MARTIN, the famous author of the Reformation, was a native of Eisleben, in Saxony, and born in 1483. Though his parents were poor, he received a learned education, during the progress of which, he gave many indications of uncommon vigour and acuteness of genius. As his mind was naturally susceptible of serious impressions, and somewhat tinged with that religious melancholy which delights in the solitude and devotion of a monastic life, he retired into a convent of Augustinian friars, where he acquired great reputation, not only for piety, but also for love of knowledge and unremitting application to study. The cause of this retirement is said to have been, that he was once struck by lightning, whilst his companion was killed by his side by the same flash. He had been taught the scholastic philosophy which was in vogue in those days, and had made considerable progress in it; but happening to find a copy of the Bible which lay neglected in the library of his monastery, he applied himself to the study of it with an eagerness and assiduity which quite astonished the monks, and so much increased his reputation for sanctity, that he was chosen professor, first of philosophy, and afterwards of theology, at Wittemberg; on the Elbe, where Frederick elector of Saxony had founded an university.

Whilst Luther continued to enjoy the highest reputation for sanctity and learning, Tetzel, a Dominican friar, came to Wittemberg in order to publish indulgences. Luther beheld his success with great concern; and having first inveighed against indulgences from the pulpit, he afterwards published ninety-five theses, containing his sentiments on that subject. These he proposed, not as points fully established, but as subjects of inquiry and disputation. He appointed a day on which the learned were invited to impugn them either in person or by writing; and to the whole he subjoined solemn protestations of his high respect for the apostolic see, and of his implicit submission to its authority. No opponent appeared at the time fixed; but the theses spread over Germany with astonishing rapidity, and were read with the greatest eagerness.

Though Luther met with no opposition for some little time after he began to publish his new doctrines, it was not long before many zealous champions arose to defend those opinions with which the wealth and power of the clergy were so strictly connected. Their cause, however, was by no means promoted by these endeavours; for the people began to call in question even the authority of the canon law, and of the pope himself. The court of Rome at first despised these new doctrines and disputes; but at length the attention of the pope being excited by the great success of the reformer, and the complaints of his adversaries, Luther was, in the month of July 1518, summoned to appear at Rome, within sixty days, before the auditor of the chamber; and none of his adversaries, named Prierias, who had written against him, was appointed to examine his doctrines, and decide concerning them. At the same time the pope wrote to the elector of Saxony, beseeching him not to protect a man whose heretical and profane tenets were so shocking to pious ears; and enjoined the provincial of the Augustinians to check by his authority the rashness of an arrogant monk, which brought disgrace upon their order, and gave offence and disturbance to the whole church.

From these letters, and the appointment of his open enemy Prierias as his judge, Luther easily foresaw what sentence he might expect at Rome; and therefore discovered the utmost solicitude to have his cause tried in Germany, and before a less suspected tribunal. He wrote a submissive letter to the pope, in which he promised an unreserved obedience to his will, for as yet he entertained no doubt of the divine origin of the papal authority; and the intercession of the other professors, Cajetan, the pope's legate in Germany, was appointed to hear and determine the cause. Luther appeared before him without hesitation; but Cajetan thought it below his dignity to dispute the point with a person so much his inferior in rank, and therefore required him, by virtue of the apostolic powers with which he was invested, to retract the errors which he had uttered with regard to indulgences and the nature of faith, and to abstain for the future from the publication of new and dangerous opinions, at the same time forbidding him to appear in his presence, unless he proposed to comply with what had been required of him.

This haughty and summary manner of proceeding, together with some other circumstances, gave Luther's friends strong reason to suspect that even the imperial safe-conduct would not be sufficient to protect him from the legate's power and resentment; and they prevailed on him secretly to withdraw from Augsburg, where he had attended the legate, and to return to his own country. But before his departure, he prepared, according to a form of which there had been some examples, a solemn appeal from the pope ill informed concerning his cause, to the pope when he should receive more full information with respect to it. Cajetan, enraged at Luther's abrupt retreat, and at the publication of his appeal, wrote to the elector of Saxony, complaining of both, and requiring him, as he regarded the peace of the church, or the authority of its head, either to send the seditious monk as a prisoner to Rome, or to banish him out of his territories. The elector had hitherto, from political motives, protected Luther, thinking he might be useful in checking the enormous power of the see of Rome; and though all Germany resounded with his fame, the elector had never yet admitted him into his presence. But upon this demand being made by the cardinal, it became necessary to throw off somewhat of his former reserve. He had been at great expense, and bestowed much attention, on founding a new university, an object of considerable importance to every German prince; and foreseeing how fatal a blow the removal of Luther would be to its reputation, he not only declined complying with either of the pope's requests, but openly discovered great concern for Luther's personal safety.

In the mean time, the situation of the reformer became daily more and more embarrassing. He knew very well what were the motives which induced the elector to afford him protection, and that he could by no means depend upon a continuance of his friendship. If he should be obliged to quit Saxony, he had no other asylum, and would stand exposed to whatever punishment the rage or bigotry of his enemies could inflict; and so ready were his adversaries to condemn him, that he had been declared a heretic at Rome before the expiration of the sixty days allowed him in the citation for making his appearance. Notwithstanding all this, however, he discovered no symptoms of timidity or remissness, but continued to vindicate his own conduct and opinions, and to inveigh against those of his adversaries with greater vehemence than ever. Being convinced, therefore, that the pope would soon proceed to the most violent measures against him, he appealed to a general council, which he affirmed to be the representative of the Catholic church, and superior in power to the pope, who, being a fallible man, might err, as St Peter, the most perfect of his predecessors, had done.

The court of Rome were in the mean time equally assiduous to crush the author of these new doctrines, which gave them so much uneasiness. A bull was issued by the pope, of a date prior to Luther's appeal, in which he magnified the virtues of indulgences, and subjected to the heaviest ecclesiastical censures all who presumed to teach a contrary doctrine. Such a clear decision of the sovereign pontiff against him might have been fatal to the cause of Luther, had not the death of the Emperor Maximilian, which happened on the 17th of January 1519, contributed to give matters a different turn. Both the principles and interest of Maximilian had prompted him to support the authority of the see of Rome; but, in consequence of his death, the vicariate of that part of Germany which is governed by the Saxon laws devolved to the elector of Saxony; and, under the shelter of his friendly administration, Luther himself enjoyed tranquillity, and his opinions took such root in different places, that they could never afterwards be eradicated. At the same time, as the election of an emperor was a point more interesting to the pope, Leo X., than a theological controversy which he did not understand, and of which he could not foresee the consequences, he was so extremely solicitous not to irritate a prince of such considerable influence in the electoral college as Frederick, that he discovered a great unwillingness to pronounce the sentence of excommunication against Luther, which his adversaries continually demanded with the most clamorous importunity.

From the reason just now assigned, and Leo's natural aversion to severe measures, a suspension of proceedings against Luther ensued for eighteen months, though perpetual negotiations were carried on during this interval in order to bring the matter to an amicable issue. The manner in which these were conducted having given our reformer many opportunities of observing the corruption of the court of Rome, its obstinacy in adhering to established errors, and its indifference about truth, however clearly proposed or strongly proved, he began, in 1520, to utter some doubts with regard to the divine origin of the papal authority, which he publicly disputed with Eccius, one of his most learned and formidable antagonists. The dispute was indecisive, both parties claiming the victory; but it must have been very mortifying to the partizans of the Catholic church to hear such an essential point of their doctrine publicly attacked.

The papal authority being once suspected, Luther proceeded to push on his inquiries from one doctrine to another, until at last he began to attack the firmest foundations on which the wealth and power of the church were established. Leo then began to perceive that there were no hopes of reclaiming such an incorrigible heretic, and therefore prepared to denounce against him the sentence of excommunication. The college of cardinals was often assembled, in order to prepare the sentence with due deliberation; and the ablest canonists were consulted how it might be expressed with unexceptionable formality. At last it was issued on the 15th of June 1520. Forty-one propositions, extracted out of Luther's works, were therein condemned as heretical, scandalous, and offensive to pious ears; all persons were forbidden to read his writings, upon pain of excommunication; such as had any of them in their custody were commanded to commit them to the flames; he himself, if he did not, within sixty days, publicly recant his errors, and burn his books, was pronounced an obstinate heretic, excommunicated, and delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh; and all secular princes were required, under pain of incurring the same censure, to seize his person, that he might be punished as his crimes deserved.

Luther was not in the least disconcerted by this sentence, which he had for some time expected. He renewed his appeal to a general council; he declared the pope to be the antichrist, or man of sin, whose appearance is foretold in the New Testament; he declaimed against his tyranny with greater vehemence than ever; and at last, by way of retaliation, having assembled all the professors and students in the university of Wittemberg, with great pomp, and in the presence of a vast multitude of spectators, he cast the volumes of the canon law, together with the bull of excommunication, into the flames. The manner in which this action was justified gave still greater offence than the action itself. Having collected from the canon laws some of the most extravagant propositions with regard to the plenitude and omnipotence of the pope's power, as well as the subordination of all secular jurisdiction to his authority, he published these with a commentary, pointing out the impiety of such tenets, and their evident tendency to subvert all civil government.

On the accession of Charles V. to the empire, Luther found himself in a very critical situation. Charles, in order to secure the pope's friendship, had determined to treat him with great severity. His eagerness to gain this point rendered him not averse to gratify the papal legates in Germany, who insisted, that, without any delay or formal deliberation, the diet then sitting at Worms ought to condemn a man whom the pope had already excommunicated as an incorrigible heretic. Such an abrupt manner of proceeding, however, being deemed unprecedented and unjust by the members of the diet, they made a point of Luther's appearing in person, and declaring whether or not he adhered to those opinions which had drawn upon him the censures of the church. Not only the emperor, but all the princes through whose territories he had to pass, granted him a safe-conduct; and Charles wrote to him at the same time, requiring his immediate attendance on the diet, and renewing his promises of protection from any injury or violence. Luther did not hesitate one moment about yielding obedience, and set out for Worms, attended by the herald who had brought the emperor's letter and safe-conduct. Whilst on his journey, many of his friends, whom the fate of Huss, under similar circumstances, and notwithstanding the same security of an imperial safe-conduct, filled with solicitude, earnestly advised and entreated him not to rush wantonly into the midst of danger. But Luther, superior to such terrors, silenced them with this reply; "I am lawfully called to appear in that city; and thither will I go in the name of the Lord, though as many devils as there are tiles on the houses were there combined against me."

The reception which he met with at Worms was such as might have been reckoned a full reward of all his labours, if mere vanity and the love of applause had been the principles by which he was influenced. Greater crowds assembled to behold him than had appeared at the emperor's public entry; his apartments were daily filled with princes and personages of the highest rank; and he was treated with an homage more sincere, as well as more flattering, than any which pre-eminence in birth or condition can command. At his appearance before the diet, he behaved with decency and firmness. He readily acknowledged an excess of acrimony and vehemence in his controversial writings; but refused to retract his opinions unless he were convinced of their falsehood, or to consent to their being tried by any other rule than the word of God. When neither threats nor entreaties could prevail on him to depart from this resolution, some of the ecclesiastics proposed to imitate the example of the council of Constance, and, by punishing the author of this pestilent heresy, who was now in their power, to deliver the church at once from such an evil. But the members of the diet refused to expose German integrity to fresh reproach by a second violation of public faith, and Charles being no less unwilling to bring a stain upon the beginning of his administration by such an ignominious action, Luther was permitted to depart in safety. A few days after he had left the city, a severe edict was published in the emperor's name, and by authority of the diet, depriving him, as an obstinate and excommunicated criminal, of all the privileges which he enjoyed as a subject of the empire; forbidding any prince to harbour or protect him; and requiring all to seize his person as soon as the term specified in his protection should have expired.

But this vigorous decree had no considerable effect; the execution of it being prevented partly by the multiplicity of occupations which the commotions in Spain, together with the wars in Italy and the Low Countries, created to the emperor, and partly by a prudent precaution employed by the elector of Saxony, Luther's steady patron. As Luther, on his return from Worms, was passing near Altenstein, in Thuringia, a number of horsemen in masks rushed suddenly out of a wood, where the elector had appointed them to lie in wait for him, and, surrounding his company, carried him, after dismissing all his attendants, to Worbung, a strong castle not far distant. There the elector Luther died upon the 2d of December 1521, and Adrian had been elected pope upon the 9th of January following. In this brief he observes, amongst other things, to the diet, how he had heard with grief, that Martin Luther, after the sentence of Leo X., which had been ordered to be executed by the edict of Worms, continued to teach the same errors, and daily to publish books full of heresies; that it appeared strange to him, that so large and so religious a nation could be seduced by a wretched apostate friar; that nothing, however, could be more pernicious to Christendom; and therefore he exhorted them to use their utmost endeavours to make Luther, and the authors of these tumults, return to their duty, or, if they refused and continued obstinate, to proceed against them according to the laws of the empire, and the tenor of the last edict.

The resolution of this diet was published in the form of an edict, upon the 6th of March 1523; but it had no effect in checking the Lutherans, who still went on with undiminished boldness and confidence. This year Luther wrote a great many pieces, amongst which was one upon the dignity and office of the supreme magistrate, which Frederick, elector of Saxony, is said to have been highly pleased with. About the same time he sent a writing in the German language to the Waldenses in Bohemia and Moravia, who had applied to him about worshipping the body of Christ in the Eucharist. He also wrote another book, which he dedicated to the senate and people of Prague, concerning the institution of ministers of the church; and he drew up a form of saying mass. He wrote a piece entitled An Example of Popish Doctrine and Divinity, which Dupin calls "a satire against nuns, and those who profess a monastic life." He also wrote against the vows of virginity, in his preface to his commentary on I Corinthians, chap. viii.; and his exhortations were, it seems, followed with effects, for soon afterwards, nine nuns, amongst whom was Catharine de Bore, eloped from the nunnery at Nimptschen, and were brought, by the assistance of Leonard Coppen, a burgess of Torgau, to Wittenberg. Whatever offence this proceeding might give to the Catholics, it was highly extolled by Luther, who, in a book written in the German language, compares the deliverance of these nuns from the slavery of a monastic life, to that of the souls which Jesus Christ had delivered by his death. This year Luther had occasion to canonize two of his followers, who, as Melchior Adam relates, were burned at Brussels in the beginning of July, and were the first who suffered martyrdom for his doctrine. He likewise wrote a consolatory epistle to three noble ladies at Misnia, who had been banished from the Duke of Saxony's court at Friburg for reading his books.

In the beginning of the year 1524, Clement VII. sent a legate to the German diet, which was to be held at Nuremberg. Adrian VI. had died in October 1523, and, on the 19th of November, been succeeded by Clement. A little before his death, he canonized Benno, who had been bishop of Meissen in the time of Gregory VII., and one of the most zealous defenders of the holy see. Luther, imagining that this was done directly to oppose him, drew up a piece entitled Against the New Idol and Old Devil set up at Meissen; a production in which he treats the memory of Gregory with great freedom, and does not spare even that of Adrian. The legate of Clement VII. represented to the diet of Nuremberg the necessity of enforcing the execution of the edict of Worms, which had been strangely neglected by the princes of the empire; but, notwithstanding the legate's solicitations, which were very pressing, the decrees of the diet were thought so ineffectual, that they were condemned at Rome, and rejected by the emperor. In this year began the dispute between Luther and Erasmus, about free-will. Erasmus had been much courted by the Catholics to write against Luther; but he was all along of opinion that writing would not be found an Luther effectually way to terminate the differences, and re-establish the peace of the church. However, overcome by the importunities of the pope and the Catholic princes, and desirous at the same time to clear himself from the suspicion of favouring a cause which he would not seem to countenance, he resolved to write against Luther, though, as he tells Melancthon, it was with some reluctance, and chose the subject of free-will as his theme. His book was entitled a Diatribe or Conference about Free-will, and was written with much moderation, and without personal reflections. In the preface, he tells Luther "that he ought not to take his dissenting from him in opinion ill, because he had allowed himself the liberty of differing from the judgment of popes, councils, universities, and doctors of the church." Luther was some time before he answered Erasmus's book, but at last he published a treatise De Servo Arbitrio, or of the Servitude of Man's Will; and though Melancthon had promised Erasmus that Luther should answer him with civility and moderation, yet Luther had so little regard to Melancthon's promise, that he never wrote anything more severe. He accused Erasmus of being careless about religion, and little solicitous what became of it, provided the world continued in peace; and that his notions were rather philosophical than Christian. Erasmus immediately replied to Luther in a piece called Hyperaspistes, in the first part of which he answers his arguments, and in the second his personal reflections.

In October 1524, Luther threw off the monastic habit, which, though not premeditated or designed, was yet a very proper preparative to a step which he took the year following; we mean his marriage with Catharine de Bore. Catharine de Bore was a gentleman's daughter, who had been a nun, and was taken, as we have observed, out of the nunnery of Nimptschen, in the year 1523. Luther had a design, as Melchior Adam relates, to marry her to Glacius, a minister of Ortamunden; but she did not like Glacius, and so, on the 18th of June 1525, Luther married her himself. This conduct of his was severely blamed, not only by the Catholics, but, as Melancthon says, by those of his own party. He was even for some time ashamed of it himself, and owns that his marriage had made him so despicable, that he hoped his humiliation would rejoice the angels, and vex the devils. Melancthon found him so afflicted with what he had done, that he wrote some letters of consolation to him. It was not so much the marriage, as the circumstances of the time, and the precipitation with which it was constituted, that occasioned the censures which were passed upon Luther. He married all of a sudden, and at a time when Germany was groaning under the miseries of a war which was said to be owing to Lutheranism. Besides, it was thought to be an indecent thing in a man of forty-two years of age, who was then, as he professed, restoring the Gospel, and reforming mankind, to involve himself in marriage with a woman of twenty-six, either through incontinence, or upon any other account whatsoever. But Luther, as soon as he had recovered himself a little from this abasement, assumed his former air of intrepidity, and boldly supported what he had done. "I took a wife," says he, "in obedience to my father's commands; and hastened the consummation, in order to prevent impediments, and stop the tongues of slanderers." It appears, from his own confession, that he was much attached to Catharine de Bore, and used to call her by endearing names, which made profane people think and say wicked things of him. "And therefore," says he, "I married of a sudden, not only that I might not be obliged to hear the clamours which I knew would be raised against me, but to stop the mouths of those who reproached me with Catharine de Bore." Luther also gives us to understand that he did it partly as concurring with his grand scheme of opposing the Catholics.

Luther, notwithstanding, was not himself altogether satisfied with these reasons. He did not think the step which he had taken could be sufficiently justified upon the principles of human prudence; and therefore we find him, in other places, endeavouring to account for it from a supernatural impulse. But whether there was any thing divine in it or not, Luther found himself extremely happy in his new state, especially after his wife had brought him a son. "My rib Kate," says he in the joy of his heart, "desires her compliments to you, and thanks you for the favour of your kind letter. She is very well, through God's mercy. She is obedient and complying with me in all things, and more agreeable, I thank God, than I could have expected; so that I would not change my poverty for the wealth of Croesus." According to Seckendorf, he had heard to say, that he would not exchange his wife for the kingdom of France, nor for the riches of the Venetians, and that for three reasons; first, because she had been given him by God, at the time when he implored the assistance of the Holy Ghost, in finding a good wife; secondly, because, though she was not without faults, yet she had fewer than other women; and, thirdly, because she religiously observed the conjugal fidelity she owed him. At first a report was circulated that Catharine de Bore had been confined soon after her marriage with Luther; but Erasmus, who had communicated that piece of news to his friends, acknowledged a little afterwards that there was no foundation for the scandal. His marriage, however, did not retard his activity and diligence in the work of reformation. He revised the Augsburg Confession of Faith, and Apology for the Protestants, when the Protestant religion was first established on a firm basis.

After this, Luther had little else to do than to sit down and contemplate the mighty work which he had completed. That a single monk should have been able to give the church so rude a shock, that there needed but such another entirely to overthrow it, may very well seem a mighty work. Indeed he did little else; for the remainder of his life was spent in exhorting princes, states, and universities, to confirm the reformation which had been brought about through him; and in publishing from time to time such writings as might serve to encourage, direct, and aid them in doing so. The emperor threatened temporal punishment with armies, and the pope eternal damnation with bulls and anathemas; but Luther cared for none of their menaces. His friend and coadjutor Melancthon was not so indifferent; for he had in his composition a great deal of softness, moderation, and diffidence, which made him uneasy, and even sorrowful, on account of the present disorders. Hence we find many of Luther's letters written on purpose to support and comfort him under these natural distresses and anxieties.

In the year 1533, Luther wrote to the citizens of Oschatz, who had suffered some hardships for adhering to the Augsburg Confession of Faith, a consolatory epistle, in which, amongst other things, he says, "The devil is the host, and the world is his inn; so that wherever you come, you shall be sure to find this ugly landlord." He had also about this time a terrible controversy with George duke of Saxony, who had such an aversion to Luther's doctrine that he obliged his subjects to take an oath that they would never embrace it. However, sixty or seventy citizens of Leipzig were found to have deviated a little from the Catholic way in some point or other, and they were known previously to have consulted Luther about it; upon which George complained to the Elector John, that Luther had not only abused his person, but also preached up rebellion amongst his subjects. The elector ordered Luther to be made acquainted with this; and to be told at the same time, that if he did not clear himself of the charge, he could not possibly escape pun- ishment. But Luther easily refuted the accusation, by proving that he had been so far from stirring up his subjects against him upon the score of religion, that, on the contrary, he had exhorted them to undergo the greatest hardships, and even suffer themselves to be banished, rather than offer any resistance.

The Bible translated by him into German was first printed in the year 1534, as the old privilege, dated at Bibliopolis, under the elector's hand, shows; and it was published the year after. He also published, the same year, a book against masses and the consecration of priests, in which he relates a conference he had with the devil upon those points; for it is remarkable in Luther's whole history, that he never had any conflicts of any kind within, but the devil was always his antagonist. In February 1537, an assembly was held at Smalcald, about matters of religion, to which Luther and Melanchthon were summoned. At this meeting Luther was seized with so grievous an illness that there seemed to be no hopes of his recovery. He was afflicted with the stone, and had a stoppage of urine for eleven days. In this terrible condition he must needs undertake to travel, notwithstanding all that his friends could say or do to prevent him. His resolution, however, was attended with a good effect; for the night after his departure he began to grow better. As he was carried along, he made his will, in which he bequeathed his detestation of popery to his friends and brethren, agreeably to what he often used to say, *Pestis eram vicus, moriens ero mora tua, papa*; "I was the plague of popery in my life, and shall continue to be so in my death."

This year the pope and the court of Rome, finding it impossible to deal with the Protestants by force, began to have recourse to stratagem. They therefore affected to think, that though Luther had indeed carried on things with a high hand, and to a violent extreme, yet that what he had pleaded in defence of these measures was not entirely without foundation. They talked with a seeming show of moderation; and Pius III., who had succeeded Clement VII., proposed a reformation first amongst themselves, and even went so far as to fix a place for a council to assemble for that purpose. But Luther treated this farce as it deserved; he unmasked and detected it immediately; and, to ridicule it the more strongly, he caused a picture to be drawn, in which were represented the pope seated on high upon a throne, some cardinals about him with foxes' tails on, and seeming sursum deorsum repurgare, as Melchior Adam expresses it. This gross design was fixed over against the title-page, to let the reader see at once the scope and object of the book, which was, to expose that cunning and artifice with which those subtle politicians affected to cleanse and purify themselves from their errors and superstitions. About the same time, Luther published a Confutation of the Pretended Grant of Constantine to Sylvester bishop of Rome, and also some letters of John Huss, written from his prison at Constance to the Bohemians.

In this manner was Luther employed until his death, which happened in the year 1546. His works were collected after his decease, and printed at Wittemberg in seven volumes folio.