two wonders, first, as I looked out of the window, I saw the stars in the heavens and the entire beautiful vault which God has raised; yet the heavens fell not, and the vault still stands firm. Now some would be glad to find the pillars that sustain it, and grasp and feel them." "The other was: I saw great thick clouds hanging above us with such weight, that they might be compared to a great sea; and yet I saw no ground on which they rested and no vessel wherein they were contained; yet they did not fall upon us, but saluted us with a harsh look and fled away. As they pass away, a rainbow shines forth on the ground and on our roof."1 "All things," he writes in another place," are in the hands of God, who can cover the sky with clouds and brighten it again in a moment." 2 It is painful to him that God's Word must be so silent at Augsburg; for the Protestants were not allowed to preach. He had a settled distrust of Campeggio and the other Italians: "where an Italian is good, he is most good," but to find such an one is as hard as to find a black swan. He went along with Melancthon in a willingness to make concessions, provided the evangelical doctrine and freedom in preaching it were not sacrificed. He had no suspicion of Philip, as some had. There were many ceremonies, which were trifles-levicula - not worth disputing about. Yet it did not belong to the magistrate to dictate to the Church in these points. He would go so far, though not without reluctance, as to allow bishops to continue, but would permit no subjection to the Papacy. But Luther had no belief in the possibility of a compromise or reconciliation.

Thine own; we have been only compelled to lay hands on it; Thou mayst then guard," &c. Corpus Ref., ii. 159.

1 De Wette, iv. 128. At an earlier day, on the occasion of his interview with Cajetan, in reply to the question where he would stand if the Elector should not support him, he answered, "Unter dem weiten Himmel!"

2 De Wette, iv. 166.

4 De Wette, iv. 210, 106.

3 Ibid., p. 178.

LUTHER'S MARRIAGE.

123

There was a radical antagonism that could not be bridged over. There could be no agreement in doctrine; political peace alone was to be aimed at and hoped for.1 Hence he rejoiced when the perilous negotiations between the opposing committees of theologians were brought to an end.

There are several occurrences not yet noticed, which took place in the interval between the Diets of Worms and of Augsburg, and which are of marked importance both in their bearing on the Reformation, and as illustrating the personal character of Luther.

One of these events was his marriage, in 1525, to Catharine von Bora. He resolved upon this measure, as we learn from himself, partly because he expected that his life would not continue long, and he was determined to leave, in the most impressive form, his testimony against the Romish law of celibacy. Another motive was a yearning for the happiness of domestic life, which his parents, who had embraced the new faith, encouraged. The scandal that his marriage caused, first among his own. friends and then the world over, hardly fell short of that occasioned by the posting of his theses. The example

of Luther was followed by many of his associates, which gave rise to the characteristic jest of Erasmus, that what had been called a tragedy seemed to be a comedy, as it came out in a marriage. The marriage of an apostate monk with a runaway nun betokened, in the view of the superstitious, the coming of Antichrist as the fruit of the unhallowed union. But it was one of those bold steps, characteristic of Luther, which, in the long run, proved of advantage to his cause. It gave him the solace of home, in the intense excitement and prodigious labors in which he was immersed for the rest of his days. There, with music, and song, and frolics with his children, in the circle of his friends, he poured out his humor 1 De Wette, iv. 110.

and kindly feeling without stint. His diverting letters to his wife - his "Mistress Kate," "Doctoress Luther," as he styled her and the tender expressions of his grief at the death of his children could ill be spared from the records of this deep-hearted man.'

Among these events are his controversies with King Henry VIII. and with Erasmus. From the outset it was evident that Luther must either give up his cause or contend for it against countless adversaries. His polemical writings are therefore quite numerous, and it shows the amplitude of his mind that he did not allow himself to be so far absorbed in this sort of work as to neglect more positive labors, through his Bible, catechisms, sermons, tracts, for the building up of the Church. He had to fight his own friends when they swerved from the truth, as did Carlstadt, and also Agricola, who set up a form of Antinomianism. But his principal literary battles were with Henry VIII. and with Erasmus. The intemperance of Luther's language has been since, as it was then, a subject of frequent censure. It must be remembered, however, what a tempest of denunciation fell upon him; how he stood for all his life a mark for the pitiless hostility of a great part of the world. It must be remembered, too, that for a time he stood alone, and everything depended on his constancy, determination, and dauntless zeal in the maintenance of his cause. Had he wavered, everything would have been lost. And mildness of language, he said, was not his gift; he could not tread so softly and lightly as Melancthon.2 His convictions were too intense to admit of an

1 See, for example, the letter (to Nic. Hausmann), August 5, 1528, after the death of his daughter. De Wette, iii. 364. A complete account of Luther's domestic character and relations is given by F. G. Hofman, Katharina von Bora, oder Dr. Martin Luther als Gatte und Vater (Leipzig, 1845). There is much of interest on the same subject, in a quaint little book, D. Martin Lu ther's Zeitverkürzungen, von M. Johann Nicolaus Anton (Leipzig, 1804). 2 Letter to the Elector John, De Wette, iv. 17.

VEHEMENCE OF LUTHER.

125

expression of them in any but the strongest language; in words that were blows. Moreover, he believed it to be a sound and wise policy to fling away reserve and to speak out, in the most unsparing manner, the sentiments of his soul. It was not a disease to be cured by a palliative.1 The formidable enemy against which he was waging war, was rendered more arrogant and exacting by every act of deference shown him, and by every concession. There was no middle course to be pursued.2 There must be surrender, or open, uncompromising war. Besides, in his study of the Bible, he conceived himself to find a warrant for all his hard language, in the course taken by the prophets, by Christ, and by Paul. He felt that he was in conflict with the same Pharisaical theology and ethics, which called forth the terrible denunciations recorded in the New Testament. If it was proper to call things by their right names then, it was proper now. He had been hampered at the beginning, he came to think, by a false humility, by a lingering reverence for an authority that deserved no reverence. He regretted that at Worms he had not taken a different tone; that he had said anything about retracting in case he could be convinced of his error. He would cast all such qualifications and cowardly scruples to the winds; he would stand by what he knew to be truth, without any timid respect for its adversaries.4 These considerations are not without

1 "Aut ergo desperandum est de pace et tranquillitate hujus rei, aut verbum negandum est." Letter to Spalatin (February, 1520). De Wette, i. 425.

2 "Mein Handel ist nicht ein Mittelhandel, der etwas weichen oder nachgeben, oder sich unterlassen soll, wie ich Narr bisher gethan habe." De Wette, ii. 244.

3 He gives reasons for his vehemence in a letter to Wenceslaus Link (August 19, 1520), De Wette, i. 479. Among other things he says: "Video enim ea, quæ nostro sæculo tractantur, mox cadere in oblivionem, nemine ea curante." He says elsewhere that love and severity are compatible. De Wette, ii. 212. See also, pp. 236, 243.

4 Hallam censures Luther for "bellowing in bad Latin.” But it was a cry with which all Europe rang "from side to side." Had he been a man of the temperament of Hallam, where would have been the Reformation? The Erasmians can seldom appreciate, much less look with complacency upon Luther.

weight. A man whose natural weapon is a battle-axe must not be rebuked for not handling a rapier. There is sometimes work to be done which the lighter and more graceful weapon could never accomplish. At the same time, with all Luther's tenderness of feeling, with his fine and even poetic sensibility, there was a vein of coarseness, a plebeian vehemence, which, when he was goaded by opposition, engendered scurrility.

The book of Henry VIII. was directed against Luther's work on the sacraments, "The Babylonian Captivity." It is marked by extreme haughtiness toward Luther, and is hardly less vituperative than the Reformer's famous reply. Luther was the hound who had brought up heresies anew out of hell; princes would combine to burn him and his books together. It was throughout an appeal to authority; Luther had audaciously presumed to set himself against popes and doctors without number. The impression of Henry's book itself wholly depended on the fact that its author was one of the rulers of the earth. Luther probably meant to neutralize this impression by bemiring the purple of this regal disputant who had stepped forth, with his crown on his head, into the arena of theological debate, to win from the Pope, whom he obsequiously flattered, the title of Defender of the Faith. Subsequently, when Henry was reputed to be favorable to the Protestant cause, at the earnest solicitation of King Christian II. of Denmark and of other friends, Luther wrote to the King a humble apology for the violence of his language-making no withdrawal, however, of any portion of his doctrine. In composing this apologetic letter he was carried away, he says, by the promptings of others, to do what of himself he would never have done. Yet, notwithstanding the ungenerous reception and use of the letter by Henry, Luther did not regret

1 Adsertio Septem Sacramentorum adversus Martinum Lutherum (1521). It is published in a German translation in Walch's ed. of Luther's Writings.