[By Rauch. Considered to be a very exact likeness.]
PRELATES AND THEOLOGIANS.
371. Martin Luther. The Great Reformer.
[Born at Eisleben, in Saxony, 1483. Died there, 1546. Aged 63.]
The Lion of the Reformation. One of the men who, by coming to their time, have made an epoch in the world’s history. Assuredly the abuses of Rome,—in her second supremacy, as the spiritual mistress of the world,—must have aroused their effectual remedy; for partial resistances, before Luther rose, showed how deeply the mind of mankind resented and resisted the oppression and the spiritual malversation, and how fast the time was ripening for general revolt. Europe, since the overthrow of the Roman Empire, had been gradually rising with the inward vigour of her renewed life. The restored study of classical letters came as a powerful external impulse. Rome had but slowly established her domination, and only then securely given herself up to licence. Thus the strengthening of the evil on the one hand, and of the resisting life on the other, met: and then Luther came. He was fit for his Herculean labour. He had stepped from the very heart of the people, and his strong nature bespoke his hardy origin. He was fearless as one who could not feel fear in the midst of the most terrible danger; he was zealous as one who labours under the sense of Divine appointment, who knows that to die may be to live, to live may be to suffer worse than death: and who rejoices equally at every turn of fortune. He was threatened with the stake: he persisted in his crusade all the more for the menace. The Pope excommunicated him in the face of all the world. He denounced the Pope before as large an audience. The Pope publicly burned all his writings: he publicly burned the Bull of excommunication, the Canon Law, and the Pope’s Decretals. Before Luther died,—and he fell asleep tranquilly, worn out with labour, not with age,—his doctrines had already taken deep root in the wide world. We are all the debtors of his work; and we may remember with gratitude the generous protection of the Elector of Saxony, who again and again refused to give the Lion up, when the hunters loudly demanded his blood at the gate.
[By G. Schadow. Marble. The original placed in the Walhalla by order of King Louis. Luther was excluded from the Walhalla till 1848, when he was admitted, and inscribed as Dr. Martin Luther. In the Berlin Museum there is a portrait of him from the life, by L. Cranach, as the Junker Georg, with moustaches, painted when he was concealed in the Castle of Wartburg.]
372. Philip Melancthon. German Divine and Reformer.
[Born at Bretten, in the Palatinate of the Rhine, 1497. Died at Wurms, in Germany, 1560. Aged 63.]
The wise and gentle sharer with Martin Luther in the glory of the Reformation. Melancthon was Professor of Greek in the University of Wittemberg in 1518, when Luther was there teaching Theology. They united their great gifts and powers to do the perilous labour of their lives, and each proceeded to his mission in the spirit created within him for the accomplishment of a seemingly superhuman task. Luther raged furiously against the error he encountered on his path. Melancthon strove to entice it into the right road by gentle words and mild remonstrance. The one exhibited the resolute bearing of a soldier fighting for the church militant; upon the face of the other beamed the quiet heroism of the Christian saint. Luther upbraided his companion-in-arms for his lukewarmness. Melancthon met the rebuke by continuing his steadfast course of conciliation, caution, and thoughtful zeal. Luther found no friend in the camp of the enemy. The most intolerant of his foes respected the mild virtues of Melancthon. Both were fit instruments for the hour in which they were summoned to action, and for the sacred cause they arose to defend: and, as was fitting, both were buried side by side in death, as they had laboured side by side, and hand to hand, in life. Melancthon compiled the celebrated Augsburg Confession. He was a great scholar, attached to the study of mathematics, and to scientific studies generally. He had no desire for worldly honours and distinctions. He was a true hero.