Luther, vol. 5 of 6

by Hartmann Grisar

Further details regarding the Fate of the Works of Art and of Art itself

The account already given above of the squandering and destruction of ecclesiastical works of art, in particular of the valuable images of the Saints in the towns of Meissen and Wurzen,[759] may be supplemented by the reports from Erfurt of the damage done there at the coming of the religious innovations; we must also bear in mind, that the suppression of Catholic worship in this town which looms so large in Luther’s life, took place under his particular influence and with the co-operation of preachers receiving their instructions from Wittenberg.

Before the lawless peasants entered the town on April 28, 1525, the Council had already “taken into safe custody” the treasures of the churches and monasteries; chalices and other vessels of precious metal were on this occasion carried away in “tubs and trogs,” and eventually the public funds were enriched with the profit derived from their sale.[760]

Amongst the objects taken, were: a silver censer in the shape of a small boat, the silver caskets containing the heads of Saints Severus, Vincentia and Innocentia, the silver reliquary with the bones of SS. Eobanus and Adolarius in which they were carried in solemn procession every seven years. This art-treasure which belonged to St. Mary’s, was, not long after, melted down by the town-council when pressed for money, “and cast into bars which were taken to the mint at Weimar.” The silver pennies minted from them were later on called coffin pennies. Other valuables which the Council had taken in charge were put up for auction secretly, without their owners learning anything of the matter. “The prebendaries were well-justified in urging,” writes the Protestant historian who has collected these data, “as against these high-handed proceedings that the Council should first have laid hands on the valuables belonging to the burghers, or at the very least have summoned the rightful owners to be present at the sale of their property, in order that they might make a note of the prices obtained and thus be able to claim compensation later. The Council suffered a moral set-back, while at the same time reaping no appreciable material advantage.”[761]

Not only the Council but the peasants too, led by the Lutheran preachers, were greatly to blame for the destruction of art treasures wrought at Erfurt in that same year. When, in order to put an end to the rule over the town of the Elector, Albert of Brandenburg, they stormed the so-called Mainzer Hof at Erfurt, “all the jewels, gold, silver and valuable household stuff were carried off.” Shortly after “the peasants, thanks to their sharpness, managed to unearth a pastoral staff in silver, worth 300 florins [in the then currency], which had been concealed in the privy attached to the room of the master cook to save it from the greed of the robbers.”[762] At the Mainzer Hof they removed all monumental tablets, pictures and statues as well as the elaborate coats of arms bearing witness to the Archbishop’s sovereignty. A stone effigy of St. Martin which stood in front of the Rathaus and the ancient symbols of the sovereignty of Mayence were pulled down and smashed to bits. In place of these they scrawled on the new stone edifice which had been erected there another coat of arms in chalk and charcoal, having a plough, coulter and hoe in the shield and in the field a horse-shoe. “During all this Adolarius Huttner [with Eberlin of Günzburg, the apostate Franciscan] and other Lutheran preachers were going to and fro amongst them.” The whole row of priests’ houses standing alongside the torrent was searched and the valuables plundered.[763]

“The people of Erfurt did almost as much damage as the peasants.”[764]

As a matter of fact the citizens frequently outdid the agricultural population in this work of destruction. The chronicles of the times relate, that they broke down the walls of the vaults of the two collegiate churches in hopes of finding hidden treasure behind them, and, then, in their disappointment, sacrilegiously tore open the tabernacles, threw the holy oils to the dogs and treated the things in the churches in such a manner as is “heartrending beyond description.” The mob destroyed not merely the books and parchments in which their obligations were recorded, but a number of others of importance for literature and learning were also wantonly spoiled.

From another contemporary source we have the following on the destruction of the old writings: “And besides all this on St. Walpurgis Day in the Lauwengasse the peasants and those who were with them tore up more than two waggonloads of books, and threw them out of the houses into the street. These the burgher folk carried home in large baskets. While gathering up the torn books as best they could, putting them into baskets and binding them with ropes as one does straw, a whirlwind sprang up and lifted the torn books, letters and papers high into the air and over all the houses, so that many of them were afterwards found sticking to the poles in the vineyards.”[765]

In very many instances, particularly during the Peasant War, the destruction and scattering of ecclesiastical works of art went much beyond Luther’s injunctions. We shall hear him protest, that many were good Evangelicals only so long as there were still chalices, monstrances and monkish vessels to be had.[766] It was naturally a very difficult task to check the greed of gain and wanton love of destruction once this had broken loose, particularly after the civil authorities had tasted the sweets to be derived from the change of religion, and after the peasants in the intoxication of their newly found freedom of the Gospel, and in their lust for plunder, had begun to lay violent hands on property.