The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1883-11-15
Martin Luther.

native town, ElSleDen. GERMANY. a mag
nificent bronze stature of the great re-
former was unveiled in the Public Square.
and throughout the civilized world the
event was celebrated in the Protestant
churches. 1t is to the heroism of Luther. his
fearless leadership. and brilliant intellec
tual gifts, that Professionalism owes its
birth, and the German controversial litera-
ture the pre-eminence it occupies.
Below we give sketch Of his remark
able career, republished from the Century
Magazine
Luther was accustomed to boast that he was a
peasants son, and all ofhis ancestors were peas
ants. He was born at Eisleben on the 10th of
november, l4S3, just four hundred years ago.
HIS rather was poor miner, working with his
pick in the copper mines of Mansfeld his mo-
tner cut and carried wood to the small cottage
Where the reformer was born. 1t was hard life
upon which the young child was ushered: often
MS parents beat him for little faults; their tenn
pers were harsh and severe. Yet so tender and
loving was the heart of the great reformer that
he remembered only their real kindness, and
Wept bitterly, like Mohammed, over his mothers
grave. He was the oldest of seven children
His father sent him to school at Eisenach, and
sometimes he sang carols from door to door to
pay for the cost Ofhis education.
Soon his powerful intellect, that was destined
to influence all mankind, began to show Its rare
once to notice. He was n musician, poet, a
fine scholar, young man of pure and noble i'm
pulses, when he passed through the University
of Erfurt with applause, and began to study law.
His father had now grown wealthy, and was evil
IDENTIFY anxious to see his gifted son rise to emil
nence and power. He would make him lawyer,
But suddenly a great change passed over the
mind OF the young student, and he fed forever
from the allurements of the outer world A
friend, it is said was killed at his side by a
stroke oflightning, and the sight ofdeath awoke
Luther from his gay dream of pleasure. He
tn ANN FOL
tered an Augustinian monastery His honest
father opposed his sudden resolution. He
IDENTIFY no firm believer i'll conventual system.
But Luther perseveI ed, and with terrible pen
ance and endlest prayers, with whip, scourge and
sackcloth, .strove.to wash away his fancied sins
and tit himself for another world. He little knew
how much he was destined to do and suffer and
enjoy in this.
Honest, fearless enthusiastic, he went to
Rome full of faith, and came back from the Holy
City shocked and terrified by the enormities of
the papal court The sale of indulgences not
ong after aroused the conscience of Luther and
all Germany. He spoke, and half Europe seemed
to follow him. Converts were broken up, an
cient rites abandoned, the whole world was
transformed at Luther's powerful voice. His
version ofwhole nations. The simple words OF
the honest German put to rout host of errors.
Saxony became his protector, all the people his
friends. Soon Switzerland caught up the Ger
man sentiment of independence, and Zurich
and afterward Geneva became the centres OF
Swiss nationality and progress. The old Italian
int1uence-and Zwingle had once been a pen
Sioner of Rome-waS thrown off forever. III
Germany, Hesse and Wurtemburg, Brunswick,
Brandenburg, and-Saxony, by the year l520 had
become openly Protestant. Then Denmark,
Sweden, and Norway, next Holland and the Low
Countries, secretly joined the German League
for freedom of faith, in the face of the Inquisi-
ton and the edicts of despotic kings. France
was stirred by a vain impulse of reforms. Aus
tria, Bohemia, and Poland followed Spain was
held in check forever like France. Last came
Saxon England and Saxonized Scotland to unite
in faith and sympathy with their continental
relatives. And before
rounded by deadly foes, must yet have seen with
wonder and grateful Joy nearly the whole leu
mon sentiment of progress and reform.
SO thoroughly was the reformation of German
movement that soon all the eminent reformers
were driven to take refuge in the shelter of Ger
many, and in its towns and cities were forged
its feudal barbarism. Wittenburg strasburg.
Geneva, Amsterdam became the chief seats OF
Protestant influence, the shrines of powerful
formers fled before the prosecutions of Francis
1; from Spain they were wholly extirpated
| from Italy they came in crowds to Switzerland
and the north, pursued by the Jesuits and the
InquiSition. For a century the great heart OF
Germany formed the asylum of the oppressed.
The reformers-founders of modern history
were not faultless. Luther, Calvin, Knox. and
Cranmer had much to learn. Fierce disputes
ragged between these great tntellects. The
world was shaken by their camor. Some pain
full exhibitions of honest but unwise enthusiasm,
their early severity. Yet, compared to their
prosecutors, the first refOrmers seem Singularly
humane, and Germany received within its Dor
ders the fugitiveS OF every land. The Latin
races drove out the new opinions, the Teutonic
cherished them. Germany, Scandinavia, Hol-
land, England, resounded with the cfamorous
! outcries of modern thought. Strasburg and
Geneva, London and Copenhagen. Amsterdam,
Leyden Berlin, became the centres of the
worlds material and mental advance. The
| Gothic and German races rose to rare prosperity
at the touch OF Luthers genius the Lat races,
| because they rejected his teachings, have for
| three centuries slumbered in dull reaction and
decay.
| no name is so honored among the Teutonic races
as that of Luther, the peasants son. He is
| studied with intense interest. The works that
| treat OF ms memory are numDerless. IN the
| British Museum six volumes of its index are
devoted to Luther, only two each to Shakes
peare and Milton. Every not ed act of his life has
become part of history and is more memoir
| able than u battle or siege. His beggar songs
| at Eisonach his visit to Rome his conversion,
and his faith have helped to guide the course OF
| nations. He stands before the church door at
| Wittenburg October 81, l5l7) and nails fast the
| famous theses that were to begin new era OF
| thought. Modest, learned, uncompromising, he
| did what no other dared; he defed the covetous
country. Next, in 1920, he burned the papal bull
and began the irrevocabe conflict. He is sum-
| moned to appear before the princes, the priests
| the empress of Germany. On the 18th OF April
| 1921, the reformer entered the ancient city Of
| Worms famous in German history and song
| O defend himself and Germany againsta spirit.
ual and temporal tyranny. The countless hosts
of Germans gazed at him with love and adm1ra-
| ton from the house-tops as he passed along. Or
| the 18th he began his defense before the crowded
and hostile assembly OF prelates, emperor, and
| Spaniards; the daggers of the German princes
alone saved him from the malice OF his foes. Or
/ the 18th he spoke with matchless eloquence on
the rights OF conscience and Of humanity "Goe
| be my help he cried: there l take my stand.
| He spoke Tor all future ages; he saved Germany
| he created modern history.
He fled from Worms to hide for many months
in the castle of Wartburg and in his solitude his
conflicts with Satan were fierce and terrible. He
came out to live for twenty years at Wittenburg
| to marry, to find happiness in his modest home
to labor with ceaseless energy in the cause of re-
| form. His pOnderous intellect moved inces-
sanity, like some immense engine, pouring out
| an endless list of publications. The press was
Luther's strong tower of defense; incessant toll
| al cheerful nature, an intellect as vigorous as
| Aristotes, were the human sources of his
| boundless influence. AT length, in 1916 he died
| at siXty-three, peacefully and hopefully, the
| master intellect OF the Teutonic race.