words to the people in a sermon of the year 1524.[432]
How deeply his experiences with the fanatics excited and enraged him is apparent, for instance, from this statement concerning Carlstadt: “He is no longer able to go back, there is no hope for this orator, inflated and hardened as he is by the applause of the crowd” (“plausu vulgi inflatus et induratus”).[433] Carlstadt and his followers, according to him, “are always on the look-out for a chance of incriminating the evangel.”[434] Luther in these struggles felt bitterly that he himself, the originator of the great movement, had already become to many a byword and a jest, “a target for malice, for deceit, for buffoonery—by reason of my simplicity.”[435]
It is true he had a fellow-sufferer at his side, Melanchthon, who at that time “was brought to the brink of the grave”[436] by cares and want of sleep; yet none of his friends suffered as much as he, for the whole burden of care settled upon him. To-day he has to dispute with a “sly and cunning monk,” who ill-uses his wife because she desires a separation, and, then, when she actually leaves him, wishes to marry another; Luther flings the desired permission after him (“if others will allow him so to do, I am content”).[437] On the morrow he has to go to Wittenberg to take steps “against a new sort of prophets arrived from Antwerp,” who deny the Godhead of the Holy Ghost, which, they say, is not founded on the “Word,”[438] On the day following he is assailed with complaints regarding the encroachments of the Lutheran authorities.
“How does Satan rage,” he cries in view of the above, “how he rages everywhere against the Word!”[439]
When the news of the fanatics with their revelations concerning the “Word” arrived from Thuringia, and of the iconoclastic tumult at Rothenburg-on-the-Tauber, he again exclaims: “Thomas Münzer at Mühlhausen, not only teacher and preacher, but also king and emperor!” “Thus Satan rages against Christ now that he finds Him to be the stronger.”[440]
It was formerly believed, he says at this time, that the world was full of noisy and turbulent ghosts and hobgoblins, and that they were the souls of the dead, a delusion which has been dispelled to-day by the evangel, “for we know now that they are not the souls of men but merely naughty devils.” “But now that the devil sees that all his noise and storming is no longer of any avail, he acts in a different manner and begins to rage and storm in his members, i.e. in the godless [and false teachers], hatching in them all sorts of wild and shady beliefs and doctrines.”[441]
“Yea, verily this rage of Satan everywhere against the Word is not the least significant sign that the end of the world is approaching.” At that time, scarcely ten years after the discovery of the evangel, this opinion was already firmly fixed in his mind. “Satan seems to be aware of it, hence his extraordinary outburst of anger.”[442] A confirmation of the approach of Judgment Day was discerned by Luther in the circumstance that, as he thought, “the princes were falling” (the French king had been taken captive by Charles V), “that the Emperor would also fall in the end,” and that “more of the princes will fall if they permit the people to grow so audacious.” “These are greater signs that many believe.”[443] The conjunction of the planets is also not to be overlooked, although, he admitted, “I do not understand much about them; the bloody western sun would seem to indicate the king of France, another in the centre, the Emperor; Philip [Melanchthon] is also of this opinion; both together foretell the end of the world.”[444]
He declares later that it “may occur any day,” and that actual signs of extraordinary magnitude will be seen “in the sun and moon,” although we have “already sufficient warning in the sun”; above all, according to him, “the sign among men” [who shall wither away for fear and expectation, Luke xxi. 26] has already been fulfilled: “I am entirely of opinion that we have already experienced it. The evil Pope with his preaching has done very much towards this, namely by greatly affrighting pious minds. … The forgiveness of sin through Christ had disappeared.” We were “frightened to death at Christ, the Judge.” “Owing to the preaching of the evangel I am of opinion that this sign is in great part passed, in the same way that I hold most of the other signs in the heavens to have also already taken place.”[445]
His scruples of conscience and the “inward struggles” referred to above Luther accustomed himself more and more to regard as the voices of the Evil One. He fancied it was the Good Spirit who taught him to despise them. It was only the Papists who were deluded and led astray by “Satan.” “There,” he writes in 1522, viz. among the Papists, “the true masterpiece of Satan is discernible, for he transforms himself into an angel of light. As in the beginning he wished to be equal to the Most High, so now he does not cease to pursue the same aim by deceiving the sons of unbelief with godly words and deeds. Thus does he make the Pope his instrument.” “To what an abyss,” he exclaims, “is he not capable of dragging down the Church by means of his sophists seated in the professorial chairs.”[446] When the thought of the day of reckoning or remorse of conscience for their infidelity to the Church awoke either in himself or in his followers, this was to be silenced as the voice of the wicked angel. Uxorious renegades from the religious Orders and the priesthood, who were now assailed by doubts, he consoles by means of his own moral dialectics, telling them they should go “forward with a strong conscience in order to be able to withstand the devil at the hour of death.” They were to “arm themselves with the Word of God” against the devil; “you will stand in need of it, but rely upon this, that it is the Word of God, Who cannot lie; read this [my own] little book ‘On Vows’ carefully and strengthen yourself as best you can,” for the “devil will work against you with your vow for all it is worth and make out your marriage and freedom to be sinful.”[447] Here he is establishing a new school for the formation of consciences.
How greatly the “inward struggles” pressed upon him in those years, notwithstanding such teachings and his own practice, is plain from two incidents of which we hear by chance.
On one occasion, in a letter written in March, 1525, he invites his old friend, Amsdorf of Magdeburg, to come to Wittenberg that he may assist him “with comfort and friendly offices,” because, as he complains, he is “very sad and tempted.” The captain of the garrison, Hans von Metzsch, is also, so he reports, in a very troubled state of mind: he too looks for Amsdorf’s help, and will put a carriage at the disposal of the Magdeburg guest for the journey here and back.[448] As Luther later, in 1529, urged Metzsch, who till then had remained a bachelor, to marry forthwith and so save himself mental trouble,[449] it has been assumed by Protestants that Metzsch was tormented by temptations concerning marriage as early as 1525, and that, as Luther in his letter to Amsdorf places himself in the same category with him,[450] “it was plain of what nature Luther’s temptations were.” It is certainly
above, p. 166, n. 1. possible that Luther meant by what he styles his “temptations,”[451] the struggles he had to sustain on account of the question of his marriage, which was pressing upon him more and more heavily. He elsewhere admits his fear lest he should lower himself and his cause in the eyes of many by his marriage, while on the other hand he feels himself impelled to matrimony by the impulse of nature. It was not merely concern for the good name of the evangel (“We are a spectacle to the world,” etc.)[452] which troubled him. There is no doubt that these “temptations,” if they really referred to matrimony, consisted in scruples of conscience which he had not yet mastered. We can readily understand that it was only gradually, and by means of strong representations from within and from his friends, that he was at length able to overcome the hesitation which had persisted from his Catholic days when his opinions had been so different.
Another instance of the effect of his temptations on his temperament is related in the Notes of his physician Ratzeberger.[453] The details refer to 1525 or 1524.[454] Ratzeberger says that Luther “had privatim to endure great attacks of Sathana,” and had “frequently been disturbed by the demon in various ways when studying and writing in his little writing-room.” On one occasion Master Lucas Edemberger, George Rhau and some other good comrades, who were musicians, came to visit Luther, but on enquiry at his house, learnt that he had “for some time past” shut himself up and refused to see anyone, or to taste food or drink. Edemberger received no answer to his knock, and, looking through the keyhole, saw Luther lying on his face on the floor with outstretched arms