New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-11-10
LETHEMS RLRTIiDIY

In the cottage of poor peasant this day four
hundred years ago Martin Luther was born.
His pious mother when questioned by Mclanc-
thOn i'm after years stated that she remem-
bcrcd the hour and the day of the month most
positively, but she was uncertain about the
year. twas the eve of st. Martin, the 10th of
November, at IL o'clock, and on the next
morning his father carried him TO st. Peters
Church in Eislcbcn to be baptized, naming
him Martin in honor of the day. While the
mother had some misgivngs in regard to the
year generally assigned as that of his birth,
Luther himself and the other members of the
family always referred to it with confidence as
1Is3. The parents had recently settled in
Eislcbcn, having gone thithcr from Mora, near
EiScnach. The father was a wood-cuttcr and
miner. who left his native Thuringian village
because he had formed resOlute purpose to get
on in the world. Eiscben disappointed his
hopes, and he speedily shifted his ground,
going to Mansfield, where he could obtain en-
ploymcnt in the mines. This was about six
months after Martin Luther was born. Elsie
ben was only for short period the family
home, Mansfield being the scene of his child
hood and first schooling. s.Onc historical writer
ScckendOrfi, states that the child was born
before the parents had gone out permanently
from Eisenach and while the parents were Wis
iting a village fair at Eislebcn, but this seems
to be a mistake
1t is one of the functions of biographical
study to analyzo hereditary traits and to de
tcrmine their influence in moulding character
and shaping career. This process cannot be
carried a long way in the case of Martin
Luther. His mother was woman Of simple,
unaffected piety, but there is no proof that she
was swaycd by deeper convictions or possessed
larger religious nature than thousands OF
her sex i'm the Futhcrand His father was
dcvOut man, but regarded the priests Of that
day as Il lazy and ignorant class and hence was
bitterly opposed to his sons entering upon
IA monastic life. The parents did not give iii
their religious feelings the faintest indication
of the internal struggles, the exalted faith and
the spiritual fcryOr which characterized their
son. John Luther was Il man of rcsOlutc will.
lie had hard struggle with poverty at Mans
field, but he made determined effort to inn
prove his position in the world, and finally sue
ccedcd in establishing two small iron furnaces
i'm acquiring a competence and in being
elected a member of the Town Council. He was
self-willed even to the verge of 0bstinacy, and
not only logged his son numerically, but was
bent upon making him lawyer and man of
letters, being himself educated above the level
of his class. His character was not without
elements of force and determination; but it
did not leave an unmistakable impress upon the
career of the Apostle of the Reformation.
What is there in the mcagrc scholarship, the
energy and thrift, and the persistent purpose
of the miner of Mansfield that, gives promise
of the intellectual endowment Of the preacher
of Wittemberg and the translator of the
Bible; or of the spiritual exaltatiOn of the
Augustinan monk and the flaming zeal of the
Protestant refOrmer or of the sublime cOur-
age that inspired the attack upon the indul-
gences, the burning of the Papal Bull, the de-
fiant attitude at Worms and the escape from
the WartburgR
1t is more philosophical to consider Luther as
the type of the brain and conscience of Ger
many in the era of the Reformation. He
sprang from humble and honest line of
simple peasantry, and he represented the in
stincts, tendencies and aspirations of the COM
mon people. He inherited from them that
clear practical sense which led him to revolt
against the idea that there could be any con-
nectOn between the chink of coin in TetzePs
mOney-box and the redemption of souls in pur-
gatoryj that intellectual discernmcnt which
enabled him to discriminate between ecclcslas-
ticism with its ceremonial forms and the relig-
ion of the heart with its pure incense of faith
and prayer; that patriotic fervOr which made
him jealous of the supremacy.of Latin as the ex
elusive language of learned controversy and