§ 74. WILIBALD PIRKHEIMER. 439
liberty. In a letter to his friend Leib, prior of Rebdorf, written a year before his death, Pirkheimer disclaims all fellowship with Luther, and expresses the opinion that the Reformer had become either insane, or possessed by an evil spirit.2 But, on the other hand, he remained on good terms with Melanchthon, and entertained him on his way to the Diet of Augsburg in 1530.
His apparent inconsistency is due to a change of the times rather than to a change of his conviction. Like Erasmus, he remained a humanist, who hoped for a reformation from a revival of letters rather than theology and religion, and therefore hailed the beginning, but lomenea the progress, of the Lutheran movement.®
Broken by disease, affliction, and disappointment, he died
1 Hans Sachs (in his Gesprdch eines evang. Christen mit einem katholischen, Nurnberg, 1524) warns the Nurnbergers against their excesses of intemperance, unchastity, uncharitableness, by which they brought the Lutheran doctrine into contempt. Déllinger, l.c., I. 174 sqq., quotes testimonies to the same effect from Konrad Wickner and Lazarus Spengler, both prominent Protestants in Nurnberg, and from contemporaries in other parts of Germany.
2 Dollinger, I. p. 533 sq., gives this letter in Latin and German, and infers from it that Pirkheimer died a member of the Catholic Church.
8 This is substantially also the judgment of Drews, his most recent biographer, who says (l. c., p. 123): ‘* Pirkheimer ist jeder Zeit Humanist geblieben. . . . In der Theorie war er ein Anhtinger der neuen, gewaltigen Bewegung ; aber als dieselbe anfing praktisch zu werden, erschrak er vor den Gahrungen, die unvermeidlich waren. Der Humanist sah die schoénen Wissenschaften bedroht; der Patrizier erschrak vor der Ubermacht des Volkes; der Staatsmann erzitterte, als er den Bruch mit den alten Verhaltnissen als eine Notwendigkeit fiihlte. Nur ein religids fest gegriindeter Glaube war im Stande, iiber diesen Ktimpfen den Sieg und den Frieden zu sehen. Daran aber fehite es gerade Pirkheimer ; alles theologische Interesse vermag dieses personliche religidse Leben nicht zu ersetzen. Wohl besass er ein lebendiges Rechisgefihl, einen ethischen Idealismus, aber es fehite ihm die Kraft, im eignen Leben denselben zu verwirklichen. Ihm war das Leben ein heiteres Spiel, solange die Tage sonnenhell waren; als sie sich umdiisterten, wollten sich die Wolken weder hinwegscherzen, noch hinwegschm4ahen lassen. in religios, sittlicher Charakter war Pirkheimer nicht, ‘ Vivitur ingenio, caetera mortis erunt,’ diese Worte hat er unter sein von Diirer gezeichnetes Bild (1524) gesetzt. Sie enthalten das Glaubensbekenntnis Pirkheimers, das Geheimnis seines Lebens.”’
440 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1530.
in the year of the Augsburg Confession, Dec. 22, 1530, praying for the prosperity of the fatherland and the peace of the church. He left unfinished an edition of Ptolemy’s Geography, which Erasmus published with a preface. Shortly before his death, Erasmus had given him an unfavorable account of the introduction of the Reformation in Basel and of his intention to leave the city.
Pirkheimer made no permanent impression, and his writings are antiquated; but, as one of the most prominent humanists and connecting links between the medieval and the modern ages, he deserves a place in the history of the Reformation.
§ 75. The Peasants’ War. 1525-1525.
I. LutHer: Ermahnung zum Frieden auf die zwolf Artikel der Bauernschaft in Schwaben (1525); Wider die morderischen und raitiberischen Rotten der Bauern (1525); Ein Sendbrief von dem harten Biichlein wider die Bauern (1525). WaAtcH, vols. XVI. and XXI. ἘΠῚ. ed., XXIV. 257-318. MELANCHTHON : Historie Thome Miinzers (1525), in WALCH, XVI. 204sqq. CocuLaus (Rom. Cath.), in his writings against Luther.
II. Histories of the Peasants’ War, by SARTORIUS (Geschichte des deutschen Bauernkriegs, Berlin, 1795); WACHSMUTH (Leipzig, 1834); OECHSLE (Heilbronn, 1830 and 1844); BENSEN (Erlangen, 1840); ZIMMERMANN (Stuttgart, 1841, second edition 1856, 3 vols.); Jora@ (Freiburg, 1851); SCHREIBER (Freiburg, 1863-66, 3 vols.); STERN (Leipzig, 1868); Βαυ- MANN (Tubingen, 1876-78); L. FRIEs, ed. by Schaffler and Henner (Wiirzburg, 1876, 1877); HARTFELDER (Stuttgart, 1884),
III. Monographs on Thomas Miinzer by STROBEL (Leben, Schriften und Lehren Thoma Miintzers, Nirnberg and Altdorf, 1795); GEBsER (1831); STREIF (1835); SEIDEMANN (Dresden, 1842); LEo (1856); ERBKAmM (in Herzog 2, vol. X. 365 sqq.).
IV. RANKE: II. 124-150. Janssen: II. 393-582. HAussER: ch. VIL WEBER: Weltgesch., vol. X. 229-273 (second edition, 1886).
The ecclesiastical radicalism at Wittenberg was the prelude of a more dangerous political and social radicalism, which involved a large portion of Germany in confusion and blood. Both movements had their roots in crying abuses; both received a strong impetus from the Reformation, and pretended to carry out its principles to their legitimate consequences; but both were ultra- and pseudo-Protestant, fanatical, and revolutionary.