884 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 τὸ 1530.
description of it in letters to his Wittenberg friends, especially to Spalatin and Melanchthon, which were transmitted by secret messengers, and dated from “ Patmos,” or “the wilderness,” from “the region of the air,” or “the region of the birds.”
He was known and treated during this episode as Knight George. He exchanged the monastic gown for the dress of a gentleman, let his hair and beard grow, wore a coat of mail, a sword, and a golden chain, and had to imitate courtly manners. He was served by two pages, who brought the meals to his room twice a day. His food was much better than he had been accustomed to as a monk, and brought on dyspepsia and insomnia. He enjoyed the singing of the birds, “sweetly lauding God day and night with all their strength.” He. made excursions with an attendant. Sometimes he took a book along, but was reminded that a knight and a scholar were different beings. He engaged in conversation on the way, with priests and monks, about ecclesiastical affairs, and the uncertain whereabouts of Luther, till he was requested to goon. He took part in the chase, but indulged in theological thoughts among the huntsmen and animals. “ We caught a few hares and partridges,” he said, “ἃ worthy occupation for idle people.” The nets and dogs reminded him of the arts of the Devil entangling and pursuing poor human souls. He sheltered a hunted hare, but the dogs tore it to pieces; this suggested to him the rage of the Devil and the Pope to destroy those whom he wished to preserve. It would be better, he thought, to hunt bears and wolves.
He had many a personal encounter with the Devil, whose existence was as certain to him as his own. More than once he threw the inkstand at him — not literally, but spiritually. His severest blow at the archfiend was the translation of the New Testament. His own doubts, carnal temptations, evil thoughts, as well as the dangers threatening him and his work from his enemies, projected themselves into appari-
§ 61. LUTHER ON THE WARTBURG. 1621-1522. 335
tions of the prince of darkness. He heard his noises at night, in a chest, in a bag of nuts, and on the staircase “as if a hundred barrels were rolled from top to bottom.” Once he saw him in the shape of a big black dog lying in his bed; he threw the creature out of the window; but it did not bark, and disappeared.! Sometimes he resorted to jokes. The Devil, he said, will bear any thing better than to be despised and laughed at? |
Luther was brought up in all the medieval superstitions ‘concerning demons, ghosts, witches, and sorcerers. His imagination clothed ideas in concrete, massive forms. The Devil was to him the personal embodiment of all evil and mischief in the world. Hence he figures very largely in his _ theology and religious experience.? He is the direct antipode of God, and the archfiend of Christ and of men. As God is pure love, so the Devil is pure selfishness, hatred, and envy. He is endowed with high intellectual gifts, as bad men often surpass good men in prudence and understanding. He was originally an archangel, but moved by pride and envy against the Son of God, whose incarnation and saving work he fore: saw, he rose in rebellion against it. He commands an organized army of fallen angels and bad men in constant conflict with God and the good angels. He is the god of
1 In Goethe’s Faust, Mephistopheles appears in the disguise of a poodle, the canis infernus, and is conjured by the sign of a cross:
** Bist du, Geselle, Ein Flichtling der Holle ? So sieh diess Zeichen, Dem sie sich beugen Die schwarzen Schaaren.’’
2 “ Verachtung kann der stolze hoffahrtige Geist nicht leiden.’ Tischreden. (LX. 75. Erl.-Frkf. ed.)
8 In the alphabetical index of the Erlangen-Frankfurt edition of Luther’s German Works, the title Teufel fills no less than ten closely printed pages (vol. LXVII. 243-253). His Table-Talk on the Devil occupies about 150 pages in vols. LIX. and LX. It is instructive and interesting to read it through. Michelet devotes a whole chapter to this subject (pp. 219-234). For a systematic view, see Kostlin, Luther’s Theologie, vol. 11. 313 sq.; 351 sqq.