CRONBERG-HANS SACHS. 37 in a vault, stretched on his death bed. He put forth | told him so much, and which his youthful imagination his hand to the Palatine, without seeming to notice peopled with wonders. In 1511, he took his bundle the princes who accompanied him. But they over-on his shoulders, and set out, directing his course towhelmed him with questions and reproaches. Leave ward the south. The young traveller, who met with me in quiet," said he, "for I must now prepare to merry companions on his road, students who were answer to a greater Lord than ye." When Luther passing through the country, and many dangerous atheard of his death, he exclaimed, "The Lord is just tractions, soon felt within himself a fearful struggle. but wonderful! It is not by the sword that he will The lusts of life and his holy resolutions contended have his gospel propagated." for the mastery. Trembling for the issue, he fled and Such was the melancholy end of a warrior who, as sought refuge in the little town of Wels, in Austria, emperor, or as an elector, might perhaps have raised (1513,) where he lived in retirement, and in the cultiGermany to a high degree of glory, but who, confined vation of the fine arts. The Emperor Maximilian within a narrow circle, expended uselessly the great happened to pass through the town with a brilliant repowers with which he was gifted. It was not in the tinue. The young poet was carried away by the tumultuous minds of these warriors that divine truth splendour of this court. The prince received him into came to fix her abode. It was not by their arms that his hunting establishment, and Hans again forgot his the truth was to prevail; and God, by bringing to better resolutions in the joyous chambers of the panought the mad projects of Sickingen, confirmed anew lace of Inspruck. But again his conscience loudly the testimony of St. Paul, "The weapons of our war-reproached him. The young huntsman laid aside his fare are not carnal, but mighty through God." Another knight, Harmut of Cronberg, the friend of Hütten and Sickingen, appears, however, to have had more wisdom and knowledge of the truth. He wrote with much modesty to Leo X., urging him to restore his temporal power to him to whom it belonged, namely, to the emperor. Addressing his subjects as a father, he endeavoured to explain to them the doctrines of the Gospel, and exhorted them to faith, obedience and trust in Jesus Christ, "who," added he, "is the sovereign Lord of all." He resigned to the emperor a pension of two hundred ducats, "because he would no longer serve one who gave ear to the enemies of the truth." And we find a saying of his recorded which places him, in our judgment, above Hütten and Sickingen: "Our heavenly teacher, the Holy Ghost, can, when he pleases, teach us in one hour much more of the faith of Christ, than could be learned in ten years at the University of Paris." However, those who only look for the friends of the Reformation on the steps of thrones,* or in cathedrals and academies, and who suppose it had no friends among the people, are greatly mistaken. God, who was preparing the hearts of the wise and powerful, was also preparing among the lowest of the people many simple and humble men, who were one day to become the promoters of his truth. The history of those times shows the excitement that prevailed among the lower classes. There were not only many young men who rose to fill the highest offices in the Church, but there were men who continued all their lives employed in the humblest occupations, who powerfully contributed to the revival of Christianity. We relate some circumstances in the life of one of them. glittering uniform, set out, repaired to Schwartz, and afterward to Munich. It was there, in 1514, at the age of twenty, he sang his first hymn, “to the honour of God," to a well known chaunt. He was loaded with applause. Everywhere in his travels he had occasion to notice numerous and melancholy proofs of the abuses under which religion was labouring. On his return to Nuremberg, Hans settled in life, married, and became the father of a family. When the Reformation burst forth, he lent an attentive ear. He clung to that holy book which had already become dear to him as a poet, and which he now no longer searched for pictures and music, but for the light of truth. To this sacred truth he soon dedicated his lyre. From a humble workshop, situated at one of the gates of the imperial city of Nuremberg, proceeded sounds that resounded through all Germany, preparing the minds of men for a new era, and everywhere endearing to the people the great revolution which was then in progress. The spiritual songs of Hans Sachs, his Bible in verse, powerfully assisted this work. It would perhaps be difficult to say to which it was most indebted, the Prince Elector of Saxony, Administrator of the empire, or the shoemaker of Nuremberg! There was at this time something in every class of society that presaged a Reformation. In every quarter signs were manifest, and events were pressing forward that threatened to overturn the work of ages of darkness, and to bring about" a new order of things." The light discovered in that age had communicated to all countries, with inconceivable rapidity, a multitude of new ideas. The minds of men, which had slept for so many ages, seemed resolved to redeem, by their He was the son of a tailor named Hans Sachs, and activity, the time they had lost. To have left them was born at Nuremberg, the 5th November, 1494. idle and without nourishment, or to have offered them He was named Hans (John) after his father, and had no other food than that which had long sustained their made some progress in his studies, when a severe ill-languishing existence, would have shown great ignoness obliging him to abandon them, he applied himself to the trade of a shoemaker. Young Hans took advantage of the liberty this humble profession afforded to his mind to search into higher subjects better suited to his inclination. Since music had been banished from the castles of the nobles, it seems to have sought and found an asylum among the lower orders of the merry cities of Germany. A school for singing was held in the church of Nuremberg. The exercises in which young Hans joined opened his heart to religious impressions, and helped to excite in him a taste for poetry and music. However, the young man's genius could not long be confined within the walls of a workshop. He wished to see that world of which he had read so much in books, of which his companions had * See Chateaubriand Etudes Historiques. rance of human nature. The mind of man saw clearly what was, and what was coming, and surveyed with daring eye the immense gulph that separated these two worlds. Great princes were seated upon the throne; the ancient colossus of Rome was tottering under its own weight; the by-gone spirit of chivalry was leaving the world, and giving place to a new spirit which breathed at the same time from the sanctuaries of learning and from the dwellings of the common people; the art of printing had given wings to the written word, which carried it, like certain seeds, to the most distant regions; the discovery of the Indies enlarged the boundaries of the world. Every thing proclaimed a mighty revolution at hand. But whence was the stroke to come that should throw down the ancient edifice, and call up a new 38 LUTHER'S PARENTS BIRTH OF LUTHER. structure from the ruins? No one could answer this question. Who had more wisdom than Frederic? Who had more learning than Reuchlin? Who had inore talent than Erasmus? Who had more wit and energy than Hütten? Who had more courage than Sickingen? Who had more virtue than Cronberg? And yet it was neither Frederic, nor Reuchlin, nor Erasmus, nor H tten, nor Sickingen, nor Cronberg. Learned men, princes, warriors, the Church itself, all had undermined some of the old foundations; but there they had stopped: and no where was seen the hand of power that was to be God's instrument. However, all felt that it would soon be seen. Some pretended to have discovered in the stars sure indications of its appearing. Some, seeing the miserable state of religion, foretold the near approach of Antichrist. Others, on the contrary, presaged some reformation at hand. The world was in expectation. Luther appeared. BOOK II. THE YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND EARLY LABOURS OF LUTHER. 1483-1517 bed of her son. Notwithstanding the credit that is due to Seckendorff, this fact does not seem well authenticated; indeed, it is not alluded to by any of the oldest historians of Luther; moreover, the distance from Mora to Eisleben must be about twenty-four leagues-a journey not likely to have been undertaken in the state in which Luther's mother then was, for the sake of going to a fair; and, lastly, the testimony of Luther himself appears to contradict this assertion.* All things were ready. God who prepares his work | the fair of Eisleben, and that there she was brought to for ages, accomplishes it, when his time is come, by the feeblest instruments. It is the method of God's providence to effect great results by inconsiderable means. This law, which pervades the kingdom of nature, is discerned also in the history of mankind. God chose the Reformers of the Church from the same condition, and wordly circumstances, from whence he had before taken the Apostles. He chose them from that humble class which, though not the lowest, can hardly be said to belong to the middle ranks. Every thing was thus to make manifest to the world that the work was not of man, but of God. The reformer, Zwingle, emerged from a shepherd's hut among the Alps; Melancthon, the great theologian of the Reformation, from an armourer's workshop, and Luther from the cottage of a poor miner. The opening period of a man's life,-that in which his natural character is formed and developed under the hand of God,-is always important. It is especially so in Luther's career. The whole Reformation was there. The different phases of this work succeeded each other in the mind of him who was to be the instrument for it, before it was publicly accomplished in the world. The knowledge of the Reformation effected in the heart of Luther himself is, in truth, the key to the Reformation of the Church. It is only by studying the work in the individual, that we can comprehend the general work. They who neglect the former, will know but the form and exterior signs of the latter. They may gain knowledge of certain events and results, but they will never comprehend the intrinsic nature of that renovation; for the principle of life that was the soul of it will remain unknown to them. Let us then study the Reformation of Luther himself, before we contemplate the facts that changed the state of Christendom. John Luther was a man of upright character, diligent in his business, open-hearted, and possessing a strength of purpose bordering upon obstinacy. Of more culti vated mind than the generality of his class, he read much. Books were then rare; but John did not neglect any opportunity of procuring them. They were his recreation in the intervals of rest, that his severe and assiduous labours allowed him. Margaret possessed those virtues which adorn good and pious women. Modesty, the fear of God, and devotion, especially marked her character. She was considered by the mothers of families in the place where she resided, as a model worthy of their imitation. † It is not precisely known how long the new-married couple had been settled at Eisleben, when, on the tenth of November, at eleven o'clock in the evening, Margaret gave birth to a son. Melancthon often questioned the mother of his friends as to the time of her son's birth. "I well remember the day and the hour," replied she; "but I am not certain about the year." But James, the brother of Luther, an honest and upright man, said that, according to the opinion of all the fainily, Martin was born in the year of our Lord 1483, on the tenth of November. It was the eve of St. Martin. The first thought of his pious parents was to devote to God, by the rite of baptism, the child that had been sent them. The next day, which was Tuesday, the father, with joy and gratitude, carried his son to St. Peter's church. It was there he received the seal of his dedication to the Lord. They named John Luther, the son of a peasant of the village of Mora, near Eisenach, in the county of Mansfield, in Thuringia, descended from an ancient and widely-him Martin, in memory of the day. spread family of humble peasantry,* married the daughter of an inhabitant of Neustadt, in the bishopric of Wurzburg, named Margaret Lindemann. The new married couple left Eisenach, and went to settle in the little town of Eisleben, in Saxony. Seckendorff relates, on the testimony of Relhan, the superintendant of Eisenach in 1601, that the mother of Luther, thinking her time was not near, had gone to Vestus familia est et late propagata mediocrium hominum. (Melanc. Vit. Luth.) Little Martin was not six months old, when his parents left Eisleben, to go to Mansfield, which is only five leagues distant. The mines of Mansfield were then much celebrated. John Luther, an industrious Ego natus sum in Eisleben baptizatusque apud Sanctum Petrum ibidem. Parentes mei de prope Isenaco illuc migra runt. (L. Epp. i., p. 390.) Intuebanturque in eam cæteræ honeste mulieres, ut in exemplar virtutum. (Melancthon Vita Lutheri.) Melancth. Vita Lutheri. LUTHER'S EARLY LIFE-MAGDEBURG. 39 man, feeling that he should perhaps be called upon toward, Emler married Luther's sister. Fifty years later, bring up a numerous family, hoped to get a better the Reformer reminded the aged Nicholas of this livelihood there for himself and his children. It was touching mark of affection received in his childhood, in this town that the understanding and physical and commemorated it on the blank leaves of a book powers of young Luther were first developed; it was presented to this old friend.* there that his activity began to display itself; there he began to speak and act. The plains of Mansfield, the banks of the Vipper, were the theatre of his first sports with the children of the neighbourhood. The early years of their abode at Mansfield were full of difficulty for the worthy John and his wife. They lived at first in extreme poverty. "My parents," said the Reformer, "were very poor. My father was a woodcutter, and my mother has often carried the wood on her back, that she might earn wherewith to bring us children up. They endured the hardest labour for our sakes." The example of parents whom he reverenced, and the habits they trained him to, very early accustomed Luther to toil and frugal fare. How often may Martin, when a child, have accompanied his mother to the wood, and made up and brought to her his little faggot. There are blessings promised to the labour of the righteous, and John Luther experienced their reality. He gradually made his way, and established at Mansfield two small furnaces for iron. By the side of these forges little Martin grew up-and it was with the earnings of this industry that his father was afterward able to place him at school. "It was from a miner's fire-side," says the worthy Mathesius, "that one who was destined to recast vital Christianity was to go forth an expression of God's purpose, by his means, to cleanse the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold in His furnace." Respected by all for his uprightness, irreproachable conduct, and good sense, he was made one of the council of Mansfield, the chief town of the district so called. Circumstances of too pinching want might have weighed down their child's spirit; while comparatively easy circumstances would dilate his heart and raise his character. John took advantage of his new appointment, to court the society he preferred. He paid great attention to the learned, and often invited to his table the ecclesiastics and schoolmasters of the place. His house afforded a sample of those social meetings of citizens that did honour to Germany in the beginning of the sixteenth century. It was a kind of mirror, to which came, and wherein were reflected, the numerous subjects which successively took possession of the agitated stage of the times. The child derived advantage from this. Doubtless the sight of these men, to whom so much respect was shown in his father's house, excited in the heart of young Martin the ambitious desire that he himself might one day be a schoolmaster or man of learning. As soon as he was old enough to receive instruction, his parents endeavoured to communicate to him the knowledge of God, to train him in His fear, and form him to the practice of the Christian virtues. They applied the utmost care to this earliest domestic education. But their solicitude was not confined to this instruction. His father, desiring to see him acquire the elements of that learning for which he had so much esteem, invoked upon him the blessing of God, and sent him to school. Martin was then a little child. His father and Nicholas Emler, a young man of Mansfield, often carried him in their arms to the house of George Emilius, and came again to fetch him. Years after * Drumb musste dieser geistliche Schmelzer..... (Mathesius, 1565, p. 3.) + Ad agnitionem et timorem Dei. ... domesticâ institutione diligenter adsuefecerunt. (Melancth. Vita Luth.) The piety of his parents, their active turn of mind and strict virtue, gave to the boy a happy impulse, and helped to form in him a habit of seriousness and application. In those days it was the practice to use chastisements and fear as the main impulses in education. Margaret, although she sometimes approved the too great severity of her husband, often opened her maternal arms to Martin, and comforted him in his tears. Yet she herself overstepped the precept of that wisdom which tells us that he who loves his child will chastise him early. The resolute character of the child gave frequent occasion for correction and reprimand. "My parents," said Luther in after life, "treated me cruelly, so that I became very timid; one day, for a mere trifle, my mother whipped me till the blood came. They truly thought they were doing right; but they had no discerniment of character, which is yet absolutely necessary, that we may know when, on whom, and how, punishment should be inflicted." At school the poor child was treated with equal severity. His master flogged him fifteen times in one day. "It is right," said Luther, relating this fact, "it is right to punish children, but at the same time we must love them." With such an education, Luther early learned to despise the attractions of a self-indulgent life. It is a just remark of one of his earliest biographers, that "that which is to become great must begin in small things; and if children are from their youth brought up with too much daintiness and care, they are injured for the rest of their lives." Martin learned something at school. He was taught the heads of the catechism, the ten commandments, the apostles' creed, the Lord's prayer, some hymns, some forms of prayer, a Latin grammar, composed in the fourth century by Donatus, master of St. Jerome, and which, improved by Remigins, a French monk, in the eleventh century, was for a long while in great repute in the schools; he also read the Cisio janus, a singular calandar, composed in the tenth or eleventh century; in a word, all that was studied in the Latin school of Mansfield. But it appears that the child was not yet led to God. The only religious feeling that he then manifested was that of fear. Every time that he heard Christ spoken of, he turned pale with terror; for he had been represented to him only as an angry judge. This servile fear, which is so far removed from true religion, perhaps prepared his mind for the good tidings of the gospel, and for that joy which he afterward felt when he learned to know Christ as meek and lowly of heart. John Luther, in conformity with his predilections, resolved to make his son a scholar. That new world of light and science which was everywhere producing vague excitement, reached even to the cottage of the miner of Mansfield, and excited the ambition of Martin's father. The remarkable character, and persevering application of his son, made John conceive the highest hopes of his success. Therefore, when Martin was fourteen years of age, in 1497, his father came to the resolution of parting from him, and sending him to the school of the Franciscans at Magdeburg. Margaret was obliged to yield to this decision, and Martin made preparations for leaving his paternal roof. Among the young people of Mansfield, there was * Walthers Nachrichten. † Sed non poterant discernere ingenia secundum quæ essent temperande correctiones. (L. Opp. W. xxii., p. 1795.) + Mathesius 40 HIS HARDSHIPS THE "SHUNAMITE.” one named John Reinecke, the son of a respectable lodging, when, having reached the Place St. George, burgher. Martin and John, who had been schoolfel- he stood before the house of an honest burgher, motionlows in early childhood, had contracted a friendship less, and lost in painful reflections. Must he, for want which lasted to the end of their lives. The two boys of bread, give up his studies, and go to work with his set out together for Magdeburg. It was at that place, father in the mines of Mansfield? Suddenly a door when separated from their families, that they drew opens, a woman appears on the threshold it is the closer the bonds of their friendship. wife of Conrad Cotta, a daughter of the burgomaster Magdeburg was like a new world to Martin. In the of Eilfeld. Her name was Ursula. The chronicles midst of numerous privations, (for he had hardly enough of Eisenach call her "the pious Shunamite," in rememto subsist on,) he observed and listened. Andreas brance of her who so earnestly entreated the prophet Proles, a provincial of the Augustine order, was then Elijah to eat bread with her. This Christian Shunapreaching with great zeal, the necessity of reforming mite had more than once remarked young Martin in religion and the Church. Perhaps these discourses the assemblies of the faithful; she had been affected deposited in the soul of the youth the earliest germ of by the sweetness of his voice and his apparent devothe thoughts which a later period unfolded. tion. She had heard the harsh words with which the Conrad approved his wife's benevolence; he even found so much pleasure in the society of young Luther, that a few days afterward, he took him to live in his house. From that moment he no longer feared to be obliged to relinquish his studies. He was not to return to Mansfield, and bury the talent that God had committed to his trust! God had opened the heart and the doors of a Christian family at the very moment when he did not know what would become of him. This event disposed his soul to that confidence in God, which, at a later period, the severest trials could not shake. This was a severe apprenticeship for Luther. Cast poor scholar had been repulsed. She saw him overupon the world at fourteen, without friends or protec-whelmed with sorrow before her door; she came to his tors, he trembled in the presence of his masters, and in assistance, beckoned him to enter, and supplied his his play hours, he and some children, as poor as him-urgent wants. self, with difficulty begged their bread. "I was accustomed," says he, "with my companions, to beg a little food to supply our wants. One day, about Christmas time, we were going all together through the neighbouring villages, from house to house, singing in concert the usual carols on the infant Jesus, born at Bethlehem. We stopped in front of a peasant's house which stood detached from the rest, at the extremity of the village. The peasant hearing us sing our Christmas carols, came out with some food, which he meant to give us, and asked, in a rough loud voice, Where are you, boys?' Terrified at these words, we ran away as fast as we could. We had no reason to fear, for the peasant offered us this assistance in kindness; but our hearts were no doubt become fearful from the threats and tyranny which the masters then used toward their scholars, so that we were seized with sudden fright. At last, however, as the peasant still continued to call after us, we stopped, forgot our fears, ran to him, and received the food that he offered us. It is thus," adds Luther, "that we tremble and flee when our conscience is guilty and alarmed. Then we are afraid even of the help that is offered us, and of those who are our friends, and wish to do us good."* A year had scarcely elapsed, when John and Margaret, hearing what difficulty their son found in supporting himself at Magdeburg, sent him to Eisenach, where there was a celebrated school, and at which place they had relations. † They had other children, and though their circumstances were much improved, they could not maintain their son in a city where he was a stranger. The unremitting labours of John Luther could do no more than support the family at Mansfield. He hoped that when Martin got to Eisenach he would find it easier to earn his living. But he was not more fortunate there than he had been at Magdeburg. His relations who lived in the town did not trouble themselves about him, or perhaps they were very poor, and could not give him any assistance. In the house of Cotta, Luther lived a very different life from that which he had hitherto done. He enjoy. ed a tranquil existence, exempt from care and want; his mind became more calm, his disposition more cheerful, his heart more enlarged. His whole nature was awakened by the sweet beams of charity, and began to expand into life, joy, and happiness. His prayers were more fervent; his thirst for learning became more ardent; and he made rapid progress in his studies. To literature and science he united the study of the arts; for the arts also were then advancing in Germany. The men whom God designs to influence their contemporaries, are themselves at first influenced and led by the tendencies of the age in which they live. Luther learned to play on the flute and on the lute. He often accompanied his fine alto voice with the latter instrument, and thus cheered his heart in his hours of sadness. He also took pleasure in expressing by his melody his gratitude to his adoptive mother, who was very fond of music. He himself loved this art even to his old age, and composed the words and music of some of the most beautiful German hymns. Happy times for the young man! Luther always looked back to them with emotion! and a son of Conrad having gone many years after to study at Wittemberg, when the poor scholar of Eisenach had become the learned teacher of his age, he joyfully received him When the young scholar was pressed with hunger, at his table and under his roof. He wished to repay he was obliged, as at Magdeburg, to go with his school-in part to the son what he had received from the father fellows and sing in the streets to earn a morsel of bread. and mother. This custom of Luther's time is still preserved in many It was when memory reverted to the Christian towns in Germany. These young people's voices woman who had supplied him with bread, when every sometimes form a most harmonious concert. Often one else repulsed him, that he uttered this memorable the poor modest boy, instead of bread, received nothing saying: "There is nothing sweeter than the heart of but harsh words. More than once, overwhelmed with a pious woman. sorrow, he shed many tears in secret; he could not look to the future without trembling. One day in particular, after having been repulsed from three houses, he was about to return fasting to his * Lutheri Opera, (Walch.) ii. 2347. Isenacum enim pene totam parentelam meam habet. (L. Epp. i., p. 390.) But never did Luther feel ashamed of the time, when, pressed by hunger, he sorrowfully begged the bread necessary for the support of life and the continuance of his studies. So far from this, he thought with RECOLLECTIONS-TREBONIUS-THE UNIVERSITY. 41 determined that the young man should be sent to Erfurth. gratitude on the cxtreme poverty of his youth. He considered it us one of the means that God had made use of to make him what he afterward became, and he Luther arrived at that university in the year 1501; thanked him for it. The condition of poor children, Jodocus, surnamed the Doctor of Eisenach, was then who were obliged to lead the same kind of life, touched teaching scholastic philosophy in that place with great him to the heart. "Do not despise," said he, "the success. Melancthon regrets that there was at that boys who try to earn their bread by chaunting before time nothing taught at Erfurth but a logic beset with your door, bread for the love of God,' Panem propter difficulties. He expresses the opinion, that if Luther Deum. I have done the same. It is true, that in later had met with professors of a different character, if he years, my father maintained me at the University of had been taught the milder and more tranquilizing docErfurth, with much love and kindness, supporting me trines of true philosophy, it might have moderated and by the sweat of kis brow; but at one time I was only softened the natural vehemence of his character.* The a poor mendicant. And now by means of my pen, I new pupil, however, began to study the philosophy of have succeeded so well, that I would not change for- the times in the writings of Occam, Scotus, Bonaventunes with the Grand Seignor himself. I may say tura, and Thomas Aquinas. In later years he looked more; if I were to be offered all the possessions of the upon this class of writers with abhorrence; he trembled earth heaped one upon another, I would not take them with rage when even the name of Aristotle was pro. in exchange for what I possess. And yet I shouldnounced in his presence; and he went so far as to say, never have known what I do, if I had not been to that if Aristotle had not been a man, he should be school, and been taught to write." Thus did this great tempted to take him for the devil. But his mind, eager man acknowledge that these humble beginnings were for instruction, required better food; and he applied the origin of his glory. He was not afraid of reminding himself to the study of the best ancient authors, Cicero, his readers, that that voice, whose accents electrified the Virgil, and others. He did not satisfy himself, like the empire and the world, had not very long before begged generality of students, with learning by heart the works a morsel of bread in the streets of a petty town. The of these writers; but he endeavoured especially to Christian takes pleasure in such recollections, because fathom their thoughts, to imbibe the spirit by which they remind him that it is in God alone that he is per- they were animated, to make their wisdom his own, to mitted to glory. comprehend the object they aimed at in their writings, The strength of his understanding, the liveliness of and to enrich his understanding with their weighty his imagination, and his excellent memory, enabled him sentences and brilliant descriptions. He often pressed in a short time to get the start of all his fellow students.* his tutors with inquiries, and soon outstripped his He made especially rapid progress in the dead lan-school-fellows. Gifted with a retentive memory, and guages, in rhetoric, and in poetry. He wrote sermons, a vivid imagination, all that he had read or heard reand made verses. Cheerful, obliging, and what is mained fixed on his memory; it was as if he had seen called good-hearted, he was beloved by his masters and it himself. Thus did Luther distinguish himself in his his companions. early youth. "The whole University," says Melancthon, "admired his genius."‡ Among the professors, he was particularly attached to John Trebonius, a learned man, of an agreeable But even at this early period the young man of address, and who had that regard for the young which eighteen did not study merely with a view of cultivatis so encouraging to them. Martin had observed, that ing his understanding; there was within him a serious when Trebonius came into the school-room, he took off thoughtfulness, a heart looking upward, which God his hat and bowed to the scholars; a great condescen- gives to those whom he designs to make his most sion in those pedantic times. This had pleased the zealous servants. Luther felt that he depended entirely young man. He began to perceive that he himself upon God-a simple and powerful conviction, which is was something. The respect paid him by his master at once a principle of deep humility and an incentive had raised the scholar in his own estimation. The to great undertakings. He fervently invoked the divine colleagues of Trebonius, whose custom was different, having one day expressed their astonishment at this extreme condescension, he answered them; and his answer made an impression on young Luther. "There are,” said he, “ among these youths, some whom God will one day raise to the ranks of burgomasters, chancellors, doctors, and magistrates. Though you do not now see the outward signs of their respective dignities, it is yet proper to treat them with respect." Doubtless the young scholar heard these words with pleasure, and perhaps he then saw himself, in prospect, adorned with a doctor's cap. Luther had attained his eighteenth year. He had tasted the sweets of learning. He thirsted after knowledge. He sighed for a university education. He longed to go to one of those fountains of all knowledge, where his thirst for it might be satisfied.† His father required him to study the law. Full of confidence in his son's talents, he desired to see him cultivate them, and make them known in the world. Already, in anticipation, he beheld him filling honourable offices among his fellow-citizens, gaining the favour of princes, and shining on the great stage of the world. It was * Cumque et vis ingenii acerrima esset, et imprimis ad eloquentiam idonea, celeriter æqualibus suis præcurrit.-Melancth. Vita Luth,) † Degustatâ igitur litterarum dulcedine, natura flagrans cupiditate discendi appetit academiam. (Mel. Vit. Luth.) F blessing upon his labours. Every morning he began the day with prayer; then he went to church; afterward he commenced his studies, and he never lost a moment in the course of the day. "To pray well," he was wont to say, "was the better half of study."◊ The young student spent in the library of the university the moments he could snatch from his academical labours. Books being then scarce, it was, in his eyes, a great privilege to be able to profit by the treasures of this vast collection. One day, (he had been then two years at Erfurth, and was twenty years of age,) he was opening the books in the library, one after another, in order to read the names of the authors. One which he opened in its turn drew his attention. He had not seen anything like it till that hour. He reads the title: it is a Bible! a rare book, unknown at that time. His interest is strongly excited; he is filled with astonishment at finding more in this volume than those fragments of the gospels and epistles which |