THE REFORMERS OF 1527.

BY CHARLES STUART.

"Hier stehe ich―ich kan nicht anders-Gott

helfe mir! amen!"

Luther before the Diet of Worms. CHAPTER I. A prolonged, multitudinous shout reverberated from the immense concave of St. Peter's, and swept like a rushing torrent through its mazy labyrinth of aisles and porticos.

"Venite, exultemus Domino"And the assembled thousands joined with the swelling choir.

Beneath that gorgeous dome-encompassed by the sublimest trophies of art and science-with a spirit absorbed in the united aspirations of congregated myriads, how insignificant, yet how exalted-how abased, yet how penetrated with the live, liest emotions of unutterable love-felt a simple student of theology.

"If this be not heaven, for what beatitude are the saints reserved ?" murmured he in involuntary self-communion.

And he bowed his head, overwhelmed by conflicting emotions.

The solemn service proceeded, with the imposing ceremonials of the church

of Rome.

Its white-robed apostles surrounded the altar-and the crucified Saviour seemed, in the wondrous tablet of the prince of painters, to be present in body, and to doubly hallow the consecrated rites. The most apathetic were enkindled-the most worldly enchained by the resistless, yet ennobling enthusiasm.

What was the torrent of sensibility that swept through the mind of the untravelled, guileless student!

But when the cardinals, with their wide-spreading hats of brightest scarlet, with their interlaced bands of net-work, and glittering tassels depending, rose in their many folded robes, and made obeisance to the vicar of Christ on earthand when Leo himself, with severe yet graceful dignity, gave to the prostrate multitude his paternal benediction and absolution, then-fervently wished the student for death.

"Must I mingle again with the world? O that he who gave my spirit, would here, in this his sanctuary, before these his holy ministers, resume the gracious gift!" "Nunc dimittis Domine"-The flood of moving beings rolled on

slowly and majestically, with the gradual yet unopposable might of an immense, spring-swoln river-but when they passed the porticoes, its concentrated force was expanded, and the area before the cathedral allowed the exertion of individual motion.

"Luther!” cried a voice at the foot of the towering obelisk, the trophy of imperial Rome from conquered Egyptthat seems to emulate the opposing mountain of architecture.

The student, for it was he who was addressed, turned his eyes in the direction of the sound.

"Ha! Melancthon!" cried he in return, as he struggled through the still compact crowd, to reach his companion. "Leo! Is it not a noble dome? and the high altar. I," but he stopped as he caught a glimpse of the abstracted look of his friend.

Luther silently embraced his companion's arm, and they turned together down a narrow street to their obscure hostel.

CHAPTER II.

"So the list is completed for Tetzel?" said Cardinal Cajetan to a prelate at his side, as they sate in high conclave, in a private apartment of the Vatican.

"Fore God, an extensive jurisdiction," replied his neighbour sarcastically; and unfolding a roll of parchment, he read

"Mentz, Halberstadt, Magdeburg, Brandenburgh,' and this monk is to have the saving of all the souls in these limits, at a ducat a piece! How much does his holiness realize from his spiritual dispensation ?"

"It is reported that Tetzel offered fifty thousand ducats in behalf of his patron, Archbishop Albert."

"A timely supply. Leo can now finish his chapel al fresco; the scaffolding has long been a scandal to the church; whom will he employ? Bramante ?” "No--Michael Angelo."

"Have you seen the new pontifical button by Cellini ?"

I

"Ha! Benvenuto at work again? thought him food for the crows ere this. Was not the murder proved on him?" "Well-but his holiness pithily observed, 'where can I get such another workman? anybody else, but I cannot hang Cellini.""

"And so the button was the peaceoffering ?"

"Yes! is is whispered that his holiness fell into a towering rage at the intrusion of the condemned braggadocio, the guards rushed in, and his life in every body's

view was as surely forfeited as if he had been extended on the block of the executioner. 'Away with the reprobate— pollute not my presence! to death with him instantly,' cried Leo."

"And how 'scaped he?"

"The crafty dissembler then drew from beneath his cloak the glittering button, and knelt with it, in his extended hand, at the feet of the pontiff." "And what ensued?"

"Oh, a change-a most marvellous change the frown relaxed-the voice grew mild—the hand waved the guards away-the erring son was received into the bosom of the church, and is now closeted with Leo to adopt a design for the pontifical signet-some of Tetzel's money will doubtless go away in his purse—but did you not observe the button in the tiara, before the second crown?— It is splendid the toes of the saints project in such admirable relievo-it made me quite devotional.”

"I was looking at the new eyebrows of the Charity-San Iachimo! but that Raphael has the gusto."

"And so," said Arcemboldo of Genoa, who had come to Rome to farm the expected indulgences, "this huffing, swaggering, bewhiskered Cellini is at liberty to strut about the streets with a four-feet Toledo, and arms a-kimbo, provided he spend his spare hours in his work-shop, making Venuses and Bacchuses for his holiness's most Christian taste. I crossed him yesterday-my blood ran cold at the sight of the bravaccio."

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'Tut, no moralizing," said Cajetan, "now that the indulgences are off our hands, let's to supper 't is laid in the eastern hall."

And the reverend dignitaries of that church, whose foot was upon every neck in christendom, descended to the repast.

CHAPTER III.

THE supremacy of the pope was acknowledged by every crowned head of every christian people-and Rome in her old age, seemed, by a power differently exerted, though equally controlling-to rival the glories of her maturity. She had enchained the body-now she led captive the mind. Her 'senatus consultum' had made the remotest barbarian chief tremble for his rule-now the pontifical bull of excommunication drew relucting monarchs in low abasement to the footstool of the Vicar of God on earth, or with its blighting curse of interdiction desolated the kingdoms with pestilence and famine.

But the end was at hand. In the hour of her pride and exultation, when she was parcelling out heaven and selling it for a price, and trafficking in the souls of men like vile merchandisewhen guilt walked unabashed in the garb of sanctity-and the foulest crimes in her ministers were but badges of distinction and notoriety-then was a mine silently digged beneath her feet, the explosion of which was to astound the nations, and verify the prophetic denunciations of the recluse of Patmos-"Alas! that great eity Babylon-that mighty city-in one hour is thy judgment come !"

The instruments of Providence are not less wonderful than the end accomplished. No refractory monarch, or potent vassal was to effect a moral change through the civilized world. It was an obscure student from scholastic seclusion, with a few ardent but humble partizans; and he cautiously and fearfully approached the imposing structure of errors and sophisms, that was destined to totter to its base under his vigorous assault.

He came to Rome an ardent enthusiast, alive to every impression, and enraptured with the gorgeous displays of pontifical grandeur; but his penetrating and observing mind could not overlook the glaring abuses that lurked beneath the mantle of religion-while the scandalous lives of the clergy contrasted hideously with their sacred functions. His ardour gradually cooled-disgust supervened-then indifference-but his noble nature soon shook off paralyzing apathy. He resolved in the secret recesses of his heart, to create what he despaired of finding-from the unfathomed depths of intellect, to reproduce the model of that religion, a long series of abuses had defaced; and by arguments drawn from holy writ, to oppose the categories and absurd postulates of the schoolmen.

He left Rome an altered man-the fervid glow of youth was abated, and years of experience seemed to have concentrated their maturing influence within the brief compass of his transient stay.

He betook himself to Wittemberg, and in the cloisters and secluded halls of that celebrated university, applied himself to intense and unremitting study.

His learning soon elevated him to the theological chair.

CHAPTER IV.

"AWAIT my summons in the ante-chamber."

The secretary bowed and retired.
"Curse that fool Tetzel," ejaculated

Leo, passing his hand impatiently across his brow, "or rather my own folly, in permitting an important trust to a lackbrained, noisy declaimer”–

And the excited pontiff measured the apartment with impatient strides.

"This Luther too, with his ninetyfive theses, and Tetzel must needs increase the flame by senseless opposition-Eccius too, and Prierias, could they not abide the orders of the church! an inqusitorgeneral demean himself to an obscure monk !-ha! what is this?"

His eye caught the name of Frederic. "Protected by the elector of Saxony! he dare not-this bodes evil-ho there!" The secretary re-entered.

"Write a summons to convoke the council."

"The signature of your holiness," said the scribe, on completing the paper --the bold hand of Leo made it imperative.

In an hour the assembly was convened, and amid the zealous anathemas of the members, a bull of excommunication was unanimously resolved upon. long deliberation, in order to prepare it with due formality, it was issued.

After

This was a death-blow to the church. The denouncing instrument of wrath no longer swept with resistless energy over the suppliant nations-it was met with equal violence: tumults, rumours, loud shouts of defiance, and the ignominious flames, every where encountered it. It seemed as if the world had awaked from the lethargy of ages.

The

A corner of the veil was lifted. A glimpse of the enshrouded demon thus imperfectly seen, impelled the intruders with an uncontrollable curiosity to explore the secrets still hid from the vulgar gaze, and lay bare the concealed springs that held captive the nations. people too, whose vanity was flattered by the unaccustomed appeal to their reason, readily espoused the cause of Luther, till, more and more enraged at the artifices and absurdities constantly developed, they rose with the might of a swollen torrent, and threatened every vestige of the papal authority with destruction.

As in every ebullition of popular sentiment, whether in defence of truth or error, this violent revolution, and adoption of new modes of worship and motives of action, was attended with consequences which have been subjects of lasting regret to all true Christians, and served to bring the new tenets into discredit with many distinguished men, who would otherwise have been their most ardent advocates.

Churches, the models of architectural grandeur, were levelled to the ground, for the sin of their officiating priests. Paintings, which succeeding ages have in vain endeavoured to equal, were destroyed by the same insane fury; and excess grew upon excess, till the reproaches of the civilised world united to arrest the infuriated reformers, and the secular arm had a just excuse for interfering to prevent the spread of that religion, it otherwise would have been forced to witness without interruption. It is but a short time since the world were taught by sad experience, the inefficiency of brute force as an argument for moral conviction, and the present pacific international policy, and salutary dread of war, is the consequence of the accumulated precedents of ages, proving how worse than useless is force even on the side of truth, and that both in civil and religious government, the only effectual way of controlling the body, is to subdue the mind. Thus, the excesses which sullied the earliest period of the reformation, arose from the partial mental illumination of the people, joined with a total want of civil restraint.

CHAPTER V.

"Down with the Dagon of idolatry!" cried Kurt Lederstein, the cobbler.

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Ay, ay! so say I; down with him, root and branch," replied Hans Vander spiegel, the joiner.

And a heterogeneous mass of arti sans, apprentices, and disbanded soldiers, shouted, "To the ground with the ca thedral! down with the sin of Nuremberg!"

"Didn't Doctor Luther call upon us in his last sermon to pull down all high places, with their abominations? and is not this a high place?" said the butcher Karl Fleischer, eyeing the massive and towering walls of the cathedral as he spoke, to confirm his argument.

"He's right," shouted the cobbler; "there's not so high a place twenty miles about."

"And those windows, with their ungodly devices, and those idols on the corners and pinnacles, what are they but so many snares for the temptation of believers?" added Musterschnitt, a diminutive tailor, who had crept among the throng.

"Bravo!" said the butcher, slapping on the shoulder the quaking brandisher of shears. "They say the devil is so well pleased with them that he comes every Sunday eve to give them a look.

My grandmother Lotte saw him, one night, fly out of the belfry with a crucifix in his mouth, then stand trimming his wings cheek by jowl with Saint Peter, on the north-east turret ! To be sure," added he in a lower tone, “she is purblind, and it was twilight, but she has told it so often it must be true! So, I again say, down with the house of Satan!" and he swung round his head the massive, long-handled mace of his calling.

An immense mob had now filled the great square of Nuremberg, and surrounded the towering pile of architecture which occupies its centre. The most active among them assembled in front of the great entrance, and began to assail it with axes, bars, stones, and such miscellaneous weapons as chance supplied to their furious, misdirected efforts.

But it was all in vain; the massive portals stood unmoved, and seemed in conscious stability to mock their puny assaults.

"A petard were well applied." muttered old Dolf Wildenstein, a gruff, oneeyed arquebusier, who stood surveying the scene, and leaning on a rusty partisan. "I saw the Emperor Max, when he made the gates of Terouene fly apart with one, after the battle of Spurs."

"Well said, old campaigner!" cried out a young man, in a dress betokening high rank, who appeared as if from the earth, and took the command of the multitude. "Hollo, there! torches, and a petard! or--this may suffice."

A tumult was heard in the distanceand a dozen men appeared waving their caps, and rolling a cask of powder

"Nuremberg is famed for inventions," bitterly exclaimed the youth; "we shall see if she disdains to profit by those of others! now, haughty prelate, think on Drachenfels."

He was forcibly withdrawn beyond the reach of the anticipated explosion.

The ignited train ran like a fiery serpent to the fatal spot, and the carved portal burst asunder in fragments beneath the force of the shock.

The sound had hardly died away on the ear before the stranger youth, followed by an immense crowd, rushed over the scorched and splintered panels, and with a vengeful cry of exultation entered the body of the church.

"Down with the Virgin Mary!" shouted Fleischer the butcher, upheaving his mace at the word.

The furious blow divided the base of a silver crucifix, which tottered and fell

among the eager multitude, who scrambled in heaps to secure the precious fragments. "Would that he who last sat here were present to witness this," cried the youth as the mob rushed eagerly to the gorgeously ornamented seat of the bishop, with its gold-wrought canopy and silken hangings: "ha! and this too!" as they tore and trampled under foot the consecrated vesture found in the private wardrobe of the church.

The old arquebusier Wildenstein had laden himself with the consecrated plate —the pictures drawn from sacred history were contemptuously pierced through and trodden upon the spacious gothic windows, with their curiously stained glass and armorial compartments, shattered from within and without with every missile chance could offer, or rage employ the aspiring turrets, with their tapering peaks, like needles against the sky, thrown down-and nothing seemed wanting to complete the destruction of the chef d'œuvre of gothic architecture but the devouring flames.

And they were at hand.

The fragments of the front portal were collected in the chancel, beneath the superintendence of the unknown youthhis hand applied the fire-and the slow rising smoke, curling upwards in languid spirals, the precursors of a rapid conflagration, soon filled the upper concave of the church, and wound slowly from the windows, amid the repeated shouts of the mob assembled without, who welcomed the grateful sight.

The youth, at the head of the crowd within, busily supplied the flame with fuel from the torn-up benches, and altar

ornaments.

"Cursed be the day I first beheld these walls, but blessed, more than blessed the hour of revenge!"

And he crushed with his iron heel a crucifix and chancel picture into the flaming pile.

By this time the spreading conflagration had forced the multitude from the higher part of the cathedral, and the wooden carved work of the ceiling taking fire, the blazing fragments rendered a stay in the body of the church hazardous, still the youth was indefatigable in his exertions, till a falling rafter compelled him to retire to the porch.

"Am

A statue of St. Paul, the last of the external decorations yet undestroyed, came to the ground with a crash. I under the ban of the empire, proud Albert! look to thy home, thou'lt wander further yet than I."

And the youth, with a glassy look of unnatural hatred, threw himself among the crowd and was lost to view.

His work was accomplished; his revenge complete; and rushing to a neighbouring hostel, he mounted a steed which stood in attendance, then left the city with frantic speed. His name was unknown to any, but his dress and bearing indicated high rank, and it was rumoured the day following, that he was a leader of Free Companions, whose castle on the Rhine had been razed, and himself declared an outlaw, by the League, of which Archbishop Albert was a prominent and active member.

Be that as it may, the pages of history teem with actions proceeding from dissembled motives; and religion, above all, has ever been a cloak to hide them, and doubtless, for one disinterested shout of joy at the downfall of superstition, many rose from a restless love of excitement, or the still baser feeling of gratified revenge.

But the flames soon sallied, instinct with wrath, from portal and windowwhile the gathering mass of beings looked in stupefied amazement upon the conflagration they themselves had raised. After many hours the oaken roof gave way, and precipitated itself into the chancel. But the massive stonework, with its pyramidal buttresses and arched supports, resisted the utmost violence of the flames, and Nuremberg signalized its early accession to the reformed religion by the blackened and fire-scathed walls of its cathedral, which stood a monument of misdirected religious zeal, till, rebuilt in later days, it effaced by its renewed architectural beauty, the remembrance of its former destruction.

CHAPTER VI.

Ir was a small study in the university of Wittemberg. A circular table occupied the centre, around which a number of professors and divines were seated in earnest debate. The sombre hue of their academic gowns, and dark, angular caps, contrasted strongly with the glittering cuirasses and polished greaves of some noblemen apparently high in military command, who mingled promiscuously in the circle, and engaged in the discussion. At length, one who, by his bearing, seemed the chief, arose, and strode across the room with a gesture of impatience.

"Are you bent on self-destruction ?" "Will your highness but hear me?" "Hear you? shall I suffer myself to be cheated by argument out of what my