Peasants’ War and from the visitation of the churches in Saxony. Lambert himself, in his letters,
complained of the prevailing corruptions and the abuse of evangelical liberty.^777 A good reason
both for the necessity and difficulty of discipline, which should have begun with the prince. But
self-government must be acquired by actual trial and experience. Nobody can learn to swim without
going into the water.
The Landgrave put himself at the head of the church, and reformed it after the Saxon model.
He abolished the mass and the canon law, confiscated the property of the convents, endowed
hospitals and schools, arranged church visitations, and appointed six superintendents (1531).
The combination of Lutheran and Reformed elements in the Hessian reformation explains
the confessional complication and confusion in the subsequent history, and the present status of
the Protestant Church in Hesse, which is claimed by both denominations.^778
The best service which the Landgrave did to the cause of learning and religion, was the
founding of the University of Marburg, which was opened July 1, 1527, with a hundred and four
students. It became the second nursery of the Protestant ministry, next to Wittenberg, and remains
to this day an important institution. Francis Lambert, Adam Kraft, Erhard Schnepf, and Hermann
Busch were its first theological professors.
Lambert now had, after a roaming life of great poverty, a settled situation with a decent
support. He lectured on his favorite books, the Canticles, the Prophets, and the Apocalypse; but he
had few hearers, was not popular with his German colleagues, and felt unhappy. He attended the
eucharistic Colloquy at Marburg in October, 1529, as a spectator, became a convert to the view of
Zwingli, and defended it in his last work.^779 This must have made his position more uncomfortable.
He wished to find "some little town in Switzerland where he could teach the people what he had
received from the Lord."^780 But before this wish could be fulfilled, he died with his wife and
daughter, of the pestilence, April 18, 1530. He was an original, but eccentric and erratic genius,
with an over-sanguine temperament, with more zeal and eloquence than wisdom and discretion.
His chief importance lies in the advocacy of the principle of ecclesiastical self-government and
discipline. His writings are thoughtful; and the style is clear, precise, vivacious, and direct, as may
be expected from a Frenchman.^781
allmählicher Entwicklung im Gegensatz zur plötzlichen gesetzlichen Durchführung umfassender Ideen, für welche die Gegenwart nicht
vorbereitet sei."(^777) See his letter to Myconius in Hassencamp, Lamb. v. A., p. 50 sq., and Döllinger, Die Reform. II. 18 sq. The latter quotes the Latin
(from Strieder, Hessische Gelehrtengesch. VII. 386): "Dolens et gemens vivo, quod paucissimos videam recte uti evangelii libertate, et
quod caritas ferme nulla sit, sed plena sint omnia obtrectationibus mendaciis, maledicentia, invidia." In a letter to Bucer, Lambert says,
"Horreo mores populi hujus ita ut putem me frustra in eis laborare." Herminjard (II. 242) adds in a note an extract from the letter of a
student of Zürich, Rudolph Walther, who wrote to Bullinger from Marburg, June 17, 1540 (the year of the bigamy of the Landgrave):
"Mores [huius regionis] omnium corruptissimi. Nullum in hac Germaniae parte inter Papistas et Evangelicae doctrinae professores
discrimen cernas, si morum et vitae censuram instituas."
(^778) Dr. Vilmar of Marburg (originally Reformed) tried to prove that the Hessians were Lutherans, but did not know it. His colleague,
Dr. Heppe, with equal learning tried to prove the opposite. A German proverb speaks of the "blind Hessians," and this applies at least to
those unfortunate twenty thousand soldiers who allowed themselves to be sold by their contemptible tyrant (Frederick II., a convert to
the Church of Rome, d. 1785), like so many heads of cattle, for twenty-one million thalers, to the king of England to be used as powder
against the American colonies. Hence the ugly meaning of the term "Hessians" in America, which does great injustice to their innocent
countrymen and descendants.
(^779) De Symbolo Foederis, etc., published at Strassburg after his death, 1530. He says in the preface: "Volo ut mundus sciat me sententiam
circa Coenam Domini demutasse." Herminjard, II. 240.
(^780) Letter to Bucer, March 14, 1530, ib. II. 242.
(^781) Dr. Döllinger, II. 18, uses his complaints of the prevailing immorality as a testimony against the Reformation, but judges favorably
of his writings.