VIII. CoMMEMORATIVE ADDRESSES OF 1883 AND 1884.
Festschriften zur 400 jahrigen Jubelfeier der Geburt Dr. Martin Luther's, herausgegeben vom kénigl. Prediger-Seminar in Wittenberg. Wittenberg, 1883. (Addresses by Drs. SCHMIEDER, RIETSCHEL, and others.) P. KLEINERT: L. im Verhdltniss zur Wissenschaft (Academic oration). Berlin, 1883 (35 pp.). Ep. Reuss: Akad. Festrede zur Lutherfeier. Strassburg, 1883. ΤῊ. BriE- GER: Neue Mittheilungen iiber Luther in Worms. Marburg, 1883, and Luther und sein Werk. Marb., 1883. Ap. HARNACK: M. Luther in seiner Bedeutung fiir die Gesch. der Wissenschaft und der Bildung. Giessen, 1883 (80 pp.). Vid Upsala Universitets Luthersfest, den 10 Nov., 1883, with an oration of K. Η. Grez. von SCHEELE (Prof. of Theol. at Upsala, appointed Bishop of Visby in Gothland, 1885). Upsala, 1883. G.N. Bonwetscu: Unser Reformator Martin Luther. Dorpat, 1888, APPENZELLER, RUETSCHI, OET- TLI, and others: Die Lutherfeier in Bern. Bern, 1883. Prof. SALMOND (of Aberdeen): Martin Luther. Edinburgh, 1883. J. M. Linpsay: ©. Luther, in the 9th ed, of “ Encyclop. Brit.,” vol. XV. (1883), 71-84. JEAN Monop: Luther j’usqwen 1520. Montauban, 1883. J. B. Brrrincer: MM. Inth. Cleveland, 1883. ἘΣ 7. Wotr, and others: Addresses on the Reformation. Gettysburg, 1884. The Luther Document (No. XVII.) of the American Evang. Alliance, with addresses of Rev. Drs. WM. M. Tayior and Puituies Brooxs. N. Y., 1883. Symposiac on Luther, seven addresses of the seven Professors of the Union Theol. Seminary in New York, held Nov. 19, 1883. Jos. A. Seiss: Luther and the Reformation (an eloquent commemorative oration delivered in Philad. and New York). Philad. 1884. S. M. Deutscu: Luther’s These vom Jahr 1519 tiber die papstliche Gewalt Berlin, 1884. H. CREMER: Reformation und Wissenschaft. Gotha, 1883,
§ 18. LUTHER’S YOUTH AND TRAINING, 105
IX. Roman Carnouic ATTACKS. !
The Luther-celebration gave rise not only to innumerable Protestant glorifications, but also to many Roman Catholic defamations of Luther and the Reformation. The ablest works of this kind are by JANSSEN (tracts in defence of his famous History of Germany, noticed in 315), G. G. Evers, formerly a Lutheran pastor (Katholisch oder protestantisch? Hildesheim, 4th ed., 1883; Martin Luther's Anfange, Osnabriick, 3d ed., 1884; Martin Luther, Mainz, 1883 sqq., in several vols.), WESTERMAYER (Luther's Werk im Jahr 1883), GrEr- MANUS, HERRMANN, RarrscHEeR, DasBacHu, Ram, LeEoaast, etc. See the “ Historisch-politische Blatter ” of Munich, and the “Germania” of Berlin, for 1883 and 1884 (the chief organs of Romanism in Germany), and the Protestant review of these writings by WILH. WALTHER: Luther im neusten rémischen -Gericht. Halle, 1884 (166 pages).
§ 18, ILnther’s Youth and Training.
In order to understand the genius and history of the German Reformation we must trace its origin in the personal experience of the monk who shook the world from his lonely study in Wittenberg, and made pope and emperor tremble at the power of his word.
All the Reformers, like the Apostles and Evangelists, were men of humble origin, and gave proof that God’s Spirit working through his chosen instruments is mightier than armies and navies. But they were endowed with extraordinary talents and energy, and providentially prepared for their work. They were also aided by a combination of favorable circumstances without which they could not have accomplished their work. They made the Reformation, and the Reformation made them.
Of all the Reformers Luther is the first. He is so closely identified with the German Reformation that the one would have no meaning without the other. His own history is the formative history of the church which is justly called by his name, and which is the incarnation and perpetuation of his genius, No other Reformer has given his name to the church he reformed, and exercised the same controlling influence over its history. We need not discuss here the advantages and disadvantages of this characteristic difference; we are only concerned with the fact.
Martin Luther was born Nov. 10. 1483, an hour before mid-
106 THE Gfewan REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1530.
night, at Eisleben in Prussian Saxony, where he died, Feb. 18, 1546."
On the day following he was baptized and received the name of the saint of the day.
His parents had recently removed to that town? from their original home at Mohra near Eisenach in Thuringia, where Boniface had first preached the gospel to the Germans. Six months after Luther’s birth they settled at Mansfeld, the capital of a rich mining district in the Harz mountains, which thus shares with the Thuringian forest the honor of being the home of the Luther family. They were very poor, but honest, industrious and pious people from the lower and uncultivated ranks.
Luther was never ashamed of his humble, rustic origin. “I am,” he said with pride to Melanchthon, “a peasant’s son; my father, grandfather, all my ancestors were genuine peasants.” ὅ His mother had to carry the wood from the forest on her back, and father and mother, as he said, “ worked their flesh off their bones,” to bring up seven children (he had three younger brothers and three sisters). Afterward his father, as a miner, acquired some property, and left at his death 1250 guilders ;
1 His name is differently spelled: Luder, Ludher, Lutter, Luttherr, Luther. The Reformer himself varied. In his first book, on the Penitential Psalms, 1517, he signed his name after the preface Martinus Luder, but soon afterward he adopted the spelling Luther. In the University records of Erfurt he was inscribed as Ludher, in the Wittenberg records, first as Luder and Liider. He derived his name from lauter, clear, afterward from Lothar, which means laut (Alut), renowned, according to others Leutherr, i. e.: Herr der Leute, lord of the people. See Erfurter Matrikel; Album Acad. Viteberg., and Lib. Decanorwm facultatis theol. Acad. Viteb. ed. Férstemann; Walch, L.’s Werke I., 46 sqq.; Jiirgens I., 11-13: Knaake, in “ Zeitschr, f. hist. Theol.,” 1872, p. 465 ; Kostlin, Mart. Luther, I. 21 (2d ed. 1883). The year of Luther’s birth rests on the testimony of his brother James; his mother distinctly remembered the day and the hour, but not the year. Melanchthon’s Vita Luth. 2; Késtlin, I. 25 and 776.
2 The story that they went to the fair at Eisenach cannot be proven.
5 “Teh bin eines Bauern Sohn; mein Vater, Grossvater, Ahnherr sind rechte Bauern gewest. Darauf ist mein Vater gen Mansfeld gezogen und ein Berghauer worden: daher bin ich.’ Mathesius wisely remarks with reference to the small beginnings of Luther: “ Wass gross soll werden, muss klein angehen ; und wenn die Kinder zértlich und herrlich erzogen werden, schadet es thnen thr Leben lang.”
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(From a Portrait by Cranach