‘I am born to be a rough controversialist. I clear the ground, pull up weeds, fill up ditches, and smooth the roads. But to build, to plant, to sow, to water, to adorn the country, belongs, by the grace of God, to Melancthon.’
If he had a spirit of rancorous enmity and cold-blooded malice towards his opponents, let him be condemned. But we all know, severe words may be spoken without a particle of malignity, and a smooth tongue often disguises an envenomed spirit. I am much more disposed to quarrel with his vanity, than with his petulance.
The obligations which Charles V owed to Frederic were such as to secure his protection for Luther, to a certain extent.18 He did not care for his opinions, though his own prejudices were no doubt on the side of the old system. He cared only for the political bearings of the question. And it was obvious that the elector’s friend must not be condemned without a hearing. Hence, after much negotiation and correspondence, his appearance at Worms is agreed upon. His wise protector gets an express renunciation of the principle from Charles: ‘Faith is not to be kept with heretics.’ Several of the princes countersign his safe conduct; and Luther, as if to face as many devils as there were tiles on the houses of the selected city, preaches his way to Worms. His defence there has sometimes disappointed me, and he seems afterwards to have felt that he had been too tame and inexplicit himself. When he later speaks of his boldness (shortly before his death), questioning whether he should have been so bold in that day, he gives God the glory. This is a fact recited triumphantly by many historians with reference to his courage in determining, or rather in proceeding to go up, notwithstanding the strong dissuasives with which he met on his way.
He who made man’s mouth and gives him wisdom, and who has promised for such very occasions, “I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to challenge or resist,” Luk 21.15 no doubt ordered Luther’s speech in perfect wisdom at that trying hour. The speech he delivered was the speech for the time and for the case. But the question is, was it the speech we should have looked for from a Luther? We admit there never was such a moment, possibly, since the Apostles’ days. All the pomp of Caesar was before him. But I confess there is more of the elector Frederic, Spalatinus and Melancthon, than of Paul before Felix, or of Peter and John before the council.
Hear his own account.
‘I have great misgivings (he says in a letter to Spalatinus some months after), and am greatly troubled in conscience, because in compliance with your advice, and that of some other friends, I restrained my spirit at Worms, and did not conduct myself like an Elijah, in attacking those idols. Were I ever to stand before that audience again, they would hear very different language from me.’
And again:
‘To please certain friends, and that I might not appear unreasonably obstinate, I did not speak out at the diet of Worms. I did not withstand the tyrants with that decided firmness and animation which becomes a confessor of the Gospel! Moreover, I am quite weary of hearing myself commended for the moderation which I showed on that occasion.’
The dean sets it all down to humility; but I do not doubt that there was much of well-founded and conscientious self-upbraiding in these acknowledgments. He maintained his principle, however: a free use of the word — the Scripture is for all, and it is to be freely interpreted by all. He would retract that, if convinced by Scripture, but not otherwise. Upon being informed that he was required to say simply and clearly whether he would or would not retract his opinions, Luther instantly said,
‘My answer shall be direct and plain. I cannot think myself bound to believe either the Pope or his councils; for it is very clear, not only that they have often erred, but often contradicted themselves. Therefore, unless I am convinced by Scripture or clear reasons, my belief is so confirmed by the scriptural passages that I have produced, and my conscience is so determined to abide by the word of God, that I neither can nor will retract anything — for it is neither safe nor innocent to act against a man’s conscience.
There is something particularly affecting in the words which follow:
‘Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. May God help me. Amen.’
Many attempts were made to persuade him in secret; but the upshot was that he would stand by the word, ‘rather than give up the word of God, when the case is quite clear: I WOULD LOSE MY LIFE.’ 19
In the course of three hours after his last interview with the elector Archbishop of Treves (who, though a bigoted Roman Catholic, had shown strong dispositions to serve him), Luther received an order to quit Worms. Only twenty-one days had been allowed for his safe conduct, and he was not permitted to preach on his way home. A sanguinary edict was then smuggled through the diet: many of the members had left Worms before it was voted on. The ceremony of enacting it took place in the emperor’s private apartments; the decree was antedated, as though it had passed on the 8th instead of the 21st, and Aleander, the Pope’s legate, Luther’s accuser, who had been greatly gravelled 20 by the vast consideration and respect shown to Luther, received it as a sort of sop and soporific from the emperor, that he should draw up the sentence.
‘The edict, as might be expected, was penned by Aleander with all possible rancour and malice. The first part of it states that it is the duty of the emperor to protect religion and extinguish heresies. The second part relates the pains that had been taken to bring the heretic back to repentance. And the third proceeds to the condemnation of MARTIN LUTHER in the strongest terms. The emperor says that, by the advice of the electors, princes, orders, and states of the empire, he had resolved to execute the sentence of the Pope, who was the proper guardian of the Catholic faith. He declares that Luther must be looked on as excommunicated, and as a notorious heretic; and he forbids all persons, under the penalty of high treason, to receive, maintain, or protect him. He orders that after the twenty-one days allowed him, Luther should be proceeded against in whatever place he might be — or at least that he should be seized and kept prisoner till the pleasure of his imperial majesty was known. He directs the same punishment to be inflicted on all his adherents or favourers; and that all their goods should be confiscated, unless they can prove that they have left his party and received absolution. He forbids all persons to print, sell, buy, or read any of Luther’s books, and he enjoins the princes and magistrates to cause them to be burnt.’
This high-sounding decree was never executed. Charles was too busy, too much entangled with crooked and conflicting politics, too dependent and too needy, to take vengeance for the Pope, at present, in Germany. In 1522, a diet of the empire held at Nuremberg agreed to a conclusion which Luther considered as an abrogation of it. In 1523, a second diet held at the same place, after some considerable difference of sentiment, concurred in a similar recess. The Lutherans were divided between hope and fear, alternately elated and depressed, during some succeeding years. In 1526, when evil had been anticipated, the diet of Spires, after much jangling, terminated favourably. The Pope’s wrath, however, was only deferred.
PREFACE,
In 1529, a second diet at Spires went near to establish the neglected edict of Worms. The violence with which it was conducted, led to a Protest of the Lutheran states and princes (from which we have derived our name of Protestants), and was followed by the famous defensive league of Smalcalde. The decree of Augsburg in 1530, served to confirm the necessity of this league.
The most moderate expressions of doctrine, and the most guarded behaviour, had no conciliatory efficacy; force was prepared, and must be repelled by military combination. It is not by strength, however, nor by might — human strength and human might — that the Lord wins his battles. That formidable confederacy, which could bring 70,000 men into the field under the banner of John the Constant,21 to meet not more than 8,000 of the emperor’s men, soon melted away like the winter’s snow. In 1547, the emperor carries all before him, takes the two great Protestant leaders captive, and makes a spectacle of them to their subjects. He establishes his Interim, slays the Protestant witnesses, and assumes to be the MAN OF SIN’S master 2Thes 2.3 in his domination over the Lord’s heritage. But behold! In three and a half years, the witnesses “whose dead bodies have been lying in the street of the great
