§ 24. Luther Ordained to the Priesthood.
In the second year of his monastic life and when he was still in a state of perplexity, Luther was
ordained to the priesthood, and on May 2, 1507, he said his first mass. This was a great event in
the life of a priest. He was so overwhelmed by the solemnity of offering the tremendous sacrifice
for the living and the dead that he nearly fainted at the altar.
His father had come with several friends to witness the solemnity and brought him a present
of twenty guilders. He was not yet satisfied with the monastic vows. "Have you not read in Holy
Writ," he said to the brethren at the entertainment given to the young priest, "that a man must honor
father and mother?" And when he was reminded, that his son was called to the convent by a voice
from heaven, he answered: "Would to God, it were no spirit of the devil." He was not fully reconciled
to his son till after he had acquired fame and entered the married state.
Luther performed the duties of the new dignity with conscientious fidelity. He read mass
every morning, and invoked during the week twenty-one particular saints whom be had chosen as
his helpers, three on each day.
But he was soon to be called to a larger field of influence.
§ 25. Luther in Rome.^141
"Roma qua nihil possis visere majus."—(Horace.)
"Vivere qui sancte vultis, discedite Roma.
Omnia hic ecce licent, non licet esse probum."
"Wer christlich leben will und Rein,
Der zieh am Rom und bleib daheim.
Hie mag man thun was man nur will,
Allein fromm sein gilt hier nicht viel."
(Old poetry quoted by Luther, in Walch, XXII., 2372.)
"Prächtiger, als wir in unserum Norden,
Wohnt der Bettler an der Engelspforten,
Denn er sieht das ewig einz’ge Rom:
Ihn umgibt der Schönheit Glanzgewimmel,
Und ein zweiter Himmel in den Himmel
Steigt Sancte Peter’s wundersamer Dom.
Aber Rom in allem seinem Glanze
Ist ein Grab nur der Vergangenheit,
Leben duftet nur die frische Pflanze,
Die die grüne Stunde streut."—(Schiller.)
An interesting episode in the history of Luther’s training for the Reformation was his visit to
Rome. It made a deep impression on his mind, and became effective, not immediately, but several
(^141) Luther’s dicta about Rome and his Roman journey are collected in Walch’s ed., vol. XXII., 2372-2379; Köhler: Luther’s Reisen
(1872), p. 2-20; Jürgens, II., 266-358; Koestlin, I., 100-107; Lenz, 45-47; Kolde, I., 73-79; and in Brieger’s "Zeitschrift für Kirchengesch,"
II., 460 sqq. Comp. also, on the R. Cath. side, the brief account of Janssen, II., 72. Audin devotes his third chapter to the Roman journey
(I., 52-65).