2 On the notorious imposition of the monks of Berne see, among many others, Hottinger's Historia Eccles. Helvet. tom. i, p. 334, &c. [ Hist. Eccles. Nov. sæcul. xvi. par. i. p. 334, &c. The narrative there inserted was drawn up by a Franciscan monk of Berne in the year 1509. The substance of it is this:-A Dominican monk named Wigand Wirt, preaching at Frankfort A.D. 1507, so violently assailed the doctrine of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary (the favourite doctrine of the Franciscans), that he was summoned to Rome to answer for his conduct. His brethren of the Dominican order in their convention at Wimpfen formed a plan to aid him, and to convince the world that the Franciscan doctrine of the immaculate conception was false. Berne was selected for the scene of their operations. The prior, sub-prior, preacher, and steward of the Dominican cloister at Berne undertook to get up miracles and revelations for the occasion. A simple honest rustic by the name of John Jetzer, who had just entered upon his novitiate in the monastery, was selected as their tool. The sub-prior appeared to him one night dressed in white, and pretending to be the ghost of a friar who had been a hundred and sixty years in purgatory. He wailed and entreated of Jetzer to afford him aid. Jetzer promised to do it as far as he was able, and the next morning reported his vision to his superiors. They encouraged him to go on and to confer freely with the ghost if he appeared again. A few nights after the ghost made his appearance, attended by two devils, his tormentors, and thanked Jetzer for the relaxation of his sufferings, in consequence of Jetzer's prayers, fasting, &c. He also instructed Jetzer respecting the views entertained in the other world concerning themmaculate conception, and the deten--Mur.

It was these friars especially who prompted torrent of useless quotations from the Leo X. to the imprudent step of publicly fathers, or to analyse it according to the condemning Martin Luther. laws of dialectics. And whenever they had occasion to speak of the meaning of any text, they appealed invariably to what was called the Glossa Ordinaria; and the phrase Glossa dicit was as common and decisive in their lips, as anciently the phrase ipse dixit in the Pythagorean school.

13. Many of the Mendicant monks held the principal chairs in the universities and schools; and this was the chief reason why the light of science and polite learning, which had begun to diffuse itself through most countries of Europe, could not more effectually dispel the clouds of ignorance 15. These doctors, however, disputed and stupidity. Most of the teachers of among themselves with sufficient freedom youth, decorated with the splendid titles of on various articles of religion, and even artists, grammarians, philosophers, and upon those which were considered essential logicians, in a most disgusting style loaded to salvation. For a great many points of the memories of their pupils with a multi- doctrine had not yet been determined by tude of barbarous terms and worthless dis- the authority of the church, or as the phrase tinctions; and when the pupil could repeat was, by the holy see; and the pontiffs were these with volubility, he was regarded as not accustomed, unless there was some eloquent and erudite. All the philosophers special reason, to make enactments which extolled Aristotle beyond measure, but no would restrain liberty of opinion on subjects one followed him, indeed none of them not connected either with the sovereignty understood him. For what they called the of the holy see or the privileges and emophilosophy of Aristotle was a confused mass luments of the clergy. Hence many perof obscure notions, sentences, and divisions, sons of great eminence might be named, the import of which not even the chiefs of who safely, and even sometimes with apthe school could comprehend. And if plause, advanced the same opinions before among these thorns of scholastic wisdom Luther's day which were afterwards charged there was anything which had the appearance upon him as a crime. And doubtless of fruit, it was crushed and destroyed by the senseless altercations of the different sects, especially the Scotists and Thomists, the Realists and Nominalists, from which no university was free.

14. How perversely and absurdly theology was taught in this age, appears from all the books it has transmitted to us, which are remarkable for nothing but their bulk. Of the biblical doctors or expounders of the precepts of the Bible, only here and there an individual remained. Even in the university of Paris, which was considered as the mother and queen of all the rest, not a man could be found when Luther arose competent to dispute with him out of the Scriptures. Those who remained of this class neglected the literal sense of the Scriptures, which they were utterly unable to investigate, on account of their ignorance of the sacred languages and of the laws of interpretation, and foolishly wandered after concealed and hidden meanings. Nearly all the theologians were Positivi and Sententiarii, who deemed it a great achievement both in speculative and practical theology, either to overwhelm the subject with a

This was not strange. Many of the doctors of theology in those times had never read the Bible. Carlstadt expressly tells us this was the case with himself. Whenever one freely read the Bible, he was cried out against as one making innovations, a heretic, and as exposing Christianity to great danger by making the New Testament known. Many of the monks regarded the Bible as a book which abounded in numerous errors.- Von Ein.

Luther might have enjoyed the same liberty with them, if he had not attacked the system of Roman finance, the wealth of the bishops, the supremacy of the pontiffs, and the reputation of the Dominican order.2

16. The public worship of God consisted almost wholly in a round of ceremonies, and those for the most part vain and useless; being calculated not to affect the heart but to dazzle the eye. Those who delivered sermons (which many were not able to do) filled or rather beguiled the ears of the people with pretended miracles, ridiculous fables, wretched quibbles, and similar trash, thrown together without judgment. There are still extant many examples of such discourses, which no good man can read without indignation. If among these declaimers there were some inclined to be more grave, for them certain commonplace arguments were prepared and arranged, on

3 The Easter sermons in particular are proof of this, in which the preachers were emulous to provoke laughter among the audience by repeating ludicrous stories, low jests, and whimsical incidents. This was called emphatically Easter laughter, and it still has its admirers in some portions of the Catholic church. John Ecolampadius, in the year 1518, published at Basil a tract of 32 pages 4to entitled, De Risu Paschali, Ecolampadii ad W. Capitonem Theologum Epistola. See Füsslin's Beyträge zur Kirchen-Reformationsgesch. des Sweitzerlandes, vol. v. p. 447, &c.-Schl.

18. Yet the more ruinous the evils pre

persons of distinction and wealth. And for these the

which they vociferated on almost all occa sions by the hour; such for instance as the authority of the holy mother church and confessor to whom a man confessed his sins had the the obedience due to it, the influence of power to adjudge and impose this temporary punishment. The punishment thus imposed consisted of the saints with God and their virtues and fasting, pilgrimages, flagellation, &c. But among the merits, the dignity, glory, and kindness of persons liable to such punishments, were frequently the Virgin Mary, the efficacy of relics, principle of admitting substitutes was introduced. the enriching of churches and monasteries, And there were monks, who for compensation paid them, would endure these punishments in behalf of the necessity of what they called good the rich. But as every man could not avail himself of works in order to salvation, the intolerable this relief, they at last commuted that penance into a flames of purgatory, and the utility of pious mulet, pia muleta. Whoever, for instance, was bound to whip himself for several weeks, might pay indulgences. To preach to the people to the church or to the monastery a certain sum of nothing but Christ Jesus our Saviour and money or give it a piece of land, and then be released his merits, and that pure love of God and with the consent of the pope, dethroned the lawful from the penance. Thus Pepin of France, having, men which springs from faith, would have monarch of that country, gave to the church the added little to the treasures and emoluments patrimony of St. Peter. As the popes perceived that something might be gained in this way, they assumed of good mother church. wholly to themselves the right of commuting canonical had before exercised in his own diocese. At first they penances for pecuniary satisfactions, which every bishop released only from the punishments of sin in the present world, but in the fourteenth century they extended this release also to the punishments of purgatory. Jesus, they said, has not removed all the punishments of sin. Those which he has not removed are either the punishments of this world, that is, the penances which confessors enjoin, or the punishments of the future world, that is, those of purgatory. An indulgence frees a person from both these. The first, of the church, just as the sovereign of a country can the pope remits by his papal power as sovereign lord commute the corporeal punishment which the inferior remits, (as Benedict XIV. says in his bull for the judges decree into pecuniary mulcts. jubilee), jure suffragii, that is, by his prevalent intercession with God, who can deny nothing to his vicegerent. Yet this release from the punishments of sin cannot bo bestowed gratis. There must be an equivalent, that is, some money, which is given to the pope for religious uses.

17. From these causes there was among all classes and ranks in every country, an amazing ignorance on religious subjects, and no less superstition united with gross corruption of morals. Those who presided over the ceremonies willingly tolerated these evils, and indeed encouraged them in various ways, rather than strove to stifle them, well knowing that their own interests were depending upon them. Nor did the majority think it advisable to oppose strenuously the corruption of morals; for they well knew that if the crimes and sins of the people were diminished, the sale of indulgences would also decrease, and they would of course derive much less revenue from absolutions and other similar sources.1

1 Schlegel here inserts the following history of popish indulgences according to the views of Mosheim, derived undoubtedly from his public lectures, which Schlegel himself had heard and has frequently referred to.-Mur. [The origin of indulgences must be sought in the earliest history of the church. In the first centuries of the Christian church, those Christians who were excluded from the communion, on account of their relapses in times of persecution or on account of other heinous sins, had to seek a restoration to fellowship by a public penance, in which they entreated the brethren to forgive their offence, standing before the door of the church clothed in the garb of mourning. This ecclesiastical punishment, which was regarded as a sort of satisfaction made to the community and was called by that name, and which prevented much irregularity among Christians, was afterwards moderated, and sometimes remitted in the case of infirm persons, and this remission was called indulgence, indulgentia. Originally therefore indulgences were merely the remission of ecclesiastical punishments, imposed on the lapsed and other gross offenders. When persecutions ceased, and the principal ground for this ecclesiastical regulation no longer existed, these punishments might have been laid aside. [Not 80, for relapsing into idolatry was only one among the many offences for which penance was imposed; and as persecutions ceased and the church became rich and corrupt, other sins were multiplied, so that the ground for inflicting church censures rather increased than diminished.-Mur.] They continued, and the doctrine gradually grew up that Christ had atoned for the eternal punishment of sin, but not for its temporary punishment. The temporal punishment they divided into that of the present life, and that of the future life or of purgatory. It was held, that every man who would attain salvation must suffer the temporary punishment of his sins, either in the present world or in the flames of purgatory; and that the

The last he

Princes indeed never release

Thus

a man from corporeal punishment unless he petitions
for it. But the vicegerent of Christ is more gracious
than other judges, and causes his indulgences to be
freely offered to the whole church, and to be proclaimed
aloud throughout the Christian world. These princi-
ples carried into operation drew immense sums of
money to Rome. When such indulgences were to be
published, the disposal of them was commonly farmed
out. For the papal court could not always wait to
have the money collected and conveyed from every
country of Europe. And there were rich merchants
at Genon, Milan, Venice, and Augsburg, who purchased
the indulgences for a particular province, and paid to
the papal chancery handsome sums for them.
both parties were benefited. The chancery came at
once into possession of large sums of money, and the
farmers did not fail of a good bargain. They were
careful to employ skilful hawkers of the indulgences,
persons whose boldness and impudence bore due
proportion to the eloquence with which they imposed
upon the simple people. Yet that this species of traffic
might have a religious aspect, the pope appointed the
archbishops of the several provinces to be his com-
missaries, who in his name published that indulgences
were to be sold, and generally selected the persons to
hawk them, and for this service shared the profits
with the merchants who farmed them. These papal
hawkers enjoyed great privileges, and however odious
to the civil authorities, they were not to be molested.
Complaints indeed were made against these contribu-
tions levied by the popes upon all Christian Europe.
Kings and princes, clergy and laity, bishops, monas-
teries, and confessors, all felt themselves aggrieved by
them; the former, that their countries were impove
rished under the pretext of crusades which were never
undertaken, and of wars against heretics and Turks;
and the latter, that their letters of indulgence were
rendered inefficient, and the people released from
ecclesiastical discipline. But at Rome all were deaf
to these complaints, and it was not till the revolution
produced by Luther that unhappy Europe obtained
the desired relief.--Schl.

and a professor of theology in the university of Wittemberg, which Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, had established a few years before, unexpectedly and with astonishing intrepidity opposed himself alone to the whole Romish power. It was in the year 1517, when Leo X. was at the head of the church, Maximilian I. of Austria governed the German Roman empire, and Frederick, for his great wisdom surnamed the Wise, ruled over Saxony. Many applauded the courage and heroism of this new opposer; but almost no one anticipated his success. For it was not to be expected that this light-armed warrior could inflict any injury on a Hercules, whom so many heroes had assailed in vain.

valent throughout the church, the more | Eremites one of the four Mendicant orders, earnestly was a reformation longed for by all who were governed either by good sense and solid learning or by a regard to piety. Nor was the number of these in the whole Latin world by any means small. The majority of them did not indeed wish to see the constitution and organization of the church altered, nor the doctrines which had become sacred by long admission rejected, nor the rites and ceremonies abrogated; but only to have some bounds set to the power of the pontiffs, the corrupt morals and the impositions of the clergy corrected, the ignorance and errors of the people dispelled, and the burdens imposed on the people under colour of religion removed. But as none of these reforms could be effected without first extirpating various 2. That Luther was possessed of extraabsurd and impious opinions which gave ordinary talents, uncommon genius, a cobirth to the evils, or without purging the pious memory, astonishing industry and existing religion from its corruptions, all perseverance, superior eloquence, a greatthose may be considered as implicitly de-ness of soul which rose above all human manding a reformation of religion, who are weaknesses, and consummate erudition for represented as calling for a reformation of the age in which he lived, even those among the church both in its head and in its members.

19. What little of real piety still remained existed, as it were, under the patronage of those called Mystics. For this class of persons, both by their tongues and pens, avoiding all scholastic disputations and demonstrating the vanity of mere external worship, exhorted men to strive only to obtain holiness of heart and communion with God. And hence they were loved and respected by most of those who seriously and earnestly sought for salvation. Yet as all of them associated the vulgar errors and superstitions with their precepts of piety, and many of them were led into strange opinions by their excessive love of contemplation, and were but little removed from fanatical delirium, more powerful auxiliaries than they were necessary to the subjugation of prejudices now become inveterate.

CHAPTER II.

HISTORY OF THE COMMENCEMENT AND PRO-
GRESS OF THE REFORMATION, TO THE
PRESENTATION OF THE AUGSBURG CON-

FESSION [OR FROM A.D. 1517-1530].

1. WHILE the Roman pontiff supposed all was safe and tranquil, and the pious and good were everywhere despairing of the much longed-for reformation of the church, Martin Luther, an obscure and insignificant monk of Eisleben in Saxony, a province of Germany, born of reputable but humble parentage, of the order of the Augustinian

his enemies who possess some candour do not deny. In the philosophy then taught in the schools he was as well versed as he was in theology, and he taught both with great applause in the university of Wittemberg. In the former, he followed the principles of the Nominalists which were embraced by his order, that of the Augustinians; in the latter, he was a follower for the most part of St. Augustine. But he had long preferred the Holy Scriptures and sound reason before human authorities or opinions. No wise man indeed will pronounce him entirely faultless; yet if we except the imperfections of the times in which he lived and of the religion in which he was trained, we shall find little to censure in the man.1

All the writers who have given the history of Luther's life and achievements are enumerated by Fabricius, in his Centifolium Lutheranum, of which the first volume appeared at Hamburg in 1728, and the second volume in 1730, 8vo. [Melancthon, De Vita Lutheri, ed. Heumann, Gotting. 1741, 4to; Schroeckh's Kirchengesch. seit der Reformation, vol. i. p. 106, &c.; Milner's Church History, cent. xvi.; Bower's Life of Luther, Edinb. 1813, and numerous others; among which the following are particularly recommended by Schlegel.-Mur. Walch's Ausführliche Nachricht von D. Mart. Luther, prefixed to the 24th vol. of his edition of Luther's works, p. 1-875, which exceeds all others in fulness and learned fidelity. The earlier work of Keil, Merkwürdige Lebensumstände D. Mart.

Luther's, Leipsic, 1764, 4 vols. contains much that is good with some things which are censurable. Also from its historical connexion, Walch's Gesch. der Frau Catharina Von Bora, Martin Luther's Ehegattin, 2 vols. Gotting. 1753-54, 8vo, and Schroeckh's Life of Luther, in his Abbildungen der Gelehrten. From these writings we adduce these principal circumstances:Luther's father was a miner of Mansfield. He was born at Eisleben, A.D 1483. After attending the

schools of Magdeburg and Eisenach, he studied scho

lastic philosophy and jurisprudence at Erfurth, and at

the same time read the ancient Latin authors. But his intimate friend being killed and himself completely

3. The first occasion for publishing the truths he had discovered was presented to this great man by John Tetzel, a Dominican monk void of shame, whom Albert the archbishop of Mentz and Magdeburg had hired on account of his impudence, to solicit the Germans in the name of the Roman pontiff Leo X. to expiate with money their own sins and those of their friends, and future sins as well as past ones, or in other

stunned by a clap of thunder, he joined himself, much against the will of his father, to one of the most rigid orders of Mendicants, that of the Augustinian Eremites. In this situation he so conducted himself, that his superiors were well satisfied with his industry, good temper, and abilities. In the year 1508, John von Staupitz, his vicar-general, sent him from Erfurt to Wittemberg, contrary to his inclinations, to be professor of philosophy. He now applied himself more to biblical theology, discovered the defects of the scholastic philosophy, and began to reject human authorities in matters of religion; and in these views, his baccalaureate in theology, which he took in the year 1509, confirmed him still more. A journey to Rome, which he undertook in the year 1510 on the gences and grace, 1518. Resolutiones Thesium de business of his order, procured him knowledge and Indulgentiis. Among his exegetical writings, his experience, which were afterwards of great use to him. Commentary on the epistle to the Galatians, and that After his return, he took in the year 1512 his degree of on Genesis, are the most important. In his own estidoctor in divinity; and he now applied himself dili-mation, his best work was his Postills, which were gently to the study of the Greek and Hebrew languages.published in 1527. His essays, De Libertate Christiana, All these pursuits were preparations for that great De Captivitate Babylonica, and De Votis Monasticis, work which Divine Providence intended to accomplish are very polemic; as also his book against Erasmus, by him; and they procured him a degree of learning De Servo Arbitrio, in which he closely follows Auguswhich was great for those times. He was not inexpert tine in the doctrine concerning grace, while the earliest in philosophy, and he understood the Bible better than among the reformed defended universal grace. His any other teacher in the Catholic church; he had translation of the Bible, which was first published by critically read the writings of the fathers, and had parcels and appeared entire for the first time in 1534, studied, among the modern writers, especially William his larger and smaller Catechisms, the seventeen Occam and John Gerson, together with the Mystics of Articles of Schwabach, the Articles of Smalcald, the two preceding centuries, and particularly John and his Letters, are very important. The best edition Tauler; and from the two former (Occam and Gerson), of his writings is that of Halle, 1737-53, in twentyhe learned to view the papal authority differently from four volumes, to which the immortal counsellor Walch the mass of people; and from the latter (the Mystics), has imparted the greatest possible perfection.- Schl. he learned many practical truths relating to the [To the works on the Life of Luther enumerated in religion of the heart, which were not to be found in the beginning of this note may be added the following the ordinary books of devotion and piety. Of church later ones: Ukert, Luther's Leben, Gotha, 1817, chiefly history he had so much knowledge as was necessary literary; Sheibel, Ueber Luther's Christlich. Frommigfor combating the prevalent errors and for restoring keit, Breslau, 1817; Pfizer, Luther's Leben, Stuttg. the primitive religion of Christians. In the Belles 1836, translated into English by Williams, with an Lettres also he was not a novice. He wrote the Ger- introductory essay by Isaac Taylor, Lond. 1840, but man language with greater purity, elegance, and force, the translation has omitted Pfizer's Introduction, and than any other author of that age; and his translation the entire chapter entitled, Luther's politics; Stang, of the Bible and his hymns still exhibit proof how M. Luther, sein Leben u. Wirken, Stuttg. 1838; Meurer, correctly, nervously, and clearly, he could express him- Luther's Leben aus den Quellen erzählt, Dresd. 1842, self in his native tongue. He possessed a natural, not yet completed. The following life of Luther is strong, and moving eloquence. These acquisitions now in course of publication at Leipsic: Karl Jürgen's, and talents resided in a mind of uncommon ardour, Luthor's Leben. It promises to be a very full biography, and of heroic virtue in action; and he applied them as the first volume of 700 pages extends only to 1517. to objects of the greatest utility, both to mankind at But by far the most important publication for illustralarge and to the individual members of society. Ile ting the life of Luther with which we have been saw religion to be disfigured with the most pernicious recently furnished, and the value of which it is imposerrors, and reason and conscience to be under intoler-sible to overrate, is the complete edition of his letters able bondage. He chased away these errors, brought which has been published by De Wette in his work true religion and sound reason again into repute, entitled, Luther's Briefe, Sendschreiben, u. Bedenken, rescued virtue from slavish subjection to human Berlin, 1825-28, five vols. 8vo. These letters were authorities, and made it obedient to nobler motives, previously dispersed in at least six different collections, vindicated the rights of man against the subverters of some of which were of extreme rarity; they are all them, furnished the state with useful citizens by collected in this work, and many pieces previously removing obstructions to marriage, and gave to the unpublished have been added, and the whole is carethrones of princes their original power and security. fully edited and illustrated with notes. To these By what means he gradually effected all this good for biographies of .uther may be added the following, mankind will appear in the course of this history. It recently published by Roman Catholic laymen: Audin, is true, the man who performed these heroic deeds for Histoire de la Vie, des Ecrits, et des Doctrines de Europe had his imperfections; for heroes are but M. Luther, latest edition, Paris, 1841, 2 vols. translated men. But his faults were not the faults of a corrupt into English, Lond. 1843. This is a singular work; for heart, but of a warm, sanguine, choleric temperament, while the author has a profound admiration for Luther and the effects of his education and of the times in as a man of genius and endowed with talents of a which he lived. He answered his opposers, even when high order, he nevertheless, like all other Romanists, they were kings and princes, with too great acrimony, represents him as actuated by low, selfish, and even with passion, and often with personal abuse. He licentious principles throughout the whole of his acknowledged this as a fault, and commended Melanc- opposition to the papal corruptions. Michelet, Méthon and Brentius, who exhibited more mildness in their moires de Luther, ecrits par lui-meme, Paris, 1837, 2 conversation and writings. But it was his zeal for the vols. As the title intimates, the author, who has since truth which enkindled his passions, and perhaps they rendered himself so well known by his powerful were necessary in those times; perhaps also they exposures of the Jesuits in France, makes Luther as were the consequence of his monastic life, in which far as practicable his own biographer, by giving he had no occasion to learn worldly courtesy. And extracts from his letters and other works in his own were not the harsh and passionate terms which he words. But his range of quotations is rather limited, used towards his opposers, the controversial language and too many of them are taken from that unauof his age? We do not say this to justify Luther; he thentic source, Luther's Tischreden. I may add that was a man and he had human weaknesses, but he was a new edition of Luther's entire works has been in clearly one of the best men known in that century. course of publication at Erlangen, the Lutheran This is manifest, among other proofs, from his writings; University of Bavaria, since 1826, to be completed in the most important of which we shall here enumerate. 60 volumes, of which little more than the one-half is Theses de Indulgentiis, or Disputatio pro Declaratione yet published. It is known as Irmischer's edition, and Virtutis Indulgentiarum, 1517. A sermon on Indul- I believe is expected to surpass that of Halle.-R.