Library of the 
 University of North Carolina 
 
 ^^ndowed by the Dialectic and Philati' 
 thropic Societies 
 
LOGALITIES 
 
 -OF THE- 
 
 REFORMATION ! 
 
 Which were J isiteil reeeiitly hi it JEuropeiui 
 Toiit% iifiil Descvihed in ft JLectiire 
 I^elivereil in 
 
 ^1 fail's ^Mtigelkal^jift ^'Ipritli^ 
 
 OCTOBER 28tli and 31st, 1877 
 
 BY G. D.^ERNHEIM, D. 
 
 WILMINGTON, N. C: 
 
 S. G. HALL, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 
 
 1877. 
 
LOCALITIES OF THE 
 
 REFORMATION ! 
 
 Eev. Dr. G. D. Bernheim, on the "Localities of the 
 Eeformation," which have been recently visited by him, and 
 described in a Lecture delivered in St. Paul's Evangelical 
 Lutheran Church, Wilmington, K 0., October 28th and 31st, 
 1877, has been published in pamphlet form, and is for sale in 
 this city at Harris' News Stand. 
 
 This is the only known publication in the English language 
 of a description of Martin Luther's home, and the scenes of 
 his labors, written from personal observation, and is commend- 
 ed to all as one of the author's most vivid productions. The 
 following testimonials are appended ; 
 
 "The lecture is full of interest, and leads you along so charmingly in 
 its clear, natural, unpretending style, that you could imagine yourself 
 the Doctor's companion in travel. Lutheran Visitor. 
 
 Dr. Bernheim has recently visited the places made famous by the 
 struggles, trials and triumphs of the Heroes of the Reformation, and the 
 lecture, written in terse, lucid and forcible style, is the result of his ob- 
 servations. ' ' — Wilmington Democrat. 
 
 "If you wish to read an interesting lecture, send to Rev. Dr. Bern- 
 heim, Wilmington, N. C. The Doctor has just returned from 
 Europe," and, in a pamphlet of 24 pages, ^ives a description of his 
 visit to the historic 'Localties of the Reformation.' Messenger. 
 
 "Very much obliged for your neat discourse, it has the true ring, and 
 the only fault is its brevity. You have rendered good service to the 
 cause, and I hope all your readers will appreciate and practice your clos- 
 ing exhortation."— Rev. John G. Morris, D. D., L. L. D., Baltimore. 
 
 I received your "Reformation" Address, and read it with great pleas- 
 ure and profit to myself. I was not surprised that you were called on to 
 repeat. I wish it could be delivered before all our congregations, or it 
 could be generally circulated among our people. It is not only interest- 
 ing but instructive and calculated to inspire a love for the Mother 
 Church."— Rev. L. A. Bikle, D. D., President North Carolina Synod. 
 
 JPrice, per si^igle eopy, 25 [Cts. A liberal dis- 
 
 cot€^it to the Trade. 
 
 Address, 
 
 S. 
 
 Book and Job Printer, Wilmington, 0. 
 
LOCALITIES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 REFORMATION! 
 
 Which trefe Visiteti recently in u JEtiropeun 
 Tour, uitid JDescrihed in a JLeeture 
 Delivered^ in 
 
 OCTOBER Q8tli and 31st, 1877 
 
 BY G. D. TERNHEIM, D. D. 
 
 WILMINGTON, N. C.t 
 
 S. G. HALL, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 
 
 1877. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/localitiesofrefoOObern 
 
LOCALITIES OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 My Christian Friends : 
 
 It is not my purpose to discourse on any passage of Scrip- 
 ture on this occasion of the annual recurrence of the festival 
 of the Eeformation ; but having recently visited most ot the 
 localities made famous in that greatest event of the sixteenth 
 century, I have thought proper to make a change this year in 
 the usual manner of our celebrating this anniversary, and 
 shall devote the time, allotted to a sermon, to a description of 
 some of the towns and cities in which the principal events of 
 the Eeformation took place. 
 
 All that we hold most sacred and dear, dearer even than 
 
 life itself, are our civil and religious freedom. We can now 
 
 sing almost all over the world : 
 
 " Absurd and vain attempt to bind 
 With iron chains the t'reeborn mind." 
 
 But it was not always so ; human laws and ancient customs, 
 
 together with feudal rights and the power of emperors and 
 
 kings, had enslaved both soul and body of our not very distant 
 
 ancestors. 
 
 There are not wanting those who date the birth of civil lib- 
 erty to the granting of the Magna Oharta by king John of 
 England: this act made England free, which freedom was 
 afterwards extended to America by English colonists; but 
 whilst I will in no wise underestimate the results of that event, 
 let us not forget that there are other countries and nations 
 equally as free, who have never felt the influence of king John's 
 grant to his lords and barons. 
 
4 
 
 But religious freedom undoubtedly bad its birtb in Genna- 
 ny ; it is a principle evolved from tbe issues of tbe Eeforma- 
 tion of the sixteenth century, and became an accomplished 
 fact one hundred years later, at the peace at Augsburg, which 
 closed so gloriously the drama of the Thirty Years War. And 
 without religious freedom civil liberty is but a mockery; hence 
 I have no hesitancy in concluding, that our dearest and most 
 inalienable rights as freeborn citizens date their origin bade 
 to the sixteenth century, and were some of the results of the 
 great Eeformation. Other legitimate and important conclu- 
 sions I prefer to leave you to draw yourselves. 
 
 The most northern range of the system of mountains in 
 central Europe are the Harz mountains. Who has not heard of 
 them ? What ghost and witch stories have thej not furnished 
 for the childhood of all European nations and their descend- 
 ants here ? And then that phenomenon of nature, described 
 in all our text books on Natural Philosophy, " The Spectre 
 of the Brocken," seen occasionally on one of the peak^ of 
 these mountains, has become as familiar to us as an house- 
 hold word. From the east and north of the Harz mountains 
 the country shelves off rapidly level towards the Baltic and 
 North seas ; but to the south and south-east of these moun- 
 tains you have an undulating surface of country with most 
 beautiful and picturesque valleys. In one of these valleys 
 the town of Erfurt is located ; it is the lovely valley of the lit- 
 tle river Saal, a branch of the Elbe, — a valley full of historic 
 recollections, and every scene of it that the eye can reach is 
 worthy of the painter's pencil. I gazed from the window of 
 the railroad car all along this valley upon the ever changing 
 picturesque scenery with such intentness as to pain my eyes, 
 and even then I could not withdraw them. 
 
 Among these surroundings Martin Luther spent the most 
 romantic years of his life, from his seventeenth to his twenty- 
 fourth year, during this interval the town of Erfurt was Lu- 
 ther's home, and here the Eeformer was moulded and mad€ 
 nnder most peculiar and wonderful leadings of divine Frovi- 
 
5 
 
 dence ; we have also the right to say, that here the great 
 Eeformation had its birth, since it was here that Luther re- 
 ceived both his literary and spiritual training. 
 
 There existed in Luther's time two noted institutions in 
 Erfurt, a university in the eastern part of the town and a 
 monastery in the more western part. Luther's father, once a 
 poor miner in the mountains, but who had become wealthy 
 trom the proceeds of his two furnaces, sent his son Martin to 
 complete his education as a lawyer in this university ; how- 
 ever, several circumstances in Luther's young life served to 
 change his purpose : first a severe spell of sickness ; then, a 
 wound in his leg that severed an artery caused by the fall of 
 his student's sword from its scabbard, from which he bled 
 almost to death ; and, lastly, the sudden death of his friend 
 Alexis, who, whilst walking by Luther's side, was struck 
 down by a flash of lightning, all of which caused a deep gloom 
 to fall upon the soul of young Luther, so that he resolved to 
 become a monk, and soon afterwards entered the Augustinian 
 monastery in Erfurt. 
 
 This ancient cloister I visited on the second day of last 
 July. It is now an orphan asylum, named Martinsstift, in 
 honor of Martin Luther, who once occupied one of its cells as 
 an Augustinian friar. That identical cell is no more, a few 
 years ago a part of the building was accidentally destroyed 
 by fire, and Luther's cell with all its valuable contents was 
 likewise destroyed. It has since been restored by masons 
 and carpenters, but, though very much like its predecessor, 
 the new Luther's cell is not the one Luther once occupied, 
 and is of necessity despoiled of much of its historic interest. 
 
 But my guide, the principal of the Martinsstift, took me to 
 another part of the building, a part that still remains in its 
 original condition, for the devouring flames did not reach it. 
 We ascended a flight of steps to the second or third floor, 
 and I was ushered into a large room, that was furnished and 
 looked very much like the chapel of the institution, which in- 
 deed it was, and here also the sessions of Synod for that dis- 
 
6 
 
 trict are annually held. Everything in the room gave testi- 
 mony to its antiquitj^, the quaint small-paned windows, the 
 ancient pictures on the wall, the rehcs of antiquity arranged 
 in various appropriate places of the room ; and I, at length, 
 began to wonder where I was, and to think that my guide was 
 putting my knowledge of the events of the Eeformation to the 
 test ; he, seeing my perplexity, came at once to my relief, 
 saying : *^ This room was once the library of the monastery, 
 and here, in this room and lihrarij, Luther first saw and read 
 the Bible," I objected and remarked, that that occurred in 
 the University. He repHed, " Yes, that is the general belief, 
 but it is a mistake, this room is the place.^^ But where is that 
 Bible ?" I inquired. He answered : "A few years ago you 
 could yet have seen it, but now it is no more, for we kept it 
 sacredly in Luther's cell, and I am sorry to inform you, that 
 it perished in the flames when the cell was destroj^ed by fire." 
 
 And so I actually stood in the very room in which the light 
 of truth shone for the first time again, after the lapse of many 
 ages, upon the mind of a human being. Ten centuries p^st 
 had that light been practically obscured by the decretals of 
 the Popes, and even here that copy of the Scriptures stood 
 fastened to its shelf by a chain ; how emblematic of the true 
 state of religion at that time ! But chained as that Bible was, 
 young Luther opened it, its blessed truths were almost de- 
 voured by him, and also kept him riveted to the spot for many 
 hours. Who then can deny, that in this very room the great 
 Eeformation had its birth ? From this very room the streams 
 issued forth that gladdened the city of our God ; it was then 
 but a small fountain, now, thank God, the world, is full of 
 Bibles. 
 
 I have yet to add, that so many of the books of that library", 
 as are still left, have been removed to another part of the 
 building, and are being arranged as quickly as possible into 
 the regular order of a new library for the benefit of the insti- 
 tution. 
 
 From that monastery in Erfurt Luther was called to Wit- 
 
7 
 
 teii^erg, as theological professor in the new university, which 
 the Elector of Saxony had est.'iblished there. Here was Lu- 
 ther's permanent home, and here he labored to the day of his 
 death, excepting only the ten months that he was concealed 
 from the wrath of his enemies in the Wartburg castle. 
 
 I arrived at Wittenberg late Saturday evening, and on 
 Sunday morning I awoke hearing music high up from the 
 tower of the town church. A brass band was playiog Luther's 
 battle hymn : 
 
 " Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott," 
 and with such sweet and soft cadences, owing to the height 
 from which the music proceeded, as to affect me to tears. 
 
 Wittenberg, unlike Erfurt, is situated in a level plain, about 
 sixty miles south-west of Berlin ; it is, however, pleasantly lo- 
 cated on the left bank of the river Elbe, and is surrounded by 
 a wall and large ditch, called a moat, partially filled with 
 water, which, by the way, is now in process of being levelled, 
 as it no longer serves the purpose of defence in time of war, 
 the mode of warfare having been entirely changed. But so 
 extensive is this circumvallation, that it will take much capital 
 and some length of time to complete its entire demolition. 
 The old Elster gate in this wall, quite near to Luther's dwel- 
 ling, is now no more; here the wall has been levelled into the 
 ditch, so as to make a wide street leading to the railroad sta- 
 tion; thus the march of modern improvements does away 
 with many sacred relics of the past, and all that you can see 
 now of the historic Elster gate is — a photograph view of it 
 taken before the process of demolition commenced. 
 
 But let us enter the town. The most prominent building 
 in the place is the Stadtkirche, (town church,) almost large 
 enough to be a cathedral, and stands a short distance to the 
 rear of the public square, called the markt-platz. This church 
 has two immense towers in front of it, which are joined together 
 a long way up to near the top, where they are once more joined 
 together by a bridge, and then two smaller turrets are built 
 up a considerable space higher, and may be seen as the most 
 
8 
 
 prominent objects in Wittenberg a considerable distance from 
 the town. I need not tell you that this is the principal place 
 of worship in Wittenberg, and is, of course, a Lutheran church. 
 There is not much architectural beauty apparent in its exte- 
 rior construction, but it manifests considerable magnificence 
 in its interior ornamentation, and the largest congregations 
 are assembled in it every Sunday. In the public square near 
 it stand two bronze statues ; you recognize them immediately, 
 — they represent Luther and Melanchthon, and have each an 
 iron canopy over the pedestals on which they stand. This, 
 in connection with the proximity of the place where the old 
 university stood, and the nearness of Luther's residence, 
 would naturally lead one to infer, that this is the church upon 
 whose door Luther nailed the Ninety-five Theses against the 
 sale of the Pope's letters of indulgence. This is, however, aot 
 the case ; the town church possesses no historic interest, ex- 
 cept that Luther sometimes preached in it. 
 
 The sale of indulgences originated in the following manner : 
 The Pope had determined to build the finest and costliest 
 cathedral in the world — the famous St. Peter's of Eome. 
 Money was needed to complete the building, and he resorted 
 to the sale of indulgences, i. e. letters of pardon for all sins, 
 past and future, signed and sealed by the Pope himself. These 
 were sold over all Europe, and John Tetzel, who was em- 
 ployed in this traffic in Germany, had the eftrontery to place 
 the following motto on his cash-box : 
 
 " As soon as money in this chest rings, 
 So soon the soul to heaven ascends." 
 
 Luther had often preached against the sale of these indul- 
 gences, and the Elector of Saxony had forbidden the nefarious 
 traffic in his dominions ; yet many persons went outside of the 
 Elector's territory, a few leagues distant from Wittenberg, and 
 there purchased these letters of indulgence from the Pope's 
 agent, thus defying God's holy law and gospel, the desire of 
 their Prince, and particularly everything which an ordinary 
 monk could say. In this manner was that pious and consci- 
 
9 
 
 entious man of God, Martin Luther, driven to the wall. He 
 had either to keep silent and assent to this wholesale destruc- 
 tion of the souls of men, or to protest against the awful crime, 
 and let the consequences be what they may. He excited no 
 insurrectionary mob, he unsheathed no sword to force his 
 opinions upon mankind ; he simply grasped the pen and wrote 
 his ninety-five arguments, called Theses, adduced from the 
 Word of God, against the sale of indulgences, and nailed them 
 upon the church door of Wittenberg, during the evening of 
 the last day of October, A. D. 1517. 
 
 Now come along with me to the end of the main street, in 
 the opposite direction from the Elster gate and those other 
 buildings already mentioned, almost out of town, and you will 
 see a round castle tower ; as you approach, a large quadrang- 
 ular castle or palace building is before you, enclosing an open 
 court yard ; this was the residence of one line of the Electors 
 of Saxony, who in Luther's time were his devoted friends. 
 One side of this castle edifice, fronting the main street, 
 comprises the castle church, in which the Elector and his fam- 
 ily worshiped, here in the central point of the \^all of the 
 church, and facing the street, is the famous door on which the 
 Ninety-five Theses were nailed. 
 
 The old wooden door has, however, been destroyed by 
 French soldiers; but in its place swings a double door of brass, 
 not quite so destructible, and the Ninety-five Theses in Latin 
 have been cast upon it in raised letters. Should enemies 
 again vent their rage upon this monument, it will avail them 
 nothing, for the renowned Ninety-five Theses against the sale 
 of papal indulgences are not so easily obliterated from the 
 pages of history. 
 
 Now let us enter this castle church ; it is a fine looking edi- 
 fice, and contains many works of art in marble, chiefly com- 
 memorative of the departed Electors of Saxony and members 
 of their family, whose remains lie entombed underneath the 
 chancel. But in the central aisle, which crosses the long aisle 
 in the middle of the church, are two small wooden trap-doors. 
 
10 
 
 about three by four and a-half feet, with a metal ring in each, 
 so that these doors may be easily raised. You ask the oblig- 
 ing sexton to open these doors, and you stand before the 
 graves of Luther and Melanchthon, not open so as to let you 
 gaze upon their coffins, but the memorial tablets of brass with 
 Latin inscriptions are before you — very simple, yet impressive, 
 indicating to you, that they cover the last resting places of 
 these two fathers of the Reformation ; friends and co-laborers 
 in life were they, very nearly of the same age at the time of 
 their death, and in their last sleep reposing so very near each 
 other. It seems almost miraculous that the mortal remains 
 of Luther have never been disturbed since they were deposited 
 here soon after his death. On more than one occasion, during 
 the misfortunes of war, has the fortified town of Wittenfteig 
 been in the hands of the enemies of the Reformation. Dur- 
 ing the Smalcaldic war, Charles Y. captured the town not long 
 after Luther's death, when the PJmperor had the grave of Lu- 
 ther opened, into which he gazed, but waived back the Duke 
 ol Alba with his hand, forbidding him to remove the body of 
 Luther, that it might be burned, and the ashes be thrown into 
 the rivc.r Elbe, as the duke had proposed to do. 
 
 The old university of Wittenberg has been removed to Halle, 
 a city not very far distant, and the edifice has been torn down 
 to make room for a military garrison ; but the dwellings of 
 Luther and Melanchthon are still standing. Melanchthon's 
 house is a plain, three-storied dwelling, the gable end of which 
 fronts the main street, and a tablet inserted in the outer wall, 
 fronting the street, informs strangers that Melanchthon 
 resided there. But the Luther dwelling was once a mon- 
 astery, and was presented to him by his friend the Elector 
 of Saxony. It is a large edifice, and stands back from the 
 main street a considerable distance, about one hundred or 
 more feet, affording a large space in front for his garden. An- 
 other edifice has been erected on this unoccupied part of the 
 lot near the street, leaving still a considerable space of 
 ground for a garden between the two buildings ; a grape vine, 
 
11 
 
 an ivy vine and a cherry tree, if I remember right, all of Lu- 
 ther's planting, are still to be seen there ; also an excellent 
 well of water, which he and his family used, and from which I 
 drank, are all in that garden. These two edifices, the old and 
 the new, are now a theological seminary, well endowed with 
 funds, in which graduates in theology from universities may 
 spend one or two more years, receiving additional instruction 
 from able professors, and drinking in afresh Luther's spirit 
 from the historic mementoes that surround them. Certainly 
 a more noble use of Luther's home could not have been de- 
 vised. This institution possesses an extensive and very valu- 
 able library. 
 
 We are still in Luther's garden, between the two edifices, 
 the one on the street, and Luther's dwelling in the rear. Now 
 raise your eyes to the second story. What a singular looking 
 window is that, having such small round panes of glass in it 
 of the olden style, whilst all tne other windows are different 
 and more modern ? We notice also that a few of those round 
 panes of glass are broken out, whilst otherwise that solitary 
 odd window is well preserved. That is the window through 
 which the light of day enters into Luther's room, still sacredly 
 preserved in the condition in which he left it. And as we 
 cross the threshold of that room, what crowds of historic rec- 
 ollections course through the brain ! Here it was where Lu- 
 ther spent his happy hours in the company of his beloved 
 family; here doubtless many of his great thoughts were con- 
 ceived, here he had to part with his beloved young daughter 
 Magdalene, in her fourteenth year, being the first death in his 
 family. The floors of the room are worn and somewhat de- 
 cayed, but the walls and ceiling are nearly the same as in Lu- 
 ther's time. The furniture consists of a tile stove designed 
 by himself; his table — now much decayed ; his double-seated 
 tete-a-tete chair, fixed by the quaint small paned window ; a 
 bas-relief bust of Luther, said to have been taken after his 
 death ; his coat of arms — a rose, a heart and a cross ; his full 
 length portrait over the door ; and the signature of Peter the 
 
12 
 
 Great under the portrait, in chalk, cased over with glass. 
 Through that door we enter into his study, which now con- 
 tains but a glass-covered cabinet, and in it are preserved and 
 may be seen his drinking cup ; a likeness of him, worked upou 
 cloth by his wife ; a wooden goblet, worked out of a part of 
 the beech tree under which he was taken prisoner, when he 
 was carried to the Wartburg castle ; and a few othei* less im- 
 portant articles. Luther's bed chamber is also shown to visi- 
 tors, but it is entirely emptied of furniture; both it and 
 his study had to be remodeled, for the floor, walls and ceiling 
 were very much decayed. In the hall of the same building is 
 the front portion of the rostrum from which Luther? lectured 
 in the university. Upon the walls of this hall are placed the 
 numerous portraits of the several Electors of Saxony. It is 
 intended to make this and the adjoinuig hall a Luther muse- 
 um, in which is to be placed every relic of the great Reformer 
 that can be collected all over Europe. 
 
 We must not leave Wittenberg without visiting the Luther- 
 oak-tree, planted on the spot where Luther burned the Pope's 
 bull. It is outside of the walls of the town, j ust about mid- 
 way between the Elster gate and the railroad depot. It 
 stands near the center of a small grove of trees and a flower 
 garden ; as soon as you enter the small wooden gate, a good 
 sized oak tree stands before you ; it is encircled by an iron 
 fence, upon which is fastened an iron tablet, bearing this in- 
 scription in raised letters : " At this place Dr. Martin Luther 
 burned the Pope's bull of excommunication, Dec 10th, 1520." 
 This "Luther-oak," as it is called, was planted in the place of 
 the original one that was cut down by the French soldiers in 
 1813. The new tree grows luxuriantly. I broke a branch 
 from it, to be kept as a memento of my visit to Wittenberg. 
 
 The next place to be visited, if we follow the order of time 
 in which the prominent events of the Eeformation occurred, is 
 Worms. It is noted in history for the diet at which Luther 
 made his celebrated defence before the Emperor Charles Y. 
 and the assembled powers and grandees of Europe, closing his 
 
13 
 
 address with : " Except I be convinced by sound argument, 
 and from the Holy Scriptures, that T am in error, I can and I 
 will recant nothing. Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, 
 God help me ! Amen." By the burning of the Pope's bull of 
 excommunication, Luther was now quits with the Church of 
 Eome ; the Pope, as the representative of the supreme spiritual 
 power of the land, had excommunicated Luther, i. e. thrown 
 him out of the church ; and Luther, in turn, had defied the 
 Pope's authority for so doing, by publicly burning his letter of 
 excommunication before a large assemblage of people. 
 
 " The blaze 
 Redden 'd, and rose beside the eastern gate 
 Of Wittenberg." 
 
 ^' Wittenberg," says Carlyle, looked on, with shouts — the 
 whole world looked on. It was the shout of tbe awakening 
 of the nations. . . Luther had cast off for ever the spectral 
 nightmare and tripple-hatted chimera of Rome." 
 
 But there was another power with which Luther had yet to 
 contend — the supreme temporal power of Germany, vested in 
 the Emperor Charles Y., who commanded Luther to appear be- 
 fore him, promising him a safe conduct, and answer to the 
 charge of heresy at the city of Worms, where Charles was 
 holding a diet for the welfare of the German empire. 
 
 Worms was once a large city, numbering seventy-five thou- 
 sand inhabitants, and had a considerable trade. It is located 
 on the lett bank of the river Ehine, an hour's ride on the 
 railroad from Mayence, but a long way from Luther's home — 
 Wittenberg — about two hundred and fifty to three hundred 
 miles ; it contains at present but sixteen thousand inhabitants. 
 
 The old castle, that adjoined the large cathedral in which 
 the above-mentioned diet was held, is likewise one of the 
 things that were ; and here again the French were the agres- 
 sors, but not those of Napoleon's time, for it was destroyed 
 many years before his day. A beautiful garden of rare plants 
 and flowers and a fine collection of birds now occupy the 
 spot of ground made so famous in history, and is in possession 
 
I 
 
 14 
 
 of a wealthy merchant residing in Worms. But the city is 
 now constantly visited by strangers to see one of the finest 
 works of art in all Europe, "the Luther Monument," the 
 work of Germany's greatest artist Kietschell, a resident of 
 the city of Dresden. He is now dead ; he did not even live 
 to see this his greatest work unveiled — nine rears ago. One's 
 admiration of this monument knows no bound. Any one ot 
 the twelve large statues of bronze, with all of the smaller 
 figures, all grouped together in this monument, would make 
 any artist celebrated. The central and top figure, of course^ 
 is Luther, in the attitude as he was saying those soul-stirring 
 words : " Here I stand," &c. 
 
 At this diet, Luther was declared an outlaw, any one could 
 take his life if he were so disposed ; but the Elector of Saxony, 
 seeing to what dangers Luther was exposed, provided a Pella, 
 or " Patmos," as Luther termed it, for him until the storm 
 against him had somewhat abated. So he had him waylaid 
 on his long homeward journey, whilst he was on his way 
 through the Thuringian forest, and carried him a prisoner 
 (ostensibly) to the Wartburg castle, where he labored in safe- 
 ty and seclusion at his great work of translating the Bible into 
 the German language. 
 
 For the purpose of viewing this castle we are brought once 
 more to a hilly or mountainous country, a httle to the west- 
 ward of Erfurt and near the river Werra, a branch of the 
 Weser, immediately south of the Harz mountains. Nothing 
 can exceed the beauty and picturesqueness of the scenery of 
 this Thuringian country, painters are constantly visiting it for 
 the purpose of transferring these celebrated Thuringian views 
 upon canvass. So enchanted was Count Ludwig 11. with the 
 scenery from the mountain, on which he built the Castle of 
 Wartburg during the years 1069 to 1072, that when he first 
 saw the grand panorama spread out before him, whilst en- 
 gaged in a hunting expedition, he exclaimed : " Wart Berg, 
 du sollst mir eine Burg werden when the two words, Wart 
 and Burg, were joined together, by which name the castle was 
 
15 
 
 known from that time forward. Translated, it signifies : 
 " Wait mountain, you shall become a castle for me." 
 
 But the Wartburg has a history besides that, and before 
 that, which associates Luther's name with it. In the year 
 1207, the 7th of July, the historic Minnesingers held their 
 contest in this castle. Landgrave Herrman and his wife 
 Sophie were then the occupants of the Wartburg, under whose 
 patronage six of the most renowned singers of Germany, Henry 
 the clerk, Walter of Yogelweide, whom Longfellow made the 
 vsubject of one of his poems, Wolfiam of Eschenbacti, Bitterolf, 
 Henry of Osterdingen and Reimer of Zwetter, assembled at 
 the Wartburg for the great and grand contest in poetry and 
 song. This contest would have become a bloody one, had not 
 the teeling heart of the Landgravine led her to interpose be- 
 tween the contestants and to reconcile them. A fine painting 
 of this contest hangs on the wall in the large and grand hall 
 in which it took place. 
 
 Wartburg was also the home of the sainted Elizabeth, con- 
 sort of Landgrave Ludwig, the son and successor of Land- 
 grave Herrman above mentioned. She was the daughter of 
 Andrew IL King of Hungary, and a lady of extraordinary 
 beauty, grace and benevolence, and was dearly beloved by her 
 husband. Although yet young in years, during the absence of 
 her husband in the wars, and when famine and pestilence raged 
 in Thuringia, she was the benefactress of her subjects, and was 
 untiring in her labors and charities for the welfare of her peo- 
 ple, visiting them constantly in person, whilst clad in a homely 
 garb, establishing also a number of hospitals for the benefit of 
 the sick, often feeding the hungry with her own hands. In 
 the year 1227, her husband, who took an active part in the 
 crusades, died near Otranto on the way to the Holy Land. 
 And now she was driven as an exile from her beautiful home 
 by her brother-in-law, who endeavored to deprive her of her 
 husband's estate ; when she herself had to suffer great priva- 
 tions and actual want. She died before she reached her twen- 
 ty-fourth year, leaving four children, — but not before she was 
 
16 
 
 reinstated in lier rights and possessions. Only four years 
 elapsed after her death when she was sainted by Pope Greg- 
 ory IX. On the walls of the Elizabethan passage-way in the 
 castle her numerous deeds of charity are painted in fresco, to 
 be held in sacred remembrance. 
 
 I was not prepared to see this castle of the olden time kept 
 in such excellent state of preservation, nor that its princely 
 rooms and chapel are so magnificent ; no doubt much money 
 is spent upon it annually to arrest the progi'ess of decay which 
 time always effects. Here I first saw a draw-bridge and port- 
 cullis at the entrance of a castle, and the two ponderous gates 
 that shut out all who are not allowed to enter. How difficult 
 it must have been to take such a castle by storm in ancient 
 times and modes of warfare ! 
 
 But we must not forget Luther in connection with the 
 Wartburg castle. His room, which he occupied under the 
 assumed name of Knight George, and where he translated the 
 Bible, is still as he left it. It is a rough-looking room com- 
 pared with the elegant halls and apartments in the other parts 
 of the castle. It has a book-case fastened to the wall, and 
 around it are hung his own portrait, those of his parents, and 
 also the portraits of some of his friends. Underneath the 
 book-case stands his table, having a writing-case and a few 
 books placed upon the top ; close by the table is a wooden 
 arm-chair and a vertebral section of a whale, which served 
 him as a foot-stool. This, with a tile-stove, is all the furni- 
 ture of which the room can boast. 
 
 It is commonly reported and generally beheved, though I 
 have nowhere seen it in print, not even in the voluminous 
 writings of Luther, that on one occasion, whilst Luther was 
 busily engaged in translating the Bible, and in the dead hour 
 of night, his Satanic Majesty made his appearance in this 
 room, to frighten Luther from his purpose of performing the 
 work he had undertaken. Nothing daunted, Luther took 
 up his inkstand and hurled it at the devil, who, being an 
 immaterial personage, allowed the inkstand to reach the wall 
 
17 
 
 of the room, and consequently left or made a large ink-spot 
 there. Well, this ink-spot has been cut out bj relic hunters 
 by thousands of pieces, and though constantly renewed by 
 the inmates of the castle for many years, was nevertheless 
 always chipped away, until at length an unsightly hole in the 
 wall is all that is left of that famous ink-spot, the inmates 
 having ceased to purchase any more ink for that purpose, but 
 have also left the wall in its present unrepaired condition. 
 
 I must yet mention that the Wartburg castle is near the 
 town of Eisenach, the nearest railroad station, and a beautiful 
 macadamized road leads up the mountain very near to the 
 castle. And as we ascend to the castle from Eisenach we have to 
 pass by the beautiful villa residence of Fritz Renter, the witty 
 writer of Germany, in the low-country language ot North 
 Germany, better known as Plattdeutsch. Fritz Renter is 
 numbered with the dead, but his widow is still living, and I 
 saw her taking her usual walk in the garden as I drove past 
 the villa in the carriage that took me to the castle. 
 
 There are other localities noted in the history of the Refor- 
 mation, such as Eisleben, Leipzig, Gotha, and particularly 
 Augsburg, where the Augsbuig Confession was delivered ; but 
 as, with the exception of Leipzig, I have not visited those 
 places personally, I am not able to give you a proper description 
 of them. These, however, as described, are the most cele^ 
 brated localities in the life and labors of the great Reformer. 
 
 A full description of my visit to Leipzig would be too 
 lengthy for the intent of this lecture ; there are many historic 
 recollections that cluster around this city ; it is noted chiefly 
 for its battles, the last of which was fought with Napoleon I. 
 Emperor of France, October 18, 1813, and a fearfully bloody 
 battle it proved to be, which served to break the power of 
 Napoleon and hastened his downfall. The University of 
 Leipzig is one of the largest and most famous in Germany, and 
 has nearly as many professors and students as the one of Ber- 
 lin. In the history of the Reformation Leipzig is noted for 
 the public disputation between Dr.. Luther and Dr. Eck ; it 
 
18 
 
 took place in the castle and lasted several days, during the 
 month of July, 1519, and the only result that this theological 
 dispute effected was the issuing of the Pope's bull of excom- 
 munication against Luther, as before mentioned. 
 
 This city is also the most extensive book market in Ger- 
 many, if not the largest in the world ; the publishing houses 
 in Leipzig are of the most colossal order, far exceeding any- 
 thing of the kind in England and America. 
 
 Before concluding these remarks, I desire you to accompany 
 me in my visit to the monuments of three noted men, who at 
 those places laid down their lives in testimony of the truth, 
 although neither of them are buried there, nor were either 
 of them cotemporaries of Luther; two of them lived a cen- 
 tury before the great Eeformer, and the other a century after 
 him ; and yet we cannot well separate their names from the 
 work of the Eeformation. 
 
 I paid a little extra money to go out of my way to the city 
 of Constance, situated on a lake of the same name, one of the 
 largest lakes of Switzerland, although the city itself belongs 
 to Germany. It is made famous in history chiefly for the 
 Council of Constance, which condemned those noble men of 
 God of the fifteenth century — John Huss and Jerome of 
 Prague, who both suffered martyrdom at the stake in this 
 city, and their ashes were thrown into the river Ehine. 
 The place of execution is a short distance out of the city, and 
 an immense rock boulder has been placed there to the memory 
 of those noble martyrs bearing the following inscriptions : 
 
 JoHif Huss, t July 6 (14), 1415. 
 On the opposite side of the rock : 
 
 Jerome of Prague, t May 30th (7th of June), 1416. 
 The double dates of the days are made to shoAv the difference 
 of time-reckoning, for at that time the present Gregorian 
 system of computing time was not yet introduced. Then the 
 difterence was but eight days, now it is eleven days, between 
 old style and new style. The t is an ancient way of indicating 
 the departure of a Christian from this life. On the day when 
 
19 
 
 Huss was executed, and at this place, he made this remark- 
 able prophecy : " My name is Huss, which signifies a goose ; 
 you are about to roast only a goose to-day, but a hundred 
 years later there will arise a swan, which you can neither roast 
 nor fry." About a hundred and two years from that date 
 Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses upon the door 
 of the castle church of Wittenberg ; and even before that time 
 he had been preaching against the sale of indulgences. 
 
 I also visited, in this city, the magnificent cathedral where 
 the Council of Constance held its sessions which condemned 
 Huss and his friend. P^verywhere placards are stuck up, 
 printed in German, English, French and Italian, begging 
 persons to donate something for the repairs of the cathedral. 
 1 certainly did not comply with that request, and would not 
 have even entered the building, were it not that as a historical 
 monument it is not devoid of interest to visitors. 
 
 Constance is situated at that part of the lake where its 
 waters flow into the river Rhine ; at that very place is the 
 bridge over the Ehine, very near where John Huss was in- 
 carcerated so many months before his final condemnation. 
 The prison stood on an island in the lake, and the lake, the 
 island, the river, the bridge over it, all come near together at 
 this point. The prison is no more, but an extensive hotel 
 occupies its site, called the " Island Hotel." One passes by it 
 on the railroad going from Constance to Schaflhausen. 
 
 The second railroad station from Leipzig on the way to 
 Erfurt is Markranstedt. Here I stopped to visit the place 
 where Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, fell at the battle 
 of Luetzen, in the Thirty Years war. I walked to the spot — 
 about four miles—much further than I was informed, but I 
 was w«ll repaid for my exertion, for my walk was on a macad- 
 amized road, through meadows and grain-fields, with beautiful 
 flowers and numerous cherry trees loaded with ripe fruit on 
 both sides of the road. I passed through two little villages 
 and by several large wind-mills before I reached the " Swede's 
 Stone," for thus is the monument called. It stands close by 
 
20 
 
 the roadside and in view of the town or village of Luetzen, 
 about fifteen minutes walk from the town. A shady retreat 
 surrounds the monument. Under an iron canopy of fine 
 workmanship, with a blue-colored dome, studded with star- 
 shaped holes, stands a rough stone, brought here by the 
 Swedes, and inscribed with the initials " G. A." and the date, 
 " 1632." So insignificant, plain and small is this stone, that 
 no one would even have dreamed that this is the monument 
 for the good and great General of the Thirty Years war, who 
 lost his life at this very place, in the battle of Luetzen, strug- 
 gling for the religious liberty of the world. But the iron 
 canopy over this stone has made it now sufficiently prominent 
 to arrest attention, and to do honor to the memory of one of 
 the noblest and greatest of mankind. This canopy has the 
 following inscriptions : First, on the side fronting the road, 
 "Here fell Gustavus Adolphus, on the 6th of November, 
 1632." Secondly, to the right and fronting Luetzen: " Because 
 my lord fighteth the battles of the Lord "—1 Sam. 25:28. 
 Thirdly, and opposite the front side : " For God hath not 
 given us the spirit of fear ; but of power, and of love, and of a 
 sound mind." — 1 Tim. 1:7. Fourthly, on the side to the left 
 of the front : " And this is the victory that overcometh the 
 world, even our faith." — 1 John 5:4. 
 
 There is also a stone, or rock, lying on the ground in the 
 rear of the canopy, seemingly very old, which I regard as the 
 first memorial placed upon this spot, bearing this inscription : 
 " Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, fell here, in the 
 struggle for religious liberty, on the 6th of ITovember, 1632." 
 I would therefore judge, that at first the Germans set up 
 this stone, then came the Swedes and brought a stone from 
 their country, inscribed as aforesaid : " G. A., 1632," and " in 
 1838," says Murray — ^but I rather suppose 1832, the two hun- 
 dredth anniversary of the death of Gustavus Adolphus — the 
 Germans honored the place still more by erecting an iron 
 Gothic canopy over the " Swede's Stone," and just in front of 
 the old stone placed there first by the Germans. 
 
21 
 
 The royal remains of Gustavus Adolphus, which were em- 
 balmed, did not reach their last resting place in Stockholm 
 until more than a year after the king's death at Luetzen, 
 when they were deposited in a mausoleum prepared for them. 
 
 In conclusion, permit me to exhort you to remain true to 
 the principles of the Eefbrmation ; never exchange your 
 heir-loom of civil and religious freedom for any price ; these 
 are gacred rights that cost your forefathers much labor and 
 rivers of blood to secure for themselves and their descendants. 
 Never permit a fallible human being to usurp the throne of 
 your conscience, nor to dictate to you how to worship God. 
 Eemember always with gratitude the heroic deeds of your an- 
 cestors in struggling for these inalienable rights ; commemo- 
 rate with joy their history, their labors and their martyr's 
 crown, by recounting and teaching these things to your chil- 
 dren, as did the ancient Jews ; and you need not fear that your 
 posterity will so easily depart from the faith and principles of 
 their forefathers. And should ever another bloody struggle for 
 civil and religious hberty arise, which may God forbid, and 
 our now favored land be the theatre of that war, you will 
 have the satisfaction of being assured that your descendants 
 will be found in the ranks of those who fear not to do right, 
 and who will not permit any one to despoil them of their 
 crown. 
 
NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS. 
 
 This lecture was hurriedly prepared amidst the press of other labors, 
 without any view to its publication, simply for an evening's entertain- 
 ment for the author's congregation and friends. Contrary to his expec- 
 tations, the audience was so large as to necessitate his repeating the lec- 
 ture in accordance with the request of numerous persons, who could not 
 obtain even standing room in the church ; this will explain the double 
 dates on the title page ; and even on that occasion the church was filled 
 the second time. Then came quite unexpectedly the request for the 
 publication of the lecture, and no time was left to devote to its critical 
 preparation for the press, which will explain any deficiency that may be 
 apparent and the error that inadvertently crept in on page 4, fourth line, 
 where instead of "peace at Augsburg," it should read " peace of West- 
 phalia." 
 
 2. The statement on page 6, which the principal of the Martinsstift at 
 Erfurt made, that Luther first saw and read the Bible in the cloister, is 
 not without authority, as the reader can discover by referring to Lather's 
 Works, Walch's edition, Yol. XXIY., page 71, foot-note a, where men- 
 tion is made that such is the general impression, but gives good reasons 
 why it should be stated, that the finding and reading of the Bible by Lu- 
 ther occurred in the library of the university of Erfurt. D'Aubigne, 
 Meurer, Gelzer, Mathesius and others also place that occurrence in the 
 university library, which occurrence the poet Montgomery has immor- 
 talized in the following verse : 
 
 " That moment was the Reformation's seed : 
 That volume, then, the universe outweigh 'd 
 In mental preciousness, and moral power ! 
 Eor, in its pages slept those living germs 
 Of principle, from out whose depths have sprung 
 The faith and freedom of a Christian world. " 
 
 3. On the same page it is stated, that Luther found the Bible fastened 
 to its shelf by a chain ; this fact is substantiated in Prof. Loy's transla- 
 tion of Tick's "Life and Deeds of Dr. Martin Luther," page 31, as fol- 
 lows : " When Luther had entered the monastery he asked for a Bible, 
 and the monks gave him one. It was bound in red leather and fastened 
 to a chain. He read it so eagerly that he knew the page and position of 
 
23 
 
 each passage. The whole day was sometimes spent in reflection upon an 
 important sentence." 
 
 4. The transcript on pages 8 and 9, from the author's sermon on " The 
 Success of God's Work," published in 1870, was made to explain the 
 I^inety-five Theses, as requested to be done in the repetition of this lec- 
 ture, several persons not being in possession of the facts explanatory of 
 this first act of Luther in the work of the great Reformation. 
 
 5. It is proper also to mention, that in the delivery of the lecture the 
 branch of the "Luther-oak," which was plucked by the author as a me- 
 mento, was exhibited to the public during the lecture ; in like manner, 
 also, was a large photograph view of the Luther monument at Worms 
 presented to view, and at the close of the lecture many photograph stere- 
 oscopic views of Eisenach, Wartburg Castle, Wittenberg, the "Swede's 
 Stone," near Luetzen, and the Huss Monument at Constance, were also 
 shown to those who desired to remain and see them.