A Side-Light On Luther -- By: R. Clyde Ford
Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 56:221 (Jan 1899)
Article: A Side-Light On Luther
Author: R. Clyde Ford
BSac 56:221 (Jan 1899) p. 114
A Side-Light On Luther
One of the most interesting of the many contemporaneous accounts of Luther is the one contained in the “Sabbata” of Johann Jakob Kessler, a chronicler of the period between 1523 and 1539.
Kessler was born (1502) of poor parents at St. Gall, Switzerland. He attended the monastery school in his native town,—a school not so famous now as in the days of Notker and Ekkehard, when St. Gall was the home of learning north of the Alps,—and afterwards studied theology in Basel. About this time rumors of what was doing at the university of Wittenberg reached him, and, anxious to know of the reformers and their doctrines from personal contact, he set out for Germany with a single companion in the early spring of 1522. He returned to Switzerland the next year and took up the saddler’s trade. For a time he remained in obscurity; but the leaven of Luther’s teaching was working, and Kessler became teacher, writer, preacher, in the new movement In 1537 he was installed as evangelical pastor at St. Gall, and after many years became superintendent of the diocese in which his native town was located. He died March 15, 1574.
His chronicle, the quaint and disjointed style of which we have tried to preserve in our translation, narrates, among other things, an accidental meeting with the great reformer when he had left the Wartburg for a secret trip to Wittenberg. It begins like this:—
BSac 56:221 (Jan 1899) p. 115
As we journeyed toward Wittenberg to study the Holy Scriptures, a terrible storm, God knows, came upon us near Jena in Thuringia, and after a good deal of seeking in the city for herbergage where we might stay overnight we were not able to find any. Shelter was denied us everywhere; for it was Carnival time, when people do not concern themselves much for the pilgrim or the stranger. So we turned away from the town to go further to see if we could not reach some village where one would give us shelter. By the city gate an honest man met us, spoke to us friendly, and asked where we were going so late, saying we would not find anywheres near, on account of the darkness, either house or home where we would be received. Moreover it was an easy matter to miss the road and lose one’s self; therefore he would advise us to remain where we were.
We answered: “Father, we have visited all the inns to which we have been directed, this way and that; everywhere people have refused us, and denied us quarters, and of necessity we must go further.” Then he asked if we had inquired at the Black Bear. We said: “We have never heard of it; tell us, good sir, where we may find it.” Then he showed it to us a little way out of the city. And...
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