Thus we see that the opposition between science and faith was already attracting attention, and the landgrave settled the question by excluding science and those learned in it, since they were not in agreement with the Scriptures; just as in other ages men would have theology and theologians set aside, since they were not in agreement with human learning. No one ought to teach in the schools of theology except in conformity with the Scriptures of God, the supreme authority in the Church. To disregard this principle is to take in hand to destroy the flock of God. The fanaticism of the School, however, cannot justify the fanaticism of the Church. It is a grave matter to banish science on account of the dangers to which it exposes us. To exclude the fire from the hearth for fear of conflagration would not be reasonable; far better to take the precautions which good sense points out for preventing the evil. If science and faith are to advance together without peril, it can only be brought about by the intervention of the moral principle. The existence of so-called freethinkers arises from a moral decay; certain excesses of an exaggerated orthodoxy may perhaps proceed from the same cause. A presumptuous and passionate haste, affirming and denying to the first comer, is a grave fault. How many times has it happened that some law, some fact proclaimed by science at one period as sufficient to convict the Scriptures of error, has had to be given up soon after by science herself as a mistake. But let religious men be on their guard against the indolence and the cowardice which would lead them to repulse science, out of fear lest she should remain mistress of the field of battle. By so doing they would deprive themselves of the weapons most serviceable for the defence of their treasures as well as of the most fitting occasions for spreading them abroad. Lambert did not go to such a length; but he was persuaded that unless a breath divine, coming from on high, give life to academical teaching, the university would be nothing more than a dead mechanism, and that science, instead of propagating a healthy and enlightened cultivation, would only darken and pervert men’s minds. This is surely a very reasonable and very practical thought, and it is to be regretted that it has not always regulated public instruction.
After the delivery of the inaugural discourses, the rector, Montanus, professor of Civil Law, opened the roll of the university, to enter in it the names of its members. Professors, pastors, state functionaries, nobles, foreigners, students, one hundred and ten persons in all, gave their names. The first to sign was the rector, the second was Lambert; then came Adam Crato, professor Ehrard Schnepf, one of the first Germans converted by Luther, Enricius Cordus, who had accompanied Luther to Worms, and Hermann von dem Busche, professor of Poetry and Eloquence. In a little while three young men of foreign aspect approached. The first of them signed his name thus: Patricius Hamilton, a Litgovien, Scotus, magister Parisiensis;[44] his two friends signed after him.
From that time the Frenchman and the Scotchman frequently studied the Holy Scriptures together, and with interest always new. The large acquaintance with the Word of God which Hamilton possessed, astonished Lambert: the freshness of his thoughts and of his imagination charmed him; the integrity of his character inspired a high esteem for him; his profound remarks on the Gospel edified him. A short time after this, the Frenchman, speaking to the landgrave Philip, said:—‘This young man, of the illustrious family of the Hamiltons, which is closely allied, by the ties of blood, to the king and the kingdom of Scotland,[45] who although hardly twenty-three years of age, brings to the study of Scripture a very sound judgment, and has a vast store of knowledge, is come from the end of the world, from Scotland, to your academy, in order to be more fully established in God’s truth. I have hardly ever met a man who expresses himself with so much spirituality and truth on the Word of the Lord.’ Such is the testimony given in Germany, by a Frenchman, to the young reformer of Scotland.
LUTHER’S ILLNESS.
Will Hamilton remain at Marburg? Shall he not see Luther, Melanchthon, and the other doctors of the Reformation? It has been generally supposed that he did go to Wittenberg; but there is no evidence of this, either in the University registers or in Luther’s or Melanchthon’s letters. This tradition, therefore, appears to us to be unfounded. As Hamilton had, however, formed the intention of visiting Luther when he left Scotland, what motive led him to relinquish his design? It was this. Early in July, at the very time when the young Scotchman might have gone to Wittenberg, a report was spread abroad that Luther had suddenly fallen ill. On July 7 he had lost the use of his senses, his body lay motionless, the heart scarcely beating, while his wife and his weeping friends stood round the bed, on which he was stretched as if dead. He came to himself, however, and, persuaded that he was at the point of death,[46] he resigned himself entirely to the hand of God and prayed with much fervency. At the same time the report ran in Germany that the plague was raging at Wittenberg. When Luther had recovered a little strength, he wrote to Spalatin:—‘May the Lord have pity on me and not forsake his sinner!’[47] Soon after, he had fresh attacks. ‘Ah,’ said he to his friends, ‘people fancy, because joy usually brightens my countenance, that I walk on roses, but God knows how rugged life is for me!’ One day, when Jonas had come to take supper with him, Luther, feeling ill during the meal, suddenly rose, and after taking a few steps fell in a fainting fit. ‘Water, water,’ cried he, ‘or I die.’ As he lay on the bed, he lifted up his eyes and said: ‘O my beloved Lord, thou art master of life and of death, do as it pleaseth thee. Only remember that it is thou who didst bid me undertake this work, and that it is for thy truth, for thy Word, that I have fought.’
On the following day, at six o’clock in the evening, as Jonas again stood by the bedside of his friend, he heard him calling on the Lord, sometimes in German, sometimes in Latin. The thought that he had not done enough, nor suffered enough for his Saviour, distressed him. ‘Ah,’ said he, ‘I have not been judged worthy to shed my blood for the love of Christ, as several of my brethren have done.’ Presently a thought consoled him: ‘St. John the Evangelist also,’ said he, ‘had not that honor—he who nevertheless wrote a book (Apocalypse) against the papacy, far more severe than any that I could ever write.’[48] After that he had his little John brought to him, and looking at the mother of the boy, he said, ‘You have nothing; but God will provide for you.’
THE PLAGUE AT WITTENBERG.
The plague, as we have said, was at Wittenberg. Two persons died of it in Melanchthon’s house; one of his sons was attacked, and one of the sons of Jonas lost his life. Hans Luft, the printer of Marburg, who was at Wittenberg on business, fell ill, and his mind wandered.[49] He was removed to Marburg, where Hamilton was.
Terror became general at Wittenberg. All who could do so, and especially the students, quitted the town; the university was transferred to Jena. Luther pressed the elector to go thither with his family, but, he added, in such calamities pastors must bide at their post. He remained therefore, and Melanchthon, who was visiting the churches in Saxony, received orders to go to Jena and resume his lectures there. During this period Luther, having regained some little strength, was visiting the sick and consoling the dying. In the course of a few days he had about him eighteen dead, some of whom even expired almost in his arms.[50] He received into his house the poor, widows, orphans, and even the plague-stricken; his house become a hospital.[51] His wife and his son were attacked. ‘What conflicts!’ cried he, ‘what terrors! No matter; though the malady waste the body, the Word of God saves the soul.’ He again fell ill himself, and thinking that he was nigh to death, he wrote to Melanchthon: ‘Pray for me, vile and miserable worm. I have only one glory, and that is that I have taught purely the word of God.[52] He who has begun the work will complete it. I seek only Him; I thirst for nothing but his grace.’
Such, doubtless, were the circumstances which detained Hamilton at Marburg. On hearing that in consequence of the plague the courses of lectures had partly at least been transferred to Jena, he gave up Wittenberg; and thus is explained quite naturally the want of original documents respecting his alleged sojourn at the Saxon university. A very painful sacrifice was thus demanded of him. Lambert resolved to turn the disappointment to good account. Having a high idea of the faith, the judgment, and abilities of Hamilton, he begged him to compose some theses on the evangelical doctrine, and to defend them publicly. Everyone supported this request; for an academical solemnity, at which a foreign theologian belonging to the royal family of Scotland should hold the chief place, could not fail to throw a certain éclat over the new university. Hamilton consented.[53] His subject was quickly chosen. In his eyes a man’s religion was not sound unless it had its source in the Word of God and in the inmost experience of the soul which receives that Word, and is thereby led into the truth. He deemed it necessary to present the doctrine in this practical aspect, rather than to lose himself in the speculative theorems of an obscure scholasticism.