These times, however, were as yet remote. The reformation of the Magyars was still in its period of growth and life. The tidings of the struggle which had begun in Germany excited in men’s minds a burning desire to see Luther, to hear him, and to receive from his very lips the heavenly doctrine.[[525]] This is a characteristic feature of the Hungarian Reformation. The wish to go and drink the living water at its very source became intense, and all who were able to do so hastened to Wittenberg. Martin Cyriaci from Leutschau arrived there in 1522. He was followed in 1524 by Dionysius Link, Balthazar Gleba from Buda, and a great number of their countrymen.[[526]] Joyfully they greeted the modest city from which light was shed over the world. They fixed their gaze with timid respect on Luther and on Melanchthon; took their places on the benches of their auditories; received into their minds and hearts the words of these illustrious masters, and engraved them there more indelibly than on the leaves of their note-books.
In Hungary it began gradually to be noticed that one student and another was missing. The cause of their absence became known; they were gone to Wittenberg. The bishops, provoked at these heretical pilgrimages, denounced them to the king. These priests had no difficulty in getting their views adopted by this young man, who, but a little while before, had given proof of his character. Louis, who was king of Bohemia as well as of Hungary, had gone to Prague for the coronation of the queen, Mary; and as he passed through Moravia he had a parley with the townsmen of Iglau, and had declared to them that unless they abandoned the Saxon heresy he would have them put to death. At the same time he had ordered their pastor, John Speratus, to be thrown into prison. This was the wedding bouquet which Louis II. presented to his young, lovely, and Christian spouse, on the occasion of her coronation.[[527]]
Intolerance Of The Priesthood.
The archbishops and the priests, in possession of all their privileges, put themselves at the head of the opposition. Many of them, of course, were actuated by a higher motive, the glory of the Roman Church; but in general they had no mind to let what they had usurped be taken from them. King Louis and other princes, pressed by the clergy, lent them their own power and authority; but the ecclesiastics were the authors of the persecution. A religious philosopher of the eighteenth century[[528]] has said, ‘The clergy are the indirect cause of the crimes of kings. While they talk incessantly of God, they only aim at establishing their own dominion.’ This is a strong saying, and the author forgets that in the Catholic Church there are, and always have been, some good priests and good laymen. Let us not exaggerate. Still, the empire of the clergy, the despotism with which it crushed consciences, is a great historical fact. It concealed the Holy Scriptures, but it brought out its tariffs of indulgences, its exactions, its punishments with fire and sword. At a later time the progress of Christian civilization no longer allowed resort to such barbarous practices. But if evangelical Christianity is exposed henceforth only to senseless accusations, and frequently to insults on the part of the adherents of Rome, another adversary has appeared at the opposite pole; and each is a menace to freedom, to truth, and to the life of society. ‘If the European world is not to perish like the Roman empire,’ a philosopher of our own day has said,[[529]] ‘some religious symbol must be found which is adequate to the rescue of souls from both the evils which at this day are contending for them—a criminal atheism and a retrograde theology.’ This symbol is the Word of God.
The Hungarian priests dealt a hard blow. They wanted to exclude the Reformation not from their own country alone, but from the whole world. They said that it was necessary to dry up the fountain from which these poisoned waters flowed. Hungary then could no longer have to fear a Lutheran deluge. At their request the young king then wrote to the old elector of Saxony: ‘How can you patronize Luther, who attacks the Christian faith and the authority of the Church, who derides princes and praises the Turks? Leave off countenancing this monk, and punish him severely.’[[530]] Frederick the Wise was not of a nature to give himself up to the leading of a young man without understanding. ‘To allege that Luther teaches things contrary to the faith,’ he replied, ‘that he insults the Christian princes, that he extols the Turks, and that in all these misdeeds he is countenanced by me, is to heap calumny upon calumny. I beg that you will let me know who are putting such fables into circulation.’ Louis had not to go far to find them. It was the priests of his court; but in his astonishment at the reply of the illustrious elector, he took care not to say so.
This young, light-headed king no longer knew what to think. His bishops spoke to him in one way; the wisest prince in Europe said just the reverse. He had threatened with death the reformers of a small Moravian town; and now, not only were Moravia and Bohemia full of the faith of John Hus, but the Reformation appeared to triumph in Hungary, and Transylvania likewise was beginning to receive it. Two ministers of the Gospel, who came from Silesia and who had heard Luther at Wittenberg, arrived one day at Hermanstadt. They distributed there the works of the reformer, expounded the Scriptures plainly to the people, showed them all the consolation that is in the Gospel, and vigorously attacked the Roman Church. They were both of them ex-Dominicans; and their names were Ambrose and George. Mark Pempflinger, a count and chief judge, an eminent and very influential man, who was a reader of Luther’s writings, gave his protection to the two evangelists. A third soon arrived, whose name was John Surdaster. Animated with burning zeal, he began by preaching in the open air; afterwards, owing to the intervention of Pempflinger, he removed into St. Elizabeth’s church. The crowd which came to hear him was immense, and in it were seen members of the council. While giving their attention to men and women, the reformers did not overlook children. They felt a warm affection for them, and delighted to explain the Gospel to them in a simple manner adapted to their understandings. They instilled into them the fear of God and an abhorrence of sin, and sought to lead them to Jesus, and thus to give them a simple but efficient piety. They knew that man having fallen must be restored. They began to instruct children out of doors, in the public place. This boldness gave the greatest offence to the priests, who complained, in high quarters, that these foreigners were not only instructing the young, but were teaching them false doctrines. The two Silesian monks being summoned to Gran by the archbishop, were not able to return to Transylvania.[[531]]
The Procession On Corpus Christi Day.
But the Gospel remained there. A fire had been kindled in the heart of the people, and nothing could extinguish it. The Catholic rites were deserted by a large number, the priests were removed from several pulpits, which were then filled by ministers of the divine word, who taught in their stead. ‘The power of the truth,’ says a historian, ‘brought souls to freedom.’ But while thoughtful minds were gaining strength from the reading of the sacred books, there were triflers who merely laughed at the superstitions which they had abandoned, and sang verses about the pope. The Catholics, however, were not disheartened; the procession on Corpus Christi Day took place as usual, with much pomp and with large lighted tapers. ‘Do our priests believe then,’ said some, ‘that God has become blind, that they carry so many lights in full day?‘[[532]] A serious and charitable reformation alone is a true one; nevertheless the prophet Elijah overwhelmed with his irony the prophets of the groves.[[533]]
The outcries increased. Never had so deadly a heresy been seen. The most pious declarations of the reformers were taxed with hypocrisy; their most sincere professions with subtility and falsehood; their most Christian dogmas were atrocious. Never had the devil woven a more dangerous doctrine. The archbishop was no longer equal to the occasion; the thunders of the Vatican must roll. The denunciations increased in seriousness. The archbishop of Gran betook himself to Rome. The papacy was agitated at the report of the deeds which were denounced before it, and Clement VII. sent into Hungary the celebrated Cardinal Cajetan, furnishing him on his departure with every thing calculated to win over the king. He delivered to the cardinal for the king a present of sixty thousand ducats, ostensibly intended for the defence of the kingdom against the Turks, but also designed to rekindle the zeal of Louis II. against the reformers. The pope also entrusted him with a letter in which he urged the king to destroy the heresy. How resist a request which was accompanied by sixty thousand pieces of gold and earnestly supported by the bishops? In 1523 a Diet was convoked, which was skilfully managed by the clergy. The delegates of the latter said to the king—‘Will your royal majesty deign as a Catholic prince to take severe measures against all Lutherans, their patrons, and their adherents? They are manifest heretics and enemies of the Holy Virgin Mary. Punish them by decapitation and by confiscation of all their property.’[[534]]
Lutheranism Proscribed.