§ 55. LUTHER’S TESTIMONY BEFORE THE DIET. 307
the German soldiers rejoicing over a clever stroke, and represented him as a vulgar fellow fond of good wine.! They praised the Emperor as a truly Christian and Catholic prince who assured them the next day of his determination to treat Luther as a heretic. The Venetian ambassador, otherwise impartial, judged that Luther disappointed expectations, and showed neither much learning, nor much prudence, nor was he blameless in life.? But the German delegates received a different impression. When Luther left the Bishop’s palace greatly exhausted, the old Duke Erik of Brunswick sent him a silver tankard of Eimbeck beer, after having first drunk of it himself to remove suspicion. Luther said, “As Duke Erik has remembered me to-day, may the Lord Jesus remember him in his last agony.” The Duke thought of it on his deathbed, and found comfort in the words of the gospel: “ Whosoever shall give unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only, in the name of a disciple, he shall in no wise lose his reward.” The Elector Frederick expressed to Spalatin the same evening his delight with Luther’s conduct: “ How excellently did Father Martin speak both in Latin and German before the Emperor and the Estates! He was bold enough, if not too much so.”® The cautious Elector would have been still better pleased if Luther had been more mod-
1 Aleander and Caracciolo to the Vice-Chancellor Medici, April 19, 1521 (Brieger, I. 153): ‘* Martino uscito fuora della sala Cesarea alzd la mano in alto more militum Germanorum, quando exultano di un bel colpo di giostra.”’ In a letter of April 27 (l.c. p. 166), they call Luther ‘‘ il venerabdile ribaldo,’’ who before his departure drank in the presence of many persons ‘‘ molte tazze di malvasia, della qual ne ὃ forte amoroso.’’ The charge of intemperance is repeated in a dispatch of April 29 (p. 170): ‘‘la ebrieta, alla quale detto Luther ὃ deditissimo.’’ ‘That Luther used to drink beer and wine according to the universal custom of his age, is an undoubted fact; but that he was intemperate in eating or drinking, is a slander of his enemies. Melanchthon, who knew him best, bears testimony to his temperance. See below, the section on his private life.
2 Contarenus ad Matthzum Dandalum, quoted by Ranke, I. 336.
8 Walch, XV. 2246.
808 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1530.
erate, and not attacked the Councils. Persons of distinction called on him in his lodgings till late at night, and cheered him. Among these was the young Landgrave Philip of Hesse, who afterwards embraced the cause of the Reformation with zeal and energy, but did it much harm by his bigamy. After a frivolous jest, which Luther smilingly rebuked, he wished him God’s blessing.!
The strongest sympathizers with Luther were outside of the Diet, among the common people, the patriotic nobles, the scholars of the school of Erasmus, and the rising generation of liberal men. As he returned from the Diet to his lodgings, ἃ voice in the crowd was heard to exclaim: “ Blessed be the womb that bare this son.” ‘Tonstal, the English ambassador, wrote from Worms, that “the Germans every-. where are so addicted to Luther, that, rather than he should be oppressed by the Pope’s authority, a hundred thousand of the people will sacrifice their lives.”? In the imperial chambers a paper was found with the words: “ Woe to the nation whose king is a child” (Eccl. x. 16).2 An uprising of four hundred German knights with eight thousand soldiers was threatened in a placard on the city hall; but the storm passed away. Hutten and Sickingen were in the Emperor’s service.
1 The interview as related by Luther (Walch, XV. 2247; Erlangen-Frankfurt edition, LXIV. 373) is characteristic of this prince, and foreshadows his future conduct. ‘‘ Der Landgraf von Hessen kam zu Worms erstlich zu mir. Er war aber noch nicht auf meiner Seiten, und kam in Hof geritten, ging zu mir in mein Gemach, wollte mich sehen. Er war aber noch sehr jung, sprach: Lieber Herr Doctor, wie geht?’s? Da antwortete ich: Gnadiger Herr, ich hoff, es soll gut werden. Da sagte er: Ich hore, Herr Doctor, ihr lehret, wenn ein Mann alt wird und seiner Frauen nicht mehr Ehepflicht leisten kann, dass dann die Frau mag einen anderen Mann nehmen, und lachte, denn die Hofrithe hatten’s ihm eingeblasen. Ich aber lachte auch und sagte: Ach nein, gnddiger Herr, Euer Firstlich Gnad sollt nicht also reden. Aber er ging balde wieder von mir hinweg, gab mir die Hand und sagte: Habt ihr Recht, Herr Doctor, so helfe euch Gott.”’
2 In Fiddes’ Life of Wolsey, quoted by Ranke, I. 337, note.
3 Ranke (1. 387) says ‘‘in den kaiserlichen Gemdchern.”? Other reports say that these words were placarded in public places at Worms.