German Culture Past and Present

E >> Ernest Belfort Bax >> German Culture Past and Present

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

FOOTNOTES:

[1] We are here, of course, dealing more especially with Germany; but
substantially the same course was followed in the development of
municipalities in other parts of Europe.

[2] _Einleitung_, pp. 255, 256.

[3] Cf. Von Maurer's _Einleitung zur Geschichte der Mark-Verfassung_;
Gomme's _Village Communities_; Laveleye, _La Propriete Primitive_;
Stubbs's _Constitutional History_; also Maine's works.

[4] It should be remembered that Germany at this time was cut up into
feudal territorial divisions of all sizes, from the principality, or the
prince-bishopric, to the knightly manor. Every few miles, and sometimes
less, there was a fresh territory, a fresh lord, and a fresh
jurisdiction.

CHAPTER I

THE REFORMATION MOVEMENT

The "great man" theory of history, formerly everywhere prevalent, and
even now common among non-historical persons, has long regarded the
Reformation as the purely personal work of the Augustine monk who was
its central figure. The fallacy of this conception is particularly
striking in the case of the Reformation. Not only was it preceded by
numerous sporadic outbursts of religious revivalism which sometimes
took the shape of opposition to the dominant form of Christianity,
though it is true they generally shaded off into mere movements of
independent Catholicism within the Church; but there were in addition
at least two distinct religious movements which led up to it, while
much which, under the reformers of the sixteenth century, appears as a
distinct and separate theology, is traceable in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries in the mystical movement connected with the names
of Meister Eckhart and Tauler. Meister Eckhart, whose free treatment
of Christian doctrines, in order to bring them into consonance with
his mystical theology, had drawn him into conflict with the Papacy,
undoubtedly influenced Luther through his disciple, Tauler, and
especially through the book which proceeded from the latter's school,
the _Deutsche Theologie_. It is, however, in the much more important
movement, which originated with Wyclif and extended to Central Europe
through Huss, that we must look for the more obvious influences
determining the course of religious development in Germany.

The Wyclifite movement in England was less a doctrinal heterodoxy than
a revolt against the Papacy and the priestly hierarchy. Mere
theoretical speculations were seldom interfered with, but anything
which touched their material interests at once aroused the vigilance
of the clergy. It is noticeable that the diffusion of Lollardism, that
is of the ideas of Wyclif, if not the cause of, was at least followed
by the peasant rising under the leadership of John Ball, a connection
which is also visible in the Tziska revolt following the Hussite
movement, and the Peasants' War in Germany which came on the heels of
the Lutheran Reformation. How much Huss was directly influenced by the
teachings of Wyclif is clear. The works of the latter were widely
circulated throughout Europe; for one of the advantages of the custom
of writing in Latin, which was universal during the Middle Ages, was
that books of an important character were immediately current amongst
all scholars without having, as now, to wait upon the caprice and
ability of translators. Huss read Wyclif's works as the preparation
for his theological degree, and subsequently made them his text-books
when teaching at the University of Prague. After his treacherous
execution at Constance, and the events which followed thereupon in
Bohemia, a number of Hussite fugitives settled in Southern Germany,
carrying with them the seeds of the new doctrines. An anonymous
contemporary writer states that "to John Huss and his followers are to
be traced almost all those false principles concerning the power of
the spiritual and temporal authorities and the possession of earthly
goods and rights which before in Bohemia, and now with us, have called
forth revolt and rebellion, plunder, arson, and murder, and have
shaken to its foundations the whole commonwealth. The poison of these
false doctrines has been long flowing from Bohemia into Germany, and
will produce the same desolating consequences wherever it spreads."

The condition of the Catholic Church, against which the Reformation
movement generally was a protest, needs here to be made clear to the
reader. The beginning of clerical disintegration is distinctly visible
in the first half of the fourteenth century. The interdicts, as an
institution, had ceased to be respected, and the priesthood itself
began openly to sink itself in debauchery and to play fast and loose
with the rites of the Church. Indulgences for a hundred years were
readily granted for a consideration. The manufacture of relics became
an organized branch of industry; and festivals of fools and festivals
of asses were invented by the jovial priests themselves in travesty of
sacred mysteries, as a welcome relaxation from the monotony of
prescribed ecclesiastical ceremony. Pilgrimages increased in number
and frequency; new saints were created by the dozen; and the disbelief
of the clergy in the doctrines they professed was manifest even to the
most illiterate, whilst contempt for the ceremonies they practised was
openly displayed in the performance of their clerical functions. An
illustration of this is the joke of the priests related by Luther, who
were wont during the celebration of the Mass, when the worshippers
fondly imagined that the sacred formula of transubstantiation was
being repeated, to replace the words _Panis es et carnem fiebis_,
"Bread thou art and flesh thou shalt become," by _Panis es et panis
manebis_, "Bread thou art and bread thou shalt remain."

The scandals as regards clerical manners, growing, as they had been,
for many generations, reached their climax in the early part of the
sixteenth century. It was a common thing for priests to drive a
roaring trade as moneylenders, landlords of alehouses and gambling
dens, and even in some cases, brothel-keepers. Papal ukases had proved
ineffective to stem the current of clerical abuses. The regular clergy
evoked even more indignation than the secular. "Stinking cowls" was a
favourite epithet for the monks. Begging, cheating, shameless
ignorance, drunkenness, and debauchery, are alleged as being their
noted characteristics. One of the princes of the empire addresses a
prior of a convent largely patronized by aristocratic ladies as "Thou,
our common brother-in-law!" In some of the convents of Friesland,
promiscuous intercourse between the sexes was, it is said, quite
openly practised, the offspring being reared as monks and nuns. The
different orders competed with each other for the fame and wealth to
be obtained out of the public credulity. A fraud attempted by the
Dominicans at Bern, in 1506, _with the concurrence of the heads of the
order throughout Germany_, was one of the main causes of that city
adopting the Reformation.

In addition to the increasing burdens of investitures, annates, and
other Papal dues, the brunt of which the German people had directly or
indirectly to bear, special offence was given at the beginning of the
sixteenth century by the excessive exploitation of the practice of
indulgences by Leo X for the purpose of completing the cathedral of
St. Peter's at Rome. It was this, coming on the top of the exactions
already rendered necessary by the increasing luxury and debauchery of
the Papal Court and those of the other ecclesiastical dignitaries,
that directly led to the dramatic incidents with which the Lutheran
Reformation opened.

The remarkable personality with which the religious side of the
Reformation is pre-eminently associated was a child of his time, who
had passed through a variety of mental struggles, and had already
broken through the bonds of the old ecclesiasticism before that
turning-point in his career which is usually reckoned the opening of
the Reformation, to wit--the nailing of the theses on to the door of
the Schloss-Kirche in Wittenberg on the 31st of October, 1517. Martin
Luther, we must always bear in mind, however, was no Protestant in the
English Puritan sense of the word. It was not merely that he retained
much of what would be deemed by the old-fashioned English Protestant
"Romish error" in his doctrine, but his practical view of life showed
a reaction from the ascetic pretensions which he had seen bred nothing
but hypocrisy and the worst forms of sensual excess. It is, indeed,
doubtful if the man who sang the praises of "Wine, Women, and Song"
would have been deemed a fit representative in Parliament or elsewhere
by the British Nonconformist conscience of our day; or would be
acceptable in any capacity to the grocer-deacon of our provincial
towns, who, not content with being allowed to sand his sugar and
adulterate his tea unrebuked, would socially ostracise every one whose
conduct did not square with his conventional shibboleths. Martin
Luther was a child of his time also as a boon companion. The freedom
of his living in the years following his rupture with Rome was the
subject of severe animadversions on the part of the noble, but in this
respect narrow-minded, Thomas Muenzer, who, in his open letter
addressed to the "Soft-living flesh of Wittenberg," scathingly
denounces what he deems his debauchery.

It does not enter into our province here to discuss at length the
religious aspects of the Reformation; but it is interesting to note
in passing the more than modern liberality of Luther's views with
respect to the marriage question and the celibacy of the clergy,
contrasted with the strong mediaeval flavour of his belief in
witchcraft and sorcery. In his _De Captivitate Babylonica Ecclesiae_
(1519) he expresses the view that if, for any cause, husband or wife
are prevented from having sexual intercourse they are justified, the
woman equally with the man, in seeking it elsewhere. He was opposed to
divorce, though he did not forbid it, and recommended that a man
should rather have a plurality of wives than that he should put away
any of them. Luther held strenuously the view that marriage was a
purely external contract for the purpose of sexual satisfaction, and
in no way entered into the spiritual life of the man. On this ground
he sees no objection in the so-called mixed marriages, which were, of
course, frowned upon by the Catholic Church. In his sermon on "Married
Life" he says: "Know therefore that marriage is an outward thing, like
any other worldly business. Just as I may eat, drink, sleep, walk,
ride, buy, speak, and bargain with a heathen, a Jew, a Turk, or a
heretic, so may I also be and remain married to such an one, and I
care not one jot for the fool's laws which forbid it.... A heathen is
just as much man or woman, well and shapely made by God, as St. Peter,
St. Paul, or St. Lucia." Nor did he shrink from applying his views to
particular cases, as is instanced by his correspondence with Philip
von Hessen, whose constitution appears to have required more than one
wife. He here lays down explicitly the doctrine that polygamy and
concubinage are not forbidden to Christians, though, in his advice to
Philip, he adds the _caveat_ that he should keep the matter dark to
the end that offence might not be given. "For," says he, "it matters
not, provided one's conscience is right, what others say." In one of
his sermons on the Pentateuch[5] we find the words: "It is not
forbidden that a man have more than one wife. I would not forbid it
to-day, albeit I would not advise it.... Yet neither would I condemn
it." Other opinions on the nature of the sexual relation were equally
broad; for in one of his writings on monastic celibacy his words
plainly indicate his belief that chastity, no more than other fleshly
mortifications, was to be considered a divine ordinance for all men or
women. In an address to the clergy he says: "A woman not possessed of
high and rare grace can no more abstain from a man than from eating,
drinking, sleeping, or other natural function. Likewise a man cannot
abstain from a woman. The reason is that it is as deeply implanted in
our nature to breed children as it is to eat and drink."[6] The worthy
Janssen observes in a scandalized tone that Luther, as regards certain
matters relating to married life, "gave expression to principles
before unheard of in Christian Europe";[7] and the British
Nonconformist of to-day, if he reads these "immoral" opinions of the
hero of the Reformation, will be disposed to echo the sentiments of
the Ultramontane historian.

The relation of the Reformation to the "New Learning" was in Germany
not unlike that which existed in the other northern countries of
Europe, and notably in England. Whilst the hostility of the latter to
the mediaeval Church was very marked, and it was hence disposed to
regard the religious Reformation as an ally, this had not proceeded
very far before the tendency of the Renaissance spirit was to side
with Catholicism against the new theology and dogma, as merely
destructive and hostile to culture. The men of the Humanist movement
were for the most part Free-thinkers, and it was with them that
free-thought first appeared in modern Europe. They therefore had
little sympathy with the narrow bigotry of religious reformers, and
preferred to remain in touch with the Church, whose then loose and
tolerant Catholicism gave freer play to intellectual speculations,
provided they steered clear of overt theological heterodoxy, than the
newer systems, which, taking theology _au grand serieux_, tended to
regard profane art and learning as more or less superfluous, and spent
their whole time in theological wrangles. Nevertheless, there were not
wanting men who, influenced at first by the revival of learning, ended
by throwing themselves entirely into the Reformation movement, though
in these cases they were usually actuated rather by their hatred of
the Catholic hierarchy than by any positive religious sentiment.

Of such men Ulrich von Hutten, the descendant of an ancient and
influential knightly family, was a noteworthy example. After having
already acquired fame as the author of a series of skits in the new
Latin and other works of classical scholarship, being also well known
as the ardent supporter of Reuchlin in his dispute with the Church,
and as the friend and correspondent of the central Humanist figure of
the time, Erasmus, he watched with absorbing interest the movement
which Luther had inaugurated. Six months after the nailing of the
theses at Wittenberg, he writes enthusiastically to a friend
respecting the growing ferment in ecclesiastical matters, evidently
regarding the new movement as a Kilkenny-cat fight. "The leaders," he
says, "are bold and hot, full of courage and zeal. Now they shout and
cheer, now they lament and bewail, as loud as they can. They have
lately set themselves to write; the printers are getting enough to do.
Propositions, corollaries, conclusions, and articles are being sold.
For this alone I hope they will mutually destroy each other." "A few
days ago a monk was telling me what was going on in Saxony, to which I
replied: 'Devour each other in order that ye in turn may be devoured
(_sic_).' Pray Heaven that our enemies may fight each other to the
bitter end, and by their obstinacy extinguish each other."

Thus it will be seen that Hutten regarded the Reformation in its
earlier stages as merely a monkish squabble, and failed to see the
tremendous upheaval of all the old landmarks of ecclesiastical
domination which was immanent in it. So soon, however, as he perceived
its real significance, he threw himself wholly into the movement. It
must not be forgotten, moreover, that, although Hutten's zeal for
Humanism made him welcome any attempt to overthrow the power of the
clergy and the monks, he had also an eminently political motive for
his action in what was, in some respects, the main object of his life,
viz. to rescue the "knighthood," or smaller nobility, from having
their independence crushed out by the growing powers of the princes of
the empire. Probably more than one-third of the manors were held by
ecclesiastical dignitaries, so that anything which threatened their
possessions and privileges seemed to strike a blow at the very
foundations of the Imperial system. Hutten hoped that the new
doctrines would set the princes by the ears all round; and that then,
by allying themselves with the reforming party, the knighthood might
succeed in retaining the privileges which still remained to them, but
were rapidly slipping away, and might even regain some of those which
had been already lost. It was not till later, however, that Hutten saw
matters in this light. He was, at the time the above letter was
written, in the service of the Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz, the
leading favourer of the New Learning amongst the prince-prelates, and
it was mainly from the Humanist standpoint that he regarded the
beginnings of the Reformation. After leaving the service of the
archbishop he struck up a personal friendship with Luther, instigated
thereto by his political chief, Franz von Sickingen, the leader of the
knighthood, from whom he probably received the first intimation of the
importance of the new movement to their common cause.

When, in 1520, the young Emperor, Charles V, was crowned at Aachen,
Luther's party, as well as the knighthood, expected that considerable
changes would result in a sense favourable to their position from the
presumed pliability of the new head of the empire. His youth, it was
supposed, would make him more sympathetic to the newer spirit which
was rapidly developing itself; and it is true that about the time of
his election Charles had shown a transient favour to the "recalcitrant
monk." It would appear, however, that this was only for the purpose of
frightening the Pope into abandoning his declared intention of
abolishing the Inquisition in Spain, then regarded as one of the
mainstays of the royal power, and still more to exercise pressure upon
him, in order that he should facilitate Charles's designs on the
Milanese territory. Once these objects were attained, he was just as
ready to oblige the Pope by suppressing the new anti-Papal movement as
he might possibly otherwise have been to have favoured it with a view
to humbling the only serious rival to his dominion in the empire.

Immediately after his coronation he proceeded to Cologne, and convoked
by Imperial edict a Reichstag at Worms for the following 27th of
January, 1521. The proceedings of this famous Reichstag have been
unfortunately so identified with the edict against Luther that the
other important matters which were there discussed have almost fallen
into oblivion. At least two other questions were dealt with, however,
which are significant of the changes that were then taking place. The
first was the rehabilitation and strengthening of the Imperial
Governing Council (_Reichsregiment_), whose functions under Maximilian
had been little more than nominal. There was at first a feeling
amongst the States in favour of transferring all authority to it, even
during the residence of the Emperor in the empire; and in the end,
while having granted to it complete power during his absence, it
practically retained very much of this power when he was present. In
constitution it was very similar to the French "Parliaments," and,
like them, was principally composed of learned jurists, four being
elected by the Emperor and the remainder by the estates. The character
and the great powers of this council, extending even to ecclesiastical
matters during the ensuing years, undoubtedly did much to hasten on
the substitution of the civil law for the older customary or common
law, a matter which we shall consider more in detail later on. The
financial condition of the empire was also considered; and it here
first became evident that the dislocation of economic conditions,
which had begun with the century, would render an enormously increased
taxation necessary to maintain the Imperial authority, amounting to
five times as much as had previously been required.

It was only after these secular affairs of the empire had been
disposed of that the deliberations of the Reichstag on ecclesiastical
matters were opened by the indictment of Luther in a long speech by
Aleander, one of the papal nuncios, in introducing the Pope's letter.
In spite of the efforts of his friends, Luther was not permitted to be
present at the beginning of the proceedings; but subsequently he was
sent for by the Emperor, in order that he might state his case. His
journey to Worms was one long triumph, especially at Erfurt, where he
was received with enthusiasm by the Humanists as the enemy of the
Papacy. But his presence in the Reichstag was unavailing, and the
proceedings resulted in his being placed under the ban of the empire.
The safe-conduct of the Emperor was, however, in his case respected;
and in spite of the fears of his friends that a like fate might
befall him as had befallen Huss after the Council of Constance, he was
allowed to depart unmolested.

On his way to Wittenberg Luther was seized, by arrangement with his
supporter, the Kurfuerst of Saxony, and conveyed in safety to the
Castle of Wartburg, in Thueringen, a report in the meantime being
industriously circulated by certain of his adherents, with a view of
arousing popular feeling, that he had been arrested by order of the
Emperor and was being tortured. In this way he was secured from all
danger for the time being, and it was during his subsequent stay that
he laid the foundations of the literary language of Germany.

Says a contemporary writer,[8] an eye-witness of what went on at Worms
during the sitting of the Reichstag: "All is disorder and confusion.
Seldom a night doth pass but that three or four persons be slain. The
Emperor hath installed a provost, who hath drowned, hanged, and
murdered over a hundred men." He proceeds: "Stabbing, whoring,
flesh-eating (it was in Lent) ... altogether there is an orgie worthy
of the Venusberg." He further states that many gentlemen and other
visitors had drunk themselves to death on the strong Rhenish wine.
Aleander was in danger of being murdered by the Lutheran populace,
instigated thereto by Hutten's inflammatory letters from the
neighbouring Castle of Ebernburg, in which Franz von Sickingen had
given him a refuge. The fiery Humanist wrote to Aleander himself,
saying that he would leave no stone unturned "till thou who earnest
hither full of wrath, madness, crime, and treachery shalt be carried
hence a lifeless corpse." Aleander naturally felt exceedingly
uncomfortable, and other supporters of the Papal party were not less
disturbed at the threats which seemed in a fair way of being carried
out. The Emperor himself was without adequate means of withstanding a
popular revolt should it occur. He had never been so low in cash or in
men as at that moment. On the other hand, Sickingen, to whom he owed
money, and who was the only man who could have saved the situation
under the circumstances, had matters come to blows, was almost overtly
on the side of the Lutherans; while the whole body of the impoverished
knighthood were only awaiting a favourable opportunity to overthrow
the power of the magnates, secular and ecclesiastic, with Sickingen as
a leader. Such was the state of affairs at the beginning of the year
1521.

The ban placed upon Luther by the Reichstag marks the date of the
complete rupture between the Reforming party and the old Church.
Henceforward, many Humanist and Humanistically influenced persons who
had supported him withdrew from the movement and swelled the ranks of
the Conservatives. Foremost amongst these were Pirckheimer, the
wealthy merchant and scholar of Nuernberg, and many others, who dreaded
lest the attack on ecclesiastical property and authority should, as
indeed was the case, issue in a general attack on all property and
authority. Thomas Murner, also, who was the type of the "moderate" of
the situation, while professing to disapprove of the abuses of the
Church, declared that Luther's manner of agitation could only lead to
the destruction of all order, civil no less than ecclesiastical. The
two parties were now clearly defined, and the points at issue were
plainly irreconcilable with one another or involved irreconcilable
details.

The printing-press now for the first time appeared as the vehicle for
popular literature; the art of the bard gave place to the art of the
typographer, and the art of the preacher saw confronting it a
formidable rival in that of the pamphleteer. Similarly in the French
Revolution, modern journalism, till then unimportant and sporadic,
received its first great development, and began seriously to displace
alike the preacher, the pamphlet, and the broadside. The flood of
theological disquisitions, satires, dialogues, sermons, which now
poured from every press in Germany, overflowed into all classes of
society. These writings are so characteristic of the time that it is
worth while devoting a few pages to their consideration, the more
especially because it will afford us the opportunity for considering
other changes in that spirit of the age, partly diseased growths of
decaying mediaevalism and partly the beginnings of the modern critical
spirit, which also find expression in the literature of the
Reformation period.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14