was not disturbed by the clamor of friends or foes. His married life was happy, and he had vindicated by his own deed the holiness of the married state and set an example which has resulted in the purification and elevation of clerical life from that day to this.' THE ANA- The Peasant War had not destroyed the popular movement of the Anabaptists. They spread everywhere with tremendous rapidity and threatened the existence of the evangelical Churches. Every artisan who adhered to this zealous company carried the doctrine to all places of his sojourn. Many able leaders appeared among them, and their claim to being Bible Christians gave them favor with all who opposed the superabundance of the human element in the Roman Catholic Church. The causes which led to the movement have been generally understood to be the principles of the Reformation carried out to their extreme consequences, without regard to practical common sense. Many of its representatives were originally followers of Luther or Zwingli, which fact lends color to the idea that they were merely ultraprotestants. This is partly true and partly false. Their original impulse toward a purer faith and practice undoubtedly sprang from the influence of the Reformation. But in their mystical,. apocalyptic and chiliastic excesses they were the true sons of the Middle Ages. The reformed doctrine of justification by faith alone they rejected. All efforts to suppress them failed. They were drowned, beheaded, or burned by the thousand, by imperial command and by Roman Catholic authority, as well as by order of the Swiss magistrates. But the more they were persecuted the more rapidly their numbers increased. Luther was opposed to the forcible suppression of faith, while Melanchthon thought it right for the secular authority to proceed against false doctrines. The result was that tolerance was not practiced even in the land which had given birth to a Reformation based upon the rights of the individual conscience as one of its pillars. Köstlin treats Luther's marriage in a masterly way, and defends him triumphantly against the slanders circulated by Roman Catholics.-Martin Luther, i, 760-773. * Such is essentially the view of Kawerau, who follows Albrecht Ritschl (Der Pietismus).-Möller, iii, 82, where see the entire discussion. 2 GERMAN IN- INTO CHURCH CHAPTER XII. THE NEW CHURCH ORDER IN GERMANY. ALTHOUGH Luther had, out of consideration for the weakness of some, held fast to many features of public worship which were objectionable to the evangelical sentiment, he would have been more radical than he was had not Frederick the Wise restrained him. Soon after the elector's death, and the accession of Johann, a more thorough reformation of the forms of worship began. On September 23, 1525, "the entire pope," as Spalatin says, "was thrown out of the Church." On October 29 of the same year the German service was introduced in place of the former Latin, for Sunday use, and adapted to the evangelical ideas. For the week-day services the Latin was still to be employed. At first intended for the churches in Wittenberg, the service was afterward prepared for general use, and published early in 1526, under the title German Mass and Order of Service.' Luther accompanied the work with a declaration that it was published at the request of others, and that no one was to feel constrained to use it unless prompted by his conscience, and indeed that such forms were only necessary to unripe Christians. But while he maintained the necessity of these more formal services for the general public, he thought it would be an excellent idea to have a congregation within the congregation, whose names should be especially enrolled, and which should be composed only of genuine Christians. Here could be put into practice, as nowhere else, the real principles of true religious service.' Luther made much of the power of song in the German tongue. He translated and versified the old Latin Da pacem Domine, Verleib uns Frieden gnädiglich, and Te Deum laudamus, Herr Gott dich loben wir, and modified the litany to suit evangelical needs. He wrote forty or fifty hymns and poems, twenty-one of which dated from the year 1524. Schaff and others HYMNS. call attention to the scriptural character of many of his hymns, and to his free use of hymns in the Latin. Of the latter, besides those mentioned above, we have Komm, Gott, Schöp LUTHER'S 1 Köstlin gives an outline of the order of services-ii, 20. 2 Ibid., ii, 17-19. fer, Heiliger Geist-Veni, Creator Spiritus; Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland-Veni, Redemptor gentium; Christ lag in Todes banden-Surrexit Christus hodie-the third stanza of which is as follows: "Es war ein wunderlicher Krieg Da Tod und Leben rungen: Of the scriptural hymns the most important are two from the second chapter of Luke: and "Vom Himmel hoch da kam ich hier," "Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schaar," and three from the Psalms: "Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein" (Psalm xii), and "Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott" (Psalm xlvi), "the Marseillaise of the Reformation,' as Heine calls it. This last is the most celebrated hymn of Luther. It has been frequently translated into English. Thomas Carlyle, T. 2 "EIN' FESTE BURG.' C. Porter, and F. H. Hedge have given us the most effective versions. This truly great hymn was not composed, as might be surmised, in the very earliest years of the Reformation, but in the latter part of the year 1527. On November 1 of that year Luther wrote to Amsdorf about the internal terrors and external struggles with which he had to contend in that time of devastating pestilence, and spoke of "the rage of Satan" and his "power and guile." These and other expressions in the same letter breathe the thoughts that pervade the hymn. It first appeared in print in 1528. Coupling this fact with the resemblance between 1 The following translation is from Schaff, vi, 504: "That was a wondrous war, I trow, When life and death together fought; But life hath triumphed o'er his foe. Death is mocked and set at naught. "Tis even as the Scripture saith, Christ through death hath conquered death." ? Köstlin discusses the date of the origin of the hymn-ii, 182. 3 the thoughts of the hymn and the letter, we must conclude that the hymn was composed about this time. Hedge's, the most poetical of the English translations, is as follows: "A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing; Of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe "Did we in our own strength confide, The man of God's own choosing. Christ Jesus, it is he; Lord Sabaoth is his name, From age to age the same, And he must win the battle. "And though this world, with devils filled, We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim We tremble not for him; His rage we can endure, For lo! his doom is sure, One little word shall fell him. "That word above all earthly powers- Through him who with us sideth. Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also; The body they may kill; God's truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever." Preaching services were held three times on Sunday-at five or six in the morning, at eight or nine in the forenoon, and at vespers. To Luther's mind, the important part of the service was preaching. At the first service the epistle, PREACHING EMPHASIZED. at the second the gospel, and at the third the Old Testament were employed. Because many of the preachers were very unskillful he proposed that they should read printed sermons to the congregations. He was the more willing for this that he might prevent fanatical utterances in the pulpits. Daily services were held during the week, from Monday until Friday early in the morning, and on Saturday at vespers. He allowed the burning of lights and the wearing of priestly garments where any desired it, but if abuses grew out of this concession he proposed to do away with the dangerous custom; for ritualistic forms did not exist for their own sake, but for the assistance they might afford. It is interesting to note that in his order of baptism, 1526, he did away with the use of salt, saliva, and oil, but retained exorcism, abbreviating the address to the "unclean spirit." The sense of freedom which the spirit of Protestantism contained worked together with differences of judgment to prevent a harmonious development of doctrine and practice in the Protestant Church. While Luther's great influence brought the majority into conformity with his views, there still existed variations in reference to the practices of the old Church, which were sometimes yielded, sometimes maintained. There were some of the clergy even within electoral Saxony who remained loyal to Romanism. Many of the clergy were unqualified by defective training for a correct understanding of the new doctrines and their intelligent exposition. The followers of Carlstadt and other fanatics added variety to the confusion already existing. Multitudes of the peasants no longer attended upon the Protestant services, and yet they had forsaken Rome. It was evident to all observing minds that something must be done to reduce to order the chaos which had fallen upon the land. The clergy did not possess the authority, and particularly had Luther no power to enforce his opinions. His only recourse was the influence he could wield by tongue and pen. This was indeed mighty, but not sufficient. Hence he advised the elector to take the initiative. The secular power had the right, not, indeed, to compel belief, nor to punish dissent with death, but to prevent such differences of opinion as would result in anarchy. It was the duty of the prince to provide for the support of the Church, just as he would for highways or any other public necessity. The method by which the needed changes might be discovered was to institute a visitation in the various districts. The visitors or superintendents could have the power to test the orthodoxy and capacity of the clergy and to remove those who were unworthy. Elector Johann went even farther than Luther suggested. Those who would not |