Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/316

 304 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE spicuously a master, both as regards eloquence of language and depth of thought. In his collected sermons he shows a profound knowledge of mankind, clear calm reasoning powers, and the gift of popular expression ; all his similes, images, and allegories, his proverbs, plays on words, and witticisms, his fables, stories, and anecdotes are taken fresh from life and reality. Hence his sermons are a perfect mine of information concerning the national life of the time. At the close of the Middle Ages German authors wrote in several different dialects ; but it was from a mixture of Upper and Lower German, in which the dialect of Mid-Germany played a leading part, that the so-called universal German (' gemeines Deutsch ') de- veloped, and which became, chiefly through the exertions of the Emperor Maximilian, the general language of the empire and of diplomacy. It was Luther who first made it the general lan- guage of literature ; his books were written in ' gemeines Deutsch.' He protects himself against the charge of being the inventor of a new language in the following words : ' I have no special peculiar German language of my own, but I use that which is common to Ger- mans, so that both the ' Ober- and Niederliinder ' may understand me. I speak the same language as the Saxon chancellors, whose lead is followed by all the kings and princes in Germany.' The Emperor Maxi- milian and the Elector Frederic, Duke of Saxony, may be said to have consolidated all the different forms of German speech in the Eoman Empire into one language. If we except Luther, with his remarkable natural gift of speech, which was developed in an unusual