There were

ting all the day, weeping and bemoaning himself. with him, doctor Jonas, Master Philip (Melancthon), Master Joachim Camerarius, and Gaspard von Keckeritz, and he sat amongst them, weeping piteously." (A. D. 1538.)

When he lost his daughter Madeleine, aged fourteen, his wife cried and lamented, but he said to her, "My dear Catherine, think where she is gone; to a certainty she has made a happy exchange. The flesh bleeds, indeed; that is our nature; but the spirit exults and finds all as it should be. Young people think not of disputing; as we tell them, so they believe; with them all is natural. They pass away without regret or anguish, without the trials and temptations even of death itself, almost without bodily pain; just as if they fell asleep.". . . As his daughter lay very ill, he exclaimed, 'I love her much! but, O my God! if it be thy will to take her hence, I would give her up to thee without one selfish murmur. And when she was on her death-bed, he said to her, "My dearest child, my own Madeleine, I know you would gladly stay with your father here, and you will equally be ready to go to your Father which is in heaven! will you not?" And she replied, "Oh yes, my dear father, as God wills." "Dear little girl," he continued, "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." He walked to and fro perturbedly, and said, "Ah yes! I have loved this dear child too much. If the flesh is so strong, what becomes of the spirit ?"

He said, amongst other things, "God has not given such good gifts these thousand years to any bishop as he has to me. We may glorify ourselves in the gifts of God. Alas! I hate myself that I cannot rejoice now as I ought to do, nor render sufficient thanks to God. I try to lift up my heart from time to time to our Lord in some little hymn, and to feel as I ought to do." "Well! whether we live or die, domini sumus, in the genitive or the nominative.* Come, sir doctor, be firm."

"The night before Madeleine's death, her mother had a dream. She dreamed that she saw two fair youths beautifully attired, who came as if they wished to take Madeleine away with them, and conduct her to be married. When Philip

*A play upon the word Dominus. "Domini sumus" may signify (Domini being construed in the genitive), "We are the Lord's," or else (construed nominatively), "We are lords" (i. e. masters, teachers.)

-TRANSLATOR.

6

Melancthon came the next morning and asked the lady how it was with her daughter? she related her dream, at which he seemed frightened, and remarked to others, that the young men were two holy angels, sent to carry the maiden to the true nuptials of a heavenly kingdom.' She died that same day. When she was in the agony of death, her father threw himself on his knees by her bedside, and weeping bitterly, prayed to God that he would spare her. She breathed her last in her father's arms. Her mother was in the room, but not by the bed, on account of the violence of her grief. The doctor continued to repeat, God's will be done! My child has another Father in heaven!' Then master Philip observed, that the love of parents for their children was an image of the Divine love impressed on the hearts of men. God loves mankind no less than parents do their children. When they placed her on the bier, the father exclaimed, My poor, dear little Madeleine, you are at rest now.' Then, looking long and fixedly at her, he said, 'Yes! dear child, thou shalt rise again, shalt shine like a star! Yes! like the sun! . . . I am joyful in spirit; but oh! how sad in the flesh! It is a strange feeling this, to know she is so certainly at rest, that she is happy, and yet to be so sad.'"

"And when the people came who were to help to carry the body, and said to him, as usual, how much they sympathized in his grief, he said to them, 'Ah! grieve no more for her, she is now a saint in heaven. Oh! that we may each experience such a death: such a death I would willingly die this moment.' While they were singing-Lord, remember not our sins of old,' he added, not only our old sins, but those of to-day, this day; for we are greedy, covetous, &c. The scandal of the mass still exists.' On returning from the burial, he said, amongst other things,' The fate of our children, and above all of girls, is ever a cause of uneasiness. I do not fear so much for boys; they can find a living anywhere, provided they know how to work. But it is different with girls; they, poor things, must search for employment staff in hand. A boy can enter the schools, and become a shining character (ein feiner man), but a girl cannot do much to advance herself, and she is easily led away by bad example, and is lost. Therefore, I give up without regret this dear one to our Lord.'"

To Jonas.

"Report has, no doubt, informed you of the transplanting of my daughter Madeleine to the kingdom of Christ; and although my wife and I ought only to think of offering up joyful thanks to the Almighty for her happy deliverance and end, by which she has escaped from all the snares of the world, the flesh, the Turks, and the devil; nevertheless the force of instinct (Tns Cropyns) is so great, that I cannot forbear from tears, sighs, and groans,-say rather, my very heart dies within me. I feel engraven on my inmost soul her features, her words, and actions; all that she was to me in life and health, and on her sick bed, my dear, my dutiful child. The death of Christ himself (and oh! what are all deaths in comparison ?) cannot tear her from my thoughts, as it should.... She was, as you know, so sweet, so amiable, so full of tenderness." (September 23d, 1542.)

CHAPTER II.

Of Equity; of Law.-Opposition of the Theologians to the Jurists.

"It is better to direct one's conduct by natural reason than by the written law, for reason is the soul and queen of law.. But where are they who are endowed with such an understanding? You can scarcely meet with one in a century. Our gracious lord, the elector Frederick, was such a man. There was his councillor, too, Fabian von Feilitsch, a layman, who had not studied, and who yet argued better on the points and the marrow of the law (super apices et medullam juris) than the jurists from their books. Master Philip Melancthon so teaches the liberal arts, as to lend them more light than he derives from them. I myself, too, take my art into books, and do not draw it from them. He who should seek to imitate the four men of whom I have just spoken, would do well to abandon the idea, and content himself with learning and listening. Such prodigies are rare. The written law is for the people and the common herd of men. Natural reason and all-piercing thought for such men as those I have mentioned."

"An

eternal combat goes on between the jurists and theologians; there is the same opposition betwixt the law and grace. "The law is a lovely bride, as long as she remains in her nuptial bed. If she goes to another bed, and wishes to domineer over theology, she is a great Law should doff her cap to theology."

To Melancthon. "I am of the same opinion that I always was with regard to the right of the sword. I think with you, that the Gospel has taught and counselled nothing with regard to this right, and that it could not possibly do so, because the Gospel is the law of will and liberties, which have nothing to do with the sword or the right of the sword. But this right is not abolished by the Gospel, but is even confirmed and recommended; which is not the case with respect to things that are simply permitted." "Before me, there has been no jurist who has known what the law is, in relation to God; what they know, they have from me. We do not find in the Gospel that we are to adore jurists. If our Lord God will be our judge, what are jurists to him? As to the concerns of this world, I leave them masters. But in the things which concern God, they must be under me. My psalm, my own psalm is, Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings; if one of the two must perish, perish the law, reign Christ!

"The kings of the earth set themselves together.' David himself says, Against his Son there will array themselves the power, the wisdom, the multitude of the world, and he will be alone against many, foolish against the wise, powerless against the powerful;' of a verity, a marvellous ordering of things. Our Lord God has all and everything except the wise; but beyond this, there peals the terrible, Be wise now, therefore, Ŏ ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth.'" "If the jurists will not pray for pardon for their sins, and receive the Gospel, I will so confound them that they shall not be able to extricate themselves. I understand nothing of law, but I am lord of the law in things touching the conscience. We are indebted to the jurists for having taught and for teaching to the world such countless equivocations, tricks, and calumnies, that their language has become more confused than in Babel; here, no one can comprehend the other; there, no one will understand the other. O sycophants, Ó sophists, pests of mankind, I write to you, boiling over with passion,

and I doubt whether I could teach you better were I cool and collected." (Feb. 6th, 1546.).

Alluding to a student's being admitted the following day as Doctor of Law, Luther said, "To-morrow a fresh viper will be created to sting the theologians."

"The saying is right, A good jurist is a bad Christian. In fact, the jurist esteems and vaunts the justice of works, as if we were justified by them before God. If he turn Christian, he is looked upon by his brother jurists as a monster, and has to beg his bread, being repudiated as seditious." "Strike at the conscience of the jurists, and they know not what to do. Münzer attacked them with the sword; he was a madman." "Were I to study law for two years, I should become more learned than Dr. C., for I should speak of things just as they are, as being just or unjust, whilst he quibbles on words." "The doctrine of the jurists is nothing but a nisi, an except. Theology does not proceed on this wise, but has a firm foundation."

وو

"The authority of theologians consists in their power of obscuring universals, and all connected with them. They can raise and lower. As soon as the word makes itself heard, Moses and the emperor must yield." "The law and laws of the Greeks and Persians are fallen into desuetude. The Roman or imperial law only holds by a thread. For if an empire or a kingdom fall, its laws and ordinances must likewise fall." "I leave cobbler, tailor, and jurists to their several callings. But let them not attack my pulpit ?" "Many believe that the theology which has been declared of our time, is naught. If this be the case whilst I live, what will it be after my death? As a set off, many amongst us are big with this thought of which they will by and by be brought to bed, namely, that the law is naught."

Sermon against the Jurists, preached on Twelfth Day. "Look at our haughty jurists and knights at law of Wittemberg. . . . They do not read our books, call them catonic (for canonic), take no heed of our Lord, and do not attend church. Well! since they do not recognize Dr. Pomer to be bishop of Wittemberg, or me to be preacher to this church, I no longer reckon them among my flock. But, say they, you go against the imperial law. I-this law which wrongs the poor.' There follows a dialogue between a jurist and a liti