther. “ You tie my hands and my feet and
to undergo before he found his way to the Cross , then you strike me !" exclaimed Carlstadt with
was not wholly purged out of the Reformer. warmth . “ Write against me,” said Luther. “ I
Luther not only tolerated the presence of images would ,” said the other, “ if I knew you to be in
in the churches, like Zwingle , for the sake of the earnest.” “ Here,” exclaimed Luther , “ take that
weak ; he feared to displace them even when the in token of my earnestness," holding out a gold
worshippers desired their removal. He believed forin . “ I willingly accept the gage,” said Carl
they might be helpful. Carlstadt denounced these stadt. Then holding it out to the company, “ Ye
tendencies and weaknesses as Popery . The minds
of the men of Orlamund were becoming inflamed Şeckendorf, lib .i., sec.61, p. 304.
are my witnesses ," said he, “ that this is my “ Mr. Doctor," rejoined a councillor, “ do you
authority to write against Martin Luther." He grant me thus much -- that Moses knew God's
bent the florin and put it into his purse. He then commandments ?" Then opening a Bible he read
extended his hand to Luther, who pledged him in these words : “ Thou shalt not make to thyself any
some wine. “ The more vigorously you assail graven image, or the likeness of anything." This
me," said Luther , “ the better you will please me." was as much as to say, Prove to me from Scripture
" It shall not be my fault,” answered Carlstadt, that images ought to be worshipped.
“ if I fail.” They drank to one another, and again “ That passage refers to images of idols only,"
shaking hands, Carlstadt withdrew . responded Luther. “ If I have hung up in my
The details of this interview are found only in the room a crucifix which I do not worship , what harm
records of the party adverse to the Reformer, and can it do me ?"
Luther has charged them with gross exaggeration . This was Zwingle's ground ; but Luther was not
From Jena, Luther continued his journey, and yet able fully to occupy it.
arrived at Orlamund in the end of August. The “ I have often," said a shoemaker, " taken off
Reformer himself has given us no account of his myhat to an image in a room or on the road ;to do
disputation with Carlstadt. The account which so is an act of idolatry, which takes from God the
historians commonly follow is that of Reinhard , a glory that is due to him alone.”
pastor of Jena, and an eye-witness. Its accuracy “ Because of their being abused , then ,” replied
has been challenged by Luther , and , seeing Rein Luther, “ we ought to destroy women, and pour
hard was a friend of Carlstadt, it is not improbably out wine into the streets.”
coloured . But making every allowance, Luther “ No," was the reply; " these areGod's creatures,
appears to have been too much in haste to open which we are not commanded to destroy."
this breach in the Protestant army, and he took It is easy to see that images were not things of
the responsibility too lightly, forgetful of the truth mere indifference to Luther. He could not divest
which Melchior Adam has enunciated , and which himself of a certain veneration for them . He
experience has a thousand times verified, “ that a feared to put forth his hand and pull them down,
single spark will often suffice to wrap in flames a nor would he permit those that would . Immediately
whole forest." As regards the argument Luther on the close of the discussion he left Orlamund,
won no victory ; he found the waters ruffled, and amid very emphatic marks of popular disfavour.
he lashed them into tempest. It was the one field , of the many on which he
Assembling the town council and the citizens of contended, from which he was fated to retire with
Orlamund, Luther was addressing them when dishonour.
Carlstadt entered . Walking up to Luther, Carl Carlstadt did not stop here. He began to throw
stadt saluted him : “ Dear doctor, if you please, I his influence into the scale of the visionaries, and
will induct you .” “ You are my antagonist,” to declaim bitterly against Luther and the Lui
Luther replied, “ I have pledged you with a florin .” therans. This was more than the Elector Frederick
“ I shall ever be your antagonist,” rejoined the could endure. He ordered Carlstadt to quit his
other, “ so long as you are an antagonist to God dominions ; and the latter, obeying,wandered south
and his Word.” Luther on this insisted that ward , in the direction of Switzerland, propagating
Carlstadt should withdraw , seeing that he could wherever he came his views on the Supper ; but
not transact the business on which he had come at venting, still more zealously and loudly , his hatred
the elector's command, in his presence. Carlstadt of Luther, whom he accused as the author of all
refused , on the ground that it was a free meeting, his calamities. The aged elector, at whose orders
and if he was in fault why should his presence be he had quitted Saxony, was beginning to fear that
feared ? On this Luther turned to his attendant, the Reformation was advancing too far. His faith
and ordered him to put-to the horses at once, for in the Reformed doctrine continued to grow , and
he should immediately leave the town, whereupon was only the stronger the nearer he came to his
Carlstadt withdrew . latter end , which was now not far off ; but the
Being now alone with the men of Orlamund, political signs dismayed him . The unsettling of
Luther proceeded with the business the elector had men's minds, and the many new and wild notions
sent him to transact , which was to remove their that were vented , and which were the necessary
iconoclast prejudices, and quiet the agitation of concomitants of the great revolution in progress,
their city . “ Prove to me,” said Luther, opening caused him alarm . The horizon was darkening
the discussion, “ prove to me by Scripture that all round , but the good Frederick went to his
images ought to be destroyed,” grave in peace, and saw not those tempests which
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were destined to shake the world at the birth of nessed by his domestics, who stood around dissolved
Protestantism . in tears. Imploring their forgiveness if in any.
All was peace in the chamber where Frederick thing he had offended them , he bade them all
the Wise breathed his last. On the 4th of May farewell. A will which had been prepared some
(1525) he dictated to an amanuensis his last in - years before , and in which he had confided his
structions to his brother John, who was to succeed soul to the “ Mother of God," was now brought
him , and who was then absent with the army in forth and burned, and another dictated , in which
Thuringia . He charged him to deal kindly and he placed his hopes solely on the merits of
tenderly with the peasantry, and to remit the Christ.” This was the last of his labours that per
duties on wine and beer. “ Be not afraid ," he tained to earth ; and now he gave all his thoughts
said , “ Our Lord God will richly and graciously to his departure, which was near. Taking into
compensate us in other ways." In the evening his hand a small treatise on spiritual consolation ,
Spalatin entered the prince's apartment. “ It is which Spalatin had prepared for his use, he essayed
right,” said his old master , a smile lighting up his to rend ; but the task was too much for him .
face, “ that you should come to see a sick man.” His Drawing near his couch , his chaplain recited some
chair was rolled to the table, and placing his hand in promises from the Word of God , of which the
Spalatin 's, he unburdened his mind to him touching elector, in his latter years, had been a diligent
the Reformation . His wordsshowed that the clouds and devout student. A serenity and refreshment
that distressed him had rolled away. “ The hand of soul came along with the words ; and at five oi
of God,” said he, “ will guide all to a happy issue." the afternoon he departed so peacefully , that it was
On the morning of the following day he received only by bending over him that his physician saw
the Sacrament in both kinds. The act was wit he had ceased to breathe.”
CHAPTER VIII.
WAR OF THE PEASANTS.
A New Danger -German Peasantry — Their Oppressions— Theso grow Worse-- The Reformation Seeks to Alleviate
them - The Outbreak - The Reformation Accused – The Twelve Articles — These Rejected by the Princes - Luther's
Course - His Admonitions to the Clergy and the Peasantry - Rebellion in Suabia - Extends to Franconia , & c. - The
Black Forest - Peasant Army - Ravages - Slaughterings - Count Louis of Helfenstein - Extends to the Rhine
Universal Terror - Army of the Princes - Insurrection Arrested - Weinsberg - Retaliation - Thomas Munzer
Lessons of the Outbreak .
The sun of the Reformation was mounting into spiritual darkness , and from whose arms it was to
the sky, and promising to fill the world with light. rend the fetters of temporal bondage, should seek
In a moment a cloud gathered, overspread the to destroy it, had not entered into Luther's calcu
firmament, and threatened to quench the young lations. Yet now a terrible blow — the greatest
day in the darkness of a horrible night. the Reformation had as yet sustained came upon
The troubles that now arose had not been foreseen it, not from the Pope, nor from the emperor , but
by Luther. That the Pope, whom the Reformation from the people.
would despoil of the triple crown, with all the The oppressions of the German peasantry had
spiritual glory and temporal power attendant there been growing for centuries. They had long since
on , should anathematise it ; that the emperor, been stripped of the rude privileges their fathers
whose schemos of policy and ambition it thwarted, enjoyed. They could no longer roam their forests
should make war against it ; and that the numerous at will, kill what game they pleased, and build
orders of the mitre and the cowl should swell the their hut on whatever spot taste or convenience
opposition, was to be expected ; but that the people, dictated. Not only were they robbed of their
from whose eyes it was to tear the bandage of ancient rights, they were compelled to submit to
1 Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 2. ? Seckendorf, lib. ii., see. 2.
OPPRESSIONS OF THE GERMAN PEASANTRY. 513
new and galling restrictions. Tied to their native heavier, and privileges which were waxing ever
acres, in many instances, they were compelled to the narrower. The poor people, de-humanised by
expend their sweat in tilling the fields, and spill ignorance, knew but of one way of righting them
their blood in maintaining the quarrels of their selves ---demolishing the castles, wasting the lands,
masters. To temporal oppression was added ecclesi. spoiling the treasures,and in some instances slaying
astical bondage. The small portion of earthly goods the persons of their oppressors.
which the baron had left them , the priest wrung It was at this hour that the Reformation stepped
from them by spiritual threats, thus filling their upon the stage. It came with its healing virtue
cup of suffering to the brim . The power of contrast to change the hearts and tame the passions of men ,
came to embitter their lot. While one part of and so to charm into repose the insurrectionary
Germany was sinking into drudgery and destitution , spirit which threatened to devastate the world .
another part was rising into affluence and power. It accomplished its end so far ; it would have
The free towns were making rapid strides in the accomplished it completely , it would have turned
acquisition of liberty, and their example taught the the hearts of the princes to their subjects , and the
peasants the way to achieve a like independence - hearts of the people to their rulers , had it been
even to combine. Letters and arts were awakening suffered to diffuse itself freely among both classes.
thought and prompting to effort. Last of all Even as it was, it brought with it a pause in these
came the Reformation, and that great power vastly insurrectionary violences, which had begun to be
widened the range of human vision, by teaching common. But soon its progress was arrested by
the essential equality of all men , and weakening force, and then it was accused as the author of
the central authority, or key-stone in the arch of
those evils which it was not permitted to cure .
Europe — namely, the Papacy." See , said Duke George of Saxony, what an abyss
It was now evident to many that the hour had Luther has opened. He has reviled the Pope ; he
fully come when these wrongs, which dated from has spoken evil of dignities ; he has filled the minds
ancient times, but which had been greatly aggra- of the people with lofty notions of their own im
vated by recent events , must be redressed. The portance ; and by his doctrines he has sown the
patience of the sufferers was exhausted ; they had seeds of universal disorder and anarchy. Luther
begun to feel their power ; and if their fetters were and his Reformation are the cause of the Peasant
not loosed by theirmasters, they would be broken by war. Many besides Duke George found it con
themselves, and with a blind rage and a destructive venient to shut their eyes to their own misdeeds,
fury proportioned to the ignorance in which they and to make the Gospel the scape-goat of calamities
had been kept, and the degradation into which of which they themselves were the authors. Even
they had been sunk. In the words of an eloquent Erasmus upbraided Luther thus — “ We are now
writer and philosopher who flourished in an after reaping the fruits that you have sown."
age, “ they would break their chains on the heads Some show of reason was given to these accusa
of their oppressors." 2 tions by Thomas Munzer, who imported a religicus
Mutterings of the gathering storm had already element into this deplorable outbreak. Munzer
been heard. Premonitory insurrections and tumults was a professed disciple of the Reformation , but
had broken out in several of the German countries. he held it to be unworthy of a Christian to be
The close of the preceding century had been marked guided by any objective authority , even the Word
by the revolt of the Boors in Holland,who paraded of God. He was called to “ liberty,” and the law
the country under a flag, on which was blazoned or limit of that “ liberty ” was his own inward
a gigantic cheese . The sixteenth century opened light. Luther, he affirmed , by instituting ordinances
amid similar disturbances. Every two or three and forms, had established another Popedom ; and
years there came a “ new league,” followed by a Munzer disliked the Popedom of Wittemberg even
“ popular insurrection." These admonished the more than he did the Popedom of Rome. The
princes , civil and spiritual, that they had no political opinions of Munzer partook of a like
alternative, as regarded the future, but reforma- freedom with his religious ones. To submit to
tion or revolution . Spires, Wurtemberg, Carinthia , princes was to serve Belials. We have no superior
and Hungary were the successive theatres of these but God. The Gospel taught that all men were
revolts,which all sprang from one cause - oppressive equal ; and this he interpreted, or rather mis
labour, burdens which were growing ever the interpreted , into the democratic doctrineof equality
of rank, and community of goods. “ We must
1 Robertson , Hist. Charles V ., bk . iv ., p . 150. mortify the body,” said he, “by fasting and simple
2 Sir James Mackintosh , in his Vindicic Gallicæ . clothing, look gravely, speak little, and wear a
514 HİSTORY OF PROTESTANTISM .
long beard.” “ These and such-like things," says mation had its own path and its own weapons, to
Sleidan, “ he called the cross." ! Such was the which if it adhered , it would assuredly triumph in
man who, girding on “ the sword of Gideon," put the end. It would correct all wrongs, would ex
himself at the head of the revolted peasantry. He plode all errors, and pacify all feuds, but only by
inoculated them with his own visionary spirit, and propagating its own principles, and diffusing its
taught them to aim at a liberty of which their own own spirit among men. Luther, therefore, stood
judgments or passions were the rule. apart.
The peasants put their demands (January, 1525) But this enabled him all the more, at the right
into twelve articles. Considering the heated ima moment, to come in effectively between the op
ginations of those who penned then , these articles pressor and the oppressed , and to tell a little of the
were reasonable and moderate. The insurgents truth to both.3 Turning to the princes he reminded
craved restitution of certain free domains which them of the long course of tyranny which they and
had belonged to their ancestors, and certain rights their fathers had exercised over the poor people.
of hunting and fishing which they themselves had To the bishops he spoke yet more plainly. They
enjoyed , but which had been taken from them . had hidden the light of the Gospel from the people ;
They demanded , further, a considerable mitigation they had substituted cheats and fables for the
of taxes, which burdened them heavily , and which doctrines of Revelation ; they had fettered men by
were of comparatively recent imposition . They unholy vows, and fleeced them by unrighteous
headed their claim of rights with the free choice impositions, and now they were reaping as they
of their ministers ; and it was a further pecu- had sowed . To be angry at the peasants, he told
liarity of this document, that each article in it was them , was to be guilty of the folly of the man who
supported by a text from Scripture.” vents his passion against the rod with which he is
An enlightened policy would have conceded these struck instead of the hand that wields it. The
demands in the main . Wise rulers would have peasantry was but the instrument in the hand of
said , Let us make these millions free of the earth, God for their chastisement.
of the waters, and of the forests, as their fathers Luther next addressed himself to the insurgents.
were ; from serfs let us convert them into free He acknowledged that their complaints were not
men . It is better that their skill should enrich , without cause , and thus he showed that he had a
and their valour defend our territories, than that heart which could sympathise with them in their
their blood should water them . Alas ! there was miseries , but he faithfully told them that they had
not wisdom enough in the age to adopt such a taken the wrong course to remedy them . They
course. Those on whom these claims were pressed would never mitigate their lot by rebellion ; they
said , “ No," with their hands upon their swords. must exercise Christian submission , and wait the
The vessel of the Reformation was now passing gradual but certain rectification of their individual
between the Scylla of established despotism and wrongs, and those of society at large, by the Divine
the Charybdis of popular lawlessness. It required healing power of the Gospel. He sought to enforce
rare skill to steer it aright. Shall Luther ally his his admonition by his own example. He had not
movement with that of the peasantry ? We can taken the sword ; he had relied on the sole instrui
imagine him under some temptation to essay ruling mentality of the Gospel, and they themselves knew
the tempest, in the hope of directing its fury to the how much it had done in a very few years to shake
overthrow of a system which he regarded as the the power of an oppressive hierarchy, with the
parent of all the oppressions and miseries that political despotism that upheld it, and to amelio
filled Christendom , and had brought on at last this rate the condition of Christendom . No armycould
mighty convulsion. One less spiritual in mind, have accomplished half the work in double the
and with less faith in the inherent vitalities of the time. He implored them to permit this process to
Reformation , might have been seduced into linking go on . It is preachers , not soldiers — the Gospel,
his cause with this tempest. Luther shrunk from not rebellion, that is to benefit the world . And
such a course. He knew that to ally so holy a he warned them that if they should oppose the
cause as the Reformation with a movement at best Gospel in the name of the Gospel, they would
but political, would be to profane it ; and that to only rivet the yoke of their enemies upon their
borrow the sword ofmen in its behalf was the sure neck .4
way to forfeit the help of that mightier sword
which alone could win such a battle. The Refor 3 Seckendorf, lib. ii., sec. 3, pp. 7, 8 .
4 Sleidan , bk . v., pp. 90 - 95. D 'Aubigné, vol. iii.,
Sleidan, bk. v., p . 83. Tbid., p. 90. pp. 185, 186 .
THE PEASANT-WAR . 513
The courage of the Reformer is not less con - Count Louis of Helfenstein , was heart-rending in
spicuous than his wisdom , in speaking thus plainly the extreme. His wife, the natural daughter of
to two such parties at such an hour. But Luther the Emperor Maximilian , threw herself at the feet
had but small thanks for his fidelity. The princes of the insurgents, and, holding her infant son in
accused him of throwing his shield over rebellion , her arms, besought them , with a flood of tears, to
because he refused to pronounce an unqualified spare her husband. It was in vain . They
condemnation of the peasantry ; and the peasants lowered their pikes, and ran him through. He
blamed him as truckling to the princes, because he fell pierced by innumerable wounds.
was not wholly with the insurrection. Posterity It seemed as if this conflagration was destined
has judged otherwise . At this, as at every other to rage till it had devoured all Christendom ; as if
crisis, Luther acted with profound moderation and the work of destruction would go on till all the
wisdom . His mediation failed, however , and the fences of order were torn down, and all the symbols
storm now burst. of authority defaced, and pause in its career only
The first insurrectionary cloud rolled up in when it had issued in a universal democracy, in
Suabia , from beside the sources of the Danube. It which neither rank nor property would be recog
made its appearance in the summer of 1524. The nised. It extended on the west to the Rhine,
insurrectionary spirit ran like wildfire along the where it stirred into tumult the towns of Spires,
Danube, kindling the peasantry into revolt, and Worms, and Cologne, and infected the Palatinate
filling the towns with tumults, seditions, and with its fever of sanguinary vengeance. It invaded
terrors. By the end of the year Thuringia, Fran- Alsace and Lorraine. It convulsed Bavaria, and
conia , and part of Saxony were in a blaze. When Wurtemberg as far as the Tyrol. Its area extended
the spring of 1525 opened, the conflagration spread from Saxony to the Alps. Bishops and nobles fled
wider still. It was now that the “ twelve articles ," before it. The princes, taken by surprise, were
to which we have referred above, were published, without combination and without spirit, and, to
and became the standard for the insurgents to rally use the language of Scripture, were “ chased as
round. John Muller, of Bulbenbach , traversed the the rolling thing before the whirlwind."
region of the Black Forest, attired in a red gown But soon they recovered from their stupor, and
and a red cap, preceded by the tricolour — red , got together their forces. Albert, Count of Mans
black , and white — and followed by a herald , who feld , was the first to take the field . He was
read aloud the “ twelve articles," and demanded joined , with characteristic spirit and gallantry, by
th
the adherence of the inhabitants of the districts
rousedwhich
through hina TheONIpassed.
S
Philip , Landgrave of Hesse, who was soon followed
The peasant army that by John, Elector of Saxony, and Henry, Duke
followed him was continually reinforced by new of Brunswick, who all joined their forces to oppose
accessions. Towns too feeble to resist these for the rebel boors. Had the matter rested with the
midable bands, opened their gates at their approach, Popish princes, the rebellion would have raged
and not a few knights and barons, impelled by without resistance. On the 15th May, 1525, the
terror, joined their ranks. confederate army came upon the rebel camp at
The excitement of the insurgents soon grew into Frankenhausen , where Munzer presided. Finding
fury. Their march was no longer tumultuous the rebels poorly armed, and posted behind a
simply, it had now become destructive and deso miserable barricade of a few wagons, they sent
lating. The country in their rear resembled the a messenger with an offer of pardon, on condition
track over which an invading and plundering host of laying down their arms. On Munzer's advice,
had passed . Fields were trampled down, barns the messenger was put to death. Both sides now
and storehouses were rifled , the castles of the prepared for battle. The leader of the peasant
nobility were demolished , and the convents were army, Munzer, addressed them in an enthusiastic
burned to the ground. and inflammatory harangue, bidding them not fear
More cruel violences than these did this army the army of tyrants they were about to engage ;
of insurgents inflict. They now began to dye that the sword of the Lord and of Gideon would
their path by the blood of unhappy victims. They fight for them ; and that they would this day
slaughtered mercilessly those who fell into their experience a like miraculous deliverance as the
power. On Easter Day (April 16th , 1525) they Israelites at the Red Sea , as David when he en
surprised Weinsberg, in Suabia. Its garrison they countered Goliath , and Jonathan when he attacked
condemned to death . The fate of its commander,
? Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 4 , p . 9.
| Robertson, Hist. Charles V ., bk. iv ., p . 151. 3 Sleidan, bk . iv., p. 80. 4 Ibid., p . 81.
W
DEATIE
TREDENIC
OF EWIAR
SAXONYLECTOR
.OF,THE
ROUT OF THE REBEL HÖST. 517
the garrison of the Philistines. “ Be not afraid,” Duke George. In this encounter, 5,000 of the
said he, " of their great guns, for in my coat will peasantry were slain, and thus the confederates
I catch all the bullets which they shall shoot at were at liberty to move their forces into Fran
you. See ye not how gracious God is unto us ? conia, where the insurrection still raged with great
Lift up your eyes, and see that rainbow in the fury. The insurgents here burned above 200
clouds; for, seeing we have the same painted on castles, besides noblemen's houses and monas
our banner,God plainly declares by that represen- teries. They took the town of Wirtzburg, and
tation which he shows us from on high that he besieged the castle ; but Trusches coming upon
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will stand by us in the battle, and that he them charged, discomfited , and put them to
will utterly destroy our enemies. Fall on them flight.
courageously." ! Luther raised his voice again, but this time to
Despite this assurance of victory, the rebel host, pronounce an unqualified condemnation on a move
at the first onset, fled in the utmost confusion. ment which, from a demand for just rights, had
Munzer was among the first to make his escape. become a war of pillage and murder. He called
He took refuge in a house near the gate, where on all to gird on the sword and resist it. The
he was discovered after the battle, hid in the confederate princes made George von Trusches
garret. He was committed to the custody of general of their army. Advancing by the side of
the Lake of Constance, and dividing his soldiers
I Sleidan , bk . V., pp. 85, 86 . Seckendorf, lib. ii., sec. 4 , into three bodies, Trusches attacked the insurgents
pp. 9, 10.
44
with vigour. Several battles were fought, towns
and fortresses were besieged ; the peasantry con- Such horrible ending had the insurrection of the
tended with a furious bravery , knowing that they peasants. Ghastly memorials marked the provinces
must conquer or endure a terrible revenge ; but the where this tempest had passed : fields wasted, cities
arms of the princes triumphed. The campaign of overturned , castles and dwellings in ruins, and,
this summer sufficed to suppress this formidable more piteous still, corpses dangling from the trees,
insurrection ; but a terrible retaliation did the or gathered in heaps in the fields. The gain
victors inflict upon the fanaticised hordes. They remained with Rome. The old worship was in
slaughtered them by tens of thousands on the some places restored, and the yoke of feudal bondage
battle-field ; they cut them down as they fled ; and was more firmly riveted than before upon the necks
not unfrequently did they dispatch in cold blood of the people.
those who had surrendered on promise of pardon . Nevertheless, the outbreak taught great lessons
The lowest estimate of the number that perished to the world , worth a hundredfold all the sufferings
is 50,000, other accounts raise it to 100,000. endured , if only they had been laid to heart. The
When we consider the wide area over which the peasant-war illustrated the Protestant movement
insurrection extended , and the carnage with which by showing how widely it differed from Romanism ,
it was suppressed, we shall probably be of opinion in both its origin and its issues. The insurrection
that the latter estimate is nearer the truth . did not manifest itself, or in but the mildest type,
A memorable vengeance was inflicted on Weins- at Wittemberg and in the places permeated by the
berg , the scene of the death of Count Helfenstein . Wittemberg movement. When it touched ground
His murderers were apprehended and executed . which the Reformation had occupied , it became
The death of one of them was singularly tragic. that instant powerless. It lacked air to fan it ; it
He was tied to the stake with a chain , that was found no longer inflammable materials to kindle
long enough to permit him to run about. Trusches into a blaze. The Gospel said to this wasting
and other persons of quality then fetched wood, conflagration, “ Thus far, but no farther.” Could
and , strewing it all about, they kindled it into a any man doubt that if Bavaria and the neigh
cruel blaze. As the wretched man bounded wildly bouring provinces had been in the same condition
round and round amid the blazing faggots, the with Saxony, there would have been no peasant
princes stood by and made sport of his tortures, war ?
The town itself was burned to the ground. Mun This outbreak taught the age, moreover, that
zer, the ecclesiastical leader , who had fired the Protestantism could no more be advanced by popu
peasantry by harangues, by portents, by assur- lar violence than it could be suppressed by aristo
ances that their enemies would be miraculously cratic tyranny, It was independent of both ; it
destroyed, and by undertaking “ to catch all the must advance by its own inherent might along its
bullets in his sleeve,” ? after witnessing the failure own path. In fine, this terrible outbreak gave
of his enterprise , was taken and decapitated. timely warning to the world of what the conse
Prior to execution he was taken before George, quences would be of suppressing the Reformation .
Duke of Saxony, and Landgrave Philip . On It showed that underneath the surface of Christen
being asked why he had misled so many poor dom there was an abyss of evil principles and
people to their ruin , he replied that “ he had done fiendish passions, which would one day break
only his duty ." The landgrave was at pains to through and rend society in pieces , unless they
show him that sedition and rebellion are forbidden were extinguished by a Divine influence. Munzer
in the Scriptures , and that Christians are not at and his “ inward light " was but the precursor of
liberty to avenge their wrongs by their own pri- Voltaire and the “ illuminati " of his school. The
vate authority. To this he was silent. On the peasants ' war of 1525 was the first opening of
rack he shrieked and laughed by turns ; but when “ the fountains of the great deep.” The “ Terror"
about to die he openly acknowledged his error and was first seen stalking through Germany. It
crimes. By way of example his head was stuck slumbered for two centuries while the religious
upon a pole in the open fields. and political power of Europe was undergoing a
process of slow emasculation . Then the “ Terror"
again awoke, and the blasphemies, massacres, and
Luth .Opp, bk.
2i Sleidan iv.,xixp ..,81.
., lib. p . 297. D 'Aubigné. vol.ii., p. 194. wars of the French Revolution overwhelmed
3 Sleidan , bk . V., p. 87. Europe.
WORLDLY POLICY OF THE PAPACY. 519
CHAPTER IX .
THE BATTLE OF PAVIA AND ITS INFLUENCE ON PROTESTANTISM .
The Papacy Entangles itself with Earthly Interests - Protestantism stands Alone - Monarchy and the Popedom
Which is to Rule ? - The Conflict a Defence to Protestantism - War between the Emperor and Francis I.
Expulsion of the French from Italy – Battle of Pavia - Capture and Captivity of Francis I. - Charles V . at the
Head of Europe - Protestantism to be Extirpated - Luther Marries — The Nuns of Nimptsch - Catherine von
Bora - Antichrist about to be Born - What Luther' s Marriage said to Rome.
THERE was one obvious difference between that of dictating to both Charles and Francis. These
movement of which Rome was the headquarters, sovereigns, on the other hand, were determined not
and that of which Wittemberg was the centre. to let go the superiority which they had at last
The Popedom mixed itself up with the politics of achieved over the tiara. The struggle of mon
Europe ; Protestantism , on the other hand, stood archy to keep what it had got, of the tiara to
apart, and refused to ally itself with earthly con- regain what it bad lost, and of all three to be
federacies. The consequence was that the Papacy uppermost, filled their lives with disquiet, their
had to shape its course to suit the will of those on kingdoms with misery , and their age with war.
whom it leaned. It rose and fell with the interests But these rivalries were a wall of defence around
with which it had cast in its lot. The loss of a that Divine principle which was growing up into
battle or the fall of a statesman would , at times, majestic stature in a world shaken by the many
bring it to the brink of ruin . Protestantism , on furious storms that were raging on it.
the other hand ,was free to hold its own course and Scarce had the young emperor Charles V . thrown
to develop its own principles. The fallof monarchs down the gage of battle to Protestantism , when
and the changes in the politicalworld gave it no un- these tempests broke in from many quarters. He
easiness. Instead of fixing its gaze on the troubled had just fulminated the edict which consigned
ocean around it, its eye was lifted to heaven. Luther to destruction , and was drawing his sword
At this hour intrigues , ambitions, and wars were to execute it, when a quarrel broke out between
rife all round Protestantism . The Kings of Spain himself and Francis I. The French army, crossing
and France were striving with one another for the the Pyrenees, overran Navarre and entered Castile.
possession of Italy. The Pope thought, of course, The emperor hastened back to Spain to take
that he had a better right than either to be master measures for the defence of his kingdom . The
in that country. Hewas jealous of both monarchs, war, thus begun , lasted till 1524, and ended in
and shaped his policy so as to make the power of the expulsion of the French from Milan and Genoa ,
the one balance and check that of the other. He where they had been powerful ever since the days
hoped to be able one day to drive both out of the of Charles VIII. Nor did hostilities end here.
peninsula , if not by arms, yet by arts ; but till The emperor, indignant at the invasion of his
that day should come, his safety lay in appear- kingdom , and wishing to chastise his rival on his
ing to be the friend of both , and in taking care own soil, sent his army into France. The chivalry
that the one should not be very much stronger of Francis I., and the patriotic valour of his sub
than the other . All three — the Emperor, the King jects, drove back the invaders. But the French
of France, and the Pope - in whatever else they king, not content with having rid himself of the
differed, were the enemies of the Reformation ; and soldiers of Spain , would chastise the emperor in
had they united their arms they would have been his turn . He followed the Spanish army into
strong enough, in all reckoning of human chances, Italy, and sought to recover the cities and pro
to put down the Protestantmovement. But their vinces whereof he had recently been despoiled ,
dynastic ambitions, fomented largely by the personal and which were all the dearer to him that they
piques and crafty and ambitious projects of the were situated in a land to which he was ever
men around them , kept them at almost perpetual exceedingly desirous of stretching his sceptre, but
feud. Each aspired to be the first man of his from which he was so often compelled, to his
time. The Pope was still dreaming of restoring to humiliation , again to draw it back .
the Papal See the supremacy which it possessed in The winter of 1525 beheld the Spanish and
the days of Gregory VII. and Innocent III., and French armies face to face under the walls of
Pavia. The place was strongly fortified , and had Crossing the frontier near Irun , and touching
held out against the French for now two months, French soil once more, he waved his cap in the
although Francis I. had employed in its reduction air, and shouting aloud, “ I am yet a king !” he put
all the engineering expedients known to the age. spurs to his Turkish horse, and galloped along the
Despite the obstinacy of the defenders, it was now road to St. John de Luz, where his courtierswaited
evident that the town must fall. The Spanish to welcome him .
garrison , reduced to extremity, sallied forth , and The hour was now come, so Charles V . thought,
joined battle with the besiegers with all the energy when he could deal his long-meditated blow against
of despair. the Wittemberg heresy. Never since he ascended
This day was destined to bring with it a terrible the throne had he been so much at liberty to pursue
reverse in the fortunes of Francis I. Its dawn saw the policy to which his wishes prompted . The
him the first warrior of his age ; its evening found battle of Pavia had brought the war in Italy to a
him in the abject condition of a captive. His army more prosperous issue than he had dared to hope.
was defcated under the walls of that city which France was no longer a thorn in his side. Its
they had been on the point of entering as con - monarch , formerly his rival, he had now converted
querors. Ten thousand, including many a gallant into his ally ,or rather, as Charles doubtless believed ,
knight, lay dead on the field , and the misfortune into his lieutenant, bound to aid him in his enter
was crowned by the capture of the king himself, prises, and specially in that one that lay nearer his
who was taken prisoner in the battle, and carried heart than any other. Moreover , the emperor
to Madrid as a trophy of the conqueror. In Spain , was on excellent terms with the King of England,
Francis I. dragged out a wretched year in captivity. and it was the interest of the English minister,
The emperor, elated by his good fortune, and de- Cardinal Wolsey, who cherished hopes of the tiara
sirous not only of humiliating his royal prisoner , through the powerful influence of Charles, that
but of depriving him of the power of injuring him that good understanding should continue. As
in time to come, imposed very hard conditions of regarded Pope Clement, the emperor was on the
ransom . These the French king readily subscribed , point of visiting Rome to receive the imperial
and all the more so that he had not the slightest crown from the Pontiff's hands, and in addition,
intention of fulfilling them . “ In the treaty of doubtless, the apostolic benediction on the enter
peace , it is stipulated among other things," says prise which Charles had in view against an enemy
Sleidan , “ that the emperor and king shall en- that Clement abhorred more than he did the Turk.
deavour to extirpate the enemies of the Christian This was a most favourable juncture for prose
religion, and the heresies of the sect of the Lu- cuting the battle of the Papacy. The victory of
therans. In like manner, that peace being made Pavia had left Charles the most puissant monarch
betwixt them , they should settle the affairs of the in Europe. On all sides was peace , and having
public , and make war against the Turk and heretics vanquished so many foes, surely it would be no
excommunicated by the Church ; for that it was difficult matter to extinguish the monk , who had
above all things necessary, and that the Pope had neither sword nor buckler to defend him . Ac
often solicited and advised them to bestir them - cordingly , Charles now took the first step toward
selves therein. That, therefore , in compliance with the execution of his design. Sitting down (May
his desires, they resolved to entreat him that he 24 , 1525) in the stately Alcazar of Toledo, whose
would appoint a certain day when the ambassadors rocky foundations are washed by the Tagus, he
and deputies of all kings and princes might meet, indited his summons to the princes and States
in a convenient place, with full power and com - of Germany to meet at Augsburg , and take
mission to treat of such measures as might seem measures “ to defend the Christian religion , and the
proper for undertaking a war against the Turk , holy rites and customs received from their an
and also for rooting out heretics and the enemies cestors, and to prohibit all pernicious doctrines and
of the Church ." 1 Other articles were added of a innovations." This edict the emperor supplemented
very rigorous kind , such as that the French king by instructions from Seville,dated March 23, 1526,
should surrender Burgundy to the emperor, and which, in effect, enjoined the princes to see to the
renounce all pretensions to Italy , and deliver up execution of the Edict of Worms. Every hour the
his two eldest sons as hostages for the fulfilment
of the stipulations. Having signed the treaty ,
early in January, 1526 , Francis was set at liberty. Sleidan, bk . vi., pp. 102, 103. Robertson , bk. iv.,
pp. 149, 150.
3 Sleidan , bk . v., p . 96 .
1 Sleidan , bk . vi., p . 102. 4 Ibid ., bk . vi., p. 103.
LUTHER MARRIES. 521
tempest that was gathering over Protestantism , were more rarely the ornament of the feminine
grew darker. intellect in those days than they are in ours.
If at no previous period had the emperor been The marriage took place on the 11th of June.
stronger, or his sword so free to execute his pur. On the evening of that day, Luther, accompanied
pose, at no time had Luther been so defenceless as by the pastor Pomeranus, whom he had asked to
now . His protector, the Elector Frederick , whose bless the union, repaired to the house of the burgo
circumspection approached timidity, but whose master, who had been constituted Kate's guardian ,
purpose was ever resolute and steady, was now and there, in the presence of two witnesses — the
dead. The three princes who stood up in his great painter, Lucas Cranach , and Dr. John Apella
room — the Elector John, Philip , Landgrave or — the marriage took place. On the 15th of June,
Hesse , and Albert of Prussia - were new to the Luther says, in a letter to Ruhel,“ I have made the
cause ; they lacked the influence which Frederick determination to retain nothing of my Papistical
possessed ; they were discouraged , almost dismayed, life , and thus I have entered the state of matri
by the thickening dangers — Germany divided, mony, at the urgent solicitation of my father." ?
the Ratisbon League rampant, and the author The special purport of the letter was to invite
of the Edict of Worms placed by the unlooked - Ruhel to the marriage-feast, which was to be
for victory of Pavia at the head of Europe. given on Tuesday, the 27th of June. The old
The only man who did not tremble was Luther. couple from Mansfeld — John and Margaret Luther
Not that he did not see the formidable extent of — were to be present. Ruhel was wealthy, and
the danger, but because he was able to realise a Luther , with characteristic frankness, tells him
Defender whom others could not see. He knew that any present he might choose to bring with
that if the Gospel had been stripped of all earthly him would be acceptable. Wenceslaus Link, of
defence it was not because it was about to perish, Nuremberg , whose nuptials Luther had blessed
but because a Divine hand was about to be some time before, was also invited ; but, being
stretched out in its behalf, so visibly as to give poor, it was stipulated that he should bring no
proof to the world that it had a Protector, though msdorto also
AAmsdorf send wasso of the number
present. Spalatin was to send some venison , and
“ unseen ," more powerful than all its enemies. come himself.
While dreadful fulminations were coming from the tal fofootthehe gguests.
ueste Philip Melancthon , the dearest
other side of the Alps, and while angry and mortal friend of all, was absent. We can guess the reason.
menaces were being hourly uttered in Germany, The bold step of Luther had staggered him . To
what did Luther do ? Run to his cell, and do marry while so many calamities impended ! Philip
penance in sackcloth and ashes to turn away the went about some days with an anxious and clouded
ire of emperor and Pontiff ? No. Taking Catherine face, but when the clamour arose his brow cleared ,
von Bora by the hand he led her to the altar, and his eye brightened, and he became the warmest
made her his wife. defender of the marriage of the Reformer, in which
Catherine von Bora was the daughter of one of he was joined by not a few wise and moderate
the minor nobles of the Saxon Palatinate . Her men in the Romish Church.3
father's fortune was not equal to his rank, and The union was hardly effected when, as we have
this circumstance disabling him from giving Cathe- already hinted , a shout of indignation arose , as if
rine a dowry, he placed her in the convent of Luther had done some impious and horrible thing.
Nimptsch , near Grimma, in Saxony. Along with " It is incest!” exclaimed Henry VIII, of England.
the eight nuns who were the companions of her “ From this marriage will spring Antichrist,” said
seclusion , she studied the Scriptures, and from others, remembering with terror that some nameless
them the sisters came to see that their vow was astrologer of the Middle Ages had foretold that
not binding. The Word of God had unbarred the Antichrist would be the issue of a perjured nun
door of their cell. The nine nuns, leaving the and an apostate monk . “ How many Antichrists ,”
convent in a body, repaired to Wittemberg, and said Erasmus, with that covert but trenchant
were there maintained by the bounty of the elector, irony in which he was so great a master, “ How
administered through Luther. In process of time many Antichrists must there be then in the
all the nuns found husbands, and Kate alone of the
nine remained unmarried . The Reformer thus had ? Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 5, pp. 15 , 16 .
3 The portraits of Kate, from originals by Lucas Cra
opportunity of knowing her character and virtues, nach , represent her with a round full face, a straight
and appreciating the many accomplishments which pointed nose, and large eyes. Romanist writers have
been more complimentary to her, as regards beauty , than
Sleidan, bk. v ., p . 97, Protestants , who generally speak of her as plain .
world already !” 1 What was Luther's crime ? Luther's marrying an ex-nun, so slow are men to
He had obeyed an ordinance which God has in - cast off the trammels of ages.
stituted, and he had entered into a state which With Catherine Bora there entered a new light
an apostle has pronounced “ honourable in all.” into the dwelling of Luther. To sweetness and
But he did not heed the noise. It was his way modesty, she added a more than ordinary share of
of saying to Rome, “ This is the obedience I give good sense. A genuine disciple of the Gospel, she
CARDINAL WOLSEY . (After the Portrait by H . Parker.)
to your ordinances, and this is the awe in which became the faithful companion and help -meet of
I stand of your threatenings." The rebuke thus the Reformer in all the labours and trials of his
tacitly given sank deep. It was another in - subsequent life. From the inner circle of that
expiable offence, added to many former ones , for serenity and peace which her presence diffused
which , as Rome fondly believed, the hour of recom - around him , he looked forth upon a raging worid
pense was now drawing nigh. Even some of the which was continually seeking to destroy him , and
disciples of the Reformation were scandalised at which marvelled that the Reformer did not sink,
-- - -- - - -- - - not seeing the Hand that turned aside the blows
1 Melch . Adam ., Vit. Luth .,p . 131. Seckendorf, ii,5, p. 18 . which were being ceaselessly aimed at him
A TEMPEST DISPELLED. 523
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SAINT ZOTE
THE REFORMED PRINCES ON THEIR WAY TO THE DIET AT SPIRES.
CHAPTER X .
DIET AT SPIRES, 1526, AND LEAGUE AGAINST THE EMPEROR.
A Storm - Rolls away from Wittemberg – Clement Hopes to Restore the Mediæval Papal Glories - Forms a League
against the Emperor - Changes of the Wind - Charles turns to Wittemberg - Diet at Spires - Spirit of the
Lutheran Princes — Duke John - Landgrave Philip — " The Word of the Lord endureth for ever” — Protestant
Sermons - City Churches Deserted – The Diet takes the Road to Wittemberg – The Free Towns — The Reforms
Demanded - Popish Party Discouraged – The Emperor's Letter from Seville - Consternation .
The storm had been coming onward for some time. that which had swept away the Albigensian con
The emperor and the Pope, at the head of the fessors. However,despite the terrible portents now
confederate kings and subservient princes of the visible in every quarter of the sky, the confidence
Empire, were advancing against the Reformation of Luther that all would yet go well was not to
to strike once and for all. Events fell out in the be disappointed. Just as the tempest seemed about
Divine appointment that seemed as if they were to burst over Wittemberg, to the amazement of all
meant to prepare their way, and make their victory men, it rolled away, and discharged itselfwith terrific
sure. Frederick , who till now had stood between violence on Rome. Let us see how this came about.
Luther and the mailed hand of Charles, was at that of the potentates with whom Charles had con
moment borne to the tomb. It seemed as if the tracted alliance, or with whom he was on terms
crusades of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries of friendship, the one he could most thoroughly
were about to be repeated , and that the Pro- depend on , one would have thought, was the Pope.
testantism of the sixteenth century was to be in the affair the emperor had now in hand, the
extinguished in a tempest of horrors, similar to interest and policy of Charles and of Clementwere
undoubtedly identical. On what could the Pope opened negotiations with Louisa of Savoy, who
rely for deliverance from that host of heretics that administered the government of France during the
Germany was sending forth, but on the sword of captivity of her son, and afterwards with Francis I.
Charles V .? Yet at this moment the Pope suddenly himself when he had recovered his liberty. He
turned against the emperor, and, as if smitten with corresponded with the King of England, who
infatuation, wrecked the expedition that Charles favoured the project ; with Venice , with Milan,
meditated for the triumph of Rome and the hu- with the Republic of Florence. And all these
miliation of Wittemberg just as the emperor was on parties, moved by fear of the overgrown power of
the point of beginning it. This was passing strange. the emperor, were willing to enter into a league
What motive led the Pope to adopt a policy so with the Pope against Charles V . This, known
put the changes ory VII. it.as theThu“ sHoly
suicidal? That which misled Clement was his d wasubscribed
of Englanwas
sing League,” s boribed aatt Cognac,
Cognac
dream of restoring the lost glories of the Popedom , and the King of England was put at the head of
and making it what it had been underGregory VII. it.” Thus suddenly did the change come. Blind to
We have already pointed out the change effected everything beyond his immediate object — to the
in the European system by the wars of the fifteenth risks of war, to the power of his opponent, and
century , and how much that change contributed to the diversion he was creating in favour of Wit
to pave the way for the advent of Protestantism . temberg — the Pope, without loss of time, sent his
The Papacy was lowered and monarchy was lifted army into the Duchy of Milan, to begin operations
up ; but the Popes long cherished the hope that against the Spaniards.
the change was only temporary, that Christendom While hostilities are pending in the north of
would return to its former state — the true one Italy, let us turn our eyes to Germany. The Diet,
they deemed it - -and that all the crowns of Europe which , as we have already said , had been sum
would be once more under the tiara . Therefore, moned by Charles to meet at Augsburg , was at
though Clement was pleased to see the advance this moment assembled at Spires. It had met at
ment of Charles V . so far as it enabled him to serve Augsburg, agreeably to the imperial command, in
the Roman See, he had no wish to see him at the November, 1525, but it was so thinly attended
summit. The Pope was especially jealous of the that it adjourned to midsummer next year, to be
Spanish power in Italy . Charles already possessed held at Spires, where we now find it. It had been
Naples ; the victory of Pavia had given him a firm convoked in order to lay the train for the execu
footing in Lombardy. Thus, both in the north and tion of the Edict of Worms, and the suppression
in the south of the Italian peninsula, the Spanish of Protestantism . But between the issuing of the
power hemmed in the Pontiff. Clement aspired to summons and meeting of the assembly the politics
erect Italy into an independent kingdom , and from of Europe had entirely changed. When the em
Rome, its old capital, govern it as its temporal peror's edict passed out of the gates of the Alcazar
monarch , while he swayed his sceptre over all of Toledo the wind was setting full toward the
Christendom as its spiritual chief. The hour was Vatican , the Pope was the emperor's staunchest
favourable , he thought, for the realisation of this ally, and was preparing to place the imperial crown
fine project. There was a party of literary men on his head ; but since then the wind had suddenly
in Florence and Rome who were full of the idea veered round toward the opposite quarter, and
of restoring Italy to her old place among the Charles must turn with it — he must play off Luther
kingdoms. This idea was the result of the literary against Clement. This complete reversal of the
and artistic progress of the Italians during the political situation was as yet unknown in Germany,
half-century which had just elapsed ; and the or but vaguely surmised .
result enables us to compare the relative forces of The Diet assembled at Spires on the 25th of
the Renaissance and the Reformation. The first June, 1526 , and all the electoral princes were pre
engendered in the bosoms of the Italians a burning sent, except the Prince of Brandenburg. The
detestation of the yoke of their foreign masters,
but left them entirely without power to free them - ? Bullar, Mag. Rom ., 1. 55; Luxem ., 1741. The bull of
selves. The last brought both the love of liberty Clement styles the league “ Confæderatio atque Sanctissi.
mum Fædus," and names “ Our dear son in Christ, Henry,
and the power of achieving it. King of England and Lord of Ireland, Defender of the
Knowing this feeling on the part of his country . Faith," " protector and conservator of it."
men , Pope Clement, thinking the hour was come 3 Sleidan , bk , vi., p . 105 — where the reader will find a
for restoring to the Papacy its mediæval glories, summary of the conditions of the league between the
Pope and his confederates. Ranke, bk, i., chap. 3,
pp. 77, 78. D 'Aubigné, vol. iv ., p. 10 .
1 Ranke,bk. i., chap. 3, p. 77 ; Lond., 1847, Sleidan , bk . vi., p . 105 .
THE PROTESTANT PRINCES AT SPIRES. 525
Reformed princes were in strong muster, and in crisis that had arrived , and resolved that nothing
high spirits. The fulminations from Spain had should be wanting on their part to ward off the
not terrified them . Their courage might be read dangers that from so many quarters, and in a com
in the gallantry of their bearing as they rode along bination so formidable, threatened at this hour the
to Spires, at the head of their armed retainers, Protestant cause .
with the five significant letters blazoned on their Their first demand on arriving at Spires was for
banners, and shown also on their escutcheons hung a church in which the Gospel might be preached .
out on the front of their hotels, and even embroi. The Bishop of Spires stood aghast at the request.
dered on the liveries of their servants, V . D . M . I. Æ . Did the princes know what they asked ? Was not
that is, Verbum Domini manet in Æternum (“ The Lutheranism under the ban of the Empire ? Had
word of the Lord endureth for ever " ). not the Diet been assembled to suppress it, and
Theirs was not the crestfallen air of men who were uphold the old religion ? If then he should open
going to show cause why they dared be Lutherans a Lutheran conventicle in the city , and set up a
when it was the will of the emperor that they Lutheran pulpit in the midst of the Diet, what
should be Romanists. Charles had thundered would be thought of his conduct at Rome ? No !
against them in his ban ; they had given their while the Church's oil was upon him he would
reply in the motto which they had written upon listen to no such proposal. Well, replied the
their standards, “ The Word of God.” Under this princes in effect, if a church cannot be had, the
sign would they conquer. Their great opponent Gospel will lose none of its power by being
was advancing against them at the head of king- preached outside cathedral. The elector and
doms and armies ; but the princes lifted their eyes landgrave, who had brought their chaplains with
to the motto on their ensigns, and took courage : them , opened their hotels for worship.3 On one
“ Some trust in chariots, and some in horses ; but Sunday, it is said , as many as 8 , 000 assembled
we will remeinber the name of the Lord our to the Protestant sermon. While the saloons of
God ." the princes were thronged , the city churches
Whoever in the sixteenth century would assert were deserted. If we except Ferdinand and the
rank and challenge influence, must display a corre Catholic princes , who thought it incumbent upon
sponding magnificence. John , Duke of Saxony, them to countenance the old worship , scarce in
entered Spires with a retinue of 700 horsemen . nave or aisle was there worshipper to be seen . The
The splendour of his style of living far exceeded priests were left alone at the foot of the altars.
that of the other electors, ecclesiastical and lay, The tracts of Luther, freely distributed in Spires,
and gained for him the place of first prince of the helped too to make the popular tide set yet more
Empire. The next after Duke John to figure at the strongly in the Reformed direction ; and the public
Diet was Philip , Landgrave of Hesse. His wealth feeling, so unequivocally declared, reacted on the
did not enable him to maintain so numerous a Diet.
retinue as Duke John, but his gallant bearing, The Reformed princes and their friends were
ready address, and skill in theological discussion never seen at mass ; and on the Church's fast-days,
gave him a grand position . Bishops he did not fear as on other days, meat appeared at their tables.
to encounter in debate. His arsenal was the Bible, Perhaps they were a little too ostentatious in letting
and so adroit was he in the use of his weapons, it be known that they gave no obedience to the
that his antagonist, whether priest or layman , ordinance of “ forbidden meats.” It was not neces
was sure to come off only second best. Both sary on “ magro ” day, as the Italians call it, to
Duke John and Landgrave Philip understood the carry smoking joints to Lutheran tables in full
sight of Romanist assemblies engaged in their
1 " The command of God endures through Eternity, devotions, in order to show their Protestantism .*
Verbum Dei Manet In Æternum ,' was the Epigraph and They took other and more commendable methods
Life-motto which John the Steadfast had adopted for
himself ; V . D . M . I. Æ ., these initials he had engraved to distinguish between themselves and the ad
on all the furnitures of his existence, on his standards, herents of the old creed. They strictly charged
pictures, plate, on the very sleeves of his lackeys, and I their attendants to an orderly and obliging
can perceive, on his own deep heart first of all. V . D . M .
I. E . :- or might it not be read withal, as Philip of behaviour; they commanded them to eschew
Hessen sometimes said (Philip, still a young fellow , cap . taverns and gaming-tables, and generally to keep
able of sport in his magnanimous scorn ), ' Verbum Diaboli
Monet in Episcopis, The Devil's Word sticks fast in the
Bishops ' ? " (Carlyle, Frederick the Great, bk. iii., 3 Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 9.
chap. 5 .) + Cochlæus complains of this as a tempting of the
• Psalm xx . 7. faithful by the savour of wines and meats (p . 138).
aloof from the roystering and disorderlyr company of the friars
proclaimtheed Diets
which preachintoee new
. Thei drew
re heldcommonly
the oftheytheweEmpire ne memberdied
w members their
s ;; th
that thplacesamong
at those should not be filled by
them who were
the cities where they were held . Their preachers willing to embrace another calling should have a
proclaimed the doctrines, and their followers ex- small annual pension allowed them ; and that the
hibited the fruits of Lutheranism . Thus all un - rest of their revenues should be brought into the
designedly a powerful Protestant propaganda was public treasury. It was not reasonable, they
established in Spires. The leaven was spreading further maintained , that the clergy should be
in the population . exempt from all public burdens. That privilege
Meanwhile the Diet was proceeding with its had been granted them of old by the bounty of
business. Ferdinand of Austria it was suspected kings ; but then they were “ few in number ” and
had very precise instructions from his brother, the “ low in fortune; ” now they were both numerous
emperor, touching the measures he wished the and rich . The exemption was the more invidious
Diet to adopt. But Ferdinand, before delivering that the clergy shared equally with others in the
them , waited to see how the Diet would incline advantages for which money and taxes were levied.
If it should hold the straight road, so unmistakably They complained, moreover , of the great number of
traced out in the Edict of Worms, he would be holidays. The severe penalties which forbade useful
spared the necessity of delivering the harsh message labour on these days did not shut out temptations
with which he had been charged ; but if the Diet to vice and crime, and these periods of compulsory
should stray in the direction of Wittemberg, then idleness were as unfavourable to the practice of
he would make known the emperor's commands. virtue as to the habit of industry. They prayed ,
The Diet had not gone far till it was evident moreover, that the law touching forbidden meats
that it had left the road in which Ferdinand and should be abolished, and that all men should be
the emperor desired that it should walk . Not left at liberty on the head of ceremonies till such
only did it not execute the Edict of Worms— de- time as a General Council should assemble, and
claring this to be impossible, and that if the that meanwhile no obstruction should be offered
emperor were on the spot he too would be of this to the preaching of the Gospel.s
mind — but it threw on Charles the blame of the It was now that the storin really burst. Seeing
civil strife which had lately raged in Germany, the Diet treading the road that led to Wittemberg,
by so despotically forbidding in the Decree of and fearing that, should he longer delay, it would
Burgos the assembling of the Diet at Spires, as arrive there, Ferdinand drew forth from its repose
agreed on at Nuremberg, and so leaving the wounds in the recesses of his cabinet the emperor's letter,
of Germany to fester, till they issued in " seditions and read it to the deputies. The letter was dated
and a bloody civil war.” It demanded , moreover, Seville, March 26, 1526. Charles had snatched
the speedy convocation of a general or national a moment's leisure in the midst of his marriage
council to redress the public grievances. In these festivities to make known his will on the religious
demands we trace the rising influence of the free question , in prospect of the meeting of the Diet.
towns in the Diet. The lay element was asserting The emperor informed the princes that he was
itself, and challenging the sole right of the priests about to proceed to Rome to be crowned ; that
to settle ecclesiastical affairs. The Popish members, he would consult with the Pope touching the
perceiving how the tide was setting, became dis- calling of a, General Council ; that meanwhile he
couraged.” “ willed and commanded that they should decree
Nor was this all. A paper was given in (August nothing contrary to the ancient customs, canons,
4th ) to the princes by the representatives of several and ceremonies of the Church , and that all things
of the cities of Germany, proposing other changes should be ordered within his dominions according
in opposition to the known will and policy of the to the form and tenor of the Edict of Worms."
emperor. In this paper the cities complained that This was the Edict of Worms over again . It meted
poor men were saddled with Mendicant friars, who out to the disciples of Protestantism chains, prisons,
“ wheedled them , and ate the bread out of their and stakes.
mouths ; nor was that all - many times they hooked The first moments were those of consternation.
in inheritances and most ample legacies.” The The check was the more severe that it came at a
cities demanded that a stop should be put to the time when the hopes of the Protestants were high.
multiplication of these fraternities ; that when any
3 Sleidan, bk . vi., pp. 103, 104.
* At that timethe Popehad not concluded his alliance
i Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 9 . with France .
2 Sleidan, bk. vi., pp. 103, 104 . • Sleidan, bk. vi., p. 103. Fra -Paolo Sarpi, livr.i.,p.71.
DELIVERANCË DAWNS. 527
Landgrave Philip was triumphing in the debate ; humbled the King of France, and placed himself
the free towns were raising their voices ; the Popish at the summit of Europe. In his letter they
section of the Diet was maintaining a languid heard the first tramp of his legions advancing to
fight ; all Germany seemed on the point of being overwhelm them . Verily they had need to lift
carried over to the Lutheran side : when, all at their eyes again to their motto, and draw fresh
once, the Protestants were brought up before the courage from it — “ The Word of the Lord en
powerful man who, as the conqueror of Pavia , had dureth for ever."
CHAPTER XI.
. THE SACK OF ROME.
A Great Crisis - Deliverance Dawns- Tidings of Feud between the Pope and Emperor - Political Situation
Reversed - Edict of Worms Suspended - Legal Settlement of Toleration in Germany — The Tempest takes the
Direction of Rome- Charles's Letter to Clement VII. - An Army Raised in Germany for the Emperor's Assistance
- Freundsberg - The German Troops Cross the Alps - Junction with the Spanish General - United Host March on
Rome – The City Taken - Sack of Rome- Pillage and Slaughter- Romenever Retrieves the Blow .
What were the Protestant princes to do ? On stricken Israelites, save through the plain of Badiġa,
every hand terrible dangers threatened their cause, which opened in their rear, and led back into the
The victory of Pavia , as we have already said , had former house of their bondage. So of the men
placed Charles at the head of Christendom : what who were now essaying to flee from a gloomier
now should prevent his giving effect to the Edict prison, and a more debasing as well as more length
of Worms ? taIt had hung, like a naked sword ,
Protes ened bondage than that of the Israelites in
above ntismerethese
above Protestantism d crusyears,
nd anfive Its
h it. threatening Egypt, “ they ” were “ entangled in the land , the
wilde the Rat Pope,o
every moment to descend and crush it. Its author wilderness ” had " shut them in .” Behind them
was the
his was Ratio League ; in front were the
the Ratisbon
was now all-powerful : what should hinder his
snapping the thread that held it from falling ? He emperor and Pope, one in interest and policy, as
was on his way to concert measures to that effect the Protestant princes believed. They had just
with the Pope. In Germany, the Ratisbon League had read to them the stern command of Charles
was busy extirpating Lutheranism within its terri- to abolish no law , change no doctrine, and omit
tories. Frederick was in his grave. From the no rite of the Roman Church , and to proceed in
Kings of England and France no aid was to be accordance with the Edict of Worms; which was
expected . The Protestants were hemmed in on as much as to say, Unsheathe your swords, and
every hand. set about the instant and complete purgation of
It was at that hour that a strange rumour Germany from Luther and Lutheranism , under
reached their ears. The emperor and the Pope penalty of being yourselves 'visited with a like
were, it was whispered , at strife ! The news was infliction by the arms of the Empire. How they
hardly credible. At length came detailed accounts were to escape from this dilemma, save by a
of the league that Clement VII, had formed against return to the obedience of the Pope, they could
the emperor,with the King of England at its head . not at that moment see. As they turned first to
The Protestants, when these tidings reached them , one hand , then to another, they could descry
thought they saw a pathway beginning to open nothing but unscaleable cliffs, and fathomless
through the midst of tremendous dangers. But a abysses. At length deliverance appeared to dawn
little before, they had felt as the Israelites did on in the most unexpected quarter of all. They had
the shore of the Red Sea, with the precipitous never looked to Rome or to Spain , yet there it was
cliffs of Aba Deraj on their right, the advancing that they began to see escape opening to them .
war-chariots and horsemen of Pharaoh on their The emperor and the Pope, they were told , were
left, while behind them rose the peaks of Atakah, at variance : so then they were to march through
and in front rolled the waters of the broad , deep, the sundered camp of their enemies. With feel
and impassable gulf. No escape was left the terror ings of wonder and awe, not less lively than those
of the Hebrew host when they saw the waves
beginning to divide, and a pathway to open from
shore to shore, did the Lutheran chiefs and their
followers see the host of their foes, gathered in
one mighty confederacy to overwhelm them , begin
to draw apart, and ultimately form themselves into
two opposing camps, leaving a pathway between ,
by which the little Protestant army, under their
banner with its sacred emblazonry — “ The Word
of the Lord endureth for ever ” — might march
onwards to a place of safety. The influence that
parted the hearts and councils of their enemies,
and turned their arms against each other , they no
more could see than the Israelites could see the
Power that divided the waters and made them stand
upright, but that the same Power was at work
THE CATHEDRAL OF SPIRES.
in the latter as in the former case they could not The emperor's ukase from Seville, breathing death
doubt. The Divine Hand has never been wanting to Lutheranism , was nearly as much out of date
to the Gospel and its friends, but seldom has its and almost as little to be regarded as if it had
interposition been more manifest thin au this crisis. been fulminated a century before. A single glance
HOPES AND FEARS AT THE DIET. 529
revealedhadto thetakenLutheran
which place princes
in themighty
affairs. change andclausestheinotherthe Lutheran
Christendom Edict of princes,andto cancel
Worms, to the penal
propose that
was now in arms against the man who but a few the whole religious controversy should be referred
months ago himself
offor girding had stoodto atfightits summit;
against and, instead toto make
Lutheranism a General these Council ; but known,
instructions he fearedlest, it hewasshould
said,
the Pope, Charles must now ask the aid of alienate the Popish members of the Diet.
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THE CASTLE OF ST. ANGELO , ROME.

Lutheranism in the battle that he was girding him - Nor was it necessary he should divulge the new
self to fight against the Pope and his confederate orders. The astounding news of the “ League of
kings.
ciliatory was even whispered
Itinstructions of later datein thehadDiet fromcon-
arrivedthatbidden Clement that “most
Cognac," VII. confederation
was theholydistrust
patron ” of which
and promoter, had
the emperor. lettersFerdinand, it wastowardsaid ,was
Duke John sufficed to sow Diet.andThey
alonePopish dismay among
in these last to draw the members of the knew that
Sleidan, bk. vi., p. 103. this strange league had “ broken the bow " of the
emperor, haul weakened the hands of his friends
45
in the Council ; and that to press for the execution mighty boon had been won. Campaigns have been
of the Edict of Wormswould result only in damage fought for less blessings : the Reformers had ob
to the man and the party in whose interests it had tained this without unsheathing a single sword .
been framed. But the storm did not disperse without first
In the altered relations of the emperor to the bursting. As the skies of Germany became clear
Papacy, the Popish section of the Diet — among the those of Rome became overcast. The winter
more prominent of whom were the Dukes of Bruns passed away in some trifling affairs between the
wick and Pomerania , Prince George of Saxony, and Papal and the Spanish troops in Lombardy ; but
the Dukes of Bavaria — dared not come to an open when the spring of 1527 opened, a war-cloud began
rupture with the Reformers. The peasant-war to gather, and in due time it rolled down from the
had just swept over Germany, leaving many parts Alps, and passing on to the south , it discharged
of the Fatherland covered with ruins and corpses, itself in terrible violence upon the city and chair of
and to begin a new conflict with the Lutheran the Pontiff.
princes , and the free and powerful cities which had Before having recourse to arms against the " Holy
espoused the cause of the Reformation, would be Father," who, contrary to all the probabilities of
madness. Thus the storm passed away. Nay, the the case , and contrary also to his own interest,
crisis resulted in great good to the Reformation. had conspired against his most devoted as well as
“ A decree was made at length to this purpose," most powerful son, the emperor made trial of his
says Sleidan , “ that for establishing religion , and pen. In a letter of the 18th September, written
maintaining peace and quietness, it was necessary in the gorgeous halls of the Alhambra, Charles
there should be a lawful General or Provincial reminded Clement VII. of the many services he
Council of Germany held within a year ; and, that had rendered him , for which , it appeared , he must
no delay or impediment might intervene, that am - now accept as payment the league formed against
bassadors should be sent to the emperor, to pray him at his instigation. “ Seeing," said the emperor
him that he would look upon the miserable and to the Pope, “ God hath set us up as two great
tumultuous state of the Empire, and come into luminaries, let us endeavour that the world may
Germany as soon as he could , and procure a Council. be enlightened by us, and that no eclipse may
As to religion and the Edict of Worms,” continued happen by our dissensions. But," continued the
the Diet - conferring by a simple expedient one of emperor, having recourse to what has always been
the greatest of blessings— “ As to religion and the the terror of Popes, “ if you will needs go on like
Edict of Worms, in the meanwhile till a General a warrior, I protest and appeal to a Council."4
or National Council can be had , all shall so behave This letter was without effect in the Vatican, and
themselves in their several provinces as that they these “ two luminaries," to use the emperor's
may be able to render an account of their doings metaphor , instead of shedding light on the world
both to God and the emperor " l _ that is, every began to scorch it with fire. The war was pushed
State was to be free to act in religion upon its own forward.
judgment. The emperor had requested his brother Ferdi
Most historians have spoken of this as a great nand to take command of the army destined to act
epoch . “ The legal existence of the Protestant against the Pope. Ferdinand, however, could not,
party in the Empire,” says Ranke, " is based on at this crisis,be absent from Germany without great
the Decree of Spires of 1526." “ The Diet of inconvenience, and accordingly he commissioned
1526,” says D'Aubigné, " forms an important epoch Freundsberg, the same valorous knight who, as
in history : an ancient power , that of the Middle we have related , addressed the words of encourage
Ages , is shaken ; a new power , that of modern , ment to Luther when hy entered the imperial hall
times, is advancing ; religious liberty boldly takes at Worms, to raise troops for the emperor's assist
its stand in front of Romish despotism ; a lay spirit ance, and lead them across the Alps. Freunds
prevails over the sacerdotal spirit.” 3 This edict berg was a geunine lover of the Gospel, but the
was the first legal blow dealt at the supremacy and work he had now in hand was no evangelical
infallibility of Rome. It was the dawn of tolera- service , and he set about it with the coolness,
tion in matters of conscience to nations : the same the business air , and the resolution of the old
right had still to be extended to individuals. A soldier. It was November (1526 ) ; the snows had
1 Sleidan, bk . vi., p . 104. 4 Sleidan , bk. vi., p . 107 ; see the correspondence
2 Ranke, bk . i., chap . 3, p . 80. between the empezor, the Pope, and the cardinals in
8 D ’Aubigné, vol. iv., p . 12. his pages.
HORRORS OF THE SACK OF ROME. 531
already fallen on the Alps, making it doubly into it through a hundred avenues — dispensations,
hazardous to climb their precipices and pass their pardons, jubilees, pilgrimages, annats, palls, and
summits. But such was the ardour of both contrivances innumerable. But the hour had now
general and army, that this host of 15 ,000 men in come to her “ that spoiled and was not spoiled .”
three days had crossed the mountains and joined The hungry soldiers flung themselves upon the
the Constable of Bourbon, the emperor's general, prey. In a twinkling there burst over the sacer
on the other side of them . On effecting a junction, dotal city a mingled tempest of greed and rage, of
the combined German and Spanish army, which lust and bloodthirsty vengeance.
now amounted to 20,000, set out on their march. The pillage was unsparing as pitiless. The
on Rome. The German general carried with him most secret places were broken open and ransacked .
a great iron chain , wherewith , as he told his Even the torture was employed, in some cases upon
soldiers, he intended to hang the Pope. Rome, prelates and princes of the Church, to make them
however, he was never to see , a circumstance more disgorge their wealth . Not only were the stores
to be regretted by the Romans than by the of the merchant, the bullion of the banker , and
Germans ; for the kindly though rough soldier the hoards of the usurer plundered , the altars
would , had he lived , have restrained the wild were robbed of their vessels, and the churches
licence of his army, which wrought such woes
to all in the ill-fated city . Freundsberg fell sick
spoiled, and the relics of the neemopThe tombs
of their tapestry and votive offerings. The tombs
were rifled, the relics of the canonised were
and died by the way, but his soldiers pressed for spoiled , and the very corpses of the Popes were
ward. On the evening of the 5th of May, the stripped of their rings and ornaments. The plunder
invaders first sighted, through a thin haze, those was piled up in heaps in the market-places - gold
venerable walls, over which many a storm had and silver cups, jewels, sacks of coin , pyxes, rich
lowered , but few more terrible than that now vestments — and the articles were gambled for by
gathering round them . What a surprise to a city the soldiers , who, with abundance of wine and meat
which, full of banquetings and songs and all at their command, made wassail in the midst of
manner of delights, lived carelessly, and never the stricken and bleeding city.
dreamt that war would approach it ! Yet here Blood, pillage, and grim pleasantries were
were the spoilers at her gates. Next morning, strangely and hideously mixed . Things and per
under cover of a dense fog, the soldiers approached sons which the Romans accounted “ holy ,” the
the walls, the scaling-ladders were fixed, and in a soldiery took delight in exposing to ridicule,
few hours the troops were masters of Rome. The mockery, and outrage. The Pontifical ceremonial
Pope and the cardinals fled to the Castle of St. was exhibited in mimic pomp. Camp-boys were
Angelo. A little while did the soldiers rest on arrayed in cope and stole and chasuble , as if they
their arms, till the Pope should come to terms were going to consecrate . Bishops and cardinals
Clement, however, scouted the idea of surrender. - in some cases stripped nude, in others attired in
He expected deliverance every moment from the fantastic dress — were mounted on asses and lean
arms of the Holy League. The patience of the mules, their faces turned to the animal's croupe,
troops was soon exhausted, and the sack began. and led through the streets, while ironical cheers
We cannot, even at this distance of time, relate greeted the unwelcome dignity to which they had
the awful tragedy without a shudder. The Con- been promoted . The Pope's robes and tiara were
stable Bourbon had perished in the first assault, brought forth , and put upon a lansquenet, while
and the army was left without any leader powerful others of the soldiers, donning the red hats and
enough to restrain the indulgence of its passions purple gowns of the cardinals, went through the
and appetites. What a city to spoil ! There was form of a Pontifical election . The mock-conclave,
not at that era another such on earth. At its feet having traversed the city in the train of the pseudo
the ages had laid their gifts. Its beauty was Pope, halted before the Castle of St. Angelo, and
perfect. Whatever was rare, curious, or precious there they deposed Clement VII., and elected
in the world was gathered into it. It was ennobled “ Martin Luther " in his room . “ Never," says
by the priceless monuments of antiquity ; it was D’Aubigné, “ had Pontiff been proclaimed with
enriched with the triumphs of recent genius and such perfect unanimity.”
art; the glory lent it by the chisel of Michael The Spanish soldierswere more embittered against
Angelo, the pencil of Raffaelle, and the tastes the ecclesiastics than the Germans were, and their
and munificence of Leo X . was yet fresh upon it. animosity, instead of evaporating in grim humour
It was full to overflowing with the riches of all and drollery, like that of their Tramontane com
Christendom , which for centuries had been flowing rades, took a practical and deadly turn. Not
content with rifling their victims of their wealth, 5,000 to 10,000. The population on whom this
they made them in many cases pay the forfeit of terrible calamity fell were, upon the testimony of
their lives. Some of the Church dignitaries ex- their own historians, beyond measure emasculated
pired in their hands in the midst of cruel tortures. by effeminacy and vice. Vettori describes them as
They spared no age, rank , or sex. “ Most piteous," " proud, avaricious, murderous, envious, luxurious,
says Guiciardini, “ were the shrieks and lamen - and hypocritical." There were then in Rome, says
tations of the women of Rome, and no less worthy Ranke, “ 30,000 inhabitants capable of bearing
of compassion the deplorable condition of nuns and arms. Many of these men had seen service.” But,
novices, whom the soldiers drove along by troops though they wore arms by their side, there was
out of their convents , that they might satiate their neither bravery nor manhood in their breasts.
brutal lust. . . . Amid this female wail, were Had they possessed a spark of courage , they might
mingled the hoarser clamours and groans of un- have stopped the enemy in his advance to their
happy men, whom the soldiers subjected to torture , city , or chased him from their walls after he
partly to wrest from them unreasonable ransom , appeared.
and partly to compel the disclosure of the goods This stroke fell on Rome in the very prime of
which they had concealed ." her mediæval glory. The magnificence then so
The sack of Rome lasted ten days. “ It was suddenly and terribly smitten has never revived.
reported ,” says Guiciardini, " that the booty taken A few days sufficed to wellnigh annihilate a
might be estimated at a million of ducats ; but the splendour which centuries were needed to bring
ransoms of the prisoners amounted to a far larger to perfection , and which the centuries that have
sum .” The number of victims is estimated at from since elapsed have not been able to restore.
CHAPTER XII.
ORGANISATION OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH.
A Calm of Three Years - Luther Begins to Build - Christians, but no Christian Society - Old Foundations -Gospel
Creates Christians - Christ their Centre - Truth their Bond - Unity - Luther's Theory of Priesthood - All True
Christians Priests — Some Elected to Discharge its Functions- Difference between Romish Priesthood and
Protestant Priesthood - Commission of Visitation - Its Work - Church Constitution of Saxony.
AFTER the storm there came a three years' calm : which was daily enlarging its limits and multi
not indeed to that world over which the Pope and plying its citizens. To that we must now turn .
the emperor presided. The Christendom that owned The way was prepared for the erection of the
the sway of these two potentates continued still new edifice by the demolition of the old . How this
to be torn by intrigues and shaken by battles. It came about we have said in the preceding chapter.
was a sea on which the stormy winds of ambition The emperor had convoked the Diet at Spires ex
and war strove together. But the troubles of the pressly and avowedly to construct a defence around
political world brought peace to the Church . The the old and now tottering edifice of Rome, and to
Gospel had rest only so long as the arms of its raze to its foundations the new building of Wittem .
enemies were turned against each other. The berg by the execution of the Edict of Worms of
calm of three years — from 1526 to 1529 — now 1521 : but the bolt forged to crush Wittemberg
vouchsafed to that new world which was rising fell on Rome. Before the Diet had well begun
in the midst of the old, was diligently occupied their deliberations, the political situation around the
in the important work of organising and upbuild - emperor had entirely changed . Western Europe,
ing. From Wittemberg, the centre of this new alarmed at the vast ambition of Charles, was con
world , there proceeded a mighty plastic influence, federate against him . He could not now execute
1 The authorities consulted for this account of the sack ? Quoted by Ranke, vol. i., p. 82 (foot-note ). For a
of Rome are Sleidan , bk . vi., p. 111 ; Guiciardini, Wars of picture of the Rome of the early part of the sixteenth
Italy , ii. 723 ; Ranke, vol. i., pp . 80 - 83 ; D ’Aubigné, century, see the Memoirs of a Roman of that age - Ben
vol. iv ., pp. 14 -- 20. venuto Cellini,
INSTITUTION OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH . 533
the Edict of Worms, for fear of offending the Church — the work to which Luther now put his
Lutheran princes, on whom the League of Cognac hand — was an order of men , by whatever name
compelled him to cast himself ; and he could called - priests, presbyters, or bishops— to preach
not repeal it, for fear of alienating from him and to dispense the Sacraments. Cut off from
the Popish princes. A middle path was devised , Rome— the sole fountain , as she held herself to
which tided over the emperor's difficulty, and be, of sacred offices and graces — how did the Re
gave a three years' liberty to the Church. The former proceed in the re-constitution of theministry ?
Diet decreed that, till a General Council should He assumed that functions are lodged inalienably
assemble, the question of religion should be an in the Church , or company of believing men , or
open one, and every State should be at liberty to brotherhood of priests ; for he steadfastly held to
act in it as it judged right. Thus the Diet, the the priesthood of all believers. The express object
assembling of which the friends of the Reformation for which the Church existed, he reasoned , was to
had seen with alarm , and its enemies with triumph, spread salvation over the earth . How does she
nflicted a bichieved just the death-knell of
and which was to ring the death -knell of Pro do this ? She does it by the preaching of the
testantism , achieved just the opposite result. It Gospel and the dispensation of Sacraments. It is
inflicted a blow which broke in pieces the theo - therefore the Church 's duty to preach and to dis
cratic sovereignty of Rome in the German States pense the Sacraments. But duty, Luther reasoned ,
of the Empire, and cleared the ground for the implies right and function . That function is the
building of a new spiritual temple. common possession of the Church - of all believers .
Luther was quick to perceive the opportunity But it is not to be exercised , in point of fact, by
that had at length arrived . The edict of 1526 all the Church 's members ; it is to be exercised
sounded to him as a call to arise and build . by some only. How are these some, then, to be
When the Reformer came down from the Wart- chosen ? Are they to enter upon the exercise of
burg, where doubtless he had often meditated on this function at their own pleasure — simply self
these things, there was a Reformation , but no appointed ? No ; for what is the function of all
Reformed Church ; there were Christians, but no cannot be specially exercised by any, save with the
visible Christian society . His next work must consent and election of the rest. The call or in
be to restore such. The fair fabric which apostolic vitation of these others — the congregation , that
hands had reared, and which primitive times had is constituted the right of the individual to
witnessed, had been cast down long since, and for discharge the office of “ minister of the Word ;"
ages had lain in ruins : it must be built up from for so did the Reformer prefer to style those
its old foundations. The walls had fallen, but the who were set apart in the Church to preach
foundations, he knew , were eternal, like those of the the Gospel and dispense the Sacraments. “ In
earth. On these old foundations, as still remaining cases of necessity ," says he, “ all Christians may
in the Scriptures, Luther now began to build . exercise all the functions of the clergy, but order
Hitherto the Reformer's work had been to preach requires the devolving of the office upon particular
the Gospel. By the preaching of the Gospel, he persons." 1 An immediate Divine call was not
had called into existence a number of believing required to give one a right to exercise office in
men , scattered throughout the provinces and cities the Church : the call of God came through the
of Germany, who were already actually, though not instrumentality of man. Thus did Luther con
as yet visibly, distinct from the world , and to whom stitute the ministry . Till this had been done, the
there belonged a real,though not as yet an outward , ministry could not have that legitimate part which
unity . They were gathered by their faith round belongs to it in the appointing of those who are
one living centre, even Christ; and they were knit to bear office in the Church.”
by a great spiritual bond, namely, the truth, to one . The clergy of the Lutheran Church stood at the
another. But the principle of union in the heart opposite pole from the clergy of the Roman Church.
of each of these believing men must work itself The former were democratic in their origin ; the
into an outward unity — a unity visible to the latter were monarchical. The former sprang from
world . Unless it does so , the inward principle the people, by whom they were chosen , although
will languish and die — not, indeed , in those hearts that choice was viewed as being indirectly the call
in which it already exists , but in the world : it of God, who would accompany it with the gifts
will fail to propagate itself. These Christians must
be gathered into a family, and built up into a king Luther, Theologie, ii. 126 - 135. Dorner, Hist. Protest.
dom - a holy and spiritual kingdom . Theol., vol. i., p . 174 ; Clerk, Edin ., 1971.
The first necessity in the organisation of the : Dorner, vol.i., pp. 172 - 175 .
and graces necessary for the office; the latter were man who performed it. Wherever there is a line
appointed by a sacerdotalmonarch, and replenished ofonlysacramentally ordained men, there and there
for their functions by Sacramental is the Church, said Rome. Wherever the
former differed in no essential pointordination. The
from the other Word is faithfully preached, and the Sacraments
members of the Church ; the latter were a hier- purely administered, there is the Church , said the
archy, they formed a distinct order, inasmuch as Reformation.
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JOHN FREDERIC, ELECTOR OF SAXONY, SURNAMED THE “ STEADFAST."
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to yield a passive or helpless submission to her own which the Church in the Electorate of Saxony was
ministers. That power was still hers - hers to be to he reinstituted, was drawn up by Melancthon.
used for her edification - hers to be recalled if abused Luther, Melancthon , Spalatin , and Thuring were
or turned to her destruction . It never can cease the four chief commissioners, to each of whom col
to be the Church 's duty to preach the Gospel and leagues, lay and clerical,were attached. To Luther
administer the Sacraments. No circumstances, no was assigned the electorate ; the others visited the
formality , no claim of office can ever relieve her provinces of Altenburg, Thuringia, and Franconia.
from that obligation. But this implies that she has Much ignorance , many errors and mistakes, in
ever the right of calling to accountor deposing from numerable abuses and anomalies did the visitation
office those who violate the tacit condition of their bring to light. The Augean stable into which the
appointment, and defeat its great end. Without Papacy had converted Germany, not less than the
this the Church would have no power of reforming rest of Christendom , was not to be cleansed in a
herself ; once corrupt, her cure would be hopeless ; day. All that could be done was to make a begin
once enslaved , her bondage would be eternal. ning, and even that required infinite tact and firm
From the consideration of these principles Luther ness, great wisdom and faith. From the living
advanced to the actual work of construction . He waters of the sanctuary only could a real purifica
called the princes to his aid as his fellow - tion be looked for , and the care of the visitors was
labourers in this matter. This was a departure to open channels, or remove obstructions, that this
in some measure from his theory, for undoubtedly cleansing currentmight freely pervade the land.
that theory, legitimately applied , would have Ministers were chosen , consistories were ap
permitted none to take part in ecclesiastical pointed, ignorant and immoral pastors were removed,
arrangements and appointments save those who but provided for. In some cases priests were met
were members of the Church. But Luther had with who were trying to serve both Rome and the
not thought deeply on the question touching the Reformation. In one church they had a pulpit from
limits of the respective provinces of Church and which they preached the doctrines of free grace, in
State, or on how far the civil authority may go in another an altar at which they used to say mass.
enacting ecclesiastical arrangements, and planting a The visitors put an end to such dualisms. The
country with the ordinances of the Gospel. No doctrine of the universal priesthood of believers
one in that day had very clear or decided views on did not comport, Luther thought, with a difference
this point. Luther, in committing the organising of grade among the ministers of the Gospel, but the
of the Church so largely into the hands of the pastors of the greater cities were appointed , under
princes, yielded to a necessity of the times. Besides, the title of superintendents, to supervise the others ,
it is to be borne in mind that the princes were, in and to watch over both congregations and schools.
a sense, members of the Church ; that they were The one great want everywhere , Luther found to
not less prominent by their religious intelligence be want of knowledge. He set himself to remedy
and zeal than by their official position, and that if the deficiency by compiling popular manuals of the
Zwingle, who had more stringent opinions on the Reformed doctrine, and by issuing plain instruc
point of limiting Church action to Church agencies tions to the preachers to qualify them more fully
than Luther, made the Council of Two Hundred for teaching their flocks. He was at pains, espe
the representative of the Church in Zurich , the cially , to show them the indissoluble link between
latter might be held excusable in making the princes the doctrine of a free justification and holiness of
the representative of the Church in Germany, more life. His “ Larger and Smaller Catechisms," which
especially when so many of the common people were he published at this time, were among the most
as yet too ignorant or too indifferent to take part valuable fruits of the Church visitation. By spread
in the matter. ing widely the truth they did much to root the
On the 22nd October , 1526 , Luther moved the Reformation among the people, and to rear a bul
Elector John of Saxony to issue a commission of wark against the return of Popery .
visitation of his dominions, in order to the reinsti- Armed with the authority of the elector, the
tution of the Church , that of Rome being now visitors suppressed the convents ; the inmates were
abolished . Authorised by the elector, four com restored to society, the buildings were converted
missioners began the work of Church visitation into schools and hospitals, and the property was
Two were empowered to inquire into the tempo divided between the maintenance of public worship
ralities of the Church, and two into her ecclesias- and national uses. Ministers were encouraged to
tical condition , touching schools, doctrine, pastors. marry, and their families became centres of moral
The paper of instructions, or plan according to and intellectual life throughout the Fatherland .
FRANCIS LAMBERT, ANOTHER EX -MONK . 537
The plan of Church reform , as drawn by Melanc- , no evil in these things," said Melancthon, “ they
thon , was à retrogression. As he wrote, he saw will do no harm to the worshipper," but the sound
on the one hand the fanatics, on the other a pos- ness of his inference is open to question. With all
sible re-approachment, at a future day, to Rome, these drawbacks this visitation resulted in great
and he framed his instructions in a conservative good. The organisation now given the Church
spirit. The antagonistic points in the Reformation permitted a combination of her forces. She could
doctrine he discreetly veiled ; and as regarded the henceforth more effectually resist the attacks of
worship of the Church, he aimed at conserving as Rome. Besides, at the centre of this organisation
much and altering as little as possible. Some was placed the preaching of the Word as the main
called this moderation , others termed it trimming ; instrumentality . That great light shone apace,
the Romanists thought that the Reformation troops and the tolerated superstitions faded away. A
had begun their march back ; the Wittembergers new face began to appear on Germany.
were not without a suspicion of treachery . Luther On themodel of the Church of Saxony, were the
would have gone further ; for he grasped too tho- Churches of the other German States re-constituted .
roughly the radical difference between Rome and Franconia, Luneburg, East Friesland, Schleswig
Wittemberg to believe that these two would ever and Holstein , Silesia , and Prussia received Re
again be one ; but when he reflected on the sin - formed constitutions by the joint action of the
cerity of Melancthon , and his honest desire to civil and ecclesiastical authorities.
guard the Reformation on all sides, he was content. The same course was pursued in many of the
So far as the forms of worship and the aspect of principal cities of the German Empire. Their in
the churches were concerned, the change resulting habitants had received the Reformation with open
from this visitation was not of a marked kind. arms, and were eager to abolish all the traces of
The Latin liturgy was retained , with a mixture Romish domination. The more intelligent and
of Lutheran hymns. The altar still stood , though free the city, the more thoroughly was this Refor
now termed the table ; the same toleration was mation carried out. Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm ,
vouchsafed the images, which continued to occupy Strasburg, Brunswick, Hamburg , Bremen , Magde
their niches ; vestments and lighted tapers were burg ,and others placed themselves in the list of the
still made use of, especially in the rural churches. Reformed cities, without even availing themselves
The great towns, such as Nuremberg , Ulm , Stras- of the permission given them by Melancthon of
burg, and others, purged their temples of a machi- halting at a middle stage in this Reformation. We
nery more necessary in the histrionic worship of have the torch of the Bible, said they, in our
Rome than in that of the Reformation. “ There is churches, and have no need of the light of a taper.
CHAPTER XIII.
CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH OF HESSE .
Francis Lambert - Quits his Monastery at Avignon - Comes to Zurich - Goes on to Germany - Luther Recommends
him to Landgrave Philip - Invited to frame a Constitution for the Church of Hesse - His Paradoxes — The Priest's
Commentary - Discussion at Homburg — The Hessian Church constituted - Its Simplicity - Contrast to Romish
Organisation - General Ends gained by Visitation - Moderation of Luther - Monks and Nuns - Stipends of Pro
testant Pastors - Luther's Instructions to them - Deplorable Ignorance of German Peasantry - Luther's Smaller
and Larger Catechisms- Their Effects.
HESSE was an exception, not in lagging behind, but ground, for he was tall as well as thin , wearing the
in going before the others. This principality en- grey gown of the Franciscans, gathered round his
joyed the labours of a remarkable inan. Francis waist with the cord of the order , he traversed in
Lambert had read the writings of Luther in his cell this fashion the countries of Switzerland and Ger
at Avignon . His eyes opened to the light, and he many, preaching by the way, till at last he reached
fled. Mounted on an ass, his feet almost touching the Wittemberg , and presented himself before Luther.
i Corpus Ref., ii.990 — D 'Aubigné, vol. iv., p . 35. · Corpus Ref.-- D 'Aubigné, vol. iv., p. 35.
Charmed with the decision of his character and the . “ The Church is the congregation of those who
clearness of his knowledge, the Reformer brought are united by the same spirit, the same faith ,
the Franciscan under the notice of Philip of Hesse. the same God, the same Mediator, the same Word ,
Between the thorough -going ex-monk and the by which alone they are governed.” So runs Para
chivalrous and resolute landgrave, there were not dox the fourth . A dangerous leap ! thinks the
edto contente church
a few points of similarity fitted to cement them in
a common action for the good of the Church .
priest ; the ex-monk clears tradition and the
Fathers at a bound. He will have some difficulty
constitution for the Churches of Hesse . Nothing in findin prieste
Francis was invited by the landgrave to frame a in finding his way back to the orthodox path .
The priest proceeds to Paradox fifth . “ The
loth, Lambert set to work, and in one hundred and Word is the true key. The kingdom of heaven is
fifty -eight “ Paradoxes " produced a basis broad open to him who believes the Word, and shut
enough to permit of every member exercising his against him who believes it not. Whoever, there
influence in the government of the Church. fore, truly possesses the power of the Word of God ,
We are amazed to find these propositions coming has the power of the keys." The ex-monk , thinks
out of a French cell. The monk verily must have Dornemann, upsets the Pope's throne in the little
studied other books than his breviary. What a clause that gives right to the Word alone to
sudden illumination was it that dispelled the dark - govern.
ness around the disciples of the sixteenth century ! “ Since the priesthood of the law has been
Passing, in respect of their spiritual knowledge, abolished,” says the sixth proposition, “ Christ is
from night to noon-day, without an intervening the only immortal and eternal Priest ; and he does
twilight, what a contrast do they present to nearly not, like men , need a successor." There goes the
all those who in after-days left the Romish Commu- whole hierarchy of priests. Not an altar, not a
nion to enroll themselves in the Protestant ranks ! mass in all Christendom that this proposition does
Were the intellects of the men of that age more not sweep away. Tradition , Councils, Popes, and
penetrating or was the Spirit more largely given ? now priests, all are gone, and what is left in their
But to pass on to the propositions of the ex- room ? Let us read proposition seventh.
monk. “ All Christians, since the commencement of the
Conforming to a custom which had been an esta Church , have been and are participators in Christ's
blished one since thedays of the Emperor Justinian, priesthood.” The monk's Paradoxes are opening
who published his Pandects in the Churches, the flood-gates to drown the Church and world in
Francis Lambert, of Avignon, nailed up his “ Para - a torrent of democracy.
doxes” on the church doors of Hesse. Scarce were At that moment the stool was pulled from under
they exposed to the public gaze, when eager hands the feet of the priest, and, tumbling in the dust,
were stretched out to tear them down. Not so , his public reading was suddenly brought to an
however, for others and friendly ones are uplifted end. We have heard enough, however ; we see
to defend them from desecration. “ Let them be the ground plan of the spiritual temple ; the basis
read,” say several voices. A young priest fetches a is broad enough to sustain a very lofty structure.
stool- mounts it ; the crowd keep silence , and the Not a select few only, but all believers, are to be
priest reads aloud . built as living stones into this “ holy house."
“ All that is deformed ought to be reformed." With the ex -Franciscan of Avignon, as with the
So ran the first Paradox. It needed, thinks Boni. ex -Augustinian of Wittemberg, the corner-stone of
face Dornemann, the priest who acted as reader, no the Church's organisation is the “ universal priest
runagate monk, no “ spirit from the vasty depth ” hood " of believers.
of Lutheranism to tell us this. This was a catholicity of which that Church
“ The Word of God is the rule of all true which claims catholicity as her exclusive possession
Reformation," says Paradox second. Thatmay be knew nothing. The Church of Rome had lodged all
granted as part of the truth , thinks priest Dorne- priesthood primarily in one man , St. Peter — that
mann , but it looks askance on tradition and on the is, in the Pope— and only a select few , who were
infallibility of the Church. Still, with a Council linked to him by a mysterious chain , were permitted
to interpret the Bible , it may pass. to share in it. What was the consequence ? Why,
The crowd listens and he reads Paradox the this , that one part of the Church was dependentupon
third. “ It belongs to the Church to judge on another part for salvation ; and instead of a heavenly
matters of faith.” Now the ex-monk has found society, all whose members were enfranchised in
the right road , doubtless thinks Dornemann , and
bids fair to follow it. The Church is the judge. i Paradoxa Lamberti- Scultet, Annel.
THE APOSTLE PETER ON PRIESTHOOD. 539
an equal privilege and a common dignity , and all of the whole body. Such were the conclusions of
of whom were engaged in offering the same spiri. Luther and the ex -Franciscan of Avignon ; and the
tual sacrifices of praise and obedience, the Church latter now proceeded to give effect to these general
was parted into two great classes ; there were the principles in the organisation of the Church of
oligarchs and there were the serfs ; the first were Hesse.
holy, the others were profane ; the first monopolised But first he must submit his propositions to the
all blessings, and the others were their debtors for authorities ecclesiastical and civil of Hesse, and if
such gifts as they chose to dole out to them . possible obtain their acceptance of them . The
The two ex -monks, Luther and Lambert, put an Landgrave Philip issued his summons, and on the
end to this state of things . They abolished the one 21st October knights and counts, prelates and
priest, plucking from his brow his impious mitre, pastors , with deputies from the towns, assembled
and from his hands his blasphemous sacrifice , and in the Church of Homburg, to discuss the proposi
they put the one Eternal Priest in heaven in his tions of Lambert. The Romish party vehemently
room . Instead of the hierarchy whose reservoir of assailed the Paradoxes , with equal vigour Lam
power was on the Seven Hills, whence it was con - bert defended them . His eloquence silenced every
veyed downward through a mystic chain that linked opponent ; and after three days' discussion his pro
all other priests to the Pope,much as the cable con - positions were carried, and the Churches of Hesse
veys the electric spark from continent to continent, constituted in accordance therewith.
they restored the universal priesthood of believers. The Church constitution of Hesse is the first to
Their fountain of power is in heaven ; faith like a which the Reformation gave birth ; it was framed
chain links them to it ; the Holy Spirit is the in the hope that it might be a model to others, and
oil with which they are anointed ; and the sacri- it differs in some important points from all of sub
fices they present are not those of expiation , sequent enactment in Germany. It took its origin
which has been accomplished once for all by exclusively from the Church ; its authority was
the Eternal Priest, but of hearts purified by derived from the same quarter ; for in its enactment
faith, and lives which the same divine grace mention was made neither of State nor of land
makes fruitful in holiness. This was a great grave, and it was worked by a Church agency.
revolution. An ancient and established order was Every member of the Church, of competent learning
abolished ; an entirely different one was introduced and piety, was eligible to the ministerial office ;
Who gave them authority to make this change ? each congregation was to choose its own pastor.
That same apostle, they answered, which the Church The pastors were all equal ; they were to be or
of Rome had made her chief and corner-stone. St. dained by the laying on of the hands of three others ;
Peter, said the Church of Rome, is the one priest : they were to meet with their congregations every
he is the reservoir of all priesthood. But St. Peter Sabbath for the exercise of discipline ; and an
himself had taught a very different doctrine ; annual synod was to supervise the whole body.
speaking, not through his successor at Rome, but The constitution of the Hessian Church very closely
in his own person, and addressing all believers, he resembled that which was afterwards adopted in
had said , “ Ye are a royal priesthood.” So then that Switzerland and Scotland. But it was hardly to
apostle, whom Romanists represented as concen- be expected that it should retain its popular vigour
trating the whole priestly function in himself, had in the midst of Churches constituted on the Institu
made the most unreserved and universal distribu- tionsofMelancthon ; the State gradually encroached
tion of it among themembers of the Church . upon its liberties, and in 1528 it was remodelled
In this passage we hear a Divine voice speaking, upon the principles of the Church constitutions of
and calling into being another society than a merely Saxony.
natural one. We behold the Church coming into Such were the labours that occupied the three
existence, and the same Word that summons her years during which the winds were held that
forth invests her in her powers and functions. In they should not blow on the young vine which
her cradle she is pronounced to be “ royal ” and was now beginning to stretch its boughs over
" holy.” Her charter includes two powers, the Christendom .
power of spiritual government and the power of This visitation marks a new epoch in the history
holy service. These are lodged in the whole body
of believers, but the exercise of them is not the See details of the Hessian Church constitution in
right of all, but the right only of the fittest, whom D ' Aubigné, vol. iv ., pp. 24 - 30, taken from the Monumenta
Hassiaca , vol. ii., p . 588 .
the rest are to call to preside over them in the exer ? J. H . Kurtz , D .D ., Hist. of the Christian Church, p. 30
cise of powerswhich are nottheirs,but the property Edin .,1864 .
of Protestantism . Hitherto , the Reformation had Saxony ; but in several instances he pleads for
been simply a principle, standing unembodied before them with the elector, representing that it would
its opponents, and fighting at great disadvantage be wiser policy to let them alone, than to drive
against an established and organised system . It them into other countries, where their opportunities
was no longer so. It was not less a spiritual prin -of mischief would be greater. If indulgent to this
ciple than before, but it had now found a body in class, he could not be other than beneficent to nuns
which to dwell, and through which to act. It and monks. He remembered that he had been a
could now wield all the appliances that organisa - monk himself. Nuns, in many instances, were left
tion gives for combining and directing its efforts, in their convents , and old monks in their chimney
and making its presence seen and its power felt by corners , with a sufficient maintenance for the rest
men. This organisation it did not borrow from of their lives. “ Commended to God ” ? was the
tradition , or from the existing hierarchy, which phrase by which he designated this class, and which
bore a too close resemblance to that of the pagan showed that he left to timeand the teaching of the
temples, but from the pages of the New Testament, Spirit the dissolution of the conventual vow , and
finding its models whence it had drawn its doctrines. the casting-off of themonastic cowl. To expel the
It was the purity of apostolic doctrine, equipped nun from her cell, and strip the monk of his frock ,
in the simplicity of apostolic organisation. Thus while the fetter remained on the soul, was to leave
it disposed of the claims of the Romish Church to them captives still. It was a Higher who had been
antiquity by attesting itself as more ancient than anointed to “ proclaim liberty to the captive and
it. But though ancient, it was not like Rome the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”
borne down by the corruptions and decrepitudes of Not less considerate were his instructions to
age ; it had the innate celestial vigour of the primi- preachers. He counselled a moderate and wise
tive Church whose representative it claimed to be. course in the pulpit, befitting the exigencies of the
Young itself, it promised to bestow a second youth age. They were to go forth into the wilderness
on the world . that Christendom had become with the doctrine of
Besides the main object of this visitation, which the Baptist, “ Repent.” But in their preaching they
was the planting of churches, a number of subsi- were never to disjoin Repentance from Faith. These
diary but still important ends were gained. We were two graces which worked together in a golden
are struck, first of all, by the new light in which yoke ; in vain would the former pour out her tears,
this visitation presents the character of the Re- unless the latter was near with her pardon. There
former. Luther as a controversialist and Luther was forgiveness, not in the confessor's box , but in
as an administrator seem two different men . In the throne of Christ, but it was only faith that
debate the Reformer sweeps the field with an im - could mount into the skies and bring it down.
petuosity that clears his path of every obstruction, In the pulpitthey were to occupy themselves with
and with an indignation that scathes and burns up the same truths which the apostles and early evan
every sophist and every sophism which his logic gelists had preached ; they were not to fear that
has overturned. But when he goes forth on this the Gospel would lose its power ; they “ were notto
tour of visitation we hardly know him . He clothes Aling stones at Romanism ; ” the true light would
himself with considerateness, with tenderness, and extinguish the false,as the day quenches the lumin
even with pity . He is afraid of going too far, and osity that putrid bodies wear in the darkness.
in some cases he leaves it open to question whether With the spiritual inability of the will they were
he has gone far enough. He is calm - nay, cautious to teach themoral freedom of thewill ; the spiritual
-- treading softly, lest unwittingly he should trample incapacity which man has contracted by the Fall
on a prejudice that is honestly entertained, or hurt was not to be pleaded to the denial of his responsi
the feelings of any weak brother, or do an act of bility. Man can abstain , if he chooses, from lying,
injustice or severity to any one. The revenues of from theft, from murder, and from other sins, ac
the abbeys and cathedrals he touches no further cording to St. Paul's declaration - “ TheGentiles do
than to order that they shall contribute a yearly by nature the things contained in the law ." Man
sum for the salaries of the parish ministers, and the can ask the power of God to cure the impotency of
support of the schools. Vacant benefices , of course, his will ; but it was God, not the saints, that men
he appropriates ; here no personal plea appeals
to his commiseration. Obstinate Romanists find
forbearance at his hands. There was a clause in 1 " Alibi licentius ageret." (Letter to John , Duke of
the Visitation Act which , had he chosen to enforce Saxony, April 23, 1529 - Seckendorf, lib . ü . sec. 13 ;
Additio is
it, would have enabled him to banish such from 2 Seckendorf, lib. ii.,sec. 13; Additio i.
IGNORANCE OF THE GERMAN PEASANTRY. 541
were to supplicate. The pastors were further in- despite her rich endowments, her numerous frater
structed to administer the Sacrament in both kinds, • nities, and her array of clergy, had permitted the
unless in some exceptional cases, and to inculcate body of the common people to descend. Schools,
the doctrine of the realpresence. preachers,the
In his tower ide the peasantes,tind how toshape
In his tour, the Reformer was careful to lay them “ naked toBible, withheld.In Shehad
theirallshame." made
some respects
himself alongside the peasantry, to ascertain the this made the work of Luther the easier. There
exact state of their knowledge, and how to shape was little that was solid to displace. There
his instructions. One day, as Mathesius relates, strong convictions
were
no to root up : crass ignorance
he asked a peasant to repeat the Creed . “ I had cleared the ground to his hand. In other
SIN
SAL
LE
O
EF
WATU
EN
louis
)
LE
134
.
RE
BE
VIEW IN BARCELOXA .
believe in God Almighty _ " began the peasant respects, this made his work the more difficult ;
“ Stop,” said Luther. “ What do you mean by for all had to be built up from the foundations;
' Almighty ?'” “ I cannot tell,” replied the man . the very first elements of Divine knowledge had
" Neither can I,” said Luther, “ nor all the learned to be instilled into the lower orders. With the
men in the world. Only believe that God is thy higher ranks things were not so bad ; with them
dear and true Father, and knows, as the All-wise Lutheranism was more a reality — a distinctly
Lord, how to help thee, thy wife, and children, in apprehended system of truth — than it had yet
timeTwoofneed. That is enough." come to be with the classes below them . In the
things this visitation brought to light. Altenburg district of the Saxon Electorate, only
First, it showed how very generalwas the abandon- one nobleman now adhered to the Church of
ment of the Romish doctrines and ceremonies Rome. In the city the Gospel had been preached
throughout Saxony; and, secondly, how deplorable seven years, and now there were hardly ten
the ignorance into which the Church of Rome, men to be found in it who adhered to the Roman
46
Church . Of one hundred parishes , only four the German peasant. Here was another misdeed
continued to celebrate mass. The priests, aban- for which Rome would have to account at the bar
doning the concubinage in which the Pope had of future ages : nor was this the least of the great
allowed them to live, contracted marriage, in the crimes of which he held her guilty. Her surpassing
majority of instances, with those with whom they pride he already knew : it was proclaimed to the
had previously maintained relations of a less world in the exceeding loftiness of the titles of her
honourable kind. Over against these gratifying Popes. The tyranny of her rule he also knew : it was
proofs of the progress of the movement, others of exhibited in the statutes of her canon law and the
edicts of her Councils . Her intolerance stood con
rolen many instances, superseded the Red The
a less satisfactory character had to be placed . The
Lutheranism which had superseded the Romanism fessed in the slaughter of the Albigenses and the
was, in many instances, interpreted to mean simply stake of Huss : her avarice in the ever-multiplying
a release from the obligation to pay ecclesiastical extortions under which Germany groaned, and of
dues, and to give attendance on church cere. which he had had new and recent proofs in the
monies. Nor does one wonder that the peasants neglected fields and unoccupied dwellings thatmet
should so have regarded it, when one recalls the his eye on his visitation tour. Whather indulgence
spectacles of oppression which met the eyes of the boxes meant he also knew . But here was another
visitors in their progress : fields abandoned and product of the Romish system . It had covered the
houses deserted from the pressure of the religious nations with a darkness so deep that the very idea
imposts. From a people so completely fleeced , and of a God was almost lost. The closer he came to
whose ignorance was as great as their penury , the this state of things, the more appalling and frightful
Protestant pastor could expect only inadequate he saw it to be. The German nations were, doubt
and precarious support. The ministers eked out less, but a sample of the rest of Christendom . It
the miserable contributions of their flocks by wasnot Romanism only , but all religion that was on
cultivating each his little patch of land . While the point of perishing. “ If," said Luther, writing
serving their Master in straits, if not in poverty, to the Elector of Saxony soon thereafter, " the old
ther ecclesiy the bar the wealt
they saw without a murmur the bulk of the wealthy
Popish foundations grasped by the barons, or used
state of things had been suffered to reach its natural
termination, the world must have fallen to pieces,
by the canons and other ecclesiastics who chose still and Christianity have been turned into Atheism ."
to remain within the pale of the Roman Church . The Reformer made haste to drive away the
These hardships , they knew , were the inevitable night which had descended on the world . This, in
attendants of the great transition now being effected fact, had been the object of his labours ever since
from one order of things to another. Piety alone he himself had cometo the knowledge of the truth ;
could open the fountains of liberality among the but henow saw more clearly how this was to be done.
people , and piety mustbe the offspring of knowledge, Accordingly the moment hehad ended his visitation
even the knowledge of the Word ofGod . Pastors and and returned to Wittemberg, he sat down, not to
schools were the greatwant. “ Everywhere we find," write a commentary or a controversial tract, but a
said Luther, " poverty and penury. The Lord send catechism for theGerman peasantry. This manual
labourers into his vineyard ! Amen .” “ The face of rudimentary instruction was ready early next
of the Church is everywhere most wretched ,” he spring (1529). It was published in two forms, a
wrote to Spalatin . “ Sometimes we have a collec- Shorter and a Larger Catechism . The former com
tion for the poor pastors , who have to till their two prised a brief and simple exposition of the Ten
acres, which helps them a little. The peasants Commandments, the Creed , the Lord 's Prayer, and
have nothing, and know nothing : they neither ' the Sacraments, with forms of prayer for night and
pray, confess, nor communicate, as if they were morning, and grace before and after meals, with a
exempted from every religious duty . What an “ House-table ” or series of Scripture texts for daily
administration, that of the Papistical bishops ! ” use ; his Larger Catechism contained a fuller and
The Reformer had seen the nakedness of the more elaborate exposition of the same matters
land : this was the first step toward the remedying Few of his writings have been more useful.
of it. The darkness was Cimmerian. He could His Commentaries and other works had en
not have believed , unless he had had personal lightened the nobility and instructed the more
knowledge of it, how entirely without intellectual intelligent of the townspeople ; but in his Cate.
and spiritual culture the Church of Rome had left chisms the “ light was parted ” and diffused over
the “ plains," as it had once been over the “ moun
i Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 13 ; Additio i.
2 Ibid . 3 Ibid . Ibid . • Seckendorf, lib. ii., sec. 14, p. 130.
WITHIN AND WITHOUT THE PALE OF PROTESTANTISM . 543
tain-tops.” When the earth is a parched desert, knowledge, parted in these little books, and sown
its herbs burned up, it is not the stately river like the drops of dew , they penetrated the under
rolling along within its banks that will make the standings of the populations among which they were
fields to flourish anew . Its floods pass on to the cast, and wherever they entered they awoke con
ocean, and the thirsty land, with its drooping and science, they quickened the intellect, and evoked
dying plants, tasting not of its waters, continues a universal outburst, first of the spiritual activities,
still to languish. But with the dew or the rain and next of the intellectual and political powers ;
cloud it is not so. They descend softly, almost while the nations that enjoyed no such sowing lay
unseen and unheard by man, but their effects are unquickened , their slumber became deeper every
mighty . Their myriad drops bathe every flower, century, till at last they realised their present
penetrate to the roots of every herb, and soon condition , in which they present to Protestant
hill and plain are seen smiling in fertility nations a contrast that is not more melancholy
and beauty. So with these rudiments of Divine than it is instructive.
CHAPTER XIV .
POLITICS AND PRODIGIES.
Wars - Francis I. Violates his Treaty with Charles - The Turk - The Pope and the Emperor again become Friends
Failure of the League of Cognac - Subjection of Italy to Spain - New League between the Pope and the Emperor
- Heresy to be Extinguished - A New Diet summoned - Prodigies - Otto Pack - His Story — The Lutheran Princes
prepare for War against the Popish Confederates - Luther Interposes - War Averted - Martyrs.
While within the inner circle formed by that holy Spanish monarch. To complete the embroilment,
society which we have seen rising there was peace , the Turk was thundering at the gates of Austria ,
outside of it, on the open stage of the world , there and threatening to march right into the heart of
raged furious storms. Society was convulsed by Christendom . Passing Vienna, Solyman was pour
wars and rumours of wars. Francis I., who had ing his hordes into Hungary ; he had slain Louis,
obtained his liberty by signing the Treaty of Ma- the king of that country , in the terrible battle of
drid , was no sooner back in France, breathing its Mohacz ; and the Arch -Duke Ferdinand of Austria ,
air and inhaling the incense of the Louvre, than fwork
leaving sons hhad
ield hiofesthe,aupbuilding,
ndReformers denly ttoo pprosecute
ad atsudliberty ros their
he declared the conditions which had opened to suddenly quitted the Diet
him escape from captivity intolerable, and made no of Spires and gone to contest on many a bloody
secret of his intention to violate them . He applied field his claim to the now vacant throne of Hun
to the Pope for a dispensation from them . The gary. On every sidethe sword was busy. Armies
Pope, now at open feud with the emperor , re- were continually on the march ; cities were being
leased Francis from his obligations. This kindled besieged ; Europe was a sea on whose bosom the
anew the flames of war in Europe. The French great winds from the four quarters of the heavens
king, instead of marching under the banner of were contending in all their fury.
Charles , and fighting for the extinction of heresy, Continual perplexity was the lot of the monarchs
as he had solemnly bound himself to do, got of that age. But all their perplexities grew out of
together his soldiers , and sent them across the that mysterious movement which was springing up
Alpscotnsoe attence, had to sfighte,which thhei victory mmoeans of its
Alps to attack the emperor in Italy. Charles, in the midst of them , and which possessed the
in ssions in the pen ecurely give mgland, narchshand
in consequence, had to fight over again for strange , and to them terrible, faculty of converting
the possessions in the peninsula , which nthe victory everything that was meant for its harm into the
of Pavia he believed had securely given him . In means of its advancement. The uneasiness of the
another quarter trouble arose. Henry of England, monarchs was shown in their continual shiftings.
who till now had been on the most friendly terms Scarcely had one combination been formed , when it
with the emperor , having moved in the matter of wasbroken in pieces,and another and a different one
his divorce from his queen, Catherine,the emperor's put in its place . We have just seen the Pope and
aunt, was also sending hostile messages to the the emperor at feud. We again behold them
becoming confederates, and joining their swords, so concluded a peace with the emperor at Barcelona,
recently pointed at each other, for the extinction of on the promise that Charles would do his utmost to
the heresy of Wittemberg. The train of political root out that nest of heretics which had been formed
events by which this came about may be told in a at Wittemberg, and to exalt the dominion and glory
few words. of the Roman See.
The expedition of the French king into Italy , in The moment seemed opportune for finishing with
violation,as we have seen, of the Treaty of Madrid , heresy . Italy was now at the feet of the emperor ;
was at first successful. His general, Lautrec, Francis I. and his kingdom had been chastised , and
sweeping down from the Alps, took the cities of were not likely soon again to appear in arms on the
Alexandria and Pavia . At the latter place south of the Alps ; the tide of Turkish invasion had
Francis I. had been defeated and made captive, been rolled back ; the Pope was again the friend of
and his soldiers, with a cruelty that disgraced the emperor, and all things seemed to invite Charles
themselves more than it avenged their master, to an enterprise which he had been compelled to
plundered it, having first put its inhabitants to postpone, and at times to dissemble , but which he
the sword. Lautrec crossed the Apennines, in - had never abandoned .
tending to continue his march to Rome, and open It was not his intention , however, to draw the
the doors of the Castle of St. Angelo, where sword in the first instance. Charles was naturally
Clement VII. still remained shut up. The Pope humane ; and though intent on the extinction of
meanwhile, having paid the first instalment of a the Reformed movement, foreseeing that it would
ransom of 400,000 crowns, and having but little infallibly break up his vast Empire, he preferred
hope of being able to pay the remainder, wearied accomplishing his purpose by policy, if that were
with his imprisonment, disguised himself as a possible. He would convoke a Diet : he would get
merchant, and escaped , with a single attendant, the Wittemberg heresy condemned , in which case
to Orvieto. The French general pressed on to he hoped that the majority of the princes would go
Naples , only to find that victory had forsaken his along with him , and that the leaders of the Pro
banners. Smitten by the plague rather than the testant movement would defer to this display of
Spanish sword, his armymelted away, his conquests moral power. If still they should prove intract
came to nothing, and the emperor finally recovered able , why, then he would employ force ; but in
his power both in Naples and Lombardy, and again that case, he argued, the blame would not lie at his
became unchallenged master of Italy , to the terror door. The emperor, by letters dated Valladolid ,
of the Pope and the chagrin of the Italians. Thus August 1st, 1528, convoked a Diet to meet at
the war which Italy had commenced under the Spires, on the 21st February, 1529.9
auspices of Clement VII., and the vague aspira- Meanwhile , vague rumours of what was on the
tions of the Renaissance, for the purpose of raising carpet reached the Reformers in Germany. They
itself to the rank of an independent sovereignty, looked with apprehension to the future. Other
ended in its thorough subjection to the foreigner, things helped to deepen these gloomy forebodings.
not again to know emancipation or freedom till our The natural atmosphere would seem to have been
own times, when independence dawned upon it in not less deranged than the political. Portentous
1848, and was consummated in 1870, when the meteors shot athwart the sky, marking their path
Italian troops, under the broad ægis of the new in lines of fire, and affrighting men with their
German Empire, entered Rome, and Victor horrid noise. The hyperborean lights, in sudden
Emmanuel was installed in the Quirinal as monarch bursts and flashing lines, like squadrons rushing to
from the Alps to Sicily . combat, illumined the nocturnal heavens. Rivers
Thus the League of Cognac had utterly failed ; rising in flood overflowed their banks,and meadows,
the last hopes of the Renaissance expired ; and corn -fields, and in some instances whole provinces ,
Charles once more was master. lay drowned beneath their waters. Great winds
Finding that the emperor was the stronger, the tore up ancient trees ; and, as if the pillars of
Pope tacked about, cast Francis I. overboard , and the world were growing feeble and tottering, earth
gave his hand to Charles V . The emperor's quakes shook kingdoms, and engulfed castles and
ambition had alarmed the Pontiff aforetime ; he was towns. “ Behold,” said the men who witnessed
now stronger than ever ; but he consoled himself these occurrences, “ Behold the prognostics of the
by reflecting that Charles was a devoted son of dire calamities which are about to overwhelm the
Catholicism , and that the power which he had not world .” Even Luther partook of the general terror.
the strength to curb hemight have the craft to use.
Accordingly , on the 29th June, 1528, Clement Ranke, vol. i., p . 84 . ? Sleidan, bk. vi., p . 115.
OTTO PACK 'S PLOT. 545
“ Dr. Hess," says he, “ writes me word that in They next looked around for allies. They hoped
December last the whole heavens were seen on fire through the Duke of Prussia to incite the King of
above the Church of Breslau, and another day there Poland against Ferdinand of Austria , and to keep
were witnessed, in the same place, two circles of the Franconian bishops in check by the arms of
fire, one within the other, and in the centre of them George of Brandenburg. They reckoned on having
a blazing pillar. These signs announce, it is my as auxiliaries the Dukes of Luneburg, Pomerania ,
firm opinion , the approach ofthe Last Day. . . . Mecklenburg , and the city of Magdeburg . For
The Roman Empire tends nearly to its ruin ; the themselves they agreed to equip a force of 6,000
Turk has attained the summit of his power ; the cavalry, and 20,000 infantry. They had in view
Papalsplendour is fast becoming eclipsed ; theworld also a league with the King of Denmark. They
cracks in every direction as though about to fall in resolved to anticipate their opponents by striking
pieces." 1 the first blow . All Germany was in commotion.
While so many real dangers disturbed the age, It was now the turn of the Popish princes to
a spurious or doubtful one had wellnigh precipi. tremble. The Reformers were flying to arms, and
tated the Reformation upon its ruin . A nobleman before their own preparations could be finished ,
of Misnia , Otto Pack by name — a greedy, dissipated, they would be assailed by an overwhelming host,
and intriguing character, who had been some time set on by the startling rumours of the savage plot
vice-chancellor to Duke George of Saxony - came formed to exterminate them . The Reformation
one day to Philip, the Landgrave of Hesse, and, was on the point of being dragged into the battle
looking grave, professed to be in possession of a field . Luther shuddered when he saw what was
terrible secret, which much concerned him and his about to happen . He stood up manfully before the
Lutheran confederate, the Elector of Saxony. On two chiefs who were hurrying the movement into
being pressed to explain himself, he declared his this fatal path , and though he believed in the reality
readiness, on paymentof a certain sum , to reveal all. of the plot, despite the indignant denial of Duke
The landgrave's fears being thoroughly aroused , he George and the Popish princes, he charged the
agreed to pay the man the reward demanded. Pack elector and landgrave not to strike the first blow ,
went on to say that a diabolical plot had been but to wait till they had been attacked. “ There is
hatched among the Popish princes, headed by the strife enough uninvited,” said he, “ and it cannot be
Archduke Ferdinand, to attack by arms the two well to paint the devil over the door, or ask him
heretical princes, John of Saxony and Philip of to be godfather. Battle never wins much, but
Hesse, strip them of their territories, seize upon always loses much , and hazards all ; meekness
Luther and all his followers, and, having disposed loses nothing, hazards little, and wins all.”
of them by summary means, to re-establish the Luther's counsels ultimately prevailed , time was
ancient worship. given for reflection, and thus the Lutheran princes
Pack was unable to show to the landgrave the were saved from the tremendous error which would
original of this atrocious league, but he produced have broughtafter it, not triumph, but destruction."
what bore to be a copy, and which, having attached Meanwhile the Reformation was winning vic
to it all the ducal and electoral seals, wore every tories a hundred times more glorious than any that
appearance of being authentic, and the document armed hosts could have achieved for it. One mar
convinced the landgrave that Pack's story was tyr is worth more than a thousand soldiers. Such
true. were the champions the Reformation was now
Astounded at the danger thus strangely dis- sending forth . Such were the proofs it now began
closed , and deeming that they had not a moment to to give of its prowess - better, surely , than fields
lose before the mine exploded, the elector and the
landgrave hastily raised an army to avert from 4 Seckendorf, lib. ii., sec. 13 , pp. 95 – 98.
themselves and their subjects what they believed 5 See details in Sleidan , bk . vi. ; Seckendorf, lib . ii.,
to be impending destruction . The two princes sec. 13 ; D 'Aubigné, bk. xii., chap . 4 ; Michelet, Luther,
entered into a formal compact (March 9th , 1528) bk. iii., chap. 1. Some mystery rests on this affair still,
but when we take into account the league formed at
“ to protect with body, dignity, and possession, Ratisbon four years before, the principles and prac
and every means in their power, the sacred deposit tices of the men atwhose door this design was laid, and
of God's word for themselves and their subjects.” the fact that the most of the Popish princes agreed to
pay a large sum as an indemnity to the Lutheran princes
for the expense to which they had been put in raising
i Werke, ix . 542 . Michelet, Luther, p . 210. armaments to defend themselves, we may be disposed to
Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 13, p. 94 . think that Luther's opinion was not far from the truth ,
3 Sleidan , bk . vi., p. 114 . that the league if not concluded had been conceived ,
heaped with the slain , which even the worst of the bishop have taken for promulgating them than
causes can show . by burning this man for holding them . AtMunich ,
In Bavaria , Leonard Caspar at this time sealed George Carpenter was led to the stake for denying
his testimony with his blood. Hewas apprehended that the baptism of water can by its inherent virtue
at the instance of the Bishop of Passau , and con - save men. “ When you are in the fire ," said his
demned for maintaining that man is justified by friends, “ give us a token that you abide steadfast.”
RODEO
TES
FERDINAND IST.
KING FERDINAND, AFTERWARDS EMPEROR OF GERMANY.
(From the Portrait by Daniel Hopfer.)
faith alone ; that there are but two Sacraments, “ So long,” replied he, “ as I am able to open my
baptism and the Lord's Supper ; that the mass is mouth I will confessmy Saviour.” ? The executioner
not a sacrifice, and avails not for the quick and the took him and bound him , and cast him into the
dead ; and that Christ alone hath made satisfac- flames. “ Jesus, Jesus !” exclaimed the martyr.
tion for us.? In Bavaria , where the Reformed doc. The executioner, with an iron hook , turned him
trines dared not be preached, no better way could round and round amid the blazing coals. " Jesus,
Sleidan, bk , vi., p . 110. ? Scultet, ii. 110
GEORGE WINKLER ATTACKED. 547
Jesus !” the martyr continued to exclaim , and so

confessing the name of his Lord he gave up the
ghost in the fire. Thus another blazing torch was
kindled in the midst of the darkness of Bavaria .
Other martyrs followed in those German pro
vinces which still owned the jurisdiction of Popish
princes. At Laudsberg nine persons suffered in
the fire, and at Munich twenty-nine were drowned
in the Iser . In the case of others the more sum
mary dispatch of the poignard was employed. In
the spring of 1527, George Winkler, preacher at
Halle, was summoned before Albert , Cardinal of
Mainz. Being dismissed from the archbishop's
tribunal, he was mounted on the horse of the court
fool,and made to set out on his journey homeward.
ARRIVAL OF KING FERDINAND AT SPIRES.

M
Luther hoped that “ his murdered blood, like

Abel's, might cry to God ; or rather be as seed
from which other preachers would spring.” “ The
world,” said he,“ is a tavern , of which Satan is the
landlord , and the sign over the doorway is mur
der and lying.” He almost envied these martyrs.
“ I am ,” said he, “ but a wordy preacher in com
parison with these great doers.”
In the piles of these martyrs we hear the Re.
formation saying to the Lutheran princes, some of
whom were so eager to help it with their swords,
SWAIN SE and thought that if they did not fight for it, it
must perish, “ Dismiss your armed levies. I will
His way led through a forest ; suddenly a little provide my own soldiers. I myself will furnish
troop of horsemen dashed out of the thicket, struck the armour in which they are to do battle ; I will
their swords into him , and again plunged into the gird them with patience, meekness, heroism , and
wood . Booty was plainly not the object of the joy ; these are the weapons with which they will
assassins, for neither money nor other article of combat. With these weapons they will break the
value was taken from his person ; it was the sus- power, foil the arts, and stain the pride of the
picion of heresy that drew their daggers upon him . enemy.”
CHAPTER XV.
THE GREAT PROTEST.
Diet of 1529 – The Assembling of the Popish Princes-- Their Numbers and high Hopes - Elector of Saxony - Arrival of
Philip of Hesse – The Diet Meets - The Emperor's Message - Shall the Diet Repealthe Edict (1526) of Toleration ?
The Debate - A Middle Motion proposed by the Popish Members - This would have Stifled the Reformation in
Germany - Passed by a Majority of Votes — The Crisis - Shall the Lutheran Princes Accept it ? - Ferdinand hastily
Quits the Diet - Protestant Princes Consult together - Their PROTEST — Their Name- Grandeur of the Issues.
Suck were the times that preceded the meeting of had not abated , not fewer than 8,000 attended
the famous Diet of Spires: - in the sky unusual sermon both forenoon and afternoon . When the
portents, on the earth the smoke of martyr-piles, deputies of the cities had arrived , the constituent
kings girding on the sword , and nations disturbed members of the Diet were complete , and the busi
by rumours of intrigue and war, heaving like the ness was opened.
ocean before the tempest sets in . Meanwhile the The Diet was not long left in suspense as to the
time approached for the Diet to assemble. It had precise object of the emperor in convoking it,and
been convoked for February, but was not able to the legislation which was expected from it. Scarcely
meet till the middle of March. At no former had it met when it received the intimation from
Diet had the attendance, especially on the Catholic commissioners that it was the emperor's will and
side, been so numerous. The Popish princes came command that the Diet should repeal the Edict of
first. The little town was all astir as each magnate Spires (1526 ). This was all. The members might
announced his arrival at its gates,and rode through dispatch their business in an hour, and return in
its streets, followed by an imposing display of armed peace to their homes .
followers. First in rank was King Ferdinand, But let us see how much was included in this
who was to preside in the absence of his brother short message, and how much the Diet was asked
Charles V ., and came attended by 300 armed to do — what a revolution it was bidden inaugurate ,
knights. After him came the Dukes of Bavaria when it was asked to repeal the edict of 1526 .
with an equally large retinue ; then followed the That edict guaranteed the free exercise of their
ecclesiastical electors of Mainz and Trèves, and the religion to the several States of the Empire till a
Bishops of Trent and Heildesheim , each with a troop General Council should meet. It was, as we have
of horsemen.' Their haughty looks, and the boast already said , the first legal establishment of the
ful greetings they exchanged with one another , Reformation. Religious freedom , then, so far as
proclaimed the confident hopes they cherished of enjoyed in Germany, the Diet was now asked to
being able to carry matters in the Diet their own abolish . But this was not all. The edict of 1526
way. They had come to bury the Reformation. Suspended legally the execution of the Edict of
The last to arrive were the Reformed princes. Worms of 1521, which proscribed Luther and con
On the 13th ofMarch came Elector John of Saxony, demned the Reformation. Abolish the edict of
the most powerful prince of the Empire. His en- 1526 , and the edict of 1521 would come into opera
trance was the most modest of all. There rode by tion ; Luther must be put to death ; the Reformed
his side none but Melancthon Philip of Hesse opinions must be rooted out of all the countries
followed on the 18th of March. With characteristic where they had taken root ; in short, the flood
pomp he passed in with sound of trumpet, followed gates of a measureless persecution would be opened
by a troop of 200 horsemen . It was on the eve of in Germany. This was the import of the curt and
Palm Sunday that the elector, with Melancthon by haughty message with which Charles startled the
his side, entered Spires. On the following day he Diet at its opening. The sending of such a mes
had public worship in his hotel, and as an evi sage even was a violation of the constitutional
dence that the popular favour for the Word of God rights of the several States, and an assumption of
power which no former emperor had dared to make.
i Sleidan , bk . vi., p. 117 . The message, if passed into law , would have laid
2 Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 14 , p. 129. the rights of conscience, the independence of the
3 Sleidan, bk . vi., p. 115 .
4 Corp. Ref., i. 1040 - D 'Aubigné, bk. xiii., chap.5 .
5 Sleidan , bk . vi., p . 118 . 6 Seçkendorf, lib .ii., sec. 14 ; Additio. 7 Ibid.,p. 129.
A CRAFTY PROPOSAL FOR EXTIRPATING PROTESTANTISM . 549
Diet, and the liberties of Germany, all three in the brace Lutheranism till such timeas a Council had
dust. met and framed a general arrangement."
The struggle now began. Shall the Edict of How crafty ! This proposition did not exact
Spires ( 1526 ) be repealed ? The Popish members of from a single Protestant a renunciation of his
the Diet strenuously insisted that it should at once faith. It had no pains and penalties for existing
be repealed . It protected, they affirmed , all kinds converts. But what of those whom the light
of abominable opinions ; it fostered the growth of might reach afterwards ? They must stifle their
heretical and disloyal communities, meaning the convictions, or abide the penalty , the dungeon and
Churches which the three years of peace enjoyed the stake. And what of States that might wish
under the edict had permitted to be organised . to throw off the yoke of Rome, and pass over to
In short , it was the will of the emperor, and the side of the Reformation ? The proposal, if
whoever opposed its repeal was not the friend passed into law , made this impossible. The State
of Charles. no more than the individual dare change its reli
The Reformed princes, on the other side, main . gious profession. The proposal drew a line around
tained that this edict was now the constitution of the Reformation , and declared that beyond this
the Empire, that it had been unanimously sworn to boundary there must be no advance, and that
by all the members of the Diet; that to repeal it Lutheranism had reached its utmost limits of
would be a public breach of national faith, and that development. But not to advance was to recede,
to the Lutheran princes would remain the right of and to recede was to die. This proposition, there
resisting such a step by force of arms. fore, professedly providing for the maintenance of
The majority of the Diet, though exceedingly the Reformation, was cunningly contrived to strangle
anxious to oblige the emperor, felt the force of these it. Nevertheless, Ferdinand and the Popish princes
strong arguments. They saw that the ground of and prelates hurried on the measure, which passed
the oppositionists was a constitutional and legal the Diet by a majority of votes."
one. Each principality had the right of regulating Shall the chiefs of the Reformation submit and
its own internal affairs. The faith and worship of accept the edict ? How easily might the Reformers
their subjects was one of these. But a majority at this crisis , which was truly a tremendous one,
of the Diet now claimed the right to decide that have argued themselves into a wrong course ! How
question for each separate State. If they should many plausible pretexts and fair reasons might
succeed , it was clear that a new order of things they have found for submission ! The Lutheran
would be introduced into Germany. A central princes were guaranteed the free exercise of their
authority would usurp the rights of the local religion. The same boon was extended to all those
administrations, and the independence of the in - of their subjects who, prior to the passing of the
dividual States would be destroyed. To repeal the measure, had embraced the Reformed views. Ought
edict was to inaugurate REVOLUTION and WAR. not this to content them ? How many perils would
They hit on a middle path . They would neither submission avoid ! On what unknown hazards
abolish nor enforce the edict of 1526. The Popish and conflicts would opposition launch them ! Who
members tabled a proposition in the Diet to the knows what opportunities the future may bring ?
effect that whatever was the law and the practice in Let us embrace peace ; let us seize the olive-branch
the several States at this hour, should continue to Rome holds out, and close the wounds of Germany.
be the law and the practice till a General Council
shouldmeet. In someof the States the edict of 1521 Pallavicino, lib . ii., cap. 18. Sleidan , bk. vi., p. 118 .
was the law and the practice ; that is, the preaching Seckendorf. lib . ü .. sec. 14 . p . 127. The edict contained
of the Gospel was forbidden , and its professors were other articles,such as that Sacramentarians orZwinglians
burned . In other States the edict of 1526 was the should be banished from all the lands of the Empire, and
that Anabaptists should be punished with death . (Palla
law and the practice ; that is, they acted in thematter vicino, lib. ii., cap . 18.)
of religion as their judgment dictated . The pro - 3 The date of this ediet is variously given . Seckendorf
position now tabled in the Diet practically meant says it passed on the 4th April ; D 'Aubigné says the 7th ,
the maintenance of the status quo in each of the on the authority of Sleidan, but this is a mistake, for
Sleidan gives no date. The continuator of M . Fleury
States, with certain very important modifications makes the date of the edict the 13th April. Sleidan says
those ofThese
inliberty. that at present
themmodifications enjoyed religious that the Protest of the princes against it was read on
were that the Popish the 19th April, while Pallavicino makes the date of the
edict the 23rd April. The most probable reconcilement
hierarchy should be re-established, that the celebra of these differences is, that the edict was passed on the
tion of the mass should be permitted , and that no 13th April, published on the 23rd , and that the Protest
one should be allowed to abjure Popery and em - was given in on the 19th .
With arguments like these might the Reformers abrupt a termination , retired to an adjoining
have justified their adoption of a course which would chamber to frame their answer to this haughty
have assuredly issued in no long time in the over- summons. Ferdinand would not wait ; despite the
throw of their cause.
Happily they looked at the principle on which
entren on the morrowle had but one said Rome,
entreaty of the elector he left the Diet, nor did he
return on the morrow to hear the answer of the
this arrangement was based , and they acted in Lutheran princes . He had but one word , and
faith. Whatwas that principle ? It was the right he had spoken it - SUBMIT . So, too, said Rome,
of Rome to coerce conscience and forbid free in - speaking through his mouth - Submit.
quiry. But were not themselves and their Pro. On the morrow , the 19th April, the Diet held its
testant subjects to enjoy religious freedom ? Yes, last and fateful meeting.
as a favour, specially stipulated for in the arrange- The Elector of Saxony and his friends entered
ment, but not as a right. As to all outside the hall. The chair was empty, Ferdinand being
that arrangement, the great principle of authority gone ; but that took neither from the validity nor
was to rule ; conscience was out of court, Rome was from the moral grandeur of the transaction . The
infallible judge, and must be obeyed. The accept- princes knew that they had for audience , not the
ance of the proposed arrangement would have been States now present only , but the emperor, Christen
a virtualadmission that religious liberty ought to be dom , and the ages to come.
confined to Reformed Saxony ; and as to all the rest The elector, for himself, the princes, and the
of Christendom , free inquiry and the profession of whole body of the Reformed party, now proceeded
the Reformed faith were crimes,andmust be visited to read a Declaration, of which the following are
with the dungeon and the stake. Could they con - the more important passages :
sent to localise religious liberty ? to have it pro - “ We cannot consent to its [the edict of 1526]
claimed that the Reformation had made its last repeal . . . . . Because this would be to
convert ? had subjugated its last acre ? and that deny our Lord Jesus Christ, to reject his holy
wherever Rome bore sway at this hour, there her Word , and thus give him just reason to deny us
dominion was to be perpetuated ? Could the Re- before his Father, as he has threatened . . . .
formers have pleaded that they were innocent of Moreover , the new edict declaring the ministers
the blood of those hundreds and thousands who, in shall preach the Gospel, explaining it according to
pursuance of this arrangement, would have to yield the writings accepted by the holy Christian Church ;
up their lives in Popish lands ? This would have we think that, for this regulation to have any value,
been to betray, at that supreme hour, the cause of we should first agree on what is meant by the true
the Gospel, and the liberties of Christendom . and holy Church . Now seeing that there is great
The Reformed members of the Diet — the Lu- diversity of opinion in this respect ; that there is no
theran princes and many of the deputies of the sure doctrine but such as is comformable to tho
cities — assembled for deliberation . The crisis was Word of God : that the Lord forbids the teaching
a momentous one. From the consultations of an of any other doctrine ; that each text of the Holy
hour would come the rising or the falling of the Scriptures ought to be explained by other and
Reformation - liberty or slavery to Christendom . clearer texts ; that this holy book is in all things
The princes comprehended the gravity of their posi- necessary for the Christian , easy of understanding,
tion . They themselves were to be let alone, but and calculated to scatter the darkness : we are re
the price they were to pay for this ignominious solved , with the grace of God , to maintain the pure
ease was the denial of the Gospel, and the surrender and exclusive preaching of his Holy Word, such as
of the rights of conscience throughout Christendom . it is contained in the Biblical books of the Old and
They resolved not to adopt so dastardly a course. New Testament, without adding anything thereto
The Diet met again on the 18th April. King thatmay be contrary to it. This Word is the only
Ferdinand, its president, eager apparently to see truth ; it is the sure rule of all doctrine and of all
the matter finished , thanked the Diet for voting life, and can never fail or deceive us. He who
the proposition, adding that its substance was about builds on this foundation shall stand against all the
to be embodied in an imperial edict, and published powers of hell, whilst all the human vanities that
throughout the Empire. Turning to the Elector of are set up against it shall fall before the face of
Saxony and his friends, Ferdinand told them that God.
the Diet had decided ; that the resolution was “ For these reasons, most dear lords, uncles,
passed, and that now there remained to them cousins, and friends, we earnestly entreat you to
nothing but submission to the majority.
The Protestant members, not anticipating so 1 Sleidan, bk. vi., p. 120.
THE GREAT PROTEST AT SPIRES. 551
weigh carefully our grievances and our motives. If appeal. In that document they recite all that had
you do not yield to our request, we PROTEST by passed at the Diet, and they protest against its
these presents , before God, our only Creator, Pre- decree , for themselves, their subjects , and all who
server, Redeemer, and Saviour, and who will one receive or shall hereafter receive the Gospel, and
day be our Judge, as well as before all men and all appeal to the emperor, and to a free and general
creatures, thatwe, for us and for our people, neither Council of Christendom . On the morning after
consent nor adhere in any manner whatsoever to their appeal, the 26th, the princes left Spires.
the proposed decree, in anything that is contrary This sudden departure was significant. It pro
to God , to his Holy Word, to our right conscience , claimed to all men the firmness of their resolve.
to the salvation of our souls, and to the last decree
Ferdinand had spoken his last word and was gone.
of Spires." They, too , had spoken theirs, and were gone also .
This PROTEST, when we consider the long domi- Rome hoists her flag ; over against hers the Pro
nancy and formidable character of the tyranny to testants display theirs ; henceforward there are two
which it was opposed, and the lofty nature and vast camps in Christendom .
range of the rights and liberties which it claimed , is Even Luther did not perceive the importance of
one of the grandest documents in all history, and what had been done. The Diet he thought had
marks an epoch in the progress of the human raceended in nothing. It often happens that the
second only to that of Christianity itself. greatest events wear the guise of insignificance, and
At Worms, Luther stood alone ; at Spires, the that grand eras are ushered in with silence. Than
one man has grown into a host. The No so coura- the principle put forth in the PROTEST of the 19th
geously uttered by the monk in 1521 is now in April, 1529, it is impossible to imagine one that
1529 taken up and repeated by princes, cities, and could more completely shield all rights, and afford
nations. Its echoes travel onwards, till at last a wider scope for development. Its legitimate
their murmurs are heard in the palaces of Barce - fruit must necessarily be liberty , civil and religious.
lona and the basilicas of Rome. Eight years ago What was that principle ? This Protest overthrew
the Reformation was simply a doctrine, now it is the lordship of man in religious affairs, and substi
an organisation, a Church. This little seed, which tuted the authority of God. But it did this in so
on its first germination appeared the smallest of simple and natural a way, and with such an avoid
all seeds, and which Popes, doctors, and princes ance of all high-sounding phraseology, that men
beheld with contempt, is a tree , whose boughs, could not see the grandeur of what was done, nor
stretched wide in air, cover nations with their the potency of the principle. The protesters as
shadow . sumed the Bible to be the Word of God , and that
The princes renewed their Protest at the last every man ought to be left at liberty to obey it.
sitting of the Diet, Saturday, 24th April. It was This modest affirmation falls on our ear as an almost
subscribed by John, Elector of Saxony ; Philip, insipidity. Compared with some modern charters
Landgrave of Hesse ; George, Margrave of Bran - of rights, and recent declarations of independence,
denburg ; Ernest and Francis, Dukes of Luneburg, how poor does it look ! Yet let us see how much
and the Count of Anhalt. Some of the chief cities is in it. “ The Word,” say the protesters, “ is the
joined the princes in their protestation , as Stras- only truth ; it is the sure rule of all doctrine and
burg, Nuremberg, Ulm , Constance , Reutlingen , of all life ; ” and “ each text of the Holy Scriptures
Windsheim , Lindau, Kempten, Memmingen , Nord - ought to be explained by other and clearer texts."
lingen, Heilbron, Isny, St. Gall, and Weissenburg. Then what becomes of the pretended infallibility of
From that day the Reformers were called PRO- Rome, in virtue of which she claims the exclusive
TESTANTS. right of interpreting the Scriptures, and binding
On the following Sabbath, 25th April, the chan - down the understanding of man to believe what
cellors of the princes and of the Protestant cities , ever she teaches ? It is utterly exploded and
with two notaries and several witnesses, met in a overthrown. And what becomes of the emperor's
small house in St. John 's Lane, belonging to Peter right to compel men with his sword to practise
Muterstatt, Deacon of St. John's, to draw up an whatever faith the Church enjoins, assuming it to
be the true faith, simply because the Church has
i Sleidan , bk. vi., p . 120 . enjoined it ? It too is exploded and overthrown.
? Pallavicino thinks that they would have been more The principle , then , so quietly lodged in the Pro
truly named had they been called " Rebels against the
Pope and Cæsar” - Ribella al Papa ed al Cesare (lib. ii., test, lays this two-fold tyranny in the dust. The
cap . 18).
3 D ’Aubigné, bk. xiii., chap. 6 . * Sleidan , bk, vi., p. 120 . D 'Aubigné, bk, siii., chap. 6 .
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TESTIMONY OF HISTORY TO THE PROTEST OF THE PRINCES. 553
chair of the Pontiff and the sword of the emperor there is not a year which has not borne its testi
pass away, and conscience comes in their room . mony to the essential grandeur and supreme im
But the Protest does not leave conscience her own portance of the act, so simple outwardly, done by
mistress ; conscience is not a law to herself. That the princes at Spires. We protest, said they, that
were anarchy - rebellion against Him who is her God speaking in his Word , and not Rome speak
Lord. The Protest proclaims that the Bible is the ing through her priests, is the One Supreme Law
W
A
WA
VIEW OF MARBURG .
law of conscience, and that its Author is her alone of the human race. The upper springs of Divine
Lord. Thus steering its course between the two influence thus brought to act upon the soul and
opposite dangers, avoiding on this hand anarchy, conscience of man, the nether springs of philo
and on that tyranny, Protestantism comes forth sophy, art, and liberty began to flow . The nations
unfurling to the eyes of the nations the flag of that rallied round this Protest are now marching
true liberty. Around that ilag must all gather in the van of civilisation ; those that continued
who would be free. under the flag of Romanism lie benumbed in
Of the three centuries that have since elapsed, slavery and decay.
CHAPTER XVI.
CONFERENCE AT MARBURG .
Landgrave Philip - His Activity - Elector John and Landgrave Philip the Complement of each other - Philip's Efforts
for Union – The One Point of Disunion among the Protestants — The Sacrament - Luther and Zwingle- Their
Difference - Philip undertakes their Reconcilement- Heproposes a Conference on the Sacrament - Luther Accepts
with difficulty - Marburg - Zwingle 's Journey thither - Arrival of Wittemberg Theologians - Private Discussions
- Iublic Conference- “ This is my Body " - A Figure of Speech - Luther 's Carnal Eating and Spiritual Eating
Ecolampadius and Luther - Zwingle and Luther - Can a Body be in more Places than one at the Same Time ?
Mathematics - The Fathers — The Conference Ends - The Division not Healed - Imperiousness of Luther - Grief
of Zwingle - Mortification of Philip of Hesse - The Plague.
The camp had been pitched , the Protestant flag Philip was impulsive and altogether fearless. The
displayed , and the campaign was about to open. samedanger thatmade John hang back ,made Philip
No one then living suspected how long and wasting rush forward. We see in the two an equipoise of
the conflict would be — the synods that would deli- opposite qualities, which if brought together in one
berate, the tomes that would be written , the stakes man would have made a perfect knight. John and
that would blaze, and the fields on which , alas ! Philip were in the politicaldepartment of the move
the dead would be piled up in ghastly heaps, before mentwhatLuther and Melancthon were in the theo
that liberty which the protesters had written up logical and religious. They were the complement
on their flag should be secured as the heritage of of each other.
Christendom . But one thing was obvious to all, There was one great division in the Protestant
and that was the necessity to the Reformers of camp. The eye of Philip had long rested upon it
union among themselves. with profound regret. Unless speedily healed it
Especially did this necessity appear to Philip, would widen with years, and produce, he felt, innu
Landgrave of Hesse. This young prince was the merable mischiefs in time to come. One circum
most chivalrous of all the knightly adherents of stance in connection with this division encouraged
Protestantism . His activity knew no pause. Day ance in connection with this
hope ; it existed on only one point the doctrine
and night it was his thought how to strengthen the of the Lord 's Supper. On all the great fundamental
Protestant front. Unite, fall into one army, and truths of revelation the whole body of the Pro
march as a united phalanx against the foe , was the testants were at one - on the origin of salvation ,
advice he was constantly urging upon the Pro- the grace of God ; the accomplishment of sal
testants. And certainly , in the prospect of such vation, the atoning death of Christ ; the bestowal
combinationsas were now forming for their destruc- of salvation , the agency of the Holy Spirit ; the
tion , worse advice might have been given them . channels of its conveyance , the Word and Sacra
But the zeal of the landgrave was not quite to the ments ; and the instrument by which the sinner
taste of Luther ; it at times alarmed him ; his receives it, faith in the righteousness of Christ
activity took too much a military direction to be on all these points were the Reformers of Germany
altogether wise or safe ; the Reformer therefore and the Reformers of Switzerland agreed. Along
made it a point to curb it ; and it must be confessed the whole of the royal road of truth could they
that Philip looked more to leagues and arms for walk side by side. On one point only did they
the defence and success of the Reformation than to differ , namely , the manner in which Christ is
those higher forces that were bearing it onwards, present in the bread and wine of the Eucharist
and to that unseen but omnipotent Arm whose corporeally or spiritually ? That question parted
interpositions were so visible to Luther in the into two the Sacramental host.
sudden shiftings of the vast and complicated drama Philip had grieved more over the breach than
around him . even Luther and Melancthon. The landgrave be
But with all his defects the landgrave was of lieved that at bottom there were not two really
great use to the cause. His rough, fiery, impetuous different opinions among the disciples of the Gos
energy was fitted for the times. In truth , the pel, but only one opinion differently apprehended,
Elector John and Landgrave Philip were made for and variously stated , and that could he bring the
each other. John was prudentand somewhat timid ; leaders together, a free interchange of sentiments,
LUTHER AND ZWINGLE INVITED TO MARBURG . 555
and some sifting discussion , would succeed in re for joy when he received the invitation. To end
moving the misapprehension . What a blessed thing the feud , close the gulf, and rally all the scattered
to close this gulf! What a gain to unite the forces of the Gospel into one phalanx, was to him
chivalry of knightly Germany with the bravery of a delightful thought, and a blessed presage of final
republican Helvetia -- the denizens of the plain victory.
with the sons of the mountain ! And especially The reception given at Wittemberg to the invi
now , when they were waiting for the fiercest onset tation was not so cordial. Luther hung back - de
their foes had yet made upon them . They had clined , in short. Hedid notlike that the landgrave
just flung their flag upon the winds ; they had un - should move in thismatter ; he suspected that there
furled it in the face of all Christendom , in the face was under it the snake of a political alliance ; ? be
of Rome; they had said as a body what Luther sides, although he did not confess it to his friends,
said as an individual at Worms— “ Here we stand ; nor perhaps to himself, he seemed to have a pre
wecan do no otherwise, so help us God.” Assuredly sentiment of defeat. This opinion of Zwingle's, he
the gage would be taken up, and the blow re- said , was plausible, and had attractions for minds
turned, by a power too proud not to feel, and too that loved things that they could understand.
strong in armies and scaffolds not to resent the This mystery, this miracle of Christ's bodily pre
defiance. To remain disunited with such a battle sence in the Lord's Supper, had been left, he
in prospect, with such a tempest lowering over thought, in the Gospel as the test of our submis
them , appeared madness. No doubt the landgrave sion, as an exercise for our faith . This absurdity ,
was mainly anxious to unite the arms of the Pro- which wears the guise of piety , had been so often
testants ; but if Philip laboured for this object uttered by great doctors that Luther could not
with a zeal so great, and it must be admitted so help repeating it.
praiseworthy, not less anxious ought the Lutheran But second thoughts convinced Luther and
doctors to have been to unite the hearts and the Melancthon that they could not decline the con
prayers of the children of the Reform . ference. Popish Christendom would say they were
Ere this several pamphlets had passed between afraid , and Reformed Christendom would lay at
Luther and Zwingle on the question of the Lord's their door the continuance of the breach which so
Supper. Those from the pen of Luther were so many deplored, should they persist in their refusal.
violent that they left an impression of weakness. They had even suggested to the Elector of Saxony
The perfect calmness of Zwingle's replies, on the that he should interpose his veto upon their journey.
other hand, produced a conviction of strength. The elector, however, disdained so discreditable a
Zwingle's calmness stung Luther to the quick . It manæuvre. They next proposed that a Papist
humiliated him . Popes and emperors had lowered should be chosen as umpire, assigning as the reason
their pretensions in his presence ; the men of war of this strange proposition that a Papist only would
whom the Papacy had sent forth from the Vatican be an impartial judge, forgetting that the party of
to do battle with him , had returned discomfited. all others in Christendom pledged to the doctrino
He could not brookpas the thoughtl of lowering his of the real presence was the Church of Rome.
tor ofit aZurich
sword before the pastor dosorry,he,wonthe
t the .ess Must achi Every device failed ; they must go to Marburg ;
doctor of Christendom , sit at the feet of Zwingle ? they must meet Zwingle.
A little more humility, a little less dogmatism , a The pastor of Zurich , with a single attendant,
stronger desire for truth than for victory, would stole away by night. The town council, having
h god to the
have saved Luther from these explosions, which regard mer ofomtheleajourney,
i thperils which had to
ve territories
but tended to widen a breach already too great, bea gonee in n goode part over the of the
and provoke a controversy which planted many a emperor, in the midst of foes, into whose hands
thorn in the future path of the Reformation. should the Reformer fall, he would see Zurich no
The Landgrave of Hesse undertook with cha- more, refused to give him leave to depart. Accord
racteristic- ardour the reconcilement of the German ingly Zwingle took the matter into his own hand,
and Swiss Protestants, who now began to be willing to risk life rather than forego the oppor
called respectively the Lutheran and the Reformed . tunity of uniting the ranks of the Reformation .
Soon after his return from the Diet of Spires, he Leaving a letter behind him to explain his de
sent invitations to the heads of the two parties to parture to the council, he set out, and reached
repair to his Castle of Marburg,' and discuss their Basle in five days. Embarking at this point on the
differences in his presence. Zwingle's heart leaped Rhine, in company of Ecolampadius, he descended
1 Sleidan, bk. vi., p . 121. Luth . Cor., Aug. 2, 1529 – Michelet, bk. Üï ., ch. 1, p . 217.
the river to Strasburg. Here the travellers lodged then shown into separate chambers, and left to
a night in the house of Matthew Zell, the cathedral discusswith each other till dinner-time. Although
preacher. On the morrow they again set out, and on somepoints,more especially those of the divinity
taking the most unfrequented paths, escorted by a of Christ, original sin , and the deference due to the
troop of Hessian cavalry, they at length on the first six Councils, the Swiss Reformers were able to
29th September reached Marburg. clear themselves of some suspicions under which
The Wittembergers had not yet arrived ; they they lay in the eyes of the German Protestants,
appeared at Marburg the next day. With Luther the progressmade at these private meetings towards
came Melancthon, Jonas, and Cruciger ; Zwingle a reconciliation was not by anymeans so great as
was acoompanied by Ecolampadius from Basle, had been looked for. As the Swiss deputies re
Bucer and Hedio from Strasburg, and Osiander joined each other on their way to the dinner-table,
from Nuremberg. The landgrave lodged them in they briefly exchanged first impressions. Zwingle,
his castle, an ancient fortress standing on the brow whispering into the ear of (Ecolampadius, said
s
und a ple's ear, compampadiu , puttihis oppon
of a hill, and commanding a noble view of the valley that Melancthon was a very Proteus, so great was
of the Lahn. Hemade them sit together at table, his dexterity in evading the point of his opponent's
and entertained them in rightprincely fashion . To argument; and Ecolampadius, putting his mouth
look each other in the face might help , he thought, to Zwingle's ear, complained that in Luther he had
to melt the ice in the heart. found a second Dr. Eck.
The affair was much spoken of. The issue was On the day following, the 2nd October, the con
watched intently in the two camps of Rome and ference was opened in public. The landgrave
Protestantism . Will the breach be healed ? asked Philip , in a plain dress, and without any show of
the Romanists in alarm ; the Protestants hoped rank, took his place at the head of a table which
that it would ,and that from the conference chamber had been set in one of the rooms of the castle.
at Marburg a united band would come forth . Seated with him were Luther, Zwingle, Melanc
From many lands came theologians, scholars, and thon, and Ecolampadius. Their friends sat on
nobles to Marburg to witness the discussion, and if benches behind them ; the rest of the hall was
need were to take part in it. Thousands followed devoted to the accommodation of a few of the dis
Luther and Zwingle with their prayers who could tinguished men who had flocked to Marburg from
not come in person . so many places to witness the discussion.
The first day, after dinner , Luther and Ecolam - The proceedings opened with Luther's taking a
padius walked together in the castle yard . The piece of chalk, and proceeding to trace some cha
converse of these two chiefs was familiar and affec- racters upon the velvet cover of the table. When
tionate. In (Ecolampadius, Luther had found he had finished, it was found that he had written
another Melancthon. The Reformer of Basle united “ HOC EST MEUM CORPUS.” “ Yes," said he, laying
an erudition almost as profound as that of the great down the bit of chalk , and displaying the writing
scholar of Wittemberg, with a disposition nearly as to those around the table , “ these are the words of
sweet and gentle. But when Bucer, who had once Christ - This is my body.' From this rock no
been intimate with Luther, and had now gone adversary shall dislodge me.”
over to Zwingle's side, approached, the Reformer No one denied that these were the words of
shook his fist in his face, and said half jocularly , Christ, but the question was,what was their sense ?
half in earnest, “ As for you, you are a good-for- The whole controversy , on which hung issues to
nothing knave."3 Protestantism so momentous, turned on this. The
It was thought that a private meeting between fundamental principle of Protestantism was that
selected persons from the two sides would pave the the Word of God is the supreme authority, and
way for the public conference. But let us beware, that obscure and doubtful passages are to be inter
said the landgrave, of at once engaging Luther and preted by others more clear. If this principle were
Zwingle in combat ; let us take the disputants two to be followed on the present occasion, there could
by two, mating the mildest with the hottest, and be no great difficulty in determining the sense of
leave them alone to debate the matter between the words of Christ, “ This is my body."
themselves . Ecolampadiuswas told off with Luther, The argument of the Swiss was wholly in the
Melancthon was paired with Zwingle. They were line of the fundamental principle of Protestantism .
Luther had but one arrow in his quiver. His con
1 Ruchat, tom . ii., p . 143.
2 Sleidan, bk. vi., p . 121 . Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 18 ; tention was little else than a constant repetition of
Additio .
3 Scultet, Annal., ad 1529. + Scultet, tom . ii.,p. 198. Ruchat, tom . ii., p.143.
DISCUSSION AT MARBURG . ON THE LORD'S SUPPER. 557
the words which he had written with chalk on the to heaven . “ What” (John vi. 62, 63) “ and if
table -cover. ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he
Ecolampadius asked Luther whether he did not was before ? It is the spirit that quickeneth ; the
admit that there are figures of speech in the Bible, Alesh profiteth nothing ; the words that I speak
as “ I am the door," “ John is Elias,” “ God is a unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”
rock,” “ The rock was Christ.” The words, “ This The hour to adjourn had now arrived, and the
is my body," he maintained, were a like figure of disputants retired with the prince to dinner. At
speech . table there came an hour's familiar and friendly
Luther admitted that there were figures in the talk with their host and with one another. In
Bible , but denied that this was one of them . the afternoon they again repaired to the public
A figure wemust hold them , responded Ecolam - hall, where the debate was resumed by Zwingle.
padius, otherwise Christ teaches contradictory pro- The Scriptures, science , the senses, all three repu
positions. In his sermon in the sixth chapter of diate the Lutheran and Popish doctrine of the Lord 's
St. John's Gospel, he says, “ The flesh profiteth Supper. Zwingle took his stand first on the ground
nothing ; ” but in the words of the institution of of Scripture. Applying the great Protestant rule
the Lord 's Supper, literally interpreted, he says that Scripture is to be interpreted by Scripture, he
the flesh profiteth everything. The doctrine of the pressed Luther with the argument which had been
Lord's Supper, according to that exegesis, over- started by Ecolampadius, namely, the manifest
throws the doctrine of the sermon . Christ has contradiction between the teaching of our Lord in
one dogma for the multitude at Capernaum , and the sermon at Capernaum and his teaching in the
another dogma for his disciples in the upper Lord 's Supper, if the words of institution are to
chamber. This cannot be ; therefore the words be taken literally . “ If so taken," said Zwingle,
“ This is my body " must be taken figuratively. “ Christ has given us, in the Lord's Supper, what
Luther attempted to turn aside the force of this is useless to us." Headded the stinging remark,
argument by making a distinction. There was, he “ The oracles of the demons were obscure, not so
said , a material eating of Christ's flesh , and there are those of Jesus Christ.” 3
was a spiritual eating of it. It was the former, “ But," replied Luther, “ it is not his own flesh ,
the material eating, of which Christ declared that but ours, of which Christ affirms that it profiteth
it profiteth nothing. nothing." This, of course, was to maintain that
A perilous line of argument for Luther truly ! Christ's flesh profited .
It was to affirm the spirituality of the act, while Zwingle might have urged that Christwas speak
maintaining the materiality of the thing. ing of “ the flesh of the Son of Man ;" that his
Ecolampadius hinted that this was in effect to hearers so understood him , seeing they asked ,“ How
surrender the argument. It admitted that we can this man give us his flesh to eat ? ” and that to
were to eat spiritually , and if so we did not eat refute this view , Christ adduced the future fact of
bodily , the material manducation being in that his ascension , and so limited them to the figura
case useless. tive or spiritual sense of his words. Waiving this
No, quickly retorted Luther, we are to eat bodily argument, Zwingle simply asked how flesh could
also . We are not to ask of what use. God has nourish the soul ? With the spirit only can the
commanded it, and we are to do it. This was to soul be fed. “ We eat the flesh of Christ bodily
come back to the point from which he had started ; with the mouth ,” rejoined Luther, " and spiritually
it was to reiterate, with a little periphrasis, the with the soul."
words “ This is my body.” This appeared to Zwingle to be to maintain con
It is worthy of notice that the argument since tradictions. It was another way of returning to
so often employed in confutation of the doctrine of the starting-point, “ This is my body.” It was in
Christ's corporeal presence in the Lord 's Supper, fact to maintain that the words were to be taken
namely , that a body cannot be in two places at neither figuratively nor literally , and yet that they
one and the same time, was employed by our Lord were to be taken in both senses.
himself at Capernaum . When he found that his An hor on this line
To travel further on this line was evidently
hearers understood him to say that they must “ eat Zimpossible. e
winssibl now
. An absurdity had been reached .
r
his flesh and drink his blood,” after a corporeal
co e a l Zwingle allowed himself greater scope and
manner, he at once restricted them to the spiritual range. He dwelt especially upon the numerous
sense, by telling them that his body was to ascend wider passages in the Scriptures in which the
i Scultet , ii. 217 . Ruchat, ii. 145. [hid . 3 D’Aubigné,bk. xiii., chap.7,
sign is thatput wefor have
tained the thing signified,
Christ' s and inmain-
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had out. Theit departed,
anomalousandmysteriousness
it took its that
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sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel for saying that beside the other institutions of the Economy of
iEucharist
t is so here,
are notthatthetheverybreadbodyandandwine
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PORTRAIT OF MARTIN BUCER. (From Rolt.)

through which there cometh eternal life to men. it, and though Luther himself remained as uncon
Not in vain did the Reformer of Zurich thus argue. vinced as ever, there were not a few conversions in
Mindswere opening around him . The simplicity the audience. There was a notable one — the ex
of his views, and their harmony with the usual Franciscan , Francis Lambert, formerly of Avignon,
method by which the spirit acts upon the soul of now the head of the Hessian Church. His spare
man, recommended them to the listeners. The light
of the Word let fall upon the Lord's Supper, its
figure and eager eye made him a marked object in
the throng of listeners ; and when the discussion
nature, its design,and its mode of operation came closed, his admiration of Luther, whose friendship
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and respect he enjoyed in return , did not prevent Whether that body is confined to a place , or whether
his declaring himselfto be of the opinion of Zwingle. it fills all space , I prefer to be ignorant rather than to
The Wittemberg doctors bewailed his defection. know , since God has not been pleased to reveal it,
They saw in it not a proof of the soundness of and noman in the world is able to decide the point."
Zwingle's argument, but an evidence of the French - “ But Christ's body is finite , and bounded by
man 's fickleness. Have we not all left the Church place," urged Zwingle.
of Rome? asked Lambert. Is that, too, the fruit “ No," responded Luther , “ away with these
of fickleness ? This ended the first day's discussion . mathematical novelties ; I take my stand on the
The contest was continued on the following day, almightiness of God .”
Sunday. Abandoning the theological ground, the “ The power is not the point to be established,"
d'octor of Zurich attempted to carry his point by replied Zwingle, “ but the fact that the body is in
weapons borrowed from science. A body cannot divers places at the same moment.”
be in more places than one at the same time, urged “ That,” said Luther, “ I have proved by the
Zwingle . Christ's body is like ours ; how can it words ' This is my body.
be at once in heaven and on the earth , at the right Zwingle reproached him with always falling into
hand of God and in the bread of the Eucharist ? the error of begging the question , and he adduced
How can it be at the same instant on every one of a passage from Fulgentius, a Father of the fifth
the thousand altars at which the Eucharist is being century, to show that the Fathers held that the
celebrated ? But Luther refused to answer at the body of Christ could be in only one place at a time.
bar of mathematics. He would hold up the table- “ Hear his words," said Zwingle. “ The Son of
cloth and point to the words “ This is my body.” God,' says Fulgentius, ' took the attributes of true
He would permit neither Scripture nor science to humanity , and did not lose those of true divinity.
interpret them in any sense but that in which he Born in time according to his mother, he lives in
understood them . He would assert that it was a eternity according to his divinity that he holds
matter not to be understood , but to be believed from the Father ; coming from man he is man, and
It might be against nature, it might be unknown consequently in a place ; proceeding from the Father
to science ; that did not concern him . God had he is God, and consequently present in every place.
said it, Christ's body was in heaven , and it was in According to his human nature, he was absent
the Sacrament ; it was in the Sacrament substan- from heaven while he was upon the earth , and
tially as born of the Virgin . There was the proof quitted the earth when he ascended into heaven ;
of it, “ This is my body." . . but according to his divine nature he remained in
“ If the body of Christ can be in several places heaven when he came down from thence, and did
at one and the same time,” rejoined Zwingle , “ then not abandon the earth when he returned thither.'”
our bodies likewise , after the resurrection, must Luther put aside the testimony of Fulgentius,
possess the power of occupying more places than saying that this Father was not speaking of the
one at a time, for it is promised that our bodies Lord's Supper ; and he again betook him to his
shall be fashioned like unto the glorious body of battle-horse, “ This is my body " _ “ it is there in
our Lord.” the bread."
“ That proves nothing," Luther replied . “ What “ If it is there in the bread ," said Zwingle, “ it is
the text affirms is, that our bodies in their outward there as in a place.”
fashion are to resemble Christ's body, not that they “ It is there," reiterated Luther, “ but it is not
are to be endowed with a like power.” there as in a place ; it is at the right hand of God.
“ My dear sirs,” Luther continued , “ behold the He has said , “ This is my body,' that is enough for
words of our Lord Jesus Christ, “ This is my body.' me.”
That truth I cannot abandon. I must confess and “ But that is not to reason," retorted Zwingle,
believe that the body of Jesus Christ is there." “ that is to wrangle. You might as well maintain
“ Ah, well,my dear doctor,” replied Zwingle, " you because Christ, addressing his mother from the
put the body of Jesus Christ locally in the Lord's cross and pointing to St. John, said , " Woman,
Supper, for you say, “ It behoves the body of Jesus behold thy son,' that therefore St. John was the
Christ to be there. There is an adverb of place." son ofMary .” To all arguments and proofs to the
“ I repeat simply the words of Jesus Christ;" contrary,an obstinate controversialist might oppose
said Luther. “ But since you are captious, I must an endless iteration of the words, “ Woman, be
again say that I will have nothing to do with hold thy son — Woman, behold thy son." Zwingle
mathematical reasons. I throw away the adverb further enforced his argument by quoting the words
there, for Christ says, “ This (not there is my body,' of Augustine to Dardanus. “ Let us not think,"
OBSTINACY OF LUTHER IN THE MARBURG CONFERENCE. 561
says he, " that Christ according to his human form hausted every argument from Scripture and from
is present in every place. Christ is everywhere reason. Luther was proof against them all. He .
present as God, and yet by reason of his true body stood immovably on the ground he had taken up
he is present in a definite part of heaven. That at the beginning ;. he would admit no sense of
cannot be called a body of which place cannot be the words but the literal one ; he would snatch
predicated.” up the cover from the table and, displaying trium
Luther met the authority of Augustine as he phantly before the eyes of Zwingle and Eco
had done that of Fulgentius, by denying that he lampadius the words he had written upon it,
was speaking of the Lord's Supper, and he wound “ This is my body " - he would boast that there
up by saying that “ Christ's body was present in he still stood , and that his opponents had not
the bread, but not as in a place.” driven him from this ground, nor ever should.
The dinner-hour again interposed . The ruffled Zwingle, who saw the hope so dearly cherished
theologians tried to forget at the table of their by him of healing the schism fast vanishing, burst
courteous and princely entertainer the earnest tilt- into tears. Hebesought Luther to come to terms,
ing in which they had been engaged, and the hard to be reconciled, to accept them as brothers.
blows they had dealt to one another in the morn - Neither prayers nor tears could move the doctor
ing's conference. of Wittemberg. He demanded of the Helvetian
Ecolampadius had been turning over in his mind Reformers unconditional surrender. They must
the words of Luther,that Christ's body was present accept the Lord 's Supper in the sense in which he
in the Sacrament, but not as in a place. It was took it ; they must subscribe to the tenet of the
possible, he thought, that in these words common real presence. This the Swiss Protestants declared
ground might be found on which the two parties they could not do. On their refusal, Luther de
might come together. On reassembling in the hall clared that he could not regard them as having
they became the starting-point of the discussion . a standing within the Church, nor could he receive
Reminding Luther of his admission , Ecolampadius them as brothers. As a sword these words went
asked him to define more precisely his meaning to the heart of Zwingle. Again he burst into
If Christ's body is present, but not as a body is tears. Must the children of the Reformation be
present in a place, then let us inquire what is the divided ? must the breach go unhealed ? It must.
nature of Christ's bodily presence . On the 12th October, 1529, Luther writes, in
" It is in vain you urge me,” said Luther, who reference to this famous conference : “ All joined
saw himself about to be dragged out of his circle, in suing me for peace with the most extraordinary
" I will not move a single step. Only Augustine humility. The conference lasted two days. I
and Fulgentius are with you ; all the rest of the responded to the arguments of Ecolampadius and
Fathers are with us." Zwinglius by citing this passage, “ This is my
“ As, for instance ?” quietly inquired Ecolam - body ;' and I refuted all their objections."
padius. And again , “ The whole of Zwinglius'argument
" Oh,wewill not name them ," exclaimed Luther ; may be shortly reduced to the following sum
" Christ's words suffice for us. When Augustine mary :- That the body of our Lord cannot exist
wrote on this subject he was a young man , and his without occupying space and without dimensions
statements are confused ." ſand therefore it was not in the bread ). Eco
" Ifwe cite the Fathers," replied Ecolampadius, lampadius maintained that the Fathers styled the
“ it is not to shelter our opinion under their autho- bread a symbol, and consequently that it was
rity, but solely to shield ourselves from the charge not the real body of Christ. They supplicated us
you have hurled against us thatwe are innovators." 1 to bestow upon them the title of brothers.' Zwing
The day had worn away in the discussion . It lius even implored the landgrave with tears to
was now evening. On the lawnsand woods around grant this. There is no place on earth,' said
the castle the shadows of an October twilight were he, where I so much covet to pass my days as
fast falling. Dusk filled the hall. Shall they bring at Wittemberg.' We did not, however, accord
in lights ? To what purpose ? Both sides feel that to them this appellation of brothers. All we
it is wholly useless to prolong the debate. granted was that which charity enjoins us to
Two days had worn away in this discussion. bestow even upon our enemies. They, however,
The two parties were no nearer each other than behaved in all respects with an incredible degree
at the beginning. The Swiss theologians had ex- of humility and amiability."
i Scultet , ii. 220 - 228. Ruchat, ü . 148 – 155. ? Luth. Cor. - Michelet, pp. 217, 218 ; Lond., 1846.
Philip , Landgrave of Hesse, was unspeakably was being held , and was committing in Marburg
mortified by the issue of the conference. Hehad the same fearful ravages which had marked its
been at great pains to bring it about ; he had built presence in other towns. This was an additional
the highest hopes upon it ; now all these hopes reason for breaking up the conference. Philip had
had to be relinquished . Wherever he looked , welcomed the doctors with joy, he was about to see
outside the Protestant camp, he beheld union. them depart in sorrow. A terrible tempest was
All, from the Pope downwards, were gathering brewing on the south of the Alps, where Charles
in one vast confederacy to crush both Wittemberg and Clement were nightly closeted in consultation
and Zurich , and yet Luther and Zwingle were still over the extermination of Protestantism . The red
standing — the former haughtily and obstinately - flag of the Moslem was again displayed on the
apart ! Every hour the storm lowers more darkly Danube, soon , it might be, to wave its bloody folds
over Protestantism , yet its disciples do not unite ! on the banks of the Elbe. In Germany thousands
His disappointment was great. of swords were ready to leap from their scabbards
All the timethis theological battle was going on, to assail the Gospel in the persons of its adherents.
a terrible visitant was approaching Marburg . The All round the horizon the storm seemed to be
plague, in the form of the sweating sickness, had thickening ; but the saddest portent of all, to the
broken out in Germany, and was traversing that eye of Philip , was the division that parted into two
country, leaving on its track the dead in thousands. camps the great Reformed brotherhood , and mar
It had now reached the city where the conference shalled in two battles the great Protestant army.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE MARBURG CONFESSION .
Further Efforts of the Landgrave - Zwingle's Approaches - Luther's Repulse - The Landgrave's Proposal- Articles
Drafted by Luther - Signed by Both Parties – Agreement in Doctrine- Only One Point of Difference, namely, the
Manner of Christ 's Presence in the Sacrament– The Marburg Confession - A Monumentofthe Real Brotherhood
of all Protestants - Bond between Germany and Helvetia – Ends served by it.
Yet before seeing the doctors depart, never perhaps Philip accordingly made another effort. He
to meet each other again , the landgrave asked made the doctors go with him , one by one, into
himself, can nothing more be done to heal the his cabinet. He reasoned , entreated , exhorted ;
breach ? Must this one difference irreconcilably pointed now to the storm that seemed ready to
divide the disciples of the Gospel ? Agreement burst, and now to the advantages that union might
on the Eucharist is, it seems, impossible; but is secure. More from the desire to gratify the land
there not besides enough of common ground to grave than from any lively hope of achieving
permit of a union, of such sort as may lead to union, the two parties agreed again to meet and
united counsels and united action , in the presence to confer.
of those tremendous dangers which lower equally The interview was a most touching one. The
over Germany and over Switzerland ? circumstances amid which it took place were well
“ Are we not brethren , whether Luther ac- fitted to humble pride, and to melt the hearts of
knowledge it or not ? " was the question which men. Hundreds were dying of the plagne around
Philip put to himself. “ Does not Rome account them . Charles and the Pope, Ferdinand and the
both of us her enemies ? ” This is negative proof princes, all were whetting their swords, eager to
of brotherhood. Clearly Rome holds us to be spill the blood alike of Zwinglian and of Lutheran.
brothers. Do not both look for salvation through Only let the emperor be master of the position,
the same sacrifice of the cross ? and do not both and he will not spare Luther because he believes
bow to the Bible as the supreme authority of in the real presence, nor Zwingle because he differs
what they are to believe ? Are not these strong on this point from Wittemberg . Both, in the
bonds ? Those between whom they exist can hardly judgment of Charles , are heretics, equally deserving
be said to be twain . of extermination . What did this mean ? If they
ZWINGLIANS AND LUTHERANS. 563
were hated of all men, surely it was for his name's nevertheless, they had reared a noble monument
sake; and was not this a proof that they were to the catholicity of Christian love.
his children ? Their meekness was mightier than Luther 's
Taught by his instincts of Christian love, Zwingle haughtiness. Not only was its power felt in the
opened the conference by enunciating a truth which conference chamber , where it made some converts,
the age was not able to receive. “ Let us," said but throughout Germany. From this time forward
he, " proclaim our union in all things in which themore spiritual doctrine of the Eucharist began
we agree ; and as for the rest, let us forbear as to spread throughout the Lutheran Church . Even
brothers ;" adding that never would peace be Luther bowed his head. The tide in his breast
attained in the Church unless her members were began to turn — to rise. Addressing the Zwinglians,
allowed to differ on secondary points. and speaking his last word , he said, “ Weacknow
The Landgrave Philip, catching at this new ledge you as friends; we do not consider you as
idea , and deeming that now at last union had brothers. I offer you the hand of peace and
been reached , exclaimed , “ Yes, let us unite ; let charity."4
us proclaim our union.” Overjoyed that something had been won, the
“ With none on earth do I more desire to be Landgrave Philip proposed that the two parties
united than with you ,” said Zwingle, addressing should unite in making a joint profession of their
Luther and his companions. Ecolampadius, Bucer, faith, in order that the world might see that on one
and Hedio made the samedeclaration. point only did they differ, namely , the manner in
This magnanimous avowal was not without its which Christ is presentin the Lord's Supper,and that
effect. It had evidently touched the hearts of the after all the great characteristic of the Protestant
opposing rank of doctors. Luther's prejudice and Churches was UNITY, though manifested in diversity.
obduracy were , it appeared , on the point of being The suggestion recommended itself to both sides.
vanquished , and his coldness melted. Zwingle's Luther was appointed to draw up the articles of the
keen eye discovered this : he burst into tears — Protestant faith. “ I will draft them ,” said he,
tears of joy - seeing himself, as he believed, on the as he retired to his chamber to begin his task ,
eve of an event that would gladden the hearts of “ with a strict regard to accuracy, but I don't ex
thousands in all the countries of the Reformation, pect the Zwinglians to sign them .”
and would strike Rome with terror. He ap- The pen of Luther depicts the Protestant doctrine
proached : he held out his hand to Luther : he as evolved by the Reformation atWittemberg ; the
begged him only to pronounce the word “ brother.” rejection or acceptance of Zwingle will depict it as
Alas ! what a cruel disappointment awaited him . developed at Zurich. The question of brotherhood
Luther coldly and cuttingly replied, “ Your spirit is thus about to be appealed from the bar of Luther
is different from ours.” It was indeed different : to the bar of fact. It is to be seen whether it is a
Zwingle's was catholic, Luther's sectarian. differentGospel or the sameGospel that is received
The Wittemberg theologians consulted together. in Germany and in Switzerland.
They all concurred in Luther's resolution. “ We,” The articles, fourteen in number, gave the Wit
said they to Zwingle and his friends, “ hold the temberg view of the Christian system — the Trinity ,
belief of Christ's bodily presence in the Lord 's the person and offices of Christ, the work of the
Supper to be essential to salvation, and we cannotHoly Spirit, original sin , justification by faith , the
in conscience regard you as in the communion of authority of the Scriptures, rejection of tradition,
the Church." baptism , holiness, civil order ; in short, all the
“ In that case," replied Bucer, “ it were folly fundamental doctrines of revealed truth were in
to ask you to recognise us as brethren . But cluded in the programme of Luther.
we, though we regard your doctrine as dis - The doctor of Wittemberg read his paper article
honouring to Christ, now on the right hand of by article. “ We cordially say amen,” exclaimed
the Father, yet, seeing in all things you depend the Zwinglians, " and are ready to subscribe every
on him , we acknowledge you as belonging to one of them .” Luther stood amazed. Were the
Christ. We appeal to posterity .” 3 This was men of Helvetia after all of one mind with the men
magnanimous. of Wittemberg ? Were Switzerland and Germany
The Zwinglians had won a great victory. They so near to each other ? Why should man put
had failed to heal the schism , or to induce the asunder those whom the Holy Spirit had joined ?
Wittembergers to acknowledge them as brethren ; 4 Zwing. Opp., iv . 203.
- 5 Pallavicino, lib . iii., cap. 1. Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 17,
1 Scult., p . 207. ? Zwing. Opp., iv . 203. 3 Ibid ., p. 194 . p. 158 . Ruchat, tom . ii., pp. 156 — 159.
Still the gulf was not closed ,or rather sectarianism Zwingle, in opposition to the former,who saw in the
again opened it. Luther had reserved the article Sacrament only a commemoration, “ there is a real
on the Lord's Supper Luther continued; of the ver presenceof Christ in the Lord's Supper.” “ Faith,"
“ We all believe," Luther continued, “ that the said Luther, in opposition to the opus operatum of
Sacrament of the altar is the Sacrament of the very the latter, “ faith is necessary in order to our bene
body and very blood of Jesus Christ ; and that the fiting by the Sacrament.” We thus see that the
spiritual manducation of this body and blood is middle camp has two opposing fronts, corresponding
specially necessary to every true Christian." to the set of foes on either hand, but substantial
This brought the two parties once more in oneness in itself. It is gathered round one King
presence of the great impassable obstacle. It Christ : round one expiation — the cross : round one
marked the furthest limit on the road to union the law — the Bible .
Church in that age had reached. Here she must But if the Church of the Reformation still re
halt. Both parties felt that advance beyond was mained outwardly divided , her members were
impossible, till God should further enlighten them . thereby guarded against the danger of running
But they resolved to walk together so far as they into political alliances, and supporting their cause
were agreed. And here, standing at the parting of by force of arms. This lineof policy the Landgrave
the ways as it were , they entered into covenant Philip had much at heart, and it formed one of the
with one another, to avoid all bitterness in main objects he had in view in his attempts to conduct
taining what each deemed the truth , and to cherish to a successful issue the conferences at Marburg.
towards one another the spirit of Christian charity.” Union might have rendered the Protestants too
On the 4th October, 1529, the signatures of both strong. They might have leaned on the arm of
parties were appended to this joint confession of flesh, and forgotten their true defence. The Refor
Protestant faith . This was better than any mere mation was a spiritual principle. From the sword
protestation of brotherhood. It was actual brother it could derive no real help . Its conquests would
hood , demonstrated and sealed. The articles, we end the moment those of force began. From that
venture to affirm , are a complete scheme of saving hour it would begin to decay, it would be powerless
truth , and they stand a glorious monument that to conquer, and would cease to advance. But let
Helvetia and Germany were one — in other words, a its spiritual arm be disentangled from political
gloriousmonument to the Oneness of Protestantism . armour, which could but weigh it down, let its
This Confession of Marburg was the first well- disciples hold forth the truth , let them fight with
defined boundary -line drawn around the Protes- prayers and sufferings, let them leave political
tants. It marked them off as a distinct body from alliances and the fate of battles to the ordering and
the enthusiasts on the one hand and the Romanists overruling of their Divine Head — let them do this,
on the other. Their flag was seen to float on the and all opposition would melt in their path, and
middle ground between the camp of the visionaries final victory would attest at once the truth of their
and that of the materialists. “ There is,” said cause, and the omnipotence of their King.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE EMPEROR, THE TURK , AND THE REFORMATION .
Charles's great Ambition, the Supremacy of Christendom - Protestantism his great Stumbling -Block - The Edict of
Worms is to Remove that Stumbling- Block - Charles Disappointed - The Victory of Pavia Renews the Hope
Again Disappointed – The Diet of Spires, 1526 – Again Baulked - In the Church , Peace : in the World , War The
Turk before Vienna - Terror in Germany - The Emperor again Laying the Train for Extinction of Protestantism
- Charles Lands at Genoa - Protestant Deputies - Interview with Emperor at Piacenza - Charles's stern Reply
Arrest of Deputies - Emperor sets out for Bologna.
We have traced the steps by which Charles V. without being under the necessity of consulting
climbed to the summit of power. It was his any will but his own, or experiencing impedi
ambition to wield the supremacy of Europe ment or restraint in any quarter whatever. The
great stumbling-block in his path to this abso
Scultet, p . 232. Sleidan, bk.vi., p. 121 . lute and unfettered exercise of his arbitrary will,
HOPES AND DISAPPOINTMENTS OF CHARLES. 565
wasthe Protestantmovement.
the government of Christendom ,Itdividedwith him
and by its empire propagatingthehe waswaging
many,while Reformed doctrines throughoutGer
an arduousand dubious
of the conscience it set march
limits tohehisthought
empirethat
of theit contest with Francis I. But the victory of Pavia
sword. In his onward placed France and Italy at his feet, and
his sword to do his will, and what does he will left free
was
from necessary
his path . toButsweep
ever Luther
as he putandhisWittemberg
hand upon but to execute the Edict of Worms? Now he
will
uponstrike
hissomesword's hilt to carry his purpose into effect,it, the blow:. Luther
The emperor' s handmanis again
hindrance or other prevented his drawing his poignard is a dead : the
and made him postpone the execution of his great knell of Wittemberg has rung out.
SA
WITH
TA ET
.
hari
Tales
INTERIOR OF THE COURTYARD OF A BOLOGNESE HOUSE.

design. From Aix-la-
coveted imperial diademChapelle, whereon thehis much-
was placed brow, tionNotarose
yet. in Strange
a quarterto say,at
where thatmoment opposi
Charles was entitled
heDietwent straightthe toedictWorms,where in assembled to look forVII.,was
only zealous co-operation. ThedreadPope,of
scription and the stake. Now ,hethought, hadto come
he passed consigning Luther pro- Clement seized with a sudden
the Spanish power. The Italians at the same
behistheridheresy
happymomenthehad
of themonk and waitedfromfor,now
freed the he would
annoyance moment becameinflamed with thetheirprojectof driving
the vassalage of centuries to the independence fromand
out the Spaniards,and raising country
broke out hadbetween given himhim . andAt that
France.instant
For a four
war
years, from 1521 to 1525, the emperorhad to leave aglorydesireof toearlyavenge
days.theFrancis I. wasof burning
humiliation with
his captivity,
Luther 48in peace, translating the Scriptures, and and these concurring causes led to a formidable
league of sovereigns against the man who but a storm . It is upon the City of the Seven Hills that
few months before had seen all opposition give way this bolt is discharged. How has it happened that
before him . The emperor unsheathed his sword, the thunders have rolled thither ? It was no
but not to strike where he so fondly hoped to inflict arrangement of the emperor's that Rome should be
a deadly blow . The puissant Charles must still smitten ; the bolt he hoped would fall elsewhere.
leave the monk of Wittemberg at peace , and while But the winds of the political, like those of the
his doctrines are day by day striking a deeper root, natural firmament, do not wait on the bidding of
the emperor is compelled to buckle on his armour, man. These winds, contrary to the expectation of
and meet the combination which Clement VII., all men , wafted that terrible war-cloud to where
Francis I., and Henry VIII. have entered into rose in proud magnificence the temples and palaces
against him . of the Eternal City, and where stood the throne
Then comethree years (1526 – 1529) of distract - of her Pontiff. The riches and glory of ages were
ing thought and harassing toil to the emperor. But blighted in an hour.
if compelled to be absent in camps and on tented With this terrific peal the air clears, and peace
fields, may he not find others who will execute the again returns for a little while to Christendom .
edict, and sweep the obnoxious monk from his The league against the emperor was now at an end ;
path ? He will try. He convokes (1526) a Diet he had cut it in pieces with his sword. Italy was
to meet at Spires, avowedly for the purpose of again at his feet ; and the Pope, who in an evil
having the edict executed . It is their edict not hour for himself had so strangely revolted , was
less than his, for they had concurred with him in once more his ally . There is no king who may
fulminating it ; surely the princes will sleep no now stand up against Charles. It seemed as if, at
longer over this affair ; they will now send home last, the hour had fully come for which the emperor
the bolt ! Not yet. The Diet of Spires did exactly had waited so long. Now he can strike with the
the opposite of what Charles meant it should do. whole force of the Empire. Now he will measure
The majority of the princeswere friendly to Luther, his strength with that mysteriousmovement, which
though in 1521 they had been hostile to him ; and he beholds,with a hatred notunmingled with dread ,
they enacted that in the matter of religion every rising higher and extending wider every year, and
State should be at liberty to do as it judged best. which, having neither exchequer nor army, is yet
The Diet that was to unchain the furies of Perse- rearing an empire in the world that threatens to
cution, proclaims Toleration . eclipse his own.
The war-clouds at this time hang heavy over Again darkness seemed to gather round and
Christendom , and discharge their lightnings danger to threaten the Church . Two terrible
first on one country, then on another; but there storms hung lowering in the skies of the world.
is a space of clear sky above Wittemberg, and The one darkened the East, the other was seen rising
in the interval of quiet which Saxony enjoys, we in the West. It was the Eastern tempest that would
see commissioners going forth to set in order the be first to burst, men thought, and the inhabitants
Churches of the German Reformation. All the of Germany turned their eyes in that direction, and
while this peaceful work of upbuilding is going on , watched with alarm and trembling the progress of
the reverberations of the distant thunder-storm are the cloud thatwas coming towards them . The gates
heard rolling in the firmament. Now it is from of Asia had opened , and had poured out the fierce
the region of the Danube that the hoarse roar of Tartar hordes on a new attempt to submerge the
battle is heard to proceed. There the Turk is rising Christianity and liberty of the West under a
closing in fierce conflict with the Christian , and the flood of Eastern barbarism . Traversing Hungary,
leisure of Ferdinand of Austria, which otherwise the Ottoman host had sat down before the walls of
might be worse employed, is fully occupied in driv- Vienna a week before the Marburg Conference.
ing back the hordes of a Tartar invasion . Now it The hills around that capital were white with their
is from beyond the Alps that the terrible echoes of tents, and the fertile plains beneath its walls,
war are heard to roll. On the plains of Italy the which the hoof of Mussulman horse had never
legions of the emperor are contending against the pressed till now , were trodden by their cavalry .
arms of his confederate foes, and that land pays The besiegers were opening trenches, were digging
the penalty of its beauty and renown by having mines , were thundering with their cannon, and
its soil moistened with the blood and darkened already a breach had been made in the walls. A
with the smoke of battle. And now comes another few days and Vienna must succumb to the num .
terrible peal, louder and more stunning than any bers, the impetuosity, and valour of the Ottoman
that had preceded it, the last of that thunder- warriors, and a desolate and blood-besprinkled
RETREAT OF THE OTTOMAN POWER. 567
heap would alone remain to mark where it had led his myriad army to invade Greece . But the
stood . The door of Germany burst open , the terrible calamity of Ottoman subjugation was not
conquerors would pour along the valley of the to befal Europe. The Turk had reached the
Danube, and plant the crescent amid the sacked furthest limits of his progress westward. From
cities and devastated provinces of the Empire. The this point his slaughtering hordes were to be rolled
prospect was a terrible one. A common ruin , back . While the cities and provinces of Germany
like avalanche on brow of Alp, hung suspended waited in terror the tramp of his war-horses and
above all parties and ranks in Germany, and might the gleam of his scimitars, there came the welcome
at any moment sweep down upon them with resist- tidings that the Asiatic warriors had sustained a
less fury . “ It is you," said the adherents of the severe repulse before Vienna (16th October , 1529),
old creed addressing the Lutherans, “ who have and were now in full retreat to the Bosphorus.?
brought this scourge upon us. It is you who have The scarcity of provisions to which the Turkish
unloosed these angels of evil; they come to chastise camp was exposed , and the early approach of winter,
you for your heresy. You have cast off the yoke with its snow -storms, combined to effect the raising
of the Pope, and now you must bear the yoke of of the siege and the retreat of the invaders ; but
the Turk.” “ Not so," said Luther, “ it is God Luther recognised in this unexpected deliverance the
who has unloosed this army,whose king is Abaddon hand of God, and the answer of prayer. “ We
the destroyer. They have been sent to punish us Germans are always snoring,” he exclaimed , indig
for our sins, our ingratitude for the Gospel, our nant at some whose gratitude was not so lively as
blasphemies, and above all, our shedding of the he thought it ought to have been , “ and there are
blood of the righteous.” Nevertheless, it was his many traitors among us. Pray,” he wrote to
opinion that all Germans ought to unite against Myconius, “ against the Turk and the gates of
the sultan for the common defence. It was no hell, that as the angel could not destroy one little
question of leagues or offensive war, but of country city for the sake of one just soul in it, so we may
and of common safety : the Turk was at their be spared for the sake of the few righteous that
hearths, and as neighbour assists neighbour whose are in Germany."
house is on fire, so Protestant ought to aid Papist But if the Eastern cloud had rolled away, and
in repelling a foe that was threatening both with a was fast vanishing in the distance, the one in the
common slaughter. West had grown bigger than ever , and was coming
It was at this time that he preached his “ Battle rapidly onwards. “ We have two Cæsars," said
Sermon .” Its sound was like the voice of a great Luther,“ one in the East and one in theWest, and
trumpet. Did ever general address words more hoth our foes.” The emperor is again victorious
energetic to his soldiers when about to engage in over the league which his enemies had formed
battle ? “ Mahomet,” said he, “ exalts Christ as against him . Hehas defeated the King of France ;
God ; he is therefore his enemy. Alas ! to this ce Sreat raansecond
hifalling ementintohethe
being without sin , but he denies that he is the true he has taught Henry of England to be careful of
som Cltime hascerror ommittent
hastiheke,ccommitted
hour the world is such that it seems everywhere in the affair of Cognac ; he has chastised the Pope,
to rain disciples of Mahomet. Two men ought to and compelled Clement VII. to sue for peace with
oppose the Turks — the first is Christian , that is to a great ransom and the offer of alliance ; and now
say, prayer ; the second is Charles, that is to say, he looks around him and sees no opponent save
the sword. . . . . I know my dear Germans one, and that one apparently the weakest of all.
well — fat and well-fed swine as they are ; no That opponent swept from his path, he will mount
sooner is the danger removed than hey think only to the pinnacle of power. Surely he who has
of eating and sleeping. Wretched man , if thou triumphed over so many kings will not have to
dost not take up arms, the Turk will come; he will lower his sword before a monk. The emperor has
carry thee away into his Turkey ; he will sell thee left Spain in greatwrath , and is on his way to chas
like a dog ; and thou shalt serve him night and tise those audacious Protestants, who are now , as
day, under the rod and the cudgel, for a glass of he believes, fully in his power. The terror of the
water and a morsel of bread. Think on this, be Turk was forgotten in themore specialand imminent
converted, and implore the Lord not to give thee danger that threatened the lives and religion of the
the Turk for thy schoolmaster.” Protestants. “ The Emperor Charles,” said Luther ,
Western freedom had never perhaps been in “ has determined to show himself more cruel against
such extreme peril since the time when Xerxes us than the Turk himself, and he has already uttered
1 " Heer predigt wider die Türken ." - L. Opp .(W ) xx.2001, ? Sleidan, bk. vi., p. 121 .
the most horrible threats. Behold the hour of men owed him for this priceless treasure,by issuing
Christ's agony and weakness. Let us pray for all new editions carefully revised. He wrote, more
those who will soon have to endure captivity and over, expositions on several of the Epistles ; com
death." 1 mentaries on the prophets ; he was at this moment
Meanwhile the work at Wittemberg, despite the busy on Daniel ; he had prefixed an explanatory
gathering clouds and the mutterings of the distant preface to the Apocalypse ; and his commentary on
thunder, does not for one moment stand still. Let Jeremiah was soon to follow . Nor must we omit
us visit this quiet retreat of learned men and the humblest, but not the least useful, of all the
scholars. In point of size this Saxon town is much works which issued from his study, his “ Smaller
inferior to many of the cities of Germany. Neither and Larger Catechisms.”
among its buildings is there palatial edifice, nor When we pause to contemplate these twomen ,
in its landscape is there remarkable object to Luther and Charles— can we have the slightest
attract the eye, and awaken the admiration of the doubt in saying which is immeasurably the greater ?
visitor, yet what a power is it putting forth ! Here The one sitting in his closet sends forth his word,
those mighty forces are at work which are creating which runs speedily throughout the earth , shaking
the new age. Here is the fountain -head of those into ruin ancient systems of superstition to which
ideas which are agitating and governing all classes, the ages have done reverence, rending the shackles
from the man who is master of half the kingdoms from conscience, and saying to the slave, “ Be thou
of the world , to the soldier who fights in the ranks free ;" giving sight to the blind, raising up the
and the serf who tills the soil. In the autumn of fallen , and casting down the mighty ; leading
1529, Mathesius, the biographer of Luther, became hearts captive, and plucking up or planting king.
a student in “ the renowned university." The doms. It is a God-like power which he exercises.
next Sabbath after his admission, at vespers, he When we turn to the emperor in his gorgeous
heard “ the great man Dr. Luther preach ” from palace , editing his edicts, and dispatching then by
the words of St. Peter (Acts ii. 38 ), enjoining repent- liveried couriers to distant nations, we feel that we
ance and baptism . What a sermon from the lips have made an immense stride downward . We
of “ the man of God " _ " for which all the days of have descended to a lower region, where we find a
his pilgrimage on earth , and throughout eternity , totally different and far inferior set of forces at
he should have to give God thanks.” At that work . Before Charles can effect anything he must
period Melancthon lectured on Cicero's De Ora- get together an army, he must collect millions of
toribus, and his oration Pro Archia ; and before treasure, he must blow his trumpets and beat his
noon on the Epistle to the Romans, and every kettle-drums; and yet how little that is really sub
Wednesday on Aristotle's Ethics. Bugenhagen stantial does he reap from all this noise and expense
lectured on the Epistles to the Corinthians ; Jonas and blood ! Another province or city, it may be,
on the Psalms; Aurogallus on Hebrew Grammar ; calls him master, but waits the first opportunity to
Weimar on Greek ; Tulich on Cicero 's Offices; throw off his yoke. His sword has effaced someof
Bach on Virgil ; Volmar on the theory of the the old landmarks on the earth's surface, and has
planets ; Mulich on astronomy; and Cruciger on traced a few new ones ; but what truth has he
Terence, for the younger students. There were established which may mould the destinies of men,
besides private schools for the youth of the town and be a fountain of blessing in ages to come?
and its neighbourhood , which were in vigorous What fruit does Spain or the world reap to-day
operation .” from all the battles of Charles ? It is now that
Over and above his lectures in the university , we see which of the two men wielded real power,
and his sermons in the cathedral, the Reformer and which of the two was the true monarch .
toiled with his pen to spread the Protestant light The emperor was on his way to Germany, where
over Germany and countries more remote . A he was expected next spring. He had made peace
o n beyond ali mind elegante, not paid it was
boon beyond all price was his German Bible : in with Francis, he had renewed his alliance with the
style so idiomatic and elegant, and in rendering so Pope, the Turk had gone back to his own land. It
faithful, that the Prince of Anhalt said it was as was one of those moments in the life of Charles
if the original penmen had lived in Germany, and when Fortune shed her golden beams upon his
used the tongue of the Fatherland. Luther was path , and beckoned him onwardswith the flattering
constantly adding to the obligations his country hope that now he was on the eve of attaining the
summit of his ambition. One step more, one little
1 Luth . Opp., iii. 324 . remaining obstruction swept away, and then he
2 Worsley, Life of Luther, vol. ii., p . 193. would stand on the pinnacle of power. He did
THE PROTESTANT DEPUTIES BEFORE CHARLES. 569
not conceal his opinion that that little obstruction eminence of position, had been selected for this
was Wittemberg, and that the object of his journey mission. Their names were-_ John Ehinger, Burgo
was to make an end of it. master of Memmingen ; Michael Caden , Syndic of
But in consummating his grand design he must Nuremberg ; and Alexis Frauentrat, secretary to
observe the constitutional forms to which he had the Margrave of Brandenburg. Their mission was
sworn at his coronation as emperor. The cradle deemed a somewhat dangerous one, and before their
of the Reformation was placed precisely in that departure a pension was secured to their widows in
part of his dominions where he was not absolute case of misfortune. They met the emperor at
master. Had it been placed in Spain , in Flanders , Piacenza , for so far had he got on his way to meet
anywhere, in short, except Saxony - how easy would the Pope at Bologna, to which city Clement had
it have been to execute the Edict of Worms ! But retired , to benefit, it may be, after his imprisonment,
in Germany he had to consult the will of others, by its healthy breezes, and to forget the devastation
and so he proceeded to convoke another Diet at inflicted by the Spaniards on Rome, of which the
Augsburg. Charles must next make sure of the daily sight of its plundered museums and burned
Pope. He could not have the crafty Clement trip - palaces reminded him while he resided in the capital.
ping him up the moment he turned his back and Informed of the arrival of the Protestant deputies,
crossed the Alps on his way to Germany. He and of the object of their journey, Charles appointed
must go to Italy and have a personal interview the 12th of September for an audience. The
with the Pontiff. prospect of appearing in the imperial presence was
Setting sail from Spain , and coasting along on no pleasant one, for they knew that they had come
the waters of the Mediterranean , the imperial fleet to plead for a cause which Charles had destined to
cast anchor in the Bay of Genoa. The youthful destruction . Their fears were confirmed by re
emperor gazed, doubtless, with admiration and ceiving an ominous hint to be brief, and not preach
delight on the city of the Dorias, whose superb a Protestant sermon to the emperor.
palaces, spread out in concentric rows on the face Unabashed by the imperial majesty and the
of the mountains,embosomed in orange and oleander brilliant court thatwaited upon Charles, these three
groves, rise from the blue sea to the summit of the plain ambassadors, when the day of audience came,
craggy and embattled Apennines. The Italians, on discharged their mission with fidelity. They gave
the other hand ,trembled at the approach oftheir new a precise narrative of all that had taken place in
master, whose picture, as drawn by their imagina- Germany on the matter of religion since the em
tions, resembled those Gothic conquerors who in peror quitted that country, which was in 1521.
former times had sacked the cities and trampled They specially instanced the edict of toleration
into the dust the fertility of Italy. Their fears promulgated by the Diet of 1526 ; the virtual
were dispelled, however, when on stepping ashore repeal of that edict by the Diet of 1529 ; the Pro
they beheld in Charles not an irate and ferocious test of the Reformed princes against that repeal ;
conqueror, come to chastise them for their revolt, their challenge of religious freedom for themselves
but a pale-faced prince, of winning address and and all who should adhere to them ,and their resolu
gentle manners, followed by a train of nobles in tion, at whatever cost, never to withdraw from that
the gay costume of Spain , and, like their master, demand, but to prosecute their Protest to the utmost
courteous and condescending. This amiable young of their power. In all matters of the Empire they
man , who arrived among the Italians in smiles, would most willingly obey the emperor, but in the
could frown sternly enough on occasion, as the things of God they would obey no power on earth ."
Protestant deputies, who were at this moment on So they spoke. It was no pleasant thing, verily ,
their way to meet him , were destined to experience. for the victor of kings and the ruler of two hemi
The Reformed princes, who gave in the famous spheres to be thus plainly taught that there were
PROTEST to the Diet of Spires (1529), followed up men in the world whose wills even he, with all
their act by an appeal to the emperor. The Arch- his power, could not bend. This thought was the
Duke Ferdinand, the president of the Diet, stormed worm at the root of the emperor's glory. Charles
and left the assembly, but the protesters appealed deigned no reply ; he dismissed the ambassadors
to a General Council and to posterity. Their am - with the intimation that the imperial will would be
bassadors were now on their way to lay the great made known to them in writing:5
Protest before Charles. Three burgesses, marked
rather by their weight of character than by their • Sleidan , bk . vii., p . 123. 3 Ibid .
4 Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 16 ; Additio, 134 .
1 Robertson , Hist. Charles V ., bk. V., p. 171 ; Edin ., 1829. 5 Sleidan, bk. vii., p. 124 . D 'Aubigné, bk . xiv ., chap. 1,
On the 13th October the emperor's answer was he consented to do so . We can imagine how the
sent to the deputies through his secretary, Alex- emperor's brow darkened as he read it. He ordered
ander Schweiss. It was, in brief, that the emperor Schweiss to go and arrest theambassadors. Till the
waswell acquainted, through his brother Ferdinand imperial pleasure should be further made known to
and his colleagues, with all that had taken place in them , they were not to stir out of doors, norwrite
Germany ; that he was resolved to maintain the to their friends in Germany, nor permit any of their
edict of the last Diet of Spires — that, namely, which servants to go abroad, under pain of forfeiture of
abolished the toleration inaugurated in 1526 , and goods and life.?
which laid the train for the extinction of the reli- It chanced that one of the deputies, Caden, was
gious movement — and that he had written to the not in the hotel when the emperor 's orders, con
BON
PORTRAIT OF CARDINAL CAMPEGGIO .
Duke of Saxony and his associates commanding fining the deputies to their lodgings, arrived. His
him to obey the decree of the Diet, upon the alle- servant slipped out and told him what had hap
giance which he owed to him and to the Empire ; pened in his absence. The deputy, sitting down,
and that should hedisobey,he would be necessitated
wrote an account of the affair — their interview with
for the maintenance of his authority, and for ex the emperor, and his declared resolution to execute
ample's sake, to punish him . the Edict of Worms— to the Senate at Nuremberg ,
Guessing too truly what the emperor's answer and dispatching it by a trusty messenger, whom he
would be, the ambassadors had prepared an appeal charged to proceed with all haste on his way, he
from it beforehand. This document they now pre- walked straight to the inn to share the arrest of his
sented to the secretary Schweiss in presence of colleagues.
witnesses. They had some difficulty in persuading Unless the compulsion of conscience comes in,
the official to carry it to his master , but at length mankind in themass will be found too selfish and too
Sleidan, bk. vii., p . 124. Seckendorf, lib. ii., p. 133. ? Sleidan, bk. vii., p. 125. Seckendorf, lib, ii., p.133.
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apathetic to purchase, at the expense of their own his army. The city he was now approaching had
toil and blood , the heritage of freedom for their chil- already enjoyed two centuries of eminence . Bologna
dren . Liberty says we may, religion says wemust, was the seat of the earliest of those universities
die rather than submit. It is a noble sentiment which arose in Europe when the light of learning
of the poet, and finely expressed, that Freedom 's began again to visit its sky. The first foundation
battle, “ bequeathed from bleeding sire to son ," of this school was in A. D. 425, by Theodosius the
though often lost, is always won in the end , but younger ; it rose to eminence under Charlemagne,
therewith does not accord the fact. The history of and attained its full splendour in the fifteenth cen
Greece, of Rome, and of other nations, shows us, tury, when the scholastic philosophy began to give
on a large view of matters, liberty dissociated from place to more rational studies, and the youth of
religion fighting a losing and not a winning battle. many lands flocked in thousands to study within
The more prominent instance, though not the only its walls. It is in respect of this seat of learning
one, in modern times , is France. There we behold that Bologna stamps upon its coin Bononia docet,
a brave nation fighting for “ liberty " in contradis - to which is added , in its coat of arms, libertas.
tinction to , or rather as dissociated from “ religion,” Bologna was the second city in the States of the
and, after a conflict of wellnigh a century, no Church , and was sometimes complimented with the
nearer victory than at the beginning. The little epithet, “ Sister of Rome." It rivalled the capital
Holland is an instance on the other side. It in the number and sumptuousness of its monas
fought a great battle for religion, and in winning teries and churches. One of the latter contains
it won everything else besides. The only notable the magnificent tomb of St. Dominic, the founder
examples with which history presents us, of great of the order of Inquisitors. It is remarkable for
masses triumphant over established tyrannies , are its two towers , both ancient in even the days of
those of the primitive Christians, and the Reformers Charles — the Asinelli, and the Garisenda, which
of the sixteenth century. Charles V . would have leans like the Tower of Pisa.
walked at will over Christendom , treading all rights Besides its ecclesiastical buildings,the city boasted
and aspirations into the dust, had any weaker prin - not a few palatial edifices and monuments. One of
ciple than conscience , evoked by Protestantism , these had already received Pope Clement under its
confronted him at this epoch . The first to scale roof, another was prepared for the reception of the
the fortress of despotism are ever the champions of emperor, whose sumptuous train was on the road .
religion ; the champions of civil liberty , coming The site of Bologna is a commanding one. Itleans
after, enter at the breach which the others had against an Apennine, on whose summit rises the
opened with their lives. . superb monastery of St. Michael in Bosco, and at
Setting out from Piacenza on the 23rd October, its feet, stretching far to the south , are those fertile
the eth peror went on to meet the Pope at Bologna. plains whose richness has earned for the city the
He carried with him the uthree rk hages hdeputies
mbe ,MaProtestant e pute appellation of Bologna Grassa . While the emperor,
as his captives. Travelling by slow stages he gave with an army of 20,000 behind him , advances by
ample time to the Italians to mark the splendour slow marches, and is drawing nigh its gates, let us
, of his retinue, and the number and equipments of turn to the Protestants of Germany.
PROTESTANT CONFERENCE AT SMALKALD. 573
CHAPTER XIX .
MEETING BETWEEN THE EMPEROR AND POPE AT BOLOGNA .
Meeting of Protestants at Smalkald - Complete Agreement in Matters of Faith insisted on - Failure to form a
Defensive League - Luther 's Views on War - Division among the Protestants Over-ruled – The Emperor at
Bologna - Interviews between Charles and Clement – The Emperor Proposes a Council - The Pope Recommends !
the Sword - Campeggio and Gattinara - The Emperor's Secret Thoughts - His Coronation - Accident- San
Petronio and its Spectacle - Rites of Coronation - Significancy of Each - The Emperor sets out for Germany.
On almost the same day on which Charles set out defence. Luther and his friends had recently
from Piacenza , Caden's letter, telling what recep revised the articles of the Marburg Conference in a
tion the emperor had given their deputies, reached strictly Lutheran sense. This revised addition is
the Senate of Nuremberg. It created a profound known as the “ Smalkald Articles.” Under the
sensation among the councillors. Their message tenth head a very important change was introduced :
had been repulsed , and their ambassadors arrested. it was affirmed , without any ambiguity, that the
This appeared to the Protestants tantamount to a very body and blood of Christ are present in the
declaration of hostilities on the part of the power Sacrament, and the notion was condemned that the
ful and irate monarch. The Elector of Saxony bread is simply bread . This was hardly keeping
and the Landgrave of Hesse consulted together. faith with the Reformed section of Christendom .
They resolved to call a meeting of the Protestant But the blunder that followed was still greater.
princes and cities at an early day, to deliberate on The articles so revised were presented to the
the crisis that had arisen . The assembly met at deputies at Smalkald , and their signatures de
Smalkald on the 29th November, 1529. Itsmem - manded to them as the basis of a political league.
bers wore the Elector of Saxony ; his son , John Before combining for their common defonce, all
Frederick ; Ernest and Francis, Dukes of Lune- must be of one mind on the doctrine of the Lord's
burg ; Philip the Landgrave ; the deputies of Supper.
George, Margrave of Brandenburg ; with represen This course was simply deplorable. Apart from
tatives from the cities of Strasburg, Ulm , Nurem - religious belief, there was enough of clear political
berg , Heilbronn , Reutlingen , Constance , Mem - ground on which to base a common resistance to a
muingen , Kempen, and Lindau.' The sitting of the common tyranny. But in those days the distinc
assembly was marked by a striking incident. The tion between the citizen and the church -member,
emperor having released two of the ambassadors, between the duties and rights appertaining to
and the third , Caden, having contrived to make the individual in his political and in his religious
his escape, they came to Smalkald just as the character, was not understood. All who would
Protestants had assembled there, and electrifying enter the proposed league must be of one mind on
them by their appearance in the Diet, gave a full the tenet of consubstantiation. They must not
account of all that had befallen them at the court only be Protestant, but Lutheran.
of the emperor. Their statement did not help to The deputies from Strasburg and Ulm resisted
abate the fears of the princes. It convinced them this sectarian policy . We cannot sign these
that evil was determined, that it behoved them to articles , said they, but we are willing to unite with
prepare against it ; and the first and most effectual our brethren in a defensive league. The Land
preparation , one would have thought, was to be grave of Hesse strongly argued that difference of
united among themselves.
opinion respecting the manner of Christ's presence
The necessity of union was felt, but unhappily in the Sacrament did not touch the foundations of
it was sought in the wrong way. The assembly Christianity , or endanger the salvation of the soul,
put the question, which shall we first discuss and and ought not to divide the Church of God ; much
arrange, the matter of religion or the matter of less ought that difference to be made a ground of
defence ? It was resolved to take the question of exclusion from such a league as was now proposed
religion first ; for, said they, unless we are of one to be formed . But the Dukes of Saxony and
mind on it we cannot be united in the matter of
• Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 16 ; Additio.
1 Sleidan, bk. vii., p. 125. 3 The articles are given in Walch , xvi., p . 681,
Luneburg, who were strongly under Luther's in - war and triumph on the field of martyrdom , he
Auence , would hear of no confederation but with infinitely prefers the latter. The Protestant
those who were ready to take the religious test. Church, like that of Rome, wars against error unto
Ulm and Strasburg withdrew . The conference blood ; but, unlike Rome, not the blood of others ,
broke up, having first resolved that such as held but her own.
Lutheran views, and only such, should meet at Had the Lutheran princes and the Zwinglian
Nuremberg in the January following,' to concert , chiefs at that hour united in a defensive league,
measures for resisting the apprehended attack of they would have been able to have brought a
the emperor and the Pope. Thus the gulf between powerful army into the field . The enthusiasm of
the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches was their soldiers, as well as their numbers, was to be
deepened at an hour when every sacrifice short counted on in a trial of strength between them
of the principle of Protestantism itself ought to and their opponents. The German princes who
have been made to close it. still remained on the side of Rome they would
It was the views of Luther which triumphed at have swept from the field - even the legions of the
these discussions. He had beforehand strongly emperor would have found it hard to withstand
impressed his sentiments upon the Elector John, them . But to have transferred the cause of Pro
and both he and the Margrave of Brandenburg testantism at that epoch from the pulpit, from
had come to be very thoroughly of one mind with the university , and the press, to the battle-field ,
regard to the necessity of being one in doctrine would not have contributed to its final success.
and creed before they could lawfully unite their Without justifying Luther in the tenacity with
arms for mutual defence. But to do Luther justice , which he clung to his dogma of consubstantiation ,
he was led to the course he now adopted , not alone till Reformed Christendom was rent in twain , and
by his views on the Sacrament, but also by his without endorsing the judgment of the Smalkald
abhorrence of war. He shrunk in horror from Conference , that men must be at one in matters of
unsheathing the sword in any religious matter. faith before they can combine for the defence of
He knew that the religious federation would be their political and religious rights, we must yet ac
followed by a military one. He saw in the back- knowledge thatthe division between the Lutheran
ground armies, battles, and a great effusion of the and the Reformed , although deplorable in itself,
blood of man. He saw the religious life decaying was ruled to ward off a great danger from Pro
amid the excitement of camps ; he pictured the testantism , and to conduct it into a path where it
spiritual force ebbing away from Protestantism , was able to give far sublimer proofs of its heroism ,
and the strong sword of the Empire, in the issue, and to achieve victories more glorious and more
victorious over all. No, he said , let the sword rest enduring than any it could have won by arms. It
in its scabbard ; let the only sword unsheathed in a was marching on, though it knew it not, to a
quarrel like this be the sword of the Spirit ; let us battle-field on which it was to win a triumph the
spread the light. “ Our Lord Christ,” wrote he to fruits of which Germany and Christendom are
the Elector of Saxony, “ is mighty enough, and can reaping at this hour. Not with “ confused noise
well find ways and moans to rescue us from danger, and garments rolled in blood ” was to be the battle
and bring the thoughts of the ungodly princes to to which the Protestants were now advancing.
nothing. The emperor's undertaking is a loud No wail of widow , no cry of orphan was to mingle
threat of the devil, but it will be powerless . As with the pæans of its victors. That battle was to
the Psalm says, “ it will fall on his own pate.' give to history one of its memorable days. There
Christ is only trying us whether we are willing to both the emperor and the Pope were to be routed .
obey his word or no, and whether we hold it for That great field was Augsburg.
certain truth or not. We had rather die ten times We return to Bologna,which in the interval has
over than that the Gospel should be a cause of become the scene of dark intrigues and splendid
blood or hurt by any act of ours. Let us rather fêtes. The saloons are crowded with gay courtiers,
patiently suffer , and as the Psalmist says, be legates , archbishops, ministers, and secretaries.
accounted as sheep for the slaughter ; and instead. Men in Spanish and Italian uniforms parade the
of avenging or defending ourselves, leave room for streets ; the church bells are ceaselessly rung, and
God's wrath .” If then Luther must make his the roll of the drum continually salutes the ear ;
choice between the sword and the stake, between for religious ceremonies and military shows proceed
seeing the Reformation triumph on the field of without intermission. The palaces in which the
Pope and the emperor are lodged are so closely
Sleidan , bk .vii., p. 126 . D’Aubigné,bk. xiv., chap. 1. contiguous that a wall only separates the one from
CHARLES AND . HIS POLICY. 575
the other. The barrier has been pierced with a divided on the point. The emperor was attended
door which allows Charles and Clement to meet on this journey into Germany by two men of great
and confer at all hours of the day and night. The experience and distinguished abilities, Campeggio
opportunity is diligently improved . While others and Gattinara , who advocated opposite policies.
sleep they wake. Protestantism it mainly is that Campeggio wasfor dragging every Protestant to the
occasions so many anxious deliberations and sleep - stake and utterly razing Wittemberg . There is an
less hours to these two potentates. They behold “ Instruction " of his to the emperor still extant,
that despised principle exalting its stature strangely discovered by the historian Ranke at Rome,in which
and ominously from year to year. Can no spell this summary process is strongly recommended to
be devised to master it ? can no league be framed Charles. “ If there be any," said the legate Cam
to bind it ? It is in the hope of discovering some peggio in this “ Instruction,” referring to the Ger
such expedient or enchantment that Clement and man princes — “ If there be any, which God forbid ,
Charles so often summon their “ wise counsellors” who will obstinately persist in this diabolical path ,
by day, or meet in secret and consult together his majesty may put hand to fire and sword , and
alone when deep sleep rests on the eyelids of those radically bear out this cursed and venomous plant."
around them . “ The first step in this process would be to con
But in truth the emperor brought to these meet- fiscate property, civil or ecclesiastical, in Germany
ings a double mind. Despite the oath he had as well as in Hungary and Bohemia . For with
taken on the confines of the Ecclesiastical States regard to heretics, this is lawful and right. Is
never to encroach upon the liberties of the Papal the mastery over them thus obtained, then
See,' despite the lowly obeisance with which he must holy inquisitors be appointed, who shall trace
saluted the Pope when Clement came forth to meet out every remnant of them , proceeding against
him at the gates of Bologna, and despite the edify - them as the Spaniards did against the Moors in
ing regularity with which he performed his de- Spain .” 8 Such was the simple plan of this eminent
votions, Charles thought of the great Spanish dignitary of the Papal Church. He would set up
monarchy of which he was the head in the first the stake, why should he not ? and it would con
place , and the Pope in the second place. To tear tinue to blaze till there was not another Protes
up the Protestant movement by the roots would tant in all Christendom to burn . When the last
suit Clement admirably ; but would it equally suit disciple of the Gospel had sunk in ashes, then would
Charles ? This was the question with the emperor. the Empire enjoy repose, and the Church reign in
He was now coming to see that to extinguish glory over a pacified and united Christendom . If
Luther would be to leave the Pope without a rival. a little heretical blood could procure so great a
Clement would then be independent of the sword of blessing, would not the union of Christendom be
Spain , and would hold his head higher than ever. cheaply purchased ?
This was not for Charles's interests, or the glory of Not so did Gattinara counsel. He too would
the vast Empire over which his sceptre was swayed . heal the schism and unite Christendom , but by
The true policy was to tolerate Wittemberg, taking other means. He called not for an army of execu
care that it did not become strong, and play it off, tioners , but for an assembly of divines. “ You
when occasion required, against Rome. He would (Charles) are the head of the Empire," said he, “ you
muzzle it : he would hold the chain in his hand,and (the Pope) the head of the Church . It is your duty
have the unruly •thing under his own control. to provide, by common accord, againstunprecedented
Luther and Duke John and Landgrave Philip wants. Assemble the pious men of all nations, and
would dance when he piped, and mourn when he let a free Council deduce from the Word of God a
lamented ; and when the Pope became troublesome, scheme of doctrine such as may be received by :
he would lengthen the chain in which he held the every people." The policies of the two counsellors .
hydra of Lutheranism , and reduce Clement to sub- stood markedly distinct - the sword, a Council.
mission by threatening to let loose the monster on Clement VII. was startled as if a gulf had
him . By being umpire Charles would be master.
2 Instructio data Cæsari a Reverendmo Campeggio in
This was the emperor's innermost thought, as we Dieta Augustana, 1530. “ I found it,” says Ranke, " in a
now can read it by his subsequent conduct. In foot-note, in a Roman library, in the handwriting of the
youth Charles was politic : it was not till his later time, and beyond all doubt authentic .” (Ranke, vol. i.,
years that he became a bigot. p . 85 ; Bohn's edition, 1847.)
3 Ranke, bk. i., chap. 3.
The statesmen of Charles's council were also 4 Oratio de Congressu Bononiensi, in Melancthonis
Orationum , iv. 87, and Cælestinus, Hist. Council, 1530 .
Sleidan, vii. 126 . Robertson, Hist. Charles V ., v. 171. Augustæ , i, 10. D’Aubigné, bk. xiv., chap. 1.
aofyawned
nameof atterror
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self for ButClement
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“ by the
A COUNCIL OR THE SWORD ? 577
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A STREET IN COBURG.
decrees of Councils,
that weshould decidebutcontroversies.
by the edge” ! ofthe sword, without
But Gattinara had not made
previous consultation with thehis enproposal
peror,
1 “ Non concilii
mendas.” decretis
(Scultet, p. 248. armis controversias
sedMaimbourg, ii. 177. diri. pp.Paolo95 — Sarpi,
Fra. 97 ; Histoire
Basle, 1738.) du Concile de Trent, tom . i..
49
whose policy it suited. Charles now rose, and burg on the 8th April. The summonswas couched
indicated that his views lay in the direction of in terms remarkably gracious, and surely, if con
those of his minister ; and the Pope, conceal ciliation was to be attempted , at least as a first
ing his disgust, seeing how the wind set, saidmeasure, it was wise to go about it in a way fitted
that he would think further on the matter. He to gain the object the emperor had in view . “ Let
hoped to work upon the mind of the emperor in us put an end to all discord,” he said ; “ let us
private. A
Probe lpstillaththe renounce our antipathies ; let us all fight under
were prolonged
These discussions were e 1 end of one and the same leader - Jesus Christ and let
January. The passes of the Alps were locked, us strive thus to meet in one communion , one
and snow -drifts threatened the man who Church , and one unity.” ?
would scale their precipices at that season, and the What a relief to the Protestants of Germany !
climate of Bologna being salubrious, Charles was The great sword of the emperor which had hung
in no haste to quit so agreeable an abode. The over their heads, suspended by a single thread, was
ecclesiastical potentate continued to advocate the withdrawn, and the olive branch was held out to
sword , and the temporal monarch to call for a them instead . “ The heart of kings is in the hand
Council. It is remarkable that each distrusted of God .”
the weapon with which he was best acquainted. One thing only was lacking to complete the
“ The sword will avail nought in this affair," urged grandeur of Charles, even that he should receive
the emperor ; “ let us vanquish our opponents in the imperial diadem from the hands of the Pope.
argument.” “ Reason,” exclaimed the Pope, “ will He would have preferred to have had the ceremony
not serve our turn ; let us resort to force.” But, performed in the Eternal City ; the act would have
though all considerations of humanity had been put borrowed additional lustre from the place where it
aside, the question of the practicability of bringing was done ; but reasons of State compelled him to
all the Protestants to the scaffold was a serious select Bologna. The Pope, so Father Paul Sarpi
one. Was the emperor able to do this ? He stood hints, did not care to put so much honour upon
at the head of Europe, but it was prudent not too Charles in the presence of a city which had been
severely to test his superiority. The Lutheran sacked by his soldiers just two years before ; and
princes were by no means despicable, either in Bologna lay conveniently on the emperor's road
spirit or resources. The Kings of France and to the Diet of Augsburg. Charles had already
England, though they disrelished the Protestant been crowned as Emperor of Germany at Aix-la
doctrines, had come to know that the Protestant Chapelle, now (22nd February) he received the
party was an important political element ; and it iron crown as King of Lombardy, and the golden
was just possible their majesties might prefer that one (24th February) as Emperor of the Romans.
Christendom should remain divided , rather than The latter day, that on which the golden crown was
that its unity should be restored by a holocaust placed on his brow , he accounted specially auspi
like that advocated by Campeggio . And then cious. It was the anniversary of his birth, and
there was the Turk , who, although he had now also of the victory of Pavia , the turningpoint of
retreated into his own domain, might yet, should his greatness. The coronation was a histrionic
a void so vast occur as would be created by the sermon upon the theological and political doctrines
slaughter of the Protestants, transfer his standards of the age, and as such it merits our attention .
from the shores of the Bosphorus to the banks Charles received his crown at the foot of the
of the Danube. It was clear that the burning of altar. The sovereignty thus gifted was not how
100,000 Protestants or so would be only the beever absolute ; it was conditioned and limited in
ginning of the drama. The Pope would most the manner indicated by the ceremonies that ac
probably approve of so kindly a blaze ; but might companied the investiture, each of which had its
it not end in setting other States besides Ger- meaning. In the great Cathedral of San Petronio
many on fire, and the Spanish monarchy among ---the scene of the august ceremony - -were erecteri
the rest ? Charles, therefore, stuck to his idea of two thrones. That destined for the Pope ruse
a Council ; and being master , as Gattinara re- half-a -foot higher than the one which the emperor
minded him , he was able to have the last word in was to occupy. The Pontiff was the first to take
the conferences. his seat; next came the emperor, advancing by a
Meanwhile, till a General Council could be con- foot-bridge thrown across the piazza which sepa
vened , and as preparatory to it, the emperor, on
the 20th January, 1530, issued a summons for a i Sleidan , bk. vii., p . 126 .
Diet of the States of Germany to meet at Augs D 'Aubigué, bk. xiv., chap. 1.
CHARLES CROWNED BY THE POPE. 579
rated the palace in which he was lodged from the from Constantinople for the coronation of the
cathedral where he was to be crowned. The Emperors of Germany.
erection was not strong enough to sustain the The emperor now put himself on bended knee
weight of the numerous and magnificent suite before Clement VII. First the Pontiff, taking a
that attended him . It broke down immediately horn of oil, anointed Charles ; then he gave him a
behind the emperor, precipitating part of his train naked sword ; next he put into his hands the golden
on the floor of the piazza, amid the débris of the orb ; and last of all he placed on his head the
structure and the crowd of spectators. The in - imperial crown, which was studded all round with
cident, so far from discomposing the monarch, precious stones. With the sword was the emperor
was interpreted by him into an auspicious omen. to pursue and smite the enemies of the Church ; the
He had been rescued , by a Power whose favourite orb symbolised the world , which he was to govern
he was, from possible destruction, to wield those by the grace of the Holy Father ; the diadem be
high destinies which were this day to receive tokened the authority by which all this was to be
a new sanction from the Vicar of God. He sur done, and which was given of him who had put the
veyed the scene of the catastrophe for a moment, crown upon his head ; the oil signified that Divine
and passed on to present himself before the puissance which, shed upon him from the head of
Pontiff. that anointed body of which Charles had now
The first part of the ceremony was the investiture become a member, would make him invincible in
of the emperor with the office of deacon. The fighting the battles of the faith . Kissing the white
government of those ages was a theocracy. The cross that adorned the Pope's red slipper, Charles
theory of this principle was that the kingdoms of swore to defend with all his powers the rights and
the world were ruled by God in the person of his liberties of the Church of Rome.
Vicar , and no one had a valid right to exercise When we examine the magnificent symbolisation
any part of that Divine jurisdiction unless he were acted out in the Cathedral of Bologna, what do we
part and parcel of that sacred class to whom this see ? We behold but one ruler, the head of all
rule had been committed . The emperor, therefore, government and power, the fountain of all virtues
before receiving the sceptre from the Pope, had and graces — the Vicar of the Eternal King. Out
to be incorporated with the ecclesiastical estate. of the plenitude of his great office he constitutes
Two canons approached , and stripping him of the other monarchs and judges, permitting them to
signs of royalty, arrayed him in surplice and amice. take part with him in his superhuman Divine juris
Charles had now the honour of being a deacon of diction . They are his vicars even as he is the
St. Peter's and of St. John Lateranus. The Pope Vicar of the Eternal Monarch. They govern by
leaving his throne proceeded to the altar and sang him , they rule for him , and they are accountable to
mass, the new deacon waiting upon him , and per- him . They are the vassals of his throne, the
forming the customary services. Then kneeling lictors of his judgment-seat. To him appertains
down the emperor received the Sacrament from the power of passing sentence, to them the humble
the Pope's hands. office of using the sword he has put into their
Charles now reseated himself on his throne, and hands in executing it. In this one immense
the princess approaching him removed his deacon 's monarch , the Pope namely , all authority, rights,
dress, and robed him in the jewelled mantle which , liberties are comprehended . The State disappears
woven on the looms of the East, had been brought as a distinct and independent society : it is ab
sorbed in the Church as the Church is absorbed
! In front of the palace at Bologna is a tablet with an in her head - occupying the chair of St. Peter .
inscription , in which this and other particulars of the It was against this hideous tyranny that Protes
coronation are mentioned : “ Fenestra hæc ad dextrum tantism rose up. It restored to society the Divine
fuit porta Prætoria ; et egressus Cæsar per pontem sub monarchy of conscience. Thetheocracy of Romewas
licium , in Ædem D . Petronii deductus. Sacris ritis
peractis a Pont.Max. auream coronam Imperii cæteraque uprooted, and with it sank the Divine right of
insignia accepit.” (The window on the right was the priests and kings, and all the remains of feudalism .
Prætorian gate, out of which Cæsar passed by a wooden
bridge to the temple of San Antonio . The sacred rites
being performed by the supreme Pontiff,he received the opened the passes of the Alps, and Charles and his
golden crown and the rest of the imperial insignia.) men -at-arms went on their way to meet the Diet he
Maximilian Misson, Travels, vol. ii., part 1 ; Lond., 1739. had summoned at Augsburg.
CHAPTER XX .
PREPARATIONS FOR THE AUGSBURG DIET.
Charles Crosses the Tyrol - Looks down on Germany - Events in his Absence - His Reflections- Fruitlessness of his
Labours- Opposite Realisations- All Things meant by Charles for the Hurt turn out to the Advantageof Pro
testantism - An Unseen Leader - The Emperor Arrives at Innspruck - Assembling of the Princes to the Diet
Journey of the Elector of Saxony - Luther's Hymn - Luther left at Coburg - Courage of the Protestant Princes
Protestant Sermons in Augsburg - Popish Preachers , The Torgau Articles — Prepared by Melancthon - Approved
by Luther.
The emperor was returning to Germany after an emperor was now going to consolidate the peace
absence of nine years. As, in the first days ofMay, that had so happily followed the tempest, and put
he slowly climbed the summits of the Tyrolese the top-stone upon his own power by extinguishing
Alps , and looked down from their northern slopes the Wittemberg movement, a task not quite so
upon the German plains, he had time to reflect onhard , he thought, as that from which he was at this
all that had happened since his departure. The moment returning, the destruction of the League
years which had passed since he last saw these of Cognac.
plains had been full of labour, and yet how little And yet when he thought of the Wittemberg
had he reaped from all the toil he had undergone, movement, which he was advancing to confront,
and the great vexation he had experienced ! The he must have had some misgivings. His former
course affairs had taken had been just the opposite experience of it must have taught him that instead
of that which he had wished and fully expected of being the easiest to settle of the many matters
By some strange fatality the fruits of all his cam - he had on hand, it was precisely the one of all
paigns had eluded him . His crowning piece of others the most difficult. He had won victories
good fortune had been Pavia ; that event had over Francis, he had won victories over the Pope,
brought his rival Francis as a captive to Madrid, but he had won no victory over the monk. The
and placed himself for a moment at the head of dreaded Solyman had vanished at his approach, but
Europe ; and yet this brilliant victory had turned Luther kept his ground and refused to flee. Why
out in the end more damaging to the victor than to was this ? Nay, not only had the Reformer not
the vanquished. It had provoked the League of fallen before him , but every step the emperor had
Cognac, in which the kings of Europe, with the taken against him had only lifted Luther higher
Pontiff at their head , united to resist a power in the sight of men, and strengthened his influence
which they deemed dangerous to their own, and in Christendom . At the Diet of Worms, 1521, he
curb an ambition that they now saw to be bound - had fulminated his ban against the heresiarch .
less. The League of Cognac, in its turn , had re - He did not for a moment doubt that a few weeks,
coiled on the head of the man who was its chief or a few months at the most, and he would have
deviser. The tempest it had raised, and which the satisfaction of seeing that ban executed, and
those who evoked it intended should burst on the the Rhine bearing the ashes of Luther, as a hwn .
headquarters of Lutheranism , rolled away in the dred years before it had done those of Huss, to the
direction of Rome, and discharged its lightning. ocean, there to bury him and his cause in an eternal
bolts on the City of the Seven Hills, inflicting on sepulchre. Far different had the result been. The
the wealth and glory of the Popes, on the art and emperor's ban had chased the Reformer to the
splendour of their capital, a blow which no succeed- Wartburg, and there, exempt from every other dis
ing age has been able to repair. traction, Luther had prepared an instrumentality a
For the moment all was again quiet. The Pope hundred times more powerful than all his other
and the King of France had become the friends writings and labours for the propagation of his
of the emperor. The Turks who had appeared movement. The imperial ban, if it consigned
in greater numbers, and penetrated farther into Luther to a brief captivity, had liberated the Word
Europe than they had ever before been able to of God, imprisoned in a dead language, and now
do, had suddenly retreated within their own do- it was traversing the length and breadth of the
minions, and thus all things conspired to remove Fatherland, and speaking to prince and peasant,
every obstacle out of Charles's path that might to baron and burgher in their own mother tongue.
prevent his long-meditated visit to Germany. The This, as Charles knew to his infinite chagrin , was
THE EMPEROR ENTERS THE FATHERLAND . 581
all that he had reaped as yet from the Edict of the Reformer and the cause would have speedily
Worms. perished. In these events Luther beheld the foot
He essayed a second time to extinguish but in prints of One whom an ancient Hebrew sage styles
reality to strengthen the movement. He convoked “ wonderful in counsel, excellent in working."
a Diet of the Empire at Spires in 1526, to take The emperor and his suite , a numerous and
steps for executing the edict which had been passed brilliant one, arrived at Innspruck in the beginning
with their concurrence five years before at Worms. of May. He halted at this romantic little town
Now it will be seen whether the bolt does not fall thathe mightmake himself more closely acquainted
and crush the monk. Again the result is exactly with the state of Germany, and decide upon the
the opposite of what the emperor had so confidently line of tactics to be adopted. The atmosphere on
anticipated. The Diet decreed that, till a General this side of the Alps differed sensibly from the
Council should meet, every one should be at liberty fervid air which he had just left on the south of
to act in religious matters as he pleased . This was them . All he saw and heard where he now was
in fact an edict of toleration, and henceforward the told him that Lutheranism was strongly en
propagation of Protestant truth throughout the do- trenched in the Fatherland, and that he should
minions of the princes was to go on under sanction need to put forth all the power and craft of which
of the Diet. The movement was now surrounded he was master in order to dislodge it.
by legal securities. How irritating to the potentate The appearance of the emperor on the heights of
who thought that he was working skilfully for its the Tyrol revived the fears of the Protestants. As
overthrow ! when the vulture is seen in the sky, and there is
Twice had Charles miscarried ; but he will make silence and cowering in the groves, so was it with
a third attempt and it will prosper ; so he assures the inhabitants of the plains, now that the mailed
himself. In 1529 he convokes the Diet anew at cohorts of Rome were seen on the mountains above
Spires. He sent a threatening message from Spain them . And there was some cause for alarm . With
commanding the princes, by the obedience they the emperor came Campeggio, as his evil genius,
owed him as emperor, and under peril of ban , to specially commissioned by the Pope to take care of
execute the edict against Luther. It was now that Charles , and see that he did not make any com
the Lutheran princes unfurled their great PROTEST, promise with the Lutherans, or entangle himself by
and took up that position in the Empire and before any rash promise of a General Council. The legate
all Christendom which they have ever since, through had nothing but the old cure to recommend for the
all variety of fortune, maintained . Every time the madnesswhich had infected the Germans — the sword .
emperor puts forth his hand , it is not to kill but toGattinara , who had held back the hand of Charles
infuse new life into the movement ; it is to remove from using that weapon against Protestantism , and
impediments from its path and help it onward . who had come as far as Innspruck, here sickened
Even the dullest cannot fail to perceive that these and died.” Melancthon mourned his death as a loss
most extraordinary events, in which everything to the cause of moderate counsels. “ Shallwe meet
meant for the destruction of the Protestantmove our adversary with arms ?” asked the Protestant
ment turned out for its furtherance, did not origi- princes in alarm . “ No,” replied Luther, “ let no
nate with Luther. He had neither the sagacity to man resist the emperor : if he demands a sacrifice ,
devise them nor the power to control them . Nor lead me to the altar.” 3 Even Maimbourg acknow
did they take their rise from Frederick the Wise, ledges that “ Luther conducted himself on this
Elector of Saxony ; nor from Philip the Magnani- occasion in a manner worthy of a good man. He
mous, Landgrave of Hesse. Much less did they wrote to the princes to divert them from their pur
owe their origin to Charles, for nothing did he less pose, telling them that the cause of religion was to
intend to accomplish than what really took place. be defended , not by the force of arms, but by
Let us then indulge in no platitudes about these sound arguments, by Christian patience, and by firm
men . Luther indeed was wise, and not less cou faith in the omnipotent God.” 4 The Reformer
rageous than wise ; but in what did his wisdom strove at the same time to uphold the hearts of all
consist ? It consisted in his profound submission by directing their eyes to heaven . His noble hymn,
to the will of One whom he saw guiding the move- “ A strong Tower is our God," began to be heard
ment through intricacies where his own counsels
would bave utterly wrecked it. And in what layhis Fra -Paolo Sarpi,tom .i.,p.99.
courage ? In this : even his profound faith in One ? Sleidan , vii., 127. Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 21 ;
Additio iv.
whose arm he saw shielding Protestantism in the 3 Seckendorf., lib . ii., sec. 20, pp. 150, 151,
midst of dangers where,but for this protection, both + Ibid.
in all the churches in Germany.' Its heroic strains, 2nd of May the elector and his company entered
pealed forth by thousands of voices, and swelling the gates of Augsburg. It had been confidently
grandly aloft, kindled the soul and augmented the predicted that Prince John of Saxony would not
confidence and courage of the Protestant host. It attend the Diet. He was too obnoxious to the
continued to be sung in the public assemblies during emperor, it was said , to beard the lion in his den.
all the time the Diet was in session . To the amazement of every one, the elector was
The emperor, dating from Bologna, January 21st, the first of all the princes to appear on the scene.
1530, had summoned the Diet to meet on April 8th . Soon the other princes, Popish and Protestant,
The day was now at hand, and the Protestant began to arrive. Their entrance into Augsburg
princes began to prepare for their journey to Augs- was with no little pomp. They came attended by
burg . On Sunday, April 3rd, the Elector of their retainers, whose numbers and equipments
Saxony, and the nobles and theologians who were were on a scale that corresponded with the power
to accompany him , assembled in the castle-church , and wealth of the lord they followed . Clad in
Torgau , to join in prayer that God would inspire armour, bearing banners blazoned with devices,and
them with a spirit becoming the crisis that had proclaiming their approach with sound of drum and
arrived. Luther preached from the text, “ Who clarion , they looked more like men assembling for
soever shall confess me before men , him will I also battle than for the object for which the emperor had
confess before my Father who is in heaven ." The summoned them , which was to settle the creed of
key-note struck by the sermon was worthily sus. Christendom . But in those days no discussion,
tained by the magnanimity of the princes at Augs- even on religious questions, was thought to have
burg. On the afternoon of the same day the elector much weight unless it was conducted amid the
set out, accompanied by John Frederick , his son ; symbols of authority and the blaze of power. On
Francis, Duke of Luneburg ; Wolfgang, Prince the 12th of May the Landgrave of Hesse entered
of Anhalt ; and Albert, Count of Mansfeld . The Augsburg, accompanied by 120 horsemen . And
theologians whom the elector took with him to three days thereafter the deputies of the good town
advise with at the Diet were Luther, Melancthon, of Nuremberg arrived to take part in the delibera
and Jonas. To these Spalatin was afterwards tions, bringing with them Osiander , the Protestant
added. They made a fine appearance as they rode pastor of that place.
out of Torgau, escorted by a troop of 160 horse- Since the memorable Diet at Worms, 1521,
men, in scarlet cloaks embroidered with gold . But Germany had not been so deeply and universally
the spectators saw them depart with many anxious agitated as it was at this hour. A decisive trial of
thoughts. They were going to confess a faith which strength was at hand between the two parties.
the emperor had proscribed. Would they not draw Great and lasting issues must come out of the
upon themselves the tempest of his wrath ? Would Diet. The people followed their deputies to Augs
they return in like fashion as they had seen them burg with their prayers. They saw the approach
go ? The hymn, “ A strong Tower is our God,” of the tempest in that of the emperor and his
would burst forth at intervals from the troop, and legions ; but the nearer he came the louder they
rising in swelling strains which drowned the tramp raised the song in all their churches and assem
of their horses and the clang of their armour, in - blies, “ A strong Tower is our God." The fact that
creased yet more the courage in which their journey Charles was to be present, as well as the gravity of
was begun , continued , and ended. the crisis, operated in the way of bringing out a
On the eve of Palm Sunday they arrived at full attendance of princes and deputies. Over and
Weimar. They halted here over Sunday, and above the members of the Diet there came a vast
Luther again preached. Resuming their journey miscellaneous assemblage, from all the cities and
early in the week , they came at the close of it to provinces of Germany : bishops, scholars, citizens,
the elector's Castle of Coburg , on the banks of the soldiers, idlers, all flocked thither, drawn by :
Itz ; the Reformer delivering an address, or preach- desire to be present on an occasion which had
ing a sermon , at the end of every day's march . awakened the hopes of some, the fears of others,
Starting from Coburg on the 23rd of April, the and the interest of all.
cavalcade proceeded on its way, passing through “ Is it safe to trust ourselves in a walled city
the towns of Bamberg and Nuremberg, and on the with the emperor ?” asked some of the more timid
Protestants. They thought that the emperor was
i Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 20, pp . 150, 151. drawing all the Lutherans into his net ; and, orice
2 Matt. x . 32.
3 Seckendorf, lib . i., sec, 21, p.152. Thid , Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 21, p. 153 .
ARRIVALS AT AUGSBURG . 583
entrapped, that he would offer them all up in one Duke Georgeof Saxony, Duke William of Bavaria,
great holocaust to Clement, from whose presence, and the Elector Joachim of Brandenburg. They
the anointing oil still fresh upon him , the emperor had this excuse, however, that before repairing to
had just come. Charles, to do him justice, was too Augsburg they had gone to pay their respects to
humane and too magnanimous to think of such a the emperor at Innspruck , and to encourage him
thing. The venom which in after years vented to persevere in his resolution of putting down the
HAT
EA
III
LUTHER IN COBURG CASTLE : THE DIET OF JACKDAWS.

itself in universal exterminations, had not yet been Wittemberg movement, by soft measures if possi
engendered, unless in solitary bosoms such as ble, by strong ones if need were.?
Campeggio's. The leaders of the Protestants Meanwhile, till the Diet should be opened , occa
refused to entertain the unworthy suspicion. The sion was taken of the vast concourse at Augsburg,
aged John, Elector of Saxony, set the example of assembled from the most distant parts, and em
courage, being the first to arrive on the scene. bracing men of all conditions, to diffuse more
The last to arrive were the Roman Catholic princes, widely a knowledge of the Protestant doctrines.
Sleidan, bk. vii, p. 127. ? Seckendorf, lib.iing sec. 21; Additio üs
Scattered on this multitude the seeds of truth ment. The Castle of Coburg, on the banks of the
would be borne wide over all Germany, and floated river Itz, overlooking the town,was assigned him
to even remoter lands. The elector and the land for his residence. From this place we find him ,
grave opened the cathedrals and churches, and on the 22nd of April, writing to Melancthon : “ I
placed in their pulpits the preachers who had ac- shall make a Zion of this Sinai; I shall build here
companied them from Saxony and Hesse. Crowded three tabernacles - one to the Psalms, another to the
congregations, day by day, hung upon their lips. Prophets, and a third to Æsop.” He was at that
They fed eagerly on the bread of the Word . The timediversifying his graver labours by translating
preachers were animated by the thought that they Æsop's fables. “ I reside,” he continues, “ in a vast
had all Germany, in a sense, for their audience. abode which overlooks the city ; I have the keys
Although the emperor had sought to inflict a of all its apartments. There are scarcely thirty
deadly wound on Catholicism , no more effectual persons within the fortress, of whom twelve are
way could he have taken than to summon this watchers by night, and two others, sentinels, who
Diet. The Papists were confounded by the cours are constantly posted on the castle'heights."
age of the Lutherans ; they trembled when they The Elector John, with statesman -like sagacity
thought what the consequences must be, and they as well as Christian zeal— a fine union , of which
resolved to counteract the effects of the Lutheran that age presents many noble examples — saw the
sermons by preaching a purer orthodoxy. To this necessity of presenting to the Diet a summary of
there could be no possible objection on the part of Protestant doctrine. Nothing of the sort as yet
the Protestants. The suffragan and chaplain of existed. The Protestant faith was to be learned ,
the bishop mounted the pulpit, but only to dis- first of all in the Scriptures, next in the numerous
cover when there that they had not learned how and widely-diffused writings of Luther and other
to preach . They vociferated at their utmost pitch ; theologians,and lastly in the general belief and con
but the audience soon got tired of the noise, and fession of the Christian people. But, over and above
remarking, with a significant shrug, that “ these these, it was desirable to have some systematised,
predicants were blockheads," } retreated , leaving accurate , and authoritative statement of the Pro
them to listen to the echoes of their own voice in testant doctrines to present to the Diet now about
their empty cathedrals . to convene. Itwasdue to the Reformers themselves,
When the elector set out for Augsburg, his to whom it would serve as a bond of union, and
cavaliers, in their scarlet cloaks, were not his only whose apology or defence it would be to the world ;
attendants. He invited , as we have seen, Luther, and it was due to their foes, who it was to be sup
Melancthon, and Jonas ? to accompany him to the posed in charity were condemning what, to a large
Diet. On these would devolve the chief task of extent,they were ignorant of. It is worthy ofnotice
preparing the weapons with which the princes were that the first suggestion of what has since become
to do battle, and directing the actual combatants so famous, under the name of the Augsburg Con
how to deal the blow . On the journey, however, fession , came, not from the clergy of the Protestant
it occurred to the elector that over Luther there Church, but from the laity. When political actors
still hung the anathema of the Pope and the ban of appear before us on this great stage, we do them only
the Empire. It might not, therefore, be safe to justice to say that they were inspired by Christian
carry the Reformer to Augsburg while the Edict motives, and aimed at gaining great spiritual ends.
of Worms was still unrepealed . Even granting John of Saxony and Philip of Hesse did not covet
that the elector should be able to shield him from the spoils of Rome: they sought the vindication of
harm , might not Charles construe Luther's appears the truth and the reformation of society .
ance at the Diet into a personal affront ? It was The Elector of Saxony issued an order in the
resolved accordingly that Luther should remain at middle of March (1530) to the theologians of Wit
Coburg. Here it was easy to keep him informed temberg to draw up a summary of the Protestant
of all that was passing in the Diet, and to have his faith . It was meant to set forth concisely the
advice at any moment. Luther would thus be main doctrines which the Protestants held , and the
present, although invisible, at Augsburg . points in which they differed from Rome. Luther,
The Reformer at once acquiesced in this arrange- Melancthon , Jonas, and Pomeranus jointly under
took the task . Their labours were embodied in
Corpus Ref., ii. 86 : “ Audires homines stupidissimos seventeen articles, and were delivered to the elector
atque etiam sensu communi carentes."
. Sleidan , bk, vii., p . 127. 4 Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 20, p . 151.
3 Pallavicino, lib .ii., cap. 3, p . 193. Seckendorf, lib. ii., 5 Confessio Christianae Doctrinæ et Fidei, per D . Mar.
sec. 21, p . 153. tinum Lutherum ; edita a P .Mullero , Lipsiæ et Jenæ , 1705.
LUTHER AT THE CASTLE OF COBURG. 585
at Torgau, and hence their name, the “ Torgau The document when finished was sent to Luther
Articles.” These articles, a few weeks afterwards, and approved by him . In returning it, the
were enlarged and remodelled by Melancthon , with a Reformer accompanied it with a letter to the
view of their being read in the Diet as the Confession elector, in which he spoke of it in the following
of the Protestants. The great scholar and divine terms:- “ I have read over Master Philip's apo
devoted laborious days and nights to this important logy : it pleases me right well, and I know not
work, amid the distractions and din of Augsburg how to better or alter anything in it, and will
Nothing did he spare which a penetrating judgment not hazard the attempt ; for I cannot tread so
and a lovely geniuscould do to make this Confession, softly and gently . Christ our Lord help that it
in point of its admirable order , its clearnessof state- bear much and great fruit ; as we hope and
ment, and beauty of style, such as would charm the pray. Amen."
ears and lead captive the understandings and hearts Will the Diet listen ? Will the genius of
of the Roman Catholics in the Diet. They must Melancthon triumph over the conqueror of Pavia,
listen , said he, in spite of themselves. Everything and induce him to withdraw his ban and sit
was put in the least offensive form . Wittemberg down at the feet of Luther, or rather of Holy
and Rome were brought as near to each other as Scripture ? These were the questions men were
the eternal barrier between the two permitted. eagerly asking
CHAPTER XXI.
ARRIVAL OF THE EMPEROR AT AUGSBURG AND OPENING OF THE DIET.
Arrivals - The Archbishop of Cologne, & c. - Charles — Pleasantries of Luther - Diet of the Crows– An Allegory
Intimation of the Emperor's Coming - The Princes Meet him at the Torrent Lech - Splendour of the Procession
- Seckendorf' s Description - Enters Augsburg - Accident - Rites in the Cathedral - Charles's Interview with the
Protestant Princes - Demands the Silencing of their Preachers - Protestants Refuse - Final Arrangement
Opening of Diet - Procession of Corpus Christi- Shall the Elector Join the Procession -- Sermon of Papal Nuncio
- The Turk and Lutherans Compared - Calls on Charles to use the Sword against the Latter.
SCARCELY a day passed in these stirring weeks not opened, and the courier from Augsburg posted
without some stately procession entering at the along the highway, which ran close to the foot of
gates of Augsburg. On the 17th of May came the the Castle of Coburg , without halting to send in
Archbishop of Cologne, and on the day following letter or message to its occupant, the anxieties of
the Archbishop of Mainz. A few days later, Luther increased from one day to another. The
George, Margrave of Brandenburg, the ally of the Reformer, to beguile his thoughts, issued his edict
elector, passed through the streets, with an escort convoking a Diet at Coburg. The summons was
of 200 horsemen in green liveries and armour. A instantly obeyed . Quite a crowd of members
German wagon , filled with his learned men and assembled , and Luther does ample justice to their
preachers , brought up the rear. At last came the eloquence . “ You are about to go to Augsburg,"
crown and flower of all these grand spectacles. says he, writing to Spalatin (May 9th ), “ without
Charles, on whose head were united the crown of having examined the auspices, and not knowing as
Spain , the iron crown of Lombardy, and the im - yet when they will permit you to commence. As
perial diadem , now twice bestowed, made his entry for me, I am in the thick of another Diet. Here I
into Augsburg with great pomp on the 15th of see magnanimous kings, dukes, and nobles consult
June, 1530. It was long past the day (April 8th ) over the affairs of their realm , and with un
for which the Diet had been summoned ; but the remitting clang proclaim their decrees and dogmas
emperor will journey as his many weighty affairs through the air. They do not meet in caves, or
will permit, and the princes must wait. dens of courts called palaces ; but the spacious
While the emperor delayed, and the Diet was heaven is their roof, verdant grass and foliage
their pavement, and their walls are wide as the
i Corpus Ref., ii. 40. ends of the earth. They are not arrayed in gold
inimii.
586 HISTORY OP PROTESTANTISM ,
and silk , but all wear a vestment black , have eyes with tapestry , and thronged with applauding
of a grey hue, and speak in the same music, save crowds. On the 15th of June a message reached
the diversity of youth and age. Horses and Augsburg that on that day the emperor would
harness they spurn at, and move on the rapid make his entrance into the city.
wheels of wings. As far as I understand the The electors , counts , and knights marshalled
herald of their decrees, they have unanimously early in the afternoon and set out to meet Charles.
resolved to wage this whole year a war on harley, They halted on the banks of the torrent Lech,
oats, and every kind of grain ; and great deeds which rolls down from the Alps and falls into the
will be done. Here we sit, spectators of this Danube. They took up their position on a rising
Diet, and, to our great joy and comfort, observe ground, whence they might descry the imperial
and hear how the princes, lords, and Estates of approach . The aspect of the road told that some
the Empire are all singing so merrily and living thing extraordinary was going forward . There
so heartily . But it gives us especial pleasure to rolled past the princes all the afternoon, as had
remark with what knight-like air they swing their been the case from an early hour in the morning, a
tails, stroke their bills, tilt at one another, and continuous stream of horses and baggage trains, of
strike and parry ; so that we believe they will wagons and foot-passengers, of officers of the em
win great honour over thewheat and barley.” peror's household, and strangers hastening to enjoy
So far the allegory. It is told with much naïve the spectacle ; the crack of whip, the note of horn ,
pleasantry. But the Reformer appends a moral, and the merry laugh of idle sight-seer enlivening
and some who may have enjoyed the story may their march . Three hours wore away, still the
not quite relish the interpretation . “ It seems emperor was not in sight. The sun was now near
to me," says he, “ that these rooks and jackdaws ing the horizon. At length a cloud of dust was
are after all nothing else but the sophists and seen in the distance ; its dusky volume came
Papists, with their preachings and writings , who nearer and nearer ; as it approached the murmur
will fain present themselves in a heap, and make of voices grew louder, and now , close at hand,
us listen to their lovely voices and beautiful its opening folds disclosed to view the first ranks
sermons.” This correspondence he dates from of the imperial cavalcade. The princes leaped
" the Region of the Birds,” or “ the Diet of the from their saddles, and awaited Charles's approach.
Jackdaws." The emperor , on seeing the princes, courteously
This and other similar creations were but a dismounted and shook hands with them , and the
moment's pause in the midst of Herculean labours two companies blended into one on the bank of
and of anxious and solemn thoughts. But Luther's the stream . Apart, on a low eminence, seated
humour was irrepressible, and its outburst was on his richly caparisoned mule, was seen the
never passed by traging in golden mes
never more likely to happen than when he was
encompassed by tragic events. These sallies were
Papal legate , Campeggio. He raised his hands to
bestow his benediction on the brilliant multitude.
like the light breaking in golden floods through All knelt down, save the Protestants, whose erect
the dark thunder-clouds. They revealed , more. figures made them marked objects in that great
over, a consciousness on the part of the Reformer assembly, which awaited , with bowed heads, the
of the true grandeur of his position , and that the Papal blessing. The mighty emperor had his first
drama, at the centre of which he stood , was far intimation that he should not be able to repeat
more momentous than that in which Charles was at Augsburg the proud boast of Cæsar, whose
mpire, anomp of thation, he
playing his part. From his elevation , he could
look down upon the pomp of thrones and the
successor he affected to be — “ I came, I saw , I con
quered .”
pageantries of empire, and make merry with them . The procession now set forward at a slow pace.
He had but to touch them with his satire, and “ Never," says Seckendorf, “ had the grandeur
straightway their glory was gone, and their hollow - and power of the Empire been illustrated by
ness laid bare. It was not so with the spiritual so magnificent a spectacle." ! There defiled past
forces he was labouring to set in motion in the the spectator, in long and glittering procession,
world . These forces needed not to array them - not only the ecclesiastical and civil dignitaries of
selves in scarlet and gold embroideries to make Spain and Italy, but representatives of nearly all
themselves grand, or to borrow the help of cannon the nationalities which formed the vast Empire of
and armed cohorts to give them potentiality . Charles. First cametwo companies of lansquenets.
At last Charles moved from Innspruck , and set Next came the six electors, with the noblemen of
out for Augsburg. On the 6th of June he reached
Munich , and made his entry through streets hung 1 Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 24 , p. 160 .
ENTRY OF THE IMPERIAL CAVALCADE INTO AUGSBURG . 587
their courts, in rich dresses of velvet and silk , and horse , startled at the sight, suddenly reared , and
their armed retainers in their red doublets, steel nearly threw him headlong upon the street. He
helmetsand dancing plumes. There were bishops was rescued , however, a second time. At length
in violet and cardinals in purple. The ecclesiastics he entered the minster, which a thousand blazing
were seated on mules, the princes and counts be- torches illuminated . After the Te Deum came
strode prancing coursers. The Elector John of the chanting of prayers, and Charles, putting aside
Saxony marched immediately before the emperor, the cushion offered to him , kneeled on the bare
bearing the naked imperial sword, an honour to floor during the service. The assembly , following
which his rank in the electoral college entitled the emperor's example , threw themselves on their
him . knees — all save two persons, the Elector of Saxony
“ Last came the prince," says Seckendorf, “ on and the Landgrave of Hesse, who remained stand
whom all eyes were fixed . Thirty years of age , of ing. Their behaviour did not escape the notice of
distinguished port and pleasing features, robed in Duke George and the prelates ; but they consoled
golden garments that glittered all over with precious themselves doubtless by thinking that they would
stones, wearing a small Spanish hat on the crown make them bow low enough by-and-by.
of his head , mounted on a beautiful Polish hackney When the services in the cathedral were ended ,
of the most brilliant whiteness, riding beneath a the procession re -formed, and again swept along
rich canopy of red white and green damask borne through the streets of Augsburg. The trumpets
by six senators of Augsburg, and casting around sounded , and the bells were tolled. The torches
him looks in which gentleness was mingled with were again lighted to illuminate the night. Their
gravity, Charles excited the liveliest enthusiasm , rays glittered on the helmets of the guard, flashed
and every one exclaimed that he was the hand on the faces of the motley crowd of sight-seers, and
somest man in the Empire, as well as the mightiest catching the fronts of the houses, lighted them up
prince in the world .” 1 in a gloomy grandeur, and transformed the street
His brother, the King of Austria, accompanied through which the procession was advancing into
Charles. Ferdinand advanced side by side with a long, a picturesque, and a most impressive vista
the Papal legate, their place being immediately of red lights and black shadows. Through a scene
behind the emperor.” They were succeeded by an of this sort was Charles conducted to the archi
array of cardinals, bishops, and the ambassadors of episcopal Palace of the Palatinate, which he
foreign Powers, in the insignia of their rank and entered about ten o'clock .
office. The procession was swollen ,moreover, by a This assembly , comprising the pride and puis
miscellaneous throng of much lesser personages- sance of the great Spanish monarchy, were here to
pages, heralds, equerries, trumpeters, drummers, be the witnesses of the triumph of Rome- so they
and cross-bearers — whose variegated dresses and imagined. The Pope and the emperor had resolved
flaring colours formed a not unimportant though to tolerate the religious schism no longer. Charles,
vulgar item in the magnificence of the cavalcade, as both Pallavicino and Sarpi testify ,came to Augs
The Imperial Guards and the Augsburg Militia burg with the firm purpose of putting forth all the
brought up the rear. power of the Empire in the Diet, in order to make
It was nine o'clock in the evening when the the revolted princes re-enter the obedience of the
gates of Augsburg were reached. The thunder of Roman See. The Protestants must bow the head
cannon on the ramparts, and the peals of the city — so have two Puissances decreed. There is a head
bells, informed the people of Augsburg that the that is destined to bow down, but it is one that
emperor was entering their city . The dusk of a for ten centuies has been lifted up in pride, and
summer evening hid somewhat the glory of the has not once during all that time been known to
procession, but torches were kindled to light it bend — Rome.
through the streets, and permit the citizens a sight The emperor's entry into Augsburg took place
of its grandeur. The accident of the bridge at on Corpus Christi eve. It was so timed in order
Bologna was nearly repeated on this occasion. that a pretext might be had for the attempts
As the cavalcade was advancing to the sound of which were to be made for corrupting the Pro
clarion and kettledrum , six canons, bearing a huge testants. The programme of the imperial and
canopy, beneath which they were to conduct the ecclesiasticalmanagers was a short one- wiles ; but
emperor to the cathedral, approached Charles . His if these did not prosper they were quite prepared
i Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 21, p . 160. 4 Urkunden , i.26. D 'Aubigné, vol. iv., p. 143.
2 Sleidan , bk , vii., p . 127. 5 D 'Aubigné, vol. iv., p. 143.
3 Seckendorf, lib. ii., sec. 24, p . 161. 6 Sarpi, tom . i., lib . i. Pallavicino , lib . iii., cap. 3 .
SISSE
COME
BA
LELED
OPMEETING
EMPEROR
CHARLES
THE
AND
PROTESTANT
.PRINCES
ATTEMPTS TO PERVERT THE FIDELITY OF THE PROTESTANTS. 589
sole
specialtioinn vioftedto-tomortarokew thteiher plLuactheerinantheLuthermnanltiveevo,
to resort to arms. The Protestant princes were part agreed to appointpreachers who should impugn
specially invited to take their place in the solemn neither creed in their sermons, but steer a middle
procession of tomorrow , that of Corpus Christi. course between the old and the new faiths. An
It would be hard for the Lutheran chiefs to edict to this effect was next day proclaimed through
Augsb th empero Pfe
find an excuse for absence. Even on Lutheran Augsburg by a herald . The citizens were curious
principles it was the literal body of Christ that to hearr thee emperor's at of ea Those who went
r's preachers. pr
was to be carried through the streets ; surely they to witness the promised feat of preaching something
would not refuse this token of homage to their that was neither Popery nor Protestantism , were
Saviour, this act of courtesy to their emperor. They not a little amused by the performances of this
declined , however, saying that the body of Christ new sort of preachers. “ Their sermons," said they,
was in the Sacrament not to be worshipped , but “ are innocent of theology, but equally innocent of
fed on by faith. The legate professed to be highly sense.”
displeased at their contumacy ;' and even the At length the 20th of June arrived. On this
emperor was not a little chafed. He had nothing day the Diet was to be opened by a grand proces
for it, however , but to put up with the slight, for sion and a solemn mass . This furnished another
attendance on such ceremonies was no part of pretext for renewing the attempts to corrupt the
the duty which they owed him as emperor. fidelity, or, as the Papists called it, vanquish the
The next assault was directed against the Pro - obstinacy of the Protestants. The emperor on
testant sermons. The crowds that gathered round that day would go in state to mass. It was the
the preachers were as great as ever. The emperor right or duty of the Elector of Saxony, as Grand
was galled by the sight of these enthusiastic multi- Marshal of the Empire, to carry the sword before
tudes, and all the more so that not more than Charles on all occasions of state. “ Let your
a hundred of the citizens of Augsburg had joined majesty ,” said Campeggio, “ order the elector to
in the grand procession of the day previous, in perform his office.” 6 If John should obey, he
which he himself had walked bareheaded , carrying would compromise his profession by being present
a lighted taper.' That the heresy which he had at mass ; if he should refuse , he would incur a
crossed the Alps to extinguish should be pro- derogation of dignity, for the emperor would
claimed in a score of churches, and within ear- assign the honour to another. The aged elector
shot of him , was more than he could endure. was in a strait.
He sent for the Lutheran princes, and charged He summoned the divines who were present in
them to enjoin silence on their preachers. The Augsburg, that he might have their advice. “ It
princes replied that they could not live without is," said they , “ in your character of Grand Marshal,
the preaching of the Gospel,' and that the citizens and not in your character of Protestant, that you
of Augsburg would not willingly consent to have are called to bear the sword before his majesty.
the churches closed. When Charles insisted that You assist at a ceremony of the Empire , and not at
it should be so, the Margrave George exclaimed in a ceremony of religion. You may obey with a safe
animated tones, “ Rather than let the Word of conscience.” And they fortified their opinion by
God be taken from me, and deny myGod , I would citing the example of Naaman , the prime minister
kneel down and have my head struck off.” And of the King of Damascus, who, though a disciple of
suiting the action to the words, he struck his neck Elisha, accompanied his lord when he went to
with his hand. “ Not the head off,” replied Charles, worship in the temple of Baal.”
evidently moved by the emotion of the margrave, The Zwinglian divines did not concur in the
" dear prince, not the head off.” These were the opinion expressed by their Lutheran brethren.
only German words Charles was heard to utter. They called to mind the instance of the primitive
After two days' warm altercation it was concluded Christians who submitted to martyrdom rather
on the part of the Protestants -- who feared to than throw a few grains of incense upon the altar.
irritate too greatly the emperor, lest he should Any one, they said , might be present at any rite of
forbid the reading of their Confession in the Diet - another religion, as if it were a civil ceremony,
that during the sitting of the Senate the Protestant whenever the fear of loss , or the hope of advantage,
sermons should be suspended ; and Charles on his tempted one to institute this very dangerous dis
1 Fra -Paolo Sarpi, tom . i., p . 99. Pallavicino, lib. ii., 5 Sleidan, bk. vii., p . 127 . Polano, Hist. Conc. Trent,
cap . 3 , p . 190 . lib . i., p . 52.
? Pallavicino, lib . iii., cap. 3. 6 Fra - Paolo Sarpi, tom . i., p . 99.
3 Corp. Ref., ii. 115. 7 Pallavicino, lib. iii., cap. 3, p . 191. Fra -Paolo Sarpi,
* Seckendorf, lib. ii., sec. 25, p. 162. tom . i., pp . 99, 100 . Seckendorf, lib . ii., sec. 27, p . 167.
50
590
tinotion. The advice of the Lutheran divines, Germans had invented. “ Why," exelaimed
however, swayed the elector, and he accordingly “ the Senate and people of Rome, though Genti
took his plaee in the procession, but remained erect and the worshippers of false gods, never failed
before the altar when the Host was elevated. avenge the insults offered to their rites by fire a
At this mazs Vincenzo Pompinello, Archbishon ewan .. but
of Rosano , and 1
tion in Latin befi
historians — Pallai
handed down to i
Beginning with t A CLEAR COMPLEXION !!!
braided Germany
many wrongs at t
this craven spirit h GODFREY ' S
of ancient Rome, .
signal chastisemen
Republic.” At thi: EXTRACT OF ELDER FLOWERS
would seem with a s Is strongly recommended for Softening, Improving, Beautifying, and
the nuncio set sail Preserving the SKIN , and giving it a blooming and charming appear
extol the Moslem ance. It will completely remove Tan, Sunburn , Redness, & c., and by
disadvantage of G its Balsamic and Healing qualities render the skin soft, pliable, and free
from dryness, & c., clear it from every humour, pimple, or eruption ;
the Turk obeys o and by continuing its use only a short time, the skin will become and
Germany many obey continue soft and smooth , and the complexion perfectly clear and
live in one religion , beautiful.
invent a new religion
were becomemouldy . Sold in Bottles, price 2s. 9d., by all Medicine
faith , they had not i
more wise." He exi Vendors and Perfumers.
Scipio, Cato, the peopl
they should observe 1
these novelties, and gi STEEDMAN'S
His eloquence reacl
came to speak of the SOOTHING POWDERS,
FOR CHILDREN CUTTING THEIR TEETH.
The value of this Medicine has been largely tested in all parts of the
world and by all grades of society for upwards of fifty years.
Its extensive sale has induced SPURIOUS IMITATIONS, some of
which , in outward appearance, so closely resemble the Original as easily
to deceive even careful observers. The Proprietor therefore feels it due
to the Public to give a SPECIAL CAUTION against the purchase of
such imitations.
The Emperor Opens the 1 All purchasers are therefore requested carefully to observe that the
His Picture of Europe words " JOHN STEEDMAN , Chemist, Walworth , Surrey,” are engraved
-- Luther at Coburg on *he Government Stamp affixed to each Packet, IN WHITE LETTERS
Sustains his Faith - M e ON A RED GROUND , without which none are genuine. The true
STEEDMAN is spelt with two EEs.
From the cathedral the
town-hall, where the sittir Prepared only at Walworth, Surrey, and
place. The emperor to Sold by all Chemists & Medicine Vendors
covered with cloth of gol
of him sat his brother Fe in packets 1s. 1}d . and 2s. 9d. each.
On either hand of him wer
I Sleidan , bk . vti., p . 127 . 1, w , ww d., pp. 52, 53.

Aubigné, vol. iv. , pp. 156 . 157. 3 “ Con una diabolica persuasione sbandiscono e la
2 Polano , lib . i., p . 58 . Fra - Paolo Sarpi, tom . i., p . 100. gono ad ogni scherno ed impudicizia ." ( Pallavicino,
tom . i., lib, üii., cap. 8 , p . 192.)
CHARLES' S SPEECH BEFORE THE DIET. 591
power, rank, and magnificence — had gathered here dered , burned, and slain , and laid thewhole country
to deliberate, to lay their plans, and to proclaim waste, they had carried away about thirty thousand
their triumphs: so they firmly believed . They of men into miserable slavery,and killed those poor
were quite mistaken , however. They were here creatures that could notp follow after with the
to suffer check after check, to endure chagrin and nd laid withThey
aadvanced
carriages. a heandnaa,t
n iVnhad
i he, arthemy iyear
again efore
nto a bbefore,
discomfiture , and to see at last that cause which with an innumerable army into Austria ,
they had hoped to cast into chains and drag to the and laid siege to Vienna, the chief city thereof,
stake, escaping from their hands, mounting glo - having wasted the country far and near, even as
riously upward , and beginning to fill the world far as Linz, where they had practised all kinds of
with its splendour. cruelty and barbarity. . . . That now , though the
The emperor rose and opened the Diet with a enemy could not take Vienna,' yet the whole
speech. We turn with a feeling of relief from the country had sustained great damage, which could
fiery harangue of the fanatical nuncio to the calm hardly be in long time repaired again . And
words of Charles. Happily Sleidan has handed although the Turk had drawn off his army, yet he
down to us the speech of the emperor at considerable had left garrisons and commanders upon the bor.
length. It contains a sad picture of the Christen - ders to waste and destroy not only Hungary, but
dom of that age. It shows us the West, groaning Austria also, and Styria, and the places adjoining ;
under the twin burdens of priestcraft and despotism , and whereas now his territory in many places
ready to succumb to the Turk, and the civilisation bordered upon ours, it was not to be doubted but
and liberty of the world on the point of being over- upon the first occasion he would return again with
whelmed by the barbarous arms of the East. It far greater force, and drive on his designs to the
shows us also that this terrible catastrophe would utter ruin chiefly of Germany. It was well known
most surely have overtaken the world , if that very how many places he had taken from us since he was
Christianity which the emperor was blindly striving master of Constantinople, how much Christian blood
to put down had not come at that criticalmoment, he had shed, and into what straits he had reduced
to rekindle the all but extinct fires of patriotism this part of the world , that it ought rather to be
and valour. If Charles had succeeded in extir - lamented and bewailed than enlarged on in dis
pating Protestantism , the Turk would have come course . If his fury be not resisted with greater
after him and gathered the spoils. The seat of forces than hitherto , we must expect no safety for
Empire would have been transferred from Spain to the future, but one province after another being
Constantinople, and the dominant religion in the lost, all at length , and that shortly too, will fall
end would have been not Romanism , but Moham - under his power and tyranny. The design of this
medanism . most cruel enemy was to make slaves of, nay,
The emperor, who did not speak German, made to sweep off all Christians from the face of the
his address be read by the count-palatine. “ Sacri- earth .”
ficing my private injuries and interests to the The emperor having drawn this picture of the
common good,” said Charles, “ I have quitted the Turk, who every year was projecting a longer
most flourishing kingdom of Spain , with great shadow over Christendom , proceeded next to coun
danger, to cross the seas into Italy , and , after sel his hearers to trample out that spirit which
making peace with my enemies , to pass thence into alone was capable of coping with this enemy, by
Germany. Not only,” continued the emperor, “ were commanding them to execute the Edict of Worms.”
there great strifes and dissensions in Germany about While the Diet is proceeding to business , let us
religion, but also the Turks had invaded Hungary return to Luther, whom we left, as our readers
and the neighbouring countries, putting all to fire will recollect, in the Castle of Coburg. Alone
and sword , Belgrade and several other castles and in his solitary chamber, he is, rightly looked at,
forts being lost. King Lewis and several of the a grander sight than the magnificent assemblage
nobles had sent ambassadors to desire the assistance we have been contemplating. He is the em
of the Empire. . . . . . The enemy having bodiment of that great power which Charles has
taken Rhodes, the bulwark of Christendom on that assembled his princes and is about to muster his
side, marched further into Hungary, overcame armies to combat, but before which he is destined
King Lewis in battle, and took, plundered , and
burned all the towns and places between the rivers
i The Turks had made a breach in the walls of Vienna ,
Save and Draue, with the slaughter of many thou and were on the point of entering and taking the city,
sands of men . They had afterwards made an when a mysterous panic seized them and they fled .
incursion into Sclavonia , and there having plun - ? Sleidan, bk. yii., pp. 127 - 129.
tinction. The advice of the Lutheran divines, Germans had invented . “ Why,” exelaimed he,
however, swayed the elector, and he accordingly “ the Senate and people of Rome, though Gentiles
took his place in the procession , but remained erect and the worshippers of false gods, never failed to
before the altar when the Host was elevated. avenge the insults offered to their rites by fire and
At this mazs Vincenzo Pompinello, Archbishop sword ; but ye, 0 Germans, who are Christians,
of Rosano, and nuncio of the Pope, made an ora- and the worshippers of the true and omnipotent
tion in Latin before the offertory. Three Romish God , contemn the rites of holy mother Church by
historians, Pallavicino, Sarpi, and Polano - have leaving unpunished the great audacity and un
handed down to us the substance of his sermon. heard-of wickedness of enemies. Why do ye rend
Beginning with the Turk , the archbishop “ upin pieces the seamless garment of the Saviour !
braided Germany for having so meekly borne so why do you abandon the doctrine of Christ, esta
many wrongs at the hands of the barbarian . In blished with the consent of the Fathers, and con
this craven spirit had not acted the great captains firmed by the Holy Ghost, for a devilish belief,
of ancient Rome, who had never failed to inflict which leads to every buffoonery and obscenity ?" 3
signal chastisement upon the enemies of the But the sting of this address was in its tail.
Republic.” At this stage of his address, seized it “ Sharpen thy sword, O magnanimous prince," said
would seem with a sudden admiration of the Turk, he, turning to the emperor, “ and smite these
the nuncio set sail on a new tack, and began to opposers. Peace there never will be in Germany
extol the Moslem above the German : “ The till this heresy shall have been utterly extirpated."
disadvantage of Germany is,” he said, “ that Rising higher still he invoked the Apostles Peter
the Turk obeys one prince only, whereas in and Paul to lend their powerful aid at this great
Germany many obey not at all; that the Turks crisis of the Church.
live in one religion , and the Germans every day The zeal of the Papal nuncio , as was to be ex
- --
invent a new religion, and mock'at the old , as if it pected, was at a white heat. The German princes,
--
were becomemouldy. Being desirous to change the however, were more cool. This victory with the
-
faith , they had not found out one more holy and sword which the orator promised them was not
more wise.” He exhorted them that “ imitating altogether to their mind, especially when they re
Scipio, Cato, the people of Rome and their ancestors, flected that whereas the archbishop 's share in the
they should observe the Catholic religion, forsake enterprise was the easy one of furnishing eloquence
these novelties, and give themselves to the war." for the crusade, to them would remain the more
His eloquence reached its climax only when he arduous labour of providing arms and money with
came to speak of the “ new religion " which the which to carry it out.
CHAPTER XXII.
LUTHER IN THE COBURG AND MELANCTHON AT THE DIET.
The Emperor Opens the Diet - Magnificence of the Assemblage- Hopes of its Members-- The Emperor's Speech
His Picture of Europe - The Turk - His Ravages - The Remedy - Charles Calls for Execution of Edict of Worms
- Luther at Coburg – His Labours - Translation of the Prophets , & c. - His Health - His Temptations - How he
Sustains his Faith - Melancthon at Augsburg – His Temporisings-- Luther's Reproofs and Admonitions.
From the cathedral the princes adjourned to the Empire . Crowding all round and filling every part
town-hall,where the sittings of the Diet were to take of the hall was the rest of this august assembly,
place. The emperor took his seat on a throne including forty-two sovereign princes, the deputies
covered with cloth of gold. Immediately in front of the cities, bishops, ambassadors - in short, the
of him sat his brother Ferdinand , King of Austria flower not of Germany only , but of all Christendom .
On either hand of him were ranged the electors of the This assemblage — the representative of so much
1 Sleidan, bk. vii., p. 127. Polano, lib. i., pp. 52, 53 . 3 “ Con una diabolica persuasione sbandiscono e trag.
D 'Aubigné, vol. iv., pp . 156 , 157. gono ad ogni scherno ed impudicizia ." (Pallavicino,
? Polano, lib. i., p .58. Fra -Paolo Sarpi, tom . i., p . 100. tom . i., lib . iii., cap. 8, p . 192.)
CHARLES'S SPEECH BEFORE THE DIET. 591
power, rank , and magnificence — had gathered here dered, burned, and slain , and laid the whole country
to deliberate , to lay their plans, and to proclaim waste, they had carried away about thirty thousand
Thou hfman into micarable glaverv, and killed those poor
llow after with the
IMPORTANT FAMILY MEDICINE. n , the year before,
le army into Austria ,
le chief city thereof,
NORTON 'S far and near , even as
practised all kinds of
CAMOMILE PILLS, That now , though the
enna,' yet the whole
THE MOST CERTAIN PRESERVER OF HEALTH , damage, which could
A MILD, YET SPEEDY , SAFE AND epaired again . And
EFFECTUAL AID IN CASES OF INDIGEST n off his army, yet he
AND ALL STOMACH COMPLAINTS, aanders upon the bor.
AND, AS A NATURAL CONSEQUENCE, ot only Hungary, but
A PURIFIER OF THE BLOOD, AND A SWEETENER OF THE WHOLE SYSTEM . the places
iitory adjoini
in many ng ;
places
INDIGESTION is a weakness or want of for all this themind is exhilarated with . not to be doubted but
power of the digestive juices in the out much difficulty ; pleasing events,
stomach to convert what we eat and society, will for a time dissipate all ap . ould return again with
drink into healthymatter, for the proper pearance of disease ; but the excitement
nourishment on his designs to the
of the whole system . It is produced by an agreeable change
caused by everythingwhich weakens the vanishes soon after the cause has gone y . It was well known
system in general, or the stomach in by. Other symptoms are, violent palpi. en from us since he was
particular. From it proceed nearly all tations, restlessness, the sleep disturbed w much Christian blood
the diseases to which we are liable ; for by frightful dreams and startings , and
it iſ very certain that if we could always affording little or no refreshment ; occa. straits he had reduced
keep the stomach right we should only sionally there is much moaning, with a t it ought rather to be
die by old age or accident. Indigestion sense of weight and oppression upon the an enlarged on in dis
produces a great variety of unpleasant chest , nightmare , & c.
sensations ; amongst the most prominent It is almost impossible to enamerato all t resisted with greater
of itsmiserable effects are a want of,or an the symptoms of this first invader apon ist expect no safety for
inordinate appetite , sometimes attended the constitution , as in a hundred cases of
with a constant craving for drink, a dis. Indigestion there will probably be some. ice after another being
tension or feeling of enlargement of the thing peculiar to each ; but be they what at shortly too, will fall
stomach , flatulency , heartburn , pain in they may, they are all occasioned by the
the stomach , acidity, unpleasant taste food becoming a burdon rather than a ny. The design of this
in the mouth , perhaps sickness, rambling support to the stomach ; and in all its make slaves of, nay,
noise in the bowels; in some cases of de stages the medicinemost wanted is that s from the face of the
praved digestion there is nearly a com . which will afford speedy and effectual
plete disrelish for food , but still the ap - assistance to the digestive organs, and
petite is not greatly impaired , as at the give energy to the nervous and muscular iwn this picture of the
stated period of meals persons so afflicted systems, - nothing can more speedily or
can eat heartily , although without much with more certainty effect so desirable an ras projecting a longer
gratification ; a long train of nervous object than Norton 's Extract of Camo. proceeded next to coun
symptoms are also frequent attendants , mile Flowers. The herb has from time > out that spirit which
general debility, great langaidness, and immemorial been highly esteemed in
incapacity for exertion . The minds of “ ngland as a grateful anodyne, im . ng with this enemy, by
persons so afflicted frequently become parting an aromatic bitter to the taste, ite the Edict of Worms.'
irritable and desponding , and great and a pleasing degree of warmth and
anxiety is observable in the countenance ; strength to the stomach , and in all cases eding to business, let us
they appear thoughtful,melancholy , and of indigestion , goutin the stomach , windy we left, as our readers
dejected , ander great apprehension of colic, and general weakness, it has for stle of Coburg. Alone
kome imaginary danger, will start at any ages been strongly recommended by the
unexpected noise or occurrence, and be most eminent practitioners as very use. he is, rightly looked at,
come so agitated that they require some fal and beneficial. magnificent assemblage
time to calm and collect themselves ; yet I only, objection to its The
use has , indeed
greatbeen the ating. He is the em
ower which Charles has
I is about to muster his
ore which he is destined
King Lewis in battle, anu WUK , prumutitu , onu
burned all the towns and places between the rivers 1 The Turks had made a breach in the walls of Vienna ,
Save and Draue, with the slaughter of many thou and were on the point of entering and taking the city ,
incursion into Sclavonia, and there having plun - Sleidan, bk. yii., pp. 127 — 129.
tinotion. The advice of the Lutheran divines, Germans had invented. “ Why,” exelaimed he,
however, swayed the elector, and he accordingly “ the Senate and people of Rome, though Gentiles
took his plaee in the proce -- - Last ummimad auant and the wanahinnans of falen warlo nova foilart in
before the altar when the
At this mass Vincenzo
of Rosano, and nuncio of OBSERVATIONS ON INDIGESTION .
tion in Latin before the o large quantity of water which it takes / properties of Norton's Camomile Pilis,
historians - Pallavicino, s to dissolve a small part of the flowers and it is only doing them justice to say, that
handed down to us the s which must be taken with it into the they are really the most valaable of all
stomach. It requires a quarter of a pint TONIC MEDICINES. By the word tonic
Beginning with the Tur of boiling water to dissolve the soluble is meant a medicine which gives strength
portion of one drachm of Camomile to the stomach sufficient to digest in
braided Germany for hav Flowers ; and when one or even two proper quantities all wholesome food,
many wrongs at the hand ounces may be taken with advantage, it which increases the power of every nerte
this craven spirit had not must at once be seen how impossible it and muscle of the human body, or in
of ancient Rome, who ha is to take a proper dose of this wholesome other words, invigorates the nervous and
herb in the form of tea ; and the only muscular systems. The solidity or firm .
signal chastisement upoi reason why it has not long since been
placed the very first in rank of all re.
ness of the whole tissue of the body,
which so quickly follows the use of Nor.
Republic.” At this stage storative medicines is , that in taking it ton 's Camomile Pills, their certain and
would seem with a sudden the stomach has always been loaded with speedy effect in repairing the partial
the nuncio set sail on a : water which tends in a greatmeasure to dilapidations from time or intemperance,
counteract, and very frequently wholly to and their lasting salutary influence on
extol the Moslem abovi destroy the effect. It must be evident the whole frame, is most convincing,
disadvantage of German that loading a weak stomach with a large that in the smallest compass is contained
the Turk obeys one pi quantity of water,merely for the purpose the largest quantity ofthe tonic principle,
of conveying into it a small quantity of of so peculiar a nature as to pervade the
Germany many obey not medicine, must be injurious ; and that whole system , throngh which it diffuses
live in one religion , and the medicine must possess powerful re. health and strength sufficient to resist the
novating properties only to counteract formation of disease,and also to fortify
invent a new religion, and the bad effects likely to be produced by the constitution against contagion ; as
were becomemouldy. Bei the water. Generally speaking, this has
been the case with Camomile Flowers,
such , their general use is strongly re.
commended as a preventative during the
faith , they had not found a herb possessing the highest restorative prevalence of malignant fever or other
more wise.” He exhortet qualities, and when properly taken , deci. infectious diseases,and to personsattend
dedly themost speedy restorer, and the ing sick -rooms they are invaluable, as in
Scipio , Cato,the peopleof 1 most certain preserver of health . no one instance have they ever failed il
they should observe the ( NORTON'S CAMOMILE PILLS are preventing the taking of illness, eveil
these novelties,and give th prepared by a peculiar process accident. under the most trying circumstances.
ally discovered , and known only to the As Norton 's Camomile Pills are parti.
His eloquence reached i proprietor, and which he firmly believes cularly recommended for all stomach
came to speak of the “ n to be one of the most valuable modern complaints or indigestion , it will probably
discoveries in medicine, by which all the beexpected that someadvicewill begiven
essential and extractive matter of more respecting diet, though after all that has
than an ounce of the flowers is concen . been written upon the subject, after the
trated in four moderate. sized pills. Ex. pablication of volumeupon volame, after
perience has afforded the most ample the country has, as it were , been inan .
proof that they possess all the fine aro . dated with practical essays on diet as
matic and stomachic properties forwhich a means of prolonging life, it would be
the herb has been esteemed ; and, as they unnecessary to say more, did we not feel
are taken into the stomach unencum . it our duty to make the humble endear.
bered by any diluting or indigestible ourof inducing the public to regard them
substance, in the same degree has their not, but to adopt that course which is
LUI benefit been more immediate and decided. dictated by nature, by reason , and by
Mild in their operation and pleasant in common sense. Those personswho study
The Emperor Opens the Diet their effect, they may be taken at any the wholesomes, and are governed by the
age , and under any circumstances, with . | opinion of writers on diet, are uniformly
His Picture of Europe - I out danger or inconvenience. A person both unhealthy in body and weak in
--Luther at Coburg - His exposed to cold and wet a whole day or mind. There can be no doubt that the
Sustains his Faith - Melan night could not possibly receive any in . palate is designed to inform uswhat is
jury from taking them , but on the con proper for the stomach , and of course
trary, they would effectually prevent a that must best instruct us what food to
From the cathedral the ' p cold being taken . After a long acqnaint. take and what to avoid : wewant no other
town-hall,where the sittings ancewith and observance of themedicinal | adviser. Nothing can be more clear than
place. The emperor took
covered with cloth of gold.
of him sat his brother Ferd
On either hand of him were ranged the electorsofthe This assemblage — the representative of so much
I Sleidan , bk . vti., p. 127. Polano, lib . i., pp . 52, 53. 3 “ Con una diabolica persuasione sbandiscono e trag.
D 'Aubigné, vol. iv., pp. 156, 157. gono ad ogni scherno ed impudicizia." (Pallavicino,
? Polano, lib . i., p . 58 . Fra - Paolo Sarpi, tom . i., p . 100. tom . i., lib . iii., cap. 8, p. 192.)
power, rank, and magnificence— had gathered here dered,burned,and slain, and laid thewhole country
to deliberate, to lay their plans, and to proclaim waste,they had carried away about thirty thousand
ry, and killed those poor
follow after with the
ain, the year before,
OBSERVATIONS ON INDIGESTION . able army into Austria ,
those articles which are agreeable to the becomes overloaded or disordered,render the chief city thereof,
taste were by nature intended for our it immediate aid by taking a dose of
food and sustenance, whether liquid or Norton 's Camomile Pills, which will go far and near, even as
solid , foreign or of native production ; promptly assist in carrying off the burden d practised all kinds of
if they are pure and unadulterated , no thus imposed upon it that all will SOOD
harm need be dreaded by their use; they be right again. · That now , though the
will only injure by abuse. Consequently It is most certainly true that every Pienna, yet the whole
whatever the palate approves, eat and person in his lifetimeconsumes a quantity at damage, which could
drink always in moderation , but never of noxious matter, which if taken at one
in excess ; keeping in mind that the first meal would be fatal; it is these small repaired again . And
process of digestion is performed in the quantities of noxious matter, which are wn off his army, yet he
mouth, the second in the stomach ; and introduced into our food, either by acci imanders upon the bor.
that, in order that the stomach may be dent or wilfuladalteration , which we find
able to do its work properly, it is requi. so often upset the stomach, and not un . not only Hungary , but
site the first process should be well per- frequently lay the foundation of illness, nd the places adjoining ;
formed ; this consists in masticating or and perhaps final raination to health .
chewing the solid food , so as to break To preserve the constitution , it should be ritory in many places
down and separate the fibres and small our constant care, if possible, to counter · not to be doubted but
substancesof meat and vegetable,mixing act the effect of these small quantities of
them well, and blending the whole to anwholesome matter ; and whenever, in would return again with
gether before they are swallowed ; and that way , an enemy to the constitution e on his designs to the
it is particularly urged upon all to take finds its way into the stomach , a friend ny. It was well known
plenty of time to their meals and never should immediately be sentafter it,which
eat in haste. If you confornu to this would prevent its mischievous effects, ken from us since hewas
short and simple, but comprehensive ad- and expel it altogether ; no better friend ow much Christian blood
sice, and find that there are various can be found - no, none which will per.
things which others eat and drink with form the task with greater certainty . than t straits he had reduced
pleasure and withont inconvenience, and NORTON ' S CAMOMILE PILLS, And at it ought rather to be
which would be pleasant to yourself only let it be observed that the longer this aan enlarged on in dis
that they disagree, you may at once con medicine is taken the less it will be
clade that the fault is in the stomach , wanted, and it can in no case become t resisted with greater
that it doesnot possess the power which habitual, as its entire action is to give lust expect no safety for
it ought to do, that it wants assistance, energy ande force to the stomach, which
and the sooner that assistance is afforded is the spring of life, the source from nce after another being
the better. A very short trial of medi. which the whole frame draws its saccour lat shortly too, will fall
cine will best prove how soon it will put and support. After an excess of eating iny. The design of this
the stomach in a condition to perform with or drinking, and upon every occasion of
ease all the work which nature intended the general health being at all disturbed, , make slaves of, nay,
for it. By its use you will soon be able to these Pills should be immediately taken , is from the face of the
enjoy, in moderation , whatever is agree- as they will stop and eradicate disease at
able to the taste,and unable to name one its commencement. Indeed , it is most
individualarticleof food which disagrees confidently asserted, that by the timely awn this picture of the
with or sits unpleasantly on the stomach . use of this medicine only,and a common ras projecting a longer
Never forget that a small meal well di- | degree of caution , any person may enjoy
gested affords more nourishment to the all the comfort within his reach , may proceeded next to coun
system than a large one, even of thesame pass through life without an illness, and 3 out that spirit which
food when digested imperfectly. Let the with the certainty of attaining a healthy
dish beever so delicious, ever so enticing, OLD AGE.
On account of their volatile properties, they
ng with this enemy, by
a variety offered, the bottle ever so en must be kept in bottles ; and it closely corked ite the Edict of Worms.?
chanting, never forget that temperance
tends to preserve health, and that health their qualities are neither impaired by time
nor injured by any change of climate what eding to business, let us
is the soul of enjoyment. But should an ever. Price 13 d . and 28. od, each , with full we left, as our readers
directions. The large botte contains the
impropriety be at any time, or ever so quantity of three small ones, or PILLS equal to
stle of Coburg. Alone
often committed , by which the stomach | fourteen ounces of CAMOMILE FLOWERS.
he is, rightly looked at,
Sold by nearly all respectable Medicine Vendors, Be particular to ask magnificent assemblage
for “ NORTON 'S PILLS,” and do not be persuaded to purchase an
imitation . ating. He is the em
ower which Charles has
is about to muster his
pre which he is destined
King Lewis in battle, and took , plundered, and
burned all the towns and places between the rivers i The Turks had made a breach in the walls of Vienna,
incursion into Sclavonia , and there having plun - ? Sleidan, bk. yii., pp. 127 – 129.
590
tinction. The advice of the Lutheran divines, Germans had invented . “ Why," exelaimed he,
however, swayed the plantaw and ha sonrdingly. “ the Senate and people of Rome, though Gentiles
took his place in the r
before the altar when
At this mazs Vinci
of Rosano, and nunci A CLEAR COMPLEXION !!!
tion in Latin before t
historians — Pallavicin
handed down to us t GODFREY' S
Beginning with the
braided Germany for EXTRACT OF ELDER FLOWERS
many wrongs at the
this craven spirit had Is strongly recommended for Softening, Improving, Beautifying, and
Preserving the SKIN , and giving it a blooming and charming appear
of ancient Rome, whe ance . It will completely remove Tan, Sunburn , Redness, & c., and by
signal chastisement its Balsamic and Healing qualities render the skin soft, pliable , and free
Republic.” At this si from dryness, & c ., clear it from every humour, pimple, or eruption ;
would seem with a sud and by continuing its use only a short time, the skin will become and
the nuncio set sail or continue soft and smooth , and the complexion perfectly clear and
extol the Moslem 1 beautiful.
disadvantage of Ger
the Turk obeys one Sold in Bottles, price 25. 9d.,by all Medicine
Germany many obey Vendors and Perfumers.
live in one religion ,
invent a new religion ,
were becomemouldy. STEEDMAN 'S
faith , they had not fi
more wise.” He exh
Scipio , Cato ,the people SOOTHING POWDERS,
they should observe t
these novelties, and gi FOR CHILDREN CUTTING THEIR TEETH.
His eloquence reac THE value of this Medicine has been largely tested in all parts of the
came to speak of the world and by all grades of society for upwards of fifty years.
Its extensive sale has induced SPURIOUS IMITATIONS, some of
which , in outward appearance, so closely resemble the Original as easily
to deceive even careful observers. The Proprietor therefore feels it due
to the Public to give a SPECIAL CAUTION against the purchase of
such imitations.
All purchasers are therefore requested carefully to observe that the
words « JOHN STEEDMAN , Chemist, Walworth, Surrey," are engraved
on •heGovernment Stamp affixed to each Packet, IN WHITE LETTERS
ON A RED GROUND, without which none are genuine. The true
STEEDMAN is spelt with two EES.
The Emperor Opens the
His Picture of Euro
- Luther at Coburg
Prepared only at Walworth , Surrey , and
Sustains his Faith Sold by all Chemists & Medicine Vendors
in packets 1s. 1 d . and 28 . 9d. each
From the cathedral t
town-hall,where the si
place. The emperor
covered
of withhiscloth
him sat of Ferdinand, King of Austria
brother flower not of Germany only, but of all Christendom .
On either hand of him were ranged the electors of the This assemblage - - the representative of so much
3 “ Con una diabolica persuasione sbandiscono e trag.
1 Sleidan, bk. vti., p. 127. Polano, lib . i., pp. 52, 53. gono ad ogni scherno ed impudicizia ." (Pallavicino ,
D 'Aubigné, vol. iv ., pp. 156, 157.
2 Polano, lib . i., p. 58 . Fra - Paolo Sarpi, tom . i., p. 100. tom . i., lib . iii., cap. 8 , p . 192.)
power, rank , and magnificence — had gathered here dered,burned , and slain , and laid the whole country
to deliberate, to lay their plans, and to proclaim waste, they had carried away about thirty thousand
their triumphs : so they firmly believed. They of men into miserable slavery, and killed those poor
were quite mistaken, however. They were here creatures that could not follow after with the
to suffer check after check, to endure chagrin and carriages. They had again , the year before,
discomfiture, and to see at last that cause which advanced with an innumerable army into Austria ,
they had hoped to cast into chains and drag to the and laid siege to Vienna, the chief city thereof,
stake, escaping from their hands, mounting glo- having wasted the country far and near, even as
riously upward , and beginning to fill the world far as Linz, where they had practised all kinds of
with its splendour. cruelty and barbarity. . . . That now , though the
The emperor rose and opened the Diet with a enemy could not take Vienna, yet the whole
speech . We turn with a feeling of relief from the country had sustained great damage, which could
fiery harangue of the fanatical nuncio to the calm hardly be in long time repaired again . And
words of Charles. Happily Sleidan has handed although the Turk had drawn off his army, yet he
down to us the speech of the emperor atconsiderable had left garrisons and commanders upon the bor.
length. It contains a sad picture of the Christen- ders to waste and destroy not only Hungary, but
dom of that age . It shows us the West, groaning Austria also, and Styria , and the places adjoining ;
under the twin burdens of priestcraft and despotism , and whereas now his territory in many places
ready to succumb to the Turk, and the civilisation bordered upon ours , it was not to be doubted but
and liberty of the world on the pointof being over- upon the first occasion he would return again with
whelmed by the barbarous arms of the East. It far greater force, and drive on his designs to the
shows us also that this terrible catastrophe would utter ruin chiefly of Germany. It was well known
most surely have overtaken the world , if that very how many places he had taken from us since he was
Christianity which the emperor was blindly striving master of Constantinople, how much Christian blood
to put down had not come at that critical moment, he had shed , and into what straits he had reduced
to rekindle the all but extinct fires of patriotism this part of the world , that it ought rather to be
and valour. If Charles had succeeded in extir- lamented and bewailed than enlarged on in dis
pating Protestantism , the Turk would have come course. If his fury be not resisted with greater
after him and gathered the spoils. The seat of forces than hitherto, we must expect no safety for
Empire would have been transferred from Spain to the future, but one province after another being
Constantinople , and the dominant religion in the lost, all at length, and that shortly too, will fall
end would have been not Romanism , but Moham - under his power and tyranny. The design of this
medanism . most cruel enemy was to make slaves of, nay,
speak German,
not speak
The emperor, who did not Sacri- to sweep off all Christians from the face of the
tine. “ made
his address be read by the count-palatine. “ Sacri- earth.”
ficing my private injuries and interests to the " The emper having drawn this picture of the
The emperor
common good,” said Charles, “ I have quitted the Turk , who every year was projecting a longer
most flourishing kingdom of Spain , with great shadow over Christendom , proceeded next to coun
danger , to cross the seas into Italy, and, after sel his hearers to trample out that spirit which
making peace with my enemies, to pass thence into alone was capable of coping with this enemy, by
Germany. Not only ," continued the emperor, “ were commanding them to execute the Edict of Worms.?
there great strifes and dissensions in Germany about While the Diet is proceeding to business, let us
religion, but also the Turks had invaded Hungary return to Luther, whom we left, as our readers
and the neighbouring countries, putting all to fire will recollect, in the Castle of Coburg . Alone
and sword, Belgrade and several other castles and in his solitary chamber, he is, rightly looked at,
forts being lost. King Lewis and several of the a grander sight than the magnificent assemblage
nobles had sent ambassadors to desire theassistance we have been contemplating. He is the em
of the Empire. . . . . . The enemy having bodiment of that great power which Charles has
taken Rhodes, the bulwark of Christendom on that assembled his princes and is about to muster his
side, marched further into Hungary, overcame armies to combat, but before which he is destined
King Lewis in battle, and took, plundered , and
burned all the towns and places between the rivers The Turks had made a breach in the walls of Vienna ,
incursion into Sclavonia , and there having plun - ? Sleidan, bk. yii., pp.127 - 129.
to fall, and with him that mighty Empire over became realities to him . His imagination clothed
which he so proudly sways the sceptre, and which, the dangers which he apprehended in a palpable
nine years before, at the Diet of Worms, he had form and shape, and they stood before him as
publicly staked on the issue. visible existences. His Old Enemy of the Wart
Luther is again shut up with his thoughts and burg comes sailing, like black night, to the Castle
his books. From the scene of labour and ex - of Coburg. The Reformer, however , was not
citement which Wittemberg had become, how to be overcome, though the Prince of Darkness
refreshing and fascinating the solitude of the had brought all hell behind him . He wrote texts
Coburg ! The day was his own, with scarce an of Scripture upon the walls of his apartment, upon
interruption , from dawn till dusk . The Reformer his door, upon his bed — “ I will lay me down in
needed rest, and all things around him seemed to peace and sleep ; for thou, O Lord , only makest
invite him to it — the far-extending plains, theme to dwell in safety.” Within this “ fortress "
quiet woods, the cawing of the rooks, and the song he felt he could defy the Prince of Spain and the
of the birds ; but Luther was incapable of resting. Prince of the Power of the Air .
Scarcely had the tramp of the elector 's horsemen, Three hours of every day did Luther devote to
continuing their journey to Augsburg, died away prayer ; to this he added the assiduous perusal of
in the distance, when he sat down , and wrote to the Scriptures. These were the fountains at which
Wittemberg for his books. By the end of April he refreshed his soul, and whence he reeruited his
they had arrived , and he immediately set to work. strength . Nay,more,the intercessions that ascended
He returned to his version of Jeremiah , and com - from the Coburg came back ,we cannot doubt,upon
pleted it before the end of June. He then resumed his friends in Augsburg in needed supplies of wis
the Minor Prophets, and before the middle of dom and courage, and thus were they able to main
August all had been translated, with the exception tain the battle in the presence of their numerous
of Haggai and Malachi. He wrote an exposition and powerful adversaries. For days together Luther
of several of the Psalms — the 2nd, the 113th, and would be left without intelligence from the Diet.
117th — a discourse on the necessity of schools for Post after post arrived from Augsburg. “ Do you
children, and various tracts — one on purgatory, bring me letters ? ” he would eagerly inquire.
another on the power of the “ keys,” and a third “ No," was the answer , with a uniformity that
on the intercession of saints. With untiring labour severely tried his patience , and also his temper.
he forged bolt after bolt, and from his retreat Attimes he became a prey to fear - -not for himself ;
discharged them at the enemy. his life he held in his hand, ready at any moment
But the too aetive spirit wore out the body. to lay it down for the truth ; it was for his friends
Luther was seized with vertigo. The plains, with he feared in these intervals of silence, lest perchance
their woods and meadows, seemed to revolve some disaster had befallen them . Retiring into his
around the Castle of Coburg ; his ears were
stunnethunder-Pe the pen and give closet, he would again send up his cry to the throne
stunned with great noises ; at times it was as in the heavens. Straightway the clouds of melan
if a thunder-peal were resounding in his head . choly would roll away, and the light of coming
Then, perforce, the pen was laid down. But again triumphs would break in upon his soul. He would
he would snatch it up, and give Philip the benefit go to the window and look forth upon the midnight
of his dear-bought experience, and bid him “ take sky. The mighty vault, studded with glorious
care of his own precious little body, and not stars , became to him a sign that helped his faith.
commit homicide.” “ God ,” he said , “ is served “ How magnificent ! how lofty ! ” he would exclaim .
by rest, by nothing more than rest, and therefore “ Where are the strong pillars that support this
he has willed that the Sabbath should be so immense dome ? I nowhere behold them . Yet the
rigidly kept” — thus anticipating Milton's beautiful heavens do not fall.” Thus the firmament, upheld
lines : by a Hand he could not see, preached to him peace
“ God doth not need
Either man's work, or his own gifts ; who best and prophesied of triumph. It said to him , “ Why,
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best . His state Luther, are you disquieted and in trouble ? Be at
Is kingly ; thousands at his bidding speed , rest.” He saw around him a work in progress as
And post o'er land and ocean without rest.
stupendous as the fabric of the heavens. But why
They also serve who only stand and wait."
should he take that work upon himself as if it were
But worse symptoms supervened . In the un - his, and as if he must charge himself with its stand
strung condition of his nervous system , impressions ing or its falling ? As well might he take upon
Sonnets, No. xix.(on his blindness). · Corp. Ref., ii. 159.
LUTHER 'S COUNSEL TO MELANCTHON . 593
his shoulder the burden of the firmament. The which they caused him now , and the bitter morti
heavens did not fall although his hand was not fication which their failure gave him afterwards.
steadying its pillars, and this work would go on “ I dwell in perpetual tears,"? wrote he to Luther.
whether he lived or died. He saw the Pope and In reply Luther points out, with admirable fidelity
the emperor and the Prince of Hell fighting against and skill, at once the malady and its cure. The
it with all their might ; nevertheless, it was borne cure is expressed in one word — Faith.
up and carried forward. It was not he that was “ Grace and peace in Christ ! in Christ, I say,
causing it to advance , nor was it Melancthon , nor and not in the world . Amen. I hate with ex
the Elector John ; agencies so feeble were wholly ceeding hatred those extreme cares which consume
inadequate to effects so grand . There was an you. If the cause is unjust, abandon it ; if the
omnipotent Hand guiding this movement, although cause is just, why should we belie the promises of
to him it was invisible ; and if that Hand was him who commands us to sleep without fear ? Can
there, was his weak arm needed ? and if it should the devil do more than kill us ? Christ will not be
be withdrawn, was it Luther's that could uphold wanting to the work of justice and of truth . He
it ? In that Hand, the Hand of the God-man , of lives ; he reigns : what fear then can we have ? God
him who made and who upholds the world , would is powerful to upraise his cause if it is overthrown,
he leave this cause. If it should fall, it was not to make it proceed if it remains motionless ; and, if
Luther that would fall, but the Monarch of heaven we are not worthy of it, he will do it by others.
and earth ; and he would rather fall with Christ “ I have received your Apology,' and I cannot
than stand with Charles. Such was the train of understand what you mean when you ask what
courageous thoughts that would awaken in the we must concede to the Papists. We have already
mind of Luther. In this way did he strongthen conceded too much . Night and day I meditate
his faith , and being strengthened himself he on this affair, turning it over and over, diligently
strengthened his brethren. searching the Scriptures, and the conviction of the
Nor were the counsels and encouragements of truth of our doctrine becomes every day stronger
Luther unneeded at Augsburg. Melancthon, con - in my mind. With the help of God, I will not
stitutionally timid , with a mind to penetrate rather permit a single letter of all that we have said to be
than to dare, a soul to expatiate on the beauty of torn from us.
truth rather than to delight in the rude gusts and “ The issue of this affair torments you, because
tempests of opposition , at all times bending under you cannot understand it. But if you could , I
apprehensions, was at this time bowed down to would not have the least share in it. God has
almost the very ground. In fact, he was trying to put it in a common -place ' that you will not find
uphold the heavens. Instead of leaving the cause in either your rhetoric or your philosophy. That
in the hands of Him whose it was, as Luther did, place is called Faith. It is that in which subsist
he was taking it upon his own shoulder, and he all things that we can neither understand nor see.
felt its weight crushing him . He was therefore Whoever wishes to touch them , as you do, will
full of thoughts, expedients, and devices. Every have tears for his sole reward.
day he had some new explanation , some subtle “ If Christ is not with us, where is he in the
gloss, or some doubtful compromise which he whole universe ? If we are not the Church , where,
thought would gain the Catholics . He kept run- I pray, is the Church ? Is it the Duke of Bavaria ?
ning about continually , being now closeted with this is it Ferdinand ? is it the Pope ? is it the Turk
bishop , now with that ; now dancing attendance on who is the Church ? If we have not the Word
the legate , and now on the emperor.' Melancthon of God, who is it that possesses it ?
never had the same clear and perfect conviction as “ Only we must have faith, lest the cause of faith
Luther that there were two diametrically opposite should be found to be without faith.
Churches and faiths in the matter he was handling, “ If we fall, Christ falls with us — that is to say,
and that he was but wasting timeand risking cha - the Master of the world . I would rather fall with
racter, and, what was infinitely more, truth , in Christ than remain standing with Cæsar.” 4
these attempts to reconcile the two. He had no
fruit of these efforts, save the consuming anxiety ? Corp . Ref., ii. 140.
3 The Confession, afterwards read in the Diet.
1 Zwing. Epp.,ii.473. D'Aubigné, vol.iv., p.165. 4 Seckendorf, lib. ii., sec. 32, p. 182.
CHAPTER XXIII.
READING OF THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION .
The Religious Question First - Augsburg Confession - Signed by the Princes — The Laity - Princes Demand to Real
their Confession in Public Diet - Refusal - Demand Renewed - Granted – The Princes Appear before the Emperor
and Diet - A Little One becomea Thousand - Mortification of Charles - Confession Read in German - Its Articles
- The Trinity - Original Sin - Christ - Justification - The Ministry - Good Works - The Church - The Lord's
Supper, & c. - The Mass , & c. - Effect of Reading the Confession - Luther' s Triumph .
THE Diet was summoned for two causes — first, the “ I would rather renounce my subjects and my
defence of Christendom against the Turk ; secondly, States," said he, when he took the pen to sign ,
and mainly , the settlement of the religious question. “ I would rather quit the country of my fathers
It was resolved to take into consideration first the staff in hand, than receive any other doctrine than
matter of religion . that which is contained in this Confession." . The
In order to an intelligent decision on this ques- devotion of the princes inspirited the theologians.
tion, it seemed equitable, and indeed indispensable, Of the cities only two as yet subscribed the
that the Diet should hear from the Protestants a Confession, Nuremberg and Reutlingen . Those
statement of the doctrine which they held. With we have mentioned were the nine original sub
out this, how could the Diet either approve or scribers. The document received a number of
condemn ? Such a manifesto, based on the “ Tor - signatures afterwards ; princes, ecclesiastics, and
gau Articles," had been drawn up by Melancthon , cities pressed forward to append their names to it .
approved by Luther, and was now ready to be The ministers, one may think , ought to have had
presented to the Diet, provided the emperor would precedence in the matter of subscription . But the
consent to the public reading of it. only names which the deed bore when carried to
On the morning of the 23rd of June, the Pro- the Diet were those of the seven princes and the
testants met in the apartments of the Elector of two cities, all lay signatures. One great end,
Saxony to append their signatures to this im - however, was gained thereby : it gave grand promi.
portant deed . It was first read in German. The nence to a truth which for ages had been totally
Elector John took the pen, and was about to lost sight of, and purposely as profoundly buried .
append his name, when Melancthon interposed. It proclaimed the forgotten fact that the laity form
“ It was the ministers of the Word, and not the part of the Church . Rome practically defined the
princes of the State," he said , “ that ought to appear Church to be the priesthood. This was not a body
in this matter. This was the voice of the Church.” Catholic, it was a caste , a third party , which stood
“ God forbid,” replied the elector,“ that you should between God and the laity, to conduct all trans
exclude me from confessing my Lord . My elec- actions between the two. But when the Church
toral hat and my ermine are not so precious to me revives at this great era , she is seen to be not a
as the cross of Jesus Christ.” On this Melancthon mutilated body, a mere fragment ; she stands up a
suffered him to proceed,and John, Duke of Saxony, perfect, a complete society.
was the first whose name was appended to this The Protestants agreed to demand that their
document. Confession should be read publicly in the Diet.
After the Elector of Saxony had subscribed , This was a vital point with them . They had not
George, Margrave of Brandenburg, and Ernest, kindled this light to put it under a bushel, but to
Duke of Luneburg, appended their signatures, and set it in a very conspicuous place ; indeed, in the
then the pen was handed to Philip of Hesse. The midst even of the princedoms, hierarchies, and
landgrave accompanied his signature with an inti- powers of Christendom now assembled at Angs
mation that he dissented from the article on the burg. To this, however , obstacles were interposed ,
Lord 's Supper. He stood with Zwingle in this as it was foreseen there would be. The Confession
matter. Then followed John Frederick , son of the
Elector of Saxony : and Francis. Duke of Lune- 2 We have taken the names and order of the sub
burg. Wolfgang, Prince of Anhalt, came last. scribers to this memorable deed from the Augustana
Confessio , printed at Leipsic and Jena (1705 ), and care
fully edited by Philip Mullero, from the first printed
1 Corp. Ref., ü .155. copy at Leipsic, 1580
THEIR
CONFESSION
SIGNING
.PRINCES
PROTESTANT
THE
was subscribed on the 23rd of June ; it was to be Brandenburg, Wolfgang of Anhalt, Ernest and
presented on the 24th. On that day the Diet met Francis of Luneburg, and the two deputies of
at three o'clock of the afternoon. The Protestant Nuremberg and Reutlingen. All eyes were fixed
princes appeared and demanded leave to read upon them . “ Their air was animated,” says
their Confession . The legate Campeggio rose and Scultet, " and their faces radiant with joy."
began to speak . He painted the bark of Peter It was impossible but that the scene of nine years
struggling in a tempestuous sea, the great billows ago should forcibly present itself at this moment
breaking over it, and ready every moment to to the emperor's mind. Then, as now , he sat upon
engulf it ; but it was his consolation to know that his throne with the princes of his kingdom around
a strong arm was near, able to still these mighty him , and a solitary monk stood up in his presence
waves, and rescue that imperilled bark from de- to confess his faith . The astounding scene was re
struction. The strong arm to which he referred producing itself. The monk again stands up to con
was that of the emperor. He ran on a long while fess his faith ; not, indeed, in his own person , but in
in this vein of rhetoric. The legate was speaking that of confederate princes and cities, inspired with
against time. Next came deputies from Austria, his spirit and filled with his power. Here was a
who had a long and doleful recital of the miseries greater victory than any the emperor had won, and
the Turk had inflicted upon them to lay before the he had gained not a few since the day of Worms,
Diet.” This scene had all been arranged before- Charles, ruler of two worlds, could not but feel
hand. that the monk was a greater sovereign than
It came at length to an end. The Protestant himself. Was not this the man and the cause
princes rose again and craved permission to read against which he had fulminated his ban ? Had
their paper. “ It is too late," was the emperor's he not hoped that, long ere this day, both would
reply. “ But," insisted the princes, “ we have have sunk out of sight, crushed under its weight ?
been publicly accused, and we must be permitted Had he not summoned Diet after Diet to deal this
publicly to justify ourselves.” “ Then ,” said the cause the finishing blow ? How , then , did it happen
emperor, who felt it would be well to make a show that each new Diet gave it a new triumph ? Whence
of yielding, “ to -morrow at the Palatinate Chapel.” did it derive that mysterious and wondrous life,
The “ Palatinate Chapel ” was not the usual place which the more it was oppressed the more it grew !
of the Diet's meeting, but an apartment in the It embittered his state to see this “ Mordecai”
emperor's own palace , capable of containing about sitting at the gate of his power , and refusing to
two hundred persons. It was seen that the em - do obeisance ; nor could he banish from his mind
peror wished the audience to be select the vaticinations which “ his wise men , and Zeresh
The morrow came, the 25th of June, 1530. his wife,” addressed to an ambitious statesman of
Long before the hour of the Diet a great crowd old : “ If thou hast begun to fall before him , thou
was seen besieging the doors of the Palatinate. At shalt not prevail against him , but shall surely fall
three o'clock the emperor took his seat on his before him ."
throne. Around him was gathered all that his The two chancellors of the elector, Bruck and
vast Empire could furnish of kingly power, princely Bayer, rose,holding in their hand, the one a German
dignity, august station, brilliant title, and gorgeous and the other a Latin copy of the “ Chief Articles
munificence. There was one lofty head missing of the Faith .” “ Read the Latin copy," suggested
one seat vacant in that brilliant assembly . Cam - the emperor. “ No," replied the Elector of Saxony
peggio stayed away," and his absence anticipated a respectfully , “ weare Germans and on German soil,
decree afterwards passed in a consistory of the we crave to speak in German." Bayer now began
cardinals at Rome disapproving the Diet's entering to read , and he did so in a voice so clear and
on the religious question , seeing that was a matter strong that every word was audible to the vast
the decision of which appertained exclusively to crowd of eager listeners that filled the ante -chambers
the Pope. The eventful moment was now come of the hall.
The princes stood up at the foot of the emperor's “ Most invincible Emperor, Cæsar Augustus,
throne to present their Confession - John ofSaxony, most gracious lord," so spoke the chancellor, “ we
John Frederick, his son, Philip of Hesse, George of are here in obedience to the summons of your
Majesty, ready to deliberate and confer on the
i Seckendorf, lib. ii., p. 169. affairs of religion , in order that, arriving at one
· Corp . Ref., ii. 154. sincere and true faith , we may fight under one
ra -Paolo Sarpi, tom . i., lib . i., p . 101. Polano, lib. i.,
-Paolo Sarpi, tom . i., p. 102, 5 Scultet, tom . i., p . 273. Seckendorf, lib . ii., p. 170.
THE ARTICLES OF THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 597
Christ, form one Christian Church, and live in one Article VI. confessed Good WORKS. “ Faith
unity and concord .” As their contribution to this ought to bear good fruits, not that these may justify
great work of pacification, the Protestants went on us before God, but that they may manifest our love
to say, through Bayer, that they had prepared and to God.”
brought with them to the Diet a summary of the Article VII. confessed the CHURCH, “ which is
doctrines which they held , agreeable to Holy Scrip- the congregation of the holy , in which the Gospel
ture, and such as had aforetime been professed in is rightly taught and the Sacraments rightly ad
their land, and taught in their Church . But should , ministered . To the real unity of the Church it is
unhappily , the conciliation and concord which they sufficient that men agree in the doctrine of the
sought not be attained , they were ready to explain Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments ;
their cause in a “ free, general Christian Council.” ı nor is it necessary that the rites and ceremonies
The reading of the Confession proceeded in deep instituted by men should be everywhere the same.”
silence . Article VIII. confessed the CHURCH VISIBLE.
Article I. confessed the TRINITY. “ There is “ Although the Church is properly the assembly of
one Divine essence who is God, eternal, incorporeal, saints and true believers, yet in this life there are
indivisible, infinite in power, wisdom , and good- mixed up in it many hypocrites and manifest sin
ness , and there are three persons of the same ners." ?
essence and power and co-eternity, Father,Son , and Article IX. set forth the necessity of BAPTISM
Holy Spirit.” to salvation , “ for through baptism is offered the
Article II. confessed ORIGINAL Sin . “ Since the grace of God," and the lawfulness of infant baptism .
fall of Adam all men descending from him by ordi-
aces under ChArticle X . set forth the doctrine of the Lord's
rist are really pre Lord's Supper.me doctrine of the
nary generation are born in sin ,which places under SUPPER. “ We teach that the body and blood of
condemnation and bringeth eternal death to all Christ are really present, and administered to those
who are not born again by baptism and the Holy who partake of the Lord's Supper." 3
Ghost. " Articles XI. and XII. stated the doctrine of the
Article III. confessed the PERSON AND OFFICE OF Lutheran confessors on confession and penance.
CHRIST. “ The Son of God assumed humanity and Article XIII. set forth more explicitly the
has thus two natures , the divine and human, in his nature and use of the Sacraments, affirming that
one person, inseparably conjoined : one Christ, very they were not mere “ notes of profession ” among
God and very man. He was born of the Virgin , he men , but “ signs and testimonies of the good-will
truly suffered, was crucified, died and was buried, of God toward us ;" and that therefore to the
that he might reconcile us to the Father, and be “ use of the Sacrament ” faith must be added ,
the sacrifice, not only for the original sin , but also which takes hold of the promises exhibited and
for all the actual transgressions of men.” held forth by the Sacrament. And in the anti
Article IV . confessed the doctrine of JUSTIFICA thesis to this article they condemned those who
TION. “ Men cannot be justified before God by taught that the Sacrament accomplishes its end ex
their own strength, merits, or works. They are opere operato, and that faith is not required in
justified freely on Christ's account through faith , order to the remission of sins.
when they believe in the free pardon of their sins The articles that follow to the end are occupied
for the sake of Christ,who has made satisfaction for with church order and rites, civil government, the
them by his death . This faith God imputes to final judgment, free will, and good works. On
them for righteousness.” the latter the framers of the Confession were
The " antithesis ” or condemnation of the oppo- careful to distinguish between the power which
site doctrines professed by the Arians, Pelagians, man has to do “ good or evil," within the sphere
Anabaptists, and more ancient heretical sects, was of natural and civil justice, and the sphere of
not stated under this article , as under the previous holiness. Man can do many things, they said .
ones. We see in this omission the prudence of He can love his children, his neighbours, his
Melancthon . country ; he can study an art, practise a pro
Article V . confessed the institution of theMINIS- fession , or gi:ide the State ; he can bless society by
TRY. “ For by the preaching of the Word, and the his virtues and talents, or afflict it by his vices and
dispensation of the Sacraments, the Holy Spirit is
pleased to work faith in the heart.” ? “ Quanquam ecclesia," & c., " cum in hac vita multi
hypocritæ et mali admixti sunt." (Augustana Confessio.)
3 “ De Cæna Domini docent, quod corpus et sanguis
1 Augustana Confessio - Præfatio ad Cæsarem ; Lipsiæ et Christi vere adsint, et distribuantur vescentibus in Cana
Jenæ, 1705. Domini.” ( Ibid .)
crimes ; but those actions only are righteous in the was the sentence pronounced, " Unknown to Scrip
sight ofGod which spring from a gracious principle, ture and to the Fathers.” Priestly absolution,
implanted by the Holy Spirit, and which are distinction of meats , monastic vows, feast-days, the
directed to a heavenly end. To love God, and love pernicious mixing up of ecclesiastical and civil
and labour for man for God's sake, is a power, authority , so hurtful to the character of the minis
they taught, which fallen man does not possess, ters of the Word, and so prolific of wars and
and which must be given him from above ; accord bloodshed to the world — all were condemned on
ing to the saying of Ambrose , that “ Faith is the many grounds, but on this above all others, that
mother of good desires and holy actions " - words they “ obscured the doctrine of grace, and of the
which are but the echo of those of a greater Teacher, righteousness of faith, which is the cardinal article,
“ Without me ye can do nothing." the crowning glory of the Gospel." 3
In conclusion , the Protestants returned in their The Confession — with conspicuous boldness,when
Confession to their grand cardinal doctrine, salva - we think that it was read before an assembly in
tion by grace. They especially attacked the mass, which so many prince-bishops had a seat- con
on which Rome had suspended the salvation of the demined one of the grand errors of the Middle
world ,making the priest, and not Christ, the saviour Ages, the confusion even of Church and State,
of men ; the sacrifice on the altar, and not the and the blending of things spiritual and secular,
sacrifice on the cross, the real propitiation ; thus which had led to such corruption in the Church
compelling men to come to her and not to God for and inflicted so many calamities upon the world.
pardon, making merchandise of heaven , changing It explained, with great clearness and at consider
worship into mountebankry, and the Church into a able length , that Church and State are two dis
fair. “ If the mass,” said they , “ takes away the tinot societies, and, although co-related, each has
sins of the living and the dead, ex opere operato, its own boundaries, its own rights and duties, and
then justification hangs on a mere rite ," and Christ that the welfare of both requires the maintenance
died in vain .” With the Bible they would know no of the independence of each.
sacrifice for sin but that made by Christ, once for “ Many,” Bayer continued , “ have unskilfully
all, on Calvary, everlasting, and never needing to confounded the episcopal and the temporal power ;
be repeated, inasmuch as its efficacy is wide as the and from this confusion have resulted great wars,
populations of the globe, and lasting as eternity. revolts, and seditions. It is for this reason, and
Nor would they put any conditions upon the en- to reassure men's consciences, that we find our
joyment of these merits other than had been put selves constrained to establish the difference which
upon them by him whose they were . These merits exists between the power of the Church and the
they would not give as the wages of work , nor as power of the sword.
the equivalent of gold ; they would give them on “ We, therefore, teach that the power of the -
the same terms on which the Gospel offered them , keys or of the bishops is, conformably with the
“ without money and without price.” Thus they Word of the Lord , a commandment emanating
laboured to overthrow the mass, with that whole from God, to preach the Gospel, to remit or retain
system of salvation by works of which it was the sins, and to administer the Sacraments. This
pre-eminent symbol, and to restore the cross. power has reference only to eternal goods, is exer
We have said that under the Fourth Article, cised only by the minister of the Word , and does
that relating to justification, the antithesis was not trouble itself with political administration
not formally stated . The Confession did not say The political administration, on the other hand, is
“ We condemn Papists, & c., who hold a doctrine busied with everything else but the Gospel. The
opposed to justification by faith .” This omission magistrate protects, not souls, but bodies and tem
arose from no want of courage, for in what follows poral possessions. He defends them against all
we find the errors of Romanism boldly attacked. attacks from without, and by making use of the
The mass, as we have seen, was not spared ; but sword and of punishment, compels men to observe
the Protestants did not single out the mass alone. civil justice and peaco.
There was scarcely an abuse or error of the system “ For this reason we must take particular care
that was not passed in review , and dismissed with not to mingle the power of the Church with the
the brand of reprobation upon it.. On one and all power of the State. The power of the Church
ought never to invade an office that is foreign to
1 Augustana Confessio, art. XI., De Bonis Operibus.
? “ Si missa tollit peccata vivorum et mortuorum ex 3. “ Primo obscurata est doctrina de gratia et justitia
're operato contingit justificatio ex opere Missarum , fidei, quæ est præcipua pars evangelii." (Augustana
ex fide." (Augustana Confessio , art. xxiv., De Missa.) Confessio , art. xxvi.)
RESULTS DUE TO THE AUGSBURG CONFÉSSION. 599
it ; for Christ himself said : “My kingdom is not of the Protestants only as rumour had exaggerated ,
this world. And again : “Who made me a judge or ignorance obscured , or hatred misrepresented
over you ?' St. Paul said to the Philippians : Our and vilified them : now they learned them from
citizenship is in heaven.' And to the Corinthians : the pen of the clearest intellect and most accom
• The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but plished scholar in the Lutheran host. Melancthon ,
mighty through God.' knowing that he had to speak to an audience that
“ It is thus that we distinguish the two govern- were dull of ear, and yet more dull of heart, had
ments and the two powers , and that we honour put forth all his powers to throw the charm of an
both as the most excellent gifts that God has given elegant style and lucid illustration around his
us here on earth . theological theses ; and such was his success that
“ The duty of the bishops is therefore to preach he was alike intelligible to layman and ecclesiastic,
the Gospel, to forgive sins, and to exclude from to warrior, baron, and scholar in the Diet. But
the Christian Church all who rebel against the this was the least of Melancthon's triumphs.
Lord , but without human power, and solely by In the two hours which the reading of the
the Word of God. If the bishops act thus, the Confession occupied , what a work had been accom
Churches ought to be obedient to them , according plished , what an advance made in the great cause
to this declaration of Christ : Whoever heareth of the Reformation ! The errors which had been
you heareth me.' growing up during the course of ages had sentence
“ But if the bishops teach anything that is con- of doom pronounced upon them , and from that
trary to the Gospel, then the Churches have an hour began to wither away ; such was the clearness
order from God which forbids them to obey (Matt. and pertinency of the proofs with which Melanc
vii. 15, Gal. i., and 2 Cor. xiii. 8 , 10 ). And thon confirmed the Protestant doctrines. It was
St. Augustine himself, in his letter against Per - as when the morning dawns, and the clouds which
tilian, writes : “Wemust obey the Catholic bishops, all night long had rested on the sides of the Alps
if they go astray, and teach anything .contrary to break up, and rolling away disclose the stupendous,
the canonical Scriptures of God.'” snow -clad, glorious peaks : so now , the fogs of
Bayer then came to the epilogue of the Con mediævalism begin to scatter, and lo ! in majestic
fession . and brilliant array, those eternal verities which the
“ It is not from hatred that we have spoken,” Holy Spirit had revealed in ancient times for the
said he, “ nor to insult any one, but we have salvation of men - those Alps of the spiritualworld ,
explained the doctrines that we maintain to be those mountain -peaks that lift their heads into
essential, in order that it may be understood that heaven, bathed with the light of the throne of
we admit of neither dogma nor ceremony which is God - -are seen coming forth , and revealing them
contrary to the Holy Scriptures , and to the usage selves to man's ravished eye. The Confession ,
of the Universal Church." . moreover, added not a few influential converts to
Such, said Bayer, having finished the document, the ranks of Protestantism . The effect on some
is a summary of our faith. Other things might was surprise ; on others, conviction ; on most, it
have been stated, but for brevity 's sake they was the creation of a more conciliatory spirit
are omitted. But what has been said is sufficient towards the Lutherans.
that has been said is
to show that in our doctrines and ceremonies Thirteen years before (1517) a solitary monk ,
nothing has been admitted which is inconsistent bearing a scroll in one hand and a hammer in the
with Scripture, or with the Church catholic.1 other, is seen forcing his way through a crowd
The reading of the Confession occupied two of pilgrims, and nailing his scroll, with its ninety
hours. Not a word was spoken all that time. five theses, to the door of the castle -church of
This assembly of princes and warriors, statesmen Wittemberg . The scene repeats itself, but on a
and ecclesiastics , sat silent, held fast in the spell, grander scale. Now a phalanx of princes and free
not of novelty merely , but of the simplicity, cities are beheld pressing through the throng of
beauty , and majesty of the truths which passed the Diet of Augsburg , and, in presence of the as
before them in the grand spiritual panorama sembled princedoms and hierarchies of Christendom ,
which Melancthon's powerful hand had summoned they nail the old scroll --for what is the Confession
up. Till now they had known the opinions of of Augsburg but the monk 's scroll enlarged , and
-- - - - -- more impregnably supported by proof)-- they nail
1 Augustana Confessio - Epilogus. this scroll to the throne of Charles V .
.
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VIEW IN STRASBURG .
CHAPTER XXIV.
AFTER THE DIET OF AUGSBURG.
TheGreat Protest — The Citiesasked to Abandon it- TheAugsburg Confession - TheologicalCulmination of Reforma
tion in Germany - Elation of the Protestants - Three Confessions - Harmony- New Converts- Consultations and
Dialogues in the Emperor's Ante-chamber - The Bishop of Salzburg on Priests— Translation of the Confession
into
The French - The affecting
Vanquished FreeProtesting TownsVictor-
to be the - AskedWhat
to Abandon the Protestof
the Protest 1529— Astonishmentofthe
of 1529 enfolded - The Folly of the Deputies
Emperor's
Demand.
Weare now arrived at a stage where we can look she deemed her power to be so deeply seated in
around
ment of andregeneration
take a survey of thisitselfgreatin move
as it develops other the traditional beliefs,
pleasure-loving habits ofthe theblindpeople,
devotion,and the
that no one
countries. Everywhere, on the right and on would be mad enough to attack her. Butbefore
the left, from the Baltic to the Alps, and from withdrawing our eyes from Germany, let us briefly
the Atlantic to the gates of Vienna, the doc- note the events immediately consequent on the
trines of Protestantism are being scattered and Confession of Augsburg.
aremountains
taking that
vigorouswallroot.in Italy
Nay,andeven Spain,
beyond Pro
the The presentation of the Confession to the Diet ?
movements are springing up, and Rome
istestant
beginning
51 to be assailed in those countrieswhere
in the bishop's
1 " You may seeConfession
wherethefamous of Augsburg chamber
palacewasthe presented
Cwas h culmination
hurcthe was the prouoft tthe ovem on
he mmovement German of God . Therefore they do not fetter conscience,
soil. It was the proudest hour of the Lutheran or tyrannise over it, except when perverted ; they
Church. To this point the labours of Luther and but guard its liberty, by shielding the understand
of the forces that operated around him had tended, ing from the usurpation of error, and leaving the
and now that it was reached , the crown was put conscience free to follow the light of the Word
upon the theological development. The Augsburg of God.
Confession was not a perfectly accurate statement Both parties felt the vast consequences thatmust
of Scripture truth by any means, but as a first needs follow from what had just taken place. The
attempt, made before the Reformation had com - Protestants were elated. They had carried their
pleted its second decade, it was a marvellous effort, main object, which was nothing less than to have
and has not been cast into the shade by even the their faith published in presence of the Diet, and
noblest of those Confessions which have since fol- so of all Christendom . “ By the grace of God ,"
lowed it, and for which it so largely helped to exclaimed Pontanus, as he handed the Latin copy
prepare the way. When this Confession was laid to the emperor's secretary, “ this Confession shall
on the imperial table, the movement had no longer prevail in spite of the gates of hell.” “ Christ has
Luther as its sole or chief embodiment. The been boldly confessed at Augsburg ," said Luther,
Reformation now stood before the world in a body when the news reached him . “ I am overjoyed that
of Articles, drawn from the Bible, and compre- I have lived to this hour.” The Churches, as we
hensively embracing those principles which God have seen , had been closed against the Protestant
has made known as a basis of justice and order to ministers ; but now we behold the pulpit set up in
nations,and themeans of renewal and eternal life the Diet itself, and great princes becoming preachers
to individuals ; and whatever might become of of the Gospel.
Luther, though he were this moment to be offered The Popish, members were dismayed and con
as a martyr, or, which was possible but hardly founded when they reflected on what had been done.
conceivable, were to apostatise, and destroy the The Diet had been summoned to overthrow the
faith he once preached, here was a greater preacher Reformation ; instead of this it had established it.
of the truth , standing before the nations, and keep- In the wake of this Confession came other two, the
ing open to them the road to a glorious future. one written by Bucer, and signed by four cities which
Was the Confession of Augsburg to come in the in the matter of the Lord's Supper leaned to the
l'oom of the Bible to the Protestants ? Far from Zwinglian rather than to the Lutheran view - Stras
it. Let us not mistake the end for which it was burg, Constance , Memmingen , and Lindau ;' hence
framed, and the place it was intended to occupy. its name, the Tetrapolitan Confession ; and the
The Confession did not create the faith ; it simply other presented in the name of Zwingle, and con
confessed it. The doctrines it contained were in taining a statement of his individual views. Thus
the Confession because they were first of all in the movement, instead of shrinking into narrower
the Bible. A terrestrial chart has authority and dimensions, or hiding itself from view , was coming
is to be followed only when for every island and boldly out in the presence of its opponents, and the
continent marked on it there is a corresponding feeble hope which the Romanists founded upon the
island and continent on the surface of the globe ; circumstance that there were three representations,
a manual of botany has authority only when for or “ a schism in the schisin ," as they termed it,
every term on its page there is a living flower vanished when these several documents were ex
or tree in the actual landscape ; and a map of the amined , and it was seen that there was substantial
heavens is true only when for every star named agreement among them ; that on one point only did
in it there is an actual star shining in the sky. they differ ," and that all were united in their repu
So of the Augsburg Confession, and all Confessions, diation and condemnation of Rome.
they are true, and of authority , and safe guides Moreover, powerful princes were passing from the
only when every statement they contain has its Romanist to the Protestant side. The Archbishop
corresponding doctrine in the Scriptures. Their Hermann , Elector of Cologne, the Count Palatine
authority is not in themselves, but in the Word Frederick, Duke Eric of Brunswick -Luneburg, Duke
Henry of Mecklenburg, and the Dukes of Pome
to the Emperor Charles V . From thence wewent to the rania were gained to the truth , and their accession
cathedral,where there is a gate of brass, overwhich many wellnigh doubled the political strength of the Re
places of the sacred history are represented in basso relievo,
and they made us observe in the history of the creation
that it was the Virgin Mary who created Eve, and formed i Corp. Ref., p . 187. Sleidan, bk . vii., p . 130.
her out of one of Adam 's ribs.” (Misson , vol. i., p. 135 .) ? Fra- Paolo Sarpi, tom . i., lib. i., p. 102.
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS ON THE REFORMATION . 603
formation . These trophies of the power of the Con- the Bishop of Wartzburg. “ Spoken like a true
fession were viewed as pledges of more numerous and obedient son,” said the courtier Brentz ; “ but
conversions to be effected in time to come. Nor pray, my lord, do not, for the mother, forget either
were these hopes disappointed. The Confession was the father or the son.” “ It is not the cure , but
translated into most of the languages of Europe, the physician who prescribes it, that I dislike," said
and circulated in the various countries ; the mis- the Archbishop of Salzburg, who had been pecu
representations and calumnies which had obscured liarly bitter against the Reformers. “ I would
and distorted the cause were cleared away ; and oblige the laity with the cup, and the priests with
Protestantism began to be hailed as a movement wives, and all with a little more liberty as regards
bringing with it renovation to the soul and new meats, nor am I opposed to some reformation of
life to States. the mass ; but that it should be a monk , a poor
It was the morning of the day following that on Augustine, who presumes to reform us all, is what
which the Confession had been read , the 26th of I cannot get over.” i “ Nor I,” responded another
June. The emperor had just awoke. He had slept bishop, “ that a little town should teach all the
badly, and was wearied and irritable. The affair world ; and that the ancient and orthodox waters
of yesterday recurred to his mind, and a feeling of of Rome should be forsaken for the heretical and
melancholy began to weigh upon him . Hehad made paltry stream that Wittemberg sends forth , is not
a bad beginning of the enterprise arranged between to be thought of.” It was the old objection , “ Can
himself and the Pope at Bologna. Lutheranism any good thing come out of Nazareth ?”
stood better in the eyes of the world , and had more of themen now assembling around Charles, some
adherents around it now than when he entered blamed themselves as well as the Lutherans. The
Augsburg. He must bethink him how he can Bishop of Salzburg, whom we have just mentioned
correct his first false move. At that moment the as more than ordinarily hostile to the Reformation ,
count palatine, looking as much out of sorts as was by no means blind to the degeneracy of Rome,
his master, entered the imperial apartment. His and made a very frank confession on that head
eye caught the anxious face of the emperor, and one day to Melancthon , who was insisting on a
divining the cause of his uneasiness, “ Wemust,” reformation in the lives of the clergy. The arch
said he, “ yield something to the Lutheran bishop could not help expressing his opinion of
princes.” A feeling of relief to the mind of the hopelessness of such a thing, not because it
Charles accompanied these words ; and the count was not needed, but simply because it was chimeri
went on to say that it might not be ungraceful cal. “ What," he exclaimed abruptly , “ reform us ?
to make the concessions which the Emperor Maxi- we priests have always been good for nothing."
milian was willing to grant. “ What were they ?” The archbishop was of opinion that there was not
inquired the monarch . “ These three : communion left enough of backbone in the priesthood to stand
in both kinds, the marriage of priests, and freedom the process. The cure would certainly kill it. A
with regard to fasts,” rejoined the count palatine. Greater had pronounced the same judgment on the
The thing pleased Charles. It left untouched the corrupt priesthood of a former age. “ If the salt
mass and the authority of the Church. It was a have lost its savour, . . . it is fit neither for
small sacrifice to prevent a great evil. the land nor for the dunghill, but men cast it out
In a little while Granvelle and Campeggio arrived and it is trodden under foot."
They were told the counsel which the count palatine Charles had got the Diet which he had sum
had given , and which seemed good in the cyes of moned in so high hopes, and to which he had come
the emperor. It was not equally good in the eyes in such magnificent state, not doubting that he was
of these Churchmen. At the conferences at advancing to a scene of victory ; he had got more : he
Bologna, Campeggio, as we have seen, had only had got the Lutheran Confession — not a confession
one course to recommend, one remedy for all the of trespass against their mother the Church , and a
heresies of the day — the sword. He was of the cry for the pardon of the Pope and the emperor,
same opinion at Augsburg as at Bologna. Con - which he had prepared himself to hear, but a bold
cession would only lead to greater concessions. justification of all the doctrines the princes had
The counsel of the count palatine was not good , professed, and all the steps they had taken - in
said the cardinal, and Campeggio had the art to short, a flag of revolt unfurled at the very foot of
persuade Charles to reject it. the imperial throne. Before punishing the offences
Other arrivals soon followed , mainly ecclesiastics, of nine years ago by executing the Edict of Worms,
who reinforced the legate in the position he had
taken up. “ I stay with the mother,” exclaimed 1 Corp. Ref., ii. 155 . ,
he must deal with this new development of bassadors from the imperial cities, and they are here
Lutheranism . If he should pass it over in silence , by command of the emperor. Before beginning his
on the pretext that it was an affair of dogmas first lesson in Lutheran divinity , Charles will try
merely , he would be virtually tolerating the Protes- what can be done with the towns.
tant faith ,and must nevermore mention the Worms Free towns have in all ages been objects of special
proscription. If, on the other hand, he should jealousy and dislike to despots. The free cities of
call on the princes to retract, he must be prepared Germany were no exception to this rule. Charles
with something like reasonable grounds for demand- viewed them with suspicion and abhorrence. They
ing their. submission , and, if need were, extorting were the great stumbling-blocks in his path to that
it. He must steer between the Scylla of coercion universal monarchy which it was his ambition to
and the Charybdis of toleration. This was all as erect. But of the free imperial towns fourteen had
yet the Diet had done for him . It had brought given special cause of displeasure to the emperor.
him new perplexities— more sleepless nights. It They had refused to submit to the Recess of the
was mortifying to have to write to Clement VII. last Diet of Spires , that of 1529. The names of
that the project they had spent a winter together the offending cities were Strasburg , Nuremberg,
at Bologna in concocting was speeding so ill — was, Constance, Ulm , Reutlingen, Heilbronn, Memmin
in fact, marching backwards. gen, Lindau, Kempten, Windsheim , Isny, and
Every hour was precious. Before sitting down Weissemburg. Their non -adherence to the Recess
to breakfast, steps had to be taken. Of the two of the Diet had created a split in the Empire. An
courses open to him — tolerate or coerce — it was attempt must bemade to heal the breach , and bring
clear that the latter was the one that must be taken back the contumacious cities before their evil ex
in the last resort. But the emperor's edicts must ample had been followed by the others. Their
be backed by reasons ; and now it was that Charles deputies were now gathered, along with the rest,
painfully felt his unskilfulness in theology. Dis- into the imperial ante -chamber. Frederick, count
tracted rather than aided by the conflicting opinions palatine, was sent to them to say, “ that in the last
and contrary counsels of the men around him , he Diet of Spires (1529) a decree had been made,which
resolved to look a little into this matter for himself, had been obeyed by most of the States, much to the
and for this end he ordered his secretary to pre- emperor's satisfaction , but that some of the cities
pare a French translation of the Confession. Two had rejected it, to the weakening of the Empire ,
copies, as we have said , had been handed to Charles , and that Charles now called on them to submit to
the one in Latin and the other in German ; but he the Diet.” 1
thought he could better see the theological bearings Little had they expected , when they assembled
of Lutheranism and the idiomatic beauties ofMelanc- that morning in the ante-chamber of the monarch ,
thon in French than in either of the other two to have a demand like this made upon them . The
languages. He required perfect accuracy of his eloquent words of Melancthon were still ringing in
secretary. “ See,” said he, “ that not a word be their ears ; they felt more convinced than ever,
wanting.” The Lutheran princes who heard these after listening to his beautifully perspicuous and
words were pleased with the emperor's wish to be powerfully convincing exposition, that their faith
well-informed in their cause ; and took them as was founded on the Word of God, and that they
a sign that he leaned to their side— a somewhat could not abandon it without peril to their souls ;
narrow foundation for so great a conclusion . The they had witnessed , only the day before, the elation
courtiers who knew the emperor better, shook their of their brethren at this triumphant vindication ,
heads when they learned that the Lutherans were and they had shared their feelings. They had
reckoning Charles among the converts of the elo - marked, too, the obvious perplexity into which the
quent document of Melancthon. It had already reading of the Confession had thrown the Romanists,
made some illustrious disciples among the lay how troubled their faces, how uneasy their atti
princes ; and one or two prince-bishops, as Cologne tudes, how significant the glances they exchanged
and Augsburg, it had almost persuaded to be with one another , and how frankly some of them
Lutherans ; but the head that wore the diadem had confessed that Melancthon 's paper contained
was not to be numbered among those that were only the truth ! A concession or an overture of
to bow to the force of truth. conciliation would not have surprised them ; but
While the emperor is seated at the breakfast that the minister of Charles should on the morrow
table , the ante -chamber begins to be filled with a after this great triumph be the bearer of such a
crowd of deputies. Who are they, and why are
they here at this early hour ! They are the am i Sleidan, bk. vii., p . 130 .
THE IMPERIAL CITIES ADHERE TO THEIR PROTEST. 605
demand from the emperor did beyond measure everlasting corner -stone of freedom and virtue— an
astonish them . They had won the field ; with emancipated conscience . But an emancipated con
them had remained the moral victory ; but the science did not mean a lawless conscience, or a
vanquished suddenly put on the air of a conqueror. conscience guided by itself. Above conscience their
The Protestant cities were asked to submit to Protest placed the Word of God — the light- the
the edict of the Diet of 1529. Let us see how voice saying, “ This is the way." Above the Word
much was involved in that demand. The Diet of they placed the Spirit that speaks in it They gave
1529 abolished the toleration of 1526 . Not only to no man and no Church the power of authori
so : it placed an arrest upon the Protestant move- tatively interpreting the Scriptures ; and they took
ment, and enacted that it should advance not a care to guard against the tyranny of which Scrip
foot-breadth beyond the limits it had reached when ture had been made the instrument in the hands
the Recess of the Diet was published. As regarded of infallible interpreters ; for he who can inter
all who were already Protestants, it graciously per - pret the law as he pleases, can make the law to be
mitted them to remain so ; but from this day for what it suits him . Scripture alone, they said , can
ward, while Germany stood , not a prince, not a city, interpret Scripture. Thus they proclaimed the su
not an individual should enrol his name in the Pro - premacy of Scripture, not as a fetter on the under
testant ranks or leave the Church of Rome, what standing, but a Divine bulwark around it. Above
ever his convictions or wishes might be. It went the Supremacy of Scripture they placed the supre
further ; it provided for the re -introduction of the macy of the Spirit who inspired it ; and in doing
mass, and the whole machinery of Romanism , into so they reared another rampart around the liberty
Protestant provinces and cities. While it strin - of the understanding.
gently forbade all proselytising on the Protestant An emancipated conscience they committed to
side, it gave unbounded licence to it on the Popish. the guardianship of the Bible : and the supremacy
What could happen, under an arrangement of this of the Bible they placed under the sovereignty of
sort, but that Protestantism should wither and God. Thus they brought conscience in immediate
disappear ? One could prognosticate the year, al- contact with her Lord, and human society they
most the very day, when it would be extinct. It placed under the rule of its rightful and righteous
was at this hour, with the Augsburg Confession king.
lying on the emperor's table, that the free cities The Protest of 1529 was thus a grand era of re
were asked to assist in arranging for the funeral storation and reconciliation. It restored society to
obsequies of Protestantism . God. Romehad divorced the two. She had come in
Nor does even this fully bring out the folly which between God and society by her assumed exclusive
Charles committed in making such a demand, and and infallible power of interpreting the Scriptures.
the treason of which the free cities would have been She made the law speak what she pleased , and thus
guilty against the truth and the world , had they for the government of God she had substituted her
yielded to it. The Recess of 1529 was the act that own . Protestantism came to re -institute the Divine
had led them to send forth the great Protest from government over the world . It did so by placing
which they took their name. To adhere to the the authority of Scripture above the chair of the
Recess was to abandon their Protest— was to pull Pope, and lifting the crown of Christ above the
down their flag as it floated before the eyes of all throne of the emperor.
Christendom , a sign and promise to the nations So grand a restoration could not be evolved in a
of a glorious redemption from a great slavery . day, or even in a century. But the Protest of
They had not thought much of the act at the 1529 had all this in it. The stable basis, the
time ; but the more they pondered it, the more they majestic order, the ever -expanding greatness and
saw they had been led by a wisdom not their own power of Protestant States lay all enfolded in its
to take up a position that was one of themost com - three mighty principles - Conscience, the Scriptures,
prehensive and sublime in all history. With their the Spirit - each in its order and subordination .
Protest had come new liberties to the soul of man , This simple Protest contained all, as the acorn
and new rights and powers to human society. contains the oak , or as the morning contains the
Their Protest had deposited in Christendom the one noonday.
CHAPTER XXV.
ATTEMPTED REFUTATION OF THE CONFESSION .
What is to be done with the Confession ? - Perplexity of the Romanists - The Confession to be Refuted - Eck and
Twenty Others chosen for this Work - Luther's Warnings - Melancthon 's and Charles's Forecast - Wrestlings in
the Coburg – The Fourteen Protestant Free Cities - Refutation of the Confession - Vapid and Lengthy - Rejected
by the Emperor - A Second Attempt - The Emperor's Sister - Her Influence with Charles - The Playof the Masks.
“ ADHERE to the Recess of 1529 and abandon barrassment, that Charles found in the multitude
your Protest,” was the message delivered from of his counsellors. There were three distinct par
Charles to the ambassadors of the fourteen free ties in the body around him . We shall not, said
cities, gathered in the imperial ante-chamber on one party,chop logic with our opponents ; while we
the morning of the 26th June, 1530. When are entangled in a theological labyrinth, they may
we think that that Protest meant a new age, escape. We have but one course to pursue, even
which was bearing in with it Luther and the to execute the Edict of Worms.? Another party ,
Protestant princes and cities, instead of being better acquainted with the secret wishes of Charles,
borne in by them , how foolish does that demand said , “ Let us refer thematter to the decision of the
look , even when it comes from one who wore so emperor.” There came yet a third, formed of those
many crowns, and had so numerous armies at his who were somewhat vain of their traditional lore,
command ! The deputies made answer that in a and not unwilling to show it. “ Let a few doctors,"
matter of so great moment timemust be given them said they, “ be appointed to write a Refutation of
to deliberate. They retired , to return with their the Lutheran Confession, which may be read to the
answer in writing only on the 7th of July . While princes, and ratified by the emperor."
the cities are preparing their reply, another matter It was not the bishops who urged the emperor
calls for consideration. What is to be done with to extreme and violent courses . They rather, on
the Confession lying on the emperor's table ? and the whole, employed their influence to check the
what stepsare to be taken to bring over the Elector sanguinary zeal of others. “ I cannot advise his
John and the other Protestant princes ? majesty to employ force,” said Albert of Mainz,
We have seen the emperor dismiss the repre - but the reason he assigned for his temperate
sentatives of the Protestant cities with an injunc. counsels somewhat detracts from their generosity,
tion to take counsel and bring him word how they “ lest when the emperor retires the Lutherans
meant to act in the matter of the Decree of Spires, retaliate upon the priests, and the Turk come in ,
and whether they were prepared to abandon their in the end of the day, and reap with his scimitar
Protest of 1529. Scarcely have they left his pre- what the Lutheran sword may have left.” The
sence when he summons a council of the Popish Bishop of Augsburg drew upon himself the sus
members of the Diet. They have been called picion of a heretic in disguise by the lengths he
together to give advice respecting another matter was willing to go in conciliating the Protestants.
that claims urgent attention from the emperor. The Sacraments in both kinds, and the marriage
The Confession of the Protestant princes is lying of the priests, he was prepared to concede ; even
on his table ; what is to be done with it ? Luther- more, were it necessary - pointing evidently to pri
anism is not at Wittemberg only : it is here, in the vate masses. “ Masses !” exclaimed some ; " abolish
Palatinate Palace of Augsburg : protesting with masses ! why not say at once the kitchens of the
eloquent voice against the tyranny that would sup- cardinals ?" All the ecclesiastics , however, were
press it : crying aloud before the Diet, as by-and-by, not so conciliatory. The Archbishop of Salzburg
if not silenced, it will cry before all Christendom , said tartly , “ The Lutherans have laid before us a
that Rome has corrupted the faith, and is become Confession written with black ink on white paper.
apostate. “ What shall we do ?" asked the emperor, Well, if I were emperor, I would answer them
of the princes and bishops now gathered round him , with red ink.” ?
“ how shall we dispose of this document?" Some of the lay princes were the most fanatical
The emperor's interrogatory was the signal for
the expression of a number of contrary opinions. i Corp. Ref., ii. 154 - D 'Aubigné, bk . xiv., chap. 8.
It was not wise guidance, but distraction and em 3 Ibid ., ii. 147 - D ’Aubigné.
1
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THE
and fiery in the council. George of Saxony and councils could not unravel the deep plot of your
Joachim of Brandenburg outdid the most violent tragedy, much less could I. If any one starts a
of the priests . The former hated Luther with a proposition that has common sense on its side, it is
fervour that seemed to increase with his years, at once set down as Lutheranism ." But, changing
and the latter was known as a hair-brained fool, his tactics when he addressed himself to the other
whom the mere mention of the word “ Lutheran ”
sufficed to kindle into a rage. These two nobles mwords wormoaherbalbelfound
bles side,
emor at tthe
forns the Romanists a few pleasant
xpe of the Lutherans. What a
he eexpense R e
e e naissai
pressed forward and gave their voices yfor war. memorable example is Erasmus of the difference
those of w,hthey
Argument was tedious and uncertain rged between the Renaissance and the Reformation — the
e uurged
especially with sophists like those of Wittemberg ; revival of letters and the revival of principles !
the sword was summary and much more to be But the Confession must be refuted, and for the
relied upon. There was present a certain Count preparation of such a work Rome can employ only
Felix of Werdenberg, whom the word war seemed such theologians as she possesses. Faber, who had
to electrify . Scenting the battle from afar, he been promoted to the Archbishopric of Vienna ;
started up, and said , “ If there is to be fighting Eck , the opponent and vituperator of Luther ;
against the Lutherans, I offer my sword, and I Cochlæus, the Archdeacon of Frankfort, with seven
swear not to return it to its scabbard till the teen others, mostly Dominican monks, twenty in
stronghold of Luther has been laid in the dust." all, were told off to write an answer to the Con
Count Felix doubtless would have backed these fession of the Protestant princes.
valorous words by not less valorous deeds but These were all extreme Romanists. It was clear
for the circumstance that, regaling himself with what sort of instrument would issue from such a
too copious draughts from the wine-flagon, he died workshop. That these men would make any at
a few days thereafter. It was the fanatical men tempt to meet the views of the Lutherans, or that
who carried it in the council. Even the proposal they would look candidly at the reasonings of
of the middle party was rejected, which was to Melancthon, and grapple seriously with them , much
$$ overtirn, believed to her , but no
leave the matter to the adjudication of the em - less overturn them , was what no one expected.
peror. That implied , the extreme men argued , Campeggio is believed to have been the man who
that there were two parties and two causes. This gave in this list of names ; but no one knew
was to misapprehend the matter wholly , said they. better than himself the utter futility of what he
There was but one party , the Empire even , and was setting his nominees to do. The decided
but one cause ; for that of the Lutherans was re- character of the committee was a virtual declara
bellion , and to be dealt with only by the sword. tion that there was to be no concession, and that
But before unsheathing the sword , they would Rome was meditating no surrender. Those who
first make trial with the pen . They would employ feared conciliation were now able to dismiss their
violence with all the better grace afterwards fears, and those who wished for it were compelled
They agreed that a Refutation of the Confession to lay aside their vain hopes. “ Doctor," inquired
should be drawn up.
use the boked tože Bible Bible halost of thond
Of course the theologians of the party were the
the Duke of Bavaria, addressing Eck , “ can you
confute that paper ont of the Bible !” “ No,"
men who were looked to , to undertake this task - replied he, “ but it may be easily done from the
an impossible one if the Bible was to count for Fathers and Councils.” “ I understand ," rejoined
anything, but at Augsburg the Bible had about as the duke, “ I understand ; the Lutherans are in
little standing as the Confession . Most of the Scripture, and we are outside.” ] The worthy
Popish princes had brought their divines and Chancellor of Ingolstadt was of the same opinion
learned men with them to the Diet. “ Some,” said with another of his co-religionists , that nothing is
Jonas, “ have brought their ignoramuses.” Coch- to be made of Protestants so long as they remain
læus, Jonas ranks in this class. Faber and Eck within the castle of the Bible ; but bring them from
held a better position , being men of some learning, their stronghold down into the level plain of
though only of second-rate ability, if so much tradition , and nothing is easier than to conquer
There was but one man of surpassing talent and them .
scholarship outside the Protestant pale, Erasmus, The clear eye of Luther saw what was coming.
and he was not at Augsburg. He had been He knew that it was not in Dr. Eck , and the
invited by both parties , but their solicitations whole cohort of his coadjutors to boot, to refute
failed to woo him from his retreat at Basle. The the Confession of Melancthon , and that there was
great scholar sent characteristic excuses of absence
to both . To the Protestants he wrote, “ Ten Mathesius, Hist., p. 99.
LUTHER IN THE COBURG CASTLE. 609
but one alternative, namely, that the strong sword This forecast of the issue on the part of all three
of Charles should come in to repress what logic affected each of them very differently. Melancthon
could not confute. “ You are waiting for your it almost overwhelmed in despair ; Charles it stung
adversaries' answer," wrote he to his friends at into a morose and gloomy determination to avenge
Augsburg ; “ it is already written, and here it is : himself on a cause which had thrust itself into the
The Fathers, the Fathers, the Fathers ; the midst of his great projects to thwart and vex him ;
Church, the Church , the Church ; usage, custom ; Luther , on the other hand, it inspired with courage,
but of the Scriptures - - nothing. Then the em - we might say with defiance, if we can so charac
peror, supported by the testimony of these arbiters, terise that scornful yet holy disdain in which he
will pronounce against you ; and then will you hear held all who were warring against Protestantism ,
boastings on all sides that will ascend up to heaven, from Charles down to Dr. Eck and Cochlæus. As
and threatenings that will descend even to hell.” regards Luther and Melancthon , the difference
The same issue was now shaping itself to the eye between them was this : Melancthon thought that
of other two men - Melancthon and the Emperor the sword of the emperor would kill the cause ,
Charles. But though all three - Luther, Melanc- Luther knew that it would kill only its adherents,
The causeonviction. Thathat the King in permitted
thon, and Charles — had arrived at this conclusion, and through their death give life to the cause.
they had arrived at it by different roads. Luther The cause was God's : of this he had the firmest
in the Coburg, like the astronomer in his watch - possible conviction. That şurely meant victory. If
tower, with eyes uplifted from earth and fixed on not, it came to this, that the King of Heaven
heaven, deduced the future course of affairs from could do only what the King of Spain permitted
the known laws of the Divine government, and him to do ; and that Christ must go forward or
the known facts of the Protestant and Popish must turn back , must uphold this cause and
systems. Melancthon came to his conclusion to a abandon that, as the emperor willed in other
large extent by sense. At Augsburg he had a words, that Charles and not God was the ruler of
close view of the parties arrayed against him ; he the world .
heard their daily threats, and knew the intrigues We are compelled to ask, when we see the
at work around him , and felt that they could have courageous man shut up in the Coburg, and the
only a violent end. The emperor divined the timid and trembling one sent into the field , was
dénoûment on grounds peculiar to himself. He this the best arrangement ? Was the right man
had sounded Luther as to whether he was willing in the right place ? The arrangement we would
to abide by his decision of the question. The Re- have made would have been exactly the reverse.
former replied through the Elector John : “ If the We would have sent the strong man to fight the
emperor wish it, let him be judge. But let him battle, and withdrawn the weak and feeble one
decide nothing contrary to the Word of God. into the retreat of the Coburg, there to commune
Your highness cannot put the emperor above and to pray. But in this, as in other instances, we
God himself." . This was Luther's way of saying are taught that God's ways are not as our ways,
that in spiritual things the State possessed no nor his thoughts as our thoughts. The actual
jurisdiction. This swept away a hope to which arrangement was the best. It was the strong man
till now the emperor had cluny — that the matter that was needed to pray ; it was the weak one that
would be left to his arbitration. This he saw was fitted to receive and act upon the answer.
could not now be. On the other hand, the extreme It is only the prayer of faith that prevails, and
party among the Romanists were the majority at it is only to a great faith that great blessings are
Augsburg. They were ruling in the Diet ; they given. Melancthon, therefore , would have been
were ruling at Rome also ; and they would no out of place in the Coburg : but his weakness in
more leave the final determination of the question the field illustrated the power of his Master, and
in the hands of Charles than the Protestants showed who was doing the work. Besides, the
would . To the emperor nothing would remain lengths he was willing to go to meet the Papists - -
but the by no means enviable and dignified task and he went much further than Luther would have
of executing the resolve on which he saw the done- only the more manifestly put Rome in the
fanatical advisers of the Papacy were determined wrong, and left the blame of the final rupture
to precipitate the controversy - namely, the employ - with her.
ment of force. But if Luther with uplifted hands drew down
daily strength from the skies , as the conductor
1 Luth. Opp.,iv. 96.— D'Aubigné, bk. xiv ., chap.8. draws down the electric fire from the clouds, it
• Ibid., iv . 83 – D 'Aubigné. was to send on the Divine influence, which de
610 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM ,
scended from above, to those who had so much the legate Campeggio , and the Popish theologians
need of it at Augsburg. Faith begets faith, and at Augsburg saw only Melancthon. They beheld
Luther became as God to Melancthon and the men him dejected, bending under a load of anxieties,
around him . Let us enter the Coburg. The voice and coming to them each day with a new concession
as of a man in a great agony falls on our ear. He or explanation , if haply it might end the battle.
groans, he cries ; he cries yet more earnestly . The adversary with whom they were all the while
Whose voice is it ? Listen . It is Luther's. We contending, however , was one they saw not— one
need not enter his chamber ; we can distinctly who was out of their reach — the man of prayer in
hear every word where we stand outside his closet the Coburg, or rather the God-man at the right
door in the corridor. “ I have once heard him hand of Power in heaven — the Ancient of Days .
praying," wrote Veit Deitrich , a friend, who at We have seen the emperor send away two com
times visited the Reformer in the castle, “ com - missions, with instructions to each to deliberate
muning with God as a Father and Friend, and on the matter referred to it, and return on a
reminding him of his own promises from the future day with the answer. They are here , in the
Psalms, which he was certain would be made good presence of the emperor , to give in their report.
--- I know , O God , thou art our dear God and First come the representatives of the fourteen cities
Father : therefore am I certain that thou wilt de- which had refused adherence to the Edict of Spires,
stroy the persecutors of thy Church. If thou dost 1529. Of these cities some were of Zwingle's
not destroy them , thou art in like danger with us. sentiments on the Sacrament, while others agreed
It is thy own cause. The enemies of the cross with the Augsburg Confession. This difference of
of Christ assault us. It appertains to thee and the opinion had introduced the wedge of discord , and
honour of thy name to protect thy confessors at had raised the hopes of the emperor. Neverthe.
Augsburg. Thou hast promised ; thou wilt do it ; less, in the presence of the common foe, they were
for thou hast done it from the beginning. Let united and firm . They replied to Charles “ that
thine help shine forth in this extremity.'” . they were not less desirous than their ancestors
The prayer has gone up ; it has knocked at had been to testify all loyalty and obedience to his
the gates of the eternal temple ; it has unlocked imperial majesty, but that they could not adhere
the fountains of God's power ; and now an air to the Recess of Spires without disobeying God,
celestial fills the chamber of the Coburg, and a and compromising the salvation of their souls." ?
Divine strength is infused into the soul of its in - Thus the hope vanished which the emperor had
mate. What Luther has freely received he freely cherished of detaching the cities from the princes,
gives to others. He sends it onward to Augsburg and so weakening the Protestant front.
thus:— “ What is the meaning," writes he to The next body to appear at the foot of the
Melancthon, “ of fearing, trembling, caring, and emperor's throne, with an account of their labours,
sorrowing ? Will he not be with us in this world 's were the twenty theologians to whom had been
trifles who has given us his own Son ? In pri- entrusted the important matter of preparing an
vate troubles I am weak , and you are strong - answer to the Protestant Confession . They had
if, at least, I can call private the conflicts I have gone to work with a will, meeting twice a day ;
with Satan — but in public trials I am what you and we can do justice to their zeal only when we
are in private. The cause is just and true — it is reflect that it was now on the eve of the dog-days.
Christ's cause. Miserable saintling that I am ! I Eck and his company showed themselves experts
may well turn pale and tremble for myself, but at producing what they understood to be wanted ,
I can never fear for the cause.” “ I pray, have a condemnation rather than a refutation . Eck had
prayed , and shall pray for thee, Philip,” he wrote declared beforehand that the latter could not be
in another letter, “ and I have felt the Amen in forthcoming if Scripture were allowed a hearing.
my heart.” “ Our Lord Jesus Christ,” he wrote This very considerably simplified and lightened the
to Jonas, “ is King of kings and Lord of lords. task , and in a fortnight Eck and his coadjutors
If he disown the title at Augsburg, he must gave in a document of not less than 280 pages. In
disown it in heaven and earth. Amen." 1 point of bulk this performance might have sufficed
So did the battle proceed on the two sides. to refute not one but a dozen such Confessions as
Wiles, frowns, threats, with the sword as the last that of Augsburg. Charles surveyed the ponderous
resort, are seen on the one side - prayers , tears , Refutation with dismay. He appeared to divine
and faith on the other. The Emperor Charles , that it would only fortify that which it was meant
i Seckendorf, lib. ii., sec. 32, p. 182. · Sleidan,bk. vii., p. 130.
THE EMPEROR AND THE COMEDIANS. 611
to overthrow , and overthrow that which it was tor's gown, tottered across the floor, carrying a
intended to fortify. It did not improve on closer burden of sticks, some long, some short. Throwing
acquaintance. It was vapid as well as bulky. It down the sticks on the hearth in confusion , he
was pointless as a “ Refutation,” and vigorous only in turned to retire. On his back, now displayed to
its abuse. Its call for “ blood " was unmistakable.? . the courtiers, was the name — John REUCHLIN .
Charles saw that it would never do to give the A second mask now entered , also attired as a doc
world an opportunity of contrasting the lumbering tor. He went up to the hearth, and began deftly
periods and sanguinary logic of Eck, with the terse arranging the sticks. He worked assiduously for
and perspicuous style and lofty sentiments of a little while, but, despite his pains, the long and
Melancthon . Her worst foe could not do Rome short, the crooked and the straight, would not
a more unkindly act, or Wittemberg a greater pair ; so, giving up his task, with a sardonic smile
service, than to publish such a document. Another on his countenance, he made his exit. Charles and
Refutation must be prepared ; yet even this in his lords, as he walked out, read on his back
spired but little hope, for to whom could the ERASMUS OF ROTTERDAM . The comedy was be
emperor commit the task , except to the old hands ?
ginning to have interest. A third now entered :
Letters, too, alas ! were going over to the side of
this time it was a monk, in the frock and cowl of
Wittemberg ; and soon nothing would remain with the Augustines. With keen eye and firm step he
Rome but one thing — the sword . crossed the hall, bearing a brazier filled with live
But the Reformation was not yet able to endure coals. He raked the sticks together, not waiting
persecution , and meanwhile friends of the Gospel to sort them , put a coal underneath the heap, blew
were placed one after another near Charles, to it up, and soon a blazing fire was roaring on the
pluck away his hand when it was laid on his hearth . As he withdrew he showed on his back
sword's hilt, with intent to unsheathe and use it Martin LUTHER. The plot was thickening.
against the Gospel. He had buried Gattinara , the A fourth appeared — a stately personage, covered
friend of toleration, at Innspruck . This left the with the insignia of empire. He gazes with dis
legate Campeggio without a rival in the imperial pleasure at the fire. He draws his sword , and
councils. But only three days after the reading plunges it in amongst the burning faggots ; the
of the Confession two ladies of high rank came more they are stirred the more fiercely they blaze.
to Augsburg, whose quiet but powerful influence He strikes again and again ; the flame mounts
restored the balance broken by the death of higher, and the red sparks fall thicker around.
Gattinara. The one was Mary, the sister of the It is plain that he is feeding, not quenching,the fire.
emperor, and widow of Louis, King of Hungary ; Themask turns and strides across the hall in great
the other was her sister-in -law , the Queen of anger. He has no name, nor is it necessary ;
Bohemia , and wife of Ferdinand of Austria . The every one divines it, though no one utters it.
study of the Scriptures had opened to both the Yet another — a fifth ! He comes forward with
way to peace. Their hearts had been won for solemn and portly air. His robes, which are of
the Gospel, and when Campeggio approached to great magnificence, are priestly . He wears a triple
instil his evil counsel into the ear of the emperor, crown on his head , and the keys of St. Peter are
these two ladies were able , by a word fitly spoken , suspended from his girdle. On seeing the fire this
to neutralise its effects upon the mind of their great personage is seized with sudden anguish , and
brother, and draw him back from the paths of wrings his hands. He looks round for something
violence to which, at the instigation of the legate, with which to extinguish it. He espies at the
he seemed about to commit himself.” farther end of the hall two vessels, one containing
In those days truth could sometimes be spoken water and the other oil. He rushes eagerly to
to princes in a figure when it dared not be told get hold of the one containing the water ; in his
them in plain language. One day, during his stay hurry he clutches the wrong vessel, that filled with
in Augsburg, as Charles sat at dinner with his the oil, and empties it on the fire. The fire
lords, a 'message was brought to him that some blazes up with a fury that singes his priestly robe,
comedians wished to amuse him and his guests. 3 This, of course, was before the Vatican decree of
Instant permission was given, for the request was 1870 . Such a mistake is not conceivable now ; although
in accordance with the manners of the age, and it perplexes one to think that the Popes of the age of
excited no suspicion . First an old man, in a doc Leo X . were, according to the decree , as infallible as
those of the days of Pio Nono ; seeing the latter- with
greater generosity than prudence, we think - has ad .
i Corp. Ref., ii. 193 – 198. mitted all his predecessors to partnership with him in
2 Seckendorf, lib. ü ., sec. 32 , p. 183. his attribute of inerrability.
SWALE
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THE PELLER COURT AT NUREMBERG .

and compels Theits comedy
unfortunate wearer to escape for thyself,” said the prophet, when he read the
his Thesafety.
authors of this i s
playat an end.
never came forward writing
the men onwhothe nowwall interpreted
of the king'sin palace.
the So said
Palatinate
toor toreceive
claim thethe praise duereward
pecuniary to theirusuallyingenuity,
forth. PalacePapacy."
the of Augsburg the fate of the Empire and
itcoming
wouldon besuchrewardoccasions.enoughTheyif doubtless
the emperor held D'Aubigné, bk. riy ., chap.9. Worsley, Lifeof Luther,
profited by its moral. “ Let thy gifts be to vol. ij.,pp. 226,227.
52
CHAPTER XXVI.
END OF THE DIET OF AUGSBURG .
Diplomacy - The Protestant Princes — John the Steadfast - Bribes and Threatenings - Second Refutation of the
Confession - Submission Demanded from the Protestants - They Refuse - Luther's Faith - Romanists resume
Negotiations- Melancthon 's Concessions- Melancthon 's Fall - Al. Hopes of Reconciliation Abandoned - Recess
of the Diet - Mortification and Defeat of the Emperor.
CHARLES V . laughed at the humour of the comedy, emperor would make short work with the theo
but did not ponder the wisdom of its moral. He logians. Why the latter should be so obstinate
went on poking amongst the red faggots, first with the emperor could not imagine, unless it were that
diplomacy and next with the sword, but with no they stood behind the broad shield of the elector.
other result than that which the nameless authors Charles sent for John , and endeavoured to shake
of the piece acted in the Palace of the Palatinate him by promises . When it was found that these
had warned him would ensue, that of kindling could not detach him from the Protestant Con
a fire on the wide hearth of Europe, which would fession , the emperor strove to terrify him by
in the end not merely singe the hem of the Pon- threats. He would take from him his electoral
tifical robe and the fringe of the Imperial mantle , hat ; he would chase him from his dominions ; he
but would consume the body of both Empire and would let loose against him the whole power of
Papacy. the Empire, and crush him as a potsherd. John
The emperor had endeavoured to introduce the saw himself standing on the brink of an abyss.
thin end of the wedge, which he hoped would split He must make his choice between his crown and
up the Protestant free cities : an attempt, however, his Saviour. Melancthon and all the divines con
which came to nothing. The Lutheran princes jured the elector not to think of them . They were
were to be next essayed . ready that moment to endure any manner of death
They were taken one by one, in the hope that the emperor might decree against them , if that
they would be found less firm when single than would appease his wrath. The elector refused to
they were when taken together . Great offers profit by this magnanimous purpose of self-devotion.
loftier titles, larger territories , more consideration He replied with equal magnanimity to the theo
- were made to them , would they but return to logians that “ he also must confess his Lord ." He
the Church . When bribes failed to seduce them , went back to the emperor , and calmly announced
threats were had recourse to. They were given his resolution by saying that “ he had to crave
to understand that, stripped of title and territory of his majesty that he would permit him and his
they would be turned adrift upon the world as to render an account to God in those matters that
poor as the meanest of their subjects. They were concerned the salvation of their souls." John
reminded that their religion was a new one ; that risked all ; but in the end he retained all, and
their adherence to it branded all their ancestors amply vindicated his title to the epithet given
as heretics ; that they were a minority in the him — “ John the Constant."
Empire ; and that it was madness in them to After six weeks, the trio - Faber, Eck , and
defy the power and provoke the ire of the emperor. Cochlæus- produced, with much hard labour and
Neither were threats able to bend them to sub - strain of mind, another Refutation of the Con
mission. They had come to the Diet of 1526 fession , or rather the former remodelled and
with the words written upon their shields, Verbum abbreviated . Charles could show no less honour
Domini manet in eternum — the word of the Lord to the work of his doctors than had been shown
endureth for ever - and, steadfast to their motto , to the Confession of Melancthon . On the 3rd
their faith taught them not to fear the wrath of September he sat down upon his throne, and
the powerful Charles. No efforts were spared calling his princes round him , commanded the
to conepel the Elector John to bow the neck.
If he should yield , the strength of the confederacy
Refurines which are the Divinity ofoth It also
Refutation to be read in their presence. In those
doctrines which are common to both creeds, such
would be broken - so it was thought - and the as the Trinity and the Divinity of Christ , the
Refutation agreed with the Confession. It also
i Sleidan , bk. vii., pp . 132 , 133. made an admission which would , but for the
FLIGHT OF PHILIP OF HESSE. 615
statement that followed , and which largely neu - denied them - intimated to Charles that they still
tralised it, have been a most important one, stood by their Confession.
namely, that faith is necessary in the Sacrament.
mother Thedesign for which the Diet had been summoned
Why do onmasto affirm sinthat man
But it went is born with was manifestly miscarrying. Every day the Pro
the power of performing good works, and that testants were displaying fresh courage, and every
these works co-operate with faith in the justifi- day their cause was acquiring moral' strength. In
cation of the sinner : thus rearing again the old the same proportion did the chagrin , anger, and
fabric of salvation by works, which the former perplexities of the Romanists increase. Every new
admission respecting the necessity of faith appeared movement landed them in deeper difficulties. For
to have thrown down. On another vital point the the emperor to fulminate threats which those
Refutation and the Confession were found to against whom they were directed openly defied,
be in direct and fatal antagonism . Eck and his and which the man who uttered them dared not
colleagues maintained the Divine authority of the carry into execution, by no means tended to en
hierarchy, and of course the correlative duty of hance the imperial dignity. The unhappy Charles
absolute submission to it ; the Protestants acknow . was at his wit's end ; he knew not how to hide his
ledged no infallible rule on earth but the Scriptures. mortification and discomfiture ; and,to complete the
The two Churches, after very laborious effort on imbroglio, an edict arrived from a consistory of
both sides, had come as near to each other as it cardinals held at Rome, 6th July, 1530,disallowing
appeared possible to come ; but neither could con- and forbidding the ultimatum of the Protestants as
ceal from itself the fact that there was still a gulf “ opposed to the religion and prejudicial to the
between them - an impassable gulf, for neither discipline and government of the Church." ?
could pass to the other without ceasing to be what Ere this an event had taken place which helped
it had hitherto been . Should the Papacy pass to expedite the business. On the night of Saturday,
over , it left ten centuries behind it ; the moment the 6th of August, Philip of Hesse made his escape
it touched the Wittemberg shore it threw off its from Augsburg . Amid the cajoleries and threaten
allegiance to Councils and traditions, and became ings of the Diet he was firm as a rock amid the
the subject of another power . Should Protes- waves, but he saw no purpose to be served by
tantism pass over , it left the Bible behind it , and longer attendance at the Assembly . Chafed by
submitting to the old yoke of the Seven Hills, continual delays, indignant at the dissimulations of
confessed that the Wittemberg movement had been the Papists, tempted to-day by brilliant offers from
a rebellion the emperor, and assailed to -morrow by as terrible
When the reading was finished the emperor threats ; moreover looked askance upon by the
addressed the elector and the other Protestant Lutheran princes, from his known leaning to
princes to the effect that, seeing their Confession Zwingle on the question of the Lord's Supper
had now been refuted, it was their duty to restore thoroughly wearied out from all these causes, he
peace to the Church , and unity to the Empire, by resolved on quitting the city . Hehad asked leave
returning to the Roman obedience. He demanded , of the emperor , but was refused it. Donning a dis
in fine, consent to the articles now read , under pain guise, he slipped out at the gate at dusk, and ,
of the ban of the Empire. attended by a few horsemen , rode away. Desirous
The Protestant princeswere not a little surprised of preventing his flight, the emperor gave orders
at the emperor's peremptoriness. They were told over-night to have the gates watched , but before
roofike the
that they had been refuted, but unless they should the guards had taken their posts the landgrave
Thadheir no"O pproof
be pleased to take the emperor's word for it, they
or evidence that they had been so.
was gone, and was now many leagues distant from
Augsburg.
Their own understandings did not tell them so. All was consternation at the court of the em
The paper now read had assented to some of the peror when the flight of the landgrave became
articles of their Confession , it had dissented from known next morning. The Romanists saw him ,
a good many others , but as to confuting even one in imagination , returning at the head of an army.
of them , this, to the best of their judgment, it had They pictured to themselves the other Protestant
not done ; and as they knew of no power possessed princes making their escape and sounding the
by the emperor of changing bad logic into good, or tocsin of war. All was alarm , and terror, and
of transforming folly into wisdom , the Protestant rage in the Popish camp. The emperor was not yet
princes — a copy of the Refutation having been prepared for hostilities ; he shrunk back from the
D 'Aubigné, iv. 209. Pallavicino, bk. üi., chap. 4, p. 195.

extremity to which he had been forcing matters, ferences. The chief on the Protestant side was
and from that day his bearing was less haughty and Melancthon , of whom Pallavicino says that “ he
his language less threatening to the Protestants. had a disposition not perverse, although perverted ,
Luther, apart in his Castle of Coburg, was full and was by nature as desirous of peace as Luther
of courage and joy. He was kept informed of the was of contention." ? Well did Melancthon merit
progress of affairs at Augsburg, and of the alter- this compliment from the pen of the Catholic his
nate fears and hopes that agitated his friends. torian. For the sake of peace he all but sacrificed
Like the traveller in the Alps, who sees the clouds himself, his colleagues, and the work on which he
at his feet and hears the thunder rolling far be had spent so many years of labour and prayer.
neath him , while around him is eternal sunshine, His concessions to the Romanists in the Commis
the Reformer, his feet planted on the mountain of sion were extraordinary indeed. He was willing
God's power, looked down upon the clouds that to agree with them in matters of ceremony, rites,
hung so heavily above his friends in Augsburg and feasts. In other and more important points,
and heard far beneath the mutterings of imperial such as the mass , and justification by faith, find
wrath ; but neither could the one darken the sun ings were come to in which both sides acquiesced ,
shine of his peace, nor the other shake his con- being capable of a double interpretation . The
fidence in that throne to which, in faith and prayer , Papists saw that they had only to bide their time
his eyes were continually uplifted. His letters to be able to put their own construction on these
at this time show a singular elevation of faith, articles, when all would be right. As regarded
and a corresponding assurance of victory. To take the marriage of priests , communion in both kinds,
an instance, “ I beheld,” says he, writing to his and some similar matters, the Romanists agreed
friends, “ thick clouds hanging above us like a vast to allow these till the meeting of the next General
sea ; I could neither perceive ground on which they Council. Touching the government of the Church ,
reposed , nor cords by which they were suspended ; Melancthon, and his colleagues in the Commission,
and yet they did not fall upon us, but saluted us were willing to submit to the restored jurisdiction
rapidly and passed away.” Emperors and armies of the bishops, and to acknowledge the Pope as
and all the array of earthly power, what are they ? Head of the Church , by human right. There was
black vapours, which seem charged with tempest not much behind to surrender ; a concord on this
and destruction , but, just as they are about to basis would have been the burial of the Refor
burst, they are driven away by the breath of the mation. Melancthon, in fact , was building un
Almighty , as clouds are driven before the wind . consciously a sepulchre in which to entomb it.
But fully to realise this we must mount to Luther's The lay Christians in Augsburg felt as if they
elevation. We must stand where we have the were witnessing its obsequies. Consternation and
cloud beneath , not above us. grief took possession of the Swiss Protestants.
Meanwhile in the Diet promises had been tried “ They are preparing their return to Rome," said
and failed ; threats had been tried and failed ; ne Zwingle. Luther was startled and confounded .
gotiations were again opened , and now the cause He read the proposed concessions, took his pen ,
had wellnigh been wrecked. Luther lived above and wrote forthwith to Augsburg as follows:
the cloud, but unhappily Melancthon, who had to “ I learn that you have begun a marvellous
sustain the chief part in the negotiations, lived work, namely , to reconcile Luther and the Pope ;
beneath it, and, not seeing the cords that held it but the Pope will not be reconciled , and Luther
up, and imagining that it was about to fall, was on begs to be excused . And if in despite of them
the point of surrendering the whole cause to Rome. you succeed in this affair , then , after your example,
During the slow incubation of the Refutation, I will bring together Christ and Belial.” 4
seven men were chosen (13th August) on each This, one would think , should have torn the
side, to meet in conference and essay the work of -
conciliation. They made rapid progress up to a ?3 Pallavicino,
Pallavicino lib
says. iii.,
thatcap.Melancthon
4, p. 195. “ had fallen into
certain point ; but the moment they touched the hatred and reproach with his own party ” (in odio ed in
essentials of either faith, they were conclusively biasimo de' suoi), and Sleidan informs us that when chosen
one of the Committee of Three it was on the condition
stopped. The expedient was tried of reducing the that he should make no more concessions (Pallavicino,
commission to three on each side, in the hope that p . 196 ; Sleidan , p . 132). Pallavicino (lib. iii., cap. 4,
with fewer members there would be fewer dif p . 135) gives a letter of Melancthon 's addressed to Cam
peggio, which is all but an unqualified submission to
Rome. Its genuineness has been questioned , but
Sleidan, bk. vü., p . 132. Pallavicino, lib . iii., cap. 4 , D 'Aubigné sees no reason to doubt it .
p . 195. 4 Luth . Opp ., iv ., pp . 144 - 151.
THE RECESS OF THE DIET. 617
bandage from the eyes of Melancthon, and revealed up the Recess of the Diet. The edict was promul
to him the abyss towards which he was advancing gated on the 22nd September, and was to the
He was not to be counselled even by Luther. His following effect :- That the Protestant princes
patience was fretted, his temper soured, he began should be allowed till the 15th April next to
to brow -beat his colleagues , and was about to con - reconcile themselves to the Pope and to the rest of
summate his work of conciliation as he termed it, Christendom , and that meanwhile they should per
but in reality of surrender, when deliverance came mit in their dominions no innovations in religion,
from another quarter. no circulation of Protestant books, and no attempts
Smitten with madness in their turn the Romanists at proselytism , and that they should assist the
drew back when on the very point of grasping the emperor in reducing the Anabaptists and Zwin
victory. The matters in dispute between the two glians. This edict Charles would have enforced at
parties had been reduced to three points nominally, once with the sword, but the spirit displayed by
really to one - Does man merit by his good works ? the Protestant princes, the attitude assumed by
is the sums up the ve, on this negra
The Protestants maintained the negative, and the
Papists the affirmative, on this point. The first
the Turk, and the state of the emperor's relations
with the other sovereigns of Europe put war out .
briefly sums up the Protestant theology ; the last of his power ; and the consequence was that the
is the corner-stone of the Roman faith. Neither monarch who three months before had made his
party would yield , and the conferences were broken entry into Augsburg with so much pomp, and in
off. Thus Rome lost the victory, which would in so high hopes of making all things and parties bend
the end have fallen to her, had she made peace on to his will, retired from it full of mortification and
the basis of Melancthon's concessions. Her pride chagrin, disappointed in all his plans, and obliged
saved the German Reformation. to conceal his discomfiture under a show of modera
It now remained only for the emperor to draw tion and leniency.
CHAPTER XXVII. .
A RETROSPECT - 1517 - 1530 — PROGRESS.
Glance back - The Path continually Progressive - The Gains of Thirteen Years — Provinces and Cities Evangelised in
Germany - Day Breaking in other countries – German Bible - German Church - A Saxon Paradise - Political
Movements - Their Subordination to Protestantism -- Wittemberg the Centre of the Drama- Charles V . and his
Campaigns- Attempts to Enforce the Edict of Worms- Their Results- All these Attempts work in the Opposite
Direction - Onward March of Protestantism - Downward Course of every Opposing Interest - Protestantism as
distinguished from Primitive Christianity - The Two Bibles .
BEFORE the curtain rises on a new development seems as if centuries had rolled away since that
of the great drama, let us pause , and cast a glance day, and brought with them the new world in
back on the track over which we have passed. The which we find ourselves. On ordinary occasions,
few moments we may spend in this retrospect will many years, it may be ages, must pass before
amply repay us by disclosing, more clearly perhaps an idea can establish for itself a universal do
than we saw them while we were narrating them , minion in the minds of men . Hardly has Luther
the successive and ascending stages of the movement. uttered his great idea when, like the light, it
It may well amaze us to think how short our breaks out on the right hand and on the left,
journey has been , measured by the time it has and shines from one end of heaven even unto
occupied ; yet how long it is, measured by the the other.
progress which has been made. It was but yes- How notable, too, the circumstance that our
terday that the monk 's hammer awakened the journey has been a continually progressive one !
echoes of the streets of Wittemberg, and now it Steps backward there have been none. The
i Pallavicino, lib . iii., cap. 4 , p . 197. 2 Pallavicino, lib . iii., cap. 4 . Sleidan, bk. vii., . 135.
pointarrived
that reached atto-ondaythehasdayever been Howin advance of and stoodbeforefurther off.. AndOne,if unseen butthemighty,
before. wonderful walked them at times
isthethis when we think that no one had chalked out returned, and the storm threatened to burst,clouds
Church's path from her house of bondage to heard a sublime Voice speaking to them out oftheythe
a land of liberty ! And still more wonderful is it darkness and saying,“ When thou passest through
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But ever little October, 1517, when Luther posted up his Theses,
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and the 25th June, 1530, when the Augsburg Con- St. Andrew 's, and his martyr-pile becomes the
fession was read in presence of the emperor, how funeral torch of the Papacy in that country. So
surprising the gains when we come to reckon them wide is the sphere which thirteen short years have
up ! Electoral Saxony is Reformed, and its sove- sufficed to fill with the light of Protestantism .
reign is seen marching in the van of the Reforming Nor must we omit to note that in the midst or
princes. Hesse is evangelised, and its magnani- the German nation , like a pillar of light, now stands
mous landgrave has placed himself by the side of the German Bible. The eye that sees this Light
the elector as his companion in arms in the great rejoices in it ; the ear that hears this Voice blesses
battle of Protestantism . it. In the presence of this Divine teacher, human
In Franconia, Silesia , East Friesland , Prussia, authority, which had so long held the under
Brunswick, Luneburg, and Anhalt the light is standing in chains, is overthrown, and the German
spreading. The Gospel has been welcomed in the people, escaping from the worst of all bondage,
free towns of Nuremberg, Ulm , Augsburg, Stras- enter on possession of the first and highest of all
burg, Lubeck , Bremen , Hamburg, and many others, liberty , the liberty of conscience.
bringing with it a second morning to the arts, the Further, in Saxony and Hesse there is now an
commerce, and the liberties of these influential organised Church . The ground, cleared of monas
communities. Every day princes, counts , and free teries, convents, indulgence-boxes, and other noxious
cities press forward to enroll themselves in the growths of mediævalism , begins to be covered with
Protestant host and serve under the Protestant congregations, and planted with schools. Pastors
banner ; and in many cases where the ruler remains preach the Gospel, for whom salaries have been
on the side of Rome, a not inconsiderable portion provided ; and an ecclesiastical board administers
of his subjects have forsaken the old faith and em - Church discipline and exercises a general super
braced the Reformation . vision over the clergy. Protestantism , no longer a
Wider still does the light spread. It breaks out system of abstract doctrines, has now found an in
on all sides. The skies of Bohemia , Moravia , and strumentality through which to elevate the lives of
Hungary have brightened anew , and already in men and reform the constitutions of society . Ger
these countries have been laid the foundations of a many, from the wilderness it was a few years ago,
powerful Protestant Church , destined , alas ! to sink is becoming a garden . Luther luxuriates over the
all too soon under the gathering tempests of perse- rich verdure that begins to clothe Saxony. His
cution . In Denmark and Sweden the Reformation pen has left us a fascinating description of it, and
is marching on to its establishment. The Protes- his words have all the warm colouring of the sacred
tant standard has been planted on the shores of idyll from which indeed his imagery would appear
Zurich, and the neighbouring cantons are rallying to be borrowed : “ I went down into the garden
round it. The Alps brighten from one hour to of nuts, to see the fruits of the valley, and to see
another, and the radiance with which they glow is whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates
reflected on the plains of Northern Italy . In budded.” ? “ It gives me great and singular plea
France, at the court of Francis I., and in the sure,” says the Reformer, writing to the elector,
Sorbonne, so jealous of its fame for orthodoxy, 22nd May, 1530 ,“ when I see that boys and girls
there are men who are not ashamed to confess that can now understand and speak better concerning
they have bowed to the authority of the Gospel, God and Christ, than formerly could have been
and consecrated their lives to its service. In Eng- done by the colleges, monasteries, and schools of
land the Lollard movement, which appeared to the Papacy, or than they can do even yet. There
have gone to sleep with the ashes of its martyrs, is is thus planted in your highness's dominions a very
awakening from slumber, and girding itself for a pleasant Paradise, to which there is nothing similar
second career more glorious than the first. In in the whole world . It is as if God should say,
Scotland the light of the new day is gladdening the Most beloved Prince John , I commend these chil
eyes, and its breath stirring the souls of men . dren to thee, as my most precious treasure ; they
Luther's tracts and Tyndale's New Testaments have are my celestial Paradise of pleasant plants. Be
entered that country. In 1528 the die is cast, thou a father to them . I place them under thy
and Scotland is secured for the Reformation ; for protection and rule, and honour thee by making
now Patrick Hamilton is burned at the stake at thee the president and patron of this heavenly
- garden .'”
1 See Scottish Reformation , by Peter Lorimer, D . D ., Nor can we fail to mark , in fine, how entire and
Professor of Theology, English Presbyterian College,
London. Lond., 1860. Song of Solomon vi. 11.
FAILURE OF ALL ATTEMPTS AGAINST PROTESTANTISM . 621
complete, all through this epoch , is the subordina- formed so powerful as to bring the imperial autho
tion of political events to the Protestant movement. rity into a dead-lock.
If we take our stand at Wittemberg and cast our The fourth attempt to execute the Edict of
eyes over the wide field around us, attentively Worms, made at the Diet of Spires, 1526 , led to
observing the movements , the plots, the combina- another most important concession to the Re
tions, and the battles that mark the progress of the formers . The virtual toleration of Protestantism
great drama, our convictions become only the by the previous Diet was now changed into a legal
stronger the longer we gaze, that we are standing toleration , the princes agreeing by a majority of
in the centre of the field, and that this is the heart votes that, till a General Council should assemble,
of the action. From any other point of view all is the States should take order about religion as each
confusion ; from this , and from this alone, all is might judge right. Yet another attempt, the fifth ,
order. Events far and near, on the Bosphorus and to enforce the edict , was made at the Diet of Spires,
On the Tagus, in the land of the Moslem and in 1529. This most of all was helpful to it, for it
the dominions of the Spaniard , find here their com - evoked the famous Protest of the Lutheran princes.
mon point of convergence. Emperors and kings, Protestantism had now become the public creed of
dukes and princes , Popes and bishops, all move the princes , States, and Churches of one half of
around Luther, and all have been given into his hand Germany. It was idle longer to talk of the Edict
to be used by him as the work may require. We of Worms; from this time forward Protestantism
see Charles waging great campaigns and fighting could be suppressed only at the cost of a civil war.
great battles ; all this hard service is for Romanism , Nevertheless, the emperor did make another
he believes, but Protestantism comes in and gathers attempt, the sixth , to execute the redoubtable
the spoils. In truth the emperor is about as help - edict, which so far had been formidable only to
ful to the movement as the Reformer himself ; himself. Charles had just triumphed over the
for never does he put his hand upon his sword- “ Holy League," and sealed his new alliance with
hilt to strike it but straightway it bounds forward. the Pope by the promise of turning the whole
His touch , so far from paralysing it, communicates influence of his policy, and should that not suffice ,
new life to it. Let us mark how all things work the whole force of his arms, to the extermination
in the reverse order, and establish the very thing of Protestantism . In order to fulfil that promise
which the emperor wishes to overthrow . Qf this he convokes the Diet of Augsburg, 1530, and goes
the Edict of Worms is a striking example. It was thither in person to make sure that this time his
promulgated in the confident hope that it would project shall not miscarry. It is now that he puts
effect the extinction of Protestantism : it becomes, the top-stone upon the fabric which he had hoped to
on the contrary, one of the main meansof establish - raze. The Augsburg Confession, prepared in pro
ing it. Each successive attempt to enforce that spect of this assembly, and read before the emperor
edict only resulted in lifting up Protestantism to and the Diet, formed the culmination of the Ger
a higher platform . The first effort made to exe- man Reformation . Protestantism in Germany was
cute it, in 1521, sent Luther to the Wartburg. now in its zenith ; it shone with a splendour it
No greater service could any one have done the had never before and has never since attained .
Reformation at that hour. The Reformer is out Thus at every new attempt to put the ban
of sight indeed , but only to do a most essential of the Empire in motion in order to crush Luther
work. A few months elapse, and the German and extirpate Protestantism , it recoils on the
Bible is seen at the hearths of the German people. throne of Charles himself. The sword unsheathed
The second attempt to put this edict in force at at Worms in 1521, instead of dealing the fatal
the Diet of Nuremberg, 1522, evoked the “ Hun - stroke to the greatmovement which the man who
dred Grievances ” of the German nation . This was drew it forth most firmly believed it would , be
a second great advance , inasmuch as it identified comes the instrument to open the Reformation's
the Protestant movement with the cause of Ger- way through innumerable difficulties, and lead it
many's independence. The third attempt, at the on step by step to its consummation and glory.
Diet of Nuremberg, 1524, to enforce the edict led Protestantism ,then, is no petty cause which stole
to the virtual toleration of Protestantism . All upon the stage of the world at this supreme hour,and
that the princes could promise the emperor was which , intruding itself unbidden and without occa
that they would execute his decree against the Re- sion amongst the great affairs of kings and emperors ,
former if possible, but they had previously declared was unable from its insignificance to make its in
that this was not possible. Thus, under the tute - fluence be felt on the great issues then being de
lage of Protestantism a public opinion had been termined. This is the only position which some
historians of name have been able to find for it. The characteristic of the Reformation as dis
According to them , Charles is the great master. tinguished from primitive Christianity was its
spirit of the age ; his battles are the great events power of originating social action. It put forth on
that constitute its history ; and his closet is the nations an influence of a kind so powerful that
source and spring of all those influences that are nothing like it is to be found in any previous age
changing the world , and moulding the destinies of of the world . As the Gospel, in early times, held
we need onQu its here
the nations. How superficial this view is we need way among the nations, it called one indivi
not say. Our history has lifted the veil, and placed dualal hertoand thus there to be its disciple .
n it another
us in presence of a mightier Power. Protestantism Those whom it thus gathered out of the mass it
is the master ; Charles is but the servant. It is knit into a holy brotherhood, an evangelical Church .
as Protestantism wills that he sheathes or un- Still, though a great multitude, comprehending
sheathes the sword , that he makes peace or war : men of every kindred and tongue, these disciples
and as it is to serve its interests so is the emperor remained blended with their several nationalities :
lifted up or cast down ; so are his arms made they did not stand out before the world as a distinct
resplendent with victory, or darkened with disaster social and political community. They were a
and defeat. All men and things exist for the spiritual kingdom only . When the magistrate per
Reformation. It is this Power that originates, mitted them the open profession of their faith , they
that controls, and that extorts the service of all thankfully accepted the privilege ; when they were
around it. Every one who has eyes to see, and denied it, they were content to die for the Gospel :
a heart to understand , must acknowledge that they never thought of combining to demand as a
Protestantism stands at the very centre of the right the open and unchallenged profession of their
field , lifting its head king-like above all other faith.
actors , and looking serenely down upon the hosts But the Reformation, by quickening and evolving
of its foes. It girds itself with no weapons of the social instinct in man, brought with it a new
war, it leads forth no armed hosts, it brandishes order of things. It gave birth not merely to re
no battle-axe in its defence ; yet it alone is safe. generated individuals, like primitive Christianity ,
The lightnings flash , but their bolts pass without but to regenerated societies. No doubt the Gospel
striking it. The thunder-cloud gathers, but rolls in the sixteenth century began where the Gospel in
away and bursts in another quarter of the sky. the first century had begun , with the renewal even
The powers that struggle and fight around it are of the individual ; but it did not end there. It
smitten , one after another, first with decadence and called bodies corporate into being, it communicated
in the end with ruin ; but this grand cause is seen to them the idea of social rights, and supplied an
marching steadily onward to triumph. France is organisation for the acquisition and the exercise of
humiliated ; her sovereign's head is bowed on the these rights . The Reformation thus erected a
field of Pavia , not again to be lifted up with platform on which it was possible to develop a
the knightly grace that adorned it of yore. A higher civilisation , and achieve a more perfect
sudden bolt lays the glory of Rome in the dust, liberty , than the human race had yet known. Even
and the queen -like beauty then marred is fated leaving out of view the Christian graces , which
nevermore to flourish in the same high degree. The formed of course the basis of that civilisation , the
mighty Empire of Charles V . is shattered by the rude civic virtues now shot up into a stature, and blazed
shocks it sustains, and before going to the tomb forth with a splendour, which far transcended any
that monarch is destined to see that consumption thing of the kind that Greece and Rome had
of the Spanish power setting in which was to con- witnessed in their short-lived heroic age. Where
tinue till Spain should become the frightful wreck ever the Reformation came, the world seemed to
which we behold it at this day. But as regards be peopled with a new race. Fired with the love
Protestantism , its progress is liker that of a of liberty, and with the yet more sacred love of
monarch going to be crowned. Every step carries truth ,men perforined deeds which brightened the
it into a wider arena, and every year lifts it to lands in which they were done with their glory.
a higher platform , till at length on the 25th of Whatever country it made its home it ennobled by
June, 1530, the crowning honour is placed on its its valour, enriched by its industry, and sanctified
brow , in presence of the assembled puissances, by its virtues. The fens of Holland, the moun
spiritual and temporal, of the Empire, with the tains of Switzerland, and the straths of Scotland
•emperor at their head, who, here to assist at its became its seat, and straightway, though till now
obsequies, becomes the unintentional witness of rude and barbarous, these regions were illumined
its triumph. with a glory brighter than that which letters and
THE TWO BIBLES. 623
arms had shed on Italy and France. There it the principles of truth and righteousness on which
converted burghers and artizans, weavers and he rules the world . In harmony with his govern
tillers of the soil into heroes and martyrs. Such ment theirs cannot be otherwise than stable and
was the few life which the Reformation gave, and prosperous ; but if they place themselves in opposi
such the surprising and hitherto unknown trans- tion to it, by adopting as their fundamental and
formations which it wrought on the world . guiding maxims those principles which he has con
Under the Reformation society attained its man- demned , they will inevitably, sooner or later, come
hood. The manhood of the individual Christian into collision with his omnipotent and righteous
was reached under primitive Christianity, but the rule, and be broken in pieces by the shock and
manhood of society was not realised till the Refor- ground to powder. This great truth we read in
mation came. Till that time society was under tutors the one Bible in words plain and unmistakable ;
and governors. Despotism flourished previous to we read it in the other in those beacons of warning
that epoch, as being the only form of govern - and examples for imitation that rise on every side
ment compatible in those ages with the peace of us— in this nation overthrown, and covered with
and good order of States. Till the Reformation the darkness of ruin ; in that seated on the founda
permeated nations with the Gospel, they had tions of truth , and rising sublime with the lights of
absolutely no basis for freedom . The two great liberty and morality shining around it.
necessities of States are liberty and order. The Five lines, or five words,may suffice to announce
Gospel is the only power known to man that can a great principle ; but five centuries or ten centuries
bestow these two indispensable gifts. Atheism , by may pass away before a nation has made full
emancipating the conscience from superstitious proof of the truth or the falsehood of that prin
thraldom , can give liberty, but in giving liberty it ciple. The nation selects it as its corner-stone ; it
destroys order. Despotism and superstition can frames its law and policy according to it ; its national
give order, but in maintaining order they ex- spirit and action are simply the development of
tinguish liberty. But Christianity gives both. that principle ; it goes on, working out its problem ,
Inasmuch as it sets free the conscience, it gives for centuries ; the end comes at last; the nation
liberty ; and inasmuch as it rules the conscience , it rises, we shall suppose , to wealth, to liberty , to
maintains order. Thus the Reformation , making renown ; how manifest is it that the principle was
the influence of the Bible operative over the whole true, and that in selecting it the nation chose “ the
domain of society , was the first to plant in nations a better part !” Or it brings disaster, disgrace, and
basis for freedom ; and along with liperty and order overthrow ; equally manifest is it that the principle
it bestowed the capacity of a terrestrial immortality . was false, and that in selecting it the nation chose
The nations of antiquity , after a short career of “ the worse part.”
splendour and crime, followed each other to the Let us take an instance illustrating each side
grave. If atheism did not precipitate them into of the principle. Spain fallen from the summit of
anarchy, and so cause them to perish in their power, her sierras treeless and flowerless , her plains
own violence, superstition held them in her chains a desert, her towns hastening to decay, her
till they sunk in rottenness and disappeared from people steeped in ignorance, in poverty, and in
the earth . The balance, in their case , was ever barbarism , proclaims the supreme folly of which
being lost between the restraint which conscience she was guilty when she chose to rest her greatness
imposes and the liberty which knowledge gives, and upon a conscience governed by the inquisition .
its loss was ever followed by the penalty of death ; but Britain , the seat of law , the sanctuary of justice ,
the Gospel is able to maintain that balance for ever, the fountain of knowledge, the emporium of com
and so to confer on nations a terrestrial, even as it merce, and the bulwark of order and liberty, pro
confers on the individual a celestial, immortality. claims not less emphatically the wisdom of her
History is just a second Bible,with this difference, choice when shemade her first requisite a conscience
that it is written , not like the first in letters, but emancipated and guided by the Bible.
in great facts. The letters and the facts, however, Providence ever sends its instructors into the
are charged with the same meaning. In the first world ,as the first preachers of Christianity were sent
Bible — that written in letters — the Creator has into it, by twos. Here have we Spain and Britain ,
made known the attributes of his character , and the two great instructors of the world. They differ
the great principles on which he conducts his in that each is representative of a differentprinciple ;
government of his creatures ; and he has warned but they agree in that each teaches, the one nega
nations that, if they would aspire to greatness and tively and the other positively , the self-same lesson
seek to be happy, they must base their power on to mankind. They are a tree of the knowledge of
624 HISTORY OF PROTESTANTISM . . . .
good and evil to the nations, as really as was the in acts of righteousness and dispensations of terror ;
tree in the midst of the garden of old . How mani- for what are the annals of the world and the
test is it that a fertilising dew has descended upon chronicles of the race but a translation into fact of
the one, and that a silent malediction has smitten the laws and principles made known in Holy Writ !
the other ! The Mount Ebal of Christendom , with God in no age, and in no land, leaves himself
the curse upon its top , stands over against the without a witness. The facts of history are the
Mount Gerizim , from whose summit the blessing, testimony of his being, and the proof of his Word .
like a star, beams out before the nations. They are the never-ceasing echo of that awful Voice ,
With history's page open before us, we have which at the very dawn of national history pro
verily no need that one should demonstrate to us claimed the attributes of the Divine character , and
that there is a God , and that the Bible is a revela - the principles of the Divine government, from the
tion of his character and will. The latter truth is top of Sinai. In history that Voice is speaking
continually receiving authentication and fulfilment still
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CASSELL PETTER & GALPIN :

II. - WiCLIFFE, AND THE Pore's ESCROACHIMENTS ON ENGLAND .

II.- Huss BEGINS HIS WARFARE AGAINST Rome . . . 135

IV . - PREPARATIONS FOR THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE 144

V . - DEPOSITION OF THE RIVAL POPES . . 149

IX . - TRIAL AND TEMPTATION OF JEROME . .

XIV. - COMMENCEMENT OF THE HUSSITE WANS 184

XV. – Marvellous GENILS OF ZISKA AS A GENERAL 189

XVI. - Second CRUSADE AGAINST BOHEMIA . . 190

XVII. - BRILLIANT SUCCESSES OF THE HUSSITES . 19

XVIII.— The Council or Basle

IV .- LUTHER THE Moxk BECOMES LUTHER THE REFORMEN

V .- LUTHER AS Priest, PROFESSOR, AND PREACHER

VI.- Luthen's JOURNEY TO Rome .

VII. - LUTHER IN ROME . .

VIII. – TETZEL PREACHES INDULGENCES

IX . - The “ Theses " . .

X. - LUTHER ATTACKED BY Tetzel, PRIERIO, AND ECK .

XI.- LUTHER'S JOURNEY TO AUGSBURG . . . . . . . .

IV.- EFFORTS FOR THE REDISTRIBUTION OF ECCLESIASTICAL PROPERTY .

V. - TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF Sir John OLDCASTLE (LORD COBHAM )

VI.- LOLLARDISM DexounCED As Treason

VII. - MARTYRDOM OF LORD COBHAM

VIII. - LOLLARDISH Under HENRY V. AND HENRY VI. .

IX .— Roue's ATTEMPT TO RrGaix DOMINANCY IN ENGLAND

X.- RESISTANCE TO PAPAL ENCROACHMENTS . .

II. - CONDITION OF SWITZERLAND PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION .

III.- CORRUPTION OF THE Swiss CHURCH . .

IV. - ZWINGLE'S BIRTH AND SCHOOL-DAYS . .

V. - ZWINGLE'S PROGRESS TOWARDS EMANCIPATION

VI.— ZWINGLE IN PRESENCE OF THE BIBLE

VII. - EINSIEDELS AND ZURICH . .

IX .--EXTENSION OF THE REFORMATION TO BERN AND OTHER Swiss Towns

VII. - LUTHER's Views ON THE SACRAMENT AND IMAGE -WORSHIP . 506

XIV . - Politics AND PRODIGIES 543

XVI. --CONFERENCE AT MARBURG - 554

XVII. — THE MARBURG ConfessioN . 502

XIX .- MEETING BETWEEN THE EMPEROR AND Pope at BOLOGNA .

The Martyrdom of Constantine of Samosata .

Dominican Monk and Inquisitioner

Albigensian Worshippers on the Banks ofthe Rhone

Arnold of Brescia Preaching

Canterbury Cathedral from the East End

King John and the Pope's Legate

Group ofMendicant Friars

Altercation between John of Gaunt and the Bishop of London .

Popular Demonstration at Lambeth Palace in favour of Wicliffe . 97

Wicliffe and the Monks : Scene in the Bed -chamber . . · 103

Interior of the Vatican Library . 108

Trial of Wicliffe 115

High Street of Oxford (timeof Wicliffe)

Soldiers Searching for Bohemian Protestants

The Schloss-kirk, or Castle -church , at Wittemberg • 253

Tetzel's Procession . . . . . 259

In the Market-place of Wittemberg : People Discussing the “ Theses” of Luther : 271

The Old Castle at Weimar · 277

Luther Escaping from Augsburg . . . . .

Luther's Pamphlet : Scene at the Printing -house · 288

Arrival ofthe Wittemberg Theologians at Leipsic • 295

Philip Melancthon . 300

Charles V., Emperor of Germany 306

Cardinal Beaufort's Chantry, Winchester Cathedral ..