CHAPTER IV

Sentiments of the Princes—Speech of Duke George—Character of the Reformation—A hundred and one grievances—Charles yields—Tactics of Aleander—The Grandees of Spain—Luther’s peace—Death and not Retractation. A few days sufficed to wear off these first impressions, as always happens when an orator shrouds the emptiness of his arguments in high sounding phrases. The majority of the princes were ready to sacrifice Luther, but none were disposed to sacrifice the rights of the empire and the redress of German grievances. There was no objection to give up the insolent monk who had dared to speak so loud, but it was wished to make the pope so much the more sensible of the justice of a reform which was demanded by the heads of the kingdom. Accordingly, it was the greatest personal enemy of Luther, Duke George of Saxony, who spoke most energetically against the encroachments of Rome. The grandson of Podiebrad, King of Bohemia, repulsed by the doctrines of grace which the Reformer proclaimed, had not yet abandoned the hope of seeing a moral and ecclesiastical reform, and what irritated him so much against the monk of Wittemberg, was that he had spoiled the whole affair by his despised doctrines. But now, seeing the nuncio sought to confound Luther and reform in one common condemnation, George suddenly stood up among the assembled princes, and, to the great astonishment of those who knew his hatred to the Reformer, said, “The Diet must not forget the grievances of which it complains against the Court of Rome. What abuses have crept into our states! The annats which the emperor granted freely for the good of Christendom now demanded as a debt—the Roman courtiers every day inventing new ordinances, in order to absorb, sell, and farm out ecclesiastical benefices—a multitude of transgressions winked at; rich offenders unworthily tolerated, while those who have no means of ransom are punished without pity—the popes incessantly bestowing expectancies and reversions on the inmates of their palace, to the detriment of those to whom the benefices belong—the commendams of abbeys and convents of Rome conferred on cardinals, bishops, and prelates, who appropriate their revenues, so that there is not one monk in convents which ought to have twenty or thirty—stations multiplied without end, and indulgence shops established in all the streets and squares of our cities, shops of St. Anthony, shops of the Holy Spirit, of St. Hubert, of St. Cornelius, of St. Vincent, and many others besides—societies purchasing from Rome the right of holding such markets, then purchasing from their bishop the right of exhibiting their wares, and, in order to procure all this money, draining and emptying the pockets of the poor—the indulgences which ought to be granted solely for the salvation of souls, and which ought to be merited only by prayers, fastings, and the salvation of souls, sold at a regular price—the officials of the bishop, oppressing those in humble life with penances for blasphemy, adultery, debauchery, the violation of this or that feast day, while, at the same time, not even censuring ecclesiastics who are guilty of the same crimes—penances imposed on the penitent, and artfully arranged, so that he soon falls anew into the same fault, and pays so much the more money. … Such are some of the crying abuses of Rome; all sense of shame has been cast off, and one thing only is pursued … money! money! Hence preachers who ought to teach the truth, now do nothing more than retail lies—lies, which are not only tolerated, but recompensed, because the more they lie, the more they gain. From this polluted well comes forth all this polluted water. Debauchery goes hand in hand with avarice. The officials cause women to come to their houses under divers pretexts, and strive to seduce them, sometimes by menaces, sometimes by presents; or, if they cannot succeed, injure them in their reputation. Ah! the scandals caused by the clergy precipitate multitudes of poor souls into eternal condemnation! There must be a universal reform, and this reform must be accomplished by summoning a general Council. Wherefore, most excellent princes and lords, with submission I implore you to lose no time in the consideration of this matter.” Several days after Aleander’s address, Duke George produced the list of grievances which he had enumerated. This important document is preserved in the archives of Weimar.

Luther had not spoken more forcibly against the abuses of Rome but he had done something more. The duke pointed out the evil, Luther had, along with the evil, pointed out both the cause and the cure. He had shown that the sinner receives the true indulgence, that which comes from God, solely by faith in the grace and merits of Jesus Christ, and this simple but powerful doctrine had overturned all the markets established by the priests. “How can one become pious?” asked he one day. “A Cordelier will reply Put on a grey hood, and tie a cord round your waist. A Roman will reply, Hear mass, and fast. But a Christian will say, Faith in Christ alone justifies and saves. Before works we must have eternal life. After we are born anew, and made children of God by the word of grace, then it is we do good works.” The duke spoke the language of a secular prince—Luther, the language of a reformer. The great sore of the Church was that she had devoted herself entirely to externals; had made all her works and her graces to consist of outward and material things. Indulgences had carried this to its extreme point, and pardon, the most spiritual thing in Christianity, had been purchased in shops like meat and drink. The great work of Luther consisted in his availing himself of this extreme point in the degeneracy of Christendom; in order to bring back the individual and the Church to the primitive source of life, and to re-establish the reign of the Holy Spirit within the sanctuary of the heart. Here, as often happens, the cure sprung out of the disease, and the two extremes met. Henceforward the Church, which during so many ages had been developed externally by ceremonies, observances, and human practices, began again to be developed within by faith, hope, and charity. The duke’s address produced the greater effect from his opposition to Luther being well known. Other members of the Diet stated different grievances. The ecclesiastical princes themselves supported these complaints. “We have a pontiff,” said they, “who spends his life in hunting and pleasure. The benefices of Germany are given at Rome to huntsmen, domestics, grooms, stable boys, body servants, and other people of that class, ignorant unpolished people, without capacity, and entire strangers to Germany.”² The Diet appointed a commission to collect all these grievances. Their number was found to be a hundred and one. A deputation, consisting of secular and ecclesiastical princes, presented the list to the emperor, imploring him to give redress, as he had engaged to do at his election. “How many Christian souls are lost?” said they to Charles V. “How many depredations, how much extortion, are caused by the scandals with which the spiritual chief of Christendom is environed? The ruin and dishonour of our people must be prevented. Therefore, we all, in a body, supplicate you most humbly, but also most urgently, to ordain a general reformation, to undertake it, and to accomplish it.” There was, at this time, in Christian society, an unseen power influencing princes and their subjects, a wisdom from above dragging forward even the adversaries of the Reformation, and preparing that emancipation whose appointed hour had at length arrived.

Charles could not be insensible to these remonstrances of the empire. Neither himself nor the nuncio had expected them. His confessor had even denounced the vengeance of Heaven against him if he did not reform the Church. The emperor immediately withdrew the edict which ordered Luther’s writings to be committed to the flames in every part of the empire, and in its place substituted a provisional order remitting these books to the magistrates. This did not satisfy the assembly, who were desirous that the Reformer should appear. It is unjust, said his friends, to condemn Luther without having heard him, and without knowing from himself whether he is the author of the books which are proposed to be burnt. His doctrine, said his opponents, has so taken possession of men’s hearts, that it is impossible to arrest their progress without hearing him. There need be no discussion with him. If he avows his writings, and refuses to retract them, then all of us, electors, princes, states of the whole empire, true to the faith of our ancestors, will, in a body, aid your majesty, by all the means in our power, in the execution of your decrees.

Aleander, alarmed, dreading both the intrepidity of Luther and the ignorance of the princes, immediately set himself to the task of preventing the Reformer’s compearance. He went from the ministers of Charles to the princes who were most disposed to favour the pope, and from these princes to the emperor himself. “It is unlawful,” said he, “to bring into question what the sovereign pontiff has decided. There will be no discussion with Luther, you say; but continued he, will not the power of this audacious man, will not the fire of his eye, and the eloquence of his tongue, and the mysterious spirit which animates him, be sufficient to excite some sedition?² Several already venerate him as a saint, and you everywhere meet with his portrait surrounded with a halo of glory, as round the head of the Blessed. If it is determined to cite him, at least let it be without giving him the protection of public faith.” These last words were meant to frighten Luther, or prepare his ruin. The nuncio found easy access to the grandees of Spain. In Spain, as in Germany, the opposition to the Dominican inquisitors was national. The yoke of the inquisition, which had been discontinued for a time, had just been re-established by Charles. A numerous party in the Peninsula sympathised with Luther; but it was not so with the great, who, on the banks of the Rhine, again met with what they had hated beyond the Pyrenees. Inflamed with the most violent fanaticism, they were bent on annihilating the new heresy. In particular, Frederick, Duke of Alba, was transported with rage whenever the subject of Reformation was mooted. His wish would have been to wade in the blood of all its adherents. Luther had not yet been called to appear, and yet his mere name was already agitating all the grandees of Christendom then assembled at Worms. The man who was thus agitating the mighty of the earth was the only one who seemed to be at peace. The news from Worms were alarming. Even Luther’s friends were frightened. “Nothing now is left us but our wishes and our prayers,” wrote Melancthon to Spalatin. “Oh! if God would deign to ransom the safety of the Christian people by my blood.” But Luther was a stranger to fear. Shutting himself up in his peaceful cell, he sat down to meditate, applying to himself the words of Mary, the mother of our Lord, when she exclaimed, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he that is mighty has done for me great things, and holy is His name. He has shown strength with his arm; he hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.” The following are some of the thoughts which filled Luther’s heart … “ ‘He that is mighty,’ says Mary. Oh! how great boldness on the part of a young girl! With a single word she strikes all the strong with languor, all the mighty with feebleness, all the wise with folly, and all those whose name is glorious on the earth with ignominy, and lays at the feet of God all strength, all power, all wisdom, all glory.² ‘His arm,’ continues she, and she thus appeals to that power by which he acts of himself, and without the agency of his creatures—a mysterious power operating in secrecy and in silence, until his purpose is accomplished. Hence destruction comes before any one is aware of its approach; hence elevation, when no one is thinking of it. He leaves his children in oppression and feebleness, so that each of them says to himself, ‘We are all lost!’ Then, however, they are most strong. For it is where the power of man ends that the power of God begins. Only let faith wait upon Him … And, on the other hand, God permits his adversaries to increase their power and grandeur. He withdraws from them the aid of his strength, and leaves them to be inflated with their own. He leaves them void of his eternal wisdom, and lets them fill themselves with their wisdom of a day. And while they rise up in the greatness of their might, the arm of the Lord keeps back, and their work … vanishes like a soap bubble when it bursts in the air.”

It was on the 10th of March, at the moment when his name was filling the imperial city with alarm, that Luther finished this exposition of the Magnificat.

He was not allowed to remain tranquil in his retreat. Spalatin, in conformity to the orders of the Elector, sent him a note of the articles of which it was proposed to demand a retractation from him. A retractation after the refusal at Augsburg! … “Fear not,” he wrote to Spalatin, “that I will retract a single syllable, since their only argument is to insist that my writings are opposed to the rites of what they call the Church. If the Emperor Charles summon me merely for the purpose of retracting, I will answer him that I will remain here; and it will be just the same thing as if I had been to Worms and come back again. But if, on the contrary, the emperor chooses to summon me in order that I may be put to death, I am ready to repair at his call; for, with the help of Christ, I will not desert his word on the battle-field. I know it: these bloody men will never rest till they have deprived me of life Oh, that none but papists would become guilty of my blood!”