Class JB "R 3-2-5L 
 
 Book LiL4Ui— 
 
 Copyright N° 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
MARTIN LUTHER. 
 
WITTENBERG 
 
 AND 
 
 ITS ASSOCIATION WITH THE REFORMATION 
 OF GERMANY 
 
 By 
 
 REV. G. E. SEHLBREDE 
 
 Illustrated 
 
 INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 Rev. W. L. McEWAN, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 Pastor of the Third Presbyterian Church, 
 Pittsburgh, Pa. 
 
 THE JOHN C WINSTON CO., 
 Philadelphia. 
 
Wittenberg. 
 
 fuSRARY of CONGRESS 
 Two Copies Received 
 
 DEC 6 1906 
 
 CLASS A XXc„ No." 
 
 lie A.^^.0 
 COPY B. 
 
 
 COPTBIGHT, 1900 
 
 By G. E. SEELBREDE. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 There are some great men whose places are 
 fixed in history. The passing of the centuries, 
 though it has dimmed the outlines of their 
 figures, has only increased the greatness of their 
 fame. When the life and work of any man was 
 connected with some great principle that is inter- 
 woven with the progress and the liberty of the 
 race, his name cannot be forgotten as long as 
 history repeats its testimony. Those men who 
 were great in their personal characters, and 
 who, in the providence of God were associated 
 with revolutions that liberated men from the 
 bonds of error, superstition and tyranny, are 
 most sure of being remembered. As the genera- 
 tions follow each other, and men are further re- 
 moved from the scenes and events, the names of 
 the great leaders are still remembered, but their 
 deeds and the results of their labors are told in 
 a paragraph. The struggles through which they 
 passed, the sufferings they endured, the growth 
 of their heroic spirit of self-sacrifice, and all that 
 creates a living interest in them as human beings 
 with like passions as we, fall out of the world's 
 knowledge. Therefore, there will always be the 
 
 vn 
 
yiii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 need of biography. The very best way to under- 
 stand the movements of a century is often to 
 read the lives of the leaders in whom the thoughts 
 and the purposes of the people seemed to crys- 
 talize until those leaders become the embodi- 
 ment of the spirit of the age in which they 
 lived. The children of each new generation 
 ought to be encouraged to read the biographies 
 of the great men of history. A better patriotism 
 will be developed in our young men and young 
 women when they understand the price that 
 was paid by their fathers for the liberty which 
 they enjoy. A stronger devotion to the truth 
 will grow in those who know the precious lives 
 that have been surrendered for the truth's sake. 
 Protestant Christians need to remember the blood 
 and fire through which the right to worship God 
 according to the dictates of the private con- 
 science was secured. In these days of ease and 
 luxury, when spiritual things seem unreal, and 
 a bland indifference to the time-honored creeds 
 has settled down on men ; when to the minds 
 of the majority there is nothing worth dying for ; 
 when the spirit of compromise is regarded as 
 wiser and better than the spirit of loyalty to con- 
 victions ; when, indeed, the spirit of the age be- 
 littles convictions themselves, there is need for 
 men and women and the children whose charac- 
 ters are being formed, to turn back and read 
 of those who, " Through faith subdued king- 
 doms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, 
 
INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the vio- 
 lence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out 
 of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant 
 in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens." 
 
 It is like a moral tonic to read of the daunt- 
 less courage that faltered not before the power 
 of kings and emperors ; the faith that so trusted 
 in God that it feared not the face of man ; the 
 spirit that possessed the man who simply, 
 proudly, yet humbly, could stand before the 
 assembled powers of the world, temporal and 
 ecclesiastical, and say, " Here I stand. I can- 
 not do otherwise. God help me. Amen." This 
 generation needs to read the life of Luther, and 
 the life of Knox, and the life of Zwingli, and the 
 life of Huss, and the lives of the Pilgrim fathers, 
 and the lives of the missionaries who have, for 
 Christ's sake and his Gospel, gone to the ends of 
 the earth. Unless the children are brought face 
 to face with the moral grandeur and the death- 
 less courage of the world's heroes, great charac- 
 ters will cease from the world, until, in the 
 providence of God, some crisis again arises that 
 requires men to choose principle rather than com- 
 fort, and place spiritual realities above earthly 
 riches, and be willing to die for the truth rather 
 than to live in ease and error. 
 
 The writer of this little book has told, in simple 
 and interesting way, of his visit to Wittemburg. 
 He describes the historic houses that stand in the 
 little town. He takes us through the rooms of 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Luther's house and the College and the Church ; 
 and as he lingers in each place gathers up in 
 their order the events so fruitful in history that 
 were associated with them. He makes the figure 
 of Luther stand out in its rugged simplicity and 
 greatness. He sets before us the conditions 
 that prevailed in his day. He narrates the 
 abuses and tyrannies that brought Luther into 
 resistance and rebellion. He sets the figures of 
 the day, — emperors, ecclesiastical rulers, scho- 
 lars, hirelings, — in their places, and enables us 
 to see the mighty struggle that was begun when 
 this plain, earnest man took his position step by 
 step, as his convictions grew in strength and 
 clearness. He tells of Luther's marriage and his 
 home life, of Luther's study and the books 
 that he wrote, of Luther's battles and the 
 victories that he won, of his daily life and his 
 lamented death. One who reads the book con- 
 taining the short and simple account of this 
 great scholar, preacher, statesman and hero, who 
 is rightly called " The glory of the.Keformation," 
 will be led into the desire to read larger and 
 fuller accounts of the history of those epoch- 
 making times. 
 
 William L. McEwan. 
 Pittsburgh, Pa. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 To my dear mother I affectionately dedicate 
 this little volume. Any interest it may awaken 
 in the scenes of her u Fatherland " will fulfill 
 the wish of the writer. 
 
PKEFACE. 
 
 In presenting this little book to the public, it 
 is not the author's expectation to add to the 
 general information of the world upon a sub- 
 ject so vast as the Eeformation ; but rather to 
 group around a central point some of the interest- 
 ing events connected with one of the greatest 
 lives ever lived out on earth. If the effort is in 
 any measure successful, the author considers 
 himself fully paid for his labor. 
 Sincerely, 
 
 G. E. Sehlbredb. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Martin Luther Frontispiece 
 
 Luther's Home and University of Wittenberg 9 
 
 Luther's Study 17 
 
 The Palace Church 57 
 
 Interior of Palace Church, Showing Tombs 
 of Luther and Melancthon 127 ' 
 
WITTENBERG 
 
WITTENBERG-. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 We had spent a delightful week at Berlin, 
 the beautiful Capital of the great German 
 Empire, but the day of our departure came 
 and we took the train at eight o'clock p. m., 
 en route to Wittenberg. 
 
 From my earliest childhood I had longed 
 to see the home of Luther, the scene of so 
 many spiritual struggles in his own life and 
 the lives of others, before the dark mantle of 
 Romanism was torn asunder to allow the full- 
 day shining of the Gospel. Now, after many 
 years of anxious, almost dream-like longing, 
 we reached Wittenberg, just two hours' ride 
 from Berlin. 
 
 The rain was descending in torrents as we 
 left the train, and we took a carriage to the 
 
 3 
 
4 WITTENBERG. 
 
 "Kaiser Hoff." We drove through the Elster 
 Thor, up Collegian Strasse to the hotel, where 
 we were met by the porter and the clerk. 
 
 These officials — for the porter is a person- 
 age of much importance in many hotels in 
 Europe — silently assisted us with our lug- 
 gage, and motioning us to follow, led us up 
 a broad flight of stairs, opened the doors of 
 two elegantly furnished rooms, deposited 
 their burdens, and without saying a word left 
 us in a cloud of bewilderment. 
 
 The whole proceeding appeared very 
 strange to us. What did it mean? Were 
 they dumb, or did they think we were deaf ? 
 We had not asked for prices, conditions or 
 anything else that a tourist with a lean purse 
 usually desires to know. Were these our 
 rooms for the night or not ? If so, what were 
 the rates? We waited; no one came. We 
 grew impatient yet no one made an appear- 
 ance to help us out of our difficulty. 
 
 After a long anxious debate it was decided 
 that the writer, who had a little knowledge 
 of the German language, should go down and 
 investigate. He did so, and discovered that 
 the clerk and the porter had heard us speak- 
 
WITTENBERG. 5 
 
 ing English to each other, thought we knew 
 nothing of the German language, and as they 
 could not speak English, they had silently, 
 but very courteously shown us to our rooms. 
 Yes, these were our rooms for the night. 
 They were surprised that we had not retired, 
 and hoped we would be comfortable. When 
 they told us the rates, we assured them that 
 we would be very comfortable indeed, for 
 their charges were exceedingly small com- 
 pared with like accommodations in hotels in 
 this country or England. They also ex- 
 plained to us that tourists from the United 
 States and England who could neither speak 
 nor understand the German language, often 
 stopped there, and this was the courteous way 
 they had of receiving them. 
 
 One does not know how useful a little 
 knowledge of the German tongue is until he 
 makes a circular tour through that country. 
 All things being now satisfactorily arranged, 
 we retired for the night, leaving orders to be 
 called at half-past six in the morning, and 
 breakfast to be served at seven. 
 
 It was raining hard next morning, but 
 faithful to the order we were called at the 
 
6 WITTENBERG. 
 
 proper time, and after breakfast, went out to 
 visit the points of special interest. Before 
 describing these points, however, it may be 
 of interest to give a short sketch of the town 
 itself. 
 
 It is a picturesque town, about fifty miles 
 southwest of Berlin, in the province of Sax- 
 ony, Prussia, and is situated on the banks of 
 the river Elbe which sparkles and gleams be- 
 tween its willows and scrubby oaks. It is 
 surrounded by a good and highly cultivated 
 farming country, and has a population of 
 fourteen thousand five hundred inhabitants, 
 many of whom are employed in the large 
 breweries, distilleries and tanneries. Others 
 are engaged in the manufacture of woolen 
 and linen goods; while the rest follow the 
 vocation usually pursued by inhabitants of 
 German villages and towns, store-keeping, 
 farming, etc. 
 
 It is a thoroughly old German town, visited 
 by comparatively few American and English 
 tourists, as it is out of the usual route of 
 travel. It is long and narrow, and on account 
 of the crowding of its population, covers 
 much less area than a town of the same pop- 
 
WITTENBERG. f 
 
 ulation would cover in the United States. 
 This is true, however, of almost, if not all 
 European cities. 
 
 In the evening, Wittenberg settles down 
 into the quiet of a country village, while the 
 broad river glides peacefully on, giving to all 
 around a sort of melancholy calmness. As 
 the night advances, the lights disappear from 
 the windows one by one, and at midnight 
 darkness settles down upon the city for street 
 lights are very scarce. 
 
 Collegian Strasse is the principal street, 
 and runs from the railroad station entirely 
 through to the other end of the town. A 
 tram-car, the only one which Wittenberg 
 can boast of, runs on this street and furnishes 
 a convenient way of going to and from the 
 station. The streets are narrow, most of 
 them very crooked, and have exceedingly nar- 
 row side-walks. The houses are low, old 
 looking, (probably as old as they look) built 
 of stone, or wood plastered over with cement. 
 They are roofed with tiles, grown beautifully 
 green with age. Near the center of the town 
 is the market platz in which are statues of 
 Luther and Melancthon, but the important 
 
8 WITTENBERG. 
 
 historic feature of the town is, that it was 
 the cradle of the great German Reformation. 
 
 The one place interesting above all else, is 
 the old Augustinian Monastery where Luther 
 spent so many years as a monk, and now used 
 as a theological seminary. This building 
 faces directly on Collegian Strasse. High 
 walls run back from either end which connect 
 it with the Luther House, thus enclosing a 
 great court or garden. The building known 
 as the Luther House, which the Elector, John 
 Frederick (according to Mrs. Bundle Charles) 
 gave to Luther as a wedding present, was used 
 as the university of the convent as well as the 
 dwelling of Luther. 
 
 To enter this interesting place we pushed 
 open a great wooden gate or door which is 
 left unlocked, as the students of the seminary 
 pass freely in and out. Upon entering we 
 found ourselves in a road-like way wide 
 enough to admit a wagon, with rooms of the 
 convent on either side, and overhead. This 
 " way " is paved with rough stone and leads 
 into the court. Just across the court is the 
 Luther House, a plain structure built of 
 stones, with a long front, near the center of 
 
V. 
 
WITTENBERG. 9 
 
 which is a tower with a winding stairway 
 leading to the floors above, and far up in the 
 top is a large bell which tolls the hours of 
 recitation for the seminary students. This 
 bell is very old and is claimed to be the same 
 that hung there in Luther's time, tolling the 
 hours for the monks. 
 
 We passed through the court, following a 
 beautiful walk bordered with flowers, until 
 we reached the door of this historic building, 
 and in answer to our ring were met by a good- 
 natured, stout German woman of middle age ; 
 after informing her that we were tourists, she 
 at once began to show us over the house. The 
 first, or ground floor has nothing of special 
 interest ; so we ascended the winding stair to 
 the floor above, the way being so dark as to 
 make it necessary for us to carry lighted 
 candles. 
 
 The stone steps of this stairway are much 
 worn by the many feet that have pressed upon 
 them since they were placed there almost 
 four centuries ago ; but just a few years after 
 Columbus crossed the ocean and discovered a 
 new continent. As we ascended, our minds 
 ran back over the pages of history. To this 
 
10 WITTENBERG. 
 
 little old town, now of no great commercial 
 importance, and to this university founded 
 by the Elector Frederick, Luther who was 
 to make the name of Wittenburg famous 
 through all time, was called from Erfurt in 
 1508, to fill the chair of Philosophy. He 
 would have preferred Theology, but as God 
 seemed to have called him to another position 
 he entered upon his duties with all the vast 
 energy of his being. 
 
 In connection with these duties he con- 
 tinued the study of Hebrew and Greek, which 
 was to be so beneficial to him during those 
 ten months' imprisonment in the Wartburg 
 castle, and from which the world was to reap 
 rich blessings. 
 
 At the first landing of the stair a door leads 
 into the vestibule which contains a drinking 
 goblet of Luther's ; Catherine Von Bora's ro- 
 sary which she used when a nun at Mmptsch, 
 Saxony ; a crucifixion scene, and other paint- 
 ings. 
 
 We passed through this vestibule to the 
 opposite side and entered through another 
 door, Luther's study. What emotions fill 
 one's bosom as he stands in this room! We 
 
WITTENBERG. H 
 
 wonder if this is indeed the place in which 
 he locked himself, according to tradition, for 
 three days with nothing to eat but bread and 
 salt when he was writing his commentary on 
 the twenty-second Psalm, and in which Mrs. 
 Luther found him in deep meditation at the 
 close of the third day when a locksmith had 
 forced open the door. 
 
 The room is large, with low ceiling, and 
 poorly furnished. It is said to be just as 
 Luther left it in 1546, to make a last journey 
 to his old home at Eisleben, never to again re- 
 turn to this room ; but to be borne back in a 
 few days by loving hands and laid to rest in 
 the Palace Church at the other end of the 
 town. 
 
 There is the same old door made of plain 
 heavy boards, swinging inward on its rusty 
 hinges. The same furniture is there, stand- 
 ing just as it was when he occupied this 
 apartment. This is the same floor, now much 
 worn by the feet of many tourists and the rav- 
 ages of insects. There against the wall oppo- 
 site the door through which we entered, is a 
 little old low book-shelf still holding some of 
 his books and just above this is a medallion 
 
12 WITTENBERG. 
 
 portrait of Luther himself. In the corner 
 opposite the window stands a great, curious 
 German stove. It is eight feet high, overlaid 
 with green tile upon which are many repre- 
 sentations of historic groups and scenes in 
 beautiful bas-relief. This wonderful thing 
 looked more like a miniature house of three 
 or four stories, than like a stove. It rests on 
 a stone foundation, and is at the left of the 
 room. 
 
 Overlooking the court is a window set deep 
 in the thick walls. By this window in the 
 recess or alcove, formed by the thickness of 
 the wall, are two seats made of plain pine 
 boards, arranged like chairs facing each 
 other. The space beneath was formerly used 
 by Luther as a case for his books, some of 
 which are there to-day well preserved, but 
 dusty and smelling from age. This is said 
 to have been his favorite place to sit in the 
 evening hours with his wife Catherine, when 
 he allowed himself time from his many duties 
 to look upon the garden just below, where he 
 delighted to work cultivating and studying 
 his flowers. At the time of our visit, the 
 walks were nicely kept, the shrubbery taste- 
 
WITTENBERG. 13 
 
 fully trimmed, and the flowers were bloom- 
 ing brightly, though it was late in the season. 
 The most interesting object in the study, 
 perhaps, is an old table which stands near 
 the center, and at which Luther wrote so 
 many of his works. 
 
 This table is very much worm-eaten; (the 
 dark places in the picture show the inroads 
 which the little destroyers have made.) In- 
 deed, all the furniture and even the floor has 
 suffered much. These are the only surviv- 
 ing pieces of furniture in this apartment 
 which was once occupied by the mightiest 
 man of the sixteenth century. On the wall 
 is the signature (written in German) of 
 Peter the Great, the then Czar of Russia. 
 It was written with a piece of chalk by his 
 own hand, and is protected by a covering of 
 glass. On the floor are rugs and pieces of 
 carpet, placed there to protect the boards 
 from the feet of the many tourists who an- 
 nually visit this place, so careful are the 
 Germans to preserve everything connected 
 with the life and interests of Luther. 
 
 No bygone king has his crown more care- 
 fully guarded through feelings of reverence, 
 
14: WITTENBERG. 
 
 than are guarded these old pieces of furniture, 
 worthless in themselves. A king's crown 
 might be stolen for its wealth of jewels and 
 gold, thus needing an iron cage and an armed 
 guard. The tourist looks upon it, admires it, 
 passes on and forgets it and even him who 
 wore it; but no tourist with even a small 
 knowledge of this great man, who was greater 
 than kings and yet the poorest of men, can 
 stand by those poor, plain, half decayed relics, 
 coming from that period which marks the 
 transition from the age of darkness to the age 
 of light, and leaving them, ever forget them. 
 
 Surely we owe a deep debt of gratitude to 
 those who thus jealously keep these historic 
 relics which are almost sacred, and which 
 speak to us of other centuries, and are as- 
 sociated with events of such vast moment as 
 to turn, as on a pivot, the whole history of 
 the world. 
 
 From this room Luther sent forth his com- 
 mentaries on the Psalms, Galatians and other 
 parts of the Bible. Tracts on the Lord's 
 Prayer and the Ten Commandments ; " The 
 Reformation of Religion," and " The Baby- 
 lonish Captivity," also almost innumerable 
 
WITTENBERG. 15 
 
 other works, including many of his hymns, 
 some of which are so popular in Germany 
 even to this day. But of all his writings, 
 those which struck the keynote of the Refor- 
 mation and sent it thrilling through all 
 Europe, were his ninety five theses, which he 
 nailed to the doors of the Mew Church (now 
 the Schloss Kirche) on All Saints Eve, 
 October 31st, 1517. 
 
 How much then, went from this little bare 
 room, from the house and from this convent 
 to change the destinies of the world! How 
 powerfully, here, did this German monk 
 wield the weapon placed in his hands by God, 
 to shatter the bulwarks of the papacy, and to 
 give the true light to the nations. 
 
 As one stands here where many of the great 
 and wise have stood, and thinks of that long 
 conflict which raged in the heart of the great 
 reformer as he sat there by that window, 
 stood by that stove or bent over his Greek and 
 Hebrew Bible at that table, searching for 
 light and yet striving to remain faithful to 
 the Church of Home (for it was many years 
 before he could completely break the chain 
 which bound him to that church) and how, 
 
16 WITTENBERG. 
 
 at last, he was FORCED by that church to 
 make a decided stand, he more fully than 
 ever appreciates the power of God to take a 
 creature from the humblest and poorest of his 
 fold, and make him an agent of great useful- 
 ness to mankind as well as much glory to 
 himself, and how He sometimes takes the 
 weak things of the world to confound the 
 mighty. 
 
 What could have been more powerful, as 
 seen by the natural eye, than the Roman 
 Church backed by the power of Emperor 
 Charles Fifth, when Luther sat in this room ? 
 What could have seemed more weak in com- 
 parison, than that poor, sometimes pennyless 
 monk, often deserted by his dearest friends ? 
 And yet they, Luther and the Pope, repre- 
 sented two great struggling powers each 
 striving for the mastery. The one was backed 
 by the most powerful Emperor of the day; 
 by all the power and grandeur, all the wealth 
 and ecclesiastical control of the Roman 
 Church, with its ritual, its priests, bishops, 
 cardinals; its Pope and its superstitions. 
 The other, one man without money or politi- 
 cal influence, excommunicated from the 
 
WITTENBERG. 17 
 
 Church and under the curse of the Pope, but 
 a roan who rested upon the arm of God, and 
 was guided by His word and the Holy Spirit ; 
 yet;— 
 
 "Right is right, since God is God, and right the 
 day must win." 
 
 and Luther stands before the world to-day, 
 after almost four hundred years of scrutiny, 
 as the victor of that mighty struggle. The 
 world had long been overshadowed by the 
 dark night of papacy with all its accompany- 
 ing evils; but suddenly, as a bolt from the 
 cloudless heavens, there shone forth a flame 
 that scattered the darkness of night and set 
 the world aglow with a new light. A man of 
 humble birth had stepped out upon the scene ; 
 had caused that flame to flash, and made a 
 more lasting impress for good and a more 
 distinctively individual mark upon the his- 
 tory of mankind, than any other individual 
 since apostolic times. That man was Martin 
 
 Luther. 
 2 
 
CHAPTEE II. 
 
 The university was founded by Frederick 
 the Wise, in 1505. Luther was called to it 
 as a professor in 1508, but scarcely had three 
 years elapsed when he was sent to Rome. 
 He served as Town Preacher a great part of 
 this time, and preached with such power as to 
 " bear like a torrent on the minds of his hear- 
 ers/' who drank in his words as the drv and 
 parched ground drinks in the autumn 
 showers ; or as one, having fed on husks, sits 
 down eagerly to a table well spread with the 
 fruit from which the husks have been re- 
 moved. And was it not because their souls 
 had been fed on the dry husks of Scholastic 
 learning alone, that they were starving for 
 the knowledge of the true way ? Was it not 
 because their hearts were thirsting for the 
 Water of Life which had been turned from 
 its channel by the corrupt Church of Rome, 
 that they drank so eagerly of the showers fall- 
 
 18 
 
WITTENBERG. 19 
 
 ing upon them as the words of truth swelled 
 from the heart and lips of the speaker ? Aye, 
 was it not because they had been robbed of 
 the word of truth and life, that they so read- 
 ily responded to him who brought it back to 
 them? 
 
 Luther was sent to Rome to settle, or lay 
 before the Pope, some disputes which had 
 arisen among the convents of his order in 
 Germany. He started out with high hopes 
 and much joy, feeling that he must be made 
 better, more holy and righteous by a visit to 
 the Holy City, According to some author- 
 ities he walked the whole way barefoot and 
 penniless, while Erasmus, with whom he was 
 to come in conflict later on, made the same 
 journey with ease and pleasure, " with horse 
 and luxury." 
 
 On his way to Rome Luther was suddenly 
 taken sick at a convent of Benedictine monks 
 in Lombardy. It is supposed by many that 
 poison had been put in his food by the monks 
 whom he had severely reprimanded for their 
 extravagant and sensuous lives, which con- 
 trasted so thoroughly with his own simple and 
 pure manner of living. He removed from 
 
20 WITTENBERG. 
 
 this convent to another and more safe abode, 
 and soon recovering, proceeded on his way to 
 Kome. 
 
 All along the journey he found corruption 
 in church and convent to increase, yet he ap- 
 proached the city with great joy for he 
 thought, surely within her walls all must be 
 pure and holy, for was it not the seat of the 
 Holy Church? Had not Paul and Peter 
 been persecuted and slain there? Were not 
 their bones now sepultured within the incom- 
 plete building of St. Peter's? Had not the 
 blood of many martyrs consecrated it and 
 made it holy ? Was it not the home of the 
 successors of that apostle to whom Christ had 
 given the keys of the kingdom of heaven ? " 
 With such feelings he came within sight of 
 the imperial walls, and falling upon his knees 
 with clasped hands lifted toward heaven, he 
 cried out with reverence and joy : " I hail 
 thee, Holy Eome ; made holy by the blood of 
 martyrs." 
 
 Thus Luther approached the papal city, 
 with humble spirit and eager, anxious soul 
 longing for more light, more holiness : and 
 yet Wicelius, in his letter to Erasmus, under 
 
WITTENBERG. 21 
 
 date of March, 1533, referring to Luther 
 says : " It is not Hannibal now who is knock- 
 ing at the gate of Rome, but the devil who is 
 trying to destroy the Christian faith." 
 
 But whatever Wicelius thought of Luther, 
 Luther soon changed his opinion of Rome. 
 How different he found it from what he ex- 
 pected ! Instead of being holy, and breath- 
 ing the very atmosphere of heaven, he found it 
 a pool of corruption reeking with vileness that 
 beggars description. Holy as the city must 
 be, according to Roman belief, consecrated as 
 it was by the most sacred relics of the Church, 
 by the bones of the sainted dead and the 
 presence of the sacred infallible head of the 
 Church, the Pope, Luther found it in reality 
 the most corrupt place he had ever known: 
 a veritable cesspool of corruption. " In 
 sacredness he had thought of it as Jerusalem, 
 but in wickedness he had found it as Baby- 
 lon." 
 
 About eighteen hundred and fifty years ago 
 Paul made his visit to Athens, a city wholly 
 given over to idolatry, and when he would 
 have preached to the people of the true God, 
 they called him a babbler and turned again to 
 
22 WITTENBERG. 
 
 their philosophy and idolatrous superstition, 
 while Paul left their city never to return. 
 When Luther entered the city of Rome and 
 began to see farther into the mysteries of the 
 Roman Church, he found idolatry and cor- 
 ruption even worse and more degrading, and 
 indeed more widespread than that which the 
 apostle had found at Athens. 
 
 Athens had only her philosophy and culture 
 to guide her, and this had led her farther 
 astray. Rome had the true light, the word 
 of God in her grasp, but rather than send it 
 out to enlighten the world and lead it to 
 Christ, she chose to hide it in her cloisters, 
 chain it to the walls of her convents and 
 cover it over with her formalism and tradi- 
 tion, until it was all but lost to view ; and to- 
 gether with the hiding of the Scriptures she 
 also fostered the spread of ignorance among 
 the multitudes. So successful was she in 
 this, that Erasmus said the monks and friars 
 were wiser in their generation than most 
 people knew, for they were fully aware that 
 the spread of knowledge would be fatal to 
 their dominion* 
 
 In the very heart of the Church Luther 
 
WITTENBERG. 23 
 
 found little but unbelief, mockery and im- 
 morality. The priests themselves, many of 
 them, considered their religion and their pro- 
 fession a hollow sham, even as the heathen of 
 this same Rome in the time of Nero consid- 
 ered their profession, their religion and their 
 gods hollow, meaningless mockeries. We 
 must however, allow for this difference in 
 favor of the age of Nero; the heathen had 
 little opportunity to receive the light ; but the 
 priest of Luther's day had, or could have had 
 the full overflowing light of the gospel to di- 
 rect him aright. 
 
 When Luther would have brushed aside 
 all this formalism and falseness, and pointed 
 out the way to the one God who ruled above 
 priest, pope and church, these corrupt and 
 immoral idolators would have none of it, but 
 stopped their ears; closed their eyes to the 
 light; continued in their sins, and finally 
 laid their persecuting hands upon him who 
 would have been their guide, until, as Paul 
 left Athens, Luther also left the fold of the 
 Roman Church. 
 
 But what a vast difference there was be- 
 tween this church of pretended apostolic sue- 
 
24 WITTENBERG. 
 
 cession at Rome in the sixteenth century, and 
 the real apostolic church at Jerusalem in the 
 first century. In the apostolic church there 
 were purity, sincerity, and simplicity. In 
 the papal church there were gorgeousness, 
 ritualism, worldly officialism and corruption. 
 It was this great contrast between the 
 church of the first century and that of the 
 sixteenth that quickened both Luther and 
 Knox to a return to primitive simplicity and 
 purity. 
 
 The war-loving Julius the Second occupied 
 the pontifical chair, and instead of depending 
 upon penticostal outpourings, or more of the 
 workings of the Holy Spirit to conquer the 
 world, he strove to conquer it, or as much of 
 it as possible, in his own way (by force of 
 arms) not for Christ but for the Church of 
 Rome. Strange succession this, to the hum- 
 ble fisherman who trod the shores of Galilee ; 
 who gave up all his worldly possessions for 
 the sake of his Lord ; who was commanded by 
 the Master to put up his sword into its place ; 
 who went empty-handed and did his work in 
 the " name of Jesus of Nazareth ;" and who 
 suffered much in his Master's cause and for 
 his Master's sake. 
 
WITTENBERG. 25 
 
 Cardinals, bishops, priests and monks, 
 were even more degraded than the Pope. 
 Luther saw the cardinals with their palaces 
 and mistresses ; he saw the bishops with their 
 riches, their grandeur, their indulgence; he 
 saw the priests with their diseased forms and 
 bloated faces which pointed clearly to a life 
 of sin and dissipation. But in this city of 
 ecclesiastical corruption ; unknown, un- 
 thought-of beyond the walls of Erfurt and 
 "Wittenberg, walked a man who was soon to 
 revolutionize the Christian church. 
 
 Sadly he walked the streets of the city of 
 which he had thought and dreamed as the 
 very nursery of holiness. He visited all the 
 sacred relics, did penance before all the holy 
 altars, worshiped before the portraits or 
 statues of all the saints, climbed on his hands 
 and knees (according to tradition) the Sancta- 
 Scala, reputed to have been a part of Pilate's 
 stairway which had been brought from Jeru- 
 salem to Rome. An indulgence from penance 
 for one thousand years for this act of devotion 
 was to be to all pilgrims who ascended this 
 stair on their knees. 
 
 He was in this act, faithfully seeking for 
 
26 WITTENBERG. 
 
 light, when a voice as if from heaven seemed 
 to whisper to him : " The just shall live by 
 faith." He immediately arose, turned about 
 and bravely walked down the steps up which 
 he had so laboriously ascended. He went 
 away a free man; but with what a different 
 opinion of it all did he return to his quiet 
 home at Wittenberg. Disappointed and sad 
 as he was by what he saw, he said he would 
 not have failed having seen Rome for one 
 thousand florins, for if he had never seen 
 it he would always have feared and doubted 
 whether or not he had done an injustice to 
 the Pope, but, he said, " as it is I am quite 
 satisfied now on this point." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Soon after his return to Wittenberg he 
 was made a Doctor of Divinity, and called 
 to the chair of theology, although he was only 
 twenty-nine years of age. He protested at 
 first against being put into such a responsible 
 position; but Staupitz, the vicar-general of 
 the Augustinian order in Germany, and who 
 had been the first theological professor in the 
 university of Wittenberg, taking Luther by 
 the arm led him out into this very garden, 
 and there, sitting under one of those ancient 
 looking trees, told him that he must accept 
 the chair of theology offered him by the uni- 
 versity. Luther finally agreed, but being 
 without money he went to Leipsic to receive 
 from the Electors' treasury the funds neces- 
 sary for the promotion. 
 
 He received his degree October 18, 1512, 
 and was shortly after called to the university 
 of Erfurt ; but in fifteen months he returned 
 
 27 
 
28 WITTENBERG. 
 
 to Wittenberg university and entered into 
 his work as professor of theology. In this 
 position, thus thrust upon him, though it 
 seemed at the time he was first called to 
 Wittenberg that this was the chair he desired, 
 in the oath which he took promising to dis- 
 charge his duties to the very best of his ability, 
 he felt the call of his Sovereign, of the univer- 
 sity, of the Pope, and above all the rest, the 
 call of his God. In accepting it he was urged 
 to a plane far above that of the narrow limits 
 of monasticism and mere scholasticism, and 
 from that time he took a broader and a truer 
 stand, and that too, on a surer foundation than 
 he could otherwise have done. He became 
 from that hour " the armed champion of the 
 gospel/' and he knew right well how to use 
 those arms which were thus put into his 
 hands. 
 
 In his oath he declared that he would faith- 
 fully defend the gospel and firmly stand for 
 the truth. This promise he fully redeemed 
 in the pulpit ; with his pen ; by lifting up his 
 voice in councils before kings, rulers and 
 ecclesiastics, as well as in his modest lecture 
 room. His one great aim was to dispel the 
 
WITTENBERG. 29 
 
 darkness which had fallen so heavily upon 
 the world (for which he felt the Church was 
 largely responsible) and to send forth the 
 light as it is found in Christ Jesus. 
 
 While all the world was excited over the 
 discovery of a new continent where kings, 
 rulers, nobles and adventurers were seeking 
 lands and fortunes, this poor monk, often 
 suffering from poverty, in this room of this 
 old convent, was wrestling in the deep laby- 
 rinths of Roman formalism, idolatry and 
 superstition, with questions of far greater im- 
 portance than those in which the nobles of 
 the earth were engaged. While they were 
 seeking after the treasures of earth, he was 
 searching for the deep things of God, and 
 striving to discover the truths of the word of 
 God. While they were unconsciously pre- 
 paring a land of refuge for the persecuted 
 of the world, he was poring over his Greek 
 and Hebrew Bible, and preparing therefrom 
 a system of theology which would soon startle 
 the world. 
 
 Slowly the light broke upon him, but he 
 groped his way steadily through the gloom, 
 following the first faint ray which led him 
 
30 WITTENBERG. 
 
 nearer and nearer the truth, until the dark- 
 ness at last vanished, and he stood out in the 
 broad open day of the gospel. 
 
 Adjoining this study is a large room used 
 as a sort of picture gallery, which contains 
 paintings by eminent artists, representing the 
 Diet of Worms, Luther's betrothal (by 
 Cranach, who was present at the wedding 
 of Luther), Charles Fifth at Luther's grave, 
 and many other works representing scenes 
 and incidents connected with the life of the 
 reformer. 
 
 According to our guide, this room was 
 used as a dining-room by the monks until the 
 latter part of 1524, when all except Luther 
 left the convent, which thus ceased to exist. 
 In December of the same year Luther sent 
 the keys to the Elector who invited him to 
 remain in the building which was now given 
 to the university. 
 
 Passing again through the study from this 
 gallery, we proceed to what is known as the 
 " corner room." It is long and hall-like, and 
 contains the portraits of Luther, his wife 
 Catherine, and others, also a glass case in 
 which are old translations of the Bible. This 
 
WITTENBERG. 31 
 
 room was used as a chapel by the monks, and 
 the most interesting object in it is the high, 
 rickety old pulpit in which Luther so often 
 stood to preach to monks, students and many 
 others who gathered there to hear him. An 
 old stove stands on one side of the room, and 
 some statuary on the other. There is less, 
 perhaps here, than in the other rooms to di- 
 rectly remind one of the great man whose 
 voice so often filled this chapel, but the whole 
 atmosphere breathes of his presence, though 
 almost four centuries have passed since his 
 voice was heard for the last time within these 
 walls. 
 
 Connected with this room is another much 
 the same in size, containing several paintings 
 by the elder Cranach who was a citizen of 
 Wittenberg in the time of Luther, and who 
 has preserved on canvas the likeness of most 
 of the reformers who were contemporary with 
 him. There are several glass cases which 
 contain medals, printed pamphlets and books, 
 autographs of Luther, Melancthon, Fred- 
 erick the Wise, Duke George, John the Con- 
 stant, and many other notable persons who 
 were contemporary with Luther, 
 
32 WITTENBERG. 
 
 In another room is a model of the statue of 
 Luther, erected in his honor at Worms, This 
 chamber also contains the first editions of 
 many of Luther's works, (manuscripts, etc.) 
 kept carefully protected from dust and the 
 touch of tourists, by glass cases. 
 
 Perhaps the most interesting place in the 
 whole building, if we except the study, is 
 Luther's lecture room. Here is an old 
 Cathedra which he occupied while lecturing. 
 There are the same old benches — much cut 
 up by the knives of the boys of that day — 
 where the students sat to hear their beloved 
 teacher as he went through the Psalms; the 
 Epistle to the Romans and other parts of the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 What an effect those lectures must have 
 had upon the lives of the young men who sat 
 at his feet before and after the clouds had 
 vanished from his eyes. In this lecture room 
 he unfolded to them the treasures of God's 
 word, showing clearly that remission of sins 
 was not the result of meritorious work, but 
 that it was only through faith in Christ 
 Jesus that the sinner could be saved. He 
 was soon rewarded by seeing many of his 
 
WITTENBERG. 33 
 
 young disciples make public profession of 
 their belief in this doctrine; and how this 
 knowledge, that some of the seed he was sow- 
 ing had fallen on good ground and was al- 
 ready producing good fruit, must have com- 
 forted him amid all his trials and difficulties. 
 
 Some years later, after Luther's marriage, 
 a terrible plague broke out in Wittenberg 
 which caused most of the professors and 
 students to flee from the university. He was 
 advised to go too, but he bravely remained 
 to attend to the sick, and wrote a friend that 
 " his house had been turned into a veritable 
 hospital as he had taken in several persons 
 whom no one would shelter or care for." 
 This came at a time when he was very poor ; 
 and yet even in this poverty he sold some of 
 his silver plate to raise money for one of the 
 students who desired to go home and thus 
 escape the danger of the plague. 
 
 Printers often offered to pay Luther for 
 his work, but he always refused them, say- 
 ing: "Since God had enabled him to send 
 those works forth, they should go free as the 
 light of heaven." And yet, at this very 
 
 juncture, he cried out ; " My house has been 
 3 
 
34 WITTENBERG. 
 
 drained of its last penny." He had been 
 obliged to pawn three silver goblets which 
 some friends had given him, that he might, 
 with the proceeds, procure the bare neces- 
 saries of life. This shows the nobleness, the 
 unselfishness and the self-sacrificing spirit 
 of him who would take no earthly reward for 
 doing his duty toward God and man. He 
 had been blest with power and ability to do 
 the work, and he would not receive payment 
 from the hand of man for performing it. 
 
 During this awful plague, he supported 
 forty-two persons for some time out of his 
 poverty, but he trusted in the Lord, whom he 
 believed would provide. 
 
 For many years before he came to "Witten- 
 berg, indulgences had been sold by the 
 Roman Church. The right of the pope to 
 grant these through the priests, was not ques- 
 tioned; but the Electors of Saxony would 
 never permit them to be sold within the 
 bounds of their provinces. 
 
 This selling of indulgences, was the pay- 
 ment on the part of the people, of certain 
 sums of money to the priests for which, on 
 the authority of the pope, was granted a com- 
 
WITTENBERG. 35 
 
 plete or partial remission of the temporal or 
 purgatorial punishment still due the sinner 
 after the guilt of the sin had been remitted 
 by penance. It was not, at first, granted 
 for unforgiven sins; it was not a remission 
 of sins; nor did it furnish a means whereby 
 the one granted the indulgence could escape 
 the eternal punishment which is due to mor- 
 tal sin; neither did it avail for sins to be 
 committed in the future. Sin must have 
 been repented of before an indulgence could 
 benefit the sinner, and then it availed only 
 under proper conditions to remit, or shorten 
 the time of the soul's torment in purgatory. 
 
 At the close of the fifteenth century this 
 assumed power of the pope began to be much 
 abused, and was often used as a means of 
 gain not only for the Church, but also for the 
 priests and popes themselves. Any pretext 
 was used to force upon the people the need 
 of purchasing indulgences in order that the 
 treasury of the Church or that of the pope 
 might be replenished. 
 
 The indulgences were the granting of the 
 superabundant works and merits of saints 
 which had accumulated through the cen- 
 
36 WITTENBERG. 
 
 turies, to those who could not, or cannot ful- 
 fill the requirements of the Church for their 
 own salvation. 
 
 Julius Second, in order to fill his treasury, 
 depleted by his many wars undertaken to 
 extend the temporal power of the church, 
 had used the idea of building the cathedral 
 of St. Peter's at Rome, as a covering or re- 
 ceptacle for the remains of Peter and Paul, 
 the apostles of Jesus Christ. The money 
 paid by the people was to be devoted to this 
 purpose and would thus serve two ends ; first, 
 the remission of purgatorial punishment for 
 those who paid, and second, it would assist in 
 furnishing a suitable resting place for the sa- 
 cred bones of saints. The people responded 
 heartily to this appeal, paid liberally for 
 indulgences, and soon filled the coffers of the 
 warlike Julius. 
 
 The height of abuse of this pretended 
 power of the pope was reached by Leo. X., 
 whose extravagance made it needful to re- 
 plenish in some way, his empty treasury. 
 To do this he used as his agents many men- 
 dicant or begging friars, a class of men who 
 pretended that they had no other means of 
 
WITTENBERG. 37 
 
 living than that of begging; and of whom 
 Erasmus asks the very pertinent question; 
 " Why should they live at all ? What is the 
 use of these mendicant vagabonds ? " But 
 Leo X., found very active use for them. His 
 treasury was empty; it must be filled; 
 and so he sent these begging wanderers 
 through Germany granting indulgences not 
 only for sins already committed, but for sins 
 to be committed in the future. All this was 
 granted without repentance on the part of the 
 sinner. 
 
 Leo's most notorious agent in this business 
 was John Tetzel who, in 1516, engaged in 
 the nefarious work. He went about from 
 town to town accompanied by fifers and bell 
 ringers, and a whole retinue following behind 
 him " like a procession of priests and priest- 
 esses of Cybele." Knowing that the Electors 
 would not allow his traffic in Saxony, he went 
 to Juterbock, a town four miles northeast 
 of Wittenberg, in the province of Branden- 
 burg, and setting up his red cross, opened his 
 sales. He sold indulgences not only for the 
 remission of sins already committed, but for 
 crimes the vilest and most horrible yet to be 
 
38 WITTENBERG. 
 
 committed. If one wished to commit the 
 most heinous offence he need only pay and he 
 would receive absolution beforehand, and 
 need have no fear of eternal punishment nor 
 even of purgatory. 
 
 He had stated at Annaberg, that " on ac- 
 count of the great piety of the German people 
 he had reduced the price," and now at Juter- 
 bock he announced that by paying eight 
 ducats (about sixteen dollars) a man might 
 commit murder and have no fear of eternal 
 retribution. 
 
 It is very easy to see what sort of influ- 
 ence such a doctrine would have upon a peo- 
 ple, the greater number of whom thought the 
 pope infallible and clothed with real, rather 
 than with visionary apostolical power. Tetzel 
 went even farther than this ; he declared that 
 for sums of money proportionate to the 
 wealth of the giver, the souls of relatives and 
 friends still in purgatory would be released. 
 For twelve groats (a little less than one dol- 
 lar, or just ninety-six cents) one could de- 
 liver his father from the torments of pur- 
 gatory. 
 
 " The most holy father," Leo X., had de- 
 
WITTENBERG. 39 
 
 creed it, and he, Tetzel, the pope's apostle and 
 faithful servant who carried with him what 
 he affirmed to be a feather from the wing of 
 the Angel Gabriel (but which was in reality 
 from the wing of a goose) declared it, and 
 how could it be otherwise than true ? " No 
 sooner," he cried, " does the money strike 
 the bottom of the chest than the soul con- 
 fined in purgatory for whose release it is 
 given, flies straight up into heaven." 
 
 He even went so far as to say that he had 
 saved more souls through indulgences than 
 the Apostle Peter ever saved; and that he 
 would not exchange his place for that of the 
 great Apostle. He showed the same spear 
 with which the Eoman soldier smote the 
 Saviour's side. He carried with him a 
 great cross on which was a crown of thorns ; 
 the very nails which had pierced the Sav- 
 iour's feet and hands, and sometimes upon 
 this cross was seen the flowing blood of 
 Jesus. 
 
 Multitudes of people believed all this; 
 even as many to-day who pray to the statuary 
 in Notre Dame,Paris, believe that the statue 
 of one of the Saints which turns so as to face 
 
40 WITTENBERG. 
 
 first one way and then the other, is moved by 
 some miraculous power, instead of some inge- 
 nious mechanism of priestcraft. 
 
 While Tetzel was thus busily engaged in 
 this sacrilegious work at Juterbock, Luther 
 was quietly attending to his priestly office 
 in the Wittenberg convent One day he was 
 sitting in his confessional when some citi- 
 zens of the town came to him for absolution. 
 They freely confessed their sins, and were 
 counseled, reproved and urged to repentance 
 and a holier life. To his great surprise 
 they told him that they were going to continue 
 in their sins. They had " purchased a par- 
 don," they said," from the pope through his 
 agent, Tetzel, and by it they were permitted 
 to go right on in their sins just as before." 
 They had paid a price and had secured par- 
 don beforehand for sins they desired it) com- 
 mit in the future. But, in spite of their 
 argument and statement of papal pardon, 
 Luther's answer to them all was : " Except 
 ye repent, ye shall all perish." 
 
 The people were confounded. In Juter- 
 bock, only four miles away, a representative 
 of the pope, acting under his direction and 
 
WITTENBERG. 41 
 
 with his authority, declared that the remis- 
 sion of sins could be purchased with gold with- 
 out the least shadow of repentance ; while 
 here in Wittenberg a priest of the most 
 holy Koman church declared most emphatic- 
 ally that the remission of sins could not be 
 purchased with money, and that it could 
 only be gained by the true repentance of the 
 sinner. 
 
 There must certainly be an inconsistency 
 somewhere when two priests, under the same 
 infallible pope, proclaimed principles and 
 doctrines so diametrically opposed to each 
 other. In their bewilderment many returned 
 to Tetzel and told him of Luther's declar- 
 ation. When he heard it he flew into a 
 great rage. He swore, he Taved, he threat- 
 ened. But though many were misled by the 
 sale of indulgences, many others, earnest peo- 
 ple, rejoiced to find one man in all Christen- 
 dom who fearlessly spoke out what was echoed 
 in their own hearts. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The world was changing. She was awaken- 
 ing out of her long, drowsy stupor; but the 
 church, the monks, the priests and the pope, 
 and even the people who were largely instru- 
 mental in bringing about that change, did 
 not understand it. Threats and curses might 
 beat that change back for a moment, but it 
 would soon burst out with greater power and 
 fury than ever. Germany was awakening to 
 a new life ; and as the " Bull " of Leo a lit- 
 tle later made Luther's party stronger, so 
 now the threats and curses of Tetzel, without 
 argument or satisfactory explanation, forced 
 Luther to a bolder and more open expres- 
 sion of his opinions, and won for him 
 many friends. He knew now, that he must 
 take an open and decided stand for the prin- 
 ciples he had proclaimed, and resolved to 
 attack in a public manner the indulgence 
 
 traffic. 
 
 42 
 
WITTENBERG. 43 
 
 The university had been founded just 
 twelve years. Luther had been a teacher, 
 with slight interruption, within her walls 
 for nine years. Pope Julius II, had passed 
 away, not able even in his dying moments 
 to lay aside his ambitious schemes, but cried 
 out with his last breath : " Out of Italy, 
 French ! Out, Alphonso of Este ! " 
 
 Leo X, who succeeded Julius, was posing 
 before the world as the successor of the Apos- 
 tle Peter. The first day of November, known 
 as All-Saints' Day, was drawing near. On 
 that day the New Church of Wittenberg, 
 now the Schloss Kirche, erected and enriched 
 with many sacred relics by the Elector of 
 Saxony, was to be thrown open. All who 
 worshiped in it during that day were to be 
 granted indulgences. As this had been pro- 
 claimed through all Saxony for many months 
 past (Luther himself helped to proclaim it), 
 great crowds were expected to gather within 
 her walls. 
 
 Luther saw in this a splendid opportunity 
 of openly challenging, for public debate, 
 the power of the pope or any of his represent- 
 atives to grant indulgences for money. The 
 
44: WITTENBERG. 
 
 reformer had not yet cast off his allegiance 
 to Rome. Indeed he considered himself one 
 of the most loyal members of that Church, 
 and desired only an open debate in accord- 
 ance with the custom of the day, upon a sub- 
 ject of so vital importance. 
 
 Others beside Luther were anxious to get 
 at the root of this subject and penetrate into 
 the mysterious power of the pope. They 
 were anxious also, that the poisonous vine of 
 priestly corruption which had twined its 
 deadly tendrils about the Church until all 
 truth had been hidden, should be torn away 
 and the truth be again revealed to the world. 
 But Luther was the only man in all Germany, 
 and indeed in all Europe since the days of 
 Huss, with courage sufficiently strong to lay 
 hold of that vine and lay bare that truth. 
 Accordingly he wrote ninety-five theses, and 
 on the evening of October 31, 1517, he fear- 
 lessly nailed them to the doors of this church, 
 which was to be opened with so much trump- 
 ery on the morrow. 
 
 In these propositions the authority of the 
 pope was not attacked. An open rupture 
 with the Church of Rome was not meditated. 
 
WITTENBERG. 45 
 
 It was not the Church he was attacking, but 
 the corruption which had been thrown around 
 and grown up within it. Indeed he desired 
 to take the part of the pope in the 
 church's defence. He ascribed everything 
 corrupt in the Church to unscrupulous priests 
 who practised these abominations without 
 the knowledge of the pope, or in defiance of 
 him. This was Luther's position. He de- 
 sired to make it known to the world, and as 
 we stood by that church we almost felt that 
 we could see the great reformer with his 
 manuscript in one hand and a hammer in the 
 other, approach those doors and calmly pro- 
 ceed to nail up those theses. 
 
 Many who came to worship on that memor- 
 able first day of November, 1517, expect- 
 ing the promised indulgence, bore back with 
 them the substance of those theses, and even 
 dared, thereafter, to question the power and 
 prerogatives of the pope. 
 
 The theses ran with incredible speed 
 over the land, and struck a chord in the 
 hearts of many that were waiting for a master's 
 touch and set those chords vibrating with 
 such sweetness and power that they continued 
 
46 WITTENBERG. 
 
 to respond until the vibrations of ten thousand 
 souls sent the papal domination of Europe, 
 and indeed of the world, toppling to its fall. 
 
 While Luther was nailing these theses, 
 the " banner of the reformation," to the 
 doors of this church in Wittenberg, God 
 was preparing other instruments in distant 
 parts of the world for a great and glorious 
 work. In the little Scottish town of Had- 
 dington on Tyne, a few miles south of Edin- 
 burgh, John Knox, a boy of twelve, who was 
 to be one of those instruments, or agents, was 
 attending school, and although all uncon- 
 scious of the life before him he was thus 
 fitting himself for his work as the great 
 reformer of Scotland. 
 
 About this time, also, the fires of per- 
 secution in Scotland began to burn anew, 
 and to leave their dark and bloody marks 
 upon the already blackened pages of Eomish 
 history. These fires had first been kindled 
 in 1411, at Perth, to burn John Kesby. They 
 were now soon to burst forth in many lands 
 and rage for many years with more severity 
 than ever. 
 
 Already in 1487, just four years after 
 
WITTENBERG. 47 
 
 Luther's birth, Pope Innocent Eighth, issued 
 a " bull " against the Waldensians of France, 
 and sent an army of eighteen thousand sol- 
 diers to hunt down and slay those humble 
 Christians whose only crime was to worship 
 God according to the teachings of the Scrip- 
 tures. 
 
 In 1489, just six years after Luther's birth, 
 and the very year in which Rome was using 
 her severest measures in Dauphiny, William 
 Farel, the " father of the French reforma- 
 tion" was born. He was to be led by Rome 
 for many years through dark and mysterious 
 ways, but was finally to come out into the 
 true light and carry the gospel into many 
 parts of France and Switzerland. 
 
 In 1493, Lefevre, who was to take a prom- 
 inent part in the reformation, was teach- 
 ing Divinity in the University of Paris, and 
 just as Luther took his chair of Philosophy 
 in Wittenberg, the dawn of a brighter day 
 was preparing for France; and in 1512, 
 while Luther was on his way to Rome to set- 
 tle the quarrel between the Augustinian con- 
 vents, Paris, and indeed, all France, was 
 listening to those truths which Lefevre 
 
48 WITTENBERG. 
 
 taught, and from which the French reforma- 
 tion was soon to spring. In 1509, John 
 Calvin, who was to be one of the greatest 
 forces in the reformation, was born at Noyon, 
 near Paris, and was thus eight years old when 
 Luther nailed his theses to the Wittenberg 
 church. 
 
 In a lonely shepherd's hut in Wildhousen, 
 Switzerland, just seven weeks after the birth 
 of Luther at Eisleben, John Zwingli, who 
 was to be the reformer of Switzerland, was 
 born; and just one year after Luther was 
 called to the chair of Philosophy in Witten- 
 berg, Zwingle was ordained priest and elected 
 pastor of Glarus. Without intercourse with 
 Luther he began his warfare against the cor- 
 ruptions of the Romish church, and one year 
 after Luther had nailed up his theses, Zwingli 
 was called to the Cathedral at Zurich where 
 he labored until his death in 1531. 
 
 In connection with all this, the shores of a 
 new world were being prepared to receive 
 the fugitives from the old when the fires of 
 persecution should drive them, in search of 
 religious liberty, from their native land. 
 
 Thus the very moment that Luther was 
 
WITTENBERG. 49 
 
 nailing up his theses in Wittenberg, we see 
 the reformation already prepared in France, 
 we have it begun in Switzerland; it was 
 springing up in its first preparation in Scot- 
 land, and the shores of a new world are being 
 made ready to receive those whom the old 
 world will soon cast out. God, independ- 
 ently of the plans of man, and indeed in spite 
 of man's plans, in different parts of the world 
 and in His own way, was preparing agents 
 and instruments for the great work He was 
 about to begin in the overthrow of the powers 
 of darkness. 
 
 But while these men were being raised up 
 for the overthrow of error ; while the monas- 
 tic orders were trembling in their decay, 
 there was a counter influence springing up 
 which we must not fail to mention. 
 
 Eight years after the birth of Luther, Inigo 
 Lopez de Eecalde, better known as Ignatius 
 Loyola, was born in Spain, a land whose 
 history has been darkened by the finger of 
 Rome since its earliest dawn to the present 
 day. Loyola was descended from one of the 
 most illustrious families of Spain, and dis- 
 tinguished himself fifty years later by found- 
 
50 WITTENBERG. 
 
 ing the order of the Jesuits, which was to 
 serve as a reviving breath for the dying em- 
 bers of Roman Catholicism. Thus we see a 
 new influence, counter to the reformation 
 springing into existence at the very moment 
 that Luther nails his theses to the door of 
 this old church. 
 
 The church made noted by this act is on 
 the outer edge of the town, a few minutes 
 walk from the Luther House; on the same 
 side of Collegian Strasse, and stands close to 
 the infantry barracks. It was erected in 
 1439 — 1499, and was badly damaged in 
 1759, when the French, Austrian and Rus- 
 sian powers, which really represented the 
 Roman Church, took Wittenberg from Fred- 
 erick the Great; and again in 1760, when 
 another Frederick drove these armies out of 
 Saxony. In these wars the wooden doors 
 to which Luther nailed his theses were des- 
 troyed by fire. 
 
 The town and church were badly damaged 
 again in 1813, when the French laid siege to, 
 and took possession of Wittenberg. Im- 
 mediately after the last bombardment in 
 1814, when the French were driven out, the 
 
WITTENBERG. 51 
 
 church was partly restored ; but the work of 
 restoration was not completed until 1890- 
 1892. 
 
 In 1850, Frederick William presented the 
 church with massive metal doors ten feet 
 high, to replace the wooden ones which had 
 been destroyed in the wars. They bear the 
 Latin text of Luther's theses and are placed 
 in the side of the building, furnishing the 
 main entrance to the body of the church. 
 Above them on the right and left, are statues 
 of Frederick the Wise and John the Con- 
 stant, who, in an especial manner, were 
 Luther's friends and protectors. 
 
 The tower of this church is very interest- 
 ing, and climbing up its dark winding stair- 
 way to the topmost landing some hundreds of 
 feet above the ground, one has a splendid 
 view of the surrounding country. As we 
 looked down from this landing we saw a part 
 of the German army drilling on the parade 
 ground just below. This is no uncommon 
 sight, for in almost every town in Germany 
 companies of men may be seen drilling in all 
 the maneuvers of war. Indeed all Germany 
 is one great military camp, and almost all 
 
52 WITTENBERG. 
 
 the young men of the middle and wealthy- 
 classes look forward with pleasure to the 
 three years they must serve in the army. But 
 those of the peasant, or poorer classes, who 
 are often the support and stay of aged 
 parents, and being compelled by want of 
 money to depend altogether on army food 
 and army treatment, look forward toward 
 those three years with feelings of regret and 
 sorrow and consider them as years spent in a 
 service akin to slavery. 
 
 As we looked down upon a scene which 
 began at our feet and stretched to the dis- 
 tance, we thought what mighty battles had 
 raged in and around this little town. Yon- 
 der, down the street a few squares, Luther 
 had fought and won the victory which tore 
 the idols of Roman Catholic superstition and 
 papal reverence from his heart and life, and 
 which really started the full-tide of the ref- 
 ormation on the continent. There before 
 us were some of the battle-fields where Fred- 
 erick the Great had fought in those seven 
 years of dreadful warfare against the Aus- 
 trians, French and Russian forces. In these 
 battles we see represented by Frederick and 
 
WITTENBERG. 53 
 
 his army, Protestanism, the hope of the 
 world, struggling against Romanism, the 
 blight upon humanity, and rolling that blight 
 back from the confines of Germany. 
 
 This city was a fortress down to 1875, and 
 all around its walls the battles raged be- 
 tween the French who took it in 1813, and 
 the Prussians who drove them out in 1814. 
 It is said that while the French had posses- 
 sion they used this old church, whose founda- 
 tion was laid fifty-three years before the dis- 
 covery of America, as a sort of military store- 
 house. So little regard has war for sacred 
 buildings. 
 
 When our guide led us into the main body 
 of the church, we were struck by its peculiar 
 beauty: its lofty vaulted ceiling; its mag- 
 nificent altar; its fine pulpit; its beautiful 
 stained glass windows ; its statuary and tombs 
 which fill one with a peculiar feeling of awe 
 and reverence. 
 
 When visiting Wittenberg the Emperor 
 always worships in this building, and a mag- 
 nificent chair on the opposite side of the 
 church from the pulpit, and between it and 
 the altar, is reserved for him, while a group 
 
54 WITTENBERG. 
 
 of seats placed apart from the rest are re- 
 served for his family and others of the no- 
 bility. 
 
 The most interesting object, however, is 
 the grave of Luther, which is near the pulpit 
 and on the right side as one walks down the 
 aisle from the door. Just across from this 
 is the grave of his old friend, colaborer and 
 neighbor, " faithful and true," Philip Me- 
 lancthon. There they lie sleeping the last 
 long sleep; the greatest reformer and the 
 greatest scholar of the sixteenth century. 
 They had been faithful and brotherly to each 
 other in life, and that union was not to be 
 broken in death. 
 
 The graves are marked by bronze slabs 
 with Latin inscriptions, placed in the top of 
 marble foundations perhaps two feet high, 
 the one on the right and the other on the left. 
 There are many other metal and stone slabs 
 which mark the resting placeof men of greater 
 or lesser renown who have been buried in 
 this church ; but the grave of the lowly monk, 
 the great reformer, he who had sung so often 
 with heavy heart in the streets of Eisenach, 
 
WITTENBERG. 55 
 
 for daily bread, is the centre of interest to 
 all tourists. 
 
 Wittenberg holds the mortal remains of 
 Luther, but he does not belong to Wittenberg ; 
 he belongs to the world. He is the heritage 
 of the ages. The chord struck by the theses 
 which he nailed to the doors of this church 
 has resounded through all lands; while the 
 light of the fire kindled by the burning of the 
 papal " bull " was not confined to Wittenberg 
 or even to Saxony. It soon shed its long- 
 looked-for rays over the whole civilized globe. 
 
 But while the world owes much to Luther, 
 it should not forget its debt of gratitude to 
 his noble friend, Melancthon, for it was in 
 him that Luther had his greatest human and 
 moral support. It was in Melancthon's 
 house and to Melancthon himself that Luther 
 could unburden his heart when no one else 
 would listen, or would listen only to condemn. 
 
 Melancthon came to Wittenberg from 
 Tubingen in 1518, after declining calls to 
 both Leipzig and Ingolstadt. He came as a 
 gift from God, on the recommendation of 
 Reuchlin, just at a time when Luther needed 
 some one, strong and keen, and with a deeper 
 
56 WITTENBERG. 
 
 knowledge of Greek and Hebrew than he 
 himself possessed; and also to cheer, counsel 
 and uphold him when it seemed that all the 
 world had forsaken him. 
 
 At the time of Melancthon's arrival (by 
 appointment of Frederick to the professor- 
 ship of Greek) Luther had just fully entered 
 upon his fearful struggle with Home. Feel- 
 ing the need of some strong support he was 
 at first much disappointed in Melancthon's 
 appearance, but he gladly changed his opinion 
 as soon as he discovered the real worth of the 
 young professor. 
 
THE PALACE CHURCH. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Otf our way to the Schloss Kirclie we visited 
 the home of this friend and helper of Luther 
 who, in 1530, prepared a defence of the 
 Augsburg Confession which, on command of 
 Charles V, had been attacked and refuted by 
 Dr. Eek. This house is three stories high, is 
 very old within but modernized without. 
 Written on the front are the words " Here 
 lived Philip Melancthon." As one reads these 
 words, what strange feelings creep over him. 
 Can it be possible that he is standing under 
 the very shadow of the house in which, at one 
 time, lived the greatest Greek Scholar of his 
 day ? And who, on account of his learning, 
 sincerity and faithfulness, made it possible 
 for Luther to go forward with his work at a 
 time when he was almost ready to give that 
 work up in despair? and stood by the great 
 reformer, true to the end, his helper and his 
 guide? 
 
 We rang the bell and were met by a bright 
 
 57 
 
58 WITTENBERG. 
 
 looking, pleasant young German woman who 
 opened the great wooden door or gate, and 
 kindly invited us in. Through this door we 
 passed into a roadway paved with rough 
 stones, and which was wide enough to per- 
 mit a wagon to pass freely between the walls 
 of the houses on either side. 
 
 Just back of this house is a large garden 
 or court surrounded by a stone wall about 
 twelve feet high. In this garden still stands 
 a stone table at which it is said Luther and 
 Melancthon used to sit to talk and study over 
 the great questions that were so frequently 
 uppermost in their minds. It is a mere 
 slab of stone, perhaps three inches thick 
 and two, or two and one half feet wide by 
 three feet long, placed on a central stone pillar. 
 It stands under some ancient looking trees, 
 " just where," our guide said, " it used to 
 stand" when those old trees sheltered the two 
 men of such courage. These trees may not 
 have been there during the time of the ref- 
 ormation, but an old decayed oak stump now 
 almost gone, stands near the table, and may 
 have been growing into young treehood at 
 that time. 
 
WITTENBERG. 59 
 
 On the opposite side of the garden the 
 stone wall was pierced by a doorway, and a 
 path led directly from it, by a back entrance, 
 into the Luther House. This door was often 
 used by both friends when visiting each 
 other, as it was much more convenient and 
 private than by passing through the front 
 way and along the street. The doorway has 
 long since been closed up by masonry, but 
 the outlines of it are still plainly visible. 
 
 Leaving the garden we entered the house. 
 To reach the rooms occupied by Melancthon 
 we ascended a dark winding stair. In these 
 rooms, a broken chair which he is said to 
 have used, a great old-fashioned German stove, 
 and the same old floor made of rough boards, 
 were all that was to be seen. But as one 
 thinks back to those olden days, he can almost 
 hear the boisterous laughter as it rang through 
 that narrow entry, in those rooms where we 
 were standing, and down below in the garden 
 as Luther and Melancthon sat together dis- 
 cussing the scandal about Eck or Tetzel. 
 But other sounds than those of boisterous 
 laughter had often echoed through those 
 stone walled halls. It was the voice of 
 
60 WITTENBERG. 
 
 prayer; for Oh! how many times the voices 
 of those dear friends were raised, and their 
 hearts blended in supplication to God in con- 
 sideration of the great questions before them. 
 
 Aside from the thought of being in the 
 very room of this great and good man, walk- 
 ing upon the same floor, and looking upon 
 the same walls, and connecting it all with 
 his life, there is little else of interest in the 
 place. But let us not forget that Melancthon 
 was Luther's greatest human support, and 
 that without his wisdom, his sound advice, 
 his encouraging manner, his more acute 
 knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew lan- 
 guages, his comprehensive and accurate sys- 
 tem of theology, Luther could never have ac- 
 complished his great work. He considered 
 him the brightest light of the century and 
 frequently said that if Melancthon lived it 
 made little difference what became of himself. 
 
 Luther was elected Town preacher soon 
 after he came to Wittenberg, and we next 
 went to the church in which he preached 
 while in that office, and also after his return 
 from Rome. It is known as the Stadt Kirche, 
 (Town Church), was erected in the four- 
 
WITTENBERG. 61 
 
 teenth century, and stands in a somewhat re- 
 tired place back from Collegian Strasse. The 
 exterior was at one time elaborately decorated 
 with statuary of saints and patrons; rulers 
 and kings; with inscriptions and tablets be- 
 neath each: but time, weather and vandal 
 tourists have told sadly upon them, and at 
 the present time none of these inscriptions 
 are fully legible, while some of the statues 
 are so badly worn away as to be without fea- 
 ture, and some even without form. 
 
 There is not much else of special interest 
 in the furnishings of the church. There is 
 an altar, the same old pulpit in which Luther 
 so often stood to preach the gospel of Jesus 
 rather than the doctrines of Rome ; and just 
 before the altar there still stands the baptis- 
 mal font which was said by our guide to be 
 the one Luther used almost four hundred 
 years ago. 
 
 It was in this church that communion (or 
 mass) in both kinds, was first administered 
 to the people by a Roman priest. This ser- 
 vice was performed by Carlstadt, one of the 
 professors of the university, on Christmas 
 day, 1521, or, according to some authorities, 
 
62 WITTENBERG. 
 
 in the early part of 1522, It was here, when 
 the clouds were rolling from the mind of the 
 future reformer that great crowds gathered 
 to hear the word as it came with clearer em- 
 phasis and a new meaning from his lips. 
 
 In this church, while Luther was in the 
 Wartburg castle (1521) Gabriel Zwilling, a 
 former monk of the Wittenberg Convent, 
 publicly espoused the doctrine of the reforma- 
 tion to the multitudes who gathered to hear 
 him. He declared the worship of the "host" 
 to be sacrilege and idolatry, and that all 
 members of the church had a perfect right to 
 receive the sacraments under both kinds. lie 
 cried out against Monachism^ and struck 
 fiercely at the monastic orders, saying that 
 " every one who entered a monastery entered 
 it on the command of Satan for," he said, 
 " the fundamental principles of the whole 
 order were contrary to the will of God." 
 Thirteen friars, influenced by these words of 
 their former fellow monk, soon left the con- 
 vent, assumed the ordinary dress of citizens 
 and became profitable members of society. 
 
 Apart from reformation interest it is well 
 worth while to spend an hour in the market 
 
WITTENBERG, 63 
 
 platz, which, on the day of our visit, was 
 crowded with men, women, children, carts 
 and dogs, for all over the continent of Europe, 
 this " friend of man" is turned into a beast of 
 burden, and it is no uncommon thing to see 
 one or two, and sometimes three or four dogs 
 hitched to a cart or wagon filled with fruit, 
 vegetables or milk, and often a baby tucked 
 comfortably down in one corner. The dogs 
 trot briskly along the road or street, barking 
 merrily at some pedestrian, or growling 
 fiercely at some canine brother who chances 
 to pass that way. The driver usually walks 
 by their side or just behind the vehicle, but 
 sometimes he, or she, as the case may be, adds 
 to the weight of the load by riding. 
 
 Many women had stalls or booths, formed 
 by four upright posts placed several feet 
 apart, over which a canvas was stretched to 
 protect their goods from rain. These goods 
 consisted of nuts, vegetables, flowers, candy, 
 fancy work, cheap clothing of all kinds, etc., 
 etc., which were spread out with as much 
 display as possible. Others less fortunate, 
 or perhaps more indifferent, sat under huge 
 umbrellas and displayed their goods as best 
 
64 WITTENBERG. 
 
 they could ; but all were clamorously extolling 
 the good qualities of their wares and urging 
 the passer-by to purchase. Every one seemed 
 to be in the best of humor, and a good neigh- 
 bourly feeling was apparent between them. 
 
 In this market square are two statues, about 
 one hundred feet apart. One is a slender 
 figure robed in a gown, and with saintly ex- 
 pression of countenance. This is easily recog- 
 nized as a statue of Melancthon, who w r as to 
 Luther what Jonathan was to David. It was 
 erected about thirty-five years ago ; and upon 
 the pedestal are the following inscriptions 
 written in German ; on one side, " En- 
 deavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in 
 the bonds of peace." On the opposite side : " I 
 will speak thy testimonies also before kings, 
 and I will not be ashamed." 
 
 The other is a statue of Luther; a repre- 
 sentative of a genuine robust Teuton, holding 
 in his hand an open Bible under which is in- 
 scribed : " Believe the gospel." On one side 
 of the pedestal are the words : " If this be 
 God's work it will endure ; if it be man's it 
 will perish." On the opposite side we read 
 the immortal motto : " Eine feste Burg ist 
 
WITTENBERG. 65 
 
 wiser Gott " — God is our strong fortress. 
 Surely it was not the work of man. It must 
 have been the work of God. Almost four 
 hundred years have passed since the flames of 
 the papal bull proclaimed far and wide the 
 battle cry which Luther raised against the 
 pope at Rome, and yet that work continues. 
 
 It was taken up by other generations, other 
 peoples, other nations, and is felt in the 
 whole civilized world to-day, and thousands 
 from the generations of men have found ref- 
 uge and peace and safety in that " Feste 
 Burg" the strong-hold of God. And long 
 after that statue has crumbled into dust, 
 should the world stand so long, other multi- 
 tudes from the generations yet unborn will 
 find a safe retreat within the shelter of that 
 ever enduring fortress: and long after this 
 earth shall have been melted with fervent 
 heat, those countless hosts who found safety 
 within that fortress, will be singing the praises 
 of the redeemed in that city whose walls are 
 four square, whose gates are of pearl and whose 
 streets are of gold. 
 
 In this market place the students burnt the 
 theses of Tetzel, which were sent to be circu- 
 
66 WITTENBERG. 
 
 lated in Wittenberg in the hopes of counter- 
 acting the influence of those which Luther 
 nailed to the church doors. Fearing to come 
 himself, Tetzel sent his agent to distribute 
 them; but the students caught the agent, 
 purchased some copies, snatched away the 
 rest, and prevented any of them from getting 
 into public circulation. They then placed 
 a placard on the University " board," an- 
 nouncing the burning of Tetzel's theses in the 
 market place at two o'clock in the afternoon, 
 and urging all who desired to be present " at 
 the funeral " to be there promptly at that 
 hour. A great crowd assembled to witness 
 the proceedings, and at the appointed time a 
 fire was kindled and the theses committed to 
 the flames. Only one copy escaped destruc- 
 tion, and this fell into Luther's hands, and 
 was sent by him to Erfurt. 
 
 The nailing up of the theses was a crisis 
 in Luther's life. But he who feared neither 
 pope nor king, had taken his ground and was 
 determined to keep it. Indulgences and 
 pardons were only some of the many forms 
 or methods by which the people were deceived 
 and robbed, and so Luther dared to point out 
 
WITTENBERG. 67 
 
 other evils which came very close to pope and 
 priest. Among these was the assertion that 
 the clergy were only men. This was directly 
 contrary to the teachings of the church. 
 
 The clergy, for many centuries, had made 
 the people believe that they (the clergy) were 
 a sort of supernatural party; that they held 
 the keys of heaven and hell; that they had 
 power to bind and loose at pleasure, and that 
 on them the fate of every soul depended. 
 Luther boldly and firmly attacked this doc- 
 trine, and affirmed that Apostolic succession 
 was only a dream and that much of the 
 boasted power of the church, the relics and 
 the pope was only an ignorant superstition, 
 an illusion and a base imposition. 
 
 This was a step in advance of the proposi- 
 tions directly embraced in the theses, and it 
 was not long until a voice was heard from 
 beyond the Alps. Something had to be done 
 to stop this monk. Leo had discovered that 
 his indulgences would not sell while Luther 
 was preaching so vigorously and forcibly 
 against them. He had also discovered that 
 there was something more than a mere 
 "squabble among the monks' ' up in Germany, 
 
68 WITTENBERG. 
 
 and wished to smother the disturbance. Nun- 
 cios and legates were sent, not to answer 
 Luther, but to threaten or bribe him into 
 silence. 
 
 This failing to answer the purpose, the 
 pope, in August, 1518, commanded him to 
 come to Rome to undergo what would now be 
 called a trial for heresy. The pope even 
 ordered the Elector of Saxony to arrest the 
 " miserable monk " who could neither be 
 frightened nor purchased, and bring him to 
 Rome. But this, Frederick refused to do, 
 and informed his papal highness that as it 
 was a German affair it could best be settled 
 in German territory. 
 
 This determination of Frederick no doubt 
 saved Luther from imprisonment and perhaps 
 from death, for who can say what the angry 
 pope and the more angry priests and bishops 
 might not have done if the reformer had been 
 placed in their power. The pope yielded to 
 Frederick, it was decided the investigation be 
 made in Germany, and Luther was called 
 from his quiet home in Wittenberg to face 
 the papal legate, Cardinal Cajetan, in Augs- 
 burg, October 11-13, 1518. At this trial the 
 
WITTENBERG. 69 
 
 cardinal seemed desirous of being very len- 
 ient. He treated Luther good-humoredly, 
 called him his son and told him that he re- 
 quired nothing of him but to speak one little 
 word " Revoco" — I recant, or revoke. This 
 Luther positively refused to do. 
 
 From this council Luther returned to Wit- 
 tenberg, stealing secretly away at night on 
 Oct. 19, fearing forcible detention. He left 
 with his friends, however, " an appeal from 
 the pope badly informed, to the pope to be 
 better informed." This appeal was afterward 
 nailed to the doors of the Augsburg Cathe- 
 dral. 
 
CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 A few months later Luther was summoned 
 to appear at Leipsic, before the formidable 
 Dr. Eck, his one time friend, but who was 
 now beginning a course as one of his most 
 bitter enemies. 
 
 What must have been his feelings as ho 
 left the walls of Wittenberg undefended, and 
 without even a safe conduct, and with the 
 fate of Huss in his mind, to face this over- 
 bearing papal legate! But he returned a 
 victor from the conflict, having succeeded in 
 trapping his wily opponent in the meshes of 
 the very net which had been prepared and 
 spread to catch the reformer. Eck charged 
 Luther with denying the headship of the 
 church. Luther would not admit the charge. 
 " Then," cried out the excited doctor, " ac- 
 knowledge the infallibility of the pope, for he 
 is the head of the church." 
 
 This Luther also, denied, and when asked 
 
 70 
 
WITTENBERG. 71 
 
 by his opponent who was the head of the 
 church, if not the pope ? he calmly answered : 
 " Jesus Christ, and he alone is infallible." 
 
 Eck was completely caught. He had 
 either to reject the pope or Christ as the head 
 of the church. He was ready to do neither ; 
 and so withdrew from the conflict badlv 
 beaten, and departed for Rome to stir up the 
 pope to more active measures against this 
 heretic monk. 
 
 At the diet at Augsburg, Luther would have 
 conceded anything but the truth about free 
 justification of all sinners who believe in 
 Jesus Christ. He revered the pope and de- 
 clared that he himself was no heretic ; but at 
 Leipsic he openly avowed his disbelief in the 
 pope's authority to determine doctrine, and 
 fearlessly and openly declared that the Hus- 
 sites, who were considered in Saxony as here- 
 tics and enemies of the church, were right, 
 and deserved credit and homage for confess- 
 ing the truth in their doctrines. From this 
 time on Luther and his faithful co-laborer, 
 Melancthon, were forced to stand openly as 
 the champions of God's word, and in direct 
 conflict with the papacy. 
 
72 WITTENBERG. 
 
 But Eck, boiling with rage and chagrin, 
 had already reached Rome and appealed to 
 Leo to suppress the Wittenberg monk, whom 
 he often designated as a " beast." In re- 
 sponse to Eck's entreaties the pope launched 
 his " Bull" against the reformer, calling him 
 " a damned heretic," and denying him the 
 right to live. 
 
 The news of this act reached Germany 
 long before the bull made its appearance 
 there. It aroused the antagonistic spirit of 
 Luther and he sent forth his " Appeal to the 
 Nobles of Germany," June 26, 1520. In 
 this work he sets forth the awful condition of 
 Italy; how her people were degraded, ignor- 
 ant, and ground down in the depths of 
 poverty; the demoralized spiritual condition 
 of those who lived nearest to Rome, the very 
 center or fountain-head of the church, and 
 urged the Elector and the whole body of the 
 German Nobility to save their land from a 
 like fate. 
 
 He denounced the pope's temporal power 
 and his magnificent revenues as directly con- 
 trary to the teachings and example of Jesus, 
 whose Vicar he pretended to be, for He had 
 
WITTENBERG. ?3 
 
 not where to lay His head ; and also contrary 
 to the doctrines of Peter, whose follower in 
 Apostolic succession the pope professed to be. 
 The humble fisherman of Galilee said : " Sil- 
 ver and gold have I none," while his pretended 
 successor lived in excess of luxury and filled 
 his coffers from the poverty of the people. 
 " The people," according to Luther's words, 
 " were playing with the husks while the pope 
 was eating the fruit." 
 
 The Elector and his court waited patiently 
 the result: but the people did not. The na- 
 tion was stirred to its depths. The people 
 were won over and rallied around the fear- 
 less writer, and in an incredibly short time 
 for those days, four thousand copies of his 
 appeal were sold. All Germany was aroused 
 and ready to defend Luther before the " bull" 
 reached Germany, while the entire population 
 of Wittenberg, they who knew the reformer 
 best, now fully considered that the pope whom 
 they had blindly served so long, was nothing 
 else than Antichrist. 
 
 The students of Wittenberg had already 
 publicly burnt the denunciations against 
 Luther which Tetzel had substituted for a 
 
74 WITTENBERG, 
 
 reply to the theses; and now a fire of far 
 greater moment was about to be kindled. 
 Just outside the walls of the city, near the 
 Elster Thor (the eastern gate, which is 
 still standing in good preservation, a rem- 
 nant of the old wall) stands an oak tree 
 near the roadside, in a small garden sur- 
 rounded by an iron fence. On this oak, 
 known as " The Luther tree," there is nailed 
 an inscription, written in German, stating 
 that under this very tree, on Dec. 10, 1520, 
 Luther publicly burnt the papal " bull" 
 which Leo X had sent against him from 
 Eome. 
 
 The fire was kindled. One of the Mas- 
 ters from the university threw into the flames 
 a copy of the decretals which consisted of the 
 false epistle of St. Clement and some other 
 alleged ancient papers upon which the claims 
 of the Church of Eome are founded, but which 
 were declared by the professors, and since 
 have been admitted by the Eomanists them- 
 selves, to have been forgeries. When these 
 papers had disappeared in smoke and ashes, 
 Luther calmly stepped forward and solemnly 
 placed in the flames the formidable "bull" 
 
WITTENBERG. 75 
 
 of Leo. X, which was issued with all that 
 papal power before which rulers and crowned 
 heads had trembled and bowed in meek sub- 
 mission. 
 
 The burning of these papers was like the 
 lighting of a beacon fire on some high moun- 
 tain top which was to call the attention of 
 the whole world to this new ray, of an old 
 truth, now breaking through the darkness 
 that had shrouded it so long. Luther knew 
 full well the greatness and awfulness of his 
 act. For centuries Rome had not pronounced 
 a sentence of condemnation which she was 
 not able to execute; and while the hearts of 
 the students and citizens who stood around 
 that tree on that memorable day leaped with 
 joy at the foreshadowing of freedom, they 
 trembled in fear for the brave monk who had 
 thus kindled a fire that would soon set the 
 heavens of the spiritual world of man glow- 
 ing with a new and better light. 
 
 But as the earth leaps into a newness of 
 life after a long winter of bondage to ice and 
 snow, springing into beauty in response to 
 the showers of April and the sunshine of 
 May, so the hearts of the people, imprisoned 
 
76 WITTENBERG. 
 
 through many generations by the fetters of 
 Roman superstition and the night of religious 
 ignorance, sprang up and rejoiced in the hope 
 of a brighter dawn, the first beams of which 
 were so plainly seen by the light of that fire, 
 and fed by the missal of the false follower of 
 Peter. The thunders of the Vatican had 
 reached Germany but had not silenced the 
 German monk. 
 
 Luther fully expected now, sooner or later, 
 to be made a sacrifice to papal rage and big- 
 otry, even as Huss a hundred years before 
 (July 6, 1415) had been sacrificed. But he 
 knew that such an act on the part of the 
 church would only hasten the time of Ger- 
 many's deliverance; and as the Vatican of- 
 ficials had already burnt his books and were 
 longing to submit him to the same fate, he 
 had answered by burning the papal bull; 
 and so defied the pope with all his professed 
 Apostolic and supernatural power to do his 
 worst. 
 
 On the morrow the lecture rooms were 
 more crowded than ever. Luther was ex- 
 pected to give an address on the occurrence 
 of yesterday, but to the great surprise of his 
 
WITTENBERG. 77 
 
 audience he gave a lecture on the Psalms and 
 never referred to the incident of the day be- 
 fore until he was through with his lecture, 
 then he only mentioned it in a general way, 
 intimating that the struggle with Rome was 
 not yet over. 
 
 But whatever commands might issue from 
 the Vatican, and however ignorant and 
 bigoted priests might fume and rage, the 
 people were now, by a mighty tie, drawn more 
 closely to Luther than ever before. More 
 than two thousand students, coming from 
 Germany, The Netherlands, France, Italy, 
 Hungary and even England now sat daily at 
 the feet of Luther and Melancthon; and 
 many of these students would have defended 
 their beloved masters with their lives. But 
 above students and people stood the Elector 
 Frederick of whom it was said : " He loved 
 his people/' and the pope with all his alleged 
 power was not in condition to despise such a 
 protection. 
 
 The last cord that bound Luther to the 
 papal church was now broken. Retreat for 
 him was not desired nor was it possible. For 
 him to stand still was just as impossible. The 
 
?8 WITTENBERG. 
 
 pope could not sit with idle hands while his 
 authority had been publicly denied and con- 
 demned. Luther would not allow the night 
 of superstition and ignorance which had be- 
 gun to lift, to settle again upon himself and 
 the world ; and it was God's plan to place the 
 light that had begun to shine so brightly, 
 upon a higher hill that it might be seen yet 
 farther; and on March 24, 1521, a summons 
 reached Wittenberg. It came not from the 
 pope borne by papal legate, but borne by 
 Gaspard Strum, a herald of Charles V, and 
 from the Emperor himself; summoning 
 Luther to appear before a diet to be held at 
 Worms, April 17, 1521. 
 
 As soon as it was discovered that he was 
 preparing to comply with the command of 
 the emperor, his friends earnestly protested 
 against his going, even though Charles V 
 had granted him a safe conduct. They re- 
 minded him of the fate of Huss, whose safe 
 conduct was utterly disregarded by the rep- 
 resentatives of the pope, and even by him 
 who had granted it. They reminded him 
 of the open declaration of the Romanists that 
 they were not bound by any law of justice to 
 
WITTENBERG. 79 
 
 keep faith with heretics. Luther was soon 
 to see how nearly this principle was to prevail 
 at the diet to which he was going when 
 Charles was urged by the papal legates to 
 break his faith and disregard his safe con- 
 duct. 
 
 Luther left Wittenberg, April second, 
 1521. Many of his friends gathered around 
 him, feeling that they would never see him 
 again; for they had no faith whatever in 
 Roman Catholic consistency, nor in the safe 
 conduct of Charles who was so largely con- 
 trolled by the Eoman church. Melancthon 
 (though present with him at the diet) 
 thought at this time that his dear old friend 
 would never return to Wittenberg, and 
 Luther himself seemed to feel that this might 
 be the case ; for as he entered the carriage he 
 said to Melancthon in faltering tones: 
 " Should I not return, and should my enemies 
 put me to death, oh! my brother, cease not 
 to teach and abide steadfast in the truth. 
 Labor in my place, for I shall not be able to 
 labor for myself. If you be spared, it mat- 
 ters little that I perish." Then he drove off 
 to Worms. 
 
80 WITTENBERG. 
 
 On his journey peasants blessed him, men 
 and women of the common people thronged 
 around him and urged him not to trust his 
 life to his enemies. At Erfurt, sixty burgh- 
 ers and professors escorted him with great 
 splendor along the streets crowded with grate- 
 ful people, and along which sixteen years be- 
 fore he had begun his work as a monk, when 
 with sack thrown over his shoulder he begged 
 from door to door for scraps of bread and 
 meat for himself and others of his order. In 
 this town he had also spent several years as a 
 student and professor in the university. 
 
 Passing through Erfurt he proceeded on 
 his journey to the diet, but just outside the 
 walls of Worms, a messenger sent by his old 
 friend, Spalatin, met him, and urged him to 
 turn aside and not to enter the city. To this 
 messenger Luther replied : " Go tell your 
 master that if there were as many devils at 
 Worms as there are tiles on the roofs, yet 
 would I go in." And he went in under an 
 escort of a hundred cavaliers who met him 
 at the gate. Thousands of people crowded 
 each other on the streets to get a glimpse of 
 the man who had openly defied the pope. 
 
WITTENBERG. 81 
 
 Some were his friends but others were his 
 enemies. Some of them had even snatched his 
 writings from the book stalls and had pub- 
 licly burnt them. 
 
 To enter into the proceedings of this 
 council or diet, is foreign to the scope of our 
 subject, other than to say that the Romanists 
 resorted to many plans and much trickery 
 to have Luther retract. This he refused to 
 do unless they could prove from the Bible 
 that his writings were contrary to the teach- 
 ings of Scripture. The papal legates re- 
 fused to debate the scriptural bearing of the 
 question, and Luther, standing there before 
 the Emperor and his court as well as a great 
 body of ecclesiastical officials who were pres- 
 ent, modestly but firmly declared that unless 
 this proof was produced he would never re- 
 tract ; and closed with those memorable words 
 that have sounded down through the cen- 
 turies. " Here I stand. I can do no other, 
 God help me." 
 
 When the representatives of Rome learned 
 that they could not gain their end by force 
 or persuasion, they tried everything in their 
 power to have him handed over to the tender 
 
82 WITTENBERG. 
 
 mercies of the pope or his legate. They urged 
 upon the Emperor that a safe conduct 
 should not be kept with a heretic. They 
 might have prevailed in the end if it had not 
 been that many of the German Knights and 
 Nobles protested so vigorously, declaring 
 that they would never permit such a blot to 
 come on German honor ; and that the conduct 
 must be kept, though all the adherents of 
 Rome should protest otherwise. 
 
 Ulrich Von Hutten even announced that 
 the conduct must be kept, and if Luther's 
 life was taken, he and his fellow Knights 
 would have the life of Cardinal Campagio 
 in return. This had the desired effect and 
 the violation of the conduct was not further 
 urged upon the Emperor. 
 
 ]STot being satisfied with trying by the 
 most insidious means to get Luther to recant, 
 and unable to gain the Emperor's non re- 
 gard for the pledge he had given Luther, 
 one of the priests, more wily than the rest, as 
 a last resort appealed to Luther to surrender 
 the conduct and thus show the world that he 
 was ready to put all his confidence in the truth 
 for which he was willing to die j and so abide 
 
WITTENBERG. 83 
 
 the issues of a " fair discussion." Luther 
 had almost yielded to the tender persuasions 
 of the priest, when a knight who was present 
 saw through the treacherous scheme, and 
 without ceremony roughly ejected the priest 
 from the house. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The diet closed in discomfiture for Leo 
 and his representatives, and Luther, the real 
 victor, began his journey to Wittenberg 
 April 26th. His journey to Worms had 
 been a triumphal march; but his return was 
 even more glorious. As he went, people 
 looked upon him as a martyr being led to the 
 stake, but on his return they hailed him as 
 their deliverer. 
 
 While he was yet on his way homeward, 
 the terrible edict was sent forth from 
 Worms. This edict was written after the 
 diet had been adjourned, and after Luther's 
 departure from Worms; but it was ante- 
 dated seventeen days in order to give it the 
 appearance of the action of the whole assem- 
 blv. This shows how faithful the Roman 
 church can be, as she always has been, to 
 serve her own purposes and interests. The 
 terrible edict branded Luther, not only as a 
 
 84: 
 
WITTENBERG. 85 
 
 heretic, but also as an outlaw. It denied 
 him the kindly attention of friends or strang- 
 ers ; the right to enter any house for food or 
 shelter, and even the right to live. 
 
 This was not the act of a man. It was 
 the act of Satan covered with a monk's cowl, 
 acting under the authority of him who sat in 
 the Vatican wearing the pallium (false sym- 
 bol of purity and holiness) which was stained 
 by the blood of Huss who was burnt at the 
 stake through the machinations of Pope John 
 XXIII. But such are the gentle and loving 
 wavs with which the Romish church has ever 
 dealt with her erring children, i. e, those who 
 have seen fit to think for themselves and have 
 wandered from her fold. 
 
 Such was her love on St. Bartholomew's 
 night, Aug. 23-24, 1672, fifty-one years af- 
 ter, when the murder of sixty thousand peo- 
 ple who had dared to leave her ranks, caused 
 such rejoicing at Rome that a medal was 
 struck by the order of Pope Clement X, com- 
 memorating the diabolical deed. Such was 
 her love for the Netherlands in the years 
 1523-1526, when fifty-thousand people were 
 slain because they dared to worship God 
 
86 "WITTENBERG. 
 
 in a manner different from that prescribed by 
 Rome. Such was her love during the reign 
 of Bloody Mary in England between 1554- 
 1558, when Latimer, Ridley, Cranmer, and 
 more than three hundred were burnt because 
 they believed in Christ rather than the pope. 
 Such has been her record through the ages: 
 such might be her record to-day if she only 
 had the power. 
 
 Charles V has been commended for his 
 honor in keeping faith with Luther and not 
 handing him over to the priests as Huss had 
 been delivered to them at Constance. But 
 it was with no feeling of honor, humanity or 
 regard for Luther's work that he kept faith 
 with the reformer. Did he not sanction the 
 terrible edict against Luther seventeen days 
 after the council had disbanded, though ante- 
 dating that decree so as to make it appear as 
 the action of the whole council ? Did he not 
 a few days later declare to his confessor that 
 he " would execute before the very window at 
 which they were standing, the first man who 
 shall declare himself a Lutheran after the 
 publication of my edict ? " Did not his 
 dreadfully inhuman conduct toward the 
 
WITTENBERG. 87 
 
 [Netherlands, a few years later, prove that it 
 was policy rather than honor, that caused him 
 not to violate his pledge ? The true secret of 
 it all was that he was not ready to be publicly 
 led by the pope, and also because he had a 
 wholesome fear of the Elector Frederick, whom 
 he knew to be Luther's friend and protector, 
 and to whom he also knew that he himself 
 owed his crown. 
 
 On his way home Luther spent a few days 
 at Eisenach, the scene of his boyhood strug- 
 gles against poverty, and then passed on to 
 Mora, a small town where he spent a short 
 time with his grand-parents and others of 
 his relatives. He left this village on the 
 morning of May fourth, intending to go di- 
 rect to Wittenberg. He had proceeded only 
 a short distance when, in a lonely place in 
 the forest, he was seized by a band of dis- 
 guised men and carried a prisoner to the 
 Wartberg castle. His captors were really 
 his friends, delegated to this task by Fred- 
 erick the Elector, who was owner of the cas- 
 tle. 
 
 The edict of Worms placed Luther under 
 the Imperial ban. It forbade any one to 
 
88 WITTENBERG. 
 
 give him food or shelter, and commanded 
 that he should be seized wherever found and 
 handed over at once to his enemies. Fearing 
 that through the influence of this edict Luther 
 might fall into the hands of his foes, Fred- 
 erick captured him and had him conveyed to 
 this retreat of safety. 
 
 This castle crowns a steep hill, and at that 
 time was reached by a narrow winding bridle- 
 path leading through dense forests. The hill 
 at the present time is surrounded and covered 
 with heavy timber, but a good stone road 
 leads by easy ascent and many windings, up 
 to the old castle which still stands as a grim 
 sentinel at the top of the mountain. In this 
 retreat he was kept for almost a year, dressed 
 as a knight and known as " Knight George." 
 Then news reached him of an agitation 
 caused by two Anabaptist fanatics who had 
 arrived in Wittenberg, and he determined 
 to return and quiet the turmoil. 
 
 We will leave Luther for a time in his 
 hill-top prison, and hastily follow the events 
 that transpired at Wittenberg during those 
 ten months. 
 
 Before Luther was taken to the Wartburg, 
 and shortly after he had burnt the papal bull, 
 
WITTENBERG. 89 
 
 the students of Wittenberg University 
 dressed up one of their number as a pope, 
 others as cardinals, bishops, etc. They then 
 formed themselves into a grand procession 
 and marched with mock solemnity through 
 the streets toward the river. Other students, 
 not in the procession, feigned an attack, when 
 these monks, cardinals and bishops fearing 
 the mock pope would be captured, seized him 
 and pretended as though they would throw 
 him into the riven His holy highness did 
 not like this idea, and breaking loose ran 
 away. The bishops and cardinals also ran, 
 going in different directions, hiding in dark 
 alleys and corners of the streets. They were 
 hotly pursued by other students and chased 
 wildly through the town, to the great amuse- 
 ment of the citizens. 
 
 Of course this was all a burlesque, and 
 Luther would much rather it had never oc- 
 curred ; but it serves to show what the mind of 
 the students was at that time toward the 
 Roman church and her ecclesiastical digni- 
 taries. 
 
 Melancthon, " The Theologian of Ger- 
 many/' came to Wittenberg in 1518. Luther 
 
90 WITTENBERG. 
 
 was called to Worms in 1521; so that almost 
 three years of mutual benefit and pleasure 
 had passed since their meeting; years which 
 drew them ever closer together, but now 
 Luther was seized and carried away, Melanc- 
 thon knew not where. The voice to which 
 all Germany listened was silent. These 
 hearts so constant and true were now separated 
 and Melancthon dwelt in sadness in Witten- 
 berg, frequently declaring that he would 
 rather die than lose Luther. 
 
 His tender heart and sympathetic nature 
 were sorely tried ; but one day, in the midst 
 of his gloom, he received a letter from Luther, 
 dated from " The Isle of Patmos," which 
 caused him to cry out in joy : " Our be- 
 loved father lives." But in the verv midst 
 of this joy a saddening thought struck him. 
 He knew that Luther was alive, but he also 
 knew that the terrible edict of Worms had 
 been scattered far and near, some even reach- 
 ing the Tyrol Mountains; and he thought 
 that in accordance with that edict, his be- 
 loved father would either be kept in captivity 
 for life, or be slain by his enemies. 
 
 In accordance with this edict, Luther was 
 
WITTENBERG. 91 
 
 " Under the excommunication of the pope •, 
 tinder the ban of the Emperor ; branded as a 
 heretic ; sentenced as a traitor ; reviled by the 
 emperor's edict as ' a fool ; ' a blasphemer, a 
 devil clothed in a monk's cowl, and it was 
 made treason to give him food or shelter ; and 
 a virtue to deliver him to death." 
 
 In whose power, then, was he ? If in the 
 hands of friends, why did he not let his 
 friends at Wittenberg know ? If he were in 
 the hands of his enemies what was there then 
 to hope for? These thoughts filled Melanc- 
 thon with sadness, for though these two men 
 were the direct opposites of each other in 
 many ways, the one massive in physique; 
 bold and defiant in nature; boisterous and 
 rude, with kind heart and indomitable cour- 
 age; the other slight of frame; timid in na- 
 ture ; delicate and refined in manner and also 
 with a kind heart, but when aroused, of 
 great courage, they were bound together by 
 the unseen but exceeding strong cord of love 
 and mutual respect. And underneath it all 
 there was the earnest belief in the same book, 
 the Bible ; and interest in the same work ; the 
 making that Bible known to the people. 
 
92 WITTENBERG. 
 
 Melancthon did not permit his grief to 
 take him from his studies* The enemies of 
 the Reformation who were rejoicing at the 
 disappearance of Luther were to find in Me- 
 lancthon an antagonist not to be despised. In 
 1521 he published his great theological work 
 " On the Common Places of Theology/' 
 which won much favor among the learned to- 
 ward the reformation. Luther, especially 
 rejoiced over it, and all through his life 
 regarded it very highly. It clearly refuted 
 many calumnies, and swept away many pre- 
 judices against the reformation doctrine, and 
 also placed Melancthon before the world as a 
 strong supporter of Luther. 
 
 He even went a step farther and took up 
 the quarrel with the Sorbonne of Paris, the 
 foremost institution of learning at that time 
 in the world, but which, having been led astray 
 by the fanatic Roman Catholics, Beda 
 and one or two others, had accused Luther of 
 heresy because he claimed that God pardoned 
 sins fully and freely without the intervention 
 of pope or priest, and without the payment in 
 money for such forgiveness ; also, because he 
 
WITTENBERG. 93 
 
 openly declared that it was against the will 
 of the Holy Spirit to burn heretics. 
 
 In this quarrel Melancthon not only de- 
 fends Luther and the doctrines he proclaimed, 
 but he openly attacks the enemy. He boldly 
 accused the Sorbonne of having hidden from 
 the people the gospel and substituting for 
 Christianity an empty philosophy* He 
 charged the Sorbonne itself with being the seat 
 of heresy, and claimed for Wittenberg the 
 honor of being the seat of true orthodoxy. 
 
 Looking, as we do, through the haze and 
 shadows of almost four centuries, this act 
 of Melancthon's is apt to lose much of its 
 significance, and cause us to overlook much 
 of what it might have meant for him. The 
 terrible edict of Worms was hanging over 
 Luther, urging his capture or his death. 
 Luther himself, was a prisoner, no one seemed 
 to know where ; and no one save his captors, 
 knew whether he had not fallen among his 
 enemies. The Roman power seemed trium- 
 phant, and what might she not do to vent her 
 wrath upon Melancthon if she were to find 
 in him another champion against the old, de- 
 cayed and falling papal church? 
 
94 WITTENBERG. 
 
 It was no small act therefore, of Melanc- 
 thon's, for it might mean for him excom- 
 munication ; the ban of the church and of the 
 emperor; exile or even death at the stake. 
 Yet he seemed not to have considered the 
 probable consequences, but took up with 
 mighty hand his weapon against papal theo- 
 logical errors, and joined fearlessly in the 
 conflict with the most advanced college in the 
 land. 
 
 Luther was silent. The populace de- 
 manded to know what had become of him. 
 The courage of the priests wavered before 
 the popular cry for the reformer, and the 
 leaders of the Roman church would have 
 given much to have had a word from him to 
 quiet the excited people ; but after a time the 
 courage returned to some of the boldest of 
 Rome's adherents, and Albert Elector, Arch- 
 bishop of Mentz, while at Halle, thought, that 
 as Luther was in prison and thus out of the 
 way, and the reformation apparently dead, it 
 was pretty safe to begin again the sale of in- 
 dulgences. He therefore called together some 
 mendicant friars and told them to at once be- 
 gin the work. But Luther, though a pris- 
 
WITTENBERG. 95 
 
 oner, heard of this act and immediately be- 
 gan a treatise against " The new Idol of 
 Halle." 
 
 News that this thesis was about to be 
 launched from the prison walls reached 
 Halle about the middle of October. Albert 
 was surprised and terrified. He thought 
 Luther was silenced and would be heard of 
 no more, but now the terror of the reformer's 
 wrath was about to be sent upon him, and he 
 dispatched two of his adherents to Wittenberg 
 to prevail upon Melancthon to use his in- 
 fluence against the fury of Luther, and urge 
 him into silence. They wished to allay the 
 storm about to be raised by the coming thesis, 
 and approaching Melancthon, told him that 
 Luther must be less impetuous. They were 
 received courteously by Melancthon but when 
 they had made known to him their business, 
 he simply told them that " God was moving 
 Luther/' and that the age needed " a bitter 
 pungent salt." 
 
 Baffled in this, they turned their endeavors 
 toward the court of the Elector, and to a 
 great extent won Frederick and his court to 
 their favor; the Elector even declaring 
 
96 WITTENBERG. 
 
 that he would not allow Luther to write 
 against the Archbishop of Mentz nor disturb 
 the tranquillity of the public again. 
 
 The book against the " New Idol of Halle" 
 was almost finished however, and hastening 
 to completion; and Luther sent to Albert a 
 letter declaring that if he did not immediately 
 stop the sale of indulgences, and let him 
 know within a fortnight, that he (Luther) 
 would publish his thesis against the new 
 " Idol" in spite of all opposition. 
 
 The fear of such an act was more than the 
 Archbishop could brave (or was it perhaps 
 his conscience that prompted him ? ) and he 
 wrote to Luther, humbly yielding to his com- 
 mands. The sale of indulgences was stopped. 
 
 What a mighty power to be yielded by a 
 humble monk, born of peasant parents, ex- 
 communicated, under the ban of Emperor and 
 pope, and imprisoned in a lonely castle sur- 
 rounded by dense forests. Yet it was the 
 right, the truth, conquering and triumphing 
 over wrong and falsehood. It was the light 
 driving out the darkness; it was GOD win- 
 ning the victory over Satan. 
 
CHAPTER VIII- 
 
 During this period of Luther's captivity, 
 Zwilling, a monk and chaplain to the con- 
 vent, was preaching the reformed doctrine 
 with much power, to great congregations in 
 the Town Church of Wittenberg. He de- 
 nounced monasticism in the severest terms. 
 Thirteen monks, largely influenced by him 
 had left the convent and assumed the ordi- 
 nary citizen's dress. Feldkirchen of Kern- 
 bry, had broken the vows of the monastic 
 order and had married. Communion in 
 both kinds had been administered, and the 
 council of Wittenberg, in conjunction with 
 the university, took action to regulate the 
 Lord's Supper regardless of pope or priest; 
 and decided not to tolerate in their midst 
 mendicant or begging friars. Thus the mass, 
 Rome's strongest bulwark, fell; and with it, 
 much of the worship of the host, the pope and 
 the priests; and this worship, now turned 
 
 away from hollow mockeries which had held 
 
 97 
 
98 WITTENBERG. 
 
 it so long, was to return to its proper and 
 worthy object, Jesus of Nazareth. Thus 
 we see that though the great leader was with- 
 drawn for a time from sight, others were 
 taking up the work and waging a valiant 
 warfare against the mockery of religion. 
 
 Many thought the absence of Luther would 
 prove the downfall of the reformation, but 
 his imprisonment was rather a blessing in 
 disguise than a curse or a drawback. When 
 he stood at the diet of Worms, the eyes of all 
 Europe were fixed upon him more as a man 
 than upon the religious truths he was teach- 
 ing ; but when he was confined for ten months 
 in the castle on the mountain top, the minds 
 of the people had time to turn from the man 
 to the doctrines he proclaimed. It also served 
 to turn aside any danger to the people of 
 making a sort of idol of him who stood so 
 fearlessly before his persecutors, and di- 
 rected the thought of Germany, and indeed of 
 all Europe toward the true source of life. 
 The man was now withdrawn ; his stamp was 
 no longer to mark the work. — That work was 
 now to bear the mark or stamp of GOD alone. 
 
 Luther had time, while in his mountain re- 
 
WITTENBERG. 99 
 
 treat, to work on his translation of the Bible; 
 and when he put forth that book in the 
 language of the people, he himself withdrew, 
 and the light of God's truth alone shone out. 
 He was impatient in his confinement how- 
 ever, and determined to visit his friends in 
 Wittenberg, if only for a day or two that he 
 might become more fully acquainted with 
 whatever might be transpiring there. 
 
 We can easily understand some of his im- 
 patience and anxiety when we consider how 
 much he had suffered and dared in behalf of 
 the new movement; how his very life was 
 wrapped up in it, and how little news could 
 reach him as to the progress of that move- 
 ment. So in the latter part of November, 
 1521, he left the Wartburg, dressed in the 
 garb of a knight. On the way at an inn he 
 was suspected of being Luther by some of 
 his friends, but was unmolested, and reached 
 Wittenberg Dec. 1st. 
 
 He remained three days, spending most 
 of his time at the house of Hieronymous 
 Schruff, where he received from Melancthon, 
 Justus Jonas, Amsdorf and Augustine 
 Shruff, a narrative of all that had taken place 
 
100 WITTENBERG. 
 
 since he left Wittenberg for the diet of 
 Worms. He then returned to his castle 
 prison, his heart cheered by this meeting with 
 his friends, and by learning from them the 
 progress the reformation had made. But 
 this ray of sunshine which had fallen across 
 his pathway was soon to be darkened by a 
 cloud which was even then preparing to set- 
 tle over Wittenberg. 
 
 It was the closing month of 1521, that he 
 returned with lightened mind and cheered 
 heart, from the seat of strife to his home of 
 confinement. On the twenty-seventh day of 
 the same month the " New Prophets," (Ana- 
 baptists) Storch, Thomas and Stubner, came 
 to Wittenberg and claimed that God had sent 
 them to teach the people. In consequence of 
 the disorder that naturally arose in the dis- 
 cussion of the Mass; monastic orders; the 
 teachings of the Anabaptists, etc., many of 
 the citizens were led astray and among them 
 Carlstadt. Storch and his companions called 
 on Melancthon for his views on their teach- 
 ing, but he would not express a decided 
 opinion concerning them. He was unsettled 
 in his own mind as to what spirit might be 
 
WITTENBERG. 101 
 
 directing them, and he desired to make no 
 mistake by a decision which might after- 
 ward prove wrong and also, because they said 
 that they appealed to Luther and would be 
 satisfied to leave the whole affair with him. 
 
 They declared that revelation had been 
 made to them directly from heaven ; that God 
 had given them a special power for rightly 
 interpreting the Scriptures; that the Turks 
 would invade and conquer Germany; that 
 the end of the world would come in a few 
 years, and that at that time priests and all 
 sinful men would be slain by the wrath of 
 God through the medium of the Turks, and 
 that only those who accepted the doctrines 
 which they proclaimed would be saved." 
 
 Such were their professions, and it is no 
 wonder that Melancthon, with his conscien- 
 tious nature, hesitated against taking a de- 
 cided stand against them for fear of making 
 an awful mistake and be found fighting 
 against God. But that he was undecided 
 proves to us that he was not ready to fall into 
 error ; for he says : " There are indeed, ex- 
 traordinary spirits in these men, but what 
 spirits ? " 
 
102 WITTENBERG. 
 
 The Elector also hesitated, and while he 
 hesitated the excitement ran higher. It 
 seemed that within the household of the ref- 
 ormation itself an enemy had been turned 
 loose to tear away its life. Pope and priest 
 looked on in glee. Nero is said to have fid- , 
 died and sung and danced while Rome was 
 being enwrapped in flames and sinking in 
 ashes to her destruction, and now the pontiff 
 at Rome, and his servile tools throughout con- 
 tinental Europe, were secretly laughing and 
 rejoicing at the distractions that were raging 
 within the bosom of the reformation; for 
 they well knew that " A house divided against 
 itself cannot stand." 
 
 The citizens of Wittenberg who had the 
 real interest of the reformation at heart be- 
 gan to call for Luther, believing that he alone 
 could quiet the disturbance. That call 
 reached the Wartberg. Luther heard it and 
 determined to risk all dangers ; go to Witten- 
 berg at once ; quiet the minds of the now al- 
 most distracted people and drive the disturb- 
 ers from the town. He left his castle prison 
 March 3, 1522, and reached the scene of 
 turmoil the following Friday. 
 
WITTENBERG. 103 
 
 Luther had attacked Rome with weapons 
 forged from theological study. The revival 
 of learning had prepared the way for that 
 study, and he had based all his hopes for the 
 advancement of truth and light upon the 
 higher education (in a true sense) of the 
 clergy, and through them of the people. But 
 the " New Prophets" proclaimed that such 
 education was unnecessary, and soon found 
 followers in Wittenberg who took up this 
 belief. Even Carlstadt, the oldest professor 
 in the university, advised the students under 
 his instruction to go home and take up the 
 spade or guide the plow ; for so had the com- 
 mandment gone forth that in the sweat of 
 his face should man eat his bread. Others 
 urged that as the new prophets were unedu- 
 cated and yet were prophets from God, it 
 was unnecessary for any of the clergy to be 
 educated; that a mechanic or a farmer was 
 as well fitted to preach and become a minister 
 of the gospel as the most learned Doctor in 
 the world. In short, that education had 
 nothing to do with the work. 
 
 This was sad news to Luther and he de- 
 termined to battle against it. He had no 
 
104 WITTENBERG. 
 
 fears as to the victory, for he who had con- 
 quered the pontiff at Home and put his repre- 
 sentatives to flight, could without fear enter 
 the arena against such men as were preaching 
 these doctrines. It was a bold step for Luther 
 to take, however, with the edict of Worms still 
 hanging over him, but he preached publicly 
 the next Sunday in the old Town Church, on 
 the subject of Patience, Charity, and Faith 
 in God to finish the work He had begun. The 
 building was crowded with earnest, anxious 
 listeners and for eight days he continued to 
 preach upon these themes, and succeeded in 
 calling the people back from the extravagant 
 teachings of the Anabaptists, who slunk away 
 for a time into oblivion. 
 
 At the end of the eighth day Luther had 
 accomplished that for which he had left the 
 Wartberg. He had quieted and set aright 
 the excited and turbulent populace of the 
 city which, a few days before, had tossed 
 about as a restless sea. All was now calm 
 and peaceful. His victory at Worms was 
 not greater than that over these disturbers of 
 God's household in his own home, and his 
 power to lead back into the fold his straying 
 
WITTENBERG. 105 
 
 sheep was a manifestation of as much great- 
 ness as to defy the power of pope and em- 
 peror. 
 
 Luther brought with him from the Wart- 
 berg, the manuscript of his translation of the 
 Bible into German ; and now he and Melane- 
 thon set diligently to work to revise and 
 send it out book by book until a part, or fi- 
 nally the whole, found its way into even the 
 humblest households. It was published with- 
 out name or title other than " The New 
 Testament, German, Wittenberg." 
 
 When Rome heard of this, a cry of anger 
 went up from her walls which was echoed 
 from cells of selfish monks, and re-echoed 
 from the palace of the Emperor of Spain. 
 For eight hundred years kings and rulers 
 had bowed in humble submission to Rome 
 with only one notable exception, Henry III, 
 Emperor of Germany, who controlled church 
 and state alike, independent of Rome. No 
 throne seemed so secure as not to tremble 
 when she spoke ; no will so strong as not to 
 break or bend at the word of the pope. At 
 his secret, and sometimes open command, 
 nation moved against nation in battle array. 
 
106 WITTENBERG. 
 
 At the sound of his voice the people had per- 
 mitted themselves to be overshadowed by the 
 darkness of ignorance; but now, Luther, a 
 humble German monk, had risen to turn the 
 tide and send the influence of the word of 
 God thundering against the walls of the 
 " Holy City/' and to beat vehemently at the 
 very gates of the Vatican. 
 
 Luther had been in Wittenberg after the 
 Wartberg imprisonment a little more than 
 three months when Henry VIII, of England, 
 " Invincible king/' and future " Defender 
 of the Faith," etc. etc., wrote his work de- 
 fending the seven sacraments. Soon after 
 this event Leo X died and was succeeded by 
 Adrian VI, a native of Utrecht, who was at 
 first mild toward the reformation, but who 
 became a most cruel persecutor. 
 
 In 1522, near the close of the year, Luther 
 heard of the awful work which Charles V 
 had begun in Antwerp. The gospel was be- 
 ing preached with great power in the Antwerp 
 Convent by several monks who had visited 
 Wittenberg, and who had received through 
 the teachings of Melancthon and Luther, a 
 ray of the true light. Great crowds gathered 
 
WITTENBERG. 107 
 
 to hear them. They were sick and dying of 
 teachings and preachers who gave them noth- 
 ing but glosses and formulas, and they were 
 thirsting after the waters which flow from 
 the gospels and the epistles. This proceed- 
 ing was contrary to the desire of the pope, 
 and Charles closed the convent, sold the 
 sacred vessels, and many men and women 
 who had so gladly listened to the word of life, 
 were seized and thrown into prisons or dun- 
 geons. 
 
 Luther's heart was saddened. The Roman 
 Church had now begun, and Luther pre- 
 dicted that she would not stop her persecu- 
 tions until she had shed the life blood of 
 many who took their stand for Christ. This 
 gloomy prediction was soon fulfilled. The 
 closing of the convent and the throwing into 
 dungeons of those who dared to differ from 
 her, was only the preparation of more severe 
 measures. 
 
 On the first day of July, 1523, just a little 
 more than two years after the diet at Worms, 
 John Esch and Henry Voes, who had been 
 preaching the new, yet old, old doctrine in 
 Antwerp, were led to the stake and burnt be- 
 
108 WITTENBERG. 
 
 cause they claimed that God alone had power 
 to forgive sins, and that it was a false as- 
 sumption of priest or pope to pretend to have 
 such power in any degree. Thus were the 
 first martyrs of the reformation called upon 
 to yield up their lives for the truth. 
 
 While Luther was filled with sorrow at 
 this outbreak of persecution, he was also 
 filled with a great joy at the brave, yet humble 
 manner in which these youthful sufferers 
 died, and at the witness they bore for Christ. 
 
 The fagots which were now lighted in 
 earnest at command of pope and Emperor, 
 threw out the first gleaming of the great con- 
 flagration that was rapidly approaching, and 
 it is claimed that in three years, 1523 to 
 1526, five hundred thousand Netherlanders, 
 who confessed Christ above the pope, were 
 slain by Charles V. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Osr September 14th, 1523, Adrian VI 
 died, and was succeeded by Clement VII, who 
 " thought only of upholding the papacy at 
 whatever cost," and of "employing its re- 
 sources for his own aggrandizement." He set 
 to work at once in a determined effort to 
 root out heresy and began a bloody persecu- 
 tion throughout Germany. He filled the 
 country with inquisitorial spies. The Peas- 
 ant war broke out, against which Luther 
 raised his voice. Charles raised the cry of 
 " Down with the Lutherans." Cardinal 
 Campagio, the wily instrument of the pope, 
 was striving hard to divide Germany into 
 two hostile parties by causing Germans to 
 oppose Germans and thus bring about their 
 own destruction. 
 
 The diet of Ratisbon was held in June 
 
 1524, and decided to enforce the edict of 
 
 .Worms which, on account of the general de- 
 
 109 
 
110 WITTENBERG. 
 
 fiance of the people, had been a dead letter 
 for three years. This council also decided to 
 discard all married priests from the states 
 represented in the council, and to recall all 
 students of these states who were studying at 
 Wittenberg or any other place infected with 
 the principles of the reformation. 
 
 On May fifth, 1525, Frederick the Elector 
 and friend of the reformation as well as the 
 protector of Luther, sank in death after re- 
 ceiving communion in both kinds at the hands 
 of his faithful chaplain Spalatin. Thus all 
 things seemed to combine against Luther and 
 his work. The fires of persecution were 
 burning with fearful glow all over the 
 Netherlands. Campagio was striving to 
 stir up turmoil among the Germans to secure 
 their division, and was all too successful in 
 his attempts. Frederick had been almost ap- 
 palled and driven to silence by a fearfully 
 condemnatory brief from Adrian; the Em- 
 peror had cried out for the suppression of the 
 Lutherans ; the diet of Ratisbon had declared 
 its intention of enforcing the edict of Worms 
 which meant, if enforced, the death of the re- 
 former upon whom clouds of a darker shadow 
 
WITTENBERG. m 
 
 were now fallen through the death of Fred- 
 erick. His soul was filled with anguish at 
 this last stroke, and he cried out in bitter- 
 ness : " Oh bitter death to all whom Fred- 
 erick has left behind." 
 
 At this time, and when the people were 
 wondering where Luther would turn and 
 what he would do, he did just what was not 
 expected of him. He married, and took for 
 his bride an ex-nun named Catherine Von 
 Bora, a lady of great piety and noble family. 
 Catherine had been in the convent of 
 Nimptsch, near Grimma in Saxony, and with 
 eight other nuns of the same institution, 
 reasoning that it was against the teachings of 
 Scripture and the prompting of conscience 
 to live in seclusion and under such regula- 
 tions, escaped from the monastery, and on 
 April 7, 1523, arrived before the Augus- 
 tinian Convent of Wittenberg. 
 
 Luther was rejoiced over their action, and 
 exclaimed that though this were not his doing, 
 " would to God that I could thus rescue all 
 captive consciences, and empty all cloisters." 
 He found homes for them and becoming im- 
 pressed with his duty to break still farther 
 
112 WITTENBERG. 
 
 from Rome as well as to establish a home for 
 himself, he was married to Catherine on June 
 11, 1525. 
 
 Rome had begun to believe that she was 
 gaining ground, and was preparing to re- 
 joice over the victory she was sure would soon 
 be hers when the news of this act of Luther's 
 reached her ears. It fell in the midst of the 
 Vatican, and in the convents of lazy and 
 abandoned monks as a death-dealing shell 
 fired from the guns of a retreating enemy 
 falls in the ranks of the pursuing army. It 
 scattered dismay and terror on every hand. 
 It raised a cry of horror from Rome and from 
 convents all over the land. Calumny, blame, 
 and denunciation were heaped upon Luther 
 at every turn. Henry VIII, immoral as he 
 was, exclaimed : " It is incest ! " but Melanc- 
 thon came nobly to Luther's defence, declar- 
 ing that there was " nothing improper or 
 contrary to the teachings of the Scripture in 
 his actions." 
 
 It cannot be doubted that, in the face of all 
 opposition, this marriage of Luther and Cath- 
 erine, a monk and a nun, opened many con- 
 vents of both sexes and caused hundreds of 
 
WITTENBERG. 113 
 
 men and women whose lives had been well 
 
 nigh burlesques, to go out into the world to 
 
 establish happy homes ; to fill honorable and 
 
 useful positions in society, and to do a real 
 
 service for God as well as man; in short, to 
 
 fill their rightful places in the world. 
 
 No wonder that Rome raised the cry of 
 
 anger and alarm. No wonder that that cry 
 
 was echoed throughout the land from walls 
 
 of pope-ridden cloisters, for this daring monk 
 
 had one by one, set aside all the laws, rules, 
 
 commands and customs of the Holy Roman 
 
 Catholic Church with which he did not agree. 
 
 First on October 31, 1517, the theses which 
 
 he nailed on the church door in Wittenberg 
 
 openly denounced the corruption of priest 
 
 and church, and ridiculed and condemned 
 
 the sale of indulgences, thus stirring up the 
 
 people to resist this robbery, and as a result 
 
 stopping one of the principal channels of gain 
 
 which had for many years flowed into the 
 
 coffers of Rome. Second; on December 10, 
 
 1520, by openly defying the ecclesiastical 
 
 power of the pope and publicly burning the 
 
 " bull" sent against him, accompanied with 
 
 all the anathemas of Leo X. He thus lessened 
 8 
 
114 WITTENBEKG. 
 
 the fear of the Roman curse and excom- 
 munication in the hearts of the German peo- 
 ple. 
 
 Third; in June, 1521, David Zwiling, a for- 
 mer monk of the Wittenberg convent de- 
 clared publicly that it was sacrilege to wor- 
 ship the host; and claimed that all members 
 of the church had perfect right to receive the 
 sacraments under both kinds; and also de- 
 nounced in strong terms, the whole system of 
 monastic orders. Communion under both 
 kinds had actually been administered in the 
 church. Fourth ; the town council of Witten- 
 berg, in conjunction with the faculty of the 
 university, took action to regulate the Lord's 
 Supper regardless of desire or command of 
 pope or priest. 
 
 Thus the organization of the Eoman 
 Church was being undermined, and the mass, 
 Rome's stronghold, fell, and with it much of 
 the worship of priest, pope and church. 
 Fifth; in 1522, Luther braved the ban of 
 Emperor and pope, returned to Wittenberg, 
 and with the aid of Melancthon, in direct 
 opposition to the will of Emperor and pope, 
 scattered all over the land the Scriptures 
 
WITTENBERG. 115 
 
 printed in the common language of the peo- 
 ple and thus placed within their hands the 
 light of that truth so much dreaded by Eome 
 even to this day. And now, as the sixth and 
 last act of open defiance, Luther, a monk, 
 enters the marriage state, and takes for his 
 wife a woman who had been a nun. 
 
 But Luther cared little for Rome's howls 
 of rage; her excommunications or her ana- 
 themas. He had followed the dictates of 
 his conscience as it had been illuminated by 
 the Holy Scriptures and guided by the Holy 
 Spirit He knew that he was right, and the 
 raging of the Roman Church was not to turn 
 him aside. The monk had become a Chris- 
 tian; he had left the cell, the cowl and the 
 old worn out lifeless husk of idleness, seclu- 
 sion and superstition; he had completely 
 severed his connection with the papal church, 
 and had entered fully upon the beauties of 
 active usefulness. 
 
 By his marriage he transformed the lonely 
 Augustinian convent into a home; and the 
 happy voices of children, offspring of former 
 priest and nun, were heard ringing joyously 
 through those old stone halls where, not many 
 
116 WITTENBERG. 
 
 years before, had been heard the chanting of 
 monks; the dreary echo of their footsteps 
 along the stony pavement below, and the 
 groans of those who were afflicting their 
 bodies in vain effort to purify their souls. 
 
 Mrs. Luther was as courageous, self-sacri- 
 ficing, as desirous of the growth of the ref- 
 ormation and as willing to submit all things 
 to the direction and will of God as was her 
 husband. This was clearly shown in 1527, 
 when Luther was taken so sick that he thought 
 he would have to leave his beloved Catherine 
 a widow, with little Hans, a baby. He sadly 
 reminded her that he had nothing to leave 
 her save some silver tankards which had been 
 presented him by some friends, but she 
 bravely replied : " Dear Doctor, if it be 
 God's will, then I choose that you be with 
 Him rather than with me. It is not so much 
 I or my children even that need you, as the 
 multitude of pious Christians. Trouble not 
 yourself about me." 
 
 His home life was a happy one ; but it was 
 not without its clouds, for in May, 1527, his 
 second child, Elizabeth, died, and his letters 
 to friends written soon after, reveal how sick 
 
WITTENBERG. 117 
 
 and sore it had left his heart. In Dec. 1542, 
 the shadow again fell across his threshold, 
 and his oldest child died, yet in the midst of 
 it all he never raised a murmur against Him 
 who had permitted the affliction to come. 
 
 Luther had many dark days in Wittenberg, 
 but the darkest of all, perhaps, was when the 
 Elector Frederick, in 1518, had no power to 
 interpose in his behalf, and for a moment felt 
 under the necessity of banishing him from 
 the domain. Luther had, under his instruc- 
 tions, prepared to leave Wittenberg, and was 
 turning his face toward France as the most 
 desirable place of refuge. On the evening 
 which he had arranged for his departure, he 
 was sitting with some friends at a sort of 
 farewell supper when a messenger came from 
 Frederick urging him to hasten away, and 
 asking why he lingered so long. 
 
 This was a sad message. His former pro- 
 tector, his beloved Frederick, had cast him 
 off and begrudged him even a few moments' 
 farewell intercourse with friends. It seemed 
 to be the last blow to crush the bleeding heart ; 
 the last fury of the tempest to break the 
 bended reed. He felt it in all its power and 
 
118 WITTENBERG. 
 
 keenness, but instantly rose above the trials 
 of the hour and was preparing to depart when 
 the tide suddenly changed, and a second mes- 
 sage was received which asked Luther to re- 
 main, at least for the present, in Wittenberg. 
 
 Another painful trial was his conflict with 
 Erasmus, who was urged by pope, Emperor 
 Charles V, and Henry VIII, to join their 
 ranks and attack Luther with the pen, 
 Luther urged Erasmus to desist ; to do noth- 
 ing ; to remain idle as to the reformation etc. 
 etc., butinl525, in spite of these urgings and 
 much waverings between two opinions, Eras- 
 mus published his " Freedom of the Will " 
 which was immediately answered and refuted 
 by Luther in his " Bondage of the Will." 
 
 This conflict was long and bitter, and was 
 all the harder for Luther, as Erasmus had 
 really prepared the way for the reformation 
 in Germany by his bitter sarcasm against the 
 whole papal system, and also because on ac- 
 count of this very fact, Luther had hoped that 
 Erasmus would cast in his influence finally 
 and wholly with the reformation. 
 
 Erasmus did not favor the Roman church, 
 which made it all the harder for him. He de- 
 
WITTENBERG. 119 
 
 sired reform, but of a more moderate type 
 than that advocated by Luther, and on De- 
 cember 6th, 1520, four days before the burn- 
 ing of the papal bull, in a letter to the legate 
 Campagio, he stated that he had perceived 
 that the better, the more learned and Chris- 
 tian a man was, the less he was Luther's 
 enemy. Yet Erasmus was a moral and men- 
 tal coward, and cast his voice and influence 
 with the hierarchy simply because he feared 
 the great odds that were arrayed against the 
 reformation. 
 
 Luther was conqueror in this as well as in 
 so many other conflicts, and Erasmus, driven 
 to what he did by pope, bishop, emperor and 
 king, seems never to have been fully satisfied 
 by the position he had taken. 
 
 In 1525, while at Wittenberg, Luther 
 received news of the martyrdom of Leclerc, 
 the first victim of the reformation in France, 
 who was burnt in Metz. The fires had not 
 yet subsided in the Netherlands, though thou- 
 sands of lives had been yielded up in the 
 flames, and now they were to break forth 
 anew in all the fury of Roman persecution 
 in France. Luther well knew that the burn- 
 
120 WITTENBERG. 
 
 ing of Leclerc was only the advance signal 
 of hundreds of such fires that would soon 
 throw the dark shadows of shame across the 
 pages of papal history. 
 
 It was from Wittenberg, also, that Luther 
 entered into the sacramental controversy with 
 Zwingli, which resulted in the conference of 
 Marburg in October, 1529. This confer- 
 ence really did nothing toward settling the 
 difference, but during the discussion Luther 
 showed his impetuosity — and may we not say 
 his narrowness — by not only refusing to 
 accede to the opinion of Zwingli and others, 
 but by actually refusing to part with them 
 as brothers in Christ, though with tears they 
 earnestly supplicated him to do so. 
 
 Thus the years rolled on, surging with 
 mighty events, the storm raging more furi- 
 ously now, and then again growing calmer, 
 but having always for its center this little 
 town, and in this town the fearless monk who 
 defied the power of the Emperor, thrust aside 
 the attack of " The Invincible King of Eng- 
 land," and cast into the flames the dreadful 
 weapon of the pope. 
 
 With slight breaks here and there, the re- 
 
WITTENBERG. J21 
 
 mainder of his life was spent in Wittenberg, 
 but he was not to die there. His old enemy, 
 Charles V, on account of fear from the 
 threatened Turkish invasion, was compelled 
 by his subjects to make peace with Luther; 
 else, they said : " they would withhold their 
 support from him in his endeavor to stop the 
 tide of Solomon's invasion." But around 
 him, whom anathemas and bulls from Rome, 
 diets at home and edicts of Emperors could 
 not move, the clouds which no man can dis- 
 pel or escape, were rapidly gathering. 
 
 While suffering from poverty and over- 
 work, he was called from Wittenberg to his 
 old home to settle a dispute concerning cer- 
 tain rights of church patronage that had 
 arisen between the Mansfield brothers, upon 
 whose estate he had been born in 1483: 
 November 10, just thirty-seven years and one 
 month bfore he burnt the papal bull. He 
 left Wittenberg January 23d, 1546, and said 
 to his wife as he was leaving, that he " could 
 lie down on his death-bed with joy if he could 
 first see his dear Lords Mansfield reconciled." 
 
 These brothers had sent an urgent appeal 
 for him to come and settle the difficulty, for 
 
122 WITTENBERG, 
 
 his was now regarded as the warmest heart 
 and the clearest head in the land, and 
 people in all kinds of trouble, whether of 
 body, mind or soul, turned to him for relief. 
 In due time he reached Eisleben and a few 
 days later wrote his wife that his work had 
 been accomplished and the difficulty adjusted. 
 But he was not to look again upon the face of 
 his beloved Catherine ; for between the hours 
 of two and three o'clock on the morning of 
 Feb. 18th, the messenger came and bore away 
 the spirit of the great reformer. 
 
 He who, sixty-three years before, lay there 
 as a helpless babe, was now lying there in the 
 same town, helpless in death and in the house 
 opposite the church in which he had been 
 baptised when an infant ; and the little town 
 whose inhabitants had so many years before 
 listened to his sweet childish voice had, by 
 this peculiar combination of circumstances, 
 received him back unto herself in his dying 
 hours. His work was done, but how great 
 was that work ! His life on earth was ended, 
 but how full of moment had been that life, 
 most of which had been spent in the little 
 German town of Wittenberg. 
 
WITTENBERG. 123 
 
 Eisleben is distant from Wittenberg about 
 fifty miles, but the Elector, John the Con- 
 stant, at whose disposal the body was placed, 
 decided that it should be buried in the 
 Schloss Kirche of Wittenberg, where his 
 voice had so often been heard in defence of 
 the truth. 
 
 The Counts Mansfield accompanied the re- 
 mains from Eisleben to their final resting 
 place. Bells tolled in every village and town 
 through which they passed; while magis- 
 trates, clergy and people of all classes, young 
 and old, met them at the city gates, clad in 
 mourning and singing funeral hymns. As 
 they moved along the rough country roads 
 men and women, and even children, came 
 from farm homes, from forests and fields, 
 and with aching hearts and weeping eyes 
 joined the solemn cortege which proceeded 
 to the church w 7 here his body was committed 
 to the dust. 
 
 At Wittenberg the people gathered around 
 the casket, and with choked and sobbing voices 
 joined in singing one of Luther's own Hymns, 
 — " I Journey Hence in Peace." 
 
 Thus it was that this silent, cold body of 
 a once poor peasant, poor priest and poor, but 
 
124 WITTENBERG, 
 
 ever rich reformer, was borne through the 
 Thuringian country, followed by Electors, 
 Lords, Counts, Magistrates, Clergy and peas- 
 ants, to find its last resting place in the 
 Palace Church of Wittenberg. That body 
 which had found no rest in life, now found it 
 under the peaceful wing of death. 
 
 How different was Luther's work from that 
 of Henry VIII. This great king of England 
 passed away and his life stands a record of 
 shame before the world. The darts he sent 
 across the waters to Wittenberg, fell without 
 effect on the reformer; and his action only 
 revealed more clearly to coming ages the 
 greatness of the humble monk in the princi- 
 ples he represented and the littleness of the 
 great king, " The most invincible of England 
 and Lord of Ireland." 
 
 The book of this miffhtv king; which was 
 presented to Leo X, with so much pride and 
 received by Leo with so much ceremony, and 
 on account of which the latter gave to Henry 
 the title of " Defender of the Faith," is now 
 known generally only in history; while the 
 works of Luther, especially his wrenching the 
 Bible from the dark corners of monasteries 
 
WITTENBERG. 125 
 
 and translating it into the language of the 
 people, is living in all parts of Christendom 
 to-day. The one was the work of man, ac- 
 complished solely for man's glory ; the other 
 was also the work of man, but it was led by 
 the Spirit of God, for God's glory and the up- 
 lifting of mankind. 
 
 How different the death of Luther from 
 that of his old enemy, Tetzel, who died in 
 Leipzic July 14, 1519, it is said, of a broken 
 heart, having been severely reprimanded and 
 suspended by the papal ambassador, Karl Yon 
 Miltetz. The indulgences he so eagerly sold, 
 though strong enough, according to his preach- 
 ing, to cleanse from all past and future sins, 
 were not strong enough to bind up his own 
 broken and bleeding heart. But while he 
 was dying, despised and neglected by the 
 prelate and pope, surrounded only by a few 
 idle priests who could give him no ray of 
 light in the deep darkness that was over- 
 shadowing him, his eyes blinded as to the 
 future, his lips uttering : " I see nothing 
 but darkness," a letter was handed him that 
 gave his wavering soul light and hope. 
 
 It was from Luther, and though those 
 
126 WITTENBERG. 
 
 around him were surprised that TetzePs great- 
 est enemy should thus insult his dying hour, 
 Tetzel himself cried out : " Eead ! Read ! " 
 The letter was read to him ; and in it Luther 
 spoke only words of comfort, of pardon, and 
 preached unto him the forgiveness of sins 
 through Jesus Christ, and Him alone; and 
 that through Him also came the resurrection 
 in hope. The letter gave light and comfort, 
 and the former seller of indulgences, the blind 
 papist, saw the Gospel as he had never seen 
 it before, and cried out with his last sigh: 
 " The night is gone ; the morning breaks." 
 
 How different Luther's death from that of 
 Leo X, who had hurled all the anathemas of 
 the Roman church at the uncovered head of 
 the poor Wittenberg monk! This pope 
 reigned about nine years, then died suddenly, 
 it is supposed by many, of poison, in 1522, 
 without time to take the holy sacrament. As 
 lie was borne to his last resting place the 
 people gathered around shouting : " Thou 
 earnest in like a fox, thou hast ruled like a 
 lion, thou hast died like a dog." The one 
 was like the triumphal march of a victor ; the 
 
INTERIOR OF PALACE CHURCH. 
 
 Graves of Lather and Melaricthon, Right and Left of 
 
 Foreground. 
 
WITTENBERG, 127 
 
 other was the slinking away of a dark and 
 blackened character. 
 
 The world to-day bows in grateful recog- 
 nition by the tomb of the humble reformer 
 whose dust lies quietly in yonder church of 
 Wittenberg, but his work still lives, and his 
 words : " Here I stand, I can do no other, 
 God help me," spoken in humility and yet 
 with bravery before the diet of Worms, have 
 sounded down the centuries and stimulated 
 thousands of Christians to nobler aims and 
 more heroic deeds than they would otherwise 
 ever have experienced. 
 
 We left Wittenberg at noon, and with 
 much regret turned away from the place 
 fraught with so much interest to the great 
 family of mankind. We passed through the 
 Elster Thor, took a last look at the oak under 
 which Luther burnt the papal bull, and were 
 soon whirled away on the train, but we still 
 thought of the town we were leaving far be- 
 hind us, and believed that as long as there 
 is a Wittenberg ; " as long as man can strug- 
 gle upward toward God ; " as long as his heart 
 can glow with holy indignation against wrong 
 and persecution, as long as his soul can 
 
128 WITTENBERG. 
 
 swell in sympathy for the great and the good ; 
 as long as he can appreciate a good work done 
 in his behalf; so long will man stand with 
 uncovered heads by the tomb of Luther in the 
 Palace Church in Wittenberg. 
 
DEC 6 1906 
 
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