The Reformation had made great progress in Germany. The Word of God everywhere advanced with much power; and the waters which had gushed forth at Wittenberg, spreading around, quenched the thirst of many souls. Believers were found in all classes, but especially among the traders of the towns.
JOHN BUGENHAGEN.
In an island of the Baltic, formed by the two eastern arms of the Oder, and belonging to Pomerania, stands the small town of Wollin, formerly a nest of Danish pirates. Here was born, on June 24, 1485, a man of singular goodness, who became one of the champions of Christian civilization in the sixteenth century, John, son of the councillor Gerard Bugenhagen. He entered in 1502 the university of Greifswald, a town situated on the same sea, and applied himself to the study of languages, the humanities, and also theology. In 1505 he went to Treptow, another town on the Baltic, further eastward, and was appointed rector of the school. He was so successful as a teacher that Bodelwin, abbot of a neighboring convent, invited him to become professor of theology in a college instituted for the teaching of the sciences. Here he expounded the Scriptures, for the most part according to the views of Augustine and Jerome. Priests, monks, and townsmen came to hear him; and although he was not ordained, his friends strongly urged him to preach. This he did, to the great delight of his hearers, among whom were some of noble rank.[481]
'Alas!' said Bugenhagen, afterwards, 'I was still in the strait bonds of pharisaic piety, and I had no true understanding of the Holy Scriptures. We were all so deeply sunk in the doctrine of the pope, that we had not even a wish to know the doctrine of the Word of God.' There were however desires and longings in his heart; but what he wanted remained as a writing in cipher, of which he was unable to discover the key. It was quite suddenly at last that he found it.
Towards the close of 1520, he dined with some professors and friends at the house of Otto Slutov, one of the patricians of the town and inspector of the church of Treptow. Slutov had just received a copy of Luther's 'Babylonish Captivity.' 'You must read that,' he said to Bugenhagen, as he laid the volume upon the table, around which the guests were seated. Availing himself of the invitation, the rector turned over the leaves of the book during dinner-time, and after having read some passages he said aloud to the company present,—'Since the birth of Christ, many heretics have attacked and roundly abused the church; but among them there has not been one more execrable than the man who has written this book.' He, however, took away the volume by leave of his host, read it and reread it, meditated and deliberately weighed its contents; and at each perusal scales seemed to fall from his eyes. Some days afterwards, finding himself in the same company, he made a confession to them. 'What shall I say to you? The whole world is blind and plunged in the deepest darkness. This man alone sees the truth.' He read to his friends page after page, undertook the defence of each paragraph, and brought most of them to the same convictions that he had received himself. J. Kyrich, J. Lorich, the deacon Kettelhut, Abbot Bodelwin and others acknowledged the errors of the papacy, and endeavored to turn people from their superstitions and to make known to them the merits of Jesus Christ. This was the beginning of the Reformation in Pomerania.
CONVERSION OF BUGENHAGEN.
Bugenhagen began to read Luther's other writings; and he was especially charmed with his exposition of the difference between the Law and the Gospel, and of the doctrine of justification by faith. Persecution soon began, instigated by the bishop of Camin. Bugenhagen, who earnestly desired to see the places whence the light had come, betook himself to Wittenberg, arriving there in 1521, shortly before the departure of the reformer to Worms. The Pomeranian was joyfully received by Luther and Melanchthon, who thenceforth usually called him 'Pomeranus.' His desire was to be a student, not a teacher; but having begun, in his own room, to explain the Psalms to his countrymen, he did this with so much clearness, such unction and evangelical life, that Melanchthon requested him to give the course publicly. He now became one of the professors of the University, and at the same time pastor of the parish church. He was afterwards (1536) appointed superintendent-general. Melanchthon and Pomeranus completed, each on his special side, the work of Luther. Melanchthon did so in the scientific sphere, by means of his classical culture, and in the political sphere by his discretion. Pomeranus, though undoubtedly inferior to both of them, had great experience and much knowledge of men, and he possessed at the same time gentleness and firmness, abundance of tact and a practical turn of mind, and to all these qualities he added energetic activity. He was thus enabled to render great services in all that related to ecclesiastical organization.[482] There was hardly an important church in whose formation his assistance was not sought. We have already met with him in Denmark.[483]
We have elsewhere seen how the Gospel had been brought to Erfurt by Luther and by Lange, how Frederick Myconius, converted partly by Tetzel's excesses, had preached the Gospel at Zwickau, and how the word had renovated other towns in connection with Wittenberg. When a friend of Luther, Nicholas Hausmann for instance, was called to some place for the work of the Reformation, and came to ask the great doctor's advice, the latter answered: 'If you accept the call, you will make enemies of the pope and the bishops; but if you decline it, you will be the enemy of Christ.' This was enough to induce them to enter upon the work.[484] The evangelical doctrine had been publicly preached at Frankfort-on-the-Main by Ibach, just after the famous diet of Worms. Assemblies of evangelical deputies had been held there in June, 1530, December, 1531, and May, 1536, and this town had joined the alliance of Smalkalde.
The cities of Lower Saxony were the first to be touched by the light which proceeded from electoral Saxony. Magdeburg, where Luther had been at school and had personal friends, had early shown itself friendly to evangelical principles. One day, an old clothier came and stood at the foot of the monument erected in this town to the illustrious Emperor Otto the Great, in memory of his conquests in the tenth century; and the zealous partisan of the spiritual conqueror of the sixteenth century began to sing one of Luther's hymns and to sell copies of it. People were at the time coming out of a neighboring church, where mass had been said. Many had received the leaf, but the burgomaster who was passing with others of the faithful had the seller arrested. This caused the fire which was smouldering under the embers to flame forth. The parishioners of St. Ulrich assembled in the cemetery, elected eight good men to undertake the government of the church. The parish of St. John took part in the movement; and all declared that they attached themselves to their sovereign pastor, bishop, and pope, Jesus Christ, and were ready to fight bravely under this glorious captain. On June 23, 1524, the citizens met together in the convent of the Augustines with seven evangelical pastors, and determined to request the Council that nothing but the Word of God should any longer be preached, and that the Lord's Supper should be administered regularly in both kinds. On July 17, the communion was thus celebrated in all the churches; and the town council, on the 23d of the same month, informed the elector that 'the immutable and eternal Word of God, hitherto obscured by thick shadows, now shone forth, by God's mercy, more brightly than the sun, for the salvation of sinners, the happiness of the faithful, and the glory of God.'[485] They requested the elector at the same time to send Amsdorff to them.