The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-28
The Luther Monument at Worms.
lated from Die GartenIattbs.

Translated from Die GartenIatbs.
estcrday (June 25, 1869 was the day ap
pointed Tor the uncoyering OF the monument to
Martin Luther at Worms. This monument is
erected by the subscriptions of Protestants,
principally German Protestants, OF course, and
Worms was chosen as the site, because, as all
the world knows, 1t was at the Diet held in
that city in 1921, that Luther FIRST came forward
as the reformer of the church. The monument
is in bronze, and was cast at the famous old
Lauchhammer foundry, in Eastern Prussia.
There are thirteen statues in all; all colossal
but OF different sizes, according to the height at
which they stand. Luther, the largest and
most important, stands on the top OF a pedestal
OF his own; his head is upraised as in the atti-
tude OF speech; his closed fist rests on the
Bible in his left hand. Even SO he must have
looked as he uttered those famous closing words
of his speech at the Diet of Worms; words itly
inscribed on the pedestal Whereon he stands:-
Here stand; cSnnoJ do otherwise. God be
my helper. Amen" (Hier stehe ich, ich kann
nicht anders; Gott helie mir. Ameu).
AT each corner of Luther's pedestal sits one of
his precursors IN the work OF Reformation; each
chosen from different country to show that
the work was not begun by Luther, but was
rather the protest of Chrietendom against error.
These four statues are Petrds WalduS, Wicklffe,
Huss, ana SavonaTola. Petrus Waldus, or Pierre
de VauX, was a LYONS merchant of the twelfth
century, who struck by the sudden death OF an
intimate friend, renounced the pleasures of life
and gave himself TO preaching purity of lite and
simplicity OF creed. His iolo wers, the Wal
denses, are often most unfairly confounded with
the Albigenses. Wuldus is represented with his
Bible open on his knees his much used staff
resting on his arm. John Wycklitie, the English
Retormer of the fourteenth century, and the
first translator of the Bible into our tongue
sits also with his Bible on his knees;
his lite, which ended in 1884, was q
contrast in its comparative calm, to the
stormy life and fiery death OF the
representative who comes next in point of time
John Huss, the Bohemian, who was burnt by
order OF the Council of Constance in 14l5, not
Wlthstanding the safe conduct given him ny the
Emperor Slgismund. His ashes were thro wn
into the Rhine, and by order of the same Coun-
Gil, Wcklitie's ashes were torn from their quiet
English grave aud thrown into the little brook
at Lutterworth that flowed into the Avon. Huss
is represented capped and gowned, his head bent
as if musing and praying over the cruci6x in his
folded hands. The fourth statue is that of
Savonaroa, in the robe aud cow of the Domlni-
can order, his warning hand uplfted to heaven,
as 1t was SO often in those days of which we
have all read in George Elot's great novel of
"Romola" Savonaroa was burnt in May of
the year 149l, but Martin Luther was school
boy of fourteen. The morning had fairly broken
at last.
These five statues are the heart of the monu-
ment and are to be surrounded by a stone
balustrade, except on Luthers side, where
there are to be steps. On the four corners of
the four corner-stones of the Reformation in
Germany; on Luthers right Frederick the
Wise, OF saxony; on his left Philip the Mag
unanimous, OF Hesse; behind Philip, Reuchin,
the humanist, and behind Frederick, the
thoughtful and modest Melancthon.
Between these corners will come, on three
sides, high pedestals tor three sitting symbolical
female fgures-Splres, Augsburg, and Magde-
burg. Spires, because there the Reiormers first
took the name OF Proeslants; Augsburg because
OF the Confession; and Magdeburg the witness
unto blood for the new Church, sitting sorrow
full with bowed head and broken sword. The
pedestal is to bear certain portrait medalions
and bas.reliets, and on the coping of the walls
are to be the beraldic bearings of thirty different
States and cities.
This work was planned by Rietschel; but he
died at the very beginning, and it was finished
by two OF his pupils.