No. 143. Burning a Heretic.
The shafts of satire were early employed against Luther and his new principles, and men like Murner, already mentioned, Emser, Cochlæus, and others, signalised themselves by their zeal in the papal cause. As already stated, Murner distinguished himself as the literary ally of our king Henry VIII. The taste for satirical writings had then become so general, that Murner complains in one of his satires that the printers would print nothing but abusive or satirical works, and neglected his more serious writings.
Da sindt die trucker schuld daran,
Die trucken als die Gauchereien,
Und lassen mein ernstliche bücher leihen.
No. 144. Folly in Monastic Habit.
Some of Murner’s writings against Luther, most of which are now very rare, are extremely violent, and they are generally illustrated with satirical woodcuts. One of these books, printed without name of place or date, is entitled, “Of the great Lutheran Fool, how Doctor Murner has exorcised him” (Von dem grossen Lutherisschen Narren, wie in Doctor Murner beschworen hat). In the woodcuts to this book Murner himself is introduced, as is usually the case in these satirical engravings, under the character of a Franciscan friar, with the head of a cat, while Luther appears as a fat and jolly monk, wearing a fool’s cap, and figuring in various ridiculous circumstances. In one of the first woodcuts, the cat Franciscan is drawing a rope so tight round the great Lutheran fool’s neck, that he compels him to disgorge a multitude of smaller fools. In another the great Lutheran fool has his purse, or pouch, full of little fools suspended at his girdle. This latter figure is copied in the cut No. 144, as an example of the form under which the great reformer appears in these satirical representations.
In a few other caricatures of this period which have been preserved, the apostle of the Reformation is attacked still more savagely. The one here given (Fig. 145), taken from a contemporary engraving on wood, presents a rather fantastic figure of the demon playing on the bagpipes. The instrument is formed of Luther’s head, the pipe through which the devil blows entering his ear, and that through which the music is produced forming an elongation of the reformer’s nose. It was a broad intimation that Luther was a mere tool of the evil one, created for the purpose of bringing mischief into the world.