Life of Luther | Page 8

gone to church, and left him alone, he, no
longer able to endure the thirst, crawled off on hands and feet to the
kitchen, where he drank off with great avidity a jug of cold water. He
could reach his room again, but having done so he fell into a deep sleep,
and on waking the fever had left him.
The maintenance his father was able to afford him was not sufficient to
cover the expenses of his board and lodging as well as of his schooling,
either at Magdeburg or afterwards at Eisenach. He was obliged to help
himself after the manner of poor scholars, who, as he tells us, went
about from door to door collecting small gifts or doles by singing
hymns. 'I myself,' he says,' was one of those young colts, particularly at
Eisenach, my beloved town.' He would also ramble about the
neighbourhood with his school-fellows; and often, from the pulpit or
the lecturer's chair, would he tell little anecdotes about those days. The
boys used to sing quartettes at Christmas-time in the villages, carols on

the birth of the Holy Child at Bethlehem. Once, as they were singing
before the door of a solitary farmhouse, the farmer came out and called
to them roughly, 'Where are you, young rascals?' He had two large
sausages in his hand for them, but they ran away terrified, till he
shouted after them to come back and fetch the sausages. So intimidated,
says Luther, had he become by the terrors of school discipline. His
object, however, in relating this incident was to show his hearers how
the heart of man too often construes manifestations of God's goodness
and mercy into messages of fear, and how men should pray to God
perseveringly, and without timidity or shamefacedness. In those days it
was not rare to find even scholars of the better classes, such as the son
of a magistrate at Mansfeld, and those who, for the sake of a better
education, were sent to distant schools, seeking to add to their means in
the manner we have mentioned.
After this, his father sent him to Eisenach, bearing in mind the
numerous relatives who lived in the town and surrounding country, and
who might be of service to him. But of these no mention has reached us,
except of one, named Konrad, who was sacristan in the church of St.
Nicholas. The others, no doubt, were not in a position to give him any
material assistance.
About this time his singing brought him under the notice of one Frau
Cotta, who with genuine affection took up the promising boy, and
whose memory, in connection with the great Reformer, still lives in the
hearts of the German people. Her husband, Konrad or Kunz, was one of
the most influential citizens of the town, and sprang from a noble
Italian family who had acquired wealth by commerce. Ursula Cotta, as
her name was, belonged to the Eisenach family of Schalbe. She died in
1511. Mathesius tells us how the boy won her heart by his singing and
his earnestness in prayer, and she welcomed him to her own table.
Luther met with similar acts of kindness from a brother or other relative
of hers, and also from an institution belonging to Franciscan friars at
Eisenach, which was indebted to the Schalbe family for several rich
endowments, and was named, in consequence, the Schalbe College. At
Frau Cotta's, Luther was first introduced to the life in a patrician's
house, and learned to move in that society.

At Eisenach he remained at school for four years. Many years
afterwards we find him on terms of friendly and grateful intercourse
with one Father Wiegand, who had been his schoolmaster there.
Ratzeberger, speaking of the then schoolmaster at Eisenach, mentions a
'distinguished poet and man of learning, John Trebonius,' who, as he
tells us, every morning, on entering the schoolroom, would take off his
biretta, because God might have chosen many a one of the lads present
to be a future mayor, or chancellor, or learned doctor; a thought which,
as he adds, was amply realised afterwards in the person of Doctor
Luther. The relations of these two at the school, which contained
several classes, must be a matter of conjecture. But the system of
teaching pursued there was praised afterwards by Luther himself to
Melancthon. The former acquired there that thorough knowledge of
Latin which was then the chief preparation for University study. He
learned to write it, not only in prose, but also in verse, which leads us to
suppose that the school at Eisenach took a part in the Humanistic
movement already mentioned. Happily, his active mind and quick
understanding had already begun to develop; not only did he make up
for lost ground, but