DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48092#0180
i6o
durer’s literary remains.
[chap. IX.
This impassioned invocation is almost puritanical in tone.
We expect to find the artist going forth to smite the foe, hip
and thigh. He is no longer content to resist the tyranny of the
Papacy. He holds advanced opinions and is eager for Erasmus
to lay aside his excellent moderation and adopt the aggressive
attitude of Luther. We should expect to find the artist hence-
forward holding no communications with the arch-enemy, turning
his back against him and all his works. But entries in the
Diary cast another light upon his conduct. We read of his
going to confession ; we notice his admiration for the great
buildings and ceremonies of the Church ; we find him noting
down the ecclesiastical endowments of Antwerp, not without
satisfaction at their wealth. He tells us of his delight in the
great religious procession on the “Sunday after Our Dear Lady’s
Assumption,” when “ twenty persons bore the image of the
Virgin Mary with the Lord Jesus, adorned in the costliest
manner, to the honour of the Lord God...and behind came the
company of the Prophets in their order, and scenes from the
New Testament, such as Our Lady’s Flight into Egypt—very
devout.”
Whatever Diirer may suggest to the contrary, it is clear that
the grand ceremonial and ancient traditions of the mediaeval
Church retained a powerful hold over him. He abandoned
mediaeval doctrines, he wished “the oppression and avarice of
the Pope” and the “false appearance of holiness” done away,
but he did not want the Anabaptists’ extravagances, the
Peasants’ Wars, the image-breakings, riots, rebellions, and other
insanities which followed, when demagogues led a distracted
people hither and thither, the signs of all which became
presently apparent. So in his last years, without diminution
of his personal respect for Luther, he watched the progress of
events with fear, and, like Pirkheimer, “ thought that the new
Evangelical knaves made the Popish knaves seem pious by
contrast.”
durer’s literary remains.
[chap. IX.
This impassioned invocation is almost puritanical in tone.
We expect to find the artist going forth to smite the foe, hip
and thigh. He is no longer content to resist the tyranny of the
Papacy. He holds advanced opinions and is eager for Erasmus
to lay aside his excellent moderation and adopt the aggressive
attitude of Luther. We should expect to find the artist hence-
forward holding no communications with the arch-enemy, turning
his back against him and all his works. But entries in the
Diary cast another light upon his conduct. We read of his
going to confession ; we notice his admiration for the great
buildings and ceremonies of the Church ; we find him noting
down the ecclesiastical endowments of Antwerp, not without
satisfaction at their wealth. He tells us of his delight in the
great religious procession on the “Sunday after Our Dear Lady’s
Assumption,” when “ twenty persons bore the image of the
Virgin Mary with the Lord Jesus, adorned in the costliest
manner, to the honour of the Lord God...and behind came the
company of the Prophets in their order, and scenes from the
New Testament, such as Our Lady’s Flight into Egypt—very
devout.”
Whatever Diirer may suggest to the contrary, it is clear that
the grand ceremonial and ancient traditions of the mediaeval
Church retained a powerful hold over him. He abandoned
mediaeval doctrines, he wished “the oppression and avarice of
the Pope” and the “false appearance of holiness” done away,
but he did not want the Anabaptists’ extravagances, the
Peasants’ Wars, the image-breakings, riots, rebellions, and other
insanities which followed, when demagogues led a distracted
people hither and thither, the signs of all which became
presently apparent. So in his last years, without diminution
of his personal respect for Luther, he watched the progress of
events with fear, and, like Pirkheimer, “ thought that the new
Evangelical knaves made the Popish knaves seem pious by
contrast.”