friends. Agricola completely retracted his erroneous views, but the tenderness of the old confidence and love was never restored.
XIV. Literary Activity. — The activity of Luther in the period which followed his return to Wittenberg was largely directed to the internal shaping of the Evangel- ical (Lutheran) Church. Among its richest results may be mentioned, 1. his German hymns in the first Ger- man Hymn-book (1524), and the Wittenberg Hymn- book (1529). He stands forth in these as the father and founder of (ierman hymnology and Church music. See Hyjixology. He was the author of thirtj'-six hymns, and of several original melodies adapted to them. 2. His Order of Dicine Service and of the Congregation (Wittenberg, 1523); his Foi-mula Messm et Communio- nis (1524); German Mass and Order of Divine Service (1526) (all of these are given in Sunday Services of the Churches of the Reformation, by C. P. KLranth), with which he connected his IJitual of Baptism and Marriage, and a form of Confession. The great visitation in the states of the elector of Saxony (1527-1529) led to Me- lancthon's writing the Book of Visitation. This was revised by Luther, and issued anew in 1538.
Among Luther's greatest labors are to be mentioned the two Catechisms (1529), and his Translation of the Bible. This he commenced with the New Testament in 1522; the Old was sent out in parts, commencing in 1525, and was issued complete in 1534. The final re- vision was made in 1541, and the latest edition of this final revision, which Luther himself helped to correct, typographically, a])peared in 1545. The Bible of Lu- ther is an acknowledged masterpiece — one of the won- ders of the intellectual world.- "The modern German attained its full development and perfect finish in Lu- ther's version. By means of that book it obtained a currency which nothing else could have given it. It became fixed ; it became universal ; it became the or- gan of a literature which, more than any other since the Greek, has been a literature of ideas. It became the vehicle of modern philosophy, the cradle of those thoughts which at the moment act most intensely on the human mind" (Hedge). " He created the German language," says Heine.
XV. Activity in Church Constitution. — He took an ac- tive interest in the constitution of the Consistories : Be- denhen — Considerations of the Theologians touching Consistories (1538). An important part was borne by Luther in the preparation of the confessional writings of the renewed Church. He was, in conjunction with other divines, the author of the Marburg Articles and Schwabach Articles (1529), which furnished the basis and, to a large extent, the material, both doctrinal and verbal, of the Augsburg Confession (1530), during the di- rect preparation and presentation of which Luther was at Coburg. As he was under the ban of the empire, to have appeared at Augsburg would have almost certain- ly cost him his life, and would have made all negotia- tion impossible, as it would have been regarded as an open act of aggression on the part of the Protestant princes. He was brought, therefore, to the nearest i)oint at which he could lie safe, and where he could be con- sulted. His influence at Augsburg was no less real and hardly less direct than if he had been there in per- son. The great hj-mn " Eine feste Burg" is generally supposed to have been written at this time, but there are strong grounds for believing that it appeared in 1529. In 1537 he prepared the Schmalcald Articles, to be laid before the council which had been summoned to con- vene at Mantua. In aiding in giving to the Church her proper external relations, Luther exercised his influ- ence by letters, and by his writings in connection with the Diet of Nuremberg and of Piatisbon, the religious Peace of Nuremberg (1532), and the Interim of Katisbon (1536). At the formation of the Torgau alliance (1526) and of the Schmalcald League (1530) he had sent his opinion and advice, and. with his counsel to his elector, the protestation was made at Spires (1529).
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XYl. Memoriab 1. A monumental bronze statue
was erected to Luther's memory in the market-place of AVittenberg, 1817. Another monument, reared by the German nation at Worms, was inaugurated June 25, 18G8.
2. The number of medals struck in honor of Luther and of his work is very great (Jiincker's LiJ'e of Luther, illustrated by medals, in Latin, 1G99, and (ierman, 1707 ; Cyprian's ll'daria EcaM/elicai [1719, fol.]).
o. The third centennial anniversary of the death of Luther was observed Feb. 18, 1846, throughout all Ger- many, with Wittenberg and Eisleben as its focal points. Nor was the celebration limited to Germany. Solemn memorial services were held in France, Holland, Swe- den, Russia, and other countries. The anniversary was made the occasion of establishing a number of beneticent institutions. Among these were a Luther-school in Wit- tenberg for the poor, an evangelical Lutheran Orphan- house in Warsawa, and the Luther -establishment in Leipzig, Feb. 18, 184G, the object of which was to make provision for descendants of Luther, and to circulate Lu- ther's writings, especially his translation of the Bible.
4. Poetry and A i-t have devoted many of their noblest efforts to Luther and his work. But neither Bechstein's epic ('• Luther," Leipz. 1834), nor the dramas of Werner ("Martin Luther, or the Consecration of Power") and Kiister, nor Trlimpelmann's Luther v. Seine Zeit (Gotha, 1869), wliich is the latest attempt to dramatize Luther's life, have taken the place in the heart of the people which they would have filled had they been wholly worthy of their theme. The great war had its Achilles, but it waits for its Homer. The most ambitious effort in English in this line is Robert Montgomery's Luther, or the Spirit of the Refurmation (3d edit. Lond. 1843).