"What would you have me do towards reforming the Teutsch Order?"
inquired Albert of his oracle. Luther's answer was, as may be
guessed, emphatic. "Luther," says one reporter, "has in his
Writings declared the Order to be 'a thing serviceable neither to
God nor man,' and the constitution of it 'a monstrous, frightful,
hermaphroditish, neither secular nor spiritual constitution.'"
[C. J. Weber, Daa Ritterwessen (Stuttgard, 1837), iii.
208.] We do not know what Luther's answer to Albert was;--but can
infer the purport of it: That such a Teutsch Ritterdom was not, at
any rate, a thing long for this world; that white cloaks with
black crosses on them would not, of themselves, profit any
Ritterdom; that solemn vows and high supramundane professions,
followed by such practice as was notorious, are an afflicting,
not to say a damnable, spectacle on God's Earth;--that a young
Herr had better marry; better have done with the wretched
Babylonian Nightmare of Papistry altogether; better shake oneself
awake, in God's name, and see if there are not still monitions in
the eternal sky as to what it is wise to do, and wise not to do!--
This I imagine to have been, in modern language, the purport of
Dr. Luther's advice to Hochmeister Albrecht on the present
interesting occasion.

It is certain, Albert, before long, took this course; Uncle
Sigismund and the resident Officials of the Ritterdom having made
agreement to it as the one practicable course. The manner as
follows: 1. Instead of Elected Hochmeister, let us be Hereditary
Duke of Preussen, and pay homage for it to Uncle Sigismund in that
character. 2. Such of the resident Officials of the Ritterdom as
are prepared to go along with us, we will in like manner
constitute permanent Feudal Proprietors of what they now possess