Disappointment

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From Martin Luther (2016)

  For Luther, the betrayal would have been multiple. Church law only permitted a monk to transfer to a stricter order, not to one that was more lax. The principle naturally led to much argument over which order was the most demanding but it could hardly be contended that the Benedictines were stricter than the observant Augustinians. The move also marked Staupitz’s retreat from the dramatic changes that had been taking place in the Augustinian order, at just the moment when, as Luther saw it, the transformations for which Staupitz had fought seemed to be coming to fruition. Last but not least, even if Staupitz shared some of the fundamentals of the Augustinian theology Luther espoused, Luther was not wrong to believe that his confessor’s retreat to Salzburg—where he would be near the implacable opponent of the Reformation, Cardinal Matthaeus Lang—was a withdrawal of affection. The favorite pupil, protégé, and confessional son had (in Staupitz’s words) “shat through his hands on his head.”17 Each man had idealized the other; now both were bitterly disappointed. In June 1522, after sixteen months of silence, Luther wrote to Staupitz, incredulous at his decision to leave the order, but determined not to judge. The tone was now distant, telling him what “we”—he, Linck, and others—were doing to “publicize the pure Word among the people.” He remonstrated with Staupitz for writing that Luther’s works were “praised by those who patronize brothels, and that my recent writings have given great offense.” “My Father,” he continued, “I must destroy that kingdom of abomination and perdition which belongs to the Pope, together with all his hangers-on.”18

• From Martin Luther (2016)

  15 Yet although Luther felt this as a betrayal, it is hard not to see this decision as utterly in character for a man who loved a good and ordered life, whose friend Ursula Pfeffinger, abbess of the Frauenchiemsee convent, secured the best fish for him, and whose other friend Christoph Scheurl sent him oranges. 16 For Luther, the betrayal would have been multiple. Church law only permitted a monk to transfer to a stricter order, not to one that was more lax. The principle naturally led to much argument over which order was the most demanding but it could hardly be contended that the Benedictines were stricter than the observant Augustinians. The move also marked Staupitz’s retreat from the dramatic changes that had been taking place in the Augustinian order, at just the moment when, as Luther saw it, the transformations for which Staupitz had fought seemed to be coming to fruition. Last but not least, even if Staupitz shared some of the fundamentals of the Augustinian theology Luther espoused, Luther was not wrong to believe that his confessor’s retreat to Salzburg—where he would be near the implacable opponent of the Reformation, Cardinal Matthaeus Lang—was a withdrawal of affection. The favorite pupil, protégé, and confessional son had (in Staupitz’s words) “shat through his hands on his head.” 17 Each man had idealized the other; now both were bitterly disappointed. In June 1522, after sixteen months of silence, Luther wrote to Staupitz, incredulous at his decision to leave the order, but determined not to judge. The tone was now distant, telling him what “we”—he, Linck, and others—were doing to “publicize the pure Word among the people.” He remonstrated with Staupitz for writing that Luther’s works were “praised by those who patronize brothels, and that my recent writings have given great offense.” “My Father,” he continued, “I must destroy that kingdom of abomination and perdition which belongs to the Pope, together with all his hangers-on.” 18 More than a year later, on September 17, 1523, with the Augustinian order unraveling as monk after monk left the monastic life, he wrote to Staupitz for the last time, interceding for a brother who had left Staupitz’s monastery in Salzburg, “now a free man in Christ,” and who needed financial support from “the great wealth of your monastery.”

• From Martin Luther (2016)

  The visionary excitement of the Wittenberg move- ment, the sense of the great things that could be done with the funds liberated from Masses and monasteries, the feeling of evangelical power as thousands of citizens took Communion in both kinds — all this was lost as Luther insisted on his leadership, not collective action. It is unlikely that a communal Reformation would ever have had much chance in Wittenberg. The town was simply too small to support it, and its reliance on the Elector, with so many in the town’s political elite close to the court, meant that it had no tradition of independ- ence. The tinder of economic and political grievance amongst large numbers of artisans was also missing. The other great institution in the town, the university, was not likely to risk alienating its founder; KARLSTADT AND THE CHRISTIAN CITY OF WITTENBERG 237 and the students, who did have a tradition of activism, had little loyalty to Wittenberg, especially since many of them were beginning to ques- tion the point of academic studies altogether. Once Duke Georg had secured the imperial mandate that enabled Catholic bishops to roll back the Reformation, the Elector had no choice but to knuckle under — or risk losing his power and title. Had Luther, ever the realist, not reversed the changes of December and January, as the mandate required, the Reformation in Wittenberg is unlikely to have survived. But the idea of a communal Reformation made by the people was not dead. In town after town — Zwickau, Augsburg, Nordlingen, Nuremberg and Strasbourg — popular movements would bring in the Reformation, as crowds attacked clergy and petitioned their town councils, and evangelical preachers gave their listeners a glimpse of what a reformed commune could mean. All the actions that had galvanised the Wittenberg populace were repeated across the empire, with evangelicals interrupting sermons, destroying altarpieces, tearing up Mass books, urinating in chalices or mocking the clergy — and they drew on the same repertoire of carnivalesque ritual and comedy that the Wittenberg students had developed.* Nor was Karlstadt forgotten. In Riga and Livonia it was his ideas, not Luther’s, that were picked up and put into practice by local reform movements; in Oldersum and other parts of East Frisia, his views about the sacrament were taken up, whilst Luther’s seemed superstitious; the town of Magdeburg adopted features of the Wittenberg reform movement, and as late as 1524, a pamphlet published in Speyer could depict Luther and Karlstadt leading the Reformation together.* By setting his face against a communal Reformation, and siding with the authorities, Luther had also cut himself off from what was going on in the rest of the empire. During his time in the Wartburg, he had lost his networks beyond Saxony and Mansfeld.

• From Martin Luther (2016)

  The plan had been to read out the confession in both Latin and German, but in the event it was presented only in German, and even that took a full two hours.40 Jonas reported that the emperor looked attentive as he listened, although he could not understand a word of German, as Jonas well knew. Forcing Charles to listen to the Saxon chancellor Christian Beyer read aloud a complex theological text in a language he could not understand was hardly politically wise, but for Luther, it was the high point of the Diet. He praised the reading through which the princes themselves “preach unhindered before [His] Imperial Majesty and the whole empire, right under our opponents’ noses, so that they have to listen to it and are unable to say anything against it.”41 It was finally a positive contrast to his appearance at Worms, where Luther had not been able to give a full and comprehensive statement of his theology. Luther was sent the confession only after it had been presented to the emperor, however, and he complained that if he had written it, he would not have made so many concessions. He dashed off a letter that started by congratulating Melanchthon but then objected that he was going against Holy Scripture because Christ is the stone that the builders cast aside, that is, he should expect to be despised and cast aside.42 There was little else he could now do. He saw himself as an unrecognized war hero, like the commanders at Vienna the year before, who got “no credit” for driving off the Turks. “Yet I am pleased and comforted that in the meantime this, my Vienna, has been defended by others.”43 Presenting the confession was just the beginning, however, as Charles immediately commissioned a refutation from Catholic theologians. Chief among them was Johannes Eck, Luther’s old adversary at Leipzig and the man responsible for the martyrdom of Leonhard Kaiser. The confutatio was read in the full session of the Diet on August 3 but only to the secular estates, and the evangelicals were not given a copy. The imperial side sought to prevent at all costs a theological dispute that Luther might win, so they offered the evangelicals sight of the text only on condition that they promised neither to print it nor copy it, an offer they wisely refused. Judging by what they heard, it did not seem too threatening: Jonas was scornful of the “farrago,” and the Wittenberg party were convinced they had not been bested in argument.44

• From Martin Luther (2016)

  It was psychologically prescient. Staupitz almost certainly sent back the copies of the commentary on Galatians that Luther had enclosed with his October letter, refusing his protégé’s gift: He could hardly have made it clearer that he would have no truck with the new theology.11 In January 1521, Luther reminded him of the words he had spoken at Augsburg: “Remember, Friar, you began this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” warning him that now matters were becoming serious.12 By the time the final bull of excommunication was published on January 3, 1521, Luther could no longer be sure of Staupitz’s loyalty. In February he was complaining that his confessor had already betrayed him by writing to the Pope, accepting him as judge in the matter, for Leo would certainly force him to deny Luther’s teaching. Luther underlined the extent of Staupitz’s capitulation: If God loved him, he would force him to revoke his acceptance, for in the bull the Pope had condemned all that Staupitz had himself taught and believed until now. “But this is not a time to fear, but to shout,” Luther expostulated, adding, “As much as you exhort me to humility, so I exhort you to be proud.” He concluded: “You have too much humility, just as I have too much pride.” Luther contrasted what he termed Staupitz’s “submission” with the Elector’s prudence, wisdom, and—in a dig at his confessor’s pusillanimity—constancy; he also described how others, like the humanist and knight Ulrich von Hutten, were standing by him. “Your submission has saddened me, and has shown me another Staupitz than the earlier Staupitz, the proclaimer of grace and of the Cross,” Luther wrote. “If you had done this before finding out about the bull and the insult to Christ, you would not have saddened me so greatly.”13 It seems that Luther did not write to Staupitz again for more than a year. For his part, Staupitz wrote sadly to Wenzeslaus Linck in October 1521 that he was now his only friend, “destitute of the other, oh sorrow, whose voice I never once hear nor whose face do I see.”14 Luther’s disenchantment was complete when, in 1522, Staupitz suddenly became a Benedictine abbot and retired to his beloved Salzburg, to which he had earlier invited Luther. “It is my wish, that you should leave Wittenberg for a time and come to me, so that we may live and die together,” Staupitz had written, probably in December 1518.15 Yet although Luther felt this as a betrayal, it is hard not to see this decision as utterly in character for a man who loved a good and ordered life, whose friend Ursula Pfeffinger, abbess of the Frauenchiemsee convent, secured the best fish for him, and whose other friend Christoph Scheurl sent him oranges.16

• From Martin Luther (2016)

  Surprisingly, the theses make no mention of indulgences and they once again expound a theology rather than deducing an argument from propositions. The themes of Luther’s thought were moving well beyond what he had set out in the Ninety-five Theses, and the full implications of his attack on “philosophy” were becoming evident. 7 At the meeting in Heidelberg on April 25, 1518, Luther’s theses were presented in front of Bernhard von Usingen and Jodokus Trutfetter, his former teachers in philosophy. Trutfetter was one of the leading logicians of his day, whose Summulae had synthesized all the latest thinking about modal logic—that is, logic that considers not only what is actually the case, but also what is possible. Trutfetter’s textbook, printed at Wittenberg, presented sequences of binding syllogisms, or logically valid arguments, in visual, tabular form, making them a powerful tool with which not only to understand thought itself but also to overwhelm an opponent in debate. Luther reported to Spalatin that everyone had been persuaded by his disputation—except one newly minted doctor, who had exclaimed, much to the hilarity of the audience, that “if the peasants heard this, they would stone you to death.” And except for Usingen and Trutfetter. As Luther noted later, his former teachers were revolted “to death” by his views. In fact, when he left Heidelberg after the meeting, Usingen had joined him in his wagon, and during their journey to Erfurt, Luther had tried to bring him around. But there was no budging either of them, and now, he told Spalatin on May 18, he was going to leave them behind, just as Christ had left behind the Jews—a mean-spirited equation. 8 Luther had already confronted his former teachers with his views about scholasticism in February 1517, 9 and it could hardly have been pleasant for a senior member of the order to have their traveling companion harangue them about the emptiness of philosophy. Breaking his journey back to Wittenberg at Erfurt, Luther then turned up at Trutfetter’s door on May 8, determined to reply in person to a critical letter his old teacher had sent. 10 When his servant refused to allow him in, claiming his master was too ill, Luther wrote instead. He began by assuring his former teacher that he would never shame him with “biting and insulting letters” as “you fear I might.” But he went on to explain that “I simply believe that it is impossible to reform the Church if we do not root out the canons, the decretals, scholastic philosophy, logic as we have it now,” and replace them with study of the Bible and the Church Fathers. He rejected the allegation, as he had previously done to Lang, that he had been responsible for burning copies of Tetzel’s pamphlets, a dangerous insinuation that made him look like a violent rabble-rouser who did not respect other scholars.

• From Satyricon (1)

  Heartened up by this story, I began to draw upon his more comprehensive knowledge as to the ages of the pictures and as to certain of the stories connected with them, upon which I was not clear; and I likewise inquired into the causes of the decadence of the present age, in which the most refined arts had perished, and among them painting, which had not left even the faintest trace of itself behind. “Greed of money,” he replied, “has brought about these unaccountable changes. In the good old times, when virtue was her own reward, the fine arts flourished, and there was the keenest rivalry among men for fear that anything which could be of benefit to future generations should remain long undiscovered. Then it was that Democritus expressed the juices of all plants and spent his whole life in experiments, in order that no curative property should lurk unknown in stone or shrub. That he might understand the movements of heaven and the stars, Eudoxus grew old upon the summit of a lofty mountain: three times did Chrysippus purge his brain with hellebore, that his faculties might be equal to invention. Turn to the sculptors if you will; Lysippus perished from hunger while in profound meditation upon the lines of a single statue, and Myron, who almost embodied the souls of men and beasts in bronze, could not find an heir. And we, sodden with wine and women, cannot even appreciate the arts already practiced, we only criticise the past! We learn only vice, and teach it, too. What has become of logic? of astronomy? Where is the exquisite road to wisdom? Who even goes into a temple to make a vow, that he may achieve eloquence or bathe in the fountain of wisdom? And they do not pray for good health and a sound mind; before they even set foot upon the threshold of the temple, one promises a gift if only he may bury a rich relative; another, if he can but dig up a treasure, and still another, if he is permitted to amass thirty millions of sesterces in safety! The Senate itself, the exponent of all that should be right and just, is in the habit of promising a thousand pounds of gold to the capitol, and that no one may question the propriety of praying for money, it even decorates Jupiter himself with spoils! Do not hesitate, therefore, at expressing your surprise at the deterioration of painting, since, by all the gods and men alike, a lump of gold is held to be more beautiful than anything ever created by those crazy little Greek fellows, Apelles and Phydias!” CHAPTER THE EIGHTY-NINTH. “But I see that your whole attention is held by that picture which portrays the destruction of Troy, so I will attempt to unfold the story in verse: And now the tenth harvest beheld the beleaguered of Troia Worn out with anxiety, fearing the honor of Calchas

• From Martin Luther (2016)

  Once again, Luther began by upbraiding Staupitz for his silence, assuring him that “even if I have lost your favor and goodwill, it would not be right for me to forget you or to be ungrateful to you, for it was through you that the light of the gospel first began to shine out of the darkness into my heart.” He was disappointed that Staupitz had aligned himself with the “infamous monster” that is Cardinal Lang. Alternating with praise and imprecation, Luther pleads with Staupitz: “I shall certainly not cease wishing and praying that you will be turned away from your cardinal and the papacy as I am, and as certainly you yourself once were.” He signed the letter “your son.” 19 But there was to be no reconciliation. Staupitz died on December 28, 1524, and in January Luther wrote to Amsdorf, Staupitz’s nephew: “Staupitz has departed this life, having enjoyed only a little time in his position of power”—another dig at his becoming abbot. 20 Linck, Staupitz’s grateful protégé, decided to publish his last sermons posthumously but Luther took no part in it. His judgment about his former confessor’s preaching was acid: “it’s rather cold, just as he always was, and not vehement enough.” He added faint praise: “It’s not unworthy of seeing the light of day, since so many monstrosities are produced and sold these days.” 21 Luther had outgrown yet another father figure. There would be no new ones; instead, Luther himself would now act as a father to his many acolytes at Wittenberg. This can be seen in the way he endlessly fussed over Melanchthon, recently appointed to the chair of Greek at Wittenberg, worrying about his health and chivvying him to marry. Luther acknowledged that Melanchthon was the better Greek scholar and he was delighted to have won him for the university. It would not be long before Melanchthon’s lectures attracted a larger audience than Luther’s. However, Luther never saw him as a rival but treated the younger, physically more slight and frail man as someone who needed to be looked after. As he reminisced later in life, Luther cast his former confessor in a purely positive light. “I got everything from Staupitz,” he would say; “Staupitz gave me the occasionem ”—an ambivalent word that can mean chance, opportunity, or reason. 22 He seems to have both recognized that Staupitz’s patronage had given him a public platform, and acknowledged his intellectual and emotional debt to him. By that time Luther himself had become a father, and his own father had died. Perhaps the greatest—albeit indirect—tribute Luther paid to Staupitz was that although he rejected all sacraments except baptism and Communion as lacking biblical foundation, he remained hesitant about what place to accord confession and penance in Christian life, which was, after all, the issue over which the Reformation had begun. Moreover, Luther continued to make use of private confession, retaining his colleague Johannes Bugenhagen as his confessor.

• From Martin Luther (2016)

  He remonstrated with Staupitz for writing that Luther’s works were ‘praised by those who patronise brothels, and that my THE FREEDOM OF A CHRISTIAN I51 recent writings have given great offence’. ‘My Father’, he continued, ‘I must destroy that kingdom of abomination and perdition which belongs to the Pope, together with all his hangers-on.” Over a year later on 17 September 1523, with the Augustinian order unravelling as monk after monk left the monastic life, he wrote to Staupitz for the last time, interceding for a brother who had left Staupitz’s monastery in Salzburg, ‘now a free man in Christ’, and who needed financial support from ‘the great wealth of your monastery’. Once again, Luther began by upbraiding Staupitz for his silence, assuring him that ‘even if I have lost your favour and good will, it would not be right for me to forget you or to be ungrateful to you, for it was through you that the light of the gospel first began to shine out of the darkness into my heart’. He was disappointed that Staupitz had aligned himself with the ‘infamous monster’ that is Cardinal Lang. Alternating with praise and imprecation, Luther pleads with Staupitz: ‘I shall certainly not cease wishing and praying that you will be turned away from your cardinal and the papacy as I am, and as certainly you yourself once were.’ He signed the letter ‘your son’.” But there was to be no reconciliation. Staupitz died on 28 December 1524, and in January Luther wrote to Amsdorf, Staupitz’s nephew: ‘Staupitz has departed this life, having enjoyed only a little time in his position of power’ — another dig at his becoming abbot.” Linck, Staupitz’s grateful protégé, decided to publish his last sermons posthumously but Luther took no part in it. His judgement about his former confessor's preaching was acid: ‘it’s rather cold, just as he always was, and not vehement enough’. He added faint praise: ‘It’s not unworthy of seeing the light of day, since so many monstrosities are produced and sold these days.™ Luther had outgrown yet another father figure. There would be no new ones; instead, Luther himself would now act as a father to his many acolytes at Wittenberg. This can be seen in the way he endlessly fussed over Melanchthon, recently appointed to the chair of Greek at Wittenberg, worrying about his health and chivvying him to marry. Luther acknowledged that Melanchthon was the better Greek scholar and he was delighted to have won him for the univer- sity. It would not be long before Melanchthon’s lectures attracted a larger audience than Luther's. However, Luther never saw him as a rival but treated the younger, physically more slight and frail man as someone who needed to be looked after.

• From Martin Luther (2016)

  At least in Schwabisch Hall, Johannes Brenz remained loyal, while the Nurembergers also still held the Lutheran line. However, with the loss of the imperial cities of Augsburg, Ulm, Basle, Zurich and Stras- bourg — all major centres of printing — Luther was becoming increas- ingly detached from developments in the south. In Strasbourg, Otto Brunfels, the humanist and friend of the knight Ulrich von Hutten, spoke for many when he published a letter to Luther in which he expressed his sorrow at the rift with Karlstadt: he admired both, he wrote, and could not love Luther without also embracing Karlstadt.” Nor was dissent confined to the south. In Liegnitz, Conrad Cordatus had to be peremptorily ordered to leave the ‘opponents of Christ’;” and in other parts of Silesia the noblemen Caspar Schwenckfeld and Valentin Crautwald were persuaded that there was no bodily presence in the Eucharist. Schwenckfeld travelled to Wittenberg in December 1525 to discuss the matter with Luther in person, but despite three days of argument, neither side convinced the other.” In the spring of 1526 Luther sent Schwenckfeld a bitter letter ordering him to desist from his errors. If he would not, ‘then God’s will be done. Although I am heartily sorry, yet | am not responsible for your blood, nor for the blood of all those whom you lead astray with [your teachings]. May God convert you. Amen.” Non-theologians were inspired by sacramentarian ideas too, because they chimed with a deep-rooted, common-sense anticlericalism. Rare surviving testimony of their beliefs came from Hans Mohr, captain of the foot soldiers at Coburg Castle in electoral Saxony, who thought that it “was wrong, that out of the created things, the bread and wine of the Lord, they want to make the Creator himself’. The common people were being piteously misled, he believed, and although he was happy to keep quiet about this, he would give his opinion if people asked him what he thought over meals or at the inn. Interrogated BREAKDOWN 311 about his beliefs several times, Mohr was eventually sacked from his post. The group of preachers who rallied to Luther’s position all said the same thing, whereas the sacramentarians arrived at their conclusions by different routes. To Luther, this merely showed that there was not one, but five or six different sects, and for him this was proof that ‘they would soon perish’.® It was not obvious, however, that the Lutherans were winning. They certainly published more, and in more places. And they had censorship on their side. In Leipzig and Erfurt, almost nothing was published that deviated from the Lutheran line; in Nuremberg and Basle, Karlstadt’s works on the sacrament were banned, with Nuremberg prohibiting Zwingli’s works for good measure.

• From Martin Luther (2016)

  Unlike Karlstadt, he also grasped the importance of brevity. Ostensibly the theses were addressed to Karlstadt, but all of them aimed at key points of Luther’s theology. 14 Luther rose to the bait and replied to them himself. In any other man, the combination of aggression, ambition, and intellectual gifts would have ensured preferment to high church office, a bishopric or perhaps even a cardinal’s hat, and it may be that this was what Eck hoped for by taking on Luther. Indeed, he considered the key issue underlying the dispute to be obedience to the Pope. He would be awarded the title of “papal legate” in 1520, but the bishopric, if hoped for, never materialized, and Eck spent the rest of his life as a pastor and professor in Ingolstadt on a modest salary. He later wrote that all he had ever wanted in life was to “remain a schoolmaster.” But he preached assiduously in his parish; again like Luther, he was determined that his preaching should reach the common man, and he published five volumes of sermons in the vernacular because he thought priests were being driven to use Lutheran sermons for lack of anything serviceable from their own side. Eck’s parishioners found his sermons tough going, however: Intellectually challenging, they made no concessions. Like Luther, Eck translated the Bible, publishing in 1537 a German New Testament based on Hieronymus Emser’s text, translating the Old Testament himself. 15 — J UST what a mistake Luther had made in agreeing to meet in Leipzig was evident from the start. Held at the height of summer, when, as Luther’s friend and chronicler Friedrich Myconius put it, the weather was good for hiking, the debate attracted large crowds from all around. Eck got there first, timing his arrival for the day before Corpus Christi, and was entertained by the mayor, with whom he lodged. He was therefore able to take part in the town’s Corpus Christi procession alongside the town dignitaries. Since the festival, during which the boundaries of the parishes are reaffirmed, was an important celebration of local identity, this was a shrewd move. 16 Luther arrived on the Friday after Corpus Christi, June 24, having traveled to Leipzig with Karlstadt and Melanchthon, this time not on foot but by open wagon. On this occasion, there was no need to demonstrate his humility in contrast to papal pomp. Karlstadt had insisted on bringing a whole reference library with him but his books were so heavy that his wagon got stuck in the mud, breaking the axle, just as it was about to enter the city gate. This was hardly a good omen for the man who had tried to ridicule his opponent with his “wagon cartoon”; it seemed that it was Karlstadt’s cart rather than Eck’s that was bound for disaster. 17 The Wittenberg delegation stopped off not at a monastery but, perhaps tellingly, at the house of the printer Melchior Lotter.

• From Satyricon (1)

  In Europe of the middle ages, the priests and abbots helped to some extent in reviving the profession of the courtesans. Long before, Saint Paul had stated in his Epistles that it was permitted to the apostles of the Lord to take with them everywhere a sister for charity. The deaconesses date from the first century of the church. But the celibacy of the clergy was not universally and solidly established until about the eleventh century, under the pontificate of Gregory VII. During the preceding century, the celebrated Marozie and Theodore had put their lovers successively upon the chair of St. Peter, and their sons and grandsons, as well. But after the priests had submitted to celibacy they ostensibly took the concubines of which, alas! our housekeepers of today are but feeble vestiges. The Spanish codes of the middle ages were often concerned with the rights of the concubines of priests (mancebas de los clerigos) and these chosen ones of the chosen ones of the Lord invariably appeared worthy of envy. Finally the courtesans appeared in all their magnificence in the Holy City, and modern Rome atoned for the rebuffs and indignities these women had been compelled to endure in ancient Rome. The princes of the church showered them with gifts, they threw at their feet the price of redemption from sin, paid by the faithful, and the age of Leo X was for Rome a wonderful epoch of fine arts, belles lettres, and beautiful women. But a fanatical monk from Lower Germany fell upon this calm of the church and this happy era of the harlots; since then the revenues of the sacred college have continued to decrease, the beautiful courtesans have abandoned the capital of the Christian world, and their pleasures have fled with them. And can anyone longer believe in the perfection of the human race, since the best, the most holy of human institutions has so visibly degenerated! III. Le Soldat ordonne a embasicetas de m’accabler de ses impurs baisers. The soldier ordered the catamite to beslaver me with his stinking kisses.

• From Satyricon (1)

  Heartened up by this story, I began to draw upon his more comprehensive knowledge as to the ages of the pictures and as to certain of the stories connected with them, upon which I was not clear; and I likewise inquired into the causes of the decadence of the present age, in which the most refined arts had perished, and among them painting, which had not left even the faintest trace of itself behind. “Greed of money,” he replied, “has brought about these unaccountable changes. In the good old times, when virtue was her own reward, the fine arts flourished, and there was the keenest rivalry among men for fear that anything which could be of benefit to future generations should remain long undiscovered. Then it was that Democritus expressed the juices of all plants and spent his whole life in experiments, in order that no curative property should lurk unknown in stone or shrub. That he might understand the movements of heaven and the stars, Eudoxus grew old upon the summit of a lofty mountain: three times did Chrysippus purge his brain with hellebore, that his faculties might be equal to invention. Turn to the sculptors if you will; Lysippus perished from hunger while in profound meditation upon the lines of a single statue, and Myron, who almost embodied the souls of men and beasts in bronze, could not find an heir. And we, sodden with wine and women, cannot even appreciate the arts already practiced, we only criticise the past! We learn only vice, and teach it, too. What has become of logic? of astronomy? Where is the exquisite road to wisdom? Who even goes into a temple to make a vow, that he may achieve eloquence or bathe in the fountain of wisdom? And they do not pray for good health and a sound mind; before they even set foot upon the threshold of the temple, one promises a gift if only he may bury a rich relative; another, if he can but dig up a treasure, and still another, if he is permitted to amass thirty millions of sesterces in safety! The Senate itself, the exponent of all that should be right and just, is in the habit of promising a thousand pounds of gold to the capitol, and that no one may question the propriety of praying for money, it even decorates Jupiter himself with spoils! Do not hesitate, therefore, at expressing your surprise at the deterioration of painting, since, by all the gods and men alike, a lump of gold is held to be more beautiful than anything ever created by those crazy little Greek fellows, Apelles and Phydias!” CHAPTER THE EIGHTY-NINTH. “But I see that your whole attention is held by that picture which portrays the destruction of Troy, so I will attempt to unfold the story in verse: And now the tenth harvest beheld the beleaguered of Troia Worn out with anxiety, fearing the honor of Calchas

• From Shunned (2018)

  Just a minute ago you were calling this a ‘crisis of faith.’” “Which is exactly why you should go to the elders. That’s what they’re there for.” We continued sipping our beers, feigning interest in the gnats swarming around the cattails. My relief turned to disappointment. I’d put off this conversation because I’d never really believed Ross had the capacity to help me sort this out. All he could offer were trite solutions. On the one hand, I was grateful that he hadn’t overreacted to my confession. On the other hand, he didn’t seem to grasp the magnitude of my anguish. To be fair, I’d done a good job of hiding it. It was then I knew I would not share the final part of my confession. I had already sought help—not from the elders, but from a psychologist. I had seen her four times and planned to continue. My inner conflict had been so intense—and its potential ramifications so life-altering—I wanted the impartial reality check of a mental-health professional. My closest confidants were all Witnesses whom I couldn’t possibly count on for unbiased listening. I’d kept my therapy a secret, making weekly visits on my lunch hour, no one the wiser. If anyone in the Witness community knew I was seeing a therapist, it would raise a red flag. Therapists could not be relied upon to give me the “proper” spiritual perspective. I’d considered a meeting with the elders but dismissed it early on. As my new, fuller self emerged, I sensed I could trust it to explore answers unfettered by the elders’ influence. I’d swapped Bible study and prayer for the private sanctuary of my therapist’s office and found it an ideal place to chip away the carapace around my doubts. There I dared to utter my skepticism, safe in the knowledge I would not be judged as “ailing.” “Are you ready to eat?” I asked Ross. “Starved,” he said. “Let’s move closer to the water.” As we stood to relocate, I felt vulnerable and weak, like my knees might give out. “Rossman, please don’t worry about me. I’ll figure this out.” He gave me a big bear hug. “I know. You’ve always been strong. It will all work out.” He seemed to be reassuring himself. It gave me little comfort. We enjoyed our lakefront picnic, and later that night we went to the movies, captivated by Harrison Ford as The Fugitive . My troubles seemed minor in comparison with grappling with murder, prison shackles, and betrayal. And I took consolation from the ending: after weeks of relentless struggle, the lead character proved his innocence, made peace with his captors, and secured his freedom. Maybe I could do the same. Chapter 4 [image "Images" file=Image00000.jpg] You will not be punished for your anger. You will be punished by your anger. —Mahatma Gandhi I n the months after I confessed my crisis of faith to Ross, we continued drifting further apart.

• From Martin Luther (2016)

  Luther relished the irony of Karlstadt’s change of heart, remarking: “Who would have thought a year ago that those who called baptism a ‘dog’s bath’ would ask for baptism from their enemies?” 3 The celebration at Segrehna was an attempt at reconciliation between the two men, now tied to each other anew by the bonds of godparenthood. And it seems that Karlstadt’s family exploited the occasion to the full. A few days later, Luther interceded with the Elector on behalf of Karlstadt’s wife’s uncle, the miller at Segrehna, while another of her relatives lodged in Luther’s house for several months while she recovered from the plague. In November, Karlstadt himself wrote from Berkwitz, to say that he had lost seven horses, had little livestock left, and would have to sell up. Could Luther ask the Elector to let him move to Kemberg? Luther frequently interceded for others with the Elector, but there is something odd in his punctilious insistence on doing everything Karlstadt requested—asking the Elector repeatedly to allow him to live in Kemberg, and mediating for his relatives—as if he was proving his devotion despite a hidden antipathy. 4 Luther was able to keep an eye on Karlstadt but could not control those beyond the orbit of Wittenberg. One by one, many of his former supporters went over to the sacramentarian position of denying that Christ was physically present in the Eucharist. The loss of Oecolampadius had been bad enough; but then Nikolaus Gerbel, who had been Luther’s loyal lieutenant in Strasbourg, wrote that Martin Bucer had also adopted a version of the Swiss position. Bucer and the Strasbourg preachers tried to maintain unity with Luther and, realizing that discussions by letter were unlikely to succeed, they instead sent an envoy to hold long discussions with him. There was no agreement, however, and even Gerbel concluded that the sacramentarians, not the papists, were now the main enemy. 5 As he had no stomach for such a fight, Gerbel wished to dedicate himself to academic work. 6 In Augsburg, the leading preacher Urbanus Rhegius, once a Lutheran loyalist, also seemed to be open to some of Karlstadt’s arguments. 7 Augsburg was one of the foremost cities in the empire with a strong populist evangelical movement, so its theological orientation mattered. But by the summer of 1526, only Stefan Agricola, Caspar Huber, and Luther’s old friend Johannes Frosch, in whose monastery Luther had stayed during the discussions with Cajetan in Augsburg, were still persuaded by Luther’s position.

• From Vision Quest (1979)

  I kept thinking what I’d do if I were out there. It was frustrating. I’ll watch the guys wrestle out their season and I’ll go to the district and state tournaments, but it’s sure going to feel weird just watching. Shute and his dad were sitting at the counter when we trooped in. Poor fuckers. They drove all the way over here to watch me wrestle Rilke. I wonder why they did it. I’m sure they’ve got just as much film of me as we do of Gary. Gary and his dad look like brothers. Like brother plumb bobs. I wonder if you can make hair go straight back and wavy like theirs, or if you have to be born that way. Mr. Shute isn’t real young, I don’t think, but he’s in great shape, and whenever I see him he’s always in jeans and a tanker jacket, which is a pretty youthful outfit. He’s a plumber, so he gets lost of exercise. They also hunt and fish a lot. I’d talked to Gary for a minute at the match but I wanted just to say hello again, so I stopped. “Hi, Gary,” I said. “Hi, Mr. Shute.” I shook hands with his dad. “I don’t know what you guys are gonna do without anybody at fifty-four,” Mr. Shute said and winked. Everybody in the gym was blown away by how good Doug was. I sat down next to Gary. “Have you seen this?” His dad handed the Sports Illustrated clipping across to me. “We’re famous.” I smiled and punched Gary a light one in the ribs. I’ve sure taken better pictures than that. Gary looks like Frank Gifford from Monday Night Football and I look like old Harpo Marx from A Night at the Opera . The bastard photographer caught me right after practice. My hair was all standing up and someone had just made me laugh. I look like I was being electrocuted. Mr. Shute folded it up and put it back in his wallet. He finished his coffee and Gary finished his Jell-O. Gary said he’d look for me at the New Year’s dance and they left after we shook hands. Gary stopped a second to congratulate Doug and Jean-Pierre on their good matches. His dad said hello to Coach and they were out the door and off in their pickup. * * * It’s nearly two o’clock. All the inside lights are off, so out the window you can see the snow blowing down and swirling from the trees. Good cheer lasted almost to the Idaho line. Kuch loves beating Custer and Battleground. After both matches he walked into their locker rooms and invited them all to come to Spokane and visit him on the twenty-fifth of June so together they could celebrate the great victory at the Greasy Grass. “What the fuck is that?” a couple guys asked. “Custer’s last stand.” Kuch smiled.

• From Martin Luther (2016)

  Indeed, it seems that many found Karlstadt’s explanation of the sacrament and his belief in the spiritual presence of Christ to be the more persuasive. Karlstadt’s maturing theology was clearly marked by his experiences at Wittenberg, where the communal reformation had fired his enthusiasm. This vision was popular elsewhere, too, particularly in southern Germany, because it entailed social reform with a renewal of morals, reorganized poor relief, and popular lay involvement. It was very different from Luther’s ideal of a top-down Reformation. Some also disliked Luther’s attempt to impose his views on others by appealing to their personal loyalty. “I am very upset by the dissension between Karlstadt and yourself,” Otto Brunfels wrote, “for I favour you both, and I do not love you in such a way that I cannot also embrace Karlstadt most sincerely.”45 The grammarian Valentin Ickelsamer complained of Luther’s writings, “what are these booklets against the spirit of Allstedt…but a cunning attempt to provoke the princes against good Karlstadt?”46 Outside Wittenberg, the spectacle of the two reformers in discord was seen as disastrous for the Reformation’s image, and while Karlstadt had been careful to hold back from attacking his former colleague, Luther had taken to publicly accusing Karlstadt of being possessed by the Devil.47 Yet Karlstadt never set himself up as a rival to Luther; had he done so, the story of the Reformation might well have been different. Luther seemed well aware of just how much was at risk, and it is an indication of his concern that he replied to the letter of the Strasbourg preachers not with a manuscript missive, but with a printed public letter, which he duly dispatched via their messenger.48 The delay in his response, caused by printing his letter, had far-reaching consequences. The Strasbourgers had written to Huldrych Zwingli in Zurich at the same time; Zwingli now also denied the Real Presence in the sacrament, and his handwritten letter arrived before Luther’s printed reply. Martin Bucer, previously inclined to Luther, was persuaded by Zwingli’s views “with hand and foot,” as a delighted Capito reported.49 In his response, Luther mused unwisely, “I confess, that if Dr. Karlstadt or someone else had been able to instruct me five years ago, that there was nothing but bread and wine in the sacrament, he would have done me a great service. I suffered such great temptations at that time and twisted and struggled, because I saw well that this would have been the biggest coup against the papacy.” The letter may well have lent credence to the rumors that Karlstadt had gotten the idea from Luther himself.50

• From Martin Luther (2016)

  In Strasbourg, Wolfgang Capito and the humanist Otto Brunfels read Karlstadt’s works and agreed with his views on the sacrament; in Basle, the reformer and humanist Johannes Oecolampadius was taking Karlstadt’s side; in Nuremberg too, Karlstadt was finding readers, and in Magdeburg, Königsberg, and even the Netherlands, people were joining in what Luther and his followers would soon denounce as the “spirit of Müntzer and Karlstadt.” 43 Luther’s man in Strasbourg, Nikolaus Gerbel, warned that Karlstadt was distributing copies of his works printed in Basle and gaining supporters; apparently he was telling everyone that he had been banished by Luther because he could not overcome him with Scripture. The Strasbourg preachers wrote collectively to Luther, sending five of Karlstadt’s writings and asking for his advice. The letter, brilliantly formulated so as to stress their loyalty, reveals that their position was in fact closer to Karlstadt’s, since they too were purifying their churches of images and beginning to raise questions about the Real Presence in the sacrament. They bluntly informed Luther that in Zurich, Basle, and even in Strasbourg, most biblically informed people shared Karlstadt’s views. 44 Indeed, it seems that many found Karlstadt’s explanation of the sacrament and his belief in the spiritual presence of Christ to be the more persuasive. Karlstadt’s maturing theology was clearly marked by his experiences at Wittenberg, where the communal reformation had fired his enthusiasm. This vision was popular elsewhere, too, particularly in southern Germany, because it entailed social reform with a renewal of morals, reorganized poor relief, and popular lay involvement. It was very different from Luther’s ideal of a top-down Reformation. Some also disliked Luther’s attempt to impose his views on others by appealing to their personal loyalty. “I am very upset by the dissension between Karlstadt and yourself,” Otto Brunfels wrote, “for I favour you both, and I do not love you in such a way that I cannot also embrace Karlstadt most sincerely.” 45 The grammarian Valentin Ickelsamer complained of Luther’s writings, “what are these booklets against the spirit of Allstedt…but a cunning attempt to provoke the princes against good Karlstadt?” 46 Outside Wittenberg, the spectacle of the two reformers in discord was seen as disastrous for the Reformation’s image, and while Karlstadt had been careful to hold back from attacking his former colleague, Luther had taken to publicly accusing Karlstadt of being possessed by the Devil.

• From Shunned (2018)

  What’s going on?” “Last night I was in a car wreck.” The words sliced through my hangover. I imagined shattered glass and spilt blood on gray concrete, red lights flashing in the distance. “What? Are you all right? Did anyone else get hurt? How did you get home?” The synapses in my brain fired up instantly. The previous night’s acrimony evaporated. Ross’s mouth twitched as he gazed down, gathering the will to say more. “Don’t worry about me—I wasn’t hurt at all, just shaken. And humiliated.” My heart softened with relief. “What happened?” I asked gently. “It was really stupid. Right after our argument, I decided to go for a drive to chill out.” “After all you had to drink?” I shook my head, barely remembering the rattling sound of the keys from the night before. I couldn’t fathom being so angry as to abandon good sense and drive drunk. He paused for a moment. “I took your car,” he said, looking at me out of the corner of his eye, “so I could blast the stereo.” “You what?” I wasn’t sure I had heard him right. “You took my car? My brand-new car?” He nodded. “And who did you crash into?” I asked, as I got out of bed and put on my bathrobe. “That’s the humiliating part. I’d had so much to drink, I ran right into the guardrail on Butner Road.” I rushed through the house and out the front door. There in the driveway sat my brand-new Honda, the front passenger side folded in, scuffed with white paint, headlight shattered. The now-familiar heaviness pressed down on my chest and shoulders. Turning back into the house, I found Ross sitting on the living room couch, next to a bed pillow and blanket. “You slept out here last night?” I asked. “Yeah. I figured we could both use the space,” he said. I walked over and sat down on the opposite end of the couch, pulling the blanket up over my legs. “Did anyone see you crash?” “Nope. Not a car or cop in sight.” “Talk about dumb luck,” I said, shaking my head. “Barely a mile away from home, and no witnesses.” “Aren’t you going to get angry?” Ross asked. “Go ahead. Don’t hold back. I deserve it.” Try as I might, I couldn’t muster any rage. It seemed pointless. In that moment, any respect I held for Ross dropped away, like overripe apples hitting the ground with a thud, then left to rot. For several months, I had wanted him to be valiant and strong so I could relax in my confusion. Instead, he had proven himself inept at keeping a secret and lacking the sense to stay home when he was drunk. There was no sense relying on him. I was on my own. “No more yelling,” I said. “I’m too tired to fight.” I put both arms around my knees and started rocking back and forth.

• From Shunned (2018)

  “It’s nice to see you looking so well.” She hugged me back. “You too,” she said. Next I hugged Ove, briefly and with little intensity. “Thanks, Ove, for taking such good care of my sister,” I said. “You’re welcome,” he said. Mom was next. We wrapped our arms around each other and held each other gently, her head resting on my shoulder. “It was good to see you, Mom.” We rocked each other. “Yes, Lindy, we loved seeing you, too,” she answered. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Randy, Marlene, and Tyler had emerged from the dining room and were watching us. Bob was following behind me, saying his own goodbyes. “I wish we could see you all more often,” I said. “Yes, Lindy,” Mom said, still holding me. “We’d like that, too. And you know what to do to make that happen.” Disappointment rang through me, and my body felt flushed with heat as I pulled away from her. Even now, she was clinging to her conditions. This is wack! You look at the sky through a straw. This fanatical behavior is not worthy of you! You used to tell me Bible stories of pagan parents who sacrificed their children in the fires to Baal and shake your head in disgust. Now it is you who sacrifices a relationship with your daughter. And for what? For rules that cannot stand the test of logic or love. That was what I thought, but it was not what I said. I took a deep breath instead. I would launch into that tearful diatribe later, at the bar with my husband. I just needed to hold it together a few moments longer. I cupped Mom’s cheeks in both hands, aware of the needless fears she harbored for my everlasting life. I smiled and shook my head. Now I turned to my father, the parent who’d given me blue eyes, brown hair, and curiosity about the world. Even when I had my heels on, he loomed over me. He had the sweetest, most melancholy smile. He was just trying to get through this ordeal and squeeze out all the best parts. We would allow ourselves to fully experience our sadness later, in private. We embraced without saying a word. Then I stood in front of my brother and his family. “I’m sorry we didn’t get to spend much time together,” I said. “But I’m grateful for the time we did have . . . for me to see that you’re doing well.” Randy’s eyes were wide, his face animated with bright red patches on his cheeks, like sections of small countries on a globe. He was anxious for me to leave, to release him from this uncomfortable encounter. “Yes,” he said. Both hands were shoved into his suit pants pockets. Marlene stood near him, a protective sentry. Tyler was still wearing a suit coat and a shy, curious look.