rience of soul that made him a reformer, of what afterwards influenced the soul of many another. "The Reformation passed," it has been said by a learned Professor of Modern History, "from the mind of Luther into the mind of Western Europe:" and by M. Merle D'Aubigné, more in particular; "The different phases of the Reformation succeeded each other in the soul of Luther, its instrumental originator, before its accomplishment in the world."2

Of these phases the two first, and those from which the rest proceeded, are figured to us, as distinctly as beautifully, in that portion of the Apocalyptic vision (already in part discussed) that stands referred to at the head of this chapter. Let us consider the two separately. They will exhibit to us the secret origin, the first public acts, and so the opening epoch of the Reformation.

§ 1. THE DISCOVERY OF CHRIST THE SAVIour.

“And I saw a mighty Angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and the rainbow was upon his head; and his face was as the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire and He had in his hand a little book opened. And He set his right foot upon the sea, and his left upon the land; and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth." Apoc. x. 1—3.

It was LUTHER, we said, that was God's chosen instrument to effect this great revolution :-Luther, the son of a poor miner at Mansfield; 3 one who when at

1 Smythe, Lectures on Modern History, i. 265. He observes at the same time; "Milner's is the best account of the more intellectual part of the History of the Reformation; in other words, of the progress of the Reformation in Luther's own mind;-a very interesting subject." In M. Merle D'Aubigne's lately published History, we have a development of the same subject still more full and still more interesting. 2 Merle D'Aub. i. 30.

3 The following chronological epochs occur in Luther's early life. He was born A.D. 1483; entered the University of Erfurt, 1501, the Augustine monastery 1505; was called to Wittemberg 1508, or 1509; in 1510 visited Italy and Rome; in 1512 was made Doctor of Divinity ad Biblia; in 1517 posted up his Theses against Indulgences, and so began the Reformation.

1

school in his early boyhood, both at Magdeburgh and then at Eisenach, had to beg his bread under the pinchings of want, with the pitiful cry of" Bread for the love of God;" and was indebted to the charity of a burgher's wife in Eisenach, afterwards spoken of as the pious Shunamite, for the power of pursuing his studies, and almost for his preservation. "Not many mighty, not many noble but God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen; that no flesh should glory in his presence."2

Let us hasten to that crisis of his history to which our subject directs us; that wherein he was prepared for, and then began to act out, the great part assigned him in the reformation and revivification of Christ's fallen church.

He had grown at this time into manhood; and having passed from the schools to the University of Erfurt, had there, in the course of the usual four years of study, displayed intellectual powers and an extent of learning, that excited the admiration of the University, and seemed to open to his attainment both the honors and the emoluments of the world; when behold, on a sudden, to the dismay as well as astonishment of his friends, he renounced the world and all its brilliant prospects, and betook himself to the solitude and gloom of an Augustine monastery.3-Wherefore so strange a step?-We find that thoughts deeper and mightier than those that agitate the surface of a vain world were then pressing on his soul; the thoughts of death, judgment, eternity, God Almighty! There had combined together different

2

1 "Panem propter Deum!" Michelet i. 4.

1 Cor. i. 26, 27. The Italics that close the English authorized Translation of verse 26,-"Not many mighty are called," are evidently incorrect. The apostle is speaking of the persons made use of by God in the Christian ministry, for the calling of men to the knowledge of Himself, not of the converts called. 3 The following abstract of Luther's early history is taken chiefly from M. Merle D'Aubigné. With this both Milner and Michelet agree in main things. Indeed all the three histories are drawn from materials of Luther's own furnishing; so as to be alike a kind of auto-biography.

causes to induce this state of mind. He had found a Bible. It was a copy of the Vulgate, hid in the shelves of the University Library. Till then he had supposed that there existed no other gospels or epistles than what were given in the Breviary or by the Preachers.2

The

1 He tells us expressly that it was when he was 20 years old, and consequently in 1503, after he had been two out his four years at the Erfurt University, that he first discovered this copy of the Bible. So Merle D'Aub. i. 143.-Seckendorf, p. 19, and after him Milner, (p. 667, Ed. in one Vol. 1838) have made a mistake in supposing that it was in the Monastery of Erfurt that he first found the copy. 2 Mr. Maitland, in his "Dark Ages," (p. 468) has somewhat scornfully expressed his disbelief of this statement, as given by M. Merle ubi suprà ; declaring it incredible that Luther should not have known more of the Bible, after his University course of study. In reply, M. Merle, in a letter published in the Record of Dec. 12, 1844, cites Mathesius and also Melchior Adam, in proof of the correctness of his statement. And their testimonies are decisive as to the fact. To which I beg to add Luther's own, given by Michelet, (i. 292) from the Tischreden, or Table-talk; J'avais vingt ans que je n'avois pas encore vu de Bible. Je croyois qu'il n'existait d'autres evangiles ni epîtres que celles des sermonaires." With regard to the general ignorance of the Bible among the laity, notwithstanding the many editions of the Latin Bible and some German versions printed in the half-century preceding, noticed by Mr. Maitland, M. Merle cites a passage from Trithemius, the learned Abbot of Spanheim, who lived till the Reformation; speaking in strong terms of the general ignorance of the Holy Scriptures, on the part even of priests and prelates.-Even now, as Sign. Ciocci informs us, (Narrative, p. 66) the same ignorance of the Scriptures exists still among University students, at Rome itself. "At the age of eighteen," he writes, and I have myself heard him repeat the statement, "I had never read the Bible, except in small portions inserted in the Breviary, or sung during mass."-"Who now reads the Bible," said the Librarian Alberico to him: "it is a Book almost disused."

As to the German versions previously published, Michelet observes of them from Seckendorf, that they were neither suited for, nor allowed to the people; Nec legi permittebantur, nec ob styli et typorem horriditatem satisfacere poterant." And he adds the following statements from Luther. "Sous la Papaute la Bible étoit inconnue aux gens. Carlostadt commença à la lire lorsqu'il étoit deja Docteur depuit huit ans.—Le Docteur Usingen, moine Augustin, qui fut mon precepteur au convent d'Erfurdt, me disait, quand il me voyait lire la Bible avec tant d'ardeur; Ah, frère Martin, qu'est ce que la Bible? On doit lire les anciens docteurs, qui en ont sucé le miel de la verité: la Bible est la cause de tous les troubles." Tischreden 6, 7.—In illustration of the general ignorance of the Bible among Papists, even some years later, Michelet gives the two following anecdotes: "A la diete d'Augsburg (1530) l'Eveque de Mayence jeta un jour les yeux sur une Bible. Survint par hasard un de ses conseillers qui lui dit, "Gracieux Seigneur, que fait de ce livre votre Grace Electorale? A quoi il repondit, Je ne sais quel livre c'est seulement tout ce que j'y trouve est contre nous." This is from Luther's Tischreden.-The other is from Sismondi's Hist. de France: "En 1530 un moine Français disait en chaire; On a trouvé une nouvelle langue que l'on appelle Grecque: il faut s'en garantir avec soin. Cette langue enfante toutes les heresies. Je vois dans les mains d'un grand nombre de personnes un livre écrit en cette langue. On le nomme Nouveau Testament: c'est un livre plein de ronces et de viperes."

Finally let me add Pellicanus' statement, that just before the Reformation a Greek Testament could not be procured at any price in all Germany. Milner, p. 661. This refers of course to the time preceding Erasmus' first publication of the Greek Testament in 1516.

discovery amazed him. He was at once rivetted by what he read therein. It increased, even to intenseness, the desire already awakened in his heart to know God. At the same time there was that in its descriptions of man's sinfulness, and God's holiness and wrath against sin, which awed and alarmed him.-Providential occurrences, following soon after, confirmed and deepened the work on his conscience. He was brought by a dangerous illness into the near view of death. He saw a beloved friend and fellow-student suddenly cut off with scarce a moment's warning. He was overtaken while journeying by a lightning-storm, terrific to him, from his associating it with an angry God, as the lightnings of Sinai to Israel. He felt unprepared to meet him. How shall I stand justified before God? This was now the absorbing thought with him. Thenceforth the world, its riches and its honors, were to him as nothing. What would he profit, were he to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?-In the pursuit, however, of this great object, no success seemed to attend him. He longed to know God; but neither his own understanding, nor the philosophy and learning of the University, yielded him the light he needed for it. He longed to propitiate Him: but his conscience itself was dissatisfied with the inadequacy of his performances. It was the long-established notion among the more serious, that the convent was the place, and its prayers, penances, and mortifications the means, whereby most surely to attain to the knowledge and favour of God. There, then, he determined to pursue his absorbing object. He gathered his friends around him; ate his farewell meal with them; then sought the monastery. Its gate opened and closed on him. He had become an Augustinian Monk.

But was his object attained? Did he find the holiness, or the peace with God, that he longed for? Alas, no! In vain he practised all the strictest rules of the monkish life. In vain he gave himself, night and day, to the repetition of prayers, penances, fastings, and every kind of self-mortification. He found that in

changing his dress he had not changed his heart. The consciousness of sin remained with him; of its indwelling power, its guilt, its danger. "O, my sin! my

sin!" was the exclamation heard at times to burst from him.' Pale, emaciated, behold him moving along the corriders like a shadow! Behold him on one occasion fallen down in his cell, and, when found, lying in appearance dead; from the exhaustion of the mental conflict, yet more than of sleeplessness and fasting. He is a wonder to all in the convent. A wounded spirit who can bear?

There was a copy of the Vulgate chained in the monastery. With eagerness still undiminished he renewed his intense study of it. But it gave him, no more than before, the consolation that he sought for. Rather those awful attributes of God, his justice and holiness, appeared to him, as there represented, more terrible than ever. Above all for this reason, because even in the Gospel, (that which professed to be the Gospel of mercy to fallen man,) there seemed to be intimated a fresh exercise and manifestation of God's justice; according to the express saying of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, "Justitia Dei revelatur in eo ;"-"The justice of God is revealed in it." Was it not adding grief to grief, to make even the Gospel an occasion for threatening mankind with God's justice and wrath ?3

It was at this time that Staupitz, Vicar-general of the Augustines, was sent by God as his messenger, to assist in shedding light on the darkness of this wounded soul, and opening to him the Scriptures. On his visitation of the convent at Erfurt he at once distinguished from among the rest the young monk of Mansfeld. He beheld him with his eyes sunk in their sockets, his countenance stamped with melancholy, his body emaciated by study, watchings, and fastings, so that they might have counted his bones. It needed not an interpreter

1 Michelet i. 9.

2 Merle D'Aub. i. 160.

3 Michelet i. 11. The Vulgate reads, "Justitia Dei revelatur in illo:" scil. evangelio. This made Luther's mistake the more natural.

4 Merle d'Aub. i. 163.