The citizens would have no more of the Roman Church, on account of its errors; and the common people scoffed at it, on account of its petty practices. In the convent of the Franciscans there was a pious monk, Doctor Alexander, who had gradually become convinced not only of evangelical truth, but also of the necessity of preaching it. However, he was no Luther. He was one of those placid, moderate, and somewhat timid men who abstain from any thing which may provoke contradiction, and are a little too much masters of themselves. He remained, therefore, in his convent, continued attached to the Church, and preached the truth seriously, but with great cautiousness. The more cultivated of the inhabitants attended his preaching. There was a crowd of hearers, and many were enlightened by his discourses. But some could not understand why he did not separate from Rome. Some pious Christians, occasionally a little enthusiastic, demanded that every thing should be changed, without as well as within, and that an entirely new order should be established in the Church. They were certainly not wrong to desire it, but they did not understand that this new order must be established by the faith of the heart, and not by the strength of the arm. One of these, named Hegge,[[622]] preached in the open air outside the town. ‘To bow down before images,’ he exclaimed, ‘is stupidity; nay more, it is idolatry;’ and he induced his hearers to break the idols. Fortunately, by the side of these iconoclasts there were some prudent evangelical Christians who, perceiving like Luther that it was by the Word that all needful change must be wrought, requested of the council that it might be publicly preached. The council, which included the aristocracy of the town, most of them Roman Catholics, and which was controlled by the bishop, at first rejected this request. But, at length, finding that a very large number of the inhabitants had embraced the Reformation, it granted five churches for their use. From this time the two doctrines, that of the Gospel and that of Rome, were both preached in the town. Religious liberty existed, and the evangelicals were satisfied therewith.
But the enthusiasts of whom we have spoken, who had not yet renounced the intolerant theories which were and always will be held by Rome,[[623]] wanted something else. ‘What,’ they said, ‘Christian churches filled with images of men! A people bowing down to them! All the churches must be cleared of images, and the Word of God must be established.’ The council gave a decisive refusal. It appeared to these Christians that the magistrates were thus placing themselves in opposition to the will of God. It was, therefore, essential to have others. Although the town was under the sovereignty of the king of Poland, it enjoyed a complete independence in the management of its home affairs. Four thousand Lutherans took advantage of this fact. They assembled, surrounded the town-hall, and appointed other magistrates from among their own friends. These officers required the priests to preach the Gospel, and to cast things defiled out of the sanctuary. As the priests refused to do so, the new council set evangelical ministers in their place, abolished the Romish worship, converted the convents into schools and hospitals, and declared that as the wealth of the church was public property, it should remain untouched.[[624]]
Church Organization.
The subject of the organization of the Church in conformity with the Holy Scriptures was now under discussion. These men of action found that they knew very little about it, and they determined to invite Doctor Pomeranus to go and perform this task. Pomeranus (Bugenhagen) was the organizer and administrator of the Reformation. One of the Dantzic pastors, Doctor John, set out for Wittenberg. On his arrival he betook himself to Luther, delivered to him the letter with which he was entrusted, and gave him an account of the reformation at Dantzic, of course omitting its unpleasant features, and depicting it in the fairest colors. ‘Oh,’ said the great man, ‘what wonderful things Christ has wrought in that town!‘[[625]] The reformer, without delay, despatched the news to Spalatin, adding, ‘I should rather that Pomeranus remained with us; but as a matter of so much importance is at stake, for the love of God we must yield.’ All were not of the same opinion. Pomeranus was so valuable at Wittenberg. ‘Ah,’ replied the ardent reformer, ‘if I were called, I would go immediately.’[[626]] The council of the university then interfered. ‘Many foreign students,’ said the council, ‘come to Wittenberg; we must therefore keep the men who are competent to train useful ministers for other towns of Germany.’ Michael Hanstein was chosen instead of Pomeranus. ‘If there be any changes to introduce,’ wrote the reformer when dismissing him, ‘images or other things to put away, let it be done not by the people but by the regular action of the council. We must not despise the powers that be.’[[627]]
This prudent counsel came too late. The reforms effected at Dantzic had thrown the Roman Catholics into a state of distress; and amongst them were to be found the most eminent men. What! no more images, no more altars, no more masses, no more churches! Some of the members of the old council were dispatched to ask aid of King Sigismund. They arrived at the palace in carriages hung with black; they made their appearance before the prince in mourning apparel, their heads encircled with crape, as if the sovereign himself were dead; and on their countenances was the expression of deep grief. They laid their grievances before the king, and entreated him to save the town from the complete ruin with which it seemed to be threatened and to re-establish the old order of things abolished by the townsmen.
Severity Of Sigismund.
The king was struck by the appearance of these men wearing mourning for the Church. Notwithstanding his remarkable capacities he did not see that there could be any other religion than that in which he was born; and he followed in this matter the advice of his prelates. He therefore summoned the leaders of the reformed party. These men, however, while professing their loyalty to the prince, did not appear at his call, and were consequently outlawed. In April, 1526, Sigismund himself went to Dantzic. Although a Roman Catholic, he was an opponent of persecution on account of religion. Being urged on one occasion by John Eck to follow the example of the king of England, who had just declared against the Reformation, the king replied—‘Let Henry VIII. publish, if he like, books against Luther; but I for my part will be the same to the goats and to the sheep.’ But the present case was very different. The reformers had laid hands on the State; a political body had been overthrown. Sigismund was pitiless. The heads of the movement were punished with confiscation of their property and banishment from Dantzic or death. Every citizen who did not return to the Roman Church had to leave the town in fifteen days; the married priests, monks and nuns, in twenty-four hours. Every inhabitant was to deliver up Luther’s books. The Roman worship was everywhere restored, and the church of St. Mary, in particular, was given back to the Virgin by a solemn mass. The Dantzic reformers thus paid dear for the mistake which they had made, forgetting the great apostolical principle, ‘The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God.’[[628]]
This persecution, however, did not extinguish faith in men’s hearts; it purified them. Three years later, while a terrible epidemic was raging at Dantzic, a pious minister, named Pancrace Klemme, proclaimed the Gospel there, with love, power, and sobriety. The king broke out in threatenings. Klemme declared that he would accept no other rule of conduct or of teaching but the Word of God; and carrying on his work vigorously he earned the title of the Dantzic Reformer. Sigismund, struck with his wise procedure, and fearing lest this and other towns in his dominions should ally themselves with evangelical Prussia, took no notice. In the succeeding reign, the Gospel again triumphed in this city, but without confusion, and without infringing on the liberty of the Roman Catholics.
Thorn, a town situated like Dantzic on the Vistula, but further south, and which afterwards played a somewhat important part in the history of the Reformation, was also among the first to display its enthusiasm for it. At a Diet held in this town in 1520, the king issued an ordinance against Luther. In the following year, the pope and the bishop of Kamienez having determined to get an effigy of the reformer publicly burnt, some partisans of the illustrious doctor, rather hasty no doubt, finding that his enemies resorted to fire for the purpose of convincing them, took up stones and threw them at the prelates and their adherents. These disturbances were renewed in other shapes, but ultimately every thing settled down; and a few years later the Gospel was regularly preached in the churches.
It might have been said that the Vistula bore the Reformation on its waters; for we have found it at Thorn and at Dantzic, and we find it also at the old capital of the kingdom, Cracow. A secretary of the king, named Louis Dietz, afterwards burgomaster of this town, having visited Wittenberg in 1522, came back full of what he had seen and heard, and distributed his new treasure freely on his return. Many of the inhabitants then embraced the doctrine of the Reformation. The university appears to have been the centre from which the light radiated. Luther’s works were publicly offered for sale, and every body wanted to know what was in them. Theologians, students and townsmen bought and read them eagerly, and the professors did not disapprove them. Modrzewski, a writer of that time, has narrated what occurred in his own case. Impelled simply by curiosity, he began to read the books unconcernedly; but as he went on, the seriousness, the truth, and the life which he found in them interested him more and more. When he had come to the end, the opinions of the Roman tradition had given place in his mind to the truths of the Gospel.