Barbara Blomberg — Complete

by Georg Ebers

  CHAPTER XXII.

  When Wolf went back to Erasmus the latter assured his friend that he hadmet no maiden in Ratisbon who, to rare gifts, united the dignity whichhe had hitherto admired only in the ladies whom he had met at the courtof the Elector of Saxony. His sparkling eyes flashed more brightly ashe spoke, and, like a blushing girl, he confessed to his friend thatJungfrau Blomberg's promise to sing one of his own compositions to himmade him a happy man.

  Barbara's conduct had made the repressed fire of love blaze up anew inWolf.

  Now, for the first time, the woman he loved fully and entirely fulfilledthe ideal which he had formed of the "queen" of his heart.

  Was it the sad separation from him, the taking leave of her father, orher new love, which was bestowed on a man whom he also esteemed, thatimpressed upon her nature the stamp of a nobility which beseemed her aswell as it suited her aristocratic beauty?

  Never had it appeared to him so utterly impossible that he could yieldher to another without resistance. Perhaps the man chosen by such ajewel was more worthy than he, but no one's love could surpass his instrength and fervour. She had tested it, and he need no longer callhimself an insignificant suitor; for, if he gained possession of theliving which Don Luis had ready for him, if he obtained a high positionin Valladolid--But his friend gave him no time to pursue such thoughtsfurther, for, while Barbara shortly after midnight stole down thestairs like a criminal, and Quijada conducted her to her imperial lover,Erasmus began to press him with demands which he was obliged to reject.

  The Wittenberg master of arts, ever since his first meeting with hisfriend, had been on the point of asking the question how he, who hadobtained in the school of poets an insight into the pure word of God,could prevail upon himself to continue to wear the chains of Rome andremain a Catholic.

  Wolf had expected this query, and, while he filled his companion'sgoblet with the good Wurzburg wine which Ursula provided, he begged himnot to bring religion into their conversation.

  The young Wittenberg theologian, however, had come for the expresspurpose of discussing it with his friend.

  Religion, he asserted in the fervid manner characteristic of him, was inthese times the axis around which turned the inner life of the worldand every individual. He himself had resolved to live for the objectfor whose sake it was worth while to die. He knew the great perils whichwould be associated with it for one of his warlike temperament, buthe had become, by the divine summons, an evangelical theologian, acombatant for the liberation of the slaves sighing under the tyranny ofRome. A serious conversation with a friend who was a German and resistedyielding to a movement of the spirit which was kindling the inmostdepths of the German nature, thoughts, and feelings, and was destinedto heal the woes of the German nation and preserve it from the basestabuse, would be to him inconceivable.

  Wolf interrupted this avowal with the assurance that he mustnevertheless decline a religious discussion with him, for the weaponsthey would use were too different. Erasmus, as a theologian, was deeplyversed in the Protestant faith, while he professed Catholicism merelyas a consequence of his birth and with a layman's understanding andknowledge. Yet he would not shun the conflict if his hands were notbound by the most sacred of oaths. Then he turned to the past, andwhile he himself, as it were, lived through for the second time the mostaffecting moment in his existence, he transported his friend to his deadmother's sick-bed.

  In vivid language he described how the devout widow and nun implored herson to resist like a rock in the sea the assault of the new hereticalideas, that the thousands of prayers which she had uttered for him, forhis soul, and his father's, might not be vain.

  Then Wolf confessed that just at that time, as a pupil in the schoolof poets, he had come under the influence of the scholar Naevius, whoseevangelical views Erasmus knew, and related how difficult it had beenfor him to take the oath which, nevertheless, now that he had once swornit, he would keep, even though life and his own intelligence would nothave taught him to prefer the old faith to every new doctrine, whetherit emanated from Luther, from Calvin, or from Zwingli.

  For a short time Erasmus found no answer to this statement, andWolf's old nurse, who herself clung to the Protestants from completeconviction, and had listened attentively to his words, urged her youngco-religionist, by all sorts of signs, to respect his friend's decision.

  The confession of his schoolmate had not been entirely without effectupon the young theologian. The name of "mother" also filled him withreverence.

  True, his birth had cost his own mother her life, but he had longpossessed a distinct idea of her nature and being, and had given herprecisely the same position which, in the early days of his school life,the Virgin Mary had occupied.

  To induce another to break a vow made to his mother would have beensinful. But a brief reflection changed his mind.

  Were there not circumstances in which the Bible itself commanded a manto leave father and mother? Had not Jesus Christ made the surrender ofevery old relation and the following after him the duty of those whowere to become his disciples? What was the meaning of the words theSaviour had uttered to his august mother, "Woman, what have I to dowith thee?" except it was commanded to turn even from the mother whenreligion was at stake?

  Many another passage of Scripture had strengthened the courage ofthe young Bible student when at last, with a look of intelligence, hepledged Wolf, and remarking, "How could I venture the attempt to leadyou to break so sacred an oath?" instantly brought forward every pleathat a son who, in religious matters, followed a different path from hismother could allege in his justification.

  A short time before, in Brussels, Wolf had seen a superior of thenew Society of Jesus, whose members were now appearing everywhereas defenders of the violently assailed papacy, seek to win back toCatholicism the son of evangelical parents with the very same arguments.He told his friend this, and also expressed the belief that the Jesuit,too, had spoken in good faith.

  Erasmus shrugged his shoulders, saying "Doubtless there are manymansions in our Father's house, but who will blame us if we leftthe dilapidated old one, where our liberty was restricted and ourconsciences were burdened, and preferred the new one, in which man issubject to no other mortal, but only to the plain words of the Bible andto the judge in his own breast? If we prefer this mansion, which standsopen to every one whose heart the old one oppresses, to the ruinous oneof former days----"

  "Yet," interrupted Wolf, "you must say to yourselves that you leavebehind in the old one much which the new one lacks, no matter with howmany good things you may equip it. The history of our religion and itsdevelopment does not belong to your new home--only to the old one."

  "We stand upon it as every newer thing rests on the older," repliedErasmus eagerly. "What we cast aside and refuse to take into the newhome with us is not the holy faith, but merely its deformity, abasement,and falsification."

  "Call it so," replied Wolf calmly. "I have heard others name andinterpret differently what you probably have in mind while using theseharsh epithets. But is it not the old house, and that alone, in whichthe martyrs shed their blood for Christianity? Where did it fulfil itslofty task of saturating the heart of mankind with love, softeningthe customs of rude pagans, clearing away forests, transforming barrenwastes into cultivated fields, planting the cross on chapels andchurches, summoning men with the consecrated voice of the bell to thesermon which proclaims love and peace? Where did it open the doors ofthe school which prepares the intellect to satisfy its true destiny, andfirst qualifies man to become the image of God? By the old mansion thiscountry, covered with marshes, moors; and impenetrable forests, wasrendered what it now is; from it proceeded that fostering of science andthe arts of which as yet I have seen little in your circles."

  "Give us time," cried the theologian, "and perhaps in our home theirflowering will attain an unsurpassed richness of development. With whatloose bonds the humanists are still united to you!"

  "And the finest intellect of all, the grea
t scholar whose name you bear,though he deemed many things in our old home deserving of improvement,remained with us until his death. Jesus Christ is one, and so his Churchmust also remain. The only question is, What the Saviour still is to youProtestants, what he is to you, my friend?"

  "Before how many saints, and many another whom your Church desires tohonour, do you bow the knee?" Erasmus fervidly answered; "but we do soonly to the august Trinity. And do you wish to know what Jesus Christ,the Son, is to me? All, and more than all, is the answer; I live andbreathe in my Saviour Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, andthroughout eternity."

  The young theologian raised his sparkling eyes heavenward as he spoke,and continued: "Our doctrine is founded on him, his word, his lovealone; and who among the enthusiastic heralds of Christianity in ancienttimes grasped faith in him with warmer sincerity than the very MartinLuther whom you would have led to the stake had not the EmperorCharles's plighted word been dearer to him than the approval of Rome?Oh, my friend, our young faith can also show its martyrs. Think of theBohemian John Huss and the true Christians who, in the Netherlands andSpain, were burned at the stake and bled upon the scaffold because theyread the Bible, the Word of God and their Saviour, and would rather diethan deny it. If it should come to the worst, thousands here would alsobe ready to ascend the funeral pyre, and I at their head. If war isdeclared now, the Emperor Charles will gain the victory; and if he doesnot wish to withdraw in earnest from Romish influences, who can tellwhat will then await us Protestants? But I am not anxious about what maycome. We German citizens, who are accustomed to guide our own destiniesand maintain the system of government we arranged for ourselves, whobuilt by our own strength our solid, comfortable, gable-roofed housesand noble, towering cathedrals, will also independently maintain thelife of our minds and our souls. Rome, with her legions of priests,claimed the right not only to interfere in our civil life, but alsoto intrude into our houses, our married lives, and our nurseries. Whatcould she not decide for the individual by virtue of the power shearrogates to bind and to loose, to forgive sins, and to open or to closethe door of heaven for the dying? What she has done with the Church'sgifts of grace we know.

  "There is a deep, beautiful meaning underlying this idea. But it hasdegenerated into a base traffic in indulgences. We have sincere natures.For a long time we believed that salvation is gained by works--giftsto the Church, fasts, scourgings, seclusion from the world,self-confinement in a cell--and our wealth went to Rome. Rarely do welook vainly in the most beautiful sites on mountain or by river for amonastery! But at last the sound sense of Germany rebelled, and whenLuther saw in Rome poor sufferers from gout and cripples ascending thestairs of the Lateran on their knees, a voice within cried out to himthe great 'sola fide' on which our faith is founded. On it alone, ondevotion to Jesus Christ, depends our salvation."

  "Then," asked Wolf, "you boldly deny any saving power to good works?"

  "Yes," was the firm reply, "so far as they do not proceed from faith."

  "As if the Church did not impose the same demand!" replied Wolf in amore animated tone. "True, base wrong has been done in regard to thesale of indulgences, but at the Council of Trent opposition will be madeto it. No estimable priest holds the belief that money can atone fora sin or win the mercy of Heaven. With us also sincere repentance ordevout faith must accompany the gift, the fasting, and whatever else thebeliever imposes upon himself here below. Man is so constituted that theonly things which make a deep impression are those that the body alsofeels. The teacher's blow has a greater effect than his words, a giftproduces more willingness than an entreaty, and the tendency towardasceticism and penance is genuinely Christian, and belongs to manya people of a different faith. Your Erasmus said that his heart wasCatholic, but his stomach desired to be Protestant. You have an easiertask than we."

  "On the contrary," the young theologian burst forth. "It is mere child'splay for you to obtain forgiveness by acts which really do not cutdeeply into the flesh; but if one of us errs, how hard must be theconflict in his own breast ere he attains the conviction that his guiltis expiated by deep repentance and better deeds!"

  "I can answer for that," here interposed old Ursel, who from herarm-chair had listened to the conversation between the two with intenseinterest.

  "Good heavens! One went forth from the confessional as pure as a whitedove after absolution had been received and the penance performed; butnow that I belong to the Protestants, it is hard to reach a perfectunderstanding with the dear Saviour and one's self."

  "And ought that to redound to the discredit of my faith?" asked Wolf."So far as I have learned to know men, the majority, at least, will nothasten to attain our Ursel's complete understanding with one's self.I should even fear that there are many among you who no longer feel adesire to heed little sins and their forgiveness----"

  Here Ursel again interrupted him with an exclamation of dissent,accompanied by a gesture of denial from her thin old hand; but Wolfglanced at the clock which the precentor had received as a testimonialof affection from the members of the cathedral choir, which he had ledfor years.

  It was already half past one, and for the sake of Ursel, who was stillobliged to take care of herself, he urged departure, adding gaily thathe had not the ability to "defend himself against two." Erasmus, too,was surprised to find it so late, and, after shaking hands with theold woman and promising to visit her soon again, seized his cap. Wolfaccompanied him.

  The May night was sultry, and the air in the low room had been hot andoppressive.

  He would gladly have dropped the useless discussion, but Erasmus's heartwas set upon winning his schoolmate to the doctrine which he believedwith his whole soul. He toiled with the utmost zeal, but during theirnocturnal walk also he failed to convince his opponent. Both were trueto their religion. Erasmus saw in his faith the return to the pureteachings of Christ and the liberation of the human soul from ancientfetters; Wolf, who had had them pointed out to him at school by aProtestant teacher, by no means denied the abuses that had crept intohis, but he clung with warm love to Holy Church, which offered his soulan abundance of what it needed.

  His art certainly also owed to her its best development--from theinexhaustible spring of faith which is formed from thousands of rivuletsand tributaries in the holy domain of the Catholic Church, and in italone, the most sublime of all material flowed to the musician, and notto him only, but to the artist, the architect, and the sculptor. Thefullest stream--he was well aware of it--came from ancient pagan times,but from whatever sources the spring was fed, the Church had understoodhow to assimilate, preserve, and sanctify it.

  Erasmus listened silently while Wolf eagerly made these statements; butwhen the latter closed with the declaration that the evangelical faithwould never attain the same power of elevating hearts, he interruptedthe knight with the exclamation, "We shall have to wait for that!"

  Luther, he went on, had given the most powerful encouragement to music,and the German Protestant composers even now were not so very far behindthe Netherland ones. The Catholic Church could no longer claim the greatAlbrecht Durer, and, if art ceased to create images of the saints, withwhich the childish minds of the common people practised idolatry, somuch the better. The Infinite and Eternal was no subject for the artist.The humanization of God only belittled his infinite and illimitablenature. Earthly life offered art material enough. Man himself wouldbe the worthiest model for imitation, and perhaps no earlier epoch hadcreated handsomer likenesses of men and women than would now be producedby evangelical artists.

  To their own surprise, during this conversation they had reached theHiltner house, and Erasmus invited his friend to come to his room andover a glass of wine answer him, as he had had the last word. But Wolfhad already drunk at his own home more of the fiery Wurzburg from theprecentor's cellar than usual. Besides, much as he still had to say inreply to Erasmus, the sensible young man deemed it advisable to avoidthe syndic's house for the present. The confessor's suspicion had beenaroused, and
De Soto was a Dominican, who certainly did not stand farfrom the Holy Inquisition.

  Therefore while Erasmus, with burning head and great excitement, wasstill urging his friend to come in, Wolf unexpectedly bade him a hastyand resolute farewell.