emperor against the German princes. Then came the scandal with the landgrave of Hesse, who wished to repudiate his wife and marry another. Whatever Luther's fault in this matter or in the advice he tendered, it is wholly contrary to his own repeated statements to maintain, as Sir William Hamilton does, that he held "polygamy as a religious speculation." Luther remained at Wittemberg amidst many labours, till, in his sixty-second year, his health began to give way. On the 23rd of January, 1546, he left Wittemberg for Eisleben, in order to compose some differences among the lords or counts of Mansfeld. This last journey brought upon him the blessing of the peacemaker, a fitting prelude to his retirement to that land where all is serenity and love. The river Issel being swollen he was five days on the road. On the 17th of February. 1546, he complained of excessive pain in the chest; only three days before he had written to his wife that his work of peace was well-nigh brought to an end. Some presentiment appears to have haunted him, for, according to Jonas, he said—"I was born and baptized here at Eisleben; what if I should remain or even die here?" In the night he was attacked again, and next day he gradually sank. Thrice he offered the prayer, "Into thy hand I commend my spirit; God of truth, thou hast redeemed me." Jonas asked him, "Do you die in the faith of Christ, and the doctrines you have preached?" "Yes," was the reply, as his great spirit departed. His disease is supposed to have been angina pectoris, but according to others, cancer in the stomach. The most absurd stories were circulated about his death by his popish enemies. On the 19th his body was inclosed in a leaden coffin and carried into the church prior to its removal, and on the 22nd the hearse arrived at Wittemberg, where the whole city stood around in the deepest sorrow and lamentation. Luther was buried in the Schlosskirche, and Melancthon pronounced the funeral oration amidst the sobs and wailings of the vast assemblage. Many a traveller has read the simple inscription on his tomb.
Luther was one of the mighty; his earnest and manly nature was a stranger alike to dissimulation or cowardice. That he spoke roughly sometimes, and wrote harshly too, no one knew better than himself. "I was born," said he, "to fight with devils and storms, and hence it is that my writings are so boisterous and stormy." His life not only marks, but makes an epoch in the world; for though many previous causes had been in operation, the German reformation was the work of one age, and to a great extent of one man. He had a far more adequate conception of the work needed for his period, than either Erasmus and the revivers of learning on the one hand, or Hutten and the political patriots on the other. In his broad and balanced theology in which objective and subjective have each its place and position, he passed beyond the earlier mystics, who, in doing so much to foster the spiritual life, perpetuated a protest against dead ecclesiasticism. Providence had largely endowed him for his gigantic enterprise; and when the time was ripe, the man was ready, brought step after step unconsciously to his awful position. Even his culture in childhood was full of stern discipline. The restless and unruly boy is said to have been sometimes flogged above a dozen times in a day, and at home the rod was applied to him with such severity, that as himself confesses, "the blood came." He did not indulge in speculation; largeness, breadth, or profundity of thought, did not characterize him. He had neither the classic culture of Melancthon, nor the logical mastery and sobriety of Calvin. He was a man of action, and his quick sense of duty was coincident with the doing of it. True to every conviction, he shrank not from the expression of it, or from embodying it in a decided and unwavering course of conduct. Intellect and passion were powerful by turns within him; his conclusions were sometimes the fruit of irresistible impulse, rather than of calm and logical thought. So much was he formed to lead opinion that he could not easily bear contradiction. When he could not see through a hard problem, he knit his brows and scowled. At those moments he uttered and wrote those extreme opinions which have the semblance of paradoxes, and of which Hallam and Hamilton have given us a one-sided and depreciatory criticism. Luther was no recluse; his voice was the sound of no hidden oracle. He was a genial, hearty man; and after his marriage some of the noblest traits of his nature were fully developed; more tenderness, more sympathy with what was human, and less of that isolated and mere intellectual individuality which monkery tends to foster. He liked hilarity, and rejoiced to unbend. How happy and cheerful was he with his wife and family; how playful and loving are his letters to her and his children! He denies being "on fire" prior to his marriage, probably understating it against some objector desirous to trace his union to violent attachment. But his affection never slept, and it sheds its fragrance over many of his letters. Not long before his death, he sends his wife "his poor old love in the first place"—"I love her more than I do myself," said he on a previous occasion. The humour that so often accompanies genius flashes now broadly, and now peeps out slyly, through his conversation and writings. Fond of music from boyhood, he composed many hymns and set them to music; forty-two original tunes were composed by himself and his associates. Luther's system of theology is not perfect, yet the theology of the Augsburg Confession is in its most essential points based on scripture; and if the words of scripture are to be interpreted in their plain significance, the great Lutheran dogma of justification by faith, or that man becomes right before God through his personal acceptance of the righteousness of Christ, is beyond cavil or suspicion. His imperishable monument is the translation of the scriptures. He asked assistance from all quarters, from the physician Sturciad on plants and animals, and from Spalatin on minerals. He attended the manipulations of the butcher in order to comprehend more distinctly the sacrificial terms in the Mosaic code. In their meetings for the translation of the Old Testament, Luther presided over his theological colleagues, with his Bible and the Vulgate before him; Melancthon at his right hand being appealed to for assistance from the Greek version, Cruciger on his left throwing in the aid of the Targums, while Pomeranus gave them help from the rabbinical writings. That band of scholars did their work so faithfully that they have been known to return fourteen successive days to the reconsideration of some obscure clause or doubtful word. In a word, Luther excelled in many spheres; his mind was many-sided. Well might Melancthon say—"Pomeranus is exegetic, I am a dialectician, Jonas is an orator; but Luther surpasses us all." Luther, after recovery from monkish emaciation, stands before us as a man of compact, physical frame, with a firm set mouth and a massive brow, broad shoulders, and a "brave rotundity" in his more advanced years. His Tischreden or Table Talk, so well known, is not all genuine. The best edition of his letters is by De Wette. Many lives of him have been written, and the last edition of his works occupies sixty volumes.—J. E.
LUTHER, Paul, a German chemist, born at Wittemberg in 1538. He was the son of the celebrated reformer, Martin Luther. He studied medicine, and was nominated one of the professors at Jena, He was afterwards called to the court of the elector of Saxony, who made him director of his chemical laboratory. After the death of his patron he was compelled, through some angry discussions connected with the opinions of his father, to retire from that court. William Frederick, however, recalled him, and named him his physician. The only work he has left is a treatise on the regimen to be observed in the time of plague. Died in 1593.—W. B—d.
LUTI, Cavaliere Benedetto, a celebrated Italian painter, born at Florence in 1666, was a scholar of A. D. Gabbiani. In 1696 he went to Rome, and there settled. He formed for himself an eclectic style, which differed much from that of his master. It was greatly admired by contemporary and succeeding critics, and Luti was named the last of the Florentines. But his style is characterized by the feeble elegance of form and colour which commonly belong to a declining school of art. He was much patronized by Pope Clement XI., by whom he was knighted. Among his best works are an "Isaiah" in the Lateran; a "St Anthony" in the church of the Apostles, Rome; a "S. Ranieri" in Pisa cathedral; a "Magdalene" in S. Caterina Magna Napoli; and a "Psyche" in the Capitoline gallery. Besides painting in fresco and oil, Luti executed many subjects in crayons. These indeed were so much in request that, as Lanzi expresses it, "he inundated all Europe" with them. Many of his pictures have been well engraved. Died in 1724.—J. T—e.
LÜTKE, Peter Ludwig, German landscape painter, was born at Berlin in 1759. In 1785 he went to Italy, and studied for some time under Philip Hackert. He returned to Germany in 1788, and the following year was appointed professor of landscape painting in the Berlin academy. Lütke was a diligent student of nature, had some acquaintance with the natural history sciences, and finished his pictures with great care. His
