The Greatest Works of Charles Carleton Coffin. Charles Carleton Coffin
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horsemen ride with him, fast and furious, through the forest, along lonely roads — sometimes turning back and riding over the road a second time — turning east, west, north, and south, so that no one shall be able to follow them. They strike into paths that seem to lead nowhere. Once they stop and rest, and give him a drink of water. No one speaks. Night comes, but on they ride in the dark, beneath the tall trees, over hills, through valleys. At last they climb a steep hill, and come to a great stone castle. The heavy gate swings upon its hinges, and the horsemen pass in. It closes. They take him from his horse, lead him to a chamber, and point to a knight's uniform which lies there.
"Take off your clothes and put it on," says one of the men.
The doctor obeys.
"Your name is Knight George. Ton are to let your hair and beard grow."
The horsemen go out. He is in a small room, with one little window. A servant brings some food, bat does not talk with him. He lies down upon his cot, and awakes in the morning. He can look out through the gratings of the little window and see a great forest — nothing more. Where is he? He does not know. He only knows that he is a prisoner; that he has a new name; and that his captors treat him kindly.
What an upsetting of plans there has been since last night! The emperor had his plans — to have Doctor Luther arrested as soon as his safe-conduct expired. So would he keep on good terms with the Pope.
Leo had his plans. He was going to burn the heretic. But Luther has suddenly disappeared, whither he does not know. With the arch-heretic burned, the heresy would soon die out, perhaps; but now it will go on. All of the emperor's plans to please the Pope and secure him as his ally against the King of France have been overturned. The bulls which Leo has issued are so much waste paper, and the cause of liberty will go on. It will roll like a wave over Germany. It will sweep across the sea to England; and as the centuries go by, it will surge across the Atlantic to the New World, which those sea-captains from Bristol discovered; and in time it will sweep around the globe. All this will have a vital connection with the thought which has come to Frederick, Elector of Saxony, that it would be a good thing to seize Doctor Luther secretly, and shut him up where nobody will be able to find him. Whence came the thought? What put it into Frederick's head? Was there not a plan higher than the emperor's and the Pope's?
Months pass. Doctor Luther's friends think of him as having been secretly put to death. His enemies begin to think that the heretic will trouble them no more; and yet all the while he is hard at work doing for Germany just what Doctor Wicklif did for England — translating the Bible, and so helping on the cause of liberty.
In the solitude and quiet of the old castle, shut in from the world and his enemies, he translates the great text-book of human freedom — the Bible.
Three hundred and fifty years have passed since then; and of Luther's translation it is estimated that three hundred and sixty million copies of the Bible have been printed.
A large number of the priests join Luther, some preaching against the Pope, others writing pamphlets. Printing-presses have been set up all over Europe; poets write songs, painters produce pictures, and the hawkers peddle them through every hamlet; and people discuss questions which, till now, they never have thought of discussing. By thinking for themselves, men begin to assert their rights and liberties.
Nearly all the great artists and painters in Germany and Holland sympathized with Luther, notwithstanding the Pope was their patron. One of them — Albert Dürer, of Nuremberg — was greatly grieved when he heard that Luther had been seized, and probably killed. Dürer's house looked out upon the old Castle of Nuremberg, which stood on a high hill. In the castle was a torture-chamber, filled with terrible instruments for inflicting pain: pincers, thumb-screws, clubs, knobby tables, and a great iron Virgin, as it was called, which embraced the victim with its iron arms, pierced him with spikes, and then, when life was extinct, the victim's body would drop into a well two hundred feet in depth, and none would know what had happened.
The revolt of the people was not only against the abuses of the monks and the authority of the Pope, but it was the first clear insight which had come to them of their natural and individual rights.
CHAPTER XVII
THE MAN WHO SPLIT THE CHURCH IN TWAIN
KATHERINE OF ARAGON is forty-four years old. The freshness has faded from her cheeks. She is a true wife, but Henry is tired of her. He is thirty-eight, in the full vigor of manhood. He is not a true husband, for he finds more pleasure in the society of Anne Boleyn than with Katherine. Anne is a lady of the court. Henry kisses her at a banquet which Cardinal Wolsey gives in the magnificent palace that he has erected with the money which he raked in from Charles, from Henry, from the sale of church-livings, from taxation. It is a grand pile of buildings, with spacious grounds around.
The king sits by Anne's side, gazing upon her fair face, charmed by her pleasing ways, and enchanted by her matchless beauty.
Strange that a woman's smile should change a nation's destiny; that a fair face should be the means, as it were, of giving a new direction to the current of human affairs 1 Wonderful that through the love of a man for a woman should come the rending of the Church of Rome! Marvelous that in the reckless passion of a hard-hearted, cruel despot should lie enfolded, as it were, the rights, the liberties, the advancement, of the human race!
Great changes have taken place in Europe since Henry met Anne, twelve years ago, at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. It is 1532. Doctor Martin Luther, of Wittenberg, has been preaching and writing. Thanks to Laurence Coster and John Guttenberg, the world may know what Is going on, and what people think. Men do not now take all their opinions from the Pope, especially in Germany, in Holland, and France. Martin Luther's doctrines have made little progress in England. Henry and Cardinal Wolsey are fast friends of the Pope. Henry is Defender of the Faith — a strong pillar to the Church.
Leo X. is dead; but his nephew, another of the Medici family, is seated ill the pontifical chair. Cardinal Wolsey intended to be Pope, and expected that Charles, fur whom he had done so much, and who had made him so many solemn promises, would aid him; but the cardinal had discovered that kings can play false as well as other men.
During these twelve years, Charles and Francis have been at war. In February, 152i, their armies met at Pavia, in Italy, where Francis was defeated, and captured. Charles kept him in prison a year, and subjected him to humiliating terms before releasing him. Charles is a good Catholic, but he has been fighting the Pope, and his troops have sacked the city of Rome.
Cardinal Wolsey rode next the king at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, and he rides next him now. He has had his own way in everything. He lives in great state. Lords and nobles do his bidding. He is proud and arrogant One day the Duke of Buckingham is holding a gold basin while Henry washes his hands, and Cardinal Wolsey dips his own hands into the dish, whereupon the duke spills the water upon the cardinal's red slippers.
"I will sit on your skirts, sir," says Wolsey.
What he means by that Buckingham soon discovers, for the sheriff comes with an order from Henry for his arrest and commitment to the Tower. He has spoken imprudent words, and Wolsey persuades Henry that the duke is meditating treason. In the "Bloody Tower" Buckingham