One of the groups in this plate, representing the fury Megæra, a becoming foster-mother, suckling the pope-infant, is given in our cut, No. 150.
In another of these caricatures the pope is represented trampling on the emperor, to show the manner in which he usurped and tyrannised over the temporal power. Another illustrates “the kingdom of Satan and the Pope” (regnum Satanæ et Papæ), and the latter is represented as presiding over hell-mouth in all his state. One, given in our cut No. 151, represents the pope under the form of an ass playing on the bagpipes, and is entitled Papa doctor theologiæ et magister fidei. Four lines of German verse beneath the engraving state how “the pope can alone expound Scripture and purge error, just as the ass alone can pipe and touch the notes correctly.”
No. 151. The Pope giving the Tune.
Der Bapst kan allein auslegen
Die Schrifft, und irthum ausfegen;
Wie der esel allein pfeiffen
Kan, und die noten recht greiffen.—1545.
This was the last year of Luther’s active labours. At the commencement of the year following he died at Eissleben, whither he had gone to attend the council of princes. These caricatures may perhaps be considered as so many proclamations of satisfaction and exultation in the final triumph of the great reformer.
Books, pamphlets, and prints of this kind were multiplied to an extraordinary degree during the age of the Reformation, but the majority of them were in the interest of the new movement. Luther’s opponent, Eckius, complained of the infinite number of people who gained their living by wandering over all parts of Germany, and selling Lutheran books.[78] Among those who administered largely to this circulation of polemic books was the poet of farces, comedies, and ballads, Hans Sachs, already mentioned. Hans Sachs had in one poem, published in 1535, celebrated Luther under the title of “the Wittemberg Nightingale:”—