Life of Luther by Julius Koestlin

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Once more he celebrated his birthday in the circle of his friends,
Melancthon, Bugenhagen, Cruciger, and some others. Just before that
day a rich present of wine and fish had arrived from the Elector.
Luther was very merry with his friends, but could not restrain sad
thoughts of an apostasy from the gospel which might follow with many
after his death.

At the conclusion of his lecture on November 17 he said: 'This is
the beloved Genesis; God grant that after me it may be better done.
I can do no more--I am weak. Pray God that He may grant me a good
and happy end.' He began no new lectures.

At Christmas time, then, and in the depth of cold, Luther journeyed
to Mansfeld with Melancthon. He wished, as he wrote to Count Albert,
to risk the time and effort, notwithstanding the pressing work he
had on hand, in order to lay himself in peace in his coffin in the
place where he had previously reconciled his beloved masters. But
his wish was not to be fulfilled. Anxiety for Melancthon, who was
ill, urged him home, though he promised to return. On his homeward
journey, in spite of the continued severity of the cold, he preached
at Halle, concluding his sermon with the words, 'Well, since it is
very cold, I will now end. You have other good and faithful
preachers.'

He had carefully brought his Melancthon home. When now the new
conference on religion was to be held at Ratisbon, and a Wittenberg
theologian was to be sent to it, he begged the Elector not to employ
his friend again for the 'useless and idle colloquy,' especially as
there was not a man among his opponents who was worth anything.
'What would they do,' he wrote, 'if Philip were dead or ill, as
indeed he is--so ill that I rejoice to have brought him home from
Mansfeld. It is his duty henceforth to spare himself; he is better
employed in his bed than at the Conference. The young doctors must
come to the fore and take up the word after us.' Of his opponents
and their designs, he said 'They take us for asses, who don't
understand their vulgar and foolish attacks.'

He described his own condition, in a letter of January 17, in these
words: 'Old, spent, worn, weary, cold, and with but one eye to see
with.' He must have lost therefore the sight of one of his eyes, but
we know nothing definite beyond this. He adds, however, that for his
age his health was fairly good.

Melancthon was spared a journey to Ratisbon, as also a third visit
to Mansfeld. Luther ventured the latter, however, in January. He
took with him his three sons, together with their tutor, and his own
servant, that they might become acquainted with his beloved native
home. When, shortly before, some students at his table heard of a
strange and ominous fall of a large clock at midnight, he said, 'Do
not fear; this means that I shall soon die. I am weary of the world,
so let us rather part like well-filled guests at a common inn.'

[Illustration: Fig. 54.--LUTHER IN 1546. (From a woodcut of
Cranach.)]

On the 23rd of the month he left Wittenberg, where on the previous
Sunday, the 17th, he had preached for the last time.

He reached Halle on the 25th, and stayed with Jonas. It was probably
then that he brought Jonas as a present the beautiful white Venetian
glass, which is still preserved at Nuremberg. The Latin couplet is
to this effect:

Luther this glass, himself a glass, doth on his friend bestow,
That each himself a brittle glass may by this token know.

[Illustration: Fig. 55.--JONAS' GLASS. The date when the portraits
of Luther and Jonas, together with the Latin verses and their
translation, were executed, is uncertain, (_a_) Luther.
(_bb_) Translation of Luther's verses. (_cc_) 'Dat vitrum vitro Jona
vitrum ipse Lutherus: Ut vitro fragili similem se noscat uterque.'
(_d_) Jonas.]

The breaking up of the ice, followed by heavy floods, detained him
at Halle for three days. The very day after his arrival he preached
again. He wrote to his wife telling her he was cheering himself with
good Torgau beer and Rhine-wine, till the Saale had done raging. To
his friends, however, in company he said, 'Dear friends, we are
mighty good comrades, we eat and drink together; but we must all die
one day. I am now going to Eisleben to help my masters, the Counts
of Mansfeld, to come to terms. Now I know how the people are
disposed; when Christ wished to reconcile His heavenly Father with
mankind, He undertook to die for them. God grant that it may be so
with me!'

On the 28th the travellers, who were joined by Jonas, crossed the
dangerous rapids formed by the narrow part of the river Saale below
the Castle of Giebichenstein, near the town, and thus on the same
day reached Eisleben, where the Counts of Mansfeld, with several
other nobles, were waiting for Luther. An escort of more than a
hundred horsemen in heavy armour accompanied him from the frontier
between the territories of Halle and Mansfeld. Just before entering
the town, however, he was seized with alarming giddiness and
faintness, together with a sharp constriction of the heart, and much
difficulty of breathing. He himself ascribed this to a chill, having
shortly before walked some distance and then re-entered his carriage
in a perspiration. At the village of Rissdorf, near Eisleben, so he
wrote to his wife on February 1, such a bitter wind pierced his cap
at the back of his head, that he felt as if his brain were freezing.
It was in this letter that he spoke of her laughingly as Lady
Zulsdorf, &c. 'But now,' he added, 'thank God, I am pretty well
again, except for the heartache caused by the beautiful women.' Only
three days after this attack he preached at Eisleben.

Luther was comfortably quartered at the Drachstedt, a house which
had been bought by the town-council, and was inhabited by the
town-clerk Albert.

The business was commenced at once, in the very house where he was
staying. But it was a work of much trouble and difficulty for
Luther. He sought one way after another to effect a reconciliation.
On February 6 he begged the Elector through Melancthon to send him a
summons back to Wittenberg, in order to put pressure on the Counts
to settle their dispute; and a few days after he wrote to his wife,
saying that he should like to grease his carriage-wheels and be off
in sheer anger, but concern for his native town prevented him. He
was shocked at the avarice, so ruinous to the soul, which either
party displayed. He was angry also with the lawyers, for backing up
each party to stand so stubbornly on his imagined rights. He who now
ought to have been a lawyer himself, came among them as a hobgoblin,
who checked their pride by the grace of God.

The multitude of Jews whom Luther met at Eisleben and thereabouts
were also an annoyance and vexation to him. He disliked to see the
Counts give room so far to men who blasphemed Jesus and Mary, who
called the Christians changelings, and sucked them dry, nay, would
gladly kill them all, if they could. He warned even his
congregation, as a child of their country, not to fall into their
meshes.

Amidst all this business, he found time to preach four sermons. He
partook twice of the sacrament, and confessed and ordained two
clergymen.

To his wife, who worried herself constantly about him and his
health, he wrote from Eisleben five times in fourteen days. His
language to her, even when he has unpleasant news to tell, is always
full of affection, heartiness, and comfort. The humorous way in
which he addressed her we have noticed before. He told her how well
he fares with eating and drinking. He referred her to her God, in
Whose stead she wished to care for him, to the Bible and the small
Catechism, of which she had once declared that all it contained had
been said by her. He had also dangers to tell her of, which had
assailed him even while thus under her care. A fire chanced to break
out in a chimney near his room; and on February 9, so he writes to
her, notwithstanding all her care, a stone as long as a pillow and
as thick as two hands, had nearly toppled down upon his head and
crushed him. So he now takes care to say, 'While you cease not to
care for us, the earth at length might swallow us up, and all the
elements destroy us.'
[Footnote: A facsimile of the longest of these letters, bearing date
February 7, appears at the end of the volume. It runs as follows:
'Mercy and peace in the Lord. Pray read, dear Katie, the Gospel of
St. John and the' [_marginally_ 'little'] 'Catechism, of
which you once declared that you yourself had said all that it
contained. For you wish to disquiet yourself about your God, just as
if He were not Almighty, and able to create ten Martin Luthers for
one old one drowned perhaps in the Saale, or fallen dead by the
fireplace, or on Wolf's fowling-floor. Leave me in peace with your
cares; I have a better protector than you and all the angels. He--my
Protector--lies in the manger, and hangs upon a Virgin's breast. But
He sits also at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. Best,
therefore--in peace. Amen.

'I think that hell and all the world must now be free of all the
devils who have come together here to Eisleben, for my sake it
seems. So hard and knotty is this business. There are fifty Jews
here too' [_marginally_ 'in one house'], 'as I wrote to you
before. It is now said that at Rissdorff, hard by Eisleben, where I
fell ill before my arrival, more than four hundred Jews were walking
and riding about. Count Albert, who owns all the country round
Eisleben, has seized them upon his property, and will have nothing
to do with them. No one has done them any harm as yet. The widowed
Countess of Mansfeld (the Countess Dorothea, widow of Count Ernest,
born Countess of Solms), is thought to be the protectress of the
Jews. I don't know whether it is true, but I have given my opinion
in quarters where I hope it will be attended to. It is a case of
Beg, Beg, Beg, and helping them. For I had it in my mind to-day to
grease my carriage wheels _in ira mea_. But I felt the misery
of it too much; my native home held me back. I have been made a
lawyer, but they will not gain by it. They had better have let me
remain a theologian. If I live and come among them, I might become a
hobgoblin, who would comb down their pride by the grace of God. They
behave as if they were God Himself, but must take care to shake off
these notions in good time before their godhead becomes a devilhead,
as happened to Lucifer, who could not remain in heaven for pride.
Well, God's will be done. Let Master Philip see this letter, for I
had no time to write to him; and you may comfort yourself with the
thought how much I love you, as you know. And Philip will understand
it all.

'We live here very well, and the town-council gives me for each meal
half a pint of "Reinfall"' [_marginally_, 'which is very
good']. 'Sometimes I drink it with my friends. The wine of the
country here is also good, and Naumburg beer is very good, though I
fancy its pitch fills my chest with phlegm. The devil has spoilt all
the beer in the world with his pitch, and the wine with his
brimstone. But here the wine is pure, such as the country gives.

'And know that all letters you have written have arrived, and to-day
those have come which you wrote last Friday, together with Master
Philip's letters, so you need not be angry.

Sunday after St. Dorothea's Day (7 February) 1546.

'Your loving

'MARTIN LUTHER, D.']

[Illustration: Fig. 66.--ADDRESS OF LUTHER'S LETTER OF FEBRUARY 7.
(' To my beloved housewife, Catharine Lady Luther, Lady Doctor, Lady
of the Pigmarket at Wittenberg; my gracious wife, bound hand and
foot in loving service.')]

Luther kept up also at Eisleben his correspondence with Melancthon.
He wrote to him three letters, the last testimony of his friendship.
A letter to his 'kind, dear housewife,' and one to Melancthon, his
'most worthy brother in Christ,' both of February 14, are without
doubt the last he ever wrote. His sick body was well nursed and
tended at Eisleben. He went to bed early every night, after he had
stood before his window, according to his old habit, in fervent
prayer. The stone no longer troubled him, but he was very weary and
worn. His last sermon, on Sunday, February 14, he broke off with the
words: 'This and much more is to be said about the Gospel; but I am
too weak, we will leave off here.' Most unfortunately for him, he
had omitted to bring with him to Eisleben the applications used for
keeping his issue open, and now it was nearly closed. He knew that
the physicians considered this extremely dangerous.

At length his efforts to mediate between his masters the Counts were
crowned with success beyond all expectation. On February 14 a
reconciliation was effected upon the chief points, and the various
members of the Counts' families rejoiced, while the young lords and
ladies made merry all together. 'Therefore,' wrote Luther to Kathe,
'it must be seen that God is _Exauditor precum_.' He sent her
some trout as a thankoffering from Countess Albert. He wrote to her:
'We hope to return home this week, if God will.'

On the 16th and 17th of that month the reconciliation upon all the
points of dispute was formally concluded. The revenues of churches
and schools were fixed upon, and the latter to this day owe a rich
endowment to the arrangements there made. On the 16th Luther says in
his 'Table Talk': 'I will now no longer tarry, but set myself to go
to Wittenberg and there lay myself in a coffin and give the worms a
fat doctor to feed upon.'

On the morning of the 17th, however, the Counts found themselves
compelled, by Luther's state of health, to entreat him not to exert
himself any longer with their affairs; and so he only added his
signature where required. To Jonas and the Counts' court-preacher
Colius, who were staying, with him, he said he thought he should
remain at Eisleben, where he was born. Before supper he complained
of oppression of the chest, and had himself rubbed with warm cloths.
This relieved him, and he left his little room, going down the
staircase into the public room to join the party at supper. 'There is
no pleasure,' he said, 'in being alone.' At supper he was merry with
the rest, and talked with his usual energy on various subjects--now
jocular or serious, now intellectual and pious. But no sooner had he
returned to his chamber and finished his usual evening prayer than he
again became anxious and troubled. After being rubbed again with warm
cloths and having taken a medicine which Count Albert himself had
brought him, he laid himself down about nine o'clock on a leathern
sofa and slept gently for an hour and a half. On awakening, he arose,
and with the words (spoken in Latin) 'Into Thy hands I commend my
spirit, for Thou hast redeemed me, Thou God of truth,' went to his
bed in the adjoining room, where he again slept, breathing quietly,
till one o'clock. He then awoke, called his servant, and begged him
to heat the room, though it was quite warm already, and then exclaimed
to Jonas, 'O Lord God, how ill I am! Ah! I feel I shall remain here
at Eisleben, where I was born and baptized.' In this state of pain
he arose, walked without assistance into the room which he had
left a few hours before, again commending his soul to God; and
then, after pacing once up and down the room, lay down once more
on the sofa, complaining again of the oppression on his chest. His
two sons, Martin and Paul, remained with him all night. They had
spent most of the time at Mansfeld with their relations there, but
had now returned to their father (Hans was still absent), and his
servant and Jonas. Colius also hastened to him, and the young
theologian John Aurifaber, a friend of the two Counts who used to
associate with Luther together with Jonas and Colius. The town-clerk
was there, too, with his wife, also two physicians, and Count Albert
and his wife, who busied herself zealously with nursing the sick man;
and later on came a Count of Schwarzburg with his wife, who were
staying on a visit with the Count of Mansfeld. The rubbing and
application of warm clothes and the medicines were now of no avail
to ease Luther's anguish. He broke out into a sweat. His friends began
to feel more happy about him, hoping that this would relieve him; but
he replied, 'It is the cold sweat of death; I shall yield up my
spirit.' Then he began to give thanks aloud to God, Who had revealed
to him His Son, Whom he had confessed and loved, and Whom the godless
and the Pope blasphemed and insulted. He cried aloud to God and to the
Lord Jesus: 'Take my poor soul into Thy hands! Although I must leave
this body, I know that I shall be ever with Thee.' He then spoke words
of the Bible, three times uttering the text of St. John iii: 'God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'
After Colius had given him one more spoonful of medicine, he said
again, 'I am going, and shall render up my spirit,' and three times
rapidly in succession he said in Latin, 'Father, into Thy hands I
commend my spirit, for Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.'
From that time he remained quite still, and closed his eyes, without
making any answer when spoken to by those around him, who were busy
with restoratives. Jonas and Colius, however, after his pulse had
been rubbed with strengthening waters, said aloud in his ear:
'Reverend father (_Reverende pater), wilt thou stand by Christ and
the doctrine thou hast preached?' He uttered an audible 'Yes.' He
then turned upon his right side and fell asleep. He lay thus for
nearly a quarter of an hour, when his feet and nose grew cold; he
fetched one deep, even breath, and was gone. It was between two and
three o'clock in the morning of February 18--a Thursday.

The body was laid in a white garment, first upon a bed, and then in
a hastily-made leaden coffin. Many hundreds, high and low, came to
see it. The next morning the face was painted by an Eisleben artist,
and the morning after that by Lucas Fortenagel of Helle.
Fortenagel's portrait is no doubt a foundation of all those which we
find in several places under Cranach's name, and which no doubt
really came from Cranach's studio.

[Illustration: Fig. 57.--LUTHER AFTER DEATH. (From a picture
ascribed to Cranach.)]

The Elector John Frederick at once insisted that the mortal remains
of Luther should rest at Wittenberg. The Counts of Mansfeld wished
at least to pay them the last honours. After they had been brought,
on the afternoon of the 19th, into the Church of St. Andrew, where a
sermon was preached by Jonas that day, and another by Colius on the
following morning, a solemn procession started at noon on the 20th,
with the coffin, for its destination. In front rode a troop of about
fifty light-armed cavalry, with sons of both the Counts, to
accompany the body to its last resting-place. All the Counts and
Countesses, with their guests, followed as far as the gates of
Eisleben, and among them was a Prince of Anhalt, the magistrates,
the school-children, and the whole population of the surrounding
country.

[Illustration: Fig. 58.--CAST OF LUTHER AFTER DEATH. (At Halle.)]

In all the villages on the road the bells tolled, and old and young
flocked to join the procession. At Halle the coffin was received
with great solemnity, and placed for the night of the 20th in the
principal church of the town. There a cast was taken in wax, which is
preserved in the library of the church; the original features, however,
having been altered by putting in the eyes and improving the shape of
the mouth. To complete our picture of Luther's outward appearance, we
have in this cast the remarkably strong brow, which in Cranach's
portraits of Luther often recedes out of all proportion in his upturned
face. The two representations of Luther when dead are of great value,
deeply as it must be lamented that no more skilful hands than those of
the painter of Halle and the wax-modeller have had the privilege of
working upon them.

On the 21st the corpse was taken to Kemberg, after being received at
the frontier of the Electorate by deputies from the Elector. On the
morning of the 22nd it reached Wittenberg, where it was at once
taken to the Castle Church in solemn procession through the whole
length of the town. It was a long, sad procession. First went the
nobles representing the Elector, then the horsemen from Mansfeld and
their young Counts, and immediately after the coffin the widow in a
little carriage with some other gentlewomen. Then followed Luther's
sons and his brother James, with other relatives from Mansfeld; then
the University, the members of the Town Council, and all the
citizens of Wittenberg. In the church Bugenhagen preached a sermon,
and Melancthon, who, on the arrival of the sad news, had expressed
his grief in a charge to the students, gave a Latin oration as
representative of the University. Then, near the spot where the
great Reformer had once nailed up his theses, the body was lowered
into the grave.

Throughout the whole Evangelical Church arose a cry of lamentation.
Luther was mourned as a prophet of Germany--as an Elijah who had
overthrown the worship of idols and set up again the pure Word of
God. Like Elisha to Elijah, so Melancthon called out after him,
'Alas! the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!' On the other
hand, fanatical Papists were not ashamed to insult his very deathbed
with slanders and falsehoods; even a year before he died a silly,
sensational story of his death was spread about by them.

Luther throughout his life and labours had never troubled himself
much about the praise or the abuse of men. After the example of his
great teacher St. Paul, he went his way in honour and dishonour,
through evil report and good report, along the road which he knew to
be pointed out from above. The portrait of his life, plain and
unadorned as it is presented to the present age, will at any rate
testify to the worth of this great man, and thus do something
towards that eternal end for which he was ready to sacrifice his
life and, in the eyes of the world, his honour and his fame.