§ 124. Deterioration and Purification of the Wittenberg Reformation,A.D.1522-1525.During Luther’s absence, the Reformation at Wittenberg advanced only too rapidly, and at last ran out into the wildest extravagances. But Luther hastened thither, regulated the movement, and guided it back into wise evangelical ways. This fanaticism arose in Wittenberg, but soon spread into other parts. The Reformation was at the same time threatened with danger from another quarter. The religious movement came into contact with the struggle of the German knights against the princes and that of the German peasants against the nobles, and was in danger of being identified with these revolutionary proceedings and sharing their fate. But Luther stood firm as a wall against all temptations, and thus these dangers were avoided.
During Luther’s absence, the Reformation at Wittenberg advanced only too rapidly, and at last ran out into the wildest extravagances. But Luther hastened thither, regulated the movement, and guided it back into wise evangelical ways. This fanaticism arose in Wittenberg, but soon spread into other parts. The Reformation was at the same time threatened with danger from another quarter. The religious movement came into contact with the struggle of the German knights against the princes and that of the German peasants against the nobles, and was in danger of being identified with these revolutionary proceedings and sharing their fate. But Luther stood firm as a wall against all temptations, and thus these dangers were avoided.
§ 124.1.The Wittenberg Fanaticism,A.D.1521, 1522.—InA.D.1521 an Augustinian, Gabriel Didymus or Zwilling, preached a violent tirade against vows and private masses. In consequence of this sermon, thirteen of the brethren of his order at once withdrew. Two priests in the neighbourhood married. Carlstadt wrote against celibacy and followed their example. At the Wittenberg convent, secessions from the order were allowed at pleasure, and mendicancy, as well as the sacrifice of the mass, was abolished. But matters did not stop there. Didymus, and still more Carlstadt, spread a fanatical spirit among the people and the students, who were encouraged in the wildest acts of violence. The public services were disturbed in order to stop the idolatry of the mass, images were thrown out of the churches, altars were torn down, and a desire evinced to put an end to theological science as well as to clerical orders. A fanatical spirit began now also to spread at Zwickau. At the head of this movement stood the tailor Nicolas Storch and a literate Marcus Stübner, who boasted of Divine revelations; while Thomas Münzer, with fervid eloquence, proclaimed the new gospel from the pulpit. Restrained by energetic measures taken against them, the Zwickau prophets wandered abroad. Münzer went to Bohemia, Storch and Stübner to Wittenberg. There they told of their revelations and inveighed against infant baptism as a work of Satan. The excitement in Wittenberg became greater day by day. The enemies of the Reformation rejoiced; Melanchthon could give no counsel, and the elector was confounded. Then could Luther no longer contain himself. Against the elector’s express command he left the Wartburg on 3rd March,A.D.1522, wrote him a noble letter, availed himself of his knight’s incognito on the way, and appeared publicly at Wittenberg. For a week he preached daily against fanaticism, and got complete control of the wild revolutionary elements. The prophets of Zwickau left Wittenberg. Carlstadt remained, but for a couple of years held his peace. Luther and Melanchthon now laboured to secure a positive basis for the Reformation. Melanchthon had already made a beginning inA.D.1521 by the publication of hisLoci communes rerum theologicarum. Luther now, inA.D.1522, against the decided wish of his friend, published hisAnnotationes in epist. t. Pauli ad Rom. et Cor.In Sept. of the same year appeared Luther’s translation of the N.T. Besides these he also issued several treatises in defence of the Reformation.§ 124.2.Franz von Sickingen,A.D.1522, 1523.—A private feud led Franz von Sickingen to attack the Elector and Archbishop of Treves inA.D.1522, but soon other interests were involved, and he was joined by the whole party of the knights. Sickingen’s opponent was a prelate and a pronounced enemy of the Reformation, and he was also a prince and a peer of the empire. In both characters he was opposed by Sickingen, who called for support in the name of religion and freedom. The knights, discontented with the imperial government and bureaucracy, with princes and prelates, crowded to his standard. Sickingen would also have gladly secured the monk of Wittenberg as an ally, but Luther was not to be won. Sickingen’s enterprise failed. The Elector of the Palatinate and the young Landgrave of Hesse hasted to the help of their beleaguered neighbours. The knights were overthrown one after another; Sickingen died of mortal wounds in May,A.D.1523, immediately after the taking of the shattered Ebernburg. The power of the knights was utterly broken. The Reformation thus lost indeed brave and noble protectors, but it was itself saved.§ 124.3.Andrew Bodenstein of Carlstadt,A.D.1524, 1525.—Even after the suppression of the Wittenberg fanaticism, Carlstadt continued to entertain his revolutionary views, and it was only with difficulty that he restrained himself for a few years. InA.D.1524 he left Wittenberg and went to Orlamünde. With bitter invectives against Luther’s popism, he there resumed his iconoclasm, and brought forward his doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, in which the real presence of the body and blood of Christ was absolutely denied (§131, 1). In order to prevent disturbance, Luther, by the order of the elector, went to Jena, and there in Carlstadt’s presence preached most emphatically against image breakers and sacramentarians. This roused Carlstadt’s indignation. When Luther visited Orlamünde, he was received with stone throwing and curses. Carlstadt was now banished from his territories by the elector. He then went to Strassburg, where he sought to win over the two evangelical pastors, Bucer and Capito. Luther issued a letter of warning, “To the Christians of Strassburg.” Carlstadt went to Basel, and published violent tracts against Luther’s “unspiritual and irrational theology.” Luther replied inA.D.1525, earnestly, thoroughly, and firmly in his treatise, “Against the Heavenly Prophets, or Images and the Sacraments.” Carlstadt had secured the support of the Swiss reformers, who continued the controversy with Luther. He involved himself in the Peasants’ War, and afterwards, by Luther’s intercession with the elector, obtained leave to return to Saxony. He retracted his errors, but soon again renewed his old disorderly practices; and, after a singularly eventful career, died as professor and preacher at Basel during the plague ofA.D.1541.§ 124.4.Thomas Münzer,A.D.1523, 1524.—The prophets when expelled from Wittenberg did not remain idle, but set themselves to produce all sort of disorders in church and state. At the head of these disturbers stood Thomas Münzer. After his expulsion from Zwickau, he had gone to Bohemia, and was there received as an apostle of the Taborite doctrine (§119, 7). InA.D.1523 he returned to Saxony, and settled at Allstadt [Allstädt] in Thuringia, and when driven out by the elector he went to Mühlhausen. In both places he soon obtained a large following. The Wittenberg Reformation was condemned no less than the papacy. Not the word of Scripture but the Spirit was to be the principle of the Reformation; not only everything ecclesiastical but also everything civil was to be spiritualized and reorganized. The doctrine of the evangelical freedom of the Christian was grossly misconceived, the sacraments despised, infant baptism denounced, and sole weight laid on the baptism of the Spirit. Princes should be driven from their thrones, the enemies of the gospel destroyed by the sword, and all goods be held in common. When Luther wrote a letter of warning on these subjects to the church at Mühlhausen, Münzer issued an abusive rejoinder, in which he speaks contemptuously of Luther’s “honey-sweet Christ,” and “cunningly devised gospel.” From Mühlhausen, Münzer went forth on a proselytising crusade inA.D.1524, to Nuremberg, and then to Basel, but found little response in either city. His revolutionary extravagances were more successful among the peasants of Southern Germany.§ 124.5.The Peasant War,A.D.1524, 1525.—The peasants of the empire had long groaned under their heavy burdens. Twice already, inA.D.1502, 1514, had they risen in revolt, with little advantage to themselves. When Luther’s ideas of the freedom of a Christian man reached them, they hastily drew conclusions in accordance with their own desires. Münzer’s fanatical preaching led to the adoption of still more decidedly communistic theories. In August,A.D.1524, in the Black Forest, a rebellion broke out, which was, however, quickly suppressed. In the beginning ofA.D.1525 troubles burst forth afresh. The peasants stated their demands in twelve articles, which they insisted upon princes, nobles, and prelates accepting. All Franconia and Swabia were soon under their power, and even many cities made common cause with them. Münzer, however, was not satisfied with this success. The twelve articles were too moderate for him, and still more distasteful to him were the terms that had been made with the nobles and clergy. He returned to Thuringia and settled again at Mühlhausen. From thence he spread his fanaticism through the whole land and organized a general revolt. With merciless cruelty thousands were massacred, all cloisters, castles, and palaces were ruthlessly destroyed. Boldly as Luther had attacked the existing ecclesiastical tyranny, he resolutely left civil matters alone. He preached that the gospel makes the soul free, but not the body or property. He had profound sympathy for the sorely oppressed peasants, and so long as their demands did not go beyond the twelve articles, he hoped to be able to regulate the movement by the power of the word. The revolutionists had themselves in their twelfth article offered to abandon any of their claims that might be found to have no countenance from the word of God. When Münzer’s disorders began in Thuringia, Luther visited the cities most threatened and exhorted them to quiet and obedience. But the death of the elector on 5th May called him back to Wittenberg. From thence he now published his “Exhortations to Peace on the Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants,” in which he speaks pointedly to the consciences of the nobles no less than of the peasants. But when the agitation continued to spread, and one enormity after another was perpetrated, he gave vent to his wrath in no measured terms in his book, “Against the Robbing and Murdering Peasants.” He there, with burning words, called upon the princes vigorously to stamp out the fanatical rebellion. Philip of Hesse was the first to take the field. He was joined by the new Elector of Saxony, Frederick’s brother,John the Constant,A.D.1525-1532, as well as by George of Saxony and Henry of Brunswick. On 15th May,A.D.1525, the rebels were annihilated after a severe struggle at Frankenhausen. Münzer was taken prisoner and beheaded. Even in Southern Germany the princes were soon in all parts masters of the situation. In this war 100,000 men had lost their lives and the most fertile districts had been turned into barren wastes.
§ 124.1.The Wittenberg Fanaticism,A.D.1521, 1522.—InA.D.1521 an Augustinian, Gabriel Didymus or Zwilling, preached a violent tirade against vows and private masses. In consequence of this sermon, thirteen of the brethren of his order at once withdrew. Two priests in the neighbourhood married. Carlstadt wrote against celibacy and followed their example. At the Wittenberg convent, secessions from the order were allowed at pleasure, and mendicancy, as well as the sacrifice of the mass, was abolished. But matters did not stop there. Didymus, and still more Carlstadt, spread a fanatical spirit among the people and the students, who were encouraged in the wildest acts of violence. The public services were disturbed in order to stop the idolatry of the mass, images were thrown out of the churches, altars were torn down, and a desire evinced to put an end to theological science as well as to clerical orders. A fanatical spirit began now also to spread at Zwickau. At the head of this movement stood the tailor Nicolas Storch and a literate Marcus Stübner, who boasted of Divine revelations; while Thomas Münzer, with fervid eloquence, proclaimed the new gospel from the pulpit. Restrained by energetic measures taken against them, the Zwickau prophets wandered abroad. Münzer went to Bohemia, Storch and Stübner to Wittenberg. There they told of their revelations and inveighed against infant baptism as a work of Satan. The excitement in Wittenberg became greater day by day. The enemies of the Reformation rejoiced; Melanchthon could give no counsel, and the elector was confounded. Then could Luther no longer contain himself. Against the elector’s express command he left the Wartburg on 3rd March,A.D.1522, wrote him a noble letter, availed himself of his knight’s incognito on the way, and appeared publicly at Wittenberg. For a week he preached daily against fanaticism, and got complete control of the wild revolutionary elements. The prophets of Zwickau left Wittenberg. Carlstadt remained, but for a couple of years held his peace. Luther and Melanchthon now laboured to secure a positive basis for the Reformation. Melanchthon had already made a beginning inA.D.1521 by the publication of hisLoci communes rerum theologicarum. Luther now, inA.D.1522, against the decided wish of his friend, published hisAnnotationes in epist. t. Pauli ad Rom. et Cor.In Sept. of the same year appeared Luther’s translation of the N.T. Besides these he also issued several treatises in defence of the Reformation.
§ 124.2.Franz von Sickingen,A.D.1522, 1523.—A private feud led Franz von Sickingen to attack the Elector and Archbishop of Treves inA.D.1522, but soon other interests were involved, and he was joined by the whole party of the knights. Sickingen’s opponent was a prelate and a pronounced enemy of the Reformation, and he was also a prince and a peer of the empire. In both characters he was opposed by Sickingen, who called for support in the name of religion and freedom. The knights, discontented with the imperial government and bureaucracy, with princes and prelates, crowded to his standard. Sickingen would also have gladly secured the monk of Wittenberg as an ally, but Luther was not to be won. Sickingen’s enterprise failed. The Elector of the Palatinate and the young Landgrave of Hesse hasted to the help of their beleaguered neighbours. The knights were overthrown one after another; Sickingen died of mortal wounds in May,A.D.1523, immediately after the taking of the shattered Ebernburg. The power of the knights was utterly broken. The Reformation thus lost indeed brave and noble protectors, but it was itself saved.
§ 124.3.Andrew Bodenstein of Carlstadt,A.D.1524, 1525.—Even after the suppression of the Wittenberg fanaticism, Carlstadt continued to entertain his revolutionary views, and it was only with difficulty that he restrained himself for a few years. InA.D.1524 he left Wittenberg and went to Orlamünde. With bitter invectives against Luther’s popism, he there resumed his iconoclasm, and brought forward his doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, in which the real presence of the body and blood of Christ was absolutely denied (§131, 1). In order to prevent disturbance, Luther, by the order of the elector, went to Jena, and there in Carlstadt’s presence preached most emphatically against image breakers and sacramentarians. This roused Carlstadt’s indignation. When Luther visited Orlamünde, he was received with stone throwing and curses. Carlstadt was now banished from his territories by the elector. He then went to Strassburg, where he sought to win over the two evangelical pastors, Bucer and Capito. Luther issued a letter of warning, “To the Christians of Strassburg.” Carlstadt went to Basel, and published violent tracts against Luther’s “unspiritual and irrational theology.” Luther replied inA.D.1525, earnestly, thoroughly, and firmly in his treatise, “Against the Heavenly Prophets, or Images and the Sacraments.” Carlstadt had secured the support of the Swiss reformers, who continued the controversy with Luther. He involved himself in the Peasants’ War, and afterwards, by Luther’s intercession with the elector, obtained leave to return to Saxony. He retracted his errors, but soon again renewed his old disorderly practices; and, after a singularly eventful career, died as professor and preacher at Basel during the plague ofA.D.1541.
§ 124.4.Thomas Münzer,A.D.1523, 1524.—The prophets when expelled from Wittenberg did not remain idle, but set themselves to produce all sort of disorders in church and state. At the head of these disturbers stood Thomas Münzer. After his expulsion from Zwickau, he had gone to Bohemia, and was there received as an apostle of the Taborite doctrine (§119, 7). InA.D.1523 he returned to Saxony, and settled at Allstadt [Allstädt] in Thuringia, and when driven out by the elector he went to Mühlhausen. In both places he soon obtained a large following. The Wittenberg Reformation was condemned no less than the papacy. Not the word of Scripture but the Spirit was to be the principle of the Reformation; not only everything ecclesiastical but also everything civil was to be spiritualized and reorganized. The doctrine of the evangelical freedom of the Christian was grossly misconceived, the sacraments despised, infant baptism denounced, and sole weight laid on the baptism of the Spirit. Princes should be driven from their thrones, the enemies of the gospel destroyed by the sword, and all goods be held in common. When Luther wrote a letter of warning on these subjects to the church at Mühlhausen, Münzer issued an abusive rejoinder, in which he speaks contemptuously of Luther’s “honey-sweet Christ,” and “cunningly devised gospel.” From Mühlhausen, Münzer went forth on a proselytising crusade inA.D.1524, to Nuremberg, and then to Basel, but found little response in either city. His revolutionary extravagances were more successful among the peasants of Southern Germany.
§ 124.5.The Peasant War,A.D.1524, 1525.—The peasants of the empire had long groaned under their heavy burdens. Twice already, inA.D.1502, 1514, had they risen in revolt, with little advantage to themselves. When Luther’s ideas of the freedom of a Christian man reached them, they hastily drew conclusions in accordance with their own desires. Münzer’s fanatical preaching led to the adoption of still more decidedly communistic theories. In August,A.D.1524, in the Black Forest, a rebellion broke out, which was, however, quickly suppressed. In the beginning ofA.D.1525 troubles burst forth afresh. The peasants stated their demands in twelve articles, which they insisted upon princes, nobles, and prelates accepting. All Franconia and Swabia were soon under their power, and even many cities made common cause with them. Münzer, however, was not satisfied with this success. The twelve articles were too moderate for him, and still more distasteful to him were the terms that had been made with the nobles and clergy. He returned to Thuringia and settled again at Mühlhausen. From thence he spread his fanaticism through the whole land and organized a general revolt. With merciless cruelty thousands were massacred, all cloisters, castles, and palaces were ruthlessly destroyed. Boldly as Luther had attacked the existing ecclesiastical tyranny, he resolutely left civil matters alone. He preached that the gospel makes the soul free, but not the body or property. He had profound sympathy for the sorely oppressed peasants, and so long as their demands did not go beyond the twelve articles, he hoped to be able to regulate the movement by the power of the word. The revolutionists had themselves in their twelfth article offered to abandon any of their claims that might be found to have no countenance from the word of God. When Münzer’s disorders began in Thuringia, Luther visited the cities most threatened and exhorted them to quiet and obedience. But the death of the elector on 5th May called him back to Wittenberg. From thence he now published his “Exhortations to Peace on the Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants,” in which he speaks pointedly to the consciences of the nobles no less than of the peasants. But when the agitation continued to spread, and one enormity after another was perpetrated, he gave vent to his wrath in no measured terms in his book, “Against the Robbing and Murdering Peasants.” He there, with burning words, called upon the princes vigorously to stamp out the fanatical rebellion. Philip of Hesse was the first to take the field. He was joined by the new Elector of Saxony, Frederick’s brother,John the Constant,A.D.1525-1532, as well as by George of Saxony and Henry of Brunswick. On 15th May,A.D.1525, the rebels were annihilated after a severe struggle at Frankenhausen. Münzer was taken prisoner and beheaded. Even in Southern Germany the princes were soon in all parts masters of the situation. In this war 100,000 men had lost their lives and the most fertile districts had been turned into barren wastes.