Life of Luther | Page 5

Mansfeld, as it is called, from its position, and to
distinguish it from Cloister-Mansfeld, he came among a people whose
whole life and labour were devoted to mining. The town itself lay on
the banks of a stream, inclosed by hills, on the edge of the Harz country.
Above it towered the stately castle of the Counts, to whom the place
belonged. The character of the scenery is more severe, and the air
harsher than in the neighbourhood of Möhra. Luther himself called his
Mansfeld countrymen sons of the Harz. In the main, these Harz people
are much rougher than the Thuringians.
[Illustration: MARGARET LUTHER.]
Here also, at first, Luther's parents found it a hard struggle to get on.

'My father,' said the Reformer, 'was a poor miner; my mother carried in
all the wood upon her back; they worked the flesh off their bones to
bring us up: no one nowadays would ever have such endurance.' It must
not, however, be forgotten that carrying wood in those days was less a
sign of poverty than now. Gradually their affairs improved. The whole
working of the mines belonged to the Counts, and they leased out
single portions, called smelting furnaces, sometimes for lives,
sometimes for a term of years. Harts Luther succeeded in obtaining two
furnaces, though only on a lease of years. He must have risen in the
esteem of his town-fellows even more rapidly than in outward
prosperity.
The magistracy of the town consisted of a bailiff, the chief landowners,
and four of the community. Among these four Hans Luther appears in a
public document as early as 1491. His children were numerous enough
to cause him constant anxiety for their maintenance and education:
there were at least seven of them, for we know of three brothers and
three sisters of the Reformer. The Luther family never rose to be one of
the rich families of Mansfeld, who possessed furnaces by inheritance,
and in time became landowners; but they associated with them, and in
some cases numbered them among their intimate friends. The old Hans
was also personally known to his Counts, and was much esteemed by
them. In 1520 the Reformer publicly appealed to their personal
acquaintance with his father and himself, against the slanders circulated
about his origin. Hans, in course of time, bought himself a substantial
dwelling-house in the principal street of the town. A small portion of it
remains standing to this day. There is still to be seen a gateway, with a
well-built arch of sandstone, which bears the Luther arms of cross-bow
and roses, and the inscription J.L. 1530. This was, no doubt, the work
of James Luther, in the year when his father Hans died, and he took
possession of the property. It is only quite recently that the stone has so
far decayed as to cause the arms and part of the inscription to peel off.
The earliest personal accounts that we have of Luther's parents, date
from the time when they already shared in the honour and renown
acquired by their son. They frequently visited him at Wittenberg, and
moved with simple dignity among his friends. The father, in particular,

Melancthon describes as a man, who, by purity of character and
conduct, won for himself universal affection and esteem. Of the mother
he says that the worthy woman, amongst other virtues, was
distinguished above all for her modesty, her fear of God, and her
constant communion with God in prayer. Luther's friend, the
Court-preacher Spalatin, spoke of her as a rare and exemplary woman.
As regards their personal appearance, the Swiss Kessler describes them
in 1522 as small and short persons, far surpassed by their son Martin in
height and build; he adds, also, that they were dark-complexioned. Five
years later their portraits were painted by Lucas Cranach: these are now
to be seen in the Wartburg, and are the only ones of this couple which
we possess. [Footnote: Strange to say, subsequently and even in our
own days, a portrait of Martin Luther's wife in her old age has been
mistaken for one of his mother.] In these portraits, the features of both
the parents have a certain hardness; they indicate severe toil during a
long life. At the same time, the mouth and eyes of the father wear an
intelligent, lively, energetic, and clever expression. He has also, as his
son Martin observed, retained to old age a 'strong and hardy frame.' The
mother looks more wearied by life, but resigned, quiet, and meditative.
Her thin face, with its large bones, presents a mixture of mildness and
gravity. Spalatin was amazed, on seeing her for the first time in 1522,
how much Luther resembled her in bearing and features. Indeed, a
certain likeness is observable between him and her