Lustration, a formal anil public application of water in token of consecration or expiation. Such acts were prevalent not only among heathen nations, more especially those of the southern climates, such as the Indians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans (compare Wet- stein, Nov. Test. Evanrj. Matth. iii, 6), but also among the Jews (see Hiiner, De lu.ttratione Hebrceoruin, Wit- tenb. 1733). With these latter they were preparations for divine services of a different nature, and even for private prayer (Judith xii). They formed a part of the offering-service, and more especially of the sin-offer- ing (Lev. xvi) ; and for that reason the prayer-houses (jTpoaevxai) were usually established in the vicinity of running waters (compare Kuinril, ad Act. xvi, 13). Jo- sephus(.4w^ xviii, 1, 5) gives an account of the manifold lustrations of the Essenes. In the language of the prophets, cleansing with water is used as an emblem of the purification of the heart, which in the jMcssianic age is to glorify the soul in her innermost recesses, and embrace the whole of the theocratic nation (Ezek. xxxvi, 25sq. ; Zech. xiii, 1). Such declarations gave rise to or nourished the expectation that the advent of the Messiah would manifest itself by a preparatory lus- tration, by which Elijah or some other great prophet would pave the way for him. This supposition lies ev- idently at the bottom of the questions which the Jews put to John the Baptist (John i, 25 ; compare Matt, and Luke iii, 7), whether he was the Messiah, or Elijah, or some other prophet? and if not, why he undertook to baptize V (compare Schneckenberger, Ueber das A Iter der Jiidischen Prosebjtentaiife, § 41 sij.). Thus we can com- pletely clear up the historical derivation of the rite, as used by John and Christ, from the general and natural symbol of baptism, from the Jewish custom in particu- lar, and from the expectation of a Messianic consecra- tion. See Baptism.
Among the ancient Greeks, and more particularly the Romans, lustrations were of most solemn imjjort. Those of which we possess direct knowledge are always con- nected with sacrifices and other religious rites, and con- sisted in the sprinkling of water by means of a branch of laurel or olive, and at Rome sometimes by means of the aspergillum, and in the burning of certain materials, the smoke of which was thought to have a purifying effect. Whenever sacrifices were offered, it seems to have been customary to carry them around the person or thing to be purified. Lustrations were made in an- cient Greece, and i)robably at Rome also, by private in- dividuals when they had polluted themselves by any criminal action. Whole cities and states also some- times underwent purifications to expiate the crime or crimes committed by a member of the community. The most celebrated purification of this kind was that of Athens, performed by Epimenides of Crete, after the Cylonian massacre. Purification also took place when a sacred spot had been unhallowed by profane use, as by burj'ing dead bodies in it, as was the case with the island of Delos. See Ablution.
The Romans performed lustrations on many occasions on which the Greeks did not think of them, and the
object of most Roman lustrations was not to atone fol the commission of crime, but to obtain the blessing of the gods upon the persons or things which were lustra' ted. Thus fields were purified after the business of sow- ing was over, and before the sickle was put to the corn. Sheep were purified every year at the festival of the Palilia. All Roman armies before they took the field were lustrated, and, as the solemnity was probably al- ways connected with a review of the troops, tlie word lustratio is always used in the sense of the modern re- view. The establishment of a new colony was always preceded by a lustratio with solemn sacrifices. The city of Rome itself, as well as other towns within its dominion, always underwent a lustratio after they had been visited by some great calamity, such as civil blood- shed, awful prodigies, and the like. A regular and gen- eral lustratio of the whole Roman people took place after the completion of every lustrum, when the censor had finished his census, and before he laid down his office. This lustratio (also called lustrum) was conducted by one of the censors, and held with sacrifices called Suove- taurilia, because the sacrifices consisted of a pig (or ram), a sheep, and an ox. It took place in th-e Campus IVIartius, where the people assembled for the purpose. The sacrifices were carried three times around the as- sembled multitude. See Smith, Diet, oj' Class. Antiqui- ties, s. V. Lustratio,
Something of the nature of lustration prevails in the use of " holi/ wate?-" (q. v.) by the Roman Catholics.
Lutei, earl/ii/, one of the terms of reproach with which the first Christians were assailed by their perse- cutors,
Luther, Martix, the greatest of the Reformers of the Christian Church- whose name is the watchword of Protestantism, and marks a new aara in the history of Europe.
I. Youth. — He sprang from an old and widely-extend- ed German family, of which there are documentary traces as early as 1137. He was born at Eisleben, a village of Lower Saxony, Nov. 10, 1483 (see, however, an argument for a later date, 1484, Studien u. Kritiken, 1872), fifteen years before the martyrdom of Savonarola. As one of the heralding stars declined to its setting in blood, the Jlorning Star of the Reformation drew near the horizon of the new day. His father, Hans Luther, was a miner of the village of Moehra. His mother's name was INIargaretha Lindemann. His parents subse- quently removed to Mansfeld, and there his father be- came a man of propert}- and town senator.