LUTHER.

[Continued from Page 209.]

THE Reformer at once beguiled the tediousness of his solitude, and relieved the apprehensions of his partisans for his personal safety, by composing and issuing several treatises. One was on the abuse of private confession; another, against private masses; a third, on the evil of monastic vows, particularly as regarding celibacy; a fourth, in reply to Latome, a divine of Louvain, an opposer of his sentiments, and calumniator of his principles; besides epistles to many trusty friends and intimates, to comfort them during his absence. But his chief employ was a translation of the New Testament into German. He diligently studied the Greek and Hebrew languages to qualify him for his important undertaking, and in prospect of its difficulties observes, in a letter to Amsdorff, Rector of the University at Wittenberg: "I find I have engaged in a work which is above my strength. I shall not touch the Old Testament till I can have the assistance of yourself and my other friends at Wittenberg. If it were possible that I could be with you, and remain undiscovered in a snug chamber, I would come; and there, with your help, would translate the whole from the beginning, that at length there might be a ver

JULY 1823.

sion of the Bible fit for Christians to read. This would be a great work, of immense consequence to the public, and worthy of all our labours." How interesting, to peruse in our day this pious and humble language of a great mind, conceiving a project which was to strike the grand blow against the empire of Satan, and form the staple of that holy commerce which was to be carried on between England and Germany in the nineteenth century, under the auspices of the British and Foreign Bible Society!

He called his retreat his Patmos. By this term, however, we are not to understand a state of exile, in any way assimilated to that endured by dured by the beloved disciple." Both, indeed, suffered for the word of the testimony, and both were comforted by the same Spirit. The son of Zebedee, on his desert rock, was visited with revelations of the triumph of the church over her enemies; and the Professor of Wittenberg, in his lone fortress, anticipated the downfall of superstition and error.

But while the former was banished through the enmity of a Domitian, the latter was removed to a temporary retreat by an act of amicable violence on the part of the Elector his patron, and not without the connivance, as it has been thought, of Charles himself. The change of situation was yet sufficiently irksome to a man of

I I

ceremony; permitting Dr. Clark the bearer, not only to kiss his hand but his cheek, and conferred on the writer the flattering title of "Defender of the Faith: " a title retained indeed by his successors, but in a different sense from that in which it was originally bestowed. Henry was much elated with this compliment; and it is said that Patch, the court jester, with his accustomed license, thus rebuked his young sovereign: "Prythee, good Harry, let thee and I defend one another, and leave the faith to defend itself!" Luther replied to the King in his usual undaunted manner; but some time after, fearing that his zeal had led him into expressions too harsh to be used towards a crowned head, and thinking perhaps that there was some justice in the advice of more gentleness urged upon him by the Elector, he sent an apology; but the offended monarch spurned the submission, and published the letter with his own answer, convince the world," as he said, "that the flattery of a paltry friar could not ensnare him, nor tempt him to retract what he had written, and knew to be right."

his diligent and active character: and though he was well supplied with the necessaries of life, and occasionally allowed to amuse himself with country sports, as hunting and fowling (for which purpose he was disguised in the dress of a layman, and bore the name of Yonker George), he could not but sensibly feel the loss of his friends and of his books. He was frequently depressed in spirit, and inconvenienced in body from change of diet and other circumstances. But at intervals he was cheered by intelligence of the progress of the work of reformation. The Augustinians of Wittenberg abolished private masses, and gave the cup as well as the bread to the laity in administering the sacrament of the Lord's supper; while at Zwickau, Nicholas Hausman and Frederick Myconius were preaching a purer doctrine; and at Friberg, Duke Henry of Saxony, with Catharine of Mecklenburg, his Duchess, manifested much attachment to evangelical truth. On the other hand, he could not hear without emotion, that the Parisian divines had published a solemn decree, condemn ing his opinions; and that Henry VIII. of England had sent out an answer to his writing on the Babylonish captivity: events which seemed to oppose serious obstacles to the reception of his principles in two powerful kingdoms.

The English monarch piqued himself on his scholastic learning, and affected peculiar veneration for Thomas Aquinas. Angry with Luther for treating his favourite author with contempt, and wishing to signalize himself as a literary disputant, as well as to obtain some mark of distinction from the Holy See, he commissioned an ecclesiastic to carry his book to Rome, and present it to the Pope. Leo, gratified by this mark of attention from his royal champion, received the volume, called a "Treatise on the seven Sacraments," with due

" to

In his reply to the Sorbonnists, the Reformer had the satisfaction of finding himself ably seconded by Melancthon. "I have seen,” said he, in a letter to Spalatinus, "the decree of the Parisian divines, and also the apology of my friend. From my heart I rejoice. Christ would never have so completely blinded their eyes, if he had not meant to defend his own cause, and put an end to the tyranny of his adversaries."

The irksomeness of his situation, the dangers that threatened the Protestant cause from powerful opposers or injudicious advocates, and the desire to finish his translation of the Scriptures, wrought at length so strongly on the mind of the detained, though not imprisoned Professor, that he thought

cesses.

There were also some fanatical persons, as Stork, Munzer, and others, who pretended to a special commission as prophets, but whose rashness could not be restrained by Melancthon and Hausman. A hope of correcting this impetuous spirit is supposed to have influenced the Professor in no slight degree in his determination to return, in which he was not disappointed, as his presence and expostulation had the effect of repressing their tumultuary proceedings.

He now applied himself with great assiduity to the work of translation, in which he was encouraged and aided by John Bugenhagen, Justus Jonas, Philip Melancthon, Matthew Aurogallus, and George Rorarius. Imagination pictures with delight this committee of pious scholars engaged in their hallowed task, whose detail forms so important a page in the history of Reformation. In 1523 they accomplished the first part, which embraced the Pentateuch; then a second, reaching from Joshua to Esther : in the following year they

proceeded with Job, the Psalms, and the three books of Solomon; it appears, however, that the portion of Job cost them more trouble than all the rest, on which subject Luther speaks thus pleasantly in a letter to Spalatinus, in March 1524: "We have such difficulty in rendering Job, on account of the excessive grandeur of his style, that, poor fellow, he seems more impatient of our translation than he was of the consolation of his friends, and is almost determined not to quit his dunghill! I won't say the writer of this book meant it should never he translated, but he certainly stops the press in this third part of our labours." A long period was consumed upon the prophets, the object of these worthy men being to render the work as familiar as possible. The Professor writes again to another friend: "How troublesome it is to make these Jewish writers talk in German, to force them to give up their Hebrew sublimity for Germanic barbarism! It is like asking the sweet nightingale to resign her elegant melody, and copy the monotonous, tiresome cuckoo!" It was not till 1.530 that the whole Bible appeared. Luther's anxiety that the translation should be well executed may be gathered from the following circumstances. He used to borrow jewels and stones from the court by means of Spalatinus, to compare their names and colours with those spoken of in Holy Writ; and also made diligent inquiry as to the titles given to wild beasts, birds, and reptiles. He was known to spend a whole month in ascertaining from workmen and tradespeople the signification of a particular word. Melancthon and Aurogallus, with himself, are reported to have toiled so hard on the book of Job, that they frequently wrote but three lines in four days, owing to their desire of accuracy, and extreme patience of investigation. The result, however,

of this labour was a version admired for its justness and clearness; which, though it certainly admitted of subsequent emendation, could not but challenge respect from every impartial reader.

Many bigoted Papists endeavoured to lower the value of this great work in the estimation of the public. They beheld with apprehension the eagerness with which the different parts of Scripture were read by all ranks of people, as they were published, not only in Germany, but in other countries, into whose languages and dialects they were rendered from the Lutheran version. The happy effects were soon visible. Men began to compare the instructions of the priests with the dictates of the Word of God; and found themselves enabled to judge of the received doctrines and established opinions, and to decide on their conformity or discrepancy to the divine oracles. The shades of error and mists of tradition were dispersed in various quarters by the orient beams of truth. At Nuremberg, at Frankfort, at Hamburg, and at several Imperial cities in Germany, the masses were abolished, the shrines deserted, crucifixes taken down, and relics dissipated. The Elector of Brandenburg, the Dukes of Brunswick and Lunenburg, the Prince of Anhalt, and other potentates, avowed their conviction of the orthodoxy of Luther's opinions, and patronized their promulgation in their respective territories.

In 1522, Adrian VI. succeeded to the pontificate. Soon after his accession he deliberated with the Cardinals on the best means of stopping the progress of Lutheranism, and it was decided that Francis Cheregato should be sent to advocate the cause of the Roman church at a Diet summoned at Nuremberg. In a brief addressed to the states of the Empire, he severely censured them for neglect

ing to execute the edict of Worms; exhorted them to endeavour to bring back Luther to the bosom of the church by moderate measures, but if these failed, to cut him off as a gangrened member. "Thus Almighty God caused the schismatical brethren, Dathan and Abiram, to go down alive into the pit, and to suffer capital punishment for their disobedience to the authority of the priesthood: thus Peter, the chief of the Apostles, denounced sudden death on Ananias and Sapphira for lying unto God: thus the ancient and pious emperors cut off Jovinian and Priscillian as heretics by the secular arm: thus St. Jerome desires Vigilantius to be delivered over to the destruction of the flesh, that his soul may be saved: thus, finally, your ancestors inflicted condign punishment at the Council of Constance on John Huss and Jerome of Prague, who now seem to be revived in the person of Luther, by whom they are held in the highest veneration *." At the same time he acknowledged, that the corruptions of the Roman court were the source of many of the evils which overspread the church, promised the exertion of his authority in the application of remedies, and requested the advice of the Germanic body.

It was favourable to the cause of the Reformers, that the Emperor, who had been a pupil of Adrian, was forced to absent himself in Spain at this juncture, and that the assembly was presided over by his brother Ferdinand. The princes, availing themselves of the acknowledgments of the Pope, proposed the assembling of a general council in Germany for the reformation of abuses; drew up a list of a hundred grievancest, pointing out the manner in which the ecclesiastical power enslaved the people, robbed them of their money, and en

Fasciculus Rerum expetund. fol. 172. + Ibid. 178.

croached on the jurisdiction of the civil magistrate; declared they would no longer tolerate such oppressions; and observed, with regard to Luther, that as his writings and discourses had opened the eyes of the people to these clerical abuses, they could not carry the edict into execution, without seeming to oppress the truth, extinguish the light of the Gospel, and afford a handle for discontent and rebellion. They offered to use their influence with the Elector of Saxony (who from age and infirmity, or a wish to avoid altercation, was absent from the meeting), to prevent the Lutherans from making new attacks against the church; but entreated Adrian to begin his promised reform as speedily as possible. Finally, they enjoined all persons to wait the determination of a free council, and to subject all publications to the revisal of scholars appointed by the magistracy; and declared, that as priests who had married, or monks who had quitted their convents, were not guilty of a civil crime, they were only liable to professional degra

dation.

Though Luther could not approve of the edict, and animadverted upon it in an address to the princes, he could not but perceive with real pleasure the advantages which had been gained on the whole by the proceedings at Nuremberg. The reforming preachers in general took courage, and considered themselves authorized to expound the Scriptures, and proclaim evangelic doctrine; and the married priests continued to receive the emoluments, and exercise the functions, of their cures. At the instance of the Saxon clergy, Luther now drew up a regular system of faith and discipline for their guidance, and the promotion of uniformity; he also translated the service into German, modified the form of the mass, and removed many superstitious observances. He

persuaded his friends to establish an annual committee for the management of church revenues. Under this judicious system, provision was made for the clergy, schools were supported, the sick and aged relieved, widows and orphans protected, sacred edifices repaired, and corn laid up in magazines against periods of scarcity. It is easy to conceive how much the Reformers must have gratified the commonalty by these proceedings; while the course they pursued, in acting rather by the tacit acquiescence than public, approbation of the Elector, was calculated to save him much inconvenient dispute with the neighbouring princes

*

The Diet, notwithstanding the general tenour of their edict, having commissioned Faber, Vicar of Constance, to oppose Lutheranism throughout Germany, and Emser, a Doctor of Leipsic, depreciating his scriptural translation, and opposing his tenets in the pulpit and the press, the Saxon champion of the Reformation had need of discretion on the one hand, and courage on the other, in the prosecution of his great work. "It is impossible," he writes to Spalatinus, "that I can be silent when the divine truth is in danger. To spread the Gospel is my only object. I never take up my pen to injure an individual. Faber has recently attacked my doctrines; Emser is about to publish something hostile. For me to pass by these things without notice would be to betray the truth: moreover, the late edict itself expressly provides against all attempts to obstruct the progress of the Gospel. For my part I have no fears. The doctrines which I teach I am sure are of God; and I am ready to suffer patiently on their account whatever it shall please him to inflict upon me."

*Du Pin, Ecc. Hist. B. ii. c. xv.; Beausobre, tom. iii. p. 12, 13.