830 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 15380.
remains, ecclesiastically, divided to this day; but the politi-
cal unification and reconstruction of the German Empire with
a Protestant head, instead of the former Roman-Catholic
emperor, may be regarded as a remote result of the Reforma-
tion, without which it could never have taken place. And it is a remarkable providence, that this great event of 1870 was preceded by the Vatican Council and the decree of papal infallibility, and followed by the overthrow of the temporal power of the Pope and the political unification of Italy with
Rome as the capital.
Before Luther entered upon the new phase in his career, he had a short rest on what he called his “ Patmos” (Rev. 1: 9), and his “ wilderness.” It is the most romantic, as his stand at Worms is the most heroic, chapter in his eventful life.
§ 61. Luther at the Wartburg. 1521-1522.
I. LuTHER’s Letters, from April 28, 1521, to March 7, 1522, in DE WETTE, vol. I. 588-605; II. 1-141. Very full and very characteristic. WALcH, XV. 23824-2402.
II. C. KOHLER: Luther auf der Wartburg. Eisenach, 1798. A. WItTz- SCHELL: Luthers Aufenthalt auf der Wartburg. Wien, 1876. J. G. Morris: Luther at Wartburg and Coburg. Philadelphia, 1882.
III. MARHEINEKE, Chap. X. (I. 276 sqq.). MERLE pD’AuBIGNE, Bk. IX.,
chs. I. and II. HAGENBACH, III. 105 sqq. FISHER, p. 112. KOsTLIN, 1. 468-525. :
Luther left Worms after a stay of ten days, April 26, 1521, at ten o’clock in the morning, quietly, in the same company with which he had made his entrance under the greatest popular commotion and expectation. His friend Schurf went along. The imperial herald joined him at Oppenheim so as not to attract notice. !
In a letter to his friend Cranach, dated Frankfurt, April 28, he thus summarizes the proceedings of the Diet : “ Have you written these books? Yes. Will you recant? No. Then get thee hence! O we blind Germans, how childish we are to allow ourselves to be so miserably fooled by the Roman-
§ 61. LUTHER AT THE WARTBURG. 1521-1522. 881
ists!” 1 In the same letter he takes leave of his Wittenberg friends, and intimates that he would be hidden for a while, though he did not know where. He says that he would rather have suffered death from the tyrants, especially “the furious Duke George,” but he could not despise the counsel of good people. “A little while, and ye behold me no more; and again a little while, and ye shall see me (John 16: 16). I hope it will be so with me. But God’s will, the - best of all, be done in heaven and on earth.”
At Friedberg he dismissed the herald, and gave him a Latin letter to the Emperor, and a German letter of the same import to the Estates. He thanked the former for the safeconduct, and defended his course at Worms. He could not trust in the decision of one man or many men when God’s word and eternal interests were at stake, but was still willing to recant if refuted from the Scriptures.?
At Hersfeld he was hospitably entertained in the Benedictine convent by the Abbot Crato, and urged to preach. He did so in spite of the Emperor’s prohibition, obeying God rather than men. “1 never consented,” he says, “to tie up God’s word. This is a condition beyond my power.”? He preached also at Eisenach, but under protest of the priest in charge of the parish. Several of his companions parted from him there, and proceeded in the direction of Gotha and Wittenberg.
From Eisenach he started with Amsdorf and Petzensteiner for Mohra to see his relations. He spent a night with his uncle Heinz, and preached on the next Sunday morning. He resumed his journey towards Altenstein and Waltershausen, accompanied by some of his relatives. On the 4th of May, a company of armed horsemen suddenly appeared from the woods, stopped his carriage, amidst cursing and swearing, pulled him out, put him on horseback, hurried
1 De Wette, I. 588. 2 De Wette, I. 589, 600. 8 See his letter to Spalatin, May 14, in De Wette, 11. 6.