XXX.
Else's Story.
WITTEMBERG, _August_, 1524.
The slow lingering months of decline are over. Yesterday our grandmotherdied. As I looked for the last time on the face that had smiled on mefrom childhood, the hands which rendered so many little loving servicesto me, none of which can evermore be returned to her, what a sacredtenderness is thrown over all recollection of her, how each little actof thoughtful consideration and self-denial rushes back on the heart,what love I can see glowing through the anxious care which sometimesmade her a little querulous, especially with my father, although neverlately.
Can life ever be quite the same again? Can we ever forget to beartenderly with little infirmities such as those of hers which seem soblameless now, or to prize with a thankfulness which would flood withsunshine our little cares, the love which must one day be silent to usas she is now?
Her death seems to age us all into another generation! She lived fromthe middle of the old world into the full morning of the new; and awhole age of the past seems to die with her. But after seeing thoseBohemian deputies and knowing that Fritz and Eva were married, sheceased to wish to live. She had lived, she said, through two mornings oftime on earth, and now she longed for the daybreak of heaven.
But yesterday morning, one of us! and now one of the heavenly host!Yesterday we knew every thought of her heart, every detail of her life,and now she is removed into a sphere of which we know less than of thedaily life of the most ancient of the patriarchs. As Dr. Luther says, aninfant on its mother's breast has as much understanding of the lifebefore it, as we of the life before us after death. "Yet," he saithalso, "since God hath made his world of earth and sky so fair, how muchfairer that imperishable world beyond!"
All seems to me clear and bright after the resurrection; but _now_?where is that spirit now, so familiar to us and so dear, and now soutterly separated?
Dr. Luther said, "A Christian should say, I know that it is thus I shalljourney hence; when my soul goes forth, charge is given to God's kingsand high princes, who are the dear angels, to receive me and convoy mesafely home. The Holy Scriptures, he writes, teach nothing of purgatory,but tell us that the spirits of the just enjoy the sweetest and mostdelightful peace and rest. How they live there, indeed, we know not, orwhat the place is where they dwell. But this we know assuredly, they arein no grief or pain, but rest in the grace of God. As in this life theywere wont to fall softly asleep in the guard and keeping of God and thedear angels, without fear of harm, although the devils might prowlaround them; so after this life do they repose in the hand of God."
"_To depart and be with Christ is far better._"
"_To-day in Paradise with me._"
"_Absent from the body, at home with the Lord._"
Everything for our peace and comfort concerning those who are gonedepends on what those words "_with me_" were to them and are to us.Where and how they live, indeed, we know not; with Whom we know. Themore then, O our Saviour and theirs! we know of Thee, the more we knowof them. With Thee, indeed, the waiting-time before the resurrection canbe no cold drear ante-chamber of the palace. Where Thou art, must belight, love, and home.
Precious as Dr. Luther's own words are, what are they at a time likethis, compared with the word of God he has unveiled to us?
My mother, however, is greatly cheered by these words of his, "Our lordand Saviour grant us joyfully to see each other again hereafter. For ourfaith is sure, and we doubt not that we shall see each other again withChrist in a little while; since the departure from this life to be withChrist is less in God's sight, than if I go from you to Mansfeld, or youtook leave of me to go from Wittemberg to Mansfeld. This is assuredlytrue. A brief hour of sleep and all will be changed."
WITTEMBERG, _September_, 1524.
During this month we have been able often to give thanks that thebeloved feeble form is at rest. The times seem very troublous. Dr.Luther thinks most seriously of them. Rumours have reached us for sometime of an uneasy feeling among the peasantry. Fritz wrote about it fromthe Thuringian Forest. The peasants, as our good Elector said lately,have suffered many wrongs from their lords; and Fritz says they hadformed the wildest hopes of better days from Dr. Luther and his words.They thought the days of freedom had come. And bitter and hard it is forthem to learn that the gospel brings freedom now as of old by givingstrength to suffer, instead of by suddenly redressing wrong. Thefanatics, moreover, have been among them. The Zwickau prophets andThomas Muenzer (silenced last year at Wittemberg by Luther's return fromthe Wartburg), have promised them all they actually expected fromLuther. Once more, they say, God is sending inspired men on earth, tointroduce a new order of things, no more to teach the saints how to bow,suffer, and be patient; but how to fight and avenge themselves of theiradversaries, and to reign.
_October_, 1524.
Now, alas, the peasants are in open revolt, rushing through the land bytens of thousands. The insurrection began in the Black Forest, and nowit sweeps throughout the land, gathering strength as it advances, andbearing everything before it by the mere force of numbers and movements.City after city yields and admits them, and swears to their TwelveArticles, which in themselves they say are not so bad, if only they wereenforced by better means. Castle after castle is assailed and falls.Ulrich writes in burning indignation at the cruel deaths they haveinflicted on noble men and women, and on their pillaging the convents.Fritz, on the other hand, writes entreating us not to forget the longcatalogue of legalized wrongs which had lead to this moment of fierceand lawless vengeance.
Dr. Luther, although sympathizing with the peasants by birth, and byvirtue of his own quick and generous indignation at injustice, whilstwith a prophet's plainness he blames the nobles for their exactions andtyranny, yet sternly demands the suppression of the revolt with thesword. He says this is essential, if it were only to free the honest andwell-meaning peasantry from the tyranny of the ambitious and turbulentmen who compel them to join their banner on pain of death. With a heartthat bleeds at every severity, he counsels the severest measures as themost merciful. More than once he and others of the Wittemberg doctorshave succeeded in quieting and dispersing riotous bands of the peasantsassembled by tens of thousands, with a few calm and earnest words. Butbitter, indeed, are these times to him. The peasants whom he pities, andbecause he pities condemns, call out that he has betrayed them, andthreaten his life. The prelates and princes of the old religion declareall this disorder and pillage are only the natural consequences of hisfalse doctrine. But between them both he goes steadfastly forward,speaking faithful words to all. More and more, however, as terriblerumours reach us of torture, and murder, and wild pillage, he seems tobecome convinced that mercy and vigour are on the same side. And now he,whose journey through Germany not three years since was a triumphalprocession, has to ride secretly from place to place on his errands ofpeace-making, in danger of being put to death by the people if he werediscovered!
My heart aches for these peasants. These are not the Pharisees who were"_not blind_," but understood only too well what they rejected. They arethe "multitudes," the common people, who as of old heard the voice oflove and truth gladly; for whom dying he pleaded, "They know not whatthey do."
_April_, 1525.
The tide has turned. The army of the empire, under Truchsess, is out.Phillip of Hesse, after quieting his own dominions, is come to Saxony tosuppress the revolt here. Our own gentle and merciful Elector, who soreluctantly drew the sword, is, they say, dying. The world is full ofchange!
Meantime, in our little Wittemberg world, changes are in prospect. Itseems probable that Dr. Luther, after settling the other eight nuns, andendeavouring also to find a home for Catherine von Bora, will espouseher himself. A few months since he tried to persuade her to marry Glatz,pastor of Orlamund, but she refused. And now it seems certain
that thesolitary Augustinian convent will become a home, and that she will makeit so.
Gottfried and I cannot but rejoice. In this world of tumult and unrest,it seems so needful that that warm, earnest heart should have one placewhere it can rest, one heart that will understand and be true to him ifall else should become estranged, as so many have. And this, we trust,Catherine von Bora will be to him.
Reserved, and with an innate dignity, which will befit the wife of himwhom God has called in so many ways to be the leader of the hearts ofmen, she has a spirit which will prevent her sinking into the merereflection of that resolute character, and a cheerfulness and womanlytact which will, we hope, sustain him through many a depressing hour,such as those who wear earth's crowns of any kind must know.
_December_, 1525.
This year has, indeed, been a year of changes. The peasant revolt iscrushed. At Frankenhausen, the last great victory was gained. ThomasMuenzer was slain, and his undisciplined hosts fled in hopelessconfusion. The revolt is crushed, alas! Gottfried says, as men toogenerally crush their enemies when once in their power, exceeding thecrime in the punishment, and laying up a store of future revolt andvengeance for future generations.
The good and wise Elector Friedrich died just before the victory. It iswell, perhaps, that he did not live to see the terrible vengeance thathas been inflicted, the roadsteads lined with gibbets, torture returnedby torture, insult by cruel mocking. The poor deluded people, especiallythe peasantry, wept for the good Elector, and said, "Ah, God, have mercyon us! We have lost our father!" He used to speak kindly to theirchildren in the fields, and was always ready to listen to a tale ofwrong. He died humbly as a Christian; he was buried royally as a prince.
Shortly before his death, his chaplain, Spalatin, came to see him. TheElector gave him his hand, and said, "You do well to come to me. We arecommanded to visit the sick."
Neither brother nor any near relative was with him when he died. Theservices of all brave men were needed in those stormy days. But he wasnot forsaken. To the childless, solitary sufferer, his faithful servantswere like a family.
"Oh, dear children," he said, "I suffer greatly!"
Then Joachim Sack, one of his household, a Silesian, said,--
"Most gracious master, if God will, you will soon be better."
Shortly after the dying prince said,--
"Dear children, I am ill indeed."
And Sack answered,--
"Gracious lord, the Almighty God sends you all this with a Father'slove, and with the best will to you."
Then the prince repeated softly, in Latin, the words of Job, "The Lordgave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."
And once more he said,--
"Dear children, I am very ill."
And the faithful Joachim comforted him again,--"My gracious Master, theAlmighty God, sends it all to your electoral highness from the greatestlove."
The prince clasped his hands, and said,--
"_For that I can trust my good God!_" and added, "Help me, help me, O myGod."
And after receiving the holy communion in both kinds, he called hisservants around him, and said,--
"Dear children, I entreat you, that in whatever I have done you wrong,by word or deed, you will forgive me for God's sake, and pray others todo the same. For we princes do much wrong often to poor people thatshould not be."
As he spoke thus, all that were in the room could not restrain theirtears, and seeing that, he said,--
"Dear children, weep not for me. It will not be long with me now. Butthink of me, and pray to God for me."
Spalatin had copied some verses of the Bible for him, which he put onhis spectacles to read for himself. He thought much of Luther, whom,much as he had befriended him, he had never spoken to, and sent for him.But it was in vain. Luther was on the Hartz mountains, endeavouring toquell the peasants' revolt. That interview is deferred to the worldwhere all earthly distinctions are forgotten, but where the leastChristian services are remembered.
So, "a child of peace," as one said, he departed, and rests in peace,through the high and only merits of the only Son of God, in whom, in hislast testament, he confessed was "all his hope."
It was a solemn day for Wittemberg when they laid him in his grave inthe Electoral Church, which he had once so richly provided with relics.His body lying beneath it is the most sacred relic it enshrines for usnow.
Knights and burghers met the coffin at the city gate; eight noblemencarried it, and a long train of mourners passed through the silentstreets. Many chanted around the tomb the old Latin hymns, "In mediavitae," and "Si bona suscipimur," and also the German, "From deepest needI cry to Thee," and--
"In Fried und Freud fahr ich dahin." "I journey hence in peace and joy."
The money which would in former times have purchased masses for hissoul, was given to the poor. And Dr. Luther preached a sermon on thatpromise, "Those who sleep in Jesus, God will bring with him," whichmakes it needless, indeed, to pray for the repose of those who thussleep.
Gretchen asked me in the evening what the hymn meant,--
"I journey hence in peace and joy."
I told her it was the soul of the prince that thus journeyed hence.
"The procession was so dark and sad," she said, "the words did not seemto suit."
"That procession was going to the grave," said Thekla, who was with us."There was another procession, which we could not see, going to heaven.The holy angels, clothed in radiant white, were carrying the happyspirit to heaven, and singing, as they went, anthems such as that, whilewe were weeping here."
"I should like to see that procession of the dear angels, Aunt Thekla,"said Gretchen. "Mother says the good Elector had no little children tolove him, and no one to call him any tenderer name than 'Your electoralhighness' when he died. But on the other side of the grave he will notbe lonely, will he? The holy angels will have tender names for himthere, will they not?"
"The Lord Jesus will, at all events," I said. "He calleth his own sheepby name."
And Gretchen was comforted for the Elector.
* * * * *
Not long after that day of mourning came a day of rejoicing to ourhousehold, and to all the friendly circle at Wittemberg.
Quietly, in our house, on June the 23d, Dr. Luther and Catherine vonBora were married.
A few days afterwards the wedding feast was held on the home-bringing ofthe bride to the Augustinian cloister, which, together with "twelvebrewings of beer yearly," the good Elector John Frederic has givenLuther as a wedding present. Brave old John Luther and his wife, andLuther's pious mother came to the feast from Mansfeld, and a day of muchfestivity it was to all.
And now for six months, what Luther calls "that great thing, the unionand communion between husband and wife," hath hallowed the old conventinto a home, whilst the prayer of faith and the presence of Him whomfaith sees, have consecrated the home into a sanctuary of love andpeace.
Many precious things hath Dr. Luther said of marriage. God, he says, hasset the type of marriage before us throughout all creation. Eachcreature seeks its perfection through being blent with another. The veryheaven and earth picture it to us, for does not the sky embrace thegreen earth as its bride? "Precious, excellent, glorious," he says, "isthat word of the Holy Ghost, 'the heart of the husband doth safely trustin her.'"
He says also, that so does he honour the married state, that before hethought of marrying his Catherine, he had resolved, if he should be laidsuddenly on his dying bed, to be espoused before he died, and to givetwo silver goblets to the maiden as his wedding and dying gift. Andlately he counselled one who was to be married, "Dear friend, do thou asI did, when I would take my Kaethe. I prayed to our Lord God with all myheart. A good wife is a companion of life, and her husband's solace andjoy, and when a pious man and wife love each other truly, the devil haslittle power to hurt them.
"All men," h
e said, "believe and understand that marriage is marriage, ahand a hand, riches are riches; but to believe that marriage is of God,and ordered and appointed by God; that the hand is made by God, thatwealth and all we have and are is given by God, and is to be used as hiswork to his praise, that is not so commonly believed. And a good wife,"he said, "should be loved and honoured, firstly, because she is God'sgift and present: secondly, because God has endowed women with noble andgreat virtues, which, when they are modest, faithful, and believing, faroverbalance their little failings and infirmities."
WITTEMBERG, _December_, 1525.
Another year all but closed--a year of mingled storm and sunshine? Thesorrow we dreaded for our poor Thekla is come at last too surely.Bertrand de Crequy is dead! He died in a prison alone, for conscience'sake, but at peace in God. A stranger from Flanders brought her a fewwords of farewell in his handwriting, and afterwards saw him dead, sothat she cannot doubt. She seems to move about like one walking in adream, performing every common act of life as before, but with the soulasleep. We are afraid what will be the end of it. Gold help her! She isnow gone for the Christmas to Eva and Fritz.
Sad divisions have sprung up among the evangelical Christians. Dr.Luther is very angry at some doctrines of Karlstadt and the Swissbrethren concerning the holy sacraments, and says they will be wiseabove what is written. We grieve at these things, especially as ourAtlantis has married a Swiss, and Dr. Luther will not acknowledge themas brethren. Our poor Atlantis is much perplexed, and writes that she issure her husband meaneth not to undervalue the Holy Supper, and that invery truth they find their Saviour present there as we do. But Dr.Luther is very stern about it. He fears disorders and wild opinions willbe brought in again, such as led to the slaughter of the peasants' war.Yet he himself is sorely distressed about it, and saith often that thetimes are so evil the end of the world is surely drawing nigh.
In the midst of all this perplexity, we who love him rejoice that he hasthat quiet home in the Augustei, where "Lord Kaethe," as he calls her,and her little son Haenschen reign, and where the dear, holy angels, asLuther says, watch over the cradle of the child.
It was a festival to all Wittemberg when little Hans Luther was born.
Luther's house is like the sacred hearth of Wittemberg and of all theland. There in the winter evenings he welcomes his friends to thecheerful room with the large window, and sometimes they sing good songsor holy hymns in parts, accompanied by the lute and harp, music at whichDr. Luther is sure King David would be amazed and delighted, could herise from his grave, "since there can have been none so fine in hisdays." "The devil," he says, "always flies from music, especially fromsacred music, because he is a despairing spirit, and cannot bear joy andgladness."
And in the summer days he sits under the pear tree in his garden, whileKaethe works beside him; or he plants seeds and makes a fountain; or hetalks to her and his friends about the wonders of beauty God has set inthe humblest flowers, and the picture of the resurrection he gives us inevery delicate twig that in spring bursts from the dry brown stems ofwinter.
More and more we see what a good wife God has given him in Catherine vonBora, with her cheerful, firm, and active spirit, and her devotedaffection for him. Already she has the management of all the finance ofthe household, a very necessary arrangement, if the house of Luther isnot to go to ruin, for Dr. Luther would give everything, even to hisclothes and furniture, to any one in distress, and he will not receiveany payment either for his books or for teaching the students.
She is a companion for him, moreover, and not a mere listener, which helikes, however much he may laugh at her eloquence, "in her owndepartment surpassing Cicero's," and sarcastically relate how when firstthey were married, not knowing what to say, but wishing to "makeconversation," she used to say, as she sat at her work beside him, "HerrDoctor, is not the lord high chamberlain in Prussia the brother of themargrave?" hoping that such high discourse would not be too trifling forhim! He says, indeed, that if he were to seek an obedient wife, he wouldcarve one for himself out of stone. But the belief among us is, thatthere are few happier homes than Dr. Luther's; and if at any timeCatherine finds him oppressed with a sadness too deep for her ministryto reach, she quietly creeps out and calls Justus Jones, or some otherfriend, to come and cheer the doctor. Often, also, she reminds him ofthe letters he has to write; and he likes to have her sitting by himwhile he writes, which is a proof sufficient that she can be silent whennecessary, whatever jests the Doctor may make about her "long sermons,which she certainly never would have made, if, like other preachers, shehad taken the precaution of beginning with the Lord's Prayer!"
The Christian married life, as he says, "is a humble and a holy life,"and well, indeed, is it for our German Reformation that its earthlycentre is neither a throne, nor a hermitage, but a lowly Christian home.
PARSONAGE OF GERSDORF, _June_, 1527.
I am staying with Eva while Fritz is absent making a journey ofinspection of the schools throughout Saxony at Dr. Luther's desire, withDr. Philip Melancthon, and many other learned men.
Dr. Luther has set his heart on improving the education of the children,and is anxious to have some of the revenues of the suppressed conventsappropriated to this purpose before all are quietly absorbed by thenobles and princes for their own uses.
It is a renewal of youth to me, in my sober middle age, to be here alongwith Eva, and yet not alone. For the terror of my youth is actuallyunder our roof with me. _Aunt Agnes_ is an inmate of Fritz's home!During the pillaging of the convents and dispersing of the nuns, whichtook place in the dreadful peasants' war, she was driven fromNimptschen, and after spending a few weeks with our mother atWittemberg, has finally taken refuge with Eva and Fritz.
But Eva's little twin children, Heinz and Agnes, will associate a verydifferent picture with the name of Aunt Agnes from the rigid lifelessface and voice which used to haunt my dreams of a religious life, andmake me dread the heaven, of whose inhabitants, I was told, Aunt Agneswas a type.
Perhaps the white hair softens the high but furrowed brow; yet surelythere was not that kindly gleam in the grave eyes I remember, or thattender tone in the voice. Is it an echo of the voices of the little onesshe so dearly loves, and a reflection of the sunshine in their eyes? No;better than that even, I know, because Eva told me. It is the smile andthe music of a heart made as that of a little child through believing inthe Saviour. It is the peace of the Pharisee, who has won the publican'sblessing by meekly taking the publican's place.
I confess, however, I do not think Aunt Agnes's presence improves thediscipline of Eva's household. She is exceedingly slow to detect anytraces of original sin in Eva's children, while to me, on the contrary,the wonder is that any creature so good and exemplary as Eva should havechildren so much like other people's--even mine. One would have thoughtthat her infants would have been a kind of half angels, taking naturallyto all good things, and never doing wrong except by mistake in a gentleand moderate way. Whereas, I must say, I hear frequent little wails ofrebellion from Eva's nursery, especially at seasons of ablution, much asfrom mine; and I do not think even our Fritz ever showed more decidedpleasure in mischief, or more determined self-will, than Eva's littlerosy Heinz.
One morning after a rather prolonged little battle between Heinz and hismother about some case of oppression of little Agnes, I suggested toAunt Agnes--
"Only to think that Eva, if she had kept to her vocation, might haveattained to the full ideal of the Theologia Teutsch, have become a St.Elizabeth, or indeed far better?"
Aunt Agnes looked up quickly--
"And you mean to say she is not better now! You imagine that spinningmeditations all day long is more Christian work for a woman thantraining these little ones for God, and helping them to fight theirfirst battles with the devil!"
"Perhaps not, Aunt Agnes," I said, "but then, you see, I know nothing ofthe inside of a convent."
"_I do_
," said Aunt Agnes emphatically, "and also the inside of a nun'sheart. And I know what wretched work we make of it when we try to takeour education out of our Heavenly Father's hands into our own. Do youthink," she continued, "Eva did not learn more in the long nights whenshe watched over her sick child than she could have learned in athousand self-imposed vigils before any shrine? And to-night, when shekneels with Heinz, as she will, and says with him, 'Pray God forgivelittle Heinz for being a naughty boy to-day,' and lays him on hispillow, and as she watches him fall asleep, asks God to bless and trainthe wilful little one, and then asks for pardon herself, do you notthink she learns more of what 'forgiveness' means and 'Our Father' thanfrom a year's study of the Theologia Teutsch?"
I smiled and said, "Dear Aunt Agnes, if Fritz wants to hear Eva'spraises well sung, I will tell him to suggest to you whether it mightnot have been a higher vocation for her to remain a nun!"
"Ah! child," said Aunt Agnes, with a little mingling of the oldsternness, and the new tenderness in her voice, "if you had learned whatI have from those lips, and in this house, you could not, even in jest,bear to hear a syllable of reflection on either."
Indeed, even Aunt Agnes cannot honour this dear home more than I do.Open to every peasant who has a sorrow or a wrong to tell, it is alsolinked with the castle; and linked to both, not by any class privileges,but because here peasants and nobles alike are welcomed as men andwomen, and as Christian brothers and sisters.
Now and then we pay a visit to the castle, where our noble sisterChriemhild is enthroned. But my tastes have always been burgher like,and the parsonage suits me much better than the castle. Besides, Icannot help feeling some little awe of Dame Hermentrud, especially whenmy two boys are with me, they being apt to indulge in a burgher freedomin their demeanour. The furniture and arrangements of the castle are ageneration behind our own at Wittemberg, and I cannot at all make theboys comprehend the majesty of the Gersdorf ancestry, nor the necessaryinferiority of people who live in streets to those who live in isolatedrock fortresses. So that I am reduced to the Bible law of "honour togrey hairs" to enforce due respect to Dame Hermentrud.
Little Fritz wants to know what the Gersdorf ancestry are renowned for."Was it for learning?" he asked.
I thought not, as it is only this generation who have learned to read,and the old knight even is suspected of having strong reasons forpreferring listening to Ulrich's reading to using a book for himself.
"Was it then for courage?"
"Certainly, the Gersdorfs had always been brave."
"With whom, then, had they fought?"
"At the time of the Crusades, I believed, against the infidels."
"And since then?"
I did not feel sure, but looking at the ruined castle of Bernstein andthe neighbouring height, I was afraid it was against their neighbours.
And so, after much cross questioning, the distinctions of the Gersdorffamily seemed to be chiefly reduced to their having been Gersdorfs, andhaving lived at Gersdorf for a great many hundred years.
Then Fritz desired to know in what way his cousins, the Gersdorfs ofthis generation, are to distinguish themselves? This question also was aperplexity to me, as I know it often is to Chriemhild. They must not onany account be merchants; and now that in the Evangelical Church thegreat abbeys are suppressed, and some of the bishoprics are to besecularized, it is hardly deemed consistent with Gersdorf dignity thatthey should become clergymen. The eldest will have the castle. One ofthem may study civil law. For the others nothing seems open but theidling dependent life of pages and military attendants in the castles ofsome of the greater nobles.
If the past is the inheritance of the knights, it seems to me the futureis far more likely to be the possession of the active burgher families.I cannot but feel thankful for the lot which opens to our boyshonourable spheres of action in the great cities of the empire. Thereseems no room for expansion in the life of those petty nobles. While thepatrician families of the cities are sailing on the broad current of thetimes, encouraging art, advancing learning, themselves sharing all thethought and progress of the time, these knightly families in the countryremain isolated in their grim castles ruling over a few peasants, andfettered to a narrow local circle, while the great current of the agesweeps by them.
Gottfried says, narrow and ill-used privileges always end in ruiningthose who bigotedly cling to them. The exclusiveness which begins byshutting others out, commonly ends in shutting the exclusive in. Thelordly fortress becomes the narrow prison.
All these thoughts passed through my mind as I left the rush-strewnfloor of the hall where Dame Hermentrud had received me and my boys,with a lofty condescension, while, in the course of the interview, I hadheard her secretly remarking to Chriemhild how unlike the cousins were;"It was quite singular how entirely the Gersdorf children were unlikethe Cottas!"
But it was not until I entered Eva's lowly home, that I detected thebitter root of wounded pride from which my deep social speculationssprang. I had been avenging myself on the Schoenberg-Gersdorf past bymeans of the Cotta-Reichenbach future. Yes; Fritz and Eva's lowly homeis nobler than Chriemhild's, and richer than ours; richer and noblerjust in as far as it is more lowly and more Christian!
And I learned my lesson after this manner.
"Dame Hermentrud is very proud," I said to Eva, as I returned from thecastle and sat down beside her in the porch, where she was sewing; "andI really cannot see on what ground."
Eva made no reply, but a little amused smile played about her mouth,which for the moment rather aggravated me.
"Do you mean to say she is _not_ proud, Eva?" I continuedcontroversially.
"I did not mean to say that any one was not proud," said Eva.
"Did you mean then to imply that she has anything to be proud of?"
"There are all the ghosts of all the Gersdorfs," said Eva; "and there isthe high ancestral privilege of wearing velvet and pearls, which you andI dare not assume."
"Surely," said I, "the privilege of possessing Lucas Cranach's pictures,and Albrecht Duerer's carvings, is better than that."
"Perhaps it is," said Eva demurely; "perhaps wealth is as firm groundfor pride to build on as ancestral rank. Those who have neither, likeFritz and I, may be the most candid judges."
I laughed, and felt a cloud pass from my heart. Eva had dared to callthe sprite which vexed me by his right name, and like any other gnome orcobold, he vanished instantly.
Thank God our Eva is Cousin Eva again, instead of Sister Ave; that hersingle heart is here among us to flash the light on our consciences justby shining, instead of being hidden under a saintly canopy in the shrineof some distant convent.
_July_, 1527.
Fritz is at home. It was delightful to see what a festival his returnwas, not only in the home, but in the village--the children running tothe doors to receive a smile, the mothers stopping in their work towelcome him. The day after his return was Sunday. As usual, the childrenof the village were assembled at five o'clock in the morning to church.Among them were our boys, and Chriemhild's, and Eva's twins, Heinz andAgnes--rosy, merry children of the forest as they are. All, however,looked as good and sweet as if they had been children of Eden, as theytripped that morning after each other over the village green, theirbright little forms passing in and out of the shadow of the greatbeech-tree which stands opposite the church.
The little company all stood together in the church before the altar,while Fritz stood on the step and taught them. At first they sang ahymn, the elder boys in Latin, and then all together in German; and thenFritz heard them say Luther's Catechism. How sweetly the lisping,childish voices answered his deep, manly voice; like the rustling of thecountless summer leaves outside, or the fall of the countless tinycascades of the village stream in the still summer morning.
"My dear child, what art thou?" he said.
Answer from the score of little hushed, yet ringing voices--
"I am a Christian."
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"How dost thou know that?"
"Because I am baptized, and believe on my dear Lord Jesus Christ."
"What is it needful that a Christian should know for his salvation?"
Answer--"The Catechism."
And afterwards, in the part concerning the Christian faith, the sweetvoices repeated the Creed in German.
"I believe in God the Father Almighty."
And Fritz's voice asked gently--
"What does that mean?"
Answer--"I believe that God has created me and all creatures; has givenme body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my limbs, reason, and all mysenses, and still preserves them to me; and that he has also given me myclothes and my shoes, and whatsoever I eat or drink; that richly anddaily he provides me with all needful nourishment for body and life, andguards me from all danger and evil; and all this out of pure fatherlydivine goodness and mercy, without any merit or deserving of mine. Andfor all this I am bound to thank and praise him, and also to serve andobey him. This is certainly true."
Again--
"I believe in Jesus Christ," &c.
"What does that mean?"
"I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father frometernity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, whohas redeemed me, a lost and condemned human creature, has purchased andwon me from all sins, from death and from the power of the devil, notwith silver and gold, but with his own holy precious blood, and with hisinnocent suffering and dying, that I may be his own, and I live in hiskingdom under him, and serve him in endless righteousness, innocence,and blessedness, even as he is risen from the dead, and lives and reignsforever. This is certainly true."
And again,
"I believe in the Holy Ghost."
"What does that mean?"
"I believe that not by my own reason or power can I believe on JesusChrist my Lord, or come to him; but the Holy Ghost has called me throughthe gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in theright faith, as he calls all Christian people on earth, gathers,enlightens, sanctifies them, and through Jesus keeps them in the rightand only faith, among which Christian people he daily richly forgivesall sins, to me and all believers, and at the last day will awaken meand all the dead, and to me and all believers in Christ will giveeternal life. This is certainly true."
And again, on the Lord's Prayer, the children's voices began,--
"Our Father who art in heaven."
"What does that mean?"
"God will in this way sweetly persuade us to believe that he is our trueFather, and that we are his true children; that cheerfully and with allconfidence we may ask of him as dear children ask of their dearfathers."
And at the end,
"What does Amen mean?"
"That I should be sure such prayers are acceptable to the Father inheaven, and granted by him, for he himself has taught us thus to pray,and promised that he will hear us. Amen, amen--that means, _yes, yes,that shall be done_."
And when it was asked,--
"Who receives the holy sacrament worthily?"
Softly came the answer,--
"He is truly and rightly prepared who has faith in these words, 'Givenand shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.' But he who doubts ordisbelieves these words, is unworthy and unprepared; for the words,'_for you_,' need simple believing hearts."
As I listened to the simple living words, I could not wonder that Dr.Luther often repeats them to himself, or rather, as he says, '_to God_,'as an antidote to the fiery darts of the wicked one.
And so the childish voices died away in the morning stillness of thechurch, and the shadow of the bell-tower fell silently across the grassymounds or wooden crosses beneath which rest the village dead; and as wewent home, the long shadow of the beech-tree fell on the dewy villagegreen.
Then, before eleven o'clock, the church bell began to ring, and thepeasants came trooping from the different clearings of the forest. Oneby one we watched the various groups in their bright holiday dresses,issuing out of the depths of dark green shade, among them, doubtless,many a branch of the Luther family who live in this neighbourhood.Afterwards each door in the village poured out its contributions, andsoon the little church was full, the men and women seated on theopposite sides of the church, and the aged gathered around the pulpit.Fritz's text was Eva's motto, "_God so loved the world._" Simply, withillustrations such as they could understand, he spoke to them of God'sinfinite love, and the infinite cost at which he had redeemed us, and ofthe love and trust and obedience we owe him, and, according to Dr.Luther's advice he did not speak too long, but "called black black, andwhite white, keeping to one simple subject, so that the people may goaway and say, '_The sermon was about this._'" For, as I heard Dr. Luthersay, "We must not speak to the common people of high difficult things,or with mysterious words. To the church come little children,maid-servants, old men and women, to whom high doctrine teaches nothing.For, if they say about it, 'Ah, he said excellent things, he has made afine sermon!' And one asks, 'What about, then?' they reply, 'I knownot.' Let us remember what pains our Lord Christ took to preach simply.From the vineyard, from the sheepfold, from trees, he drew hisillustrations, all that the people might feel and understand."
That sermon of Fritz's left a deep rest in my heart. He spoke not ofjustification, and redemption merely, but of the living God redeemingand justifying us. Greater service can no one render us than to recallto us what God has done for us, and how he really and tenderly cares forus.
In the afternoon, the children were gathered for a little while in theschool-room, and questioned about the sermon. At sunset again we all metfor a short service in the church, and sang evening hymns in German,after which the pastor pronounced the benediction, and the littlecommunity scattered once more to their various homes.
With the quiet sunshine, and the light shed on the home by Fritz'sreturn, to-day seemed to me almost like a day in Paradise.
Thank God again and again for Dr. Luther, and especially for these twogreat benefits given back to us through him--first, that he has unsealedthe fountain of God's word from the icy fetters of the dead language,and sent it flowing through the land, everywhere wakening winter intospring; and secondly, that he has vindicated the sanctity of marriageand the home life it constitutes; unsealing the grave-stones of theconvent gates, and sending forth the religion entranced and buried thereto bless the world in a thousand lowly, holy, Christian homes such asthis.