A History of Germany from the Earliest Times to the Present Day

by Bayard Taylor

The stand which Luther had taken against the rebellion preserved the friendship of those princes who were well-disposed towards him, but he took no part in the measures of defence against the Imperial and Papal power, which they were soon compelled to adopt. He devoted himself to the completion of his translation of the Bible, in which he was faithfully assisted by Melanchthon and others. In this great work he accomplished even more than a service to Christianity; he created the modern German language. Before his time, there had been no tongue which was known and accepted throughout the whole Empire. The poets and minstrels of the Middle Ages wrote in Suabian; other popular works were in low-Saxon, Franconian or Alsatian. The dialect of Holland and Flanders had so changed that it was hardly understood in Germany; that of Brandenburg and the Baltic provinces had no literature as yet, and the learned or scientific works of the time were written in Latin.

No one before Luther saw that the simplest and most expressive qualities of the German language must be sought for in the mouths of the people. With all his scholarship, he never used the theological style of writing, but endeavored to express himself so that he could be clearly understood by all men. In translating the Old Testament, he took extraordinary pains to find words and phrases as simple and strong as those of the Hebrew writers. He frequented the market-place, the merry-making, the house of birth, marriage or death, to learn how the common people expressed themselves in all the circumstances of life. He enlisted his friends in the same service, begging them to note down for him any peculiar, characteristic phrase; "for," said he, "I cannot use the words heard in castles and courts." Not a sentence of the Bible was translated until he had found the best and clearest German expression for it. He wrote, in 1530: "I have exerted myself, in translating, to give pure and clear German. And it has verily happened, that we have sought and questioned a fortnight, three, four weeks, for a single word, and yet it was not always found. In Job, we so labored, Philip Melanchthon, Aurogallus and I, that in four days we sometimes barely finished three lines."

1525. LUTHER'S MARRIAGE.

Pope Leo X. died in 1521, and was succeeded by Adrian VI., the last German who wore the Papal crown. He admitted many of the corruptions of the Roman Church, and seemed inclined to reform them; but he only lived two years, and his successor was Clement VII., a nephew of Leo. The latter induced Ferdinand of Austria, the Dukes of Bavaria and several Bishops to unite in a league for suppressing the spread of Luther's doctrines. Thereupon the Elector John of Saxony (Frederick the Wise having died in 1525), Philip of Hesse, Albert of Brandenburg, the Dukes of Brunswick and Mecklenburg, the Counts of Mansfeld and Anhalt and the city of Magdeburg formed a counter-alliance at Torgau, in 1526. At the Diet held in Speyer the same year, the party of the Reformation was so strong that no decree against it could be passed; the question was left free.

The organization of the Christian Church which was by this time adopted in Saxony, soon spread over all Northern Germany. Its principal features were: the abolition of the monastic orders and of priestly celibacy; divine service in the language of the country; the distribution of the Bible, in German, to all persons; the communion in both forms, for laymen; and the instruction of the people and their children in the truths of Christianity. The former possessions of the Church were given up to the State, and Luther, against Melanchthon's advice, even insisted on uniting the episcopal authority with the political, in the person of the reigning prince. He set the example of giving up priestly celibacy, by marrying, in 1525, Catharine von Bora, a nun of a noble family. This step created a great sensation; even many of Luther's friends condemned his course, but he declared that he was right, and he was rewarded by twenty-one years of unalloyed domestic happiness.

The Emperor Charles V., during all these events, was absent from Germany. His first war with France was brought to a conclusion by the battle of Pavia, in February, 1525, when Francis I. was obliged to surrender, and was sent as a prisoner to Madrid. But having purchased his freedom the following year, by giving up his claims to Italy, Burgundy and Flanders, he no sooner returned to France than he recommenced the war,—this time in union with Pope Clement VII., who was jealous of the Emperor's increasing power in Italy. The old knight George von Frundsberg and the Constable de Bourbon—a member of the royal family of France, who had gone over to Charles V.'s side,—then united their forces, which were principally German, and marched upon Rome. The city was taken by storm, in 1527, terribly ravaged and the Pope made prisoner. Charles V. pretended not to have known of or authorized this movement; he liberated the Pope, who promised, in return, to call a Council for the Reformation of the Church. The war continued, however,—Venice, Genoa and England being also involved—until 1529, when it was terminated by the Peace of Cambray.

1529.

Charles V. and the Pope then came to an understanding, in virtue of which the former was crowned king of Lombardy and Emperor of Rome in Bologna, in 1530, and bound himself to extirpate the doctrines of Luther in Germany. In Austria, Bavaria and Würtemberg, in fact, the persecution had already commenced: many persons had been hanged or burned at the stake for professing the new doctrines. Ferdinand of Austria, who had meanwhile succeeded to the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary, was compelled to call a Diet at Speyer, in 1529, to take measures against the Turks, then victorious in Transylvania and a great part of Hungary; a majority of Catholics was present, and they passed a decree repeating the outlawry of Luther and his doctrines by the Diet of Worms. Seven reigning princes, headed by Saxony, Brandenburg and Hesse, and fifteen imperial cities, joined in a solemn protest against this measure, asserting that the points in dispute could only be settled by a universal Council, called for the purpose. From that day, the name of "Protestants" was given to both the followers of Luther, and the Swiss Reformers, under the lead of Zwingli.

The history of the Reformation in Switzerland cannot be here given. It will be enough to say that Zwingli, who was born in the Canton of St. Gall, in 1484, resembled Luther in his purity of character, his earnest devotion to study, and the circumstance that his ideas of religious reform were derived from an intimate knowledge of the Bible. It was the passionate desire of Philip of Hesse that both branches of the Protestants should become united, in order to be so much the stronger to meet the dangers which all felt were coming. Luther, who labored and prayed to prevent the struggle from becoming political, and who had opposed even the league of the Protestant princes at Torgau, in 1526, was with difficulty induced to meet Zwingli. He was still busy with his translation of the Bible, with the preparation of a Catechism for the people, a collection of hymns to be used in worship, and other works necessary to the complete organization of the Protestant Church.

1539. MEETING OF LUTHER AND ZWINGLI.