University of Wittenberg

“ A few years later Luther paid a visit to Rome, which opened his eyes to the worldliness and general laxity of life in the capital of the Papacy. He returned to Germany and became a professor of theology in the university of Wittenberg, newly founded by Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony. Luther's sermons and lectures attracted large audiences, students began to flock to Wittenberg; and the elector grew proud of the rising young teacher who was making his university famous. ”

“ The Leipzig Disputation.167 Leipzig was an enemies' country, and his Wittenberg friends would not allow Luther to go there unaccompanied. The young Duke Barnim, who was Rector of the University of Wittenberg, accompanied Carlstadt and Luther, to give them the protection of his presence. Melanchthon, who had been a member of the teaching staff of Wittenberg since August 1518, Justus Jonas, and Nicholas Amsdorf went along with them. Two hundred Wittenberg students in helmets and halberts formed a guard, and walked beside the two country carts which carried their professors. ”

“ The university was seriously weakened by the growing popularity of the new university of Wittenberg, and Hessus endeavoured (but without success) to gain a living by the practice of medicine. Through the influence of Camerarius and Melanchthon, he obtained a post at Nuremberg (1526) , but, finding a regular life distasteful, he again went back to Erfurt (1533) . ”

“ Maternus retired, and Mutian, an old Erfurt student, assumed the leadership in Gotha. Erfurt and Gotha were kept associated by a lively intercourse between the students resident at these two places. Mutian had no literary ambitions, and firmly declined a call to the new University of Wittenberg. All the more powerfully he inspired his contemporaries. His bitter opposition to hierarchism and scholasticism was expressed in keen satires. On retiring from public life, he devoted himself to the study of Holy Scripture and the Fathers. ”

“ No student of history—especially no Protestant—can afford to visit Berlin without an excursion to Wittenberg, which may either be compressed into a single day, with a few hours in this old University town which was the cradle of the Reformation, or may be pleasantly prolonged to days full of musing on the manifold phases of that unparalleled movement in the history of religious thought, amid the very scenes with which they were most intimately associated. ”

“ Luther was appointed professor of philosophy here in 1508; and the new university rapidly acquired a considerable reputation from its connexion with the early Reformers. In opposition to the strict Lutheran orthodoxy of Jean it represented the more moderate doctrines of Melanchthon. In the Wittenberg Concord (1536) the reformers agreed to a settlement of the Eucharistic controversy. Shakespeare makes Hamlet and Horatio study at Wittenberg. The ancient electoral palace is another of the buildings that suffered severely in 1760 ”

“ There were still many men of celebrity following in their footsteps, and keeping up the high reputation they had made for the University. Mathematics were specially cultivated at Wittenberg, because, as the Statutes stated, without them Aristotle, "that nucleus and foundation of all science," could not be properly understood. ”

“ He was also always ready to assist others with their work, as for instance when he prepared for the Provost the address to be delivered before the Synod at Leitzkau. And when at thirty years of age, in October, 1515, he undertook, as Doctor, to deliver the lectura in biblia at the University of Wittenberg, this was not in his case the commencement of a career of learned leisure, but the filling of a position encumbered with the cure of souls, with preaching and much monastic business. ”

“ Nor is the influence of the university in Germany exerted in matters of great national interest only. It pervades the social, literary, and political organization of the people. The least part of what characterizes an individual nation ever comes into its books. Here it finds its way from mouth to mouth to the remotest corners of the land. When Luther, the Professor of Wittenberg, spoke against indulgences, it was more than priest or monk that was heard. ”

“ At Wittenberg both the University and the town defied alike the papal Bull and the imperial Edict. Scholars flocked to the University from all quarters, and it became the metropolis of the reforming movement. Melanchthon forsook the Clouds of Aristophanes to devote himself to the Epistles of St Paul; and his Loci Communes formed one of the most effective of Lutheran handbooks. But he lacked the force and decision of character to lead or control the revolutionary tendencies which were gathering strength, and Luther's place was taken by his old ally Carlstadt. ”

“ I will strive like a man to propagate the truth which God has revealed to us. But for this purpose I must fly far from this Babylonish captivity, and betake myself to some place where piety is not proscribed, and where a man may devote himself to noble studies. I have decided to go to Wittenberg, to the university which possesses so many learned professors, where knowledge of such various kinds is to be found, and which enjoys the approbation of all good men. ”

“ Already before this the Augustinian monks had had a settlement at Wittenberg, though little is known about it. A handsome convent was built for them in 1506. In a short time young inmates of this convent, and afterwards more monks of the same Order who came from other parts, entered the university as students and took academical degrees. The patron saint of the University was, next to the Virgin Mary, St. Augustine. Trutvetter of Erfurt became professor of theology at Wittenberg in 1507. ”

“ For two years Lessing remained at Berlin; busy years, in which he scattered these treatises teeming with discernment and genius. Then at the end of that time he felt himself exhausted, he craved seclusion, in which he could once more live for himself and garner up fresh stores of knowledge. The city and his numerous friends were too distracting. So one day he stole away without previous warning and installed himself in the quiet university town of Wittenberg. At Wittenberg he spent a year of quiet study. ”

“ I accordingly resolved to enter upon a new scene of action, and, leaving Wittenberg, to try my fortune at Berlin. Here I made the acquaintance of several distinguished men, Teller, Gedike, Nicolai, and others, by whose recommendation, after seven long years of academical hunger, I was at last appointed assistant, with a salary of 160 dollars a-year, to Professor Steinhart, who, by reason of the infirmities of old age, had been forced to retire from the more active duties of the chair of philosophy and theology in the university of Frankfurt on the Oder. ”

“ Everyone who is acquainted with the history and origin of the Reformation, knows what an important part the latter of these universities took in the weighty transactions of those times. ... Wittenberg remained by no means the only champion of Protestantism. At Marburg, Jena, Königsberg, and Helmstadt, universities of a professedly Protestant character were erected. These schools became the cradle and nurseries of the Reformation." The Universities of Germany (Dublin University Magazine, volume 46, pages 83-85) . ”

“ In fact, masters and students—who together were called the university—constituted a world by themselves, a distinct corporation. It is true that out of Bologna, the seat of the study of canon law, went forth the great popes, Alexander III and Innocent III. But Paris issued some of the severest attacks against the theory of papal absolutism. With that institution Gerson and d’Ailly were connected. Wyclif’s teaching made Oxford a seat of heresy. Wittenberg, the last of the medieval universities, protected and fostered Luther. Hussitism was begotten at the university of Prague. ”

“ The reason we do not know; we only know that he entered the theological faculty there as professor, receiving, at the same time, the recognition of the academical rank he had acquired at Wittenberg. At Erfurt he remained about three terms, or eighteen months. After that he returned to the university at Wittenberg. Trutvetter, towards the end of 1510, had received a summons back to Erfurt from Wittenberg. The void thus caused by his summons away may have had something to do with Luther's return thither. ”

“ Heidelberg was the chief educational centre of those who held Calvinistic views. Since 1580 the attendance at the University had notably increased owing to the influx of students from abroad. Towards the close of the century, with Wittenberg and Jena, it headed the list of the Universities of the new faith in respect of the number of matriculations. Jena, like its sister Universities of Marburg, Königsberg and Helmstädt, had been founded as a seminary of Protestant theology and at the same time of Roman law, which served to strengthen the absolutism of the princes. ”

“ At both Tübingen and Heidelberg Reuchlin (p. 254) taught for a time, and both institutions early became centers for the study of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. At Leipzig the reigning duke brought various humanistic scholars to the university to lecture, after 1507, and in 1519 entirely reformed the university by subordinating the mediaeval disciplines to the new studies. Four new universities— Wittenberg (1502) , Marburg (1527) , Königsberg (1544) , and Jena (1558) — were established on the new humanistic basis, and from their beginning were centers for the new learning. ”

“ The “new theology” which was being proclaimed at Wittenberg was discussed with dismay, particularly at Erfurt and in the more conservative monasteries. Andreas Carlstadt, Luther’s colleague at the University, and Peter Lupinus, a former professor at Wittenberg, were at first among his opponents, but were speedily won over. Carlstadt indeed, as his 152 theses of April, 1517 show, even went further on the new lines than Luther himself. [797] Another of his colleagues at the University, who at a later date proved a more trustworthy ally, was Nicholas Amsdorf. ”

“ His attention, however, was now entirely engrossed by his new university, and he was unwilling to offer up to men like Tetzel so great an ornament of it as Dr. Martin Luther, since whose appointment at Wittenberg the number of students had so wonderfully increased as to throw the universities of Erfurt and Leipsic quite into the shade. ... {2449} As one of the principal Electors he was completely master in his own dominions, and indeed throughout Germany he was as much respected as the Emperor ”

“ Accordingly he became an Augustinian monk when twenty-two years of age. Unlike many of his brethren, he kept up his studies while in the monastery, and was called to a professorship in the new university at Wittenberg in 1508, where he found an ample field for his remarkable powers. Two years later, he went as a delegate to the papal court at Rome, where his eyes were opened to the condition of the Church in her holiest sanctuaries. Returning to Wittenberg, he continued his studies and his lectures, and drew about him a great number of students. ”

“ Melanchthon was lecturer at Tübingen before he was summoned to Wittenberg. The university is attended by about 1400 students, a considerable proportion of whom are foreigners, and has a teaching staff of 53 professors, 17 extraordinary professors, and 10 lecturers. The commercial and manufacturing industries of the town are slight. Printing, book-selling, the manufacture of surgical and philosophical instruments, and the cultivation of hops, fruit, and vines are among the leading occupations of the inhabitants. ”

“ Thus, at seventeen he was already master of arts, and at twenty-one was appointed professor at Wittenberg. The young man, with an insignificant, delicate frame, and a shy, awkward demeanour, yet with a handsome, powerful forehead, an intellectual eye, and refined, thoughtful features, effaced at once, by his inaugural address, any doubts arising from his youthful appearance. ”

“ Statues of Luther (by Schadow) , Melanchthon and Bugenhagen embellish the town. The spot, outside the Elster Gate, where Luther publicly burned the papal bull in 1520, is marked by an oak tree. Floriculture, iron-founding, distilling and brewing are carried on. The formerly considerable manufacture of the heavier kinds of cloth has died out.
Wittenberg is mentioned as early as 1180. It was the capital of the little duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg, the rulers of which afterwards became electors of Saxony, and it continued to be a Saxon residence under the Ernestine electors. ”

“ From 1581 he studied at the universities of Strassburg, Leipzig, Heidelberg and Jena. In 1594 he began to give theological lectures at Jena, and in 1596 accepted a call as professor of theology at Wittenberg, where he died on the 23rd of October 1616. ”

“ The contention maintained by so many good Catholics, that no literature that had once been sanctioned by the Church as good and sufficient, could ever lose its value or authority, was of course especially abused when applied to works of instruction. Under the initiative chiefly of Melanchthon, Wittenberg became the centre of instruction for the preachers and teachers of all Lutheran Germany, while for a considerable period Strasburg filled a similar place for the Calvinists of the South-west. ”

“ But Wittenberg was the heart and centre of the whole movement, the muster-ground for all who were persecuted and exiled for the sake of the gospel, the gathering point and nursery of new preachers. Among the theological opponents of Luther’s doctrine appears a crowned head, Henry VIII. of England, and also “the king of literature,” Erasmus of Rotterdam, entered the lists against him. But neither the one nor the other, to say nothing of the rude invectives of Thomas Murner, was able to shake the bold reformer and check the rapid spread of his opinions. ”