before the arrival of that memorable vender of pardons; and that either wholly out of detestation of his extravagant and shameless pretensions, or partly also out of spite to the Dominicans, to which order he belonged, he then ventured to oppose that scandalous traffick, without any direct intention to declare against any others of the papal abominations, towards which it does not seem that he had yet begun to conceive any aversion. Accordingly, he appeared for some years after, to have no mighty objection to any thing in the popish religion but the abuse of the traffick of indulgences; and even on that point he actually consented to observe in future a profound silence, provided the same condition were imposed on his adversaries. Nay he went still further, and proposed to write a humble and submissive Letter to the Pope, acknowledging that he had carried his zeal and animosity too far: and such a Letter he actually did write. He even consented to publish a circular Letter, exhorting all his disciples and followers to reverence and obey all the dictates of the Roman church. He declared that his only intention, in the writings which he had composed was to brand with infamy those emissaries who abused its authority, and employed its protection as a mask to cover their abominable and impious frauds. * Such was the hostility to the pope and his cause, and such the anxiety for religious reformation which Luther manifested for some years after he had assumed the character of a reformer, or rather after the commencemer* * Mosheim, iii, 313. of his quarrel with Tetzel and the Dominicans. Had Leo X. been wise and politic enough to accept his prof fered submission, about the time of the conferences with Miltitz, he would, to all appearance, immediately and gladly have returned into the bosom of holy church, and, most probably, never have given his holiness or the world any further trouble on the score of religious abuses and corruptions. The haughty pontiff, however, instead of embracing the golden opportunity, and receiving readily and kindly his rebellious, but now repentant son, had recourse to the very opposite mode of proceeding. He fulminated his anathemas against him, had him solemnly excommunicated, declared an enemy to the church, and even to the holy Roman empire. Luther having now no alternative, was obliged to make virtue of necessity; and it is easy to see that he was actually forced to take that course which he afterwards pursued, and in the pursuit of which he displayed such wonderful address, and such extraordinary talents as have really immortalized his name. But as to real virtue, it seems hard to see or say how much of that there was in his opposition to the pope and church of Rome, except what is implied in the law of selfpreservation. Cromwell too, had that law on his side, to the full as much, perhaps, as Luther, even while engaged in what has been deemed the most criminal parts of his conduct, the dethronement of the king and attainment of the supreme power. But which of these two men was the most virtuous or most vicious, was the better or worse man, is a point that will not be presumed or attempted to be made here a subJect of investigation. They certainly had, both of them, great talents and great defects. Lutheran and other protestant writers have appeared not a little anxious to have Luther acquitted from the imputation of having opposed Tetzel out of spite to the Dominicans, or from resentment for the preference shewn them in the distribution or traffick of indulgences. We pretend not to say that that was the sole cause of his opposition; but that it might be partly the cause seems not at all improbable from what he himself has owned on other occasions. Thus he acknowledges that he had tried to persuade himself of there being no real presence of Christ in the sacrament, on purpose to spite the pope, but that the words of scripture were too plain in favour of it." Likewise, in his letter to the Vaudois, he says, "I have hitherto thought it of small consequence whether the bread remains in the sacrament or not, but now, to spite the papists, I am determined to believe that it does remain." Thus also, writing against those who had presumed to alter the public service without his authority, he says, "I knew very well that the elevation of the sacrament was idolatrous, but I retained it out of pure spite to that devil Carlostadius." * See Milner, as before: 182.-Carlostadius was Luther's first disciple of any considerable note: and he co-operated with, and supported him with great firmness and ability. But having ventured to alter the mass, during Luther's absence in the year 1521, and to deny the real presence, the latter commenced a furious war against him and his followers, and condemned them in terms of the utmost rancor and and bitterness. Melancthon too (misnamed the mild) now calls him "a brutal ignorant man, void of piety and humanity, one more a Jew than a christian."-a rare specimen of mildness and meekness! A very glaring and most odious trait in Luther's character was the ungentlemanly and foul language in which he used to address his opponents, than which nothing could be more unbecoming in one who pretended to be engaged in, or anxious for the reformation of mankind, and the revival or restoration of genuine and primitive christianity. We have just now seen in what style he could speak of his quondam friend Carlostadius: "that devil Carlostadius:" and it seems he could be sometimes equally uncivil and foulmouthed when he had occasion to speak of Zuinglius and the rest of that party, who did not receive his favourite doctrine of consubstantiation, or the real presence; for whom he had no mercy, but consigned them all to everlasting perdition; just as his modern disciples, our present evangelicals, do to the poor Arians and Socinians. As to the papists, it was not to be expected that he should be more civil or polite to them than to the Zuinglians. Accordingly, we are told that "the usual flowers of his speech, when addressing the pope and other catholic prelates, were: villain, thief, traitor, apostle of the devil, bishop of sodomites: and that the extent of his charity to them was to wish that their bowels were torn out, that they were cast into the Mediterranean sea or into the flames, and that they were hurried away to the devil. His treatment of the king of England, Henry VIII, with whom he had at one time a theological controversy, (though afterwards they grew into a better understanding with each other,) was not more respectful than his treatment of the pope. Luther makes no difficulty to call his royal antagonist, a Thomistical pig, an ass, a jakes, a dunghill, the spawn of an adder, a basilisk, a lying buffoon disguised in a king's robe, a mad fool with a frothy mouth and a whorish face. He even addresses him as follows: You lie, you stupid and sacrilegious king." * Another very unamiable and disgustful trait in Luther's character was his assuming an extraordinary and apostolic dignity and authority, under the name or title of Ecclesiastes: "Martin Luther Ecclesiastes of Wittemberg.""It is not fitting, (said he,) that I should be without a title, having received the work of the ministry, not from man, or by man, but by the gift of God, and the revelation of Jesus Christ." This was evidently putting himself upon a level, at least, with Peter and Paul, and the rest of the apostles, and claiming from professing christians the deference or submission due to them. Accordingly, "he plainly proclaims to the whole body of protestants, in case they presume to consult together and determine about their common belief, that he will return back to the ancient church, and revoke every word he had ever written or taught against it; telling them that even in acting right, when they acted without his authority, they were plunging themselves into the jaws of hell.” ‡ * See Milner as before, 188.-It is not said how Henry brooked all this; but it was well for Luther that he was not within his reach. The most curious circumstance is that "Luther, in giving an account of his book, reproaches himself with having been too mild in it towards the king, saying that he did so at the request of his friends, in hopes that his sweetness would gain Henry."-If such was Luther's sweetness, what could his sourness, or his bitterness be? + Milner, 181.- Ibid. 18.-No wonder he should behave as he |