LUTHER’S HOUSE AND SURROUNDINGS IN THE YEAR 1611

THE CASTLE OF WITTENBERG IN THE YEAR 1611

1. If this were to them granted, then they should observe and keep the Embryons in the Womb of the mother, that they might constitutively unite themselves to it, to have at the leastwise, sensual consolation and delectation.

2. Then secondly, because it is common to reasonable creatures to fashion and informate the body, and to perfect it with some natural delightment, not to vex it.

3. Then thirdly, because of the law and order of Nature, the souls from the places in their departure to them allotted, assigned and deputed of God, neither do nor can depart at any time: for it is written: For the soul is a Spirit going and returning. And they which do otherwise hold opinion are to be accused, nay condemned in this with Pythagoras, who did abstain from all living Animals and creatures, believing that in some the souls of some men did dwell and abide. Thus far the Arrogonian named Bartholomew Sybilla,[53] a Monopolitan, who writ upon this question being at Wittenberg, at the request of him that did set forth the Dutch Copy, shews himself to be a good Philosopher and no worse Divine. But mark what follows, this is written according to men in faith: the Devil was out of the first street of Coany when he was past this last period. For that Pythagorical opinion, if that were: this absurdity would follow: (I will speak plainly the rather to fit thy capacity), and if the soul should pass out of the dead into the living, then should mortality be the cause of the soul’s immortality (this is prettily spoken) and by that means make it corruptible, which cannot be. And seest thou Wagner? for I will teach thee by demonstrations, and therewith he took a coal of fire, and held it to him so long that it came to be but a coal, now thou seest Wagner, that so long as fire was in this subject it had life, but the quality being removed from the quantity, neither is the quality found or seen or known whither it vanisheth, nor can the same fire though fire may return into another body or subject albeit the quantity remaineth. Thus may the soul of man be compared to the fire in the coal, as concerning his entrance and departure, but not re-entrance, for that coal may take life again, that is fire, but so cannot human body, because one spirit can be united but to one body, and not two to one, nor one spirit to two bodies: Wherefore that Spirit being departed, it is irrevocable because of the unity, and the impossibility of returning in the one, in the other of receiving any other. As for other reasons directly by circumstance, if the Soul goeth either to joy or pain immediately, then I am certain that that hope which thou hast is so merely vain, as anything which may hap under that title: For proof behold, and then through the Wainscot door of Wagner’s study entered in two Kings, which drawing their swords did there in presence combat together fiercely and courageously, one of them shortly after fainting under the adversary’s strokes fell down, the other victorious, yet wounded, very canonically as a man may say, staggered immediately, as if he would fain have not fallen, yet for all that, he fell; then entered two men carrying Torches with the snuffs downwards, with great solemnity (more than is needful to be recapitulated, for I see nothing but that this might have been very well left out for anything worthy the gravity of the matter) which when they had carried out the first slain combatant, with armed men, and a dying stroke of the Drum, clothed all in the colour which best notes by his external hue the internal sorrow. Then next there entered two Pages all in silver white, crowned with Bays, carrying their Torches aloft declaring the height of their glory by the height of their flames: next to them divers Trumpeters and all in white, urging forth into the vast air their victorious flourishes, next a great standard bearer, and I cannot tell what, but the conclusion was, that the triumph was exceeding great and pompous, adorned with as many ceremonies as such a victory might or could be, the Spirit when they were all gone began to speak and said, this was the battle which was fought for the great Realm of Asia, by Hercules and Orontides, where Orontides was slain, and Hercules sore wounded, but yet recovered, after which he achieved his twelve labours, and the thirteenth of which the Poet speaketh, the hardest of all.

Tertius hinc decimus labor est durissimus, una
Quinquaginta simul stuprauit nocte puellas.

This History is as I do think in the Chronicle of Hell, for I did never hear of it before, nor anybody else, I appeal to all the Histories. Marry it may be this was when Hercules was a little Boy, and then peradventure indeed the records make no mention of it, but yet we have that recorded which he did when he was less than a little Boy, as his killing of a Serpent in his Cradle, and such a History as I do remember is enrolled in the golden Book of the seven wise Masters of Rome, an authentical author. But let that pass and let us draw more near unto the cause: For as the Devil was afore our days, so by authority he may allege experience, and we must of necessity believe that it is either true or a lie. Mephostophiles continued his speech for all this parenthesis, declaring to Wagner his meaning in this point for (quoth he) as you see these two champions contending for the title of victory, one of them must needs, if they try the extremest as they did, receive the dishonour, the other the glory, so in the combat wherein the dying body battleth with the lively soul, the soul, if grace hath made acceptable, shall enjoy those everlasting pleasures of Paradise, and dwell in heaven blessed and glorious amongst the beautiful Angels, but if it be counted as reprobate and outcast of God, then according to that punishment which his great sins did deserve, he can have no other place but the continual horror of hell, wherein we miserable dwell, and the ugly company of black Devils and his frightful Angels. There is no other mean but honour or dishonour in this case, no other mean but joy or pain, no other mean but heaven or hell perpetually: there is no place left for a third. I could more copiously dispute of this matter, but that I will not be too tedious in so exile[54] a question. For where it is said in an author to which I am witness, for I stood by his elbow when he writ the lines. Animae sunt in loco certo et expectant indicium neq; se inde possunt commouere. Which place as appeareth in the precedent chapter is heaven or hell: again it is said Anima quae pecauerit ipsa morietur. Of necessity then the soul to whom the Lord imputeth not his sin shall live, for they are immediate oppositions, for the soul that is in joy will not come to these troubles, nor that which is in torment cannot: therefore it is said: Et reuertatur puluis in terram quemadmodum erat, et spiritus reuertatur ad Dominum qui dedit ilium, so there is no mention in any scripture of the soul’s returning, but to a certain place deputed of God to him. But before I go any further in ye declaring of that which is here to be set down, I know they that have their consciences more of the precise cut, will say, that here was a learned Devil, true it is he is learned, strong, and above all human conceit, subtle and crafty: and if they say it is blasphemously done to have the word spoken to the world by so vile a mouth, first they know how mightily the Devil is conversant in holy writ, in anything to over-throw a Christian thought, knowing that as ye word of God is a word of power to attain salvation to whom grace is given: and to work eternal damnation where that gift is wanting, knowing it is the only means to debel[55] and conquer the Christian thought, for as a man is governed by a law and by it lives, so if anything be evidently directed against him in it, it slays his heart, it overthrows him, it takes away his power for ever, nor is it more blasphemous to be spoke to us men, than to God himself, as it is in S. Alathero, where the Devil was not afeared, to assail his creator with most terrible arguments of the divine letter. They which have right minds can persuade themselves accordingly: but otherwise they may cavil as long as they will, which they may do to their small profit, assuring them this that in coveting by fault finding to seem learned, they make themselves the notes and reproach not only of the learned, but even of the absurd and barbarous rude fools, and that they are the only spirits of error and contention, and the chief causes of unbelief by vain reasonings and questions to the unresolved Christian. But as for this speech which is but Humile dicendi genus in very truth, let them thus think, that if there were any such controversy betwixt Wagner and his Spirit, as is here mentioned, that those are not the words which were spoken, but that they do proceed from a young Scholar who gave me this copy, and not of a Devil, of whose familiarity and frequency and of other circumstantive causes, I will God willing in the Catastrophe and conclusion of this Book deliver unto you my poor opinion. In the meanwhile I will follow the matter into which we are fallen, my good friends, and without further ado I pray without any more excusive phrase, patiently expect the good hour wherein the death of this volume is prepared: Mephostophiles taking breath a little, presented his speech saying: it is said likewise. Factum est autem vt moreretur mendicus, etc. And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried away of Angels into Abraham’s bosom, and that rich man died and was buried, and he being in Hell lifted up his eyes, when he was in torments, and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Nor nothing doth that impugn which is said of the Papist, that he cannot come into God’s presence nor be one of the elect unless they be purified from their sins, for which purification, they ordain a place so terribly stuck with pins, needles, daggers, swords, nails, etc., so soultring[56] with hot burning furnaces, and so every way formidable with material sulphury fires, that no tongue can express, nor any heart imagine, wherein the sinful soul must be many times and often cleansed, but I hope if this were true then Lazarus should have been likewise so dressed in their terrible imagined terrors, which he was not, unless they will be so impudent to say that he had no sin. I shall not need to dispute how absurd it is to say that the sin of the soul in the body committed, must be extirpated and purified by a material substance and rigour, nor of the matter of the like argument. And hereupon he seemed to sigh as if some sudden thought had overpressed his stomach. I can, quoth he, largely discourse of all divine and human propositions, but as the unlearned Parrot who speaketh oft and much, and understandeth never anything to profit himself. Ah that unto us Spirits no secrets are secret, no doings of man unhid, and yet we Devils cursed of God are incapable of any of God’s mercies, though through them we were created. We know repentance is the way to attain the celestial favour: we know God’s mercies how great they are, and that we ought to despair of nothing, yet there is nothing (such is our seeing blindness) so it appertain to God and godliness, of which we do not despair. No, Wagner, we are so far from living again, as we are from certainty to be saved. But instead of that we are crossed with all kind of vexation, for since the first time that I with my Master and fellows fell down from heaven, being of the most royal order of Angels, Potestates, Cherubins, and Seraphins, riding upon the wrings of the Wind in all bright shining Majesty, and enjoying the most glorious and divine presence of our Creator, till for our heart-swelling pride, and haughty insolency, within as little space of time as we were created in, with his dreadful lightning threw us down headlong into the bottomless Abysses of the Air, wherein we endure these tortures and like wicked souls with us, as our manifold deserts have brought upon us. And for that we know that the way to mercy is utterly denied, and that we are as much hated of ourselves as of God, we think it the sweetest remedy in these manifold miseries to have partakers of our common woe with us. Wherefore it is most expedient for us to be thus enviously malicious against all mankind, making them too as far in God’s dreadful curse as ourselves.

Wagner melting at these words, his eyes undid the great burthen of his sorrow, straining himself so long that he wept, and yet could say nothing, but only a small volley of sobs hastily following: Mephostophiles seeing how Wagner was drowned in so deep a melancholy, told him pulling him by the sleeve, that he would be still demanding of such foolish questions which will profit him so little as mought be. Knowest thou not (quoth he) that all the Rhetorics are the servants of my tongue, or that we can move pity or hatred when we please, fool as thou art, forget these vain conferences, persuade thyself that they are but the effect of speech, long canst thou not live, and yet dost thou live as if thou didst not long: youthly should be thy thoughts, and fraught with the rank lustiness of conceit and amorous delight, if thou wilt ask questions, let them be such as appertain to love and wealth, to pleasure, to pastime, and to merriment. How sayest thou to such a one, naming a Gentlewoman, the most beautiful Lady under the cope of Heaven? Thou shalt enjoy her, nay, anyone so she be one whom thou lists to call beautiful, whosoever thy eyes shall lay their delight upon. And presently Music was heard so sweet, so plenteous, and so ravishing, as if on Music depended all sweet, all plenty, all ravishment. The doors conveying themselves aside, as giving place to so divine a fairness, entering in a blue Velvet Gown raised, and thickly beset in the gards[57] with most pure Ooches[58] of gold, not altogether ignorant of precious stones, furred with royal Ermines, loose about her: her head’s ornament (though greater ornament to her head than her head there could not be) was a kind of attired Caul (such as I have seen none in England according to their description) raised up at the corners with stiff square wires of beaten gold, on that a Chaplet or frontier of Roses, on the Chaplet a veil of Lawn, which covered all her fair body denying the sight of such an Angel, but only through a shadow: In brief she was such a one as would have roused the basest desire in the whole World to attempt wondrous enterprises, in her hands silken soft, she held a Lute, discoursing sweetly upon the solemn strings with her nimble fingers. A maid carrying a blue waxen Taper in a silver white Candlestick made in the fashion of a Censer, but it was derived into two several branches, in whose ends were curiously wrought two most beautiful places to pight[59] tapers on. The maid by her Lady would have well contented a reasonable proper Squire, it was a pretty rank lass, round about as plump as a Bladder, which being yet smoking new is blown up with Wind: well I will not trouble you with these rude descriptions any longer, but desire you to conceive the excellency of this fair Lady, for it is far more copious in the Dutch Copy than is here necessary to be recapitulated. Wagner’s heart leaping at this sight looked about him, as if he would have nobody privy to himself but himself, and so it was indeed, for Faustus, Mephostophiles, and Akercocke were gone, and thereupon with a boon courage advancing himself upon his toes, and weeding himself in the best German fashion, as he could very well, began to travel unto her, but remembering his bad apparel stepped back and blushed, and hid his face, but suddenly returning again as if he had known now how rather to become his weeds, began to fewter[60] himself, but, O wonder, his habit was changed with his thought, and he was now no more Wagner but Armisuerio the Lady’s Lord. And to be short this new Armisuerio and old Wagner met with the Lady, and saluting her in the best kind of Bon noche,[61] used her as he would do his Lady, and she him as her Lord. So passing over their weary night in such pleasure as I could find in my heart to enjoy, or any Man (unless an Eunuch beside).

Footnotes

[51] Gambols.

[52] i.e. Faust, or perhaps Year.

[53] Author of Speculum Peregrinarum Questionum, 1493.

[54] Poor, attenuated.

[55] Subdue.

[56] Sweltering.

[57] Ornamental border, or trimming.

[58] Ouch or nouch was a kind of brooch.

[59] To pitch.

[60] Brush up.

[61] Good night (Spanish).