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words may reach, let us help, not hinder, the work begun by the great Philanthropist and Reformer; let us hasten on, not delay, the time when society shall be pervaded and shaped by the plastic influence of Christianity. Then shall there be a healthful reaction from society upon the individual and the Church. Then shall partial manifestations of the religious sentiment be lost in the apprehension and exhibition of the perfect whole. And then shall come the millennium, when there will be no need of revivals, and no complaint of spiritual torpor. Such a result, we believe, must be brought about by the Church and the individual, each maintaining and expressing the Christian life; the Church through which, the individual in whom, with society on which, Christianity shall exert its divine power. We have little faith in the value, and none in the permanence, of reforms which separate themselves from the sympathies of the Church; we lament the mistake of those who, in their zeal for the cause of reform, neglect the cultivation of the more private graces of Christian character, or fail to acknowledge their obligations to Christ as the source of all genuine philanthropy; but we long for the time when Christianity, with its visible organizations and its personal influences, shall also determine the whole structure, spirit, and action of society.

E. S. G.

ART. VI. MARTIN LUTHER.*

THE name of Martin Luther stands for an era, and that era one of the most important in human annals. It is a name with which all are familiar, and which should be kept in constant remembrance. The publication of M. Michelet's compilation rendered into English should, we think, be duly appreciated. It places within the reach of every reader an opportunity for obtaining insight into the life and character of the great Reformer nowhere else to be found. As its title indicates, the materials of the book are gathered from Luther's

The Life of Martin Luther. Gathered from his own Writings. By M. MICHELET, Author of "The History of France," "The People," etc. Translated by G. H. SMITH, F. G. S., Translator of Michelet's" History of France," etc. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1846. 12mo. pp. 314.

own writings. Thus speaks M. Michelet in his Introduction "Throughout the work Luther is his own spokesman, - Luther's life is told by Luther himself. Who could be so daring as to interpolate his own expressions into the language of such a man! Our business has been to listen to, not interrupt, him; a rule we have observed as strictly as possible."

Never, perhaps, since the age of Luther and the era of the Reformation, has the press been more fertile in works bearing immediately or remotely on the persons and principles identified therewith, than at the present day. Luther, mental liberty, Romanism, the Reformation, - these are topics which now stand on the pages of many of our most popular books. The artful and persevering disciples of Loyola are again making their appearance in certain countries of the European continent, and this circumstance has aroused some of the greatest minds and most eloquent pens of France on the subject of mental freedom and human progress. The Jesuitical organization is a polypus in society. The one seems as impossible to eradicate as the other. If a fibre of either be suffered to remain, danger still hangs round the subject. It will live, multiply itself, and shoot forth, to disturb, perhaps to destroy. In the Jesuits are seen the enemies of freedom and progress, and therefore they have been assailed by fact and by fiction, by direct argumentation and through the instrumentality of the exciting popular tale. Elsewhere in the Old World we perceive palpable, important, and widely differing religious movements, at once the result and the cause of much deep religious thought and earnest religious discussion. Some are verging towards Rome, smitten with the love of patristic lore and an antique ritual, and seem anxious to make up the quarrel with ancient Mother Church. Others, shocked by the exhibition of the holy coat of Treves, are flying away from her, exclaiming against her knavery and oppression. movements with which the names of Newman and Pusey, of Ronge and Czerski, are connected were not the mere growth of an hour. That in Germany, we know, developed itself with greater suddenness in its time than did the movement in England. But this was owing to an accidental circumstance. The fields in both countries had been prepared. Thought had been exercised and expressed on the subjects involved, and those fields in due season became ripe unto the harvest. In the one country we perceive doctrines, hitherto

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held cardinal, boldly laid aside, and the Papal authority openly renounced. In the other we find changes introduced in matters pertaining to the altar and vestments, and a more rigid adherence to the rubric insisted on. The preparation, the crises, and the progress of these movements would naturally be accompanied by a corresponding literature, and as between this and those there would be a mutual relation, so, likewise, there would be a mutual dependence.

Amongst the many works lately issued bearing on Romanism and the Reformation, none has acquired greater popularity or a more extensive circulation than D'Aubigné's history, which contains a copious and graphic account of the life of Martin Luther. English literature stood much in need of such a work, and M. D'Aubigné's general fidelity in all that relates to matters of fact, and his highly attractive style, have deservedly secured for his book a remarkable measure of success. As an historical performance, however, properly so called, it cannot lay claim to a high rank. The author leaves his own theological impress on every page. Luther is his hero, the special instrument of Providence for the accomplishment of a work which had been attempted in vain by the power of the high and mighty of the earth, of kings and emperors," by "the power of letters and philosophy," and even by "the Church itself," and to sustain his hero is his undisguised aim. To quote a remark of the Edinburgh Review, made some years ago, in reference to this author's manner of writing, "He does not aspire to illustrate the principles which determine or pervade the character, the policy, or the institutions of mankind. He arms himself with no dispassionate skepticism, and scarcely affects to be impartial." In D'Aubigné's history we get an animated account of the career of the great Reformer, but if we desire to obtain a calm and impartial view of his life and character, it must be sought elsewhere, and we know not where it can be so readily found as in the book before us by M. Michelet.

Martin Luther, with all his faults of character, was undeniably a great man. He was one of those heroes of human kind to whom we owe a deep and lasting debt of gratitude. It does us good to take a view, occasionally, of the life of such a man, of his energy, his fortitude, his patience, his perseverance, his temptations, his trials, and his triumph. Such a survey is calculated to animate and quicken us by the forci

ble impressions which it imparts of the value of faith and fidelity to duty.

We are prone to overrate the work of one who commands an unusual share of our admiration. But it would not be easy to overrate the work of Luther. For we must consider the age in which he lived, the enemy he assailed, the reform for which he struck, and the priceless legacy he secured for the world through the victory he obtained. He was the Elijah of the Christian dispensation, without the special gifts of the ancient Hebrew reformer. As the Mosaic religion had been corrupted and defaced, so was it likewise with the Christian. Through centuries of ignorance and darkness the craft of priests and the subtlety of scholastic philosophers had heaped invention after invention upon it. Worldly power wooed the Church of Christ and won it, and in an evil hour for the interests of humanity and religion their union was effected and consummated. Thus it was attempted to make Christ and the Cæsars occupy the same throne. But the junction was unnatural. Christ's kingdom was not of this world, while that of the Cæsars emphatically was. Avarice and ambition soon coerced the milder virtues of the Gospel. The divine spirit of Christianity, which was given for the healing of the nations and the redemption of the world, was gradually and speedily lost sight of, and an enormous temporal organization, with a powerful earthly potentate at its head, presented itself to the world as the Church of Christ. Its power and influence continued to increase with every generation, until at length it seemed as if the aggregate mind of humanity lay prostrate at its feet. Nothing was too unreasonable, nothing too absurd, for it to command men to believe; nothing too humiliating, nothing too degrading, for it to command men to perform. The scholars of the age bowed to its dictates. The occupants of thrones seemed slaves in its presence.

Such was the condition of religion up to the sixteenth century. Groaning beneath a terrible weight of abuses and corruptions, it seemed to sigh for some second Elijah to rise up and bear testimony against the wicked princes and false priests of the time. Nor did it sigh in vain. In due season one appeared, who, like the rebuker of Ahab and Baal, raised his voice fearlessly for religious reform. Earnestly and resolutely, though in the midst of thousands of enemies, did he enter on the arduous work of freeing Christianity from the

enormous abuses and corruptions which the ignorance, the craft, and the reckless ambition of ages had gathered around it, and identified with it.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century a variety of circumstances conspired to pave the way for the reformation of religion. The venality of the court of Rome was then undisguised and flagrant. The ignorance and immorality of the clergy were apparent to all. At this time the revival of letters took place. The human mind had begun to awake after a long and dreary night of slumber. Sacred learning received attention from the greatest scholars of the age. Reuchlin and Erasmus were efficient pioneers of the Reformation. The former cultivated and promoted the study of the Hebrew Scriptures. The latter the great reviver of classical literature employed himself in producing a critical edition of the Greek Testament. In the erection of grammar-schools throughout various parts of Germany means had been taken to quicken and improve the mass of the people. And during the preceding century the art of printing had been discovered, which, in its progress and improvement, would not only keep the general mind awake, but sharpen it, and strengthen it with tenfold strength.

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Thus in the midst of an improving condition of things stood the overgrown monument of ignorance and craft, the Church. Great and startling were its abuses and overwhelming were its errors. In looking on it, "Alps on Alps" of iniquity and wrong seem to rise before our view. But there was one enormous practical evil, in particular, which at this time raised with unblushing front its giant head in Christendom. This was the sale of indulgences. Leo the Tenth was anxious to raise a large sum of money to expend on St. Peter's, and he followed the course of his predecessors by opening a market for these, and gave his commission to itinerant venders. The following vivid description from D'Aubigné will show what now took place.

"The dealers passed through the country in a gay carriage, escorted by three horsemen, in great state, and spending freely. One might have thought it some dignitary on a royal progress, with his attendants and officers, and not a common dealer or a begging monk. When the procession approached a town, a messenger waited on the magistrate. The grace of God and of the Holy Father is at your gates!' said the envoy. stantly every thing was in motion in the place. The clergy, the

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