THE CHRISTIAN GUARDIAN,

AND

CHURCH OF ENGLAND MAGAZINE.

APRIL 1843.

LUTHER'S PATMOS.'

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On Friday morning, the 26th of April, 1521, the Reformer's friends and several nobles assembled at Luther's lodgings. eager once more, and perhaps for the last time, to say farewell to the intrepid monk. Luther partook of a simple repast. And now he must bid adieu to his friends, and depart far from them under a sky overhung with storms. He resolved to spend this solemn moment in the presence of God. He fortified his soul, and gave his blessing to those about him. It was ten o'clock. Luther left the hotel, attended by the friends who had accompanied him to Worms. Twenty gentlemen on horseback surrounded the waggon. A crowd accompanied him outside the city. Sturm, the Imperial herald, joined him shortly after at Oppenheim, and on the following day the party arrived in Frankfort.

Thus did Luther leave those walls which seemed destined to become his tomb. His heart overflowed with praise to God. Satan himself,' says he,kept the Pope's citadel, but Christ has made a wide breach in it, and the devil has been compelled to confess that Christ is mightier than he.'

The day of the Diet of Worms,' says the devout Mathesius, the disciple and friend of Luther, is one of the most glorious given to the earth before its great catastrophe.' The conflict at Worms resounded far and near, and as the report of it traversed Europe, from the northern countries to the mountains of Switzerland, and the towns of England, France, and Italy, many seized with eagerness the mighty weapons of the word of God.

Arriving at Frankfort on the evening of Saturday the 27th of April, Luther, on the following morning, took advantage of a moment of leisure, the first he had enjoyed for a long time past, to despatch a short letter, replete at once with familiarity and energy, to his friend Lucas Cranach, the celebrated painter at Wittemberg: APRIL, 1843.

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My service to you, dear master Lucas,' said he: I expected his Majesty would assemble fifty learned doctors to convict the monk outright. But not at all. Are these books of your writing? Yes. Will you retract them? No! Well, begone! There's the whole history. Deluded Germans . . how childishly we act !-how are we duped and defrauded by Rome! Let the Jews sing their Yo! Yo! Yo! But a passover is coming for us also, and then will we sing Hallelujah! We must keep silence and endure for a short time. "A little while and ye shall not see me, and again a little while and ye shall see me," said Jesus Christ. I trust I may say the same. Farewell--I commend you all to the Eternal. May He preserve in Christ your understanding and your faith, from the attacks of the wolves and dragons of Rome. Amen.'

After writing this rather mysterious letter, Luther immediately set out for Friedberg, six leagues from Frankfort. Time, in fact, pressed. On the following morning he again collected his thoughts, and resolved once more to address Charles the Fifth. He was unwilling to appear in the light of a guilty rebel. In his letter he explained clearly the obedience the Christian owes to kings, and that which is due to God, and the point at which the former must give place to the latter. As we read Luther's letter, we are involuntarily reminded of the saying of the greatest autocrat of modern times: My dominion ends where that of conscience commences.'

God is my witness, who knoweth the thoughts,' said Luther, that I am ready with all my heart to obey your Majesty through good or evil report, in life or in death, with no one exception, save the word of God, by which man liveth. In all the affairs of this life my fidelity shall be unshaken, for, in these, loss or gain has nothing to do with salvation. But it is contrary to the will of God, that man should be subject to man in that which pertains to eternal life. Subjection in spirituals is a real worship, and should be rendered only to the Creator.'

Luther also wrote in German a letter to the States. It was nearly to the same effect, and recapitulated what had taken place at Worms. This letter was several times transcribed and circulated throughout the empire, exciting everywhere, says Cochleæus, the feelings of the people against the Emperor and the upper ranks of the clergy.

Early the following morning, Luther wrote a note to Spalatin, inclosing in it the two letters he had written on the previous evening. He sent back to Worms the herald Sturm, who had been gained to the cause of the Gospel. Embracing him, he parted from him, and set out in haste for Grunberg.

On the Tuesday, when he was within two leagues distance from Hirschfeld, he was met by the Chancellor to the Prince Abbot of the city, who had come out to welcome him. Soon after appeared a troop of horsemen, headed by the Abbot. The latter dismounted, Luther stepped from his waggon. The Prince and the Reformer embraced, and entered Hirschfeld together. The Senate received them at the gates. Thus dignitaries of the Church opened their arms to a monk whom the Pope had anathematised, and the higher classes did honour to a man whom the Emperor had placed under ban of the empire.

'To-morrow morning, at five o'clock, we shall be at church,' said the Prince, rising from a repast to which he had invited the Reformer. He insisted on his occupying his own apartment. The following day Luther preached, and the Prince Abbot and his suite attended the

sermon.

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In the evening of that day Luther reached Eisenach, the scene of his childhood. All his acquaintance in the place came round him, and entreated him to preach: and the following day they escorted him to church. Upon this the curate appeared, attended by a notary and witnesses. He stepped forward, trembling between fear of losing his appointment and of opposing the energetic man before him. must protest,' said he at last, with embarrassment, against the liberty you are about to take.' Luther ascended the pulpit, and a voice, which, three-and-twenty years before, had sung in the streets of that same town for a morsel of bread, proclaimed through the vaulted roofs of its venerable church the word which was beginning to agitate the world. The sermon being over, the curate stepped up to Luther. He held in his hand the record drawn up by the notary, and regularly witnessed, to protect the curate from dismissal. 'I ask your pardon,' said he, humbly; I take this course from fear of the tyrants that oppress the church.'

And truly there was ground for apprehension. Affairs at Worms had changed their aspect, and Aleander reigned paramount. The only prospect for Luther is banishment,' wrote Frederic to his brother, Duke John, nothing can save him. If God permits me to see you again, I shall have strange things to tell you. Not only Annas and Caiaphas, but Pilate and Herod have conspired against him.' Frederic had no desire to prolong his stay, and accordingly quitted Worms, as did the Elector Palatine. The Elector Archbishop of Cologne also took his departure from the Diet, and the inferior Princes followed the example. Deeming it impossible to avert the blow, they preferred, perhaps unwisely, to quit the place. The Spaniards, Italians, and the most ultra-montane of the German Princes alone remained.

Thus Aleander was master of the field. He presented to Charles a rough draft of an edict, intended to serve as a model for that which the Diet was about to publish against the monk. The production of the Nuncio pleased the incensed Emperor. He assembled the members of the Diet still at Worms in his council-chamber, and read to them Aleander's paper, which, as Pallavicini informs us, was approved by all present.

The

On the following day, which was a public festival, the Emperor repaired to the cathedral, attended by the nobles of his court. service being gone through, a crowd of persons thronged the interior, when Aleander, clothed in the insignia of his order, approached Charles. He held in his hand two copies of the edict against Luther, one in Latin, the other in German, and kneeling before his Imperial Majesty, he petitioned Charles to affix to it his signature and the seal of the Empire. It was at the moment when sacrifice had just been offered, when the incense filled the temple, and the hymn was reverberating in the vaulted roofs, and, as it were, in the immediate presence of God, that the seal was to be set to the destruction of the

enemy of Rome. The Emperor, in the most gracious manner, took a pen, and attached his signature to the edict. Aleander withdrew in triumph, and instantly sent the decree to the printer, and thence to every part of Christendom. This result of Roman diplomacy had cost no small pains to the Papacy. We learn from Pallavicini himself that the edict, though dated the 8th of May, was written and signed some days later, but antedated, in order that it might appear sanctioned by the presence of the whole Diet.

We, Charles the Fifth, &c.' said the Emperor, to the Electors, Princes, Prelates, and all to whom these presents shall come.

The Almighty having confided to us for the defence of our holy faith more extensive dominion and rule than He hath given to any of our predecessors, we propose to employ all our powers to preserve our holy empire from being polluted by any heresy.

'The Augustine monk, Martin Luther, regardless of our exhorta.... tions, has madly attacked the holy Church, and attempted to destroy it by writings full of blasphemy. He has shamefully vilified the unalterable law of holy marriage; he has laboured to incite the laity to imbrue their hands in the blood of their priests; and, defying all authority, has incessantly excited the people to revolt, schism, war, murder, theft, incendiarism, and the utter destruction of the Christian faith. In a word, and passing over many other evil intentions, this being, who is no man, but Satan himself under the semblance of a man in a monk's hood, has collected in one offensive mass, all the worst heresies of former ages, adding his own to the number.

We have therefore dismissed from our presence this Luther, whom all reasonable men count a madman, or possessed by the devil: and it is our intention that so soon as the term of his safe-conduct is expired, effectual measures be forthwith taken to put a stop to his fury.

'For this end, and on pain of incurring the penalty of treason, we hereby forbid you to receive the said Luther from the moment when the said term is expired, or to harbour or to give him meat or drink, or by word or act, publicly or in private, to aid or abet him. We further enjoin you to seize, or cause him to be seized, wherever he may be, and to bring him before us without delay, or hold him in durance until you shall be informed how to deal with him, and have received the reward due to your co-operation in this holy work.

'As to his adherents, you are enjoined to seize upon them, putting them down and confiscating their property.

"Touching his writings-seeing that the best of food is held in horror by all men when the least poison is mixed therewith, how much more should such writings, wherein the main object is a mortal venom, be not merely rejected, but destroyed? You will, therefore, burn, or, in other ways, utterly destroy them.

'As to the authors, poets, printers, painters, vendors, or purchasers, of caricatures, or placards, against the Pope or the Church, you are enjoined to seize on their persons and property, and deal with them as may seem fit.

'And if any one, whatever may be his rank, should dare to act contrary to this decree of our Imperial Majesty, we command that he be placed under ban of the empire.

Let each one observe this decree.'

Such was the edict signed in the cathedral of Worms. It was more than a Roman bull, which, though issued in Italy, might not be carried into execution in Germany. The Emperor himself had spoken, and the Diet had ratified the decree. The whole body of Romanists shouted for joy. The tragedy is over,' exclaimed they. For my part,' said Alphonso Valdez, a Spaniard of Charles's court, I am persuaded it is not the last act, but the beginning.' Valdez clearly perceived that the movement was in the Church, the people, the age, -and that were Luther to fall, his cause would not perish with him. But none could help seeing the imminent and inevitable danger in which the Reformer was placed, and the superstitious multitude were impressed by a feeling of horror at the thought of that incarnate Satan whom the Emperor pointed to as clothed with a monk's habit.

The man against whom the mighty ones of this earth were thus forging their thunderbolts,-on leaving the pulpit of Eisenach, endeavoured to muster resolution to take leave of some of his dearest friends. He decided not to take the road to Gotha and Erfurth, but to proceed by way of the village of Mora, the birth-place of his father, in order once more to see his grandmother (who died four months afterwards), and to visit his uncle, Henry Luther, and some other relations. Schurff, Jonas, and Suaven, set out for Wittemberg; Luther entered his waggon, accompanied by Amsdorff, and plunged into the forest of Thuringen.

That same evening he arrived in the village of his fathers. The aged peasant pressed to her heart that grandson who had dared to confront the Emperor and the Pope. Luther passed the following day with his relations, joyfully contrasting its sweet tranquillity with the turmoil of Worms. The next day he again set out in company with Amsdorff and his brother James. It was in these secluded spots that the Reformer's fate was on the point of being decided. They skirted the woods of Thuringen, taking the path that leads to Waltershausen. As the waggon was passing a narrow defile near the ruined church of Glisbach, a short distance from the castle of Altenstein, suddenly a noise was heard, and in a moment, five horsemen, masked and armed from head to foot, fell upon them. His brother James, as soon as he caught sight of the assailants, jumped from the waggon, and fled as fast as he could without uttering a word. The driver would have resisted. Stop,' cried a hoarse voice, and instantly one of the attacking party threw him to the earth. Another of the masks grasped Amsdorff, and held him fast. While this was doing, the three horsemen laid hold on Luther, maintaining profound silence. They forced him to alight, and throwing a knight's cloak over his shoulders, set him on a led horse that they had with them. This done, the two other masks let go Amsdorff and the waggoner, and the whole five sprang into their saddles. One dropped his cap, but they did not stop to recover it; and in the twinkling of an eye, the party and their prisoner were lost in the thick gloom of the forest. At first they took the direction of Broderode; but they rapidly changed their route, and without quitting the forest, rode first in one direction and then in another, turning their horses' feet to baffle any attempt to track their course. Luther, little used to riding, was soon overcome with fatigue. His guides permitted him to stop for a few instants. He rested on