OUT OF THE MONASTERY INTO THE CONFLICT.
(about 1522.)
The storm broke loose; it convulsed the whole nation as with electric fire: the words of the Augustine of Wittenburg rolled through the land like peals of thunder, and every clap betokened an advance and a victory. Even now, after three centuries and a half, this prodigious movement has an irresistible fascination for the German people. Never, from its first existence, had the nation revealed its innermost being so touchingly and grandly. All the fine qualities of the German mind and character burst forth at this time; enthusiasm, self-devotion, a deep moral indignation, an intense pleasure in systematic thought, and an inward seeking after the highest. Every individual took his share in the strife. The travelling trader over the fire at night contended for or against the indulgences, the countryman in the most remote villages heard with astonishment of the new heretic whom his spiritual father cursed in every sermon, and the women of the villages no longer gave willingly to the mendicant monks. A sea of small literature overflowed the country, a hundred printing-presses were in activity, spreading abroad the numerous controversial writings, both learned and popular; parties raged in every cathedral and parish church; everywhere men of resolute character amongst the ecclesiastics declared themselves for the new doctrines, whilst the weaker ones struggled with timid doubts; the doors of the monasteries were opened, and the cells soon became empty. Every month brought to the people something new and unheard of.
It was no longer a quarrel between priests, as Hutten had in the beginning contemptuously called the dispute between the Wittenberger and Tetzel; it had become a war of the nation against the Romish supremacy and its supporters. Ever more powerfully rose the image of Luther before his cotemporaries. Banished, cursed, persecuted by Pope and Emperor, by princes and high ecclesiastics, he became in four short years the idolized hero of the people. His journey to Worms was described in the style of the Holy Scriptures, and the over-zealous placed him on a footing with the martyrs of the New Testament.[[24]] The learned also felt themselves irresistibly drawn into the struggle; even Erasmus smiled approbation, and Hutten's soul fired up in the cause of the new teacher, he no longer wrote in Latin, but broke forth in German, more stormy and wild than the Wittenberger, with a fire that consumed himself, the knight fought his last fight for the peasant's son.
The man on whom for half a generation the highest feelings of his nation were concentrated, now enters upon the scene. Yet before we endeavour to understand his mind, it is well to point out, shortly, how his peculiar character worked upon impartial cotemporaries. We first take the witness of a moderate and truthful mind, who never personally knew Luther, and who later, in a middle position between the Wittenberger and the Swiss reformer, had reason to be dissatisfied with Luther's stubbornness. Ambrosius Blaurer, born in Constance, of noble family, was a brother of the old Benedictine monastery of Alpirsbach, in the wildest part of the Black Forest; he was afterwards a writer of sacred poetry, and at the time we are speaking of, thirty years old. He had left the cloister in 1523, and fled to his family. At the instigation of his Abbot, the Stadtholder of the principality of Würtemberg demanded that he should be sent back to the monastery by the Burgomaster and council of Constance. Blaurer published a defence, from which the following is taken. He became shortly after a preacher in Constance, and on the restoration of Duke Ulrich, one of the reformers of Würtemberg, and died at a great age at Winterthur. What he praises and blames in Luther may be considered as the general view of his character taken at that time by earnest minds.
"I call God and my own conscience to witness that no wilfulness or frivolous motive drove me out of the monastery, or excited me to abandon it. Vulgar rumour reports, that monks and nuns have left their convents on account of their aversion to its tranquil life, and that they might live in carnal freedom, and give vent to their wilfulness and worldly desires. But I was actuated by honourable and weighty reasons, and great troubles and urgings of conscience, on account of the word of God. I hope that all the circumstances of my departure will show neither levity, wantonness, nor unseemly purpose? I laid aside neither cowl nor capouch except for a few days after my departure for my greater security, till I had reached my place of refuge. I neither left to fight, nor to carry away a pretty wife, but I went forthwith as quickly as I could to my much loved mother and relations, who are undoubted Christians, and are held in such honour and esteem in the city of Constance, that it is certain they would never counsel or help me in any unworthy undertaking.
"Therefore I trust that my previous conduct and course of life will relieve me from any suspicion of unseemly or wilful intentions; for although I may not boast myself before God, yet I may before men glory in the Lord, that I, whether in the cloister or the school, here, and wherever I have been, have retained a good repute and esteem, with much love and favour, on account of my uprightness. You yourselves have heard the messengers from Würtemberg acknowledge that there was no complaint or evil report of my conduct or manner of life at the monastery of Alpirsbach, but that I have behaved myself well and piously; all they can say against me is, that I have concerned myself too much with what they call the seductive and cursed teaching of Martin Luther, whose writings I have read and adhered to, and preached them, contrary to the command of the abbot, publicly to the laity in the monastery; and when this was forbidden me, I yet continued secretly, and as it were in a corner, to infuse them into the souls of some of the young gentlemen there. With such praise from my fathers and brethren I am well content, and can justify myself for this one misdeed, as a Christian, from the word of God, and I hope that my defence will serve to remove false and ungrounded suspicions, not only from me, but also from others.
"When in the course of the last year, the works and opinions of Martin Luther were spread abroad and became known, they came into my hands before they had been condemned and forbidden by the ecclesiastical and lay authorities; and like other newly printed works, I saw and read them. In the beginning, these doctrines appeared to me somewhat strange and objectionable, and contrary to the long-established theology and clever teaching of the schools, in opposition also to the papal and ecclesiastical rights, and to the old, and, as I then considered them, praiseworthy customs and usages of our forefathers. But it was not less evident to me that this man interspersed everywhere in his teaching clear and distinct passages from the Holy Scriptures, according to which all human teaching ought to be guided and judged, accepted or rejected. I was much amazed, and stirred up to read these doctrines, not once or twice, but frequently, with much industry and earnest attention, and to weigh and compare them with the evangelical writings to which they constantly appealed. The longer I did this, the more I perceived with what great dignity the Holy Scriptures were treated by this learned and enlightened man,--how purely and delicately he handled them, how cleverly and well he everywhere brought them forward, how skilfully he compared and weighed them one with the other, and how he explained the dark and difficult texts, by bringing forward others that were clearer and more comprehensible. I saw also that there was great mastership in his treatment of the Scriptures, and that it afforded the most substantial aid to a right understanding of them, so that every intelligent layman who industriously studied his books, could distinctly perceive that these doctrines were true and Christian, and had the firmest foundation. On that account they impressed themselves on my mind, and deeply touched my heart: it was to me as if a veil had fallen from before my eyes; I felt they were in no wise to be distrusted, like those of so many other school teachers that I had formerly read, because their aim was neither dominion, fame, nor worldly enjoyment, but to place before us, only the poor, despised, and crucified Christ, and to teach us to live a pure, moderate, and sober life, conformable in all things to the doctrine of Christ; and they were therefore too hard and self-denying for the ambitious and many beneficed priests and doctors, puffed up with pride and vain glory, who sought in the Scriptures their own honour and fame, more than the Spirit of God. Therefore would I rather give up all my worldly means and life itself, than be deprived of them, not for the sake of Luther, who, except as he appears in his writings, is unknown to me, and being only a man, may, like other men, be in error; but for the sake of the word of God, which he holds so clearly and distinctly, and explains so victoriously and triumphantly from the fullness of his undaunted spirit.
"The enemy endeavoured to embitter this honey to us by representing that Luther was testy and irritable, aggressive and sarcastic; that he attacked his opponents the great princes and ecclesiastical and lay lords, with audacity; had recourse to abuse and slander, and forgot all brotherly love and Christian moderation. He had, it is true, often displeased me by this, and I would not desire any one to do the like; but I could not on that account reject and cast aside his good Christian teaching, nor even condemn him in these respects; and for this reason, that I could not read his mind, nor the secret counsels of God, as perhaps it might be the means of drawing people from his teaching. And as it was not his own cause, but the divine word that he defended, much allowance should be made for him, and all should be attributed to zealous indignation for God. Even Christ, the source and pattern of all meekness, severely rebuked before others the stubborn and stony-hearted Pharisees, and called them false hypocrites, painted sepulchres, sons of harlots, blind leaders of the blind, and also the children of the devil, as may be seen in the gospels. (Matt. xii. 15, 23; John viii.) Perhaps Luther would gladly speak well of many if he could do so with truth; he may not think it fitting to call those who are in darkness, enlightened; nor rapacious wolves, good shepherds; nor the unmerciful, merciful; for without doubt, had God not been more merciful to him than they have been, he would not now be upon earth. But however this may be, I will not defend him in this place, but laying aside his expressions of contempt and abuse, accept with thankfulness the earnestness of his valiant Christian writings for our amendment.
"As I openly persevered in what I had undertaken advisedly, and would not desist at the bidding of any one, being bound as a Christian not to do so, the displeasure of my superior at Alpirsbach, and certain others of the monastery, greatly increased, and the sword of God's anger began to cause division and discord between the brothers. I was peremptorily ordered to abstain from my undertaking, and also not to speak of these matters with others; but as I could not do this, being bound to yield obedience to God's commands, rather than to those of man, I earnestly begged of my Abbot and monastery, that they would graciously give me leave of absence. I wished for a year or two to support myself at some school or elsewhere, without being any expense to the monastery, and perhaps in the mean while, by a godly examination of the cause of our discord, it might be brought to a peaceable end.