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poison. 1 These alarms dictated his language during those early years. It \vas not the true expression of his views, which he was not yet strong enough openly to put forth. 2 The Zwinglian schism, the rise of the Anabaptists, and the Peasants' War altered the aspect of affairs. Luther recognised in them the fruits of his theory of the right of private judgment and of dissent,S and the moment had arrived to secure his Church against the application of the same dissolving principles which had served him to break off from his allegiance to Rome. 4 The excesses of the social war threatened to deprive the movement of the sympathy of the higher classes, especially of the governments; and with the defeat of the peasants the popular phase of the Reformation came to an end on the Continent. U The devil," Luther said, cc having failed to put him down by the help of the Pope, was seeking his
) II Nihil non tentabunt Romanenses, nee potest satis Huttenus me monere, adeo mihi de veneno timet" (De W eUe, i. 487). II Etiam inimici mei quidam miserti per amieos ex Halberstadio fecerunt moneri me: esse quemdam doctorem medicinae, qui arte magica factus pro libito invisibilis, quemdam occidit, mandatum habentem et occidendi Lutheri, venturumque ad futuram Domini- earn ostensionis reliquiarum: valde hoc constanter narratur" (De Wette, i. 441), I I Est hic apud nos Judaeus Polonus, missus sub pretio 2000 aureorum, ut me veneno perdat, ab amicis per literas mihi proditus, Doctor est medicinae, et nibil non audere et facere paratus incredibili astutia et agilitate" (De Wette, ii, 616), See also Jarcke, Studien zur Geschichte der Reformation, p, 176, 2 II Multa ego premo et causa principis et universitatis nostrae cohibeo, quae (si alibi essem) evomerem in vastatricem Scripturae et Ecclesiae Romanae, . . . Timeo miser, ne forte non sim dignus pati et occidi pro tali causa: erit ista felicitas meliorum hominum, non tam foedi peccatoris, Dixi tibi semper me paratum esse cedere loco, si qua ego principi ill, viderer periculo hic vivere, Aliquando certe moriendum est, quanquam jam edita vernacula quadam apologia satis aduler Romanae Ecclesiae et Pontifici, si quid forte id prosit .. (De Wette, i, 260, 261). It Ubi periculum est, ne iis protectoribus tutus saevius in Romanenses sim grassaturus, quam si sub principis imperio publicis militarem officiis docendi, , . . Ego vicissim, nisi ignem habere nequeam damnabo, publiceque concremabo jus pontificium totum, id est, lernaD.1 illam haeresium; et finem babebit humilitatis exhibitae hactenusque frustratae observantia qua nolo amplius inflari hostes Evangelii" (Ibid, pp, 465, 466, July 10, 1520), 3 .. Out of the Gospel and divine truth come devilish lies; . . , from the blood in our body comes corruption; out of Luther come :r-.lüntzer, and rebels, Anabaptists, Sacramentarians, and false brethren" ( Verke, i. 75)' 4 II Habemus," wrote Erasmus, It fructum tui spiritus. , . . Non agnoscis hosce seditiosos, opinor, sed illi te agnoscunt , . . nec tam en efficis quominus credant homines per tuos libellos . . . pro libertate evan, gelica contra tyran- nidem bumanam, hisce tumultibus fuisse datam occasionem." " And who will deny," adds a Protestant classic, .. that the fault was partly owing to them?" (Planck, Geschiclzte der protestalliischen Kirche. ii. 183).
