recommend the aged to quit their monasteries; principally, because they would only return to the world to be a burden to others, and would be at a loss to meet, cold as charity is nowa-days, with the comforts they deserve. By remaining within the monastery, they will not be chargeable to any one, or obliged to throw themselves on the care of strangers; and they will be enabled to do much for the salvation of their neighbors, which in the world they would find difficult, nay, impossible.' Luther ended by encouraging a monk to remain in his monastery :-"I lived there myself some years, and should have lived longer, and even up to the present time, had my brethren and the state of the monastery allowed of my so doing." (Feb. 28th, 1528.)

Some nuns in the Low Countries wrote to doctor Martin Luther, commending themselves to his prayers: pious virgins, fearing God, who supported themselves by their own industry, and lived in harmony. The doctor was moved with great compassion for them, and says:-" Poor nuns like these must be suffered to live in their own way; and so with the feldkloster, founded by princes for the nobility. But the mendicant orders. . . . It is from cloisters like those of which I was just now speaking, that able men might be drawn forth for the ministry of the Church, and for civil government and administration." This epoch of Luther's life was one of overpowering toil and business, in which he was no longer supported, as at first, by the excitement of the struggle and the sense of danger. To Spalatin :-" Deliver me, I beseech you. I am so overwhelmed by others' business, that my life is a burthen to me.

Martin Luther, courtier, not belonging to the court, and in his own despite (Aulicus extra aulam, et invitus)." (A.D. 1523.) "I am fully occupied, being visitor, reader, preacher, author, auditor, actor, footman, wrestler, and I know not what besides." (October 29th, 1528.) Parochial reform, uniformity of ceremonial, the drawing up of the great Catechism, answers to the new pastors, letters to the elector, whose consent was to be obtained for every innovation-here was work enough, and tedium enough; and, with all this, his enemies left him no rest. Erasmus published his formidable work De Libero Arbitrio (On Free Will) against him; which Luther did not make up his mind to answer until 1525. The Reformation itself seemed to turn against the reformer. His old

friend, Carlstadt, had hurried on in the path in which Luther was walking; and it was to check his sudden and violent innovations, that Luther had so precipitately quitted the castle of Wartburg. It was not religious authority alone that was at stake; the civil power was about to be brought into question. Beyond Carlstadt, glimpses might be caught of Münzer; beyond the sacramentarians and iconoclasts, there loomed in the distance the revolt of the peasants—a Jacquerie, a more reasonable, and more levelling, servile war than those of antiquity, and not less bloody.

CHAPTER III.

A.D. 1523-1525.

Carlstadt.-Munzer.--War of the Peasants.

"PRAY for me, and help me to trample under foot this Satan that has arisen at Wittemberg against the Gospel, in the name of the Gospel. We have not to combat an angel become, as he believes, an angel of light. It will be difficult to persuade Carlstadt to give way; but Christ will constrain him, if he does not yield of himself. For we are masters of life and death; we who believe in the Master of life and death." (March 12th, 1523.) "I am resolved to forbid him the pulpit, into which he has rashly intruded without any vocation, in despite of God and man." (March 19th.) "I have angered Carlstadt by annulling his ordinations, although I have not condemned his doctrine. Yet I am displeased at his busying himself with ceremonies and outward matters only, to the neglect of the true Christian doctrine; that is, of faith and charity. By his foolish teaching, he induced his hearers to fancy themselves Christians on such accounts as-partaking of the communion in both kinds, renouncing confession, breaking images. . . . He has been seeking to become a new doctor, and to impose his ordinances on the people, rising on the ruin of my authority (pressâ meâ auctoritate)." (March

30th.) "This very day I took Carlstadt aside, and begged him to publish nothing against me, since (otherwise) we should be forced to come to sharps with each other. Our gentleman swore by all most sacred, to write nothing against me." (April 21st.) ... "We must teach the weak gently and patiently. . . Would you, who have been a suckling yourself, cut off the breasts, and hinder others from imbibing similar nourishment? Did mothers expose and desert their children, who cannot, as soon as born, eat like men, what would have become of yourself? Dear friend, if you have sucked enough, and grown enough, let others suck and grow in their

turn.

Carlstadt gave up his functions as professor and archdeacon at Wittemberg, but not the emoluments, and repaired first to Orlamunde, then to Jena. "Carlstadt has established a printing-office at Jena. . . But the elector and our academy have promised, in conformity with the imperial edict, to allow no work to be published which has not previously been examined by the commissioners. We must not allow Carlstadt and his friends to be the only persons exempt from submission to princes." (January 7th, 1524.) "As usual, Carlstadt is indefatigable. With his new presses at Jena he has published, and will publish, I am told, eighteen works." (January 14th.) "Let us leave all sadness and anxiety to be Carlstadt's por tion. Let us maintain the combat, without allowing it to engross us. 'Tis God's cause, 'tis God's business: the work will be God's, the victory God's. He can fight and conquer without us. If he judges us worthy of a part in this war, we shall be devotedly ready. I write this by way of exhorting you, and, through you, others, not to be alarmed at Satan, or to suffer your heart to be troubled. If we are unjust, must not we be overborne ? If just, there is a just God who will make our justice evident as the noon-day. Perish who may, survive who may, that is no business of ours." (October 22d, 1524.) "We shall recall Carlstadt, in the name of the university, to his duty as teacher of the word, which he owes to Wittemberg, and from a spot whither he had no call; and, if he does not return, shall accuse him to the prince." (March 14th, 1524.) Luther thought it his duty to repair to Jena; and Carlstadt, conceiving himself aggrieved by a sermon of Luther's, requested a conference; and they met in Luther's

apartments in presence of numerous witnesses. After much recrimination on both sides, Carlstadt said: 66 Enough, doctor, go on preaching against me, I shall know what course to take." Luther: "If you have anything you long to say, write it boldly." Carlstadt: "I will; and without fearing any one.' Luther: "Yes, write against me publicly." Carlstadt: "If such be your wish, I can easily satisfy it." Luther: "Do; I will give you a florin by way of throwing down the gauntlet." Carlstadt: "A florin ?" Luther: "May I be a liar, if I do not." Carlstadt: "Well! I'll take up your gauntlet. On this, Luther drew a golden florin from his pocket and presented it to Carlstadt, saying, "Take it, and attack me boldly; up and be doing." Carlstadt took the florin, showed it to all present, and said: "Dear brethren, here is earnest; this is a token that I have a right to write against doctor Luther: be ye all witnesses of this." Then he put it in his purse, and gave his hand to Luther. The latter drank to his health. Carlstadt pledged him, and added, "Dear doctor, I pray you not to hinder me from printing anything I shall wish, and not to persecute me in any manner. I think of supporting myself by my plough, and you shall be enabled to judge of its produce. Luther: 66 Why should I wish to hinder you from writing against me? I beg you to do it, and have given you the florin precisely that you may not spare me. violent your attacks, the more delighted I shall be." again gave each other their hands, and parted.

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However, as the town of Orlamunde entered too warmly into Carlstadt's opinions, and had even expelled its pastor, Luther obtained an order from the elector for Carlstadt's expulsion. Carlstadt read a solemn letter of farewell, first to the men, then to the women. They had been called together by the tolling of the bell, and all wept. "Carlstadt has written to the inhabitants of Orlamunde, and has subscribed himself, Andrew Bodenstein, expelled, without having been heard or convicted, by Martin Luther. You see that I, who have been all but a martyr, have come to making martyrs in my turn. Egranus plays the martyr as well; and writes that he has been driven away by the papists and the Lutherans. You cannot think how widely spread Carlstadt's doctrine is on the sacrament. ****has returned to his senses, and asks pardon. He, too, had been forced to quit the country. I have

interceded for him; but I am not sure that I shall succeed. Martin, of Jena, who had also received orders to depart, has taken his farewell from the pulpit, all in tears, and imploring pardon. The only answer he got was five florins; which sum, by begging through the town, was increased by twenty-five groschen. All this is likely to do good to preachers: it will be a trial of their vocation, and will, at the same time, teach them to preach and to conduct themselves with some fear before their eyes." (October 27th, 1524.) Carlstadt repaired to Strasburg, and thence to Bâle. His doctrines approximated closely to those of the Swiss, to Ecolampadius's, Zuinglius's, &c. "I defer writing on the eucharist until Carlstadt has poured forth all his poison, as he promised when taking a piece of gold of me. Swingle, and Leo, the Jew, in Switzerland, hold the same opinions of Carlstadt, so the Scourge is spreading: but Christ reigns, if he fights not." (November 12th, 1524.) However, he conceived it right to reply to Carlstadt's complaint of having been driven by him from Saxony. "In the first place, I can safely say that I never mentioned Carlstadt to the elector of Saxony, for I have never spoken a word in my life to that prince, nor have ever heard him open his lips, and have even never seen him, except once at Worms, in the emperor's presence, when I was examined the second day. But it is true that I have often written to him through Spalatin, and in particular to entreat him to resist the spirit arising at Alstet.* But my solicitations were so ineffectual as to induce me to feel angry with the elector. Carlstadt then should have spared such a prince the reproaches which he has heaped upon him. As to duke John Frederick, I confess that I have often pointed out to him Carlstadt's attempts and perverse ambition.' "There is no joking with my lord All-the-world (Herr Omnes); for which reason, God has constituted authorities: it being his will that there should be order here below."

At last, Carlstadt broke out: "I heard yesterday of Carlstadt from a friend of mine at Strasburg, which city he left for Bâle, and has at length vomited forth five books, which are to be followed by two others. I am handled as double papist, the

* Where Münzer lived, the leader of the revolt of the peasants,* spoken of further on.