The two Swiss, who had studied at Basel, were attracted by the fame of Luther and
Melanchthon, and traveled on foot to Wittenberg to hear them. They arrived at Jena after a terrible
thunderstorm, fatigued and soaked through, and humbly sat down on a bench near the door of the
guest-chamber, when they saw a Knight seated at a table, sword in hand, and the Hebrew Psalter
before him. Luther recognized the Swiss by their dialect, kindly invited them to sit down at his
side, and offered them a drink. He inquired whether Erasmus was still living in Basel, what he was
doing, and what the people in Switzerland thought of Martin Luther. The students replied that some
lauded him to the skies as a great reformer; others, especially the priests, denounced him as an
intolerable heretic. During the conversation two traders came in; one took from his pocket Luther’s
sermons on the Gospels and Epistles, and remarked that the writer must be either an angel from
heaven or a devil from hell. At dinner Luther gave them a rare feast of reason and flow of soul.
The astonished students suspected that the mysterious Knight was Ulrich von Hutten, when Luther,
turning to the host, smilingly remarked, "Behold, I have become a nobleman over the night: these
Swiss think that I am Hutten; you take me for Luther. The next thing will be that I am Marcolfus."
He gave his young friends good advice to study the biblical languages with Melanchthon, paid their
bill, offered them first a glass of beer, but substituted for it a glass of wine, since the Swiss were
not used to beer, and with a shake of the hand he begged them to remember him to Doctor Jerome
Schurf, their countryman, at Wittenberg. When they wished to know the name of the sender of the
salutation, he replied, "Simply tell him that he who is coming sends greeting, and he will understand
it."
When the students a few days afterwards arrived at Wittenberg, and called on Dr. Schurf
to deliver the message from "him who is coming," they were agreeably surprised to find Luther
there with Melanchthon, Jonas, and Amsdorf. Luther greeted them heartily, and introduced them
to Melanchthon, of whom he had spoken at Jena.
The same student has left us a description of Luther’s appearance at that time. He was no
more the meager, emaciated monk as at the Leipzig disputation three years previously,^483 but, as
Kessler says, "somewhat stout, yet upright, bending backwards rather than stooping, with a face
upturned to heaven, with deep dark eyes and eyebrows, twinkling and sparkling like stars, so that
one could hardly look steadily at them."^484 These deep, dark eyes, full of strange fire, had struck
Cardinal Cajetan at Augsburg, and Cardinal Aleander at Worms, as the eyes of a demon. They
made the same impression on John Dantiscus, afterwards bishop of Culm and Ermeland, who on
his return from Spain to Poland in 1523 saw Luther in Wittenberg; he reported that his "eyes were
sharp, and had a certain terrible coruscation of lightning such as was seen now and then in
demoniacs," and adds that, "his features were like his books," and "his speech violent and full of
scorn." But friends judged differently. Another student, Albert Burrer, who saw him after his return
from the Wartburg, praises his mild, kindly countenance, his pleasant sonorous voice, his charming
address, the piety of his words and acts, the power of his eloquence which moved every hearer not
made of stone, and created a desire to hear him again and again.^485
(^483) See the description of Mosellanus, p. 180.
(^484) "Mit tiefen, schwarzen Augen und Braunen blinzend und zwitzerlnd wie ein Stern, dass die nit wohl mögen angesehen werden."
(^485) Köstlin, I. 536, with references, p. 805.