Life of Luther by Julius Koestlin

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The first day they could not venture farther than Tambach, a few
miles distant, the road over the mountains being very rough. The
jolting of the carriage caused him intolerable torture. But it
effected what the doctors could not. The following night the pain
was terminated, and the feeling of relief and recovery made him full
of joy and thankfulness. A messenger was sent at once, at two
o'clock in the morning, with the news to Schmalkald, and Luther
himself wrote a letter to his 'dearly-loved' Melancthon. To his wife
he wrote saying, 'I have been a dead man, and had commended you and
the little ones to God and to our good Lord Jesus.... I grieved very
much for your sakes.' But God, he went on to say, had worked a
miracle with him; he felt like one newly-born; she must thank God,
therefore, and let the little ones thank their heavenly Father,
without whom they would assuredly have lost their earthly one.

But on the 28th already, after his safe arrival at Gotha, he
suffered so severe a relapse that during that night he thought, from
his extreme weakness, that his end was near. He then gave to
Bugenhagen some last directions, which the latter afterwards
committed to writing, as the 'Confession and Last Testament of the
Venerable Father.' Herein Luther expressed his cheerful conviction
that he had done rightly in attacking the Papacy with the Word of
God. He begged his 'dearest Philip' (Melancthon) and other
colleagues to forgive anything in which he might have offended them.
To his faithful Kate he sent words of thanks and comfort, saying
that now for the twelve years of happiness which they had spent
together, she must accept this sorrow. Once more he sent greetings
to the preachers and burghers of Wittenberg. He begged his Elector
and the Landgrave not to be disturbed by the charges made against
them by the Papists of having robbed the property of the Church, and
recommended them to trust to God in their labours on behalf of the
gospel.

The next morning, however, he was again better and stronger. Butzer,
who in regard to unity of confession and his relations with the
Swiss had not been able to have any further conversation with Luther
at Schmalkald, had at once, on receiving the good news from Tambach,
gone straight to Luther at Gotha, accompanied by the preacher
Wolfhart from Augsburg. Luther, notwithstanding his suffering, now
discussed with them this matter, so important in his eyes. As an
honest man, to whom nothing was so distasteful as 'dissimulation,'
he earnestly warned them against all 'crooked ways.' The Swiss, in
case he died, should be referred to his letter to Meyer; should God
allow him to live and become strong, he would send them a written
statement himself.

While, however, he was still at Gotha, the crisis of his illness
passed, and he was relieved entirely of the cause of his suffering.
The journey was continued cautiously and slowly, and a good halt was
made at Weimar. From Wittenberg there came to nurse him a niece, who
lived in his house: probably Lene Kaufmann, the daughter of his
sister. To his wife he wrote from Tambach, telling her that she need
not accept the Elector's offer to drive her to him, it being now
unnecessary. On March 14 he arrived again at his home. His recovery
had made good progress, though, as he wrote to Spalatin, even eight
days afterwards his legs could hardly support him.

Meanwhile the conference of the allies at Schmalkald resulted in
their deciding to decline the Papal invitation to the Council. They
informed the Emperor, in reply, that the Council which the Pope had
in view was something very different to the one so long demanded by
the German Diets; what they wanted was a free Council, and one on
German, not Italian territory.

With regard to Luther's articles, which he had drawn up in view of a
Council, they saw no occasion to occupy themselves with their
consideration. To their official Confession of Augsburg, which had
formed among other things the groundwork and charter of the
Religious Peace, and to the Apology, drawn up by Melancthon in reply
to the Catholic 'Refutation,' they desired, however, now to add a
protest against the authority and the Divine right of the Papacy.
Melancthon prepared it in the true spirit of Luther, though in a
calmer and more moderate tone than was usual with his friend. The
majority of the theologians present at Schmalkald testified their
assent to Luther's articles by subscribing their names. Luther had
his statement printed the following year. The Emperor, on account of
the war with the Turks and the renewal of hostilities with France,
had no time to think of compelling the allies to take part in a
Council, and was quite content that no Council should be held at
all. Whether the Pope himself, as Luther supposed, counted secretly
on this result, and was glad to see it happen, may remain a matter
of uncertainty.

At Schmalkald the seal was now set upon the Concord, which had been
concluded the previous year at Wittenberg, and then submitted for
ratification to the different German princes and towns, the formula
there adopted being now signed by all the theologians present, and
the agreement of the princes to abide by it being duly announced.
Towards the Swiss, who declined to waive their objections to the
Wittenberg articles, Luther maintained firmly the standpoint
indicated in his letter to Meyer. Thus, in the following December he
wrote himself to those evangelical centres in Switzerland from which
Butzer had brought him the communication to Gotha; while the next
year, in May 1538, he sent a friendly reply to a message from
Bullinger, and again in June he wrote once more to the Swiss, on
receiving an answer from them to his first letter. His constant wish
and entreaty was that they should at least be friendly to, and
expect the best of one another, until the troubled waters were
calmed. He fully acknowledged that the Swiss were a very pious
people, who earnestly wished to do what was right and proper. He
rejoiced at this, and hoped that God, even if only a hedge
obstructed, would help in time to remove all errors. But he could
not ignore or disregard that on which no agreement had yet been
arrived at; and he was right in supposing, and said so openly to the
Swiss, that upon their side, as well as upon his own, there were
many who looked upon unity not only with displeasure but even with
suspicion. He himself had constantly to explain misinterpretations
of his doctrine, and he did so with composure. He had never, he
said, taught that Christ, in order to be present at the Sacrament,
comes down from heaven; but he left to Divine omnipotence the manner
in which His Body is verily given to the guests at His table. But he
must guard himself, on the other hand, against the notion that, with
the attitude he now adopted, he had renounced his former doctrine.
And with this doctrine he held firmly to the conception of a
Presence of Christ's Body in the Sacrament different to and apart
from that Presence for purely spiritual nourishment on which the
Swiss now insisted. When Bullinger expressed his surprise that he
should still talk of a difference in doctrine, he gave up offering
any more explanations on the subject; and the Swiss, for their part,
after his second letter, made no further attempt to effect a more
perfect agreement. Luther's desire was to keep on terms of peace and
friendship with them, notwithstanding the difference still
notoriously existing between both parties. On this very account he
was loth to rake up the difference again by further explanations. By
acting thus he believed he should best promote an ultimate
understanding and unity, which was still the object of his hopes.

So far, therefore, during the years immediately following the death
of Zwingli, success had attended the efforts to heal the fatal
division which separated from Luther and the great Lutheran
community those of evangelical sympathies in Switzerland and the
South Germans, who were more or less subject to their influence, and
which had excited the minds on both sides with such violence and
passion. So far Luther himself had laboured to promote this result
with uprightness and zeal; he had conquered much suspicion once
directed against himself, he had sought means of peace; he had
restrained the disturbing zeal of his own friends and followers,
such as Amsdorf or Osiander at Nuremberg.

We must not omit finally to mention, as an important event of these
years and a testimony to Luther's disposition and sentiments, the
friendly relations now formed between himself and the so-called
Bohemian and Moravian Brethren. We have already had occasion to
notice, after the Leipzig disputation in 1519, and again, in
particular, after Luther's return from the Wartburg, an approach,
which promised much but was only transitory, between Luther and the
large and powerful brotherhood of the Bohemian Utraquists, who, as
admirers of Huss and advocates for giving the cup to the laity, had
freed themselves from the dominion of Rome. Quietly and modestly,
but with a far more penetrating endeavour to restore the purity of
Christian life, the small communities of the Moravian Brethren had
multiplied by the side of the Hussites, and had patiently endured
oppression and persecution. Luther afterwards declared of them, how
he had found to his astonishment--a thing unheard of under the
Papacy--that, discarding the doctrines of men, they meditated day
and night, to the best of their ability, on the laws of God, and
were well versed in the Scriptures. It was principally, however, as
Luther himself seems to indicate, the commands of Scripture, in the
strict and faithful fulfilment of which they sought for true
Christianity--with special reference to the commands of Jesus, as
expressed by Him in particular in the Sermon on the Mount, and to
those precepts which they found in their patterns, the oldest
Apostolic communities--that engrossed their attention. With strict
discipline, in conformity with these commands, they sought to order
and sanctify their congregational life. But of Luther's doctrine of
salvation, announced by him mainly on the testimony of St. Paul, or
of the doctrine of justification by faith alone, they had as yet no
knowledge. They taught of the righteousness to which Christians
should attain, as did Augustine and the pious, practical theologians
of the middle ages. Hence they were wanting also in freedom in their
conception of moral life, and of those worldly duties and blessings
to which, according to Luther, the Christian spirit rose by the
power of faith. They shunned rather all worldly business in a manner
that caused Luther to ascribe to them a certain monastic character.
Their priests lived, like Catholics, in celibacy. Another
peculiarity of their teaching was, that in striving after a more
spiritual conception of life, and under the influence of the
writings of the great Englishman Wicliffe, which were largely
disseminated among them, they repudiated the Catholic doctrine of
Transubstantiation, nor would even allow such a Presence of Christ's
Body as was insisted on by Luther. They maintained simply a
sacramental, spiritual, effectual presence of Christ, and
distinguished from it a substantial Presence, which His Body, they
declared, had in heaven alone.

With these, too, as with the Utraquists, Luther became more closely
acquainted soon after his return from the Wartburg. The evangelical
preacher, Paul Speratus, who was then temporarily working in
Moravia, wrote to him about these zealous friends of the gospel,
among whom, however, he found much that was objectionable,
especially their doctrine of the Sacrament. They themselves sent
Luther messages, letters, and writings. Luther, who, in addition to
the Catholic theory, had also to combat doubts as to the Real
Presence of Christ's Body at the Sacrament, turned in 1523, in a
treatise 'On the Adoration of the Sacrament, &c.,' to oppose the
declarations of the Brethren on this subject, and then proceeded to
draw their attention to other points on which he was unable to agree
with them, in the mildest form and with warm acknowledgments of
their good qualities, such as, in particular, their strict
requirements of Christian moral conduct, which in his own circle he
could not possibly expect to see as yet fulfilled. They and Lucas,
their elder, however, took umbrage at his remarks; Lucas published a
reply, whereupon Luther quietly left them to go their own way.

While Butzer now was prosecuting with success his attempts at union,
the Brethren renewed their overtures to Luther. They offered him
fresh explanations about the doctrines in dispute, and these
explanations he was content to treat as consistent with the truth
which he himself maintained, though they differed even from his own
actual statements, not only in form but in substance. For example,
they distinguished between the Presence of Christ's Body in the
Sacrament and His existence in heaven, by describing only the latter
as a Bodily existence. Practically, the theory of the Brethren,
which, however, was by no means clearly defined, agreed most with
that represented afterwards by Calvin. But Luther saw in it nothing
more that was essential, such as would necessitate further
controversy, or deter him from friendly intercourse with these
pious-minded people. At their desire he published two of their
statements of belief in 1533 and 1538 with prefaces from his own
pen. In these prefaces he dwelt particularly on the striking
differences, as regards Church usages and regulations, between their
congregations and his own. But these differences, he said, ought in
no way to prevent their fellowship; a difference of usages had
always existed among Christian Churches, and with the difference of
times and circumstances, was unavoidable. Nor did he withhold a
certain sanction and approbation of the dignity with which the
Brethren continued to invest the state of celibacy, while refusing,
however, to give that sanction the force of a law.

Among the Brethren their gifted and energetic elder John Augusta
laboured to promote an alliance with Luther and the German
Reformation. He repeatedly appeared (and again in 1540) in person at
Wittenberg.

Thus on all sides, wherever the Evangelical word prevailed, Luther
saw the bonds of union being firmly tied.

CHAPTER IV.

OTHER LABOURS AND TRANSACTIONS, 1535-39.--ARCHBISHOP ALBERT AND
SCHONITZ.--AGRICOLA.

Amidst these important and general affairs of the Church, bringing
daily fresh labours and fresh anxieties for Luther--labours,
however, which, in spite of his bodily sufferings, he undertook with
his old accustomed energy--his strength, as in previous years we
have observed with reference to his preaching, now no longer
sufficed as before for the regular work of his calling. In his
official duties at the university the Elector himself, anxiously
concerned as he was for its progress, would have spared him as much
as possible. For these he arranged, in 1536, an ample stipend. In
his announcement of this step he solemnly declared: 'The merciful
God has plenteously and graciously vouchsafed to let His holy,
redeeming Word, through the teaching of the reverend and most
learned, our beloved and good Martin Luther, doctor of Holy
Scripture, be made known to all men in these latter days of the
world with true Christian understanding, for their comfort and
salvation, for which we give Him praise and thanks for ever; and has
made known also, in addition to other arts, the Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew languages, through the conspicuous and rare ability and
industry of the learned Philip Melancthon, for the furtherance of
the right and Christian comprehension of Holy Scripture.' To each of
these two men he now gave a hundred gulden as an addition to his
salary as professor, which in Luther's case had hitherto amounted to
two hundred gulden. At the same time he released Luther from the
obligation of lecturing, and, indeed, from all his other duties at
the university.

Luther began, however, this year a new and important course of
lectures--the exposition of the Book of Genesis, which, according to
his wont, he illustrated with a copious and valuable commentary on
the chief points of Christian doctrine and Christian life. They
progressed, however, but slowly and with many interruptions;
sometimes a whole year was occupied with only a few chapters. The
work was not completed until 1545. They were the last lectures he
delivered.

In the office of preacher, which he continued to fill voluntarily
and without emolument, he undertook again, after he had returned
from Schmalkald, and had gained fresh strength and, at least, a
temporary recovery from his recent illness, labours at once beyond
and more arduous than his ordinary duties. He resumed, in short, the
duties of Bugenhagen, who was given leave of absence till 1539 to
visit Denmark, for the purpose of organising there, under the new
king Christian III., the new Evangelical Church. He preached
regularly on week-days, in addition to his Sunday sermons;
continuing his discourses, as Bugenhagen had done, though with many
interruptions, on the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John. The
chancellor Bruck wrote to the Elector from Wittenberg on August 27:
'Doctor Martin preaches in the parish church thrice a week; and such
mightily good sermons are they, that it seems to me, as everyone is
saying, there has never been such powerful preaching here before. He
points out in particular the errors of the Popedom, and multitudes
come to hear him. He closes his sermons with a prayer against the
Pope, his Cardinals and Bishops, and for our Emperor, that God may
give him victory and deliver him from the Popedom.'

Among his literary labours he again took in hand in 1539 his German
translation of the Bible--the most important work, in its way, of
all his life--and persevered with intense and unremitting industry,
in order to revise it thoroughly for a new edition, which was
published at the end of two years. For this work he assembled around
him a circle of learned colleagues, whose assistance he succeeded in
obtaining and whom he regularly consulted. These were Melancthon,
Jonas, Bugenhagen, Cruciger, Matthew Aurogallus, professor of
Hebrew, and afterwards the chaplain Rorer, who attended to the
corrections. From outside also some joined them, such as Ziegler,
the Leipzig theologian, a man learned in Hebrew. Luther's younger
friend Mathesius, who had been Luther's guest in 1540, relates of
these meetings how 'Doctor Luther came to them with his old Bible in
Latin and his new one in German, and besides these he had always the
Hebrew text with him. Philip (Melancthon) brought with him the Greek
text, Dr. Kreuziger (Cruciger) besides the Hebrew, the Chaldaic
Bible (the translation or paraphrase in use among the ancient Jews);
the professors had with them their Rabbis (the Rabbinical writings
of the Old Testament). Each one had previously armed himself with a
knowledge of the text, and compared the Greek and Latin with the
Jewish version. The president then propounded a text, and let the
opinions go round;--speeches of wondrous truth and beauty are said
to have been made at these sittings.'

In other respects Luther's literary activity was chiefly devoted to
the great questions remaining to be dealt with at a Council. In
1539, the year after his publication of the Schmalkaldic Articles,
appeared a larger treatise from his pen 'On Councils and Churches,'
one of the most exhaustive of his writings, and important to us as
showing how firmly and confidently his idea of the Christian Church,
as a community of the faithful, was maintained amidst all the
practical difficulties which events prepared. He complains of the
substitution of the blind, unmeaning word 'Church'--and that even in
the Catechism for the young--for the Greek word in the New Testament
'Ecclesia,' as the name of the community or assembly of Christian
people. Much misery, he said, had crept in under that word Church,
from its being understood as consisting of the Pope and the bishops,
priests, and monks. The Christian Church was simply the mass of
pious Christian people, who believed in Christ and were endowed with
the Holy Spirit, Who daily sanctified them by the forgiveness of
sins, and by absolving and purifying them therefrom.

Of Luther's love for his German mother-language, and of the services
he rendered it, so conspicuously shown by these his writings, and
especially by his persevering industry in his translation of the
Bible, we are further reminded by a request he made in a letter of
March 1535, to his friend Wenzeslaus Link at Nuremberg. He suddenly
in that letter breaks off from the Latin--which was still the
customary language of correspondence between theologians--and
continues in German, with the words, 'I will speak German, my dear
Herr Wenzel,' and then begs his friend to make his servant collect
for him all the German pictures, rhymes, books, and ballads that had
recently been published at Nuremberg, as he wished to familiarise
himself more with the genuine language of the people. Luther himself
made a goodly collection of German proverbs. His original manuscript
which contained them was inherited by a German family, but
unfortunately it was bought about twenty years ago in England. There
was published also at Wittenberg, in 1537, a small anonymous book on
German names, written (unquestionably by Luther) in Latin, and
therefore intended for students. It contains, it is true, many
strange mistakes, but it is, nevertheless, a proof of the interest
he took in such studies, and is interesting as a maiden effort in
this field of national learning.

In the regular government and legal administration of his Saxon
Church, Luther did not occupy any post of office. When in 1539 a
Consistory was established at Wittenberg for the Electoral district,
and afterwards, indeed, for the regulation of marriage and
discipline, he did not become a member; he was certainly never
called upon or qualified to take part in the exercise of such a
jurisdiction. And yet this also was done with his concurrence, and
in cases of difficulty he was resorted to for his advice. All Church
questions of public interest continued, with this exception, to
occupy his independent and influential discussion. And even the
moral evils on the domain of civil, municipal and social life, to
which Luther at the beginning of the Reformation appeared desirous
of extending his preaching of reform, so far, at least, as that
preaching represented a general call and exhortation, but which he
afterwards seemed to discard altogether as something foreign to his
mission, never wholly faded from his purview, or ceased to enlist
his active interest. He wrote again in 1539 against usury, much as
he had written at an earlier period, remarking to his friends that
his book would prick the consciences of petty usurers, but that the
big swindlers would only laugh at him in their sleeves. And in
publishing his Schmalkaldic Articles he briefly refers again in his
preface to the 'countless matters of importance' which a genuine
Christian Council would have to mend in the temporal condition of
mankind--such as the disunion of princes and states, the usury and
avarice, which had spread like a deluge and had become the law, and
the sins of unchastity, gluttony, gambling, vanity in dress,
disobedience on the part of subjects, servants, and workmen of all
trades; as also the removal of peasants, &c. Nor at the same time
was he less prompt to interfere on behalf of individuals who were
suffering from want and injustice, either by his humble intercession
with their lords, or with the sharp sword of his denunciation.

It was Luther's indignation and zeal on such an occasion that caused
now his irremediable rupture with the Archbishop, Cardinal Albert,
and induced him to attack that magnate as recklessly as he did; for
the Cardinal had hitherto been always disposed to treat him with a
certain respect; and Luther, on his side, had refrained at least
from any open exhibition of hostility. The immediate cause of this
rupture was a judicial murder, perpetrated against one John Schonitz
(or Schanz) of Halle, on the river Saale. This man had for years had
the charge, as the confidential servant of the Archbishop, of the
public and even the private funds which his master required for his
stately palaces, his luxury, and his sensual enjoyments, refined or
coarse, legitimate or illegitimate; and had actually lent him large
sums. The Estates of the Archbishopric complained of the demands
made on them for money, and rightly suspected that the funds
supplied were improperly and dishonestly misappropriated. Schonitz
grew alarmed on account of the clandestine 'practices' which he was
carrying on for his master. The latter, however, assured him of his
protection. But when the Estates refused to grant any more subsidies
until a proper account was laid before them, he basely sacrificed
his servant in order to extricate himself from his embarrassment.
For deceptions alleged to have been practised against himself, he
had Schonitz arrested, and confined, in September 1534, in the
Castle of Giebichenstein. In vain Schonitz demanded a public trial
by impartial judges; in vain did the Imperial Court of Justice give
judgment in his favour. A second judgment of the court was answered
by Albert's directing the prisoner, who was a citizen of Halle and
sprung from an old local family, to be tried on June 21, 1535, at
Giebichenstein, by a peasant tribunal hastily summoned from the
surrounding villages, for the trial merely, as the rumour ran in
Halle, of a horse-stealer. The unhappy prisoner was allowed no
regular defence, and no counsel. An admission of guilt was extorted
from him by the rack, and he was summarily sentenced to death. Time
was only allowed him to say to the bystanders that he confessed
himself a sinner in the sight of God, but that he had not deserved
this fate. He was quickly strung up on the gallows, where his corpse
remained hanging till the wind blew it down in February 1537. Albert
took possession of his property. And this was done by the supreme
prince of the Roman Church in Germany, who played the part of a
modern Macenas with regard to art and science.