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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16322-8.txt b/16322-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a326790 --- /dev/null +++ b/16322-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8552 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Luther Examined and Reexamined, by W. H. T. Dau + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Luther Examined and Reexamined + A Review of Catholic Criticism and a Plea for Revaluation + +Author: W. H. T. Dau + +Release Date: July 18, 2005 [EBook #16322] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LUTHER EXAMINED AND REEXAMINED *** + + + + +Produced by Kurt A. Bodling, Ganser Library, Millersville +University, Millersville, PA, USA + + + + + + +Luther Examined and Reexamined +A Review of Catholic Criticism and a Plea +for Revaluation + +By W.H.T. Dau, +Professor, Concordia Theological Seminary + +St. Louis, Mo. +Concordia Publishing House +1917 + +PREFACE. +One may deplore the pathetic courage which periodically heartens +Catholic writers for the task of writing against Luther, but one can +understand the necessity for such efforts, and, accordingly, feel a real +pity for those who make them. Attacks on Luther are demanded for +Catholics by the law of self-preservation. A recent Catholic writer +correctly says: "There is no doubt that the religious problem to-day is +still the Luther problem." "Almost every statement of those religious +doctrines which are opposed to Catholic moral teaching find their +authorization in the theology of Martin Luther." + +Rome has never acknowledged her errors nor admitted her moral defeat. +The lessons of past history are wasted upon her. Rome is determined to +assert to the end that she was not, and cannot be, vanquished. In the +age of the Reformation, she admits, she suffered some losses, but she +claims that she is fast retrieving these, while Protestantism is +decadent and decaying. No opposition to her can hope to succeed. + +This is done to bolster up Catholic courage. The intelligent Catholic +layman of the present day makes his own observations, and draws his own +conclusions as to the status and the future prospect of Protestantism. +Therefore, he must be invited to "acquaint himself with the lifestory of +the man, whose followers can never explain away the anarchy of that +immoral dogma: 'Be a sinner, and sin boldly; but believe more boldly +still!' He must be shown the many hideous scenes of coarseness, +vulgarity, obscenity, and degrading immorality in Martin Luther's life." +When the Catholic rises from the contemplation of these scenes, it is +hoped that his mind has become ironclad against Protestant argument. +These attacks upon Luther are a plea _pro domo_, the effort of a strong +man armed to keep his palace and his goods in peace. + +Occurring, as they do, in this year of the Four-hundredth Anniversary of +the Reformation, these attacks, moreover, represent a Catholic +counter-demonstration to the Protestant celebration of the +Quadricentenary of Luther's Theses. They are the customary cries of +dissent and vigorous expressions of disgust which at a public meeting +come from parties in the audience that are not pleased with the speaker +on the stage. If the counter-demonstration includes in its program the +obliging application of eggs in an advanced state of maturity to the +speaker, and chooses to emphasize its presence to the very nostrils of +the audience, that, too, is part of the prevailing custom. It is +aesthetically incorrect, to be sure, but it is in line historically with +former demonstrations. No Protestant celebration would seem normal +without them. They help Protestants in their preparations for the +jubilee to appreciate the remarks of David in Psalm 2, 11: "Rejoice with +trembling." And if Shakespeare was correct in the statement: "Sweet are +the uses of adversity," they need not be altogether deplored. + +An attempt is made in these pages to review the principal charges and +arguments of Catholic critics of Luther. The references to Luther's +works are to the St. Louis Edition; those to the Book of Concord, to the +People's Edition. + +Authors must be modest, and as a rule they are. In the domain of +historical research there is rarely anything that is final. This +observation was forced upon the present writer with unusual power as the +rich contents of his subjects opened up to him during his study. He has +sought to be comprehensive, at least, as regards essential facts, in +every chapter; he does not claim that his presentation is final. He +hopes that it may stimulate further research. + +This book is frankly polemical. It had to be, or there would have been +no need of writing it. It seeks to meet both the assertions and the +spirit of Luther's Catholic critics. A review ought to be a mirror, and +mirrors must reflect. But there is no malice in the author's effort. + +W. H. T. Dau. + +Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo. +May 10, 1917. + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS. + + l. Luther Worship + 2. Luther Hatred + 3. Luther Blemishes + 4. Luther's Task + 5. The Popes in Luther's Time + 6. Luther's Birth and Parentage + 7. Luther's Great Mistake + 8. Luther's Failure as a Monk + 9. Professor Luther, D. D. + 10. Luther's "Discovery" of the Bible + 11. Rome and the Bible + 12. Luther's Visit at Rome + 13. Pastor Luther + 14. The Case of Luther's Friend Myconius + 15. Luther's Faith without Works + 16. The Fatalist Luther + 17. Luther a Teacher of Lawlessness + 18. Luther Repudiates the Ten Commandments + 19. Luther's Invisible Church + 20. Luther on the God-given Supremacy of the Pope + 21. Luther the Translator of the Bible + 22. Luther a Preacher of Violence against the Hierarchy + 23. Luther, Anarchist and Despot All in One + 24. Luther the Destroyer of Liberty of Conscience + 25. "The Adam and Eve of the New Gospel of Concubinage" + 26. Luther an Advocate of Polygamy + 27. Luther Announces His Death + 28. Luther's View of His Slanderers + + +1. Luther Worship. + +Catholic writers profess themselves shocked by the unblushing veneration +which Luther receives from Protestants. Such epithets as "hero of the +Reformation," "angel with the everlasting Gospel flying through the +midst of heaven," "restorer of the Christian faith," grate on Catholic +nerves. Luther's sayings are cited with approval by all sorts of men. +Men feel that their cause is greatly strengthened by having Luther on +their side. Luther's name is a name to conjure with. Hardly a great man +has lived in the last four hundred years but has gone on record as an +admirer of Luther. Rome, accordingly, cries out that Luther is become +the uncanonized saint of Protestantism, yea, the deified expounder of +the evangelical faith. + +Coming from a Church that venerates and adores and prays to--you must +not say "worships"--as many saints as there are days in the calendar, +this stricture is refreshing. Saints not only of questionable sanctity, +but of doubtful existence have been worshiped--beg pardon! venerated-- +by Catholics. What does the common law say about the prosecution coming +into court with clean hands? If there is such a thing among Protestants +as "religious veneration" of Luther, what shall we call the veneration +of Mary among Catholics? Pius IX, on December 8, 1854, proclaimed the +"immaculate conception," that is, the sinlessness of Mary from the very +first moment of her existence, thus removing her from the sphere of +sin-begotten humanity. In 1913, the press of the country was preparing +its readers for another move towards the deification of Mary: her +"assumption" was to be declared. That is, it was to be declared a +Catholic dogma that the corpse of Mary did not see corruption, and was +at the moment of her death removed to heaven. The _Pasadena Star_ of +August 15th in that year wrote: "It is now known that since his recent +illness Pope Pius, realizing that his active pontificate is practically +at an end, has expressed to some of the highest dignitaries of the +Catholic Church at Rome the desire to round out his career by this last +great act." The _Western Watchman_ of July 3d in that year had in its +inimitable style referred to the coming dogma, thus: "What Catholic in +the world to-day would say that the immaculately conceived body of +the Blessed Virgin was allowed to rot in the grave? The Catholic mind +would rebel against the thought; and death would be preferred to the +blasphemous outrage." The grounds for wanting the "assumption" of Mary +fixed in a dogma were these: "Catholics believe in the bodily assumption +of the Blessed Virgin, because their faith instinctively teaches them +that such a thing is possible and proper, and that settles it in favor +of the belief. The body of our Lord should not taste corruption, neither +should the body that gave Him His body. The flesh that was bruised for +our sins was the flesh of Mary. The blood that was shed for our +salvation was drawn from Mary's veins. It would be improper that the +Virgin Mother should be allowed to see corruption if her Son was +exempted from the indignity." If any should be so rash as to question +the propriety of the new dogma, the writer held out this pleasant +prospect to them: "Dogmas are stones at the heads of heretics. . . . The +eyes of all Catholics see aright; if they are afflicted with strabismus, +the Church resorts to an operation. All Catholics hear aright; if they +do not, the Church applies a remedy to their organ of hearing. These +surgical operations go under the name of dogmas." The world remembers +with what success an operation of this kind was performed on a number of +Roman prelates, who questioned the infallibility of the Pope. The dogma +was simply declared in 1870, and that put a quietus to all Catholic +scruples. Some day the "assumption" of Mary will be proclaimed as a +Catholic dogma. We should not feel surprised if ultimately a dogma were +published to the effect that the Holy Trinity is a Holy Quartet, with +Mary as the fourth person of the Godhead. + +The Roman Church is accustomed to speak of her Supreme Pontiff, the Holy +Father, the Vicegerent of Christ, His Infallible Holiness, in terms that +lift a human being to heights of adoration unknown among Protestants. +For centuries the tendency in the Roman Church to make of the Pope "a +god on earth" has been felt and expressed in Christendom. + +This Church wants to preach to Protestants about the sin of man-worship! +Verily, here we have the parable of the mote and the beam in a twentieth +century edition. Catholic teachers would be the last ones, we imagine, +whom scrupulous Christians would choose for instructing them regarding +the sin of idolatry and the means to avoid it. + +No Protestant regards Luther as Catholics regard Mary, not even Patrick. +Luther has taught them too well for that. Unwittingly the Catholics +themselves have immortalized Luther by naming the Evangelical Church +after Luther. Luther declined the honor. "I beg," he said, "not to have +my name mentioned, and to call people not Lutheran, but Christian. What +is Luther? The doctrine is not mine, nor have I been crucified for any +one. . . . The papists deserve to have a party-name, for they are not +content with the doctrine and name of Christ; they want to be popish +also. Well, let them be called popish, for the Pope is their master. I +am not, and I do not want to be, anybody's master." (10, 371.) + +It is likely that the frequent laudatory mention of Luther's name, +especially in connection with the present anniversary of the +Reformation, is taken as a challenge by Catholics. If it is that, it is +so by the choice of Catholics. It is impossible to speak of a great man +without referring to the conflicts that made him great. "He makes no +friend," says Tennyson, "who never made a foe." "The man who has no +enemies," says Donn Piatt, "has no following." Opposition is one of the +accepted marks of greatness. The opposition which great men aroused +during their lifetime lives after them, and crops out again on a given +occasion. This is deplorable, but it is the ordinary course. Moreover, +it is possible that in a season of great joy like that which the +Quadricentenary of the Reformation has ushered in orators and writers +may fail to put a due check on their enthusiasm and may overstate a +fact. Such things happen even among Catholics, we believe, But they will +be negligible quantities in the present celebration. The proper +corrective for them will be provided by Protestants themselves. The vast +majority of those who have embraced the spiritual leadership of Luther +in matters pertaining to Christian doctrine and morals will prove again +that they are in no danger of inaugurating man-worship. The spirit of +Luther is too much alive in them for that. They will, with the Marquis +of Brandenburg, declare: "If I be asked whether with heart and lip I +confess that faith which God has restored to us by Luther as His +instrument, I have no scruple, nor have I a disposition to shrink from +the name Lutheran. Thus understood, I am, and shall to my dying hour +remain, a Lutheran." They will ever be able to distinguish between the +man Luther, prone to error and sin like any other mortal, and the Luther +who fought the battle of the Lord and had a mission of everlasting +import to the Church and the world. They have shown on numerous +occasions that they can be friends of Luther, and yet criticize him or +dissent from him. If they had not, there would be no Protestants whom +Catholics can quote as "opponents" of Luther. On the other hand, if any +one undertakes to enlighten the public with a view of Luther, +Protestants will insist that his estimate comport with the facts in the +case, and that the name of a great man who deserves well of posterity be +not traduced. Why, even the Catholic von Schlegel thinks Luther has not +been half esteemed as he ought to be. + + +2. Luther Hatred. + +Catholic writers have found so much to censure in the character and +writings of Luther that one is amazed, after reading them, how Luther +ever could become regarded as a great and good man. Criminal blindness +must have held the eyes, not only of Luther's associates, but of his +entire age, yea, of men for centuries after, if they failed to see +Luther's constitutional baseness. Quite recently a Catholic writer has +told the world in one chapter of his book that "the apostate monk of +Wittenberg" was possessed of "a violent, despotic, and uncontrolled +nature," that he was "depraved in manners and in speech." He speaks of +Luther's "ungovernable transports, riotous proceedings, angry conflicts, +and intemperate controversies," of Luther's "contempt of all the +accepted forms of human right and all authority, human and divine," of +"his unscrupulous mendacity," "his perverse principles," "his wild +pronouncements." He calls Luther "a lawless one," "one of the most +intolerant of men," "a revolutionist, not a reformer." He says that +Luther "attempted reformation and ended in deformation." He charges +Luther with having written and preached "not for, but against good +works," with having assumed rights to himself in the matter of liberty +of conscience which "he unhesitatingly and imperiously denied to all who +differed from him," with having "rent asunder the unity of the Church," +with having "disgraced the Church by a notoriously wicked and scandalous +life," with having "declared it to be the right of every man to +interpret the Bible to his own individual conception," with "one day +proclaiming the binding force of the Ten Commandments and the next +declaring they were not obligatory on Christian observance," with having +"reviled and hated and cursed the Church of his fathers." + +These opprobrious remarks are only a part of the vileness of which the +writer has delivered himself in his first chapter. His whole book +bristles with assertions of Luther's inveterate badness. This coarse and +crooked Luther, we are told, is the real Luther, the genuine article. +The Luther of history is only a Protestant fiction. Protestants like +Prof. Seeberg of Berlin, and others, who have criticized Luther, are +introduced as witnesses for the Catholic allegation that Luther was a +thoroughly bad man. We should like to ascertain the feelings of these +Protestants when they are informed what use has been made of their +remarks about Luther. Some of them may yet let the world know what they +think of the attempt to make them the squires of such knights errant as +Denifle and Grisar. + +It is about ten years ago since the Jesuit Grisar began to publish his +_Life of Luther,_ twice that time, since Denifle painted his caricature +of Luther. Several generations ago Janssen, in his _History of the +German Nation,_ gave the Catholic interpretation of Luther and the +Reformation. Going back still further, we come to the Jesuit Maimbourg, +to Witzel, and in Luther's own time to Cochlaeus and Oldecop, all of +whom strove to convince the world that Luther was a moral degenerate and +a reprobate. The book of Mgr. O'Hare, which has made its appearance on +the eve of the Four-hundredth Anniversary of Luther's Theses, is merely +another eruption from the same mud volcano that became active in +Luther's lifetime. It is the old dirt that has come forth. Rome must +periodically relieve itself in this manner, or burst. Rome hated the +living Luther, and cannot forget him since he is dead. It hates him +still. Its hatred is become full-grown, robust, vigorous with the +advancing years. When Rome speaks its mind about Luther, it cannot but +speak in terms of malignant scorn. If Luther could read Mgr. O'Hare's +book, he would say: "Wes das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund ueber." +(Matt. 12, 34: "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.") + +Luther has done one thing which Rome will never pardon: he dared to +attack the supreme authority of the Pope. He made men see the +ignominious bondage in which cunning priests had ensnared them, and by +restoring them to the liberty with which Christ had made them free +Luther caused the papacy an irreparable loss. The papal system of +teaching and government was so thoroughly exposed by Luther, and has +since been so completely disavowed by a great part of professing +Christians that Rome cannot practise its old frauds any longer. Men have +become extremely wary of Rome. That is what hurts. The Catholic writer +to whom we referred sums up the situation thus: Since Luther "all +Protestant mankind descending by ordinary generation have come into the +world with a mentality biased, perverted, and prejudiced." That is +Rome's way of looking at the matter. The truth is: the world is +forewarned, hence forearmed against the pleas of Rome. It pays only an +indifferent attention to vilifications of Luther that come from that +quarter, because it expects no encomiums and only scant justice for +Luther from Rome. But it is the business of the teachers of Protestant +principles in religion, particularly of the church historians of +Protestantism, to take notice of the campaign of slander that is +launched against Luther by Catholic writers at convenient intervals. It +is not a task to delight the soul, rather to try the patience, of +Christians. For in the study of the causes for these calumnies against a +great man of history, and of the possible means for their removal, one +is forced invariably to the conclusion that there is but one cause, and +that is hatred. What can poor mortal man do to break down such a cause? +It does not yield to logic and historical facts, because it is in its +very nature unreasoning and unreasonable. + +Still, for the hour that God sends to all the Sauls that roam the earth +breathing threatening and slaughter, the counter arguments should be +ready. No slander against Luther has ever gone unanswered. As the +charges against Luther have become stereotyped, so the rejoinder cannot +hope to bring forward any new facts. But it seems necessary that each +generation in the Church Militant be put through the old drills, and +learn its fruitful lessons of spiritual adversity. Thus even these +polemical exchanges between Catholics and Protestants become blessings +in disguise. But they do not affect Luther. The sublime figure of the +courageous confessor of Christ that has stood towering in the annals of +the Christian Church for four hundred years stands unshaken, silent, and +grand, despite the froth that is dashed against its base and the +lightning from angry clouds that strikes its top. "Surely, the wrath of +man shall praise thee." (Ps. 76, 10.) + + +3. Luther Blemishes. + +When Luther is charged with immoral conduct, and the specific facts +together with the documentary evidence are not submitted along with the +charge, little can be done in the way of rebuttal. One can only guess at +the grounds on which the charge is based. For instance, when Luther is +said to have disgraced the Church by a notoriously wicked and scandalous +life, the reason is most likely because he married although he was a +monk sworn to remain single. Moreover, he married a noble lady who was a +nun, also sworn to celibacy. According to the inscrutable ethics of Rome +this is concubinage, although the Scripture plainly declares that a +minister of the Church should be the husband of one wife, 1 Tim. 3, 2, +and no vows can annul the ordinance and commandment of God: "It is not +good that man should be alone." Gen. 2, 18. Comp. 1 Cor. 7, 2, and +Augsburg Confession, Art. 27. + +When Luther is said to have reviled, hated, and cursed the Church of his +fathers, the probable reason is, because he wrote the _Babylonian +Captivity of the Church_ and _The Papacy at Rome Founded by the Devil_. +In these writings Luther depicts the true antichristian inwardness of +the papacy. By so doing, however, Luther restored the Church of his +fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers in Christ down to the first +ancestor of our race. Luther's faith is none other than the faith of the +true Church in all the ages. Luther's own father and mother died in that +faith. + +When Luther is said to have taught Nietzsche's insanity about the +"Superhuman" (Uebermensch) before Nietzsche, to have put the Ten +Commandments out of commission for Christians, and to have preached +against good works, the reasons most likely are these: Luther taught +salvation in accordance with Rom. 3, 25: "We conclude that a man is +justified by faith, without the deeds of the Law." Luther taught that a +person is not saved by his own works, and if he performs good works with +that end in view, he shames his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the +end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth (Rom. 10, +4), and he falls under the curse of God for placing his own merits +alongside of the merit of the Redeemer's sacrifice. In no other +connection has Luther spoken against good works. He has rather taught +men how to become fruitful in well-doing by the sanctifying grace of God +and according to the inspiring example of the matchless Jesus. +Concerning the Law, Luther preached 1 Tim. 1, 9: "The Law is not made +for a righteous man," that is, Christians do the works of the Law, not +for the Law's sake, but for the sake of Christ, whom they love and whose +mind is in them. They must not be driven like slaves to obey God, but +their very faith prompts them to live soberly, righteously, and godly in +this present world (Tit. 2, 12). But Luther always held that the rule +for good works is laid down in the holy Law of God, and only in that; +also that the Law must be applied to Christians, in as far as they still +live in, the flesh, and are not become altogether spiritual. Luther's +public activity as a preacher began with a series of sermons on the Ten +Commandments, and this effort to expound the divine norm of +righteousness was repeated several times during Luther's life. Luther's +expositions of the Decalog are among the finest that the world +possesses. Moreover, Luther wrote the Small Catechism. Hand any Catholic +who talks about Luther having abolished the Ten Commandments this little +book. That is a sufficient refutation. What Luther teaches in this book +he has given his life to reduce to practise in himself and others. He +says in a sermon on Easter Monday, 1530: "When rising in the morning, I +pray with my children the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's +Prayer, and some Psalm. I do this because I want to make myself cling to +these truths. I shall not suffer my faith to become mildewed with the +imagination that I am above these things (_dass ich's koenne_)." His +sermon on the First Sunday in Advent in the same year he begins thus: +"Dear friends, I am now an old Doctor, still I find every day that I +must recite with the children the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the +Lord's Prayer, and I have always derived a great benefit and blessing +from this practise." (12, 1611. 1641.) + +Luther is charged with mendacity, that is, he is said to have lied. The +reasons that will be given for this charge, when called for, will +probably be these: Luther at various times in his life gave three +different years as the year of his birth, three different years as the +year when he made his journey to Rome, and advised somebody in 1512 to +become a monk when he had already commenced to denounce the monastic +life: It is true that Luther did all these things, but it is also true +that Luther believed himself right in each of his statements. He was +simply mistaken. Other people have misstated the year of their birth +without being branded liars on that account. Sometimes even a professor +forgets things, and Luther was a professor. What Luther has said about +the rigor of his monastic life is perfectly true, but it was no reason +why in 1512 he should counsel men to become monks. He had not yet come +to the full knowledge of the wrong principles underlying that mode of +life. To adduce such inaccuracies as evidence of prevarication is itself +an insincere act and puts the claimant by right in the Ananias Club. + +Luther is said to have been a glutton and a drunkard. "Let us examine +the facts. What is the evidence? Luther's obesity and his gout. Is that +evidence? Not in any court. It would be evidence if both conditions were +caused, and caused only, by gluttony and tippling. But this notoriously +is not the case. Obesity may be due to disease. A man may even eat +little and wax stout if what he eats turns into adipose rather than into +muscular tissue. As for gout, it is the result of uric acid diathesis. +Now uric acid diathesis may be, and very often is, caused by high +living, but often, too, it is due to quite different causes. Just as in +the case of Bright's disease. I do not deny that Luther drank freely +both beer and wine. So did everybody else. People drank beer as we do +coffee. . . . Moreover, in the sixteenth century alcoholic beverages +were prescribed for the maladies from which Luther suffered much--kidneys +and nervous trouble. We now know that in such cases alcohol proves a +very poison; but this Luther could not know. But intemperate . . . in +his use of strong drink Luther was not. Neither was he a glutton. Before +he married, he ate very irregularly, and often completely forgot his +meals. When he could not get meat and wine, he contented himself with +bread and water. . . . Melanchthon tells us that Luther loved the coarse +food as he did the coarse speech of the peasantry, and even of that food +ate little, so little that Melanchthon marveled how Luther could +maintain strength upon such a diet.--It is further a noteworthy fact +that, when we read the sermons of the day, we find nobody who so +frequently and so earnestly attacks the prevailing vice of drunkenness +as does Luther. Now, whatever Luther may or may not have been, hypocrite +he was not. Had he himself been intemperate, he would not have preached +against it in such a manner. Furthermore, Luther was under constant +espionage. His every move was noted. People knew how many patches there +were on his undergarments. Think you, think you for a moment, that the +Wittenbergians would have listened meekly to Luther's repeated assaults +upon the wide-spread sin of intemperance, had they known him for a +confirmed tippler? It is too absurd.--But the best evidence for the +defense comes from a mute witness--Luther's industry. He wrote more than +four hundred books, brochures, sermons, and so forth, filling more than +one hundred volumes of the Erlangen edition. There are extant more than +three thousand of his letters, which represent only a small proportion +of all that he wrote. Thus we know, for example, that one evening in +1544 Luther wrote ten letters, of which only two have been preserved. He +was, furthermore, in frequent conference with leaders in both Church and +State. He preached on Sundays and lectured on week-days. Now, a man may, +it is true, perform a considerable amount of manual labor even after +overeating and overdrinking, but every physician will admit the +correctness of my assertion, it is a physiological impossibility that a +man could habitually overindulge in food or liquor, or both, and still +get over the enormous amount of intellectual work that Luther performed +day to day" (Boehmer, _The Man Luther,_ p. 16 f.) + +Most shameless have been the charges of lewdness and immorality against +Luther. His relation to Frau Cotta has been represented as impure. Think +of it, a boy of sixteen to eighteen thus related to an honorable +housewife! Illegitimate children have been foisted upon him. A humorous +remark about his intention to marry and being unable to choose between +several eligible parties has been twisted into an immoral meaning. The +fact that he gave shelter overnight to a number of escaped nuns, when he +was already a married man, has been meaningly referred to. Boehmer has +exhaustively gone into these charges, examining without flinching every +asserted fact cited in evidence of Luther's moral corruptness, and has +shown the purity of Luther as being above reproach. Not one of the +sexual vagaries imputed to Luther rests on a basis of fact. (Boehmer, +_Luther in Light of Recent Research,_ pp. 215-223.) + +When the modern reader meets with a general charge of badness, or even +with the assertion of some specific form of badness, in Luther, he +should inquire at once to what particular incident in Luther's life +reference is made. These charges have all been examined and the evidence +sifted, and that by impartial investigators. Protestants have taken the +lead in this work and have not glossed anything over. Boehmer's able +treatise has been translated into English. Walther's _Fuer Luther wider +Rom_ will, no doubt, be given the public in an English edition soon. +Works like these have long blasted the claim of Catholics that +Protestants are afraid to have the truth told about Luther. They only +demand that the _truth_ be told. + + +4. Luther's Task. + +One blemish in the character of Luther that is often cited with +condemnation even by Protestants deserves to be examined separately. It +is Luther's violence in controversy, his coarse language, his angry +moods. All will agree that violence and coarse speech must not be +countenanced in Christians, least of all in teachers of Christianity. In +the writings of Luther there occur terms, phrases, passages that sound +repulsive. The strongest admirer of Luther will have moments when he +wishes certain things could have been said differently. Luther's +language cannot be repeated in our times. Some who have tried to do that +in all sincerity have found to their dismay that they were wholly +misunderstood. What Jove may do any ox may not do, says an old Latin +proverb. + +Shall we, then, admit Luther's fault and proceed to apologize for him +and find plausible reasons for extenuating his indiscretions in speech +and his temperamental faults? We shall do neither. We shall let this +"foul-mouthed," coarse Luther stand before the bar of public opinion +just as he is. His way cannot be our way, but ultimately none of us will +be his final judges. The character of the duties which Luther was sent +to perform must be his justification. + +It is true, indeed, that the manners of the age of Luther were generally +rough. Even in polite society language was freely used that would make +us gasp. Coarse terms evidently were not felt to be such. In their +polemical writings the learned men of the age seem to exhaust a +zoological park in their frantic search for striking epithets to hurl at +their opponent. It was an age of strong feeling and sturdy diction. It +is also true that Luther was a man of the people. With a sort of homely +pride he used to declare: "I am a peasant's son; all my forbears were +peasants." But all this does not sufficiently explain Luther's +"coarseness." + +Most people that criticize Luther for his strong speech have read little +else of Luther. They are not aware that in the, great mass of his +writings there is but a small proportion of matter that would nowadays +be declared objectionable. Luther speaks through many pages, yea, +through whole books, with perfect calmness. It is interesting to observe +how he develops a thought, illustrates a point by an episode from +history or from every-day life, urges a lesson with a lively +exhortation. He is pleasant, gentle, serious, compassionate, artlessly +eloquent, and, withal, perfectly pure in all he says. When Luther +becomes "coarse," there is a reason. One must have read much in Luther, +one should have read all of Luther, and his "billingsgate" will assume a +different meaning. If there is madness in his reckless speech, there is +method in it. One must try and understand Luther's objective and +purpose. + +Luther had a very coarse subject to deal with, and Luther believed that +a spade is best called a spade. Luther never struck at wickedness with +the straw of a fine circumlocution. He believed that he had the right, +yea, the duty, to call coarse things by coarse names; for the Bible does +the same. Luther has called the gentlemen at the Pope's court in his day +some very descriptive names. He did not merely insinuate that the +cardinals of his day were no angels, but said outright what they were. +He did not feebly question the holiness of His Holiness, but he called +some of the Popes monsters of iniquity and reprobates. We shall show +anon that in that age there lived men who spoke of the same matters as +Luther, who told tales and used expressions that would render their +writings unmailable to-day. + +The great men of any age are products of that age. Man is as much the +creature of circumstances as circumstances are the creatures of men-- +Disraeli to the contrary notwithstanding. While men may create +situations, they may also be made to fit into a situation. Men have +become great for this very reason that they understand the spirit of +their age and were able to respond to its call. Back of both men and +circumstances, however, stands sovereign Providence, shaping our ends, +rough-hew them how we will. + +No character-study is just that fails to take into consideration the +force of circumstances under which the subject of the study has acted at +a given moment in his life. In the case of Luther there is a more than +ordinary necessity for adopting this equitable method; for Luther has +declared hundreds of times that his stirring utterances and incisive +deeds were not the result of long premeditation, or the sudden outbursts +of uncontrolled passion,--though neither he nor we would have any +interest in denying that he could be angry and did become angry,--but +the answer to crying needs of the times. This answer was on many a +signal occasion wrung from Luther after much wrestling with God in +prayer. He was moved to action by the heroism of that faith which had +been kindled in him. He acted in harmony with the particular issue with +which he was called upon to deal. Deep compassion at the sight of his +suffering fellow-men put strong language on his lips. Between the +pleading of friends and the storming of enemies he had no choice but to +act as he did. Luther often seems unconscious of the greatness of his +acts: he speaks of them as "his poor way of doing things," and invites +others to improve what he has attempted. We fear that many in our day +fail to see the greatness of the achievement while they stricture the +manner of achieving it. + +Few men have so utterly lived for a cause, in a cause, and with a cause +as Luther. It is the heart of an entire people that cries out through +Luther; it is the soul of outraged Christianity that moans in anguish, +and speaks with the majesty of righteous anger through Luther. An age of +unparalleled ferment that had begun long before Luther has reached its +culminating point, and lifts up its strident voice of long-restrained +expostulation through Luther. Remove the conditions under which Luther +had to live and labor, and the Luther whom men bless or curse becomes an +impossibility. + +In Luther's life-work there is discernible the influence not only of +good men, such as the scholarly Melanchthon, the faithful Jonas, the +firm and kind Saxon electors, the eager Amsdorf, the alert Link, but +also of evil men like the blunt Tetzel, the wily Prierias, and the horde +of ignorant monks which the monasteries and chancelleries of Rome let +loose upon one man. The course which Luther had to pursue was shaped for +him by others. We do not mean to suggest that Luther in his polemical +writings employed the cheap method of replying to the coarse language +adopted by his opponents in similar language; but it is fair to him that +this fact be recorded. Some people remember very well that Luther +addressed the Pope "Most hellish father!" and are horrified, but they +forget that the Pope had been extremely lurid in the appellatives which +he applied to Luther. "Child of Belial," "son of perdition," were some +of the endearing terms with which Luther was to be assured of the loving +interest the Holy Father took in him. That Luther called Henry VIII "a +damnable and rotten worm" seems to be well remembered, but that the +British king had called Luther "a wolf of hell" is forgotten. It goes +without saying that the contact with such opponents did for Luther what +it does for every person who is not made of granite and cast iron: it +roused his temper. It should not have been permitted to do that, we say. +Assuredly. Luther thinks so too, but with a reservation, as we shall +learn. + +The "imperious spirit" and "violent measures" charged against Luther a +careful reader of history will rather find on the side of Luther's +opponents. They plainly relied on the power of Rome to crush Luther by +brute force. What respect could a plain, honest man like Luther conceive +for men like Cajetanus, Eck, and Hoogstraten, who were first sent by the +Vatican to negotiate his surrender? For publishing simple Bible-truth +the cardinal at Augsburg roared and bellowed at him, "Recant! Recant!" +Even at this early stage of the affair matters assumed such an ominous +aspect that Luther's friends urged him to quietly leave the city. They +did not trust the amicable gentleman from the polished circle of the +Pope's immediate counselors. At Leipzig, Eck had been driven into the +corner by Luther's unanswerable arguments from Scripture; then he turned +to abuse and called Luther a Bohemian and a Hussite, and finally left +the hall with the air of a victor to celebrate his achievement in the +taverns and brothels of the city, where he found his customary delights +learned from his masters at Rome. Can any language of contempt in which +Luther afterwards spoke of this doughty champion of Rome be too strong? +Among the attendants at the Leipzig Debate was Hoogstraten. This +gentleman followed the elevating profession of torturing and burning +heretics in Germany,--the territory especially assigned to him. It +looked as if he had come to Leipzig to follow up Eck's verbal thunder +with the inquisitorial lightning, and make of Luther actually another +Hus. When he found that he would not have an opportunity for plying his +hideous trade this time, he ventured into territory where he was a +stranger: he attempted a theological argument with Luther. He asserted +that by denying the primacy of the Pope, Luther had contradicted the +Scriptures and defied the Council of Nice, and must be suppressed. +Luther called him an unsophisticated ass and a bloodthirsty enemy of the +truth. Certainly, that does not sound nice, but such things happen, as a +rule, when fools rush in where angels fear to tread. + +What was the papal bull of excommunication against Luther, with its list +of most opprobrious terms, but an unwarranted provocation of Luther, who +had a right to expect different treatment from the foremost teacher of +Christianity to whom he had entrusted his just grievance as a dutiful +son of the Church? Thus we might go on for pages citing instances of +reckless attack upon Luther, often by most unworthy persons, that drew +from Luther a reply such as his assailants deserved. + +It is a gratuitous criticism to say that Christians must not revile when +they are reviled. Those who think that Luther did not know this rule of +the Christian religion, or did not apply it to himself, do not know the +full story of his life. He certainly did wrestle with the flesh and +blood in himself. He sighed for peace, but the moment he seemed to +become conciliatory and pacific, his enemies set up a shout that he was +vanquished. It seemed that they could not be made to comprehend the +issues confronting them unless they were blown in upon them on the wings +of a hurricane. As early as 1520 Luther replies to an anxious letter of +Spalatin, who thought that Luther had used too strong language against +the Bishop of Meissen, as follows: "Good God! how excited you are, my +Spalatin! You seem even more stirred up than I and the others. Do you +not see that my patience in not replying to Emser's and Eck's five or +six wagonloads of curses is the sole reason why the framers of this +document have dared to attack me with such silly and ridiculous +nonsense? For you know how little I cared that my sermon at Leipzig was +condemned and suppressed by a public edict; how I despised suspicion, +infamy, injury, hatred. Must these audacious persons even be permitted +to add to these follies scandalous pamphlets crammed full of falsehoods +and blasphemies against Gospel-truth? Do you forbid even to bark at +these wolves? The Lord is my witness how I restrained myself lest I +should not treat with reverence this accursed and most impotent document +issued in the bishop's name. Otherwise I should have said things those +heads ought to hear, and I will yet, when they acknowledge their +authorship by beginning to defend themselves. I beg, if you think +rightly of the Gospel, do not imagine its cause can be accomplished +without tumult, scandal, and sedition. Out of the sword you cannot make +a feather, nor out of war, peace. The Word of God is a sword, war, ruin, +destruction, poison, and, as Amos says, it meets the children of Ephraim +like a bear in the way and a lioness in the woods.--I cannot deny that I +have been more vehement than is seemly. But since they knew this, they +ought not to have stirred up the dog. How difficult it is to temper +one's passions and one's pen you can judge even from your own case. This +is the reason I have always disliked to engage in public controversy; +but the more I dislike it, the more I am involved against my will, and +that only by the most atrocious slanders brought against me and the Word +of God. If I were not carried away thereby either in temper or pen, even +a heart of stone would be moved by the indignity of the thing to take up +arms; and how much more I, who am both passionate and possessed of a pen +not altogether blunt! By these monstrosities I am driven beyond modesty +and decorum. At the same time, I wonder where this new religion came +from, that whatever you say against an adversary is slander. What do you +think of Christ? Was He a slanderer when He called the Jews an +adulterous and perverse generation, the offspring of vipers, hypocrites, +sons of the devil? And what about Paul when he used the words dogs, vain +babblers, seducers, ignorant, and in Acts 13 so inveighed against a +false prophet that he seems almost insane: `Oh, thou full of deceit and +of all craft, thou son of the devil, enemy of the truth'? Why did he not +gently flatter him, that he might convert him, rather than thunder in +such a way? It is not possible, if acquainted with the truth, to be +patient with inflexible and ungovernable enemies of the truth. But +enough of this nonsense. I see that everybody wishes I were gentle, +especially my enemies, who show themselves least so of all. If I am too +little gentle, I am at least simple and open, and therein, as I believe, +surpass them, for they dispute only in a deceitful fashion." (19, 482 f. +Translation by McGiffert.) + +Nobody should make Luther any better than he makes himself. Still, the +question is pertinent whether violent polemics can ever be engaged in by +Christians with a good conscience. Luther has asserted that, while he +hurled his terrible denunciations against the adversaries of the truth, +his heart was disposed to friendship and peace with them. (16, 1718 f.) +Is a state of mind like this altogether inconceivable, viz., that a +person can curse another for a certain act and at the same time love +him? We think not. In his day this boisterous, turbulent Luther was +understood, trusted, and loved by the people. After the publication of +the Theses against Tetzel "the hearts of men in all parts of the land +turned toward him, and his heart turned toward them. For the religious +principles underlying the theses they cared little, for the arguments +sustaining them still less. They saw only that here was a man, muzzled +by none of the prudential considerations closing the mouths of many in +high places, who dared to speak his mind plainly and emphatically, and +was able to speak it intelligently and with effect upon a great and +growing evil deplored by multitudes. It is such a man the people love +and such a man they trust." (McGiffert, _Luther,_ p. 98 f.) + +McGiffert has the right perception of the Luther of 1517-1519 when he +describes him as "the awakening reformer," thus: "He had the true +reformer's conscience--the sense of responsibility for others as well as +for himself, and the true reformer's vision of the better things that +ought to be. He was never a mere faultfinder, but he was endowed with +the gifts of imagination and sympathy, leading him to feel himself a +part of every situation he was placed in, and with the irrepressible +impulse to action driving him to take upon himself the burden of it. In +any crowd of bystanders he would have been first to go to the rescue +where need was, and quickest to see the need not obvious to all. The +aloofness of the mere observer was not his; he was too completely one +with all he saw to stand apart and let it go its way alone. Fearful and +distrustful of himself he long was, but his timidity was only the +natural shrinking before new and untried duties of a soul that saw more +clearly and felt more keenly than most. The imperative demands +inevitably made upon him by every situation led him instinctively to +dread putting himself where he could not help responding to the call of +unfamiliar tasks; but once there, the summons was irresistible, and he +threw himself into the new responsibilities with a forgetfulness of self +possible only to him who has denied its claims, and with a fearlessness +possible only to him who has conquered fear. He might interpret his +confidence as trust in God, won by the path of a complete contempt of +his own powers; but however understood, it gave him an independence and +a disregard of consequences which made his conscience and his vision +effective for reform." + +McGiffert suggests a comparison of Luther with, let us say, Erasmus. Had +he been a humanist, he would have laughed the whole thing [Tetzel's +selling of indulgences] to scorn as an exploded superstition beneath the +contempt of an intelligent man; had he been a scholastic theologian, he +would have sat in his study and drawn fine distinctions to justify the +traffic without bothering himself about its influence upon the lives of +the vulgar populace. But he was neither humanist nor schoolman. He had a +conscience which made indifference impossible, and a simplicity and +directness of vision which compelled him to brush aside all equivocation +and go straight to the heart of things. With it all he was at once a +devout and believing son of the Church, and a practical preacher +profoundly concerned for the spiritual and moral welfare of the common +people." (p. 66f. 87.) Had Luther considered his personal interests as +Erasmus did, he would not have become the Luther that we know. Erasmus +in his day was regarded as the wisest of men; Luther in his own view, +like Paul, frequently had to make a fool of himself in order to achieve +his purpose. For instance, when he wrote against the dullards at the +University of Louvain, against the sacrilegious coterie at Rome that was +running the Church and the world pretty much as they pleased, or against +the brutal "Hans Wurst" (Duke Henry of Brunswick). Erasmus and his +school of gentle reformers always counseled a slackening of the pace and +the use of the soft pedal. Where is Erasmus to-day in the world's +valuation? Even Rome, in whose bosom he nestled, and who fondled him for +a season, has cast him aside as worthless. Luther lives yet, to the +delight not only of Coleridge, but of millions of the world's best men, +who, with the British divine, regard him this very hour as "a purifying +and preserving spirit to Christianity at large." + +Luther was conscious of the difference in the method of warfare between +himself and his colaborer Melanchthon. He says: "I am rough, boisterous, +stormy, and altogether warlike. I am born to fight against innumerable +monsters and devils. I must remove stumps and stones, cut away thistles +and thorns, and clear wild forests; but Master Philip comes along softly +and gently, sowing and watering with joy, according to the gifts which +God has abundantly bestowed upon him," (14, 176.) + +Dr. Tholuck, writing on "Luther's rashness," says: "What would have +become of the Church if the Lord's servants and prophets had at all +times done nothing else than spread salves upon sores and walk softly?" +He introduces Luther in his own defense: "On one occasion, when asked by +the Marquis Joachim I why he wrote against the princes, he returned the +beautiful answer: 'When God intends to fertilize the ground, He must +needs send first of all a good thunderstorm, and afterwards slow and +gentle rain, and thus make it thoroughly productive.' Elsewhere he says: +'A willow-branch may be cut with a knife and bent with a finger, but for +a great and gnarled oak we must use an ax and a wedge'; and again: 'If +my teeth had been less sharp, the Pope would have been more voracious.' +'Of what use is salt,' he exclaims in another passage, 'if it do not +bite the tongue? or the blade of a sword unless it be sharp enough to +cut? Does not the prophet say, "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the +Lord deceitfully, and keepeth back his sword from blood"?'" + +One reflection suggests itself in this connection that goes far to +exonerate Luther: the language which the Bible employs against heretics +and ungodly men. It calls them dogs, Ps. 22, 20; 59, 6; Is. 56, 10; +Matt. 7, 6; Phil. 3, 2; Rev. 22, 15; swine, Matt. 7, 6; boars and wild +beasts, Ps. 80, 13; dromedaries and asses, Jer. 2, 23f.; bullocks, Jer. +31, 18; bellowing bulls, Jer. 50, 11; viper's brood, Matt. 3, 7; foxes, +Cant. 2, 5; Luke 13, 32; serpents, Matt. 23, 33; sons of Belial, 1 Sam. +2, 12; children of the devil, Acts 13, 10; Satan's synagog, Rev. 2, 9. +As regards its language, the Bible, too, agrees with the conditions of +the times in which it was written. When God, to express His righteous +anger, addresses the ungodly in such terms of utter contempt, He teaches +us how to regard them and, on occasion, to speak of them. This "coarse" +Luther is not more vehement and repulsive in his speech than the holy +Word of God. + +We remarked before that we would not apologize for Luther's rashness and +coarse speech. Luther's acts are self-vindicating; they will approve +themselves to the discriminating judgment of every reader of history. We +can appreciate this sentiment of McGiffert : "As well apologize for the +fury of the wind as for the vehemence of Martin Luther." The Psalmist +calls upon the forces of nature: "Praise the Lord, fire, and hail; snow +and vapors; stormy wind fulfilling His word." (Ps. 148, 7. 8.) God has a +mission that our philosophy does not fathom for the mad hurry and +destruction of the whirlwind. How silly it would be to criticize a +cyclone because it is not a zephyr! We can imagine a scene like this: +The battle of Gettysburg is in progress and a gentle lady is permitted +to see it from a distance by a grim, warlike guide, and the following +conversation ensues: + +"Why, they are shooting at each other! Did you see that naughty man stab +the pretty soldier right through his uniform?" + +"Yes, madam, that is what he is there for." + +"But is it not horrid?" + +"Yes, madam, it is perfectly horrid. It is hell." + +"But what are they doing this beastly work for?" + +"Madam, they are fighting for a principle that is to keep this country a +united republic." + +"Can anything be more horrid?--I mean, not the principle, but this awful +butchery." + +"Yes, madam, there is something more horrid than that." + +"What is it?" + +"If there would be no one to fight for that principle." + +War is never a pleasant affair. When men are forced to fight for what is +dearer to them than life, they will strike hard and deep. It is silly to +expect a soldier to walk up to his enemy with a fly brush and shoo him +away, or to stop and consider what posterity would probably regard as +the least objectionable way for dispatching an enemy. Luther was called +to be a warrior; he had to use warriors' methods. Any general in a +bloody campaign can be criticized for violence with as much reason as is +shown by some critics of Luther. + + +5. The Popes in Luther's Time. + +To judge intelligently the activity of Luther it is necessary to +understand the state of the Church in his day and the character of the +chief bishops of the Church. When reading modern censures of Luther's +attacks upon the papacy, one wonders why nothing is said about the thing +that Luther attacked. Catholic critics of Luther surely must know what +papal filth lies accumulated in the _Commentarii di Marino Sanuto,_ in +Alegretto Alegretti's _Diari Sanesi,_ in the _Relazione di Polo +Capello,_ in the _Diario de Sebastiano di Branca de Tilini,_ in the +_Successo di la Morte di Papa Alessandro,_ in Tommaso Inghirami's _Fea, +Notizie Intorno Rafaele Sanzio da Urbino,_ and others. Ranke worked with +these authorities when he wrote his _History of the Popes_. What about +the authorities which Gieseler cites in his _Ecclesiastical History_-- +Muratori, Fabronius, Machiavelli, Sabellicus, Raynaldus, Eccardus, +Burchardus, etc.? A compassionate age has relegated the exact account of +the moral state of the papacy in Luther's days to learned works, and +even in these they are given mostly in Latin footnotes. In the language +of Augustus Birrell, they are "too coarse." + +Luther's life (1483-1546) falls into the administration of nine Popes: +Sixtus IV, 1471-1484; Innocent VIII, 1484-1492; Alexander VI, 1492-1503; +Pius III, 26 days in 1503; Julius II, 1503-1513; Leo X, 1513-1521; +Hadrian VI, 1522-1523; Clement VII, 1523-1534; Paul III, 1534-1549. + +Speaking of this series of Popes, the historian Gieseler says: "The +succession of Popes which now follows proves the degeneracy of the +cardinals (from among whom the Pope is chosen) as to all discipline and +sense of shame: they were distinguished for nothing but undisguised +meanness and wickedness; they were reprobates." + +Of Sixtus IV he says: "His chief motive was the small ambition to raise +his family from their low estate to the highest rank." Infamous +transactions which resulted in the murder of Julian de Medici while at +high mass in church and the hanging of the archbishop of Pisa from a +window of the town hall by the exasperated people, wars, conspiracies, +alliances, annulments of alliances, in short, all the acts that fill up +the turbulent life of a crafty and grasping politician, are recorded for +his administration. He did not scruple to employ the authority of his +exalted office for the furtherance of his political schemes. Thus he +excommunicated Venice and formed a warlike alliance against the city. +But the Venetians regarded his religious thunderbolts as little as his +physical prowess. "Vexation at this hastened the death of the Pope, who +was hated as much as he was despised." + +Ranke, on the authority of Alegretti, relates of Pope Sixtus IV: "The +Colonna family, opponents of the Pope's nephew Riario, was persecuted by +him with the most savage ferocity. He seized on their domain of Marino, +and causing the prothonotary Colonna to be attacked in his own house, +took him prisoner, and put him to death. The mother of Colonna came to +St. Celso, in Banchi, where the corpse lay, and lifting the severed head +by its hair, she exclaimed: 'Behold the head of my son. Such is the +truth of the Pope. He promised that my son should be set at liberty if +Marino were delivered into his hands. He is possessed of Marino, and, +behold, we have my son--but dead. Thus does the Pope keep his word.'" + +His successor, Innocent VIII, "in defiance of the conditions of his +election, sought with a still more profligate vileness to exalt and +enrich his seven illegitimate children." He had been elected on the +condition that he would make only one blood relative a cardinal, and +that certain other benefices of the Church should not be given to any +one related to him. The people called him Nocens (the Guilty One, or the +Harmful One) instead of Innocent, and immortalized the prolific +paternity of this saintly celibate in the following epigram: + + Octo Nocens genuit pueros totidemque puellas, + Hunc merito poterit dicere Roma patrem, + +that is, + + Nocens begat eight boys and an equal number of maidens; + Rightly, then, Rome will be able to call this gentleman father. + +"He carried on two wars with Ferdinand, king of Naples, until the year +1492, and brought forward Renatus, duke of Lorraine, as pretender to his +crown. True, he proceeded, as his predecessors had done, to encourage +princes and people to undertake expeditions against the Turks; but when +Dschem, the brother and rival of the Turkish Sultan Bajazet, was +delivered over to him at the head of an army against the Turks, he chose +rather to detain him in prison on consideration of an annual tribute +from the Turkish Sultan." The story how the Pope got possession of the +Turkish prince and refused 200,000 ducats ransom for him because he had +received an offer of 600,000 from another party, reads like a story of +professional brigandage. + +Alexander VI, "the most depraved of all the Popes, likewise recognized +no loftier aim than to heap honors and possessions upon his five +illegitimate children, and among them especially his favorite, Caesar +Borgia." The nuptials celebrated for the Pope's daughter Lucretia--who, +by the way, was a _divorcee_--were "by no means peculiarly decorous." +The Latin chronicler who has related them reports in this connection +that the moral state of the clergy at Rome was indescribably low. The +example of the Popes had set the pace for the rest. From the highest to +the lowest each priest had his concubine as a substitute for married +life (_"concubinas in figura matrimonii"_), and that, quite openly. The +good chronicler remarks: "If God does not provide a restraint, this +corruption will pass on to the monks and the religious orders; however, +the monasteries of the city are nearly all become brothels already, and +no one raises his voice against it." Wading through the mephitic +rottenness of these ancient chronicles, one is seized with nausea. + +Holy things, religious privileges, had become merchandise with which the +Popes trafficked. The chronicler Burchardus relates: "In those days the +following couplet was sung in nearly the whole Christian world: + + "Vendit Alexander claves, Altaria, Christum, + Emerat ista prius, vendere juste potest." + +The meaning of this satire is: Alexander sells the power of the keys of +heaven, the right to officiate at the altar, yea, Christ Himself; he had +first bought these things himself, therefore he has a right to sell them +again. Unblushing perfidy was practised by this Pope in his dealings +with kings who were his religious subjects. In a quarrel with Charles +VIII of France he threatened the king with excommunication, and sought +aid from the Turkish Sultan. "However, when Charles appeared in Rome, +the Pope went over to his side immediately, and delivered up to him +Prince Dschem; but he took care to have him poisoned immediately, that +he might not lose the price set upon his head by the Sultan." Thus he +conciliated the French monarch and filled his purse by one and the same +act. "By traffic in benefices, sale of indulgences, exercise of the +right of spoils, and taxes for the Turkish war, as well as by the murder +of rich or troublesome persons, Alexander was seeking to scrape together +as much money as possible to support the wanton luxury and shameful +licentiousness of his court, and provide treasures for his children." In +their correspondence men who had dealings with him would refer to him in +such terms as these: "That monstrous head--that infamous beast!" ("_Hoc +monstruoso capite--hac infami belua!"_) + +"At length the poison which the Pope had meant for a rich cardinal, in +order to make himself master of his wealth, brought upon himself +well-deserved death." The Pope's butler had been bribed and exchanged +the poison-cup intended for the Pope's victim for the Pope's cup, and +the Pope took his own medicine. + +On the basis of Alegretti's notes, Ranke has drawn a fine pen-picture of +the reign of terror which Caesar Borgia, the favorite son of Alexander +VI, inaugurated at Rome. "With no relative or favorite would Caesar +Borgia endure the participation of his power. His own brother stood in +his way: Caesar caused him to be murdered and thrown into the Tiber. His +brother-in-law was assailed and stabbed, by his orders, on the steps of +his palace. The wounded man was nursed by his wife and sister, the +latter preparing his food with her own hands, to secure him from poison; +the Pope set a guard upon the house to protect his son-in-law from his +son. Caesar laughed these precautions to scorn. 'What cannot be done at +noonday,' said he, 'may be brought about in the evening.' When the +prince was on the point of recovery, he burst into his chamber, drove +out the wife and sister, called in the common executioner, and caused +his unfortunate brother-in-law to be strangled. Toward his father, whose +life and station he valued only as a means to his own aggrandizement, he +displayed not the slightest respect or feeling. He slew Peroto, +Alexander's favorite, while the unhappy man clung to his patron for +protection, and was wrapped within the pontifical mantle. The blood of +the favorite flowed over the face of the Pope.--For a certain time the +city of the apostles and the whole state of the Church were in the hands +of Caesar Borgia. . . . How did Rome tremble at his name! Caesar +required gold, and possessed enemies. Every night were the corpses of +murdered men found in the streets, yet none dared move; for who but +might fear that his turn would be next? Those whom violence could not +reach were taken off by poison. There was but one place on earth where +such deeds were possible--that, namely, where unlimited temporal power +was united to the highest spiritual authority, where the laws, civil and +ecclesiastical, were held in one and the same hand." + +Pope Julius, who came into power after the twenty-six days' reign of +Pius III, was a warlike man. "He engaged in the boldest operations, +risking all to obtain all. He took the field in person, and having +stormed Mirandola, he pressed into the city across the frozen ditches +and through the breach; the most disastrous reverses could not shake his +purpose, but rather seemed to waken new resources in him." "He wrested +Perugia and Bologna from their lords. As the powerful state of Venice +refused to surrender her conquests, he resolved at length, albeit +unwillingly, to avail himself of foreign aid; he joined the League of +Cambrai, concluded between France and the Emperor, and assisted with +spiritual and temporal weapons to subdue the republic. Venice, now hard +pressed, yielded to the Pope, in order to divide this overwhelming +alliance. Julius, already alarmed at the progress of the French in +Italy, readily granted his forgiveness, and now commenced hostilities +against the French and their ally, Alphonso, Duke of Ferrara. He +declared that the king of France had forfeited his claim on Naples, and +invested Ferdinand the Catholic with the solo dominion of his realm. He +issued a sentence of condemnation against the Duke of Ferrara. Lewis XII +strove in vain to alarm him by the National Council of Tours,--Germany, +by severe gravamina (complaints of national grievances against the Papal +See), and by the threat of the Pragmatic Sanction (an imperial order to +confirm the decrees of such reform councils as that of Basel). Not even +a General Council, summoned at Pisa by the two monarchs for the first of +September, 1511, with the dread phantom of a reform of the Church, could +bend the violent Pope." The Council of Pisa the Pope neutralized by +convening a Lateran Council, which at the Pope's bidding hurled its +thundering manifestos in the name of the Almighty against the Pope's +enemies. He died while this conflict was raging. Luther was in Rome +while the Pope was engaged as just related. + +What elements of appalling greed and levity had entered the holiest +transactions of the Church can be seen from the following summing up of +the situation daring Luther's time: "A large amount of worldly power was +at this time conferred in most instances, together with the bishoprics; +they were held more or less as sinecures according to the degree of +influence or court favor possessed by the recipient or his family. The +Roman Curia thought only of how it might best derive advantage from the +vacancies and presentations; Alexander extorted double annates or +first-fruits, and levied double, nay, triple tithes; there remained few +things that had not become matter of purchase. The taxes of the papal +chancery rose higher from day to day, and the comptroller, whose duty it +was to prevent all abuses in that department, most commonly referred the +revision of the imposts to those very men who had fixed their amounts. +For every indulgence obtained from the datary's office, a stipulated sum +was paid; nearly all the disputes occurring at this period between the +states of Europe and the Roman Court arose out of these exactions, which +the Curia sought by every possible means to increase, while the people +of all countries as zealously strove to restrain them. + +"Principles such as these necessarily acted on all ranks affected by the +system based on them, from the highest to the lowest. Many ecclesiastics +were found ready to renounce their bishoprics; but they retained the +greater part of the revenues, and not unfrequently the presentation of +the benefices dependent on them also. Even the laws forbidding the son +of a clergyman (!) to procure induction to the living of his father, and +enacting that no ecclesiastic should dispose of his office by will (!), +were continually evaded; for as all could obtain permission to appoint +whomsoever he might choose as his coadjutor, provided he were liberal of +his money, so the benefices of the Church became in a manner hereditary. + +"It followed of necessity that the performance of ecclesiastical duties +was grievously neglected. . . . In all places incompetent persons were +intrusted with the performance of clerical duties; they were appointed +without scrutiny or selection. The incumbents of benefices were +principally interested in finding substitutes at the lowest possible +cost; thus the mendicant friars were frequently chosen as particularly +suitable in this respect. These men occupied the bishoprics under the +title (previously unheard of in that sense) of suffragans; the cures +they held in the capacity of vicars." (!) + +In order not to extend this review too long, we shall refer only to one +other Pope, Leo X. It was in the main a prosperous reign that was +inaugurated by Leo X. A treaty was concluded with France, which had +invaded Italy. By a diplomatic maneuver the Pragmatic Sanction was +annulled, and the Lateran Council was ordered to pronounce its +death-warrant. France was humbled. "All resistance was vain against the +alliance of the highest spiritual with the highest temporal power. Now, +at last, the papacy seemed once more to have quelled the hostile spirit +which had grown up at Constance and Basel (two church councils which +tried to reform the papacy, but failed), and found its stronghold in +France, and at this very time it was near its most grievous fall." Two +years later Luther, not fathoming as yet the depths of iniquity which he +was beginning to lay bare, published his Ninety-Five Theses. + +Leo X is the Pope that excommunicated Luther. Ranke describes the +closing hours of his life. The Pope had been extremely successful in his +political schemes. "Parma and Placentia were recovered, the French were +compelled to withdraw, and the Pope might safely calculate on exercising +great influence over the new sovereign of Milan. It was a crisis of +infinite moment: a new state of things had arisen in politics--a great +movement had commenced in the Church. The aspect of affairs permitted +Leo to flatter himself that he should retain the power of directing the +first, and he had succeeded in repressing the second." (This refers to +Luther's protest; the Pope was, of course, mistaken in the view that he +had put a stop to Luther's movement by excommunicating him.) "He was +still young enough to indulge the anticipation of fully profiting by the +results of this auspicious moment. Strange and delusive destiny of man! +The Pope was at his villa of Malliana when he received intelligence that +his party had triumphantly entered Milan; he abandoned himself to the +exultation arising naturally from the successful completion of an +important enterprise, and looked cheerfully on at the festivities his +people were preparing on the occasion. He paced backward and forward +till deep in the night, between the window and the blazing hearth--it +was the month of November. Somewhat exhausted, but still in high +spirits, he arrived at Rome, and the rejoicings there celebrated for his +triumph were not yet concluded, when he was attacked by a mortal +disease. 'Pray for me,' said he to his servants, 'that I may yet make +you all happy.' We see that he loved life, but his hour was come, he had +not time to receive the sacrament nor extreme unction. So suddenly, so +prematurely, and surrounded by hopes so bright! he died-'as the poppy +fadeth.'" In the record of Sanuto, who is witness for these events, +there is a "Lettera di Hieronymo Bon a suo barba, a di 5 Dec." which +contains the following: "It is not certainly known whether the Pope died +of poison or not. He was opened. Master Fernando judged that he was +poisoned, others thought not. Of this last opinion is Master Severino, +who saw him opened, and says he was not poisoned." (Ranke, I, 34 ff.; +Gieseler, III, 290 ff., at random.) + +Out of such conditions grew Luther's work. But on these conditions +Catholic critics of Luther maintain a discreet--shall we not say, a +guilty?--silence. Few Catholic laymen to whom the horrors of Luther's +life are painted with repulsive effect know the horrors which Luther +faced. They are only told that Luther attacked "Holy Mother." They are +not told that "Holy Mother" had become the harlot of the ages. + + +6. Luther's Birth and Parentage. + +Catholic writers make thorough work in explaining the reasons for +Luther's "defection" from Rome. They apply to Luther's stubborn +resistance the law of heredity: Luther's wildness was congenital. Some +have declared him the illegitimate child of a Bohemian heretic, others, +the oaf of a witch, still others, a changeling of Beelzebub, etc. + +Many of these writers, giving themselves the airs of painstaking +investigators who have made careful research, repeat the tale of +Barbour, viz., that Luther was born in the day-and-night room of an inn +at Eisleben. If this is so, Luther's mother must have been a traveler on +the day of her first confinement. If this were so, the fact could, of +course, be easily explained without dishonor to Luther's mother: she +merely miscalculated the date of the birth of her first-born,--not an +unusual occurrence. Carlyle believed this story, but gave it an almost +too honorable turn, by likening the inn at Eisenach to the inn at +Bethlehem. + +But this story of Luther's birth in a bar-room is not history; it +belongs in the realm of mythology. Nobody knows to-day the house where +Luther was born. Preserved Smith, his latest American biographer, says +there is a house shown at Eisleben as Luther's birthplace, but it is +"not well authenticated." (p. 2.) There is a bar and a restaurant in +this particular building _now,_ for the accommodation of foreign +visitors. It is possible that in this mythical birthplace of Luther you +can get a stein of foaming "monk's brew" or a "benedictine" from the +monastery at Fecamp, or a "chartreuse" from Tarragona, distilled +according to the secret formula of the holy fathers of La Grande +Chartreuse. If you sip a sufficient quantity of these persuasive +liquors, you will find it possible to believe most anything. And the +blessing of the holy fathers who have prepared the beverages for your +repast will be given you gratis in addition to their liquors. + +The journey of Luther's mother to Eisleben which compelled her to put up +at an inn is, likewise, imaginary. Melanchthon, Luther's associate +during the greater part of the Reformer's life, investigated the matter +and states that Luther was born at his parents' home in Eisenach during +their temporary sojourn in that city, prior to their removal to Mansfeld. + +These stories about the place and manner of Luther's birth originated in +the seventeenth century. They were unknown in Luther's time. Generations +after a great man has died gossip becomes busy and begins to relate +remarkable incidents of his life. Lincoln did not say or do one half of +the interesting things related about him. He has been drawn into that +magical circle where myths are formed, because his great name will +arouse interest in the wildest tale. That is what has happened to +Luther. These "myths" are an unconscious tribute to his greatness. One +might let them pass as such and smile at them. + +But the Catholic version of Luther's birth is needed by their writers as +a corollary to another "fact" which they have discovered about Luther's +father Hans. Hans Luther, so their story runs, was a fugitive from +justice at the time of his Martin's birth. In a fit of anger he had +assaulted or slain a man in his native village of Moehra, and abandoning +his small landholdings, he fled with his wife, who was in an advanced +stage of pregnancy. Color is lent to this story by the discovery that +the Luthers at Moehra were generally violent folk. Research in the +official court-dockets at Salzungen, the seat of the judicial district +to which Moehra belonged, shows that brawls were frequent in that +village, and some Luthers were involved in them. Now follows the +Catholic deduction, plausible, reasonable, appealing, just like the +"assumption" of Mary: "Out of the gnarly wood of this relationship, +consisting mostly of powerful, pugnacious farmers, assertive of their +rights, Luther's father grew." + +This story was started in Luther's lifetime. George Wicel, who had +fallen away from the evangelical faith, accused Luther of having a +homicide for a father. In 1565, he published the story under a false +name at Paris, but gave no details. In Moehra nothing was known of the +matter until the first quarter of the twentieth century. This +circumstance alone is damaging to the whole story. Luther was during his +lifetime exposed to scrutiny of his most private affairs as no other +man. If Wicel's tale could have been authenticated, we may rest assured +that would have been done at the time. + +In the eighteenth century a mining official in Thuringia by the name of +Michaelis told the story of Hans Luther's homicide with the necessary +detail to make it appear real. Observe, this was 220 years after the +alleged event. It had been this way: Hans Luther had quarreled with a +person who was plowing his field, and had accidentally slain the man +with the bridle, or halter, of his horse. Several Protestant writers now +began to express belief in the story. Travelers came to Moehra for the +express purpose of investigating the matter, _e.g.,_ Mr. Mayhew of the +_London Punch_. Behold, the story had assumed definite shape through +being kept alive a hundred years: the accommodating citizens of Moehra +were now able to point out to the inquiring Englishman the very meadow +where the homicide had taken place. It takes an Englishman on the +average two years and four months to see the point of a joke. By this +time, we doubt not, it will be possible to exhibit to any confiding +dunce the very horse-bridle with which Hans Luther committed +manslaughter, also the actual hole which he knocked into the head of his +victim, beautifully surrounded by a border of blue and green, which are +the colors which the bruise assumed six hours after the infliction. The +border may not be genuine, but we dare any Catholic investigator to +disprove the genuineness of the hole. + +Writers belonging to a church that is rich in legends of the saints and +in relics ought to know how a tale like Wicel's can assume +respectability and credibility in the course of time. It is not any more +difficult to account for these tales about Hans Luther's homicide than +for the existence in our late day of the rope with which Judas hanged +himself, or the tears which Peter wept in the night of the betrayal, or +the splinters from the cross of the Lord, or the feathers from the wings +of the angel Gabriel, and sundry other marvels which are exhibited in +Catholic churches for the veneration of the faithful. + +No historian that has a reputation as a scholar to lose to-day credits +the story of Hans Luther's homicide. It is improbable on its face. The +small landholdings of Hans at Moehra are not real, but irreal estate. +Nobody has found the title for them. There is, however, a very good +reason why Hans should want to leave Moehra. He was, according to all +that is known of his father's family, the oldest son. According to the +old Thuringian law the home place and appurtenances of a peasant +freeholder passed to the youngest son. McGiffert regards the custom as +"admirably careful of those most needing care." (p. 4.) Luther's father, +on coming of age, was by this law compelled to go and seek his fortune +elsewhere, because opportunity for rising to independence there was none +for him at Moehra. + +If Hans was a fugitive from justice, he was certainly unwise in not +fleeing far enough. For at Eisenach, whither he went, he was still under +the same Saxon jurisdiction as at Moehra. He seems to have had no fear +of abiding under the sovereignty which he is claimed to have offended. +This observation has led one of the most exact and painstaking of modern +biographers of Luther, Koestlin, to say that the homicide story, if it +rests on any basis of fact, must either refer to a different Luther, or +if to Hans, the incident cannot have been a homicide. It should be +remembered that there is no authentic record which in any way +incriminates Hans Luther. + +Lastly, this homicide Hans Luther, eight years after coming to Mansfeld, +is elected by his fellow-townsmen one of the "Vierherren," or aldermen, +of the town. Only most trusted and well-reputed persons were given such +an office. A homicide would not have been allowed to settle at Mansfeld, +much less to govern the town. Any rogue in the town that he had to +discipline in his time of office would have thrown his bloody record up +to him. + +A Catholic writer says: "The wild passion of anger was an unextinguished +and unmodified heritage transmitted congenitally to the whole Luther +family, and this to such an extent that the Lutherzorn (Luther rage) has +attained the currency of a German colloquialism." Mr. Mayhew thinks that +"Martin was a veritable chip of the hard old block," the "high-mettled +foal cast by a fiery blood-horse." Catholic writers cite Mr. Mayhew as a +distinguished Protestant. If you have not heard of him before, look him +up in _Who is Who?_ most anywhere. + +All this, however, is a desperate attempt to find proof against an +assumed criminal by circumstantial evidence. No direct evidence has ever +been available to implicate Luther's father in a village brawl. As to +the Lutherzorn, Luther has in scores of places explained the real reason +of it: Luther did not inherit, but Rome roused it. This Lutherzorn may +arise in any person that is not remotely related to the Luthers after +reading Catholic biographies of Martin Luther. + + +7. Luther's Great Mistake. + +Catholic writers contend that Luther made a mistake when he became monk. +Protestants share this view, but put the emphasis in the sentence: +Luther became a monk, at a different place. In the Protestant view the +mistake is this, that Luther became a _monk,_ in the Catholic view, it +is this, that _Luther_ became a monk. Protestants regard monasticism +largely as a perversion of the laws of nature and of Christian morals. +In an institution of this kind Luther could not find the relief he +sought. His mistake was that he sought it there. Catholics view monkery +as the highest ideal of the Christian life, and blame Luther for +entering this mode of life when he was altogether unfit for it. They +regard Luther as guilty of sacrilege far seeking admission into the +order of Augustinian friars. When he was permitted to turn monk, that +which is holy was given unto a dog, and pearls were cast before a swine. + +Catholics argue that Luther's cheerless boyhood, the poverty of his +parents, the hard work and close economy that was the order in the home +at Mansfeld, the harsh and cruel treatment which Luther received from +parents that were given to "fits of uncontrollable rage" induced in +Luther a morose, sullen spirit. He became brooding and stubborn when yet +a child. He was a most unruly boy at school. His character was not +improved when he was sent abroad for his education and had to sing for +his bread or beg in the streets. His rebellious spirit found nourishment +in these humiliations. Owing to his melancholy temperament and gloomy +fits, he made no friends. He felt himself misunderstood everywhere. Even +the little season of sunshine that came into his young life at the Cotta +home in Eisenach did not cure him of the morbid feeling that nobody +appreciated him. He began to loathe the studies which he was pursuing in +accordance with the wish of his father. To certain occurrences, like the +slaying of a fellow-student, an accident with which he met on a vacation +trip, and a sudden thunderstorm, he gave an ominous interpretation which +deepened his despondency. At last he determined, "inconsiderately and +precipitately," to enter a cloister. His friends "instinctively felt he +was not qualified or fitted for the sublime vocation to which he +aspired, and they accordingly used all their powers to dissuade him from +the course he had chosen. All their efforts were fruitless, and from the +gayety and frolic of the banquet" which he had given his fellow-students +as a farewell party "he went to the monastery." He was so reckless that +he took this step even without the consent of his parents. "He knew +little about the ways of God, and was not well informed of the gravity +and responsibilities of the step he was taking." "He was not called by +God to conventual life; . . . he was driven by despair, rather than the +love of higher perfection, into a religious career." Catholics feel so +sure that they have a case against Luther that in all seriousness they +ask Protestants the question: Did he act honestly when he knelt before +the prior asking to be received into the order? + +Luther has later in life given various reasons for entering the +monastery. His case was not simple, but complex. One reason, however, +which he has assigned is the severe bringing up which he had at his +home. Hausrath is satisfied with this one reason, and many Catholic +writers adopt his view. But this remark of Luther is evidently +misapplied if it is made to mean that Luther sought ease, comfort, +leniency in the cloister as a relief from the hard life which he had +been leading. Luther had grasped the fundamental idea in monkery quite +well: flight from the secular life as a means to become exceptionally +holy. He sought quiet for meditation and devotion, but no physical ease +and earthly comforts. He knew of the rigors of cloister-life. He +willingly bowed to "the gentle yoke of Christ"--thus ran the monkish +ritual--which the life of an eremite among eremites was to impose on +him. His hard life in the days of his boyhood and youth had been an +unconscious preparation for this life. He had been strictly trained to +fear God and keep His commandments. The holy life of the saints had been +held up to him as far back as he could remember as the marvel of +Christian perfection. Home and Church had cooperated in deepening the +impressions of the sanctity of the monkish life in him. When he saw the +emaciated Duke of Anhalt in monk's garb with his beggar's wallet on his +back tottering through the streets of Magdeburg, and everybody held his +breath at this magnificent spectacle of advanced Christianity, and then +broke forth in profuse eulogies of the princely pilgrim to the glories +of monkish sainthood, that left an indelible impression on the +fifteen-year-old boy. When he observed the Carthusians at Eisenach, +weary and wan with many a vigil, somber and taciturn, toiling up the +rugged steps to a heaven beyond the common heaven; when he talked with +the young priests at the towns where he studied, and all praised the +life of a monk to this young seeker after perfect righteousness; when in +cloister-ridden Erfurt he observed that the monks were outwardly, at +least, treated with peculiar reverence, can any one wonder that in a +mind longing for peace with God the resolve silently ripened into the +act: I will be a monk? + +We, too, would call this an act of despair. We would say with Luther: +Despair makes monks. But the despair which we mean, and which Luther +meant, is genuine spiritual despair. What Catholics call Luther's +despair is really desperation, a reckless, dare-devil plunging of a +criminal into a splendid Catholic sanctuary. That Luther's act decidedly +was not. By Rome's own teaching Luther belonged in the cloister. That +mode of life was originally designed to meet the needs of just such +minds as his. His entering the monastery was the logical sequence of his +previous Catholic tutelage. Rome has this monk on its conscience, and a +good many more besides. + +As piety went in those days, Luther had been raised a pious young man. +He was morally clean. He was a consistent, yea, a scrupulous member of +his Church, regular in his daily devotions, reverencing every ordinance +of the Church. Also during his student years he kept himself unspotted +from the moral contaminations of the academic life. He abhorred the +students who were devoted to King Gambrinus and Knight Tannhaeuser. He +loathed the taverns and brothels of Erfurt. The Cotta home was no +_Bierstube_ in his day. The banquet-hall where he met his friends the +evening before he entered the cloister was no banquet-hall in the modern +sense of the term. That he played the lute at this farewell party, and +that there were some "honorable maidens" present, is nowadays related +with a wink of the eye by Catholics. But there was nothing wrong in all +the proceedings of that evening. It was indeed an honorable gathering. +Luther was never a prudish man or fanatic. He loved the decent joys and +pleasures of life. Luther gathered his friends about him to take a +decent leave of them. He did not run away from them secretly, as many +monks have done. He opened up his mind to them at this last meeting. The +conversation that ensued was a test of the strength of the convictions +he had formed. His was an introspective nature. He had wrestled daily +with the sin that ever besets us. He knew that with all his conventional +religiousness he could not pass muster before God. Over his wash-basin +he was overheard moaning: "The more we wash, the more unclean we +become." He felt like Paul when he groaned: "O wretched man that I am, +who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. 7, 24.) He was +sorrowing for his poor soul. He was hungering and thirsting for +righteousness. "When will I ever attain to that state of mind that I am +sure God is pleased with me?" he mused distractedly. What he could not +find while engaged in his secular pursuits, that, he was told, the +cloister could give him. To obtain that he entered the monastery. If +ever Rome had an honest applicant for monkery, Luther is that man. + +Nor did he act precipitately. As shown, the thought of this act had been +quietly forming in him for years. When he made his rash vow to St. Anna, +he still allowed two weeks to pass before he put his resolution into +action. Try and picture to yourself his state of mind during those +fourteen days! Moving about in his customary surroundings, he was daily +probing the correctness of his contemplated change of life. He fought a +soul-battle in those days, and the remembrance of his father made that +battle none the easier. From the Catholic standpoint Luther deserves an +aureole for that struggle. After entering the cloister, he was still at +liberty for a year and a half to retrace his fatal step. But his first +impressions were favorable; monkery really seemed to bring him heart's +ease and peace, and there was no one to disabuse his mind of the +delusion. After nearly two years in the monastery, while sitting with +his father at the cloister board on the event of his ordination to the +priesthood, he declares to his father that he enjoys the quiet, +contemplative life that he has chosen. Surely, he made a mistake by +becoming monk, but Catholics cannot fault him for that mistake. If the +life of monks and nuns is really what they claim that it is: the highest +and most perfect form of Christianity, they should consistently give any +person credit for making the effort to lead that life. In fact, they +ought all to turn monks and nuns to honor their own principles. + + +8. Luther's Failure as a Monk. + +Monasticism is a pagan shoot grafted on a Christian tree. At its base +lies the heathenish notion that sin can be extirpated by severe +onslaughts upon the body and the physical life. It has existed in +Buddhism before some Christians adopted it. In the early days of +Christianity it was proclaimed as superior wisdom by the Platonic +philosophers. Like many a lie it has been decked out with Bible-texts to +give it respectability, and to soothe disquieted consciences. The +Scripture-sayings regarding fasting, sexual continence, chastity, +crucifying the flesh, etc., are made to stand sponsor for this bastard +offspring of the brain of Christian mystics. + +With excellent discrimination Mosheim has traced the origin of +monasticism to the early Christian fathers. The earliest impulses to +monasticism are contained in such writings as the Epistle to Zenas, +found among the writings of Justinus, the tracts of Clement of +Alexandria on Calumny, Patience, Continence, and other virtues, the +tracts of Tertullian on practical duties, such as Chastity, Flight from +Persecution, Fasting, Theatrical Exhibitions, the Dress of Females, +Prayer, etc. These writings "would be perused with greater profit, were +it not for the gloomy and morose spirit which they everywhere breathe. . +. . In what estimation they ought to be held, the learned are not +agreed. Some hold them to be the very best guides to true piety and a +holy life; others, on the contrary, think their precepts were the worst +possible, and that the cause of practical religion could not be +committed to worse hands. . . . To us it appears that their writings +contain many things excellent, well considered, and well calculated to +kindle pious emotions; but also many things unduly rigorous, and derived +from the Stoic and Academic philosophy; many things vague and +indeterminate; and many things positively false, and inconsistent with +the precepts of Christ. If one deserves the title of a bad master in +morals who has no just ideas of the proper boundaries and limitations of +Christian duties, nor clear and distinct conceptions of the different +virtues and vices, nor a perception of those general principles to which +recurrence should be had in all discussions respecting Christian virtue, +and therefore very often talks at random, and blunders in expounding the +divine laws; though he may say many excellent things, and excite in us +considerable emotion; then I can readily admit that in strict truth this +title belongs to many of the Fathers. . . . They admitted, with good +intentions no doubt, yet most inconsiderately, a great error in regard +to morals, and pernicious to Christianity; an error which, through all +succeeding ages to our times, has produced an infinity of mistakes and +evils of various kinds. Jesus, our Savior, prescribed one and the same +rule of life or duty to all His disciples. But the Christian doctors, +either by too great a desire of imitating the nations among whom they +lived, or from a natural propensity to austerity and gloom, (a disease +that many labor under in Syria, Egypt, and other provinces of the East,) +were induced to maintain that Christ had prescribed a twofold rule of +holiness and virtue; the one ordinary, the other extraordinary; the one +lower, the other higher; the one for men of business, the other for +persons of leisure, and such as desired higher glory in the future +world. They therefore early divided all that had been taught them either +in books or by tradition, respecting a Christian life and morals, into +Precepts and Counsels. They gave the name Precepts to those laws which +were universally obligatory, or were enacted for all men of all +descriptions; but the Counsels pertained solely to those who aspire +after superior holiness and a closer union with God. There soon arose, +therefore, a class of persons who professed to strive after that +extraordinary and more eminent holiness, and who, of course, resolved to +obey the Counsels of Christ, that they might have intimate communion +with God in this life, and might, on leaving the body, rise without +impediment or difficulty to the celestial world. They supposed many +things were forbidden to them which were allowed to other Christians, +such as wine, flesh, matrimony, and worldly business. They thought they +must emaciate their bodies with watching, fasting, toil, and hunger. +They considered it a blessed thing to retire to desert places, and by +severe meditation to abstract their minds from all external objects, and +whatever delights the senses. Both men and women imposed these severe +restraints on themselves, with good intentions, I suppose, but setting a +bad example, and greatly to the injury of the cause of Christianity. +They were, of course, denominated Ascetics, Zealous Ones, Elect, and +also Philosophers; and they were distinguished from other Christians, +not only by a different appellation, but by peculiarities of dress and +demeanor. Those who embraced this austere mode of life lived indeed only +for themselves, but they did not withdraw themselves altogether from the +society and converse of men. But in process of time, persons of this +description at first retired into deserts, and afterwards formed +themselves into associations, after the manner of the Essenes and +Therapeutae. + +"The causes of this institution are at hand. First, the Christians did +not like to appear inferior to the Greeks, the Romans, and the other +people among whom there were many philosophers and sages, who were +distinguished from the vulgar by their dress and their whole mode of +life, and who were held in high honor. Now among these philosophers (as +is well known) none better pleased the Christians than the Platonists +and Pythagoreans, who are known to have recommended two modes of living, +the one for philosophers who wished to excel others in virtue, and the +other for people engaged in the common affairs of life. The Platonists +prescribed the following rule for philosophers: The mind of a wise man +must be withdrawn, as far as possible, from the contagious influence of +the body. And as the oppressive load of the body and social intercourse +are most adverse to this design, therefore all sensual gratifications +are to be avoided; the body is to be sustained, or rather mortified, +with coarse and slender fare; solitude is to be sought for; and the mind +is to be self-collected and absorbed in contemplation, so as to be +detached as much as possible from the body. Whoever lives in this manner +shall in the present life have converse with God, and, when freed from +the load of the body, shall ascend without delay to the celestial +mansions, and shall not need, like the souls of other men, to undergo a +purgation. The grounds of this system lay in the peculiar sentiments +entertained by this sect of philosophers and by their friends, +respecting the soul, demons, matter, and the universe. And as these +sentiments were embraced by the Christian philosophers, the necessary +consequences of them were, of course, to be adopted also. + +"What is here stated will excite less surprise if it be remembered that +Egypt was the land where this mode of life had its origin. For that +country, from some law of nature, has always produced a greater number +of gloomy and hypochondriac or melancholy persons than any other; and it +still does so. Here it was long before the Savior's birth, not only the +Essenes and Therapeutae--those Jewish sects, composed of persons with a +morbid melancholy, or rather partially deranged--had their chief +residence; but many others also, that they might better please the gods, +withdrew themselves as by the instinct of nature from commerce with men +and with all pleasures of life. From Egypt this mode of life passed into +Syria and the neighboring countries, which in like manner always +abounded with unsociable and austere individuals: and from the East it +was at last introduced among the nations of Europe. Hence the numerous +maladies which still deform the Christian world; hence the celibacy of +the clergy; hence the numerous herds of monks; hence the two species of +life, the theoretical and mystical." (_Eccles. Hist.,_ I, 128 f.) + +One may well feel pity for the original monks. Their zeal was heroic, +but it was spent upon an issue that is in its very root and core a +haughty presumption and a lie. Exhaust all the Scripture-texts which +speak of indwelling sin, of the lust that rages in our members, of the +duty to keep the body under by fasting and vigilance, and there will not +be found enough Bible to cover the nakedness of the monastic principle. +Its fundamental thought of a select type of piety to be attained by +spectacular efforts at self-mortification flies in the face of the +doctrine that we are rid of sin and sanctified by divine grace alone. +Monkish holiness is a slander of the Redeemer's all-sufficient sacrifice +for sin and of the work of the Holy Spirit. It started in paganism, and +wants to drag Christianity back into paganism. + +But monasticism in Luther's day was no longer of the sort which one may +view with a pathetic interest. The old monastic ideals had been largely +abandoned. Instead of crucifying the flesh, the monks were nursing and +fondling carnal-mindedness. The cloisters had become cesspools of +corruption. Because the reputation of monks was utterly bad, and monks +were publicly scorned and derided, Luther's friends tried to dissuade +him from entering the cloister. That was the reason, too, why Luther's +father was so deeply shocked when he heard of what his Martin had done, +and Luther had to assure his father that he had not gone into the herd +of monks to seek what people believed men sought in that profligate +company. For that reason, too, he had chosen the Augustinian order, +because a strong reform movement had been started in that order, and its +reputation was better than that of the other orders. Luther meant to be +a monk of the original type. + +Since the days of Alexander of Hales, Albert the Great, and Thomas +Aquinas the Roman Church teaches that there is in the Church a treasury +of supererogatory works, that is, of good works which Christ and the +saints have performed in excess of what is ordinarily demanded of every +man in the way of upright living. We shall meet with this idea again in +another connection. It flows from the monastic principles. Monks must +have not only enough sanctity for their own needs, but to spare. Of this +superfluous sanctity they may make an assignment in favor of others. Do +not smile incredulously; monks actually make such assignments. Luther +may not have thought of this when he entered the cloister, but he +rejoiced in this scheme of substitutive sanctity later. He thought he +had found in monkery a gold-mine of holiness that would be sufficient +not only for himself, but also for his parents. While at Rome some years +later, he was in a way sorry that his father and mother were not already +in purgatory. He had such a fine chance there to accumulate +supererogatory good works which he might have transferred to them to +shorten their agonies, or release them entirely. + +In order to make a successful monk, one must be either a Pharisee or an +epicurean. The Pharisee takes an inventory of the works named in the Law +of God, and sets out to perform these in an external, mechanical manner. +He adds a few works of his own invention for good measure. Every work +performed counts; it constitutes merit. On the basis of his two pecks +and a half of merit the Pharisee now begins to drive a bargain with God: +for so much merit he claims so much distinction and glory. He figures it +all out to God, so that God shall not make a mistake at the time of the +settlement: I have not been this, nor that, nor the other thing; I have +done this, and that, and some more. Consequently . . . ! The epicurean +is a jolly fatalist. Whatever is to happen will happen. Why worry? Go +along at an even pace; eat, drink, be merry, but for Heaven's sake do +not take a serious or tragical view of anything! Take things as they +are; if you can improve them, well and good; if not, let it pass; forget +it; eat a good meal and go to sleep. + +Luther was never an epicurean. The seriousness of life had confronted +him at a very early date. The sense of duty was highly developed in him +from early youth. In all that he did he felt himself as a being that is +responsible to his Maker and Judge. Easy-going indifference and ready +self-pity were not in his character. For this Luther is now faulted by +Catholics. It is said he extended the rigors of monasticism beyond the +bounds of reasonableness. He was too severe with himself. He outraged +human nature. Quite correct; but is not monasticism by itself an +outrage upon human nature? Luther had endured the monastery for the very +purpose of enduring hardness. He did not flinch when the battle into +which he had gone commenced in earnest. Luther is said to have been +tardy and neglectful in the observance of the rules of the order. +Sometimes he would omit the canonical hours, that is, the stated +prayers, or some form of prescribed devotion, and then he would endeavor +to make up for the loss by redoubled effort, which overtaxed his +physical strength. Quite true. It is not such a rare occurrence that a +monk forgets the one or the other of the minutiae of the daily monkish +routine. The regulations of his orders extended to such things as the +posture which he must assume while standing, while sitting, while +kneeling; the movement of his arms, of his hands; how to approach, how +to move in front of the altar, how to leave it, etc. When his mind was +engrossed with the study of the Bible or some commentary of a Church +Father, it was easy for Luther to forget parts of the program which he +was to carry out. Whenever this happened, was it not his duty to +endeavor to repair the damage? Were not penances imposed on him in the +confessional for every default? Luther is said to have been led into +still deeper gloom by his study of the doctrine of predestination. True, +but even this study did not lead Luther off into fatalism. It terrified +him, because he studied that profound doctrine without a true perception +of divine grace and the meaning of the Redeemer's work. However, this +study did not at any time permanently affect his vigorous striving after +holiness. + +When Catholics explain Luther's failure as a monk by such assertions, +they involve themselves in self-contradiction. By their own principles +monkery is not a natural life; yet, when a monk fails in his monkery, +they fault him for not being natural. First, they tell the applicant +that he must not be what he is, and afterwards they blame him for +wanting to be what they told him to be, and what he finds he cannot be. +If this is not adding insult to injury, what is? Francis of Assisi +became a great saint by that very inhuman treatment of himself for which +Luther is censured. But then Francis of Assisi did not quit his order +and did not attack the Pope. + +The other reason why Luther failed is, because he could not make a +Pharisee of himself, which is only another name for hypocrite. The Law +of God had such a terrible meaning to him because he applied it as the +Lawgiver wants it applied, to his whole inner life, to the heart, the +soul, the mind, and all his powers of intellect and will. It is +comparatively easy to make the members of the body go through certain +external performances, but to make the mind obey is a different +proposition. The discovery which disheartened Luther was, that while he +was outwardly leading the life of a blameless monk, his inward life was +not improved. Sin was ever present with him, as it is with every human +being. He felt the terrible smitings of the accusing conscience because +he was keenly alive to the real demands of God's Law. The holy Law of +God wrought its will upon him to the fullest extent: it roused him to +anger with the God who had given this Law to man; it led him into +blasphemous thoughts, so that he recoiled with horror from himself. Does +the true Law of God, when properly applied, ever have any other effect +upon natural man? Paul says: "It worketh wrath" (Rom. 4, 15), namely, +wrath in man against God. It drives man to despair. That is its +legitimate function: No person has touched the essence of the Law who +has not passed through these awful experiences. Nor did any man ever +flee from the Law and run to Christ for shelter but for these +unendurable terrors which the Law begets. That was Luther's whole +trouble, and that is why he failed as a monk: he had started out to +become a saint, and he did not even succeed in making a Pharisee of +himself. If Rome has produced a monk that succeeded better than Luther, +he ought to be exhibited and examined. He will be found either an angel +or a brazen fraud. He will not be a true man. + + +9. Professor Luther, D. D. + +Catholic writers greedily grab every opportunity to belittle Luther's +scholarship. Incentives to study at home, they say, he received none. +His common school education was wretched. During his high school studies +he was favored with good teachers, but hampered by his home-bred +roughness and uncouthness and his poverty. He applied himself diligently +to his studies, but gave no sign of being a genius. At the University of +Erfurt, too, he was studious, but he seems to have made no great +impression on the University. "He paid little attention to grammatical +details, and never attained to Ciceronian purity and elegance in speech +and writing." When he made his A. B:, he ranked thirteenth in a class of +fifty-seven. He did a little better in his effort for the title of A. +M., when he came out second among seventeen candidates. But Melanchthon +is declared entirely wrong when he relates that Luther was the wonder of +the University. His theological studies preparatory to his entering the +priesthood were very hasty and superficial. Still less prepared was he +for the work of a professor. His duties in the cloister left him little +time for learned studies. Yet he went to "bibulous Wittenberg," to a +little five-year-old university, and lectured "as best he could." By the +way, our Catholic friends seem to forget that "bibulous" Wittenberg was +a good old Catholic town at the time. All things considered, Luther's +advancement was all too rapid; it was not justified by his preparatory +studies, which had been "anything but deep, solid, systematic." "The +theological culture he received was not on a par with that required now +by the average seminarian, let alone a Doctor of Divinity." He accepted +the title of D. D. very reluctantly, being conscious that he did not +deserve it. A feeling of the insufficiency of his education tormented +him all through life. "It cannot be denied that he was industrious, +self-reliant, ambitious, but withal, he was not a methodically trained +man. At bottom, he was neither a philosopher nor a theologian, and at no +time of his life, despite his efforts to acquire knowledge, did he show +himself more than superficially equipped to grapple with serious and +difficult philosophical and religious problems. His study never rose to +brilliancy." Thus runs the Catholic account of Professor and Doctor +Luther. + +We have not quoted the worst Catholic estimates of Luther's scholarship. +He has also been called a dunce, an ignoramus, a barbarian. Again it +seems to escape the Catholics that this ill-trained, insufficient, +half-baked Doctor of Divinity is a product of their own educational art. +Whatever advancement he received in those days was actually forced upon +him by Catholics. All his academic and ecclesiastical honors came from +Catholic sources, came to him, moreover, as a good Catholic. Also that +highest and noblest distinction which made him a duly called and +accredited expounder of the Holy Scriptures. If there is fault to be +found with anything in this matter, it lies with the Catholic method and +process of making a young man within the space of ten years a Bachelor +of Arts, a Master of Arts, a priest, a professor, and a Doctor of Sacred +Theology; it does not lie with the innocent subject to whom this presto! +change! process was applied. + +But does this estimate of Luther square with the facts in the case? For +a dunce or a mediocre scholar Luther has been a fair success. His little +ability and scanty preparation makes his achievements all the more +remarkable. The most brilliant minds of the race, for whom the home, the +Church and the State, religion, science and art, had done their best, +have accomplished immeasurably less than this poor and mostly +self-taught country boy. God give His Church many more such dunces! + +The net results of Luther's learning are open to inspection by the world +in his numerous works. Able scholars of most recent times have looked +into Luther's writings with a view of determining how much learned +knowledge he had actually acquired, even before he began his reformatory +work, They have found that Luther was "very well versed in the favorite +Latin authors of the day: Vergil, Terence, Ovid, Aesop, Cicero, Livy, +Seneca, Horace, Catullus, Juvenal, Silius, Statius, Lucan, Suetonius, +Sallust, Quintilian, Varro, Pomponius Mela, the two Plinies, and the +_Germania_ of Tacitus." He possessed a creditable amount of knowledge of +General History and Church History. He had made a profound study of the +leading philosophers and scholastic theologians of the Middle Ages: +Thomas of Aquinas, Peter Lombard, Bernard of Clairvaux, Duns Scotus, +Occam, Gregory of Rimini, Pierre d'Ailly, Gerson, and Biel. Two of these +he knew almost by heart. He had studied the ancient Church Fathers: +Irenaeus, Cyprian, Eusebius, Athanasius, Hilary, Ambrose, Gregory of +Nanzianzen, Jerome, and such later theologians as Cassiodorus, Gregory +the Great, and Anselm of Canterbury; Tauler, Lefevre, Erasmus, and Pico +della Mirandola. "He was quite at home in the exegetical Middle Ages, in +the Canon Law, in Aristotle and Porphyry." "He was one of the first +German professors to learn Greek and Hebrew." Moreover, Luther +possessed, besides knowledge, those indispensable requisites in a good +professor: "the faculty of plain, clear, correct, and independent +thought, resourcefulness, acumen" (Boehmer, p. 179 f.). He had the +courage to tell the Church that it was a shame, that a heathen +philosopher, Aristotle, should formulate the doctrines which Christians +are to believe and their pastors are to teach. He threw this heathen, +who had for ages dominated Christian teaching, out of his lecture-room, +and took his students straight to the pure fountain of religious truth, +the Word of God. He publicly burned the Canon Law by which the Roman +Church had forged chains for the consciences of men, and which she +upholds to this day. His lecture-room became crowded with eager and +enthusiastic students, and the stripling university planted on the edge +of civilization in the sands along the Elbe became for a while the +religious and theological hub of the world. The students who gathered +about Luther knew that they had a real professor in him. The world of +his day came to this fledgling doctor with the weightiest questions, and +received answers that satisfied. That part of the intelligent world of +to-day which has read and studied Luther endorses the verdict of +Luther's contemporaries as regards his ample learning and proficiency as +a teacher. + +More learned men, indeed, than Luther there have been. Some of these +have also made attempts to introduce needed reforms in the corrupt Roman +Church. Rome met their learned and labored arguments with the consummate +skill of a past master in sophistry. Those learned efforts came to +naught. Rome will never be reformed by human learning and scholarship. +Scholars are rarely men of action. It is because Professor Luther taught +_and acted_ that Rome hates him. He would have been permitted to lecture +in peace whatever he wished--others in the universities were doing that +at the time--if he had only been careful not to do anything, at least +not publicly, against the authority of the Church. That was the +unpardonable blunder of Luther that he wanted to live as he believed, +and that he taught others to do the same. For this reason he is a +dullard, an ignoramus, a poor scholar, a poor writer, in a word, an +inferior person from a literary and scholarly point of view. + +In Numbers (chap. 22) there is a story told of the prophet Balaam, who +went out on a wicked mission for which a great reward had been promised +him. He rode along cheerfully, feasting his avaricious heart on the +great hoard he would bring back, when suddenly the ass that bore him +balked. The prophet began to beat the animal, but it did not budge an +inch. All at once this dunce of an ass which had never been put through +a spelling-book began to talk and remonstrated with the prophet: "Am I +not thine ass? What have I done unto thee that thou hast smitten me?" To +his amazement the prophet was able to understand the ass quite well. +This dumb brute made its meaning plain to a learned man. It was an +intolerable outrage that an ass should lecture a doctor, and balk him in +his designs. Luther is that ass. Rome rode him, and he patiently bore +his wicked master until the angel of the Lord stopped him and he would +go no further. The only difference is that Balaam had his eyes opened, +left off beating his ass, and felt sorry for what he had done. Rome's +eyes have not been opened for four hundred years. It is still beating +the poor ass. It does not see the Lord who has blocked her path and +said, You shall go no further! + +In 2 Kings, chap. 5, there is another story told of the Syrian captain +Naaman, who came to be healed of his leprosy by the prophet Elijah. With +his splendid suite the great statesman drove up in grand style to the +prophet's cottage. He expected that the holy man would come out to meet +him, and very deferentially engage to do the great lord's bidding. The +prophet did not even come out of his hut, but sent Naaman word to go and +wash seven times in Jordan and he would be cleansed. Now Naaman flew +into a rage, because the prophet had, in the first place, not even +deigned to speak to him, and, secondly, had ordered a ridiculously +commonplace cure for him. He stormed that he would do no such thing as +wash in that old Jordan River. He had better waters at home. Let the +prophet keep his old Jordan for such as he was. And he rode off in great +dudgeon. Rome is the leprous gentleman, and Luther is the man of God who +told her how to become clean. The only difference is this: Naaman +listened to wise counsel, and finally did what he had been told to do, +and was cleansed. Rome disdains to this day to listen to the ill-bred +son of a peasant, the theological upstart Luther, and remains as filthy +as she has been. + + +10. Luther's "Discovery" of the Bible. + +Since Luther's study of the Bible has been referred to several times in +these pages, it is time that the righteousness of a certain indignation +be examined which Catholic writers display. They pretend to be +scandalized by the tale that in Luther's time the Bible was such a rare +book that it was practically unknown. With the air of outraged innocence +some of them rise to protest against the stupid myth that Luther +"discovered" the Bible. They claim that their Church had been so eager +to spread the Bible, and had published editions of the Bible in such +rapid succession, that in Luther's age Christian Europe was full of +Bibles. Moreover, that age, they tell us, was an age of intense +Bible-study. Not only the theologians, but also the laymen, not only the +wealthy and highly educated, but also the common people, had unhindered +access to the Bible. The historical data for Rome's alleged zeal in +behalf of the Bible these Catholic writers gather largely from +Protestant authors. For greater effect they propose to buttress, with +the fruits of the laborious research of Protestants, their charge that +Luther's ignorance of the Bible was self-inflicted and really +inexcusable. + +What are the facts in the case? The whole account which we possess of +Luther's "discovery" of the Bible is contained in Luther's Table Talk. +(22, 897.) This is a book which Luther did not personally compose nor +edit. It is a collection of sayings which his guests noted down while at +meat with Luther, or afterwards from memory. From a casual remark during +a meal Mathesius obtained the information which he published in his +biography of Luther, _viz.,_ that, when twenty-two years old, Luther one +day had found the Bible in a library at Erfurt. + +Now, we do not wish to question the general credibility of the Table +Talk, nor the authenticity of this particular remark of Luther about his +stumbling upon the Bible by accident. But it is certainly germane to our +subject to strip the incident of the dramatic features with which +Catholic writers claim that most Protestants still surround the event. +Did Luther say, and did Mathesius report, that up to the year 1505 he +had not known of the Bible? Not at all. He merely stated that up to that +time he had not seen _a complete copy of the Bible_. Luther himself has +told scores of times that when a schoolboy at Mansfeld, and later at +Magdeburg and Eisenach where he studied, he had heard portions of the +Gospels and Epistles read during the regular service at church. Some +passages he had learned by heart. Luther's guests would have laughed at +him if he had claimed such a "discovery" of the Bible as Catholic +writers--and some of their Protestant authorities--think that Mathesius +has claimed for him and modern Protestants still credit him with. + +What Luther did relate we are prepared to show was not, and could not +be, an unusual occurrence in those days. "Even in the University of +Paris, which was considered the mother and queen of all the rest, not a +man could be found, when Luther arose, competent to dispute with him out +of the Scriptures. This was not strange. Many of the doctors of theology +in those times had never read the Bible. Carolostadt expressly tells us +this was the case with himself. Whenever one freely read the Bible, he +was cried out against, as one making innovations, as a heretic, and +exposing Christianity to great danger by making the New Testament known. +Many of the monks regarded the Bible as a book which abounded in +numerous error." (Mosheim, III, 15.) The spiritual atmosphere in which +Luther and all Christians of his time were brought up was unfavorable to +real Bible-study. + +But before we exhibit the true attitude of Rome toward the Bible, it +will be necessary to examine the Catholic claim regarding the extensive +dissemination and the intensive study of the Bible among the people in +and before Luther's times. Before the age of printing one cannot speak, +of course, of "editions" of the Bible. The earliest date for the +publication of a printed edition of the Bible is probably 1460-- +twenty-three years before Luther's birth. That was an event fully as +momentous as the opening of the transatlantic cable in our time. Before +printing had been invented, the Bible was multiplied by being copied. +That was a slow process. Even when a number of copyists wrote at the +same time to dictation, it was a tedious process, requiring much time, +and not very many would join in such a cooperative effort of Bible +production. Besides, few men in those early ages were qualified for this +work. A certain degree of literary proficiency was required for the +task. The centuries during which the papacy rose to the zenith of its +power are notorious for the illiteracy of the masses. It was considered +a remarkable achievement even for a nobleman to be able to scribble his +name. Among those who possessed the ability few had the inclination and +persistency necessary for the effort to transcribe the Bible. The +cloisters of those days were the chief seats of learning and centers of +lower education, but even these asylums of piety sheltered many an +ignorant monk and others who were afflicted with the proverbial monks' +malady--laziness. It is to the credit of the pious members of the Roman +Church in that unhappy age that they manifested such a laudable interest +in the Bible. The achievement of copying the entire Bible with one's own +hand in that age is so great that it palliates some of the glaring evils +of the inhuman system of monasticism. But if every monk in every +cloister, every priest in every Catholic parish, every professor in +every Catholic university, could have produced twenty copies of the +Bible during his lifetime, how little would have been accomplished to +make the Bible available for the millions of men then living! + +Reading is the correlate of writing. The person who cannot write, as a +rule, cannot read. For this reason the Bible must have remained a sealed +book to many who had ample opportunity to become acquainted with it. The +wide diffusion of Bible knowledge which Catholic writers would lead us +to believe always existed in the Roman Church is subject to question. It +is true that in the first centuries of the Christian era there was a +great hunger and thirst for the Word of God. But that was before the +Roman Church came into existence. For it is a reckless assumption that +the papacy is an original institution in the Church of Christ, and that +Roman Catholicism and Christianity are identical. It is also true that +in the early days of the Reformation the people manifested a great +desire for the Word of God. It was as new to them as it had been to +Luther. They would crowd around a person who was able to read, and would +listen for hours. At St. Paul's in London public reading of the Bible +became a regular custom. But between the early days of Christianity and +the beginning of the Reformation lies a period which. is known as the +Dark Ages. No amount of oratory will turn that age into a Bright Age. +"From the seventh to the eleventh century books were so scarce that +often not one could be found in an entire city, and even rich +monasteries possessed only a single text-book." (_Universal Encycl.,_ +2, 96.) These conditions were not greatly improved until printing was +invented. Luther had to do with people who were emerging from the sad +conditions of that age, the effects of which were still visible +centuries after. He writes: "The deplorable destitution which I recently +observed, during a visitation of the churches, has impelled and +constrained me to prepare this Catechism, or Christian Doctrine, in such +a small and simple form. Alas, what manifold misery I beheld! The common +people, especially in the villages, know nothing at all of Christian +doctrine; and many pastors are quite unfit and incompetent to teach. Yet +all are called Christians, have been baptized, and enjoy the use of the +Sacraments, although they know neither the Lord's Prayer, nor the Creed, +nor the Ten Commandments, and live like the poor brutes and irrational +swine." (Preface to the Small Catechism.) Remember, these people lived +in that age when Luther was born and grew up, which Catholic writers +picture to us as a Bible-knowing and Bible-loving age. + +The invention of printing wrought a mighty change in this respect. This +glorious art became hallowed from the beginning by being harnessed for +service to the Bible. But even this invention did not at once remove the +prevailing ignorance. We must not transfer modern conditions to the +fifteenth century. In 1906, one of the many Protestant Bible Societies +reported that it had disposed in one year of nearly 80,000,000 Bibles +and parts of the Bible in many languages. The Bible is perhaps the +cheapest book of modern times. It was not so in the days of Gutenberg, +Froschauer, Luft, and the Claxtons. Even after printing had been +invented, Bibles sold at prices that would be considered prohibitive in +our day. When the Duke of Anhalt ordered three copies of the Bible +printed on parchment, he was told that for each copy he must furnish 340 +calf-skins, and the expense would be sixty gulden. (Luther's Works, 21b, +2378.) But even the low-priced editions of the Bible, printed on common +paper (which was not introduced into Europe until the thirteenth +century), cost a sum of money which a poor man would consider a fortune, +and which even the well-to-do would hesitate to spend in days when money +was scarce and its purchasing power was considerably different from what +it is to-day. At a period not so very remote from the present a Bible +was considered a valuable chattel of which a person would dispose by a +special codicil in his will. For generations Bibles would thus be handed +down from father to son, not only because of the sacred memories that +attached to them as heirlooms, but also because of their actual value in +money. + +Everything considered, then, we hold the argument that the Bible was a +widely diffused book in the days before Luther to be historically +untrue, because it implies physical impossibilities. With the +magnificent printing and publishing facilities of our times, how many +persons are still without the Bible? How many parishioners in all the +Catholic churches of this country to-day own a Bible? The modern Bible +societies are putting forth an energy in spreading the Bible that is +unparalleled in history. Still their annual reports leave the impression +that all they accomplish is as a drop in the bucket over and against the +enormous Bible-need still unsupplied. Catholic writers paint the +Bible-knowledge of the age before Luther in such exceedingly bright +colors that one is led to believe that age surpassed ours. They +overshoot their aim. Nobody finds fault with the Roman Church for not +having invented the printing-press. All would rather be inclined to +excuse her little achievement in spreading the Bible during the Middle +Ages on the ground of the poor facilities at her command. Every +intelligent and fair person will accord the Roman Church every moiety of +credit for the amount of Bible-knowledge which she did convey to the +people. We heartily join Luther in his belief that even in the darkest +days of the papacy men were still saved in the Roman Church, because +they clung in their dying hour to simple texts of the Scriptures which +they had learned from their priests. (22, 577.) But no one must try and +make us believe that the Roman Church before Luther performed marvels in +spreading the Bible. She never exhausted even the poor facilities at her +command. + +Far from wondering, then, that Luther had not seen the complete Bible +until his twenty-second year, we regard this as quite natural in view of +his lowly extraction, and we consider the censure which superficial +Protestant writers have applied to Luther because of his early ignorance +of the Bible as uncommonly meretricious. When we bear in mind the known +character of the Popes in Luther's days, we doubt whether even they had +read the entire Bible. Luther's "discovery" of the Bible, however is not +regarded by Protestants as a discovery such as Columbus made when he +found the American continent. Luther knew of the existence of the Bible +and could cite sayings of the Bible at the time when he found the bulky +volume in the library that made such a profound impression upon him. + +And yet his find was a true discovery. Luther discovered that his Church +had not told him many important and beautiful things that are in the +Bible. He became so absorbed with the novel contents of this wonderful +book that the desire was wrung from his: heart: Oh, that I could possess +this book! But this enthusiastic wish at once became clouded by another +discovery which he made while poring over the precious revelation of the +very heart of Jesus: his Church had told him things differently from +what he found them stated in the Bible. He was shocked when he +discovered that in his heart a new faith was springing up which had come +to him out of the Bible,--a faith which contradicted the avowed faith of +the Roman Church. Poor Luther! He had for the first time come under the +influence of that Word which is quick and powerful, and sharper than any +two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and +spirit, and of the joints and marrow (Hebr. 4, 12), and he did not know +it. Some of the noblest minds in the ages before him have had to pass +through the same experience. With the implicit trust which at that time +lie reposed in the Roman Church, Luther suppressed his "heretical" +thoughts. He said: "Perhaps I am in error. Dare I believe myself so +smart as to know better than the Church?" (Hausrath, 1, 18.) Yes, Luther +had really discovered the Bible, namely, the Bible which the Roman +Church never has been, and never will be, willing to let the people see +while she remains what she is to-day. This "discovery"-tale which so +offends Catholic writers could be verified in our day. Let Catholic +writers put into the hands of every Catholic of America the true, +genuine, unadulterated Word of God, without any glosses and comment, and +let them watch what is going to happen. There will be astonishing +"discoveries" made by the readers, and those discoveries will be no +fabrications. + + +11. Rome and the Bible. + +Catholic writers claim for the Roman Church the distinction which at one +time belonged to the Hebrews, that of being the keepers of the oracles +of God. They claim that to the jealous vigilance of the Roman Church +over the sacred writings of Christianity the world to-day owes the +Bible. The pagan emperors of Rome would have destroyed the Bible in the +persecutions which they set on foot against the early Christians, if the +faithful martyrs had not refused to surrender their sacred writings. +Again, the Roman Church is represented as the faithful custodian of the +Bible during the political and social upheaval that wrecked the Roman +Empire when the barbarian peoples of the North overran Rome and Greece. +Only through the care of the Roman Church the Bible is said to have been +saved from destruction in the general confusion. + +The reasoning of Catholics on this matter is specious. In the first +place, the early Christian martyrs were not Roman Catholics. The claim +of the Roman Church that the papacy starts with Peter is a myth. In the +second place, much patient labor has been expended in the last centuries +to collate existing manuscripts of the Bible for the purpose of removing +errors that had crept into the text and making the original text of the +Bible as accurate as it is possible to make it. In these labors mostly +Protestants were engaged. Fell, Mill, Kuster, Bengel, Wetzstein, +Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, have +through three centuries of untiring research cooperated in placing +before the world the authentic text of the Bible. + +To-day we have not a single one of the autograph manuscripts of the +Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament. If the Roman Church existed +in the days when Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, Jude, and James +wrote, and if she exercised such scrupulous care over the Bible, why has +she not preserved a single one of these invaluable documents? We suggest +this thought only in view of the unfounded Catholic boast; we do not +charge the Catholic Church with a crime for having permitted the +autographs of our Bible to become lost, we only hold that the Catholic +Church is not entitled to the eulogies which her writers bestow upon +her. + +Even the condition of the copies that were made from the autograph +writings of the apostles does not speak well for the care which the +Roman Church took of the Bible, assuming, of course, that she existed in +those early centuries. "It is evident that the original purity (of the +New Testament text) was early lost. . . . Irenaeus (in the second +century) alludes to the differences between the copies. . . . Origen, +early in the third century, expressly declares that matters were growing +worse. . . . From the fourth century onward we have the manuscript text +of each century, the writings of the Fathers, and the various Oriental +and Occidental versions, all testifying to varieties of readings." +(_New Schaff-Herzog Encycl.,_ II, 102.) Our sole purpose in calling +attention to this fact, which every scholar to-day knows, is, to bring +the fervor of Catholic admiration for the Bible-protecting and +Bible-preserving Church of Rome somewhat within the bounds of reason. We +do not charge the Roman Church with having corrupted the text, but if +the claim of Catholics as to the age of their Church is correct, every +corruption in the copies that were made from the original documents +occurred while she was exercising her remarkable custodianship over the +Bible. That officials of the Church, especially as we approach the +Middle Ages, had something to do with corrupting the sacred text is the +belief of the authority just quoted. "The early Church," he says, "did +not know anything of that anxious clinging to the letter which +characterizes the scientific rigor and the piety of modern times, and +therefore was not bent upon preserving the exact words. Moreover, the +first copies were made rather for private than for public use." Not a +few were found in sarcophagi; they had been buried with their owners. +"Copyists were careless, often wrote from dictation, and were liable to +misunderstand. Attempted improvements of the text in grammar and style; +efforts to harmonize the quotations in the New Testament with the Greek +of the Septuagint, but especially to harmonize the Gospels; the writing +out of abbreviations; incorporation of marginal notes in the text; the +embellishing of the Gospel narratives with stories drawn from +non-apostolic, though trustworthy, sources,--it is to these that we must +attribute the very numerous 'readings' or textual variations. It is true +that the copyists were sometimes learned men; but their zeal in making +corrections may have obscured the true text as much as the ignorance of +the unlearned. The copies, indeed, came under the eye of an official +reviser, but he may have sometimes exceeded his functions, and done more +harm than good by his changes." + +All this happened while the Roman Church, according to Catholic writers, +was keeper of the Bible. The honor which these writers assert for their +Church is spurious. If there is any class of men for whom the glory must +be vindicated of having given to the world the pure Word of God in a +reliable text, it is the band of textual, or lower, critics who have +gathered and collated all existing manuscripts of the Bible. What an +immense amount of painstaking labor this necessitated the reader can +guess from the fact that for the New Testament alone about 3,000 +manuscripts had to be examined word for word and letter for letter. The +men who undertook this gigantic task, arid who are always on the watch +for new finds, do not belong in the Roman fold, and did not receive the +incentive for their work from the Roman Church. This work started soon +after the Reformation, and the intense interest aroused in God's Word by +that movement is the true cause of it. The Protestant Church, not the +Church of Rome, has given back to the world the pure Word of God in more +than one sense. + +The official Bible of the Roman Church to-day is the Latin Vulgate. This +Bible, which is a revision by Jerome and others of many variant Latin +texts in use towards the end of the fourth century, has been elevated to +the dignity of the inspired text. The original purpose was good: it was +to remove the confusion of many conflicting texts and to establish +uniformity in quoting the Bible. The errors of the Vulgate are many, but +while it was understood that the Vulgate was merely a translation, the +errors could be corrected from the original sources. Little, however, +was done in this respect before the Reformation, and since then the +Roman Church has become rigid and petrified in its adherence to this +Latin Bible. In its fourth session (April 8, 1546) the Council of Trent +decreed that "of all Latin editions the old and vulgate edition be held +as authoritative in public lectures, disputations, sermons, and +expositions; and that no one is to dare or presume under any pretext to +reject it." "The meaning of this decree," says Hodge, "is a matter of +dispute among Romanists themselves. Some of the more modern and liberal +of their theologians say that the council simply intended to determine +which among several Latin versions was to be used in the service of the +Church. They contend that it was not meant to forbid appeal to the +original Scriptures, or to place the Vulgate on a par with them in +authority. The earlier and stricter Romanists take the ground that the +Synod did intend to forbid an appeal to the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, +and to make the Vulgate the ultimate authority. The language of the +council seems to favor this interpretation." We might add, the practise +of Romanists, too. At the debate in Leipzig Eck contended that the Latin +Vulgate was inspired by the Holy Ghost. (Koestlin, I, 455.) + +Whatever knowledge of Scripture the people in the Middle Ages possessed +was confined to those who could read Latin. Catholic writers claim this +was at that time the universal language of Europe, but they wisely add: +"among the educated." One of them says: "Those who could read Latin +could read the Bible, and those who could not read Latin could not read +anything." Exactly. And now, to prove the wide diffusion of +Bible-knowledge in their Church before Luther, these Catholic writers +should give us some exact data as to the extent of the Latin scholarship +in that age. Fact is, the Latin tongue acted as a lock upon the +Scriptures to the common people. Hence arose the desire to have the +Bible translated into the vernacular of various European countries. + +This desire Rome sought to suppress with brutal rigor. The bloody +persecutions of the Waldensians in France, which almost resulted in the +extirpation of these peaceful mountain people, of the followers of +Wyclif in England, whose remains Rome had exhumed after his death and +burned, of the Hussites in Bohemia, were all aimed at translations of +the Bible into the languages which the common people understood. + +In July, 1199, Pope Innocent III issued a breve, occasioned by the +report that parts of the Bible were found in French translation in the +diocese of Metz. The breve praises in a general way the zeal for +Bible-study, but applies to all who are not officially appointed to +engage in such study the prohibition in Ex. 19, 12. 13, not to touch the +holy mountain of the Law. + +During the reign of his successor, Honorius III, in 1220, laymen in +Germany were forbidden to read the Bible. + +Under Gregory IX the same prohibition was issued, in 1229, to laymen in +Great Britain. + +In the same year the crusades against the Albigenses were concluded, and +the Council of Toulouse issued a severe order, making it a grave offense +for a layman to possess a Bible. + +In 1234, the Synod of Tarragona demanded the immediate surrender of all +translations of the Bible for the purpose of having them burned. + +In 1246, the Synod of Baziers issued a prohibition forbidding laymen to +possess any theological books whatsoever, and even enjoining the clergy +from owning any theological books written in the vernacular. + +Eleven years after Luther's death, in 1557, Pope Paul IV published the +Roman Index of Forbidden Books, and, with certain exceptions, prohibited +laymen from reading the Bible. + +Not until the reign of King Edward VI was the "Act inhibiting the +reading of the Old and New Testament in English tongue, and the +printing, selling, giving, or delivering of any such other books or +writings as are therein mentioned and condemned" (namely, in 34 Hen. +VIII. Cap. 1) abrogated. + +The Council of Trent ordered all Catholic publishers to see to it that +their editions have the approval of the respective bishop. + +Not until February 28, 1759, did Pope Clement XIII give permission to +translate the Bible _into all the languages of the Catholic states_. + +Not until November 17, 1893, did Pope Leo XIII issue an encyclical +enjoining upon Catholics the study of the Bible, always, however, _in +editions approved by the Roman Church_. (Kurtz, _Kirchengesch_. II, 2, +94. 217; _Univers. Encycl_., under title "Bible"; Peter Heylyn, +_Ecclesia Restaurata_ I, 99; Denzinger, _Enchiridion,_ 1429. 1439. 1567. +1607.) + +Catholic writers seek to make a great impression in favor of their +Church by enumerating, on the authority of Protestant scholars, the +number of German translations of the Bible that are known to have been +in existence before Luther. But they omit to inform the public that not +a single one of those translations obtained the approbation of a bishop. +One cannot view but with a pathetic interest these sacred relies of an +age that was hungering for the Word of God. The origin of these early +German Bibles has been traced by scholars to Wycliffite and Hussite +influences, which Rome never stamped out, though her inquisitors tried +their best to do so. The earliest of these Bibles do not state the place +nor the year of publication. Can the reader guess why? They were not +published at the seat of the German Archbishop, Mainz, but most of them +at the free imperial city of Augsburg. Can the reader suggest a reason? +Many of them are printed in abnormally small sizes, facilitating quick +concealment. Can the reader imagine a cause for this phenomenon? In +these old German Bibles particular texts are emphasized, for example, +Rom. 8, 18; 1 Cor. 4, 9; 2 Cor. 4, 8 ; 11, 23; 1 Pet. 2, 19; 4, 16; 5, +9; Acts 5, 18. 41; 8, 1; 12, 4; 14, 19. If the reader will take the +trouble to look up these texts, he will find that they warn Christians +to be prepared to be persecuted for their faith. Has the reader ever +heard of such an officer of the Roman Church as the inquisitor, one of +whose duties it was to hunt for Bibles among the people? In places these +old German Bibles contain significant marginal glosses, for example, at +1 Tim. 2, 5 one of them has this gloss: "_Ain_ mitler Christus, ach +merk!" that is: _One_ mediator, Christ--note this well! + +In 1486, Archbishop Berchtold of Mainz, Primate of Germany, issued an +edict, full of impassioned malice against German translations of the +Bible, and against laymen who sought edification from them. He says that +"no prudent person will deny that there is need of many supplements and +explanations from other writings" than the Bible, to the end, namely, +that a person may construe from the German Bibles the true Catholic +faith. Fact is, that faith is not in the Bible. This happened three +years after the birth of Luther. (Kurtz, II, 2, 304.) + +Instead of finding fault, then, with Luther's ignorance of the Bible +prior to 1505, we feel surprised that the young man knew as much of the +Bible as he did. He must in this respect have surpassed many in his age. + +The Roman Church does not permit her laymen to read a Bible that she has +not published with annotations. "Believing herself to be the divinely +appointed custodian and interpreter of Holy Writ," says a writer in the +_Catholic Encyclopedia_ (II, 545), "she cannot, without turning traitor +to herself, approve the distribution of Scripture 'without note or +comment.'" For this reason the Roman Church has cursed the Bible +societies which early in the eighteenth century began to be formed in +Protestant Churches, and aimed at supplying the poor with cheap Bibles. +In 1816, Pope Pius VII anathematized all Bible societies, declaring them +"a pest of Christianity," and renewed the prohibition which his +predecessors had issued against translations of the Bible. (Kurtz, II, +2, 94.) Leo XII, on May 5, 1824, in the encyclical _Ubi Primum,_ said: +"Ye are aware, venerable brethren, that a certain Bible society is +impudently spreading throughout the world, which, despising the +traditions of the holy Fathers and the decree of the Council of Trent, +is endeavoring to translate, or rather to pervert, the Scriptures into +the vernacular of all nations. . . . It is to be feared that by false +interpretation the Gospel of Christ will become the gospel of men, or, +still worse, the gospel of the devil." Pius IX, on November 9, 1846, in +the encyclical _Qui Pluribus,_ said: "These crafty Bible societies, +which renew the ancient guile of heretics, cease not to thrust their +Bible upon all men, even the unlearned--their Bibles, which have been +translated against the laws of the Church and after certain false +explanations of the text. Thus the divine traditions, the teaching of +the fathers, and the authority of the Catholic Church are rejected, and +every one in his own way interprets the words of the Lord, and distorts +their meaning, thereby falling into miserable error." (_Cath. Encycl_. +II, 545.) The writer whom we have just quoted says: "The fundamental +fallacy of private interpretation of the Scriptures is presupposed by +the Bible societies." These papal pronunciamentos arc directed chiefly +against the Canstein Bibelgesellschaft and her later sisters, such as +the Berliner Bibelgesellschaft, and against the British and American +Bible Societies. + +The face of the Roman Church is sternly set against the plain text of +the Scriptures. To defeat the meaning of the original text, she not only +mutilates the text and adds glosses which twist the meaning of the text +into an altogether different meaning, but she declares that the Bible is +not the only source from which men must obtain revealed truth. Alongside +of the Bible she places an unwritten word of God, her so-called +traditions. These, she claims, are divine revelations which were handed +down orally from generation to generation. The early fathers and the +councils of the Church referred to them in defining the true doctrine +and prescribing the correct practise of the Church. Nobody has collected +these traditions, and nobody will. But to what extent the Roman Church +operates with them, is well known. + +Speaking of learned Bible-study in the Middle Ages, Mosheim says: +"Nearly all the theologians were _Positivi_ and _Sententiarii_ [that is, +they taught what the Church ordered to be taught], who deemed it a great +achievement, both in speculative and practical theology, either to +overwhelm the subject with a torrent of quotations from the fathers, or +to anatomize it according to the laws of dialectics [that is, the laws +of reasoning, logic]. And whenever they had occasion to speak of the +meaning of any text, they appealed invariably to what was called the +_Glossa Ordinaria_ [that is, the official explanation], and the phrase +_Glossa dicit_ (the Gloss says), was as common and decisive on their +lips as anciently the phrase _Ipse dixit_ (he, viz., the teacher, has +said) in the Pythagorean school." (III, 15.) + +In his controversies with the theologians of Rome, Luther found that +they were constantly wriggling out of the plain text of the Bible and +running for shelter to the traditions, to the fathers, to the decrees of +councils of the Church. + +At the Council of Trent some one rose to inquire whether all the +traditions recognized as genuine by the Church could not be named; he +was told that he was out of order. (Pallavivini, VI, 11, 9; 18, 7.) Hase +has invited the Roman Church to say whether all the traditions are now +known. He has not been answered. (_Protest. Polem_., p. 83.) If +Romanists answer: Yes, the reasonable request will be made of them to +publish those traditions once for all time, in order that men may know +all that God is supposed to have really said to men that is not in the +Bible. If they answer: No, the conclusion is inevitable that the +Christian faith is an uncertain thing. Any tradition may bob up that +upsets a part of the Creed. + +Add to this the dogma of papal infallibility, promulgated July 18, 1870, +which asserts for the Pope "the entire plenitude of supreme power" to +determine the faith and morals of Christians, and we have reached a +point where it becomes plain to any thoughtful person that the Bible is, +from the Catholic view-point, not at all such a necessary book as men +have believed. Nor can the faith of a Romanist be a fixed and stable +quantity. Any papal deliverance may bring about a change, and the +conscientious Catholic must study the news from the Vatican with the +same vital interest as the merchant studies the market reports in his +morning paper, and a very pertinent question that he may ask his wife +over his coffee at the breakfast table would be, "Wife, what do we +believe to-day?" + + +12. Luther's Visit at Rome. + +Catholic writers ask the world not to believe Luther's tales about the +city of Rome. Luther, they say, came to Rome as a callow rustic comes to +a metropolis. To the wily Italians he was German Innocence Abroad; they +hoaxed him by telling him absurd tales about the Popes, the priests, the +wonders of the city, etc., and the credulous monk believed all they told +him. He left Rome with his faith in the Church unimpaired. Later in +life, after his "defection" from Rome, he told as true facts and as +reminiscences of his visit at the Holy City many of the false stories +which had been palmed off on him. This is said to have given rise to the +prevailing Protestant view that during his visit at Rome Luther's eyes +were opened to the corruption of the Roman Church and his resolution +formed to overthrow that Church. Luther himself is said to be +responsible for this false view. He fostered it by his tales of what he +had seen and heard at Rome with disgust and horror. His horrid +impressions are declared pure fiction, and simply serve to show how +little the man can be trusted in anything he states. + +To leave a way open for a decent retreat, Catholics also point to a +difference in temperament between the phlegmatic Luther coming from a +northern clime, which through its atmospheric rigors begets somber +reflections and gloomy thoughts, and the airy, fairy Italians, who revel +in sunshine, flowers, and fruits, drink fiery wines, and naturally grow +up into a freedom of manners and lack of restraint that is +characteristic of people living in southern climes. All of which means-- +if it means anything serious--that the Ten Commandments are subject to +revision according to the geographic latitude in which a person happens +to be. When your austere gentleman, raised among the fens and bogs of +the Frisian coast, sees something in a grove in Sicily which he +denounces as wicked, you must tell him that there is nothing wrong in +what he has seen. He has only omitted to adjust his temperament to the +locality. If you follow out this line of thought to the end, you will +come to a point where you strike hands with Rudyard Kipling, who has +sung enthusiastically about a certain locality beyond Aden where the Ten +Commandments do not exist. And to think that this plea is made by people +who have charged Luther with having put the Ten Commandments out of +commission for himself and others! Italians, lovers of freedom and +unrestraint, were the first to fill the world with tales about the moral +besottedness of Luther! This goes to show that in any application of the +Ten Commandments it matters very much who does the applying. + +We have in a previous chapter briefly reviewed the Popes that were +contemporaries of Luther. Their character was stamped on the life of the +Holy City: The Popes and their following gave Rome its moral, or +immoral, face. The chroniclers of those days have described the existing +conditions. Luther need not have said one word about what wicked things +he had seen and heard at Rome, either ten years, or twenty years, or +thirty years after he had been there, and the world would still know the +record of the residence of the Popes. Luther really saw very little of +what he might have seen, and it is probable that he has told less. But +what he did see and hear are facts. He did not grasp their full meaning +nor see their true bearing at the time. The real import of his Roman +experiences dawned on him at a later period. He spoke as a man of things +that he had seen as a child. But that does not alter the facts. + +Luther was shocked at the levity of Italian monks who were babbling +faulty Latin prayers which they did not understand and remarked laughing +to him: "Never mind; the Holy Ghost understands us, and the devil flees +apace." + +Luther's confidence in the boasted unity of the Roman Church was +somewhat shaken when he discovered that he could not read mass in any +church in the territory at Milan, because there the Ambrosian form of +service was prescribed while he had been trained to the Gregorian. + +Luther shook his head at the freedom of certain public manners of the +Italians which reminded him of dogs and of what he had read about +Kerkyra. + +Luther heard of a Lenten collation, probably at the abbey of San +Benedetto de Larione, where the word "fast" had to be spelled with an +_e_ as the second letter. + +The loquaciousness, spicy talk, blasphemy, dishonesty, treachery, +quarrelsomeness, and deadly animosities of the Italians, Luther regards +as strange, considering that they live so near to the Holy City. + +He wondered why the Italians do not permit their women to go out of +their houses except deeply veiled. + +He finds that the Italians show no respect for their beautiful churches +and the divine service conducted in them. Even on great festivals the +magnificent cathedrals are almost empty, the worshipers are chatting +with one another while the service is in progress. Even quarrels are +settled at these holy places, sometimes with the knife. When there is a +burial, they hurry the corpse to the grave, not even the relatives being +in attendance. + +He is grieved at the irreligious manner in which the priests at Rome +read mass. They hurry through the performance with incredible rapidity. +They crowd each other away from the altar in their haste to get their +performance finished. "Hurry, hurry! Begone! Come away!" he hears them +calling to one-another. Sometimes two priests are reading mass at one +altar at the same time. They had finished the whole mass before Luther +had reached the Gospel in the service of the mass. And then they would +receive money from the bystanders who had come in and had watched them. +In a half hour a priest could get a handful of silver. Luther refused +such gifts. + +Luther heard few preachers at Rome, and those that he heard he did not +like. They were very lively in the delivery of their sermons, they would +run to and fro in their pulpit, bend far over toward the audience, utter +violent cries, change their voice suddenly, and gesticulate like madmen. + +Luther saw Pope Julius from a distance several times. He thought it +queer that a healthy and strong man like the Pope should have himself +carried to church in a litter instead of walking thither, and that such +show should be made of his going there and a procession should be formed +to accompany him. He saw the Pope sit at the altar and hold out his foot +to be kissed by people. He saw the Pope take communion. He did not +kneel like other communicants, but sat on his magnificent throne; a +cardinal priest handed him the chalice, and he sipped the wine through a +silver tube. + +However, these and other things did not at the time shake Luther's +belief in the Catholic Church. He came to Rome and left Rome a devout +Catholic. Staupitz, the vicar of his order, had really gratified him in +permitting him to go to Rome as the traveling companion of another monk. +Luther had expressed the wish to make a general confession at Rome. With +this thought on his mind he started out, and he treated the whole +journey as a pilgrimage. After the manner of pious monks the two +companions walked one behind the other, reciting prayers and litanies. +Whether his general confession and his first mass at Rome, probably at +Santa Maria del Popolo, gave him that sense of spiritual satisfaction +which he craved, he has not told us. When he had come in sight of the +city, he had fallen on his face like the crusaders in sight of +Jerusalem, and had fervently blessed that moment. Now he ran through the +seven stations of Rome, read masses wherever he could, gathered an +abundance of indulgences by going through prescribed forms of worship at +many shrines, listened to miracle-tales, knelt before the veil of St. +Veronica near the Golden Gate at San Giovanni and before the bronze +statue of St. Peter in the chapel of St. Martin, where a crucifix had of +its own accord raised itself up and become transfixed in the dome, saw +the rope with which Judas hanged himself fastened to the altar of the +Apostles Simon and Judas at St. Peter's, the stone in the chapel of St. +Petronella on which the penitential tears of Peter had fallen, cutting a +groove in it two fingers wide, had the guide show him the Pope's crown, +the tiara, which, he thought, cost more money than all the princes of +Germany possessed, was perplexed at finding the heads and bodies of +Peter and Paul assigned to different places, at the Lateran Church and +at San Paolo Fuori, mounted the Scala Santa--Pilate's staircase--on his +knees, passed with awe the relief picture in one of the streets which +the popular legend declared to be that of the female Pope Johanna and +her child, saw the ancient pagan deities of Rome depicted in Santa Maria +della Rotonda, the old Pantheon, stared at the head of John the Baptist +in San Silvestro in Capite, tried, but failed to read the famous +Saturday mass at San Giovanni, the oldest and greatest sanctuary of +Christianity, rested from a fatiguing tour through the Lateran in Santa +Croce in Gerusalemme, where Pope Sylvester II, the Faustus of the +Italians, was carried away by the devils, went through the catacombs +with its 6 martyred Popes and 176,000 other martyrs, etc., etc. + +Looking back to this visit later, Luther remarked, "I believed +everything" Just what official Rome expected every devout pilgrim to do, +just what it expects them to do to-day. And these Romanists want to +point the finger of ridicule at the simpleton, the easy dupe, the holy +fool Luther! Does Rome perhaps think the same of all the pious pilgrims +that annually crowd Rome? Luther heard himself called "un buon +Christiano" at Rome and discovered that that meant as much as "an +egregious ass." But he considered that a part of Italian wickedness. The +Church, he was sure, approved of all that he did, in fact, had taught +him to do all that. It required ten years or more to disabuse his mind +of the frauds that had been practised on him, and then he declared that +he would not take 100,000 gulden not to have seen with his own eyes how +scandalously the Popes were hoodwinking Christians. If it were not for +his visit at Rome, he says, he might fear that he was slandering the +Popes in what he wrote about them. + +While Luther's visit at Rome, then, brought about no spiritual change in +him, it helped to give him a good conscience afterwards when his +conflict with Rome had begun. + + +13. Pastor Luther. + +Luther's famous protest against the sale of indulgences, published +October 31, 1517, in the form of ninety-five theses, is represented by +Catholic writers as an outburst of Luther's violent temper and an +assault upon the Catholic Church that he had long premeditated. By this +time, it is said, Luther had become known to his colleagues as a +quarrelsome man, loving disputations and jealous of victory in a debate. +His methods of teaching at the university were novel, in defiance of the +settled customs of the Church. His dangerous innovations caused the +suspicion to spring up that he was plotting rebellion against the +authority of the Church. The arrival of the indulgence-hawker Tetzel in +the neighborhood of Wittenberg gave him the long-looked-for occasion to +strike a blow at the sacred teachings of the Church which he had +solemnly promised to support and defend against all heretics, and from +whose teachings he had already apostatized in his heart. + +The fact is that Luther was so little conscious of an intention to stir +up strife for his Church that he was probably the most surprised man in +Germany when he observed the excitement which his Theses were causing. +The method he had chosen for voicing his opinion had no revolutionary +element in it. It was an invitation to the learned doctors to debate +with him the doctrinal grounds for the sale of indulgences. Catholic +writers point to the fact that Luther declared at a later time that he +did not know what an indulgence was when he attacked Tetzel. They seek +to prove from this remark of Luther that it was not conscientious +scruples, but the desire to cause trouble in the Church that prompted +Luther to his action. They do not see that this remark speaks volumes +for Luther. By his Theses he meant to get at the truth of the teaching +concerning indulgences. His Theses were written in Latin, not in the +people's language. Others translated them into German and scattered them +broadcast throughout Germany. The Theses are no labored effort to set +up, by skilful, logical argument and in carefully chosen terms, a new +dogma in oppositon [tr. note: sic] to the teaching of the Church, but +they are exceptions hurriedly thrown on paper, like the notes jotted +down by a speaker to guide him in a discussion of his subject. Last, not +least, the Theses, while contradicting the prevailing practise of +selling indulgences, breathe loyalty to the Catholic Church. From our +modern standpoint Luther appears in the Theses as half Protestant, or +evangelical, half Roman Catholic. In his own view he was altogether +Catholic. His Theses were merely a call: Let there be light! Let our +consciences be duly instructed! + +We still have a letter which Luther wrote to Pope Leo X about six months +after he had published the Theses. This letter shows in what an orderly +and quiet way Luther proceeded in his attack upon the traffic in +indulgences, and how much he believed himself in accord with the Pope +and the Church. We shall quote a few statements from this letter: "In +these latter days a jubilee of papal indulgences began to be preached, +and the preachers, thinking everything allowed them under the protection +of your name, dared to teach impiety and heresy openly, to the grave +scandal and mockery of ecclesiastical powers, totally disregarding the +provisions of the Canon Law about the misconduct of officials. . . . +They met with great success, the people were sucked dry on false +pretenses, . . . but the oppressors lived on the fat and sweetness of +the land. They avoided scandals only by the terror of your name, the +threat of the stake, and the brand of heresy, . . . if, indeed, this can +be called avoiding scandals and not rather exciting schisms and revolt +by crass tyranny. . . . + +"I privately warned some of the dignitaries of the Church. By some the +admonition was well received, by others ridiculed, by others treated in +various ways, for the terror of your name and the dread of censure are +strong. At length, when I could do nothing else, I determined to stop +their mad career if only for a moment; I resolved to call their +assertions in question. So I published some propositions for debate, +inviting only the more learned to discuss them with me, as ought to be +plain to my opponents from the preface to my Theses. [This was, by the +way, a common practise in those days among the learned professors at +universities.] Yet this is the flame with which they seek to set the +world on fire! . . ." (15, 401; transl. by Preserved Smith.) + +Luther's publication of the Theses was the act of a conscientious +Christian pastor. Being a priest, Luther had to hear confession. Through +the confessional he learned how the common people viewed the +indulgences: they actually believed that by buying indulgences they were +freed from all the guilt and punishment of their sins. Absolution became +a plain business transaction: you pay your money and you take your +goods. Luther wrote this to his archbishop the same day on which he +published his Theses. "Papal indulgences," he says in the letter to +Albert, Archbishop of Mayence and Primate of Germany, "for the building +of St. Peter's are hawked about under your illustrious sanction. I do +not now accuse the sermons of the preachers who advertise them, for I +have not seen the same, but I regret that the people have conceived +about them the most erroneous ideas. Forsooth, these unhappy souls +believe that, if they buy letters of pardon, they are sure of their +salvation; likewise, that souls fly out of purgatory as soon as money is +cast into the chest; in short, that the, grace conferred is so great +that there is no sin whatever which cannot be absolved thereby, even if, +as they say, taking an impossible example, a man should violate the +mother of God. They also believe that indulgences free them from all +penalty and guilt." (15, 391; transl. by Preserved Smith, p. 42.) + +Luther had preached against the popular belief in indulgences, +pilgrimages to shrines of the saints and their relics, for two years +before he published his Theses. He was confident that the Church could +not countenance this belief. Forgiveness of sins is to the penitent in +heart who are sorry for their sins, and their sins are forgiven for +Christ's sake, who atoned for them, and in whom we have the forgiveness +of sin by the redemption through His blood. This is the Scriptural +doctrine of penitence,--that sorrowful, contrite, and believing attitude +of the heart which is the characteristic of true Christians throughout +their lives. Through penitence we become absolved in the sight of God +from all guilt and punishment of our sins, and the minister, by +announcing this fact, is to convey to the penitent the assurance that +his sins have been forgiven. Whatever penances or pious exercises the +Church may impose an sinners who have confessed their sins can only be +imposed as a wholesome disciplinary measure and as aids to the needed +reformation of life. These penances, since they originate in the choice +of the Church, may also be remitted by the Church, and for these +penances the Church may accept a commutation in money, which payment, +however, cannot supersede the paramount duty of the penitent to amend +his sinful conduct. Such were Luther's views in brief outline at the +time he published his Theses. If we are to take modern Catholic critics +of Luther seriously, that has also been the teaching of their Church on +the subject of indulgences. They claim that the good intentions of the +Popes were grossly misinterpreted and the system of indulgences was put +to uses for which it was never intended. If that is the case, why do +they attack Luther for his attempt to have the abuses corrected? +According to their own presentation of the true teaching of the Church +on the subject of indulgences, Luther was the most dutiful son of the +Church in his day in what he did on All Souls' Eve, 1517. + +But the Roman teaching on indulgences is not such an innocent affair as +Catholics would have us believe. The practise of substituting for +penances some good work or contribution to a pious purpose had arisen in +the Church at a very early time. "This," says Preserved Smith, who has +well condensed the history of indulgences, "was the seed of indulgence +which would never have grown to its later enormous proportions had it +not been for the crusades. Mohammed promised his followers paradise if +they fell in battle against unbelievers, but Christian warriors were at +first without this comforting assurance. Their faith was not long left +in doubt, however, for as early as 855 Leo IV promised heaven to the +Franks who died fighting against the Moslems. A quarter of a century +later John VIII proclaimed absolution for all sins and remission of all +penalties to soldiers in the holy war, and from this time on the +'crusade indulgence' became a regular means of recruiting, used, for +example, by Leo IX in 1052 and by Urban II in 1095. By this time the +practise had grown up of regarding an indulgence as a remission not only +of penance, but of the pains of purgatory. The means which had proved +successful in getting soldiers for the crusade were first used in 1145 +or 1146 to get money for the same end, pardon being assured to those who +gave enough to fit out one soldier on the same terms as if they had gone +themselves. + +"When the crusades ceased, in the thirteenth century, indulgences did +not fall into desuetude. At the jubilee of Pope Boniface VIII, in 1300, +a plenary indulgence was granted to all who made a pilgrimage to Rome. +The Pope reaped such an enormous harvest from the gifts of these +pilgrims that he saw fit to employ similar means at frequent intervals, +and soon extended the same privileges as were granted to pilgrims to all +who contributed for some pious purpose at their own homes. Agents were +sent out to sell these pardons, and were given power to confess and +absolve, so that in 1393 Boniface IX was able to announce complete +remission of both guilt and penalty to the purchasers of his letters. + +"Having assumed the right to free living men from future punishment, it +was but a step for the Popes to proclaim that they had the power to +deliver the souls of the dead from purgatory. The existence of this +power was an open question until decided by Calixtus III in 1457, but +full use of the faculty was not made until twenty years later, after +which it became of all branches of the indulgence trade the most +profitable." + +The reader will note that the indulgence trade in its latest form had +not become a general thing until about six years before Luther's birth. +It was a comparatively new thing that Luther attacked. In our remarks on +monasticism in a previous chapter we alluded to the Roman teaching +concerning the Treasure of the Merits of the Saints, or the Treasure of +the Church. This teaching greatly fructified the theory of indulgences. +It has never been shown, and never will be, how this Treasure +originates. In the work of our Redeemer there was nothing superabundant +that the Scriptures name. He fulfilled the entire Law for man, and His +merits are of inestimable value. But they were all needed for the work +of satisfying divine justice. Moreover, all these merits of Christ are +freely given to each and every believer and cancel all his guilt, +according to the statement of Paul: "Christ is the end of the Law for +righteousness to every one that believeth." As regards the merits of the +saints, which they accumulated by doing good works in excess of what +they were required to do, this is a purely imaginary asset of the papal +bank of Rome. Every man, with all that he is and has and is able to do, +owes himself wholly to God. At the best he can only do his duty. There +is no chance for doing good works in excess of duty. If he were really +to do all, he would only do what it was his duty to do, Luke 17, 10, and +would be told to regard himself, even in that most favorable case, as an +unprofitable servant. + +But supposing there were superabundant merits, supererogatory works of +Christ and the saints, who has determined their quantity? Who takes the +inventory of this stock of the papal bank of Rome? Is he the same party +who determines the length of a person's stay in purgatory and can tell +how much he has been in arrears in the matter of goodness and +virtuousness, and how much cash will purchase his release? How is this +intelligence conveyed to purgatory that Mr. So-and-so is free to proceed +to heaven? A multitude of such questions arising in all thinking minds +that want to arrive at rock bottom facts in so serious a matter always +baffle the theologians of Rome. They owe the world an answer on these +questions for four hundred years. Is the world doing Rome an injustice +when it regards the sale of indulgences a pure confidence game in holy +disguise, the offer of a fictitious value for good cash, the boldest and +baldest gold-bricking that mankind has heen [tr. note: sic] subjected +to? + +The sale of indulgences which was started in Luther's days was a +particularly offensive enterprise. "It was not so much the theory of the +Church that excited Luther's indignation as it was the practises of some +of her agents. They encouraged the common man to believe that the +purchase of a papal pardon would assure him impunity without any real +repentance on his part. Moreover, whatever the theoretical worth of +indulgences, the motive of their sale was notoriously the greed of +unscrupulous ecclesiastics. The 'holy trade' as it was called had become +so thoroughly commercialized by 1500 that a banking house, the Fuggers +of Augsburg, were the direct agents of the Curia in Germany. In return +for their services in forwarding the Pope's bulls, and in hiring +sellers of pardons, this wealthy house made a secret agreement in 1507 +by which it received one-third of the total profits of the trade, and in +1514 formally took over the whole management of the business in return +for the modest commission of one-half the net receipts. Naturally not a +word was said by the preachers to the people as to the destination of so +large a portion of their money, but enough was known to make many men +regard indulgences as an open scandal. + +"The history of the particular trade attacked by Luther is one of +special infamy. Albert of Brandenburg, a prince of the enterprising +house of Hohenzollern, was bred to the Church and rapidly rose by +political influence to the highest ecclesiastical position in Germany. +In 1513, he was elected, at the age of twenty-three, Archbishop of +Magdeburg and administrator of the bishopric of Halberstadt,--an +uncanonical accumulation of sees confirmed by the Pope in return for a +large payment. Hardly had Albert paid this before he was elected +Archbishop and Elector of Mayence and Primate of Germany (March 9, +1514). As he was not yet of canonical age to possess even one bishopric, +not to mention three of the greatest in the empire, the Pope refused to +confirm his nomination except for an enormous sum. The Curia at first +demanded twelve thousand ducats for the twelve apostles. Albert offered +seven for the seven deadly sins. The average between apostles and sins +was struck at ten thousand ducats, or fifty thousand dollars, a sum +equal in purchasing power to near a million to-day. Albert borrowed +this, too, from the Fuggers, and was accordingly confirmed on August 15, +1514. + +"In order to allow the new prelate to recoup himself, Leo obligingly +declared an indulgence for the benefit of St. Peter's Church, to run +eight years from March 31, 1515. By this transaction, one of the most +disgraceful in the history of the papacy, as well as in that of the +house of Brandenburg, the Curia made a vast sum. Albert did not come off +so well. First, a number of princes, including the rulers of both +Saxonies, forbade the trade in their dominions, and the profits of what +remained were deeply cut by the unexpected attack of a young monk." +(Preserved Smith, p. 86 ff.) + +Luther had ample reason to dread the demoralizing effect of the +indulgence-venders' activity upon the common people. In the sermons of +Tetzel the church where he happened to do business was raised to equal +dignity with St. Peter's at Rome. Instead of confessing to an ordinary +priest, he told the masses they had now the rare privilege of confessing +to an Apostolical Vicar, specially detailed for this work. With +consummate skill he worked on the tender feelings of parents, of +mothers, who were mourning the loss of children, or of children who had +lost their parents. He impersonated the departed in their agonies in +purgatory, he made the people hear the pitiful moaning of the victims in +the purgatorial fires, and transmitted their heartrending appeals for +speedy help to the living. He clinched the argument by playing on the +people's covetousness: for the fourth part of a gulden they could +transfer a suffering soul safely to the home of the eternal paradise. +Had they ever had a greater bargain offered to them? Never would they +have this indispensable means of salvation brought within easier reach. +Now was the time, now or never! "0 ye murderers, ye usurers, ye robbers, +ye slaves of vice," he cried out, "now is the time for you to hear the +voice of God, who does not desire the death of the sinner, but would +have the sinner repent and live. Turn, then, O Jerusalem, to the Lord, +thy God!" He declared that the red cross of the indulgence-venders, with +the papal arms, raised in a church, possessed the same virtue as the +cross of Christ. If Peter were present in person, he would not possess +greater authority, nor could he dispense grace more effectually than he. +Yea, he would not trade his glory as an indulgence-seller with Peter's +glory; for he had saved more souls by selling the indulgences than Peter +by preaching. Every time a coin clinked in his money chest a liberated +soul was soaring to heaven. + +Catholic writers declare that the people were told that they must repent +in order to obtain forgiveness. So they were, in the manner aforestated. +Repenting meant buying a letter of pardon from the Pope. That is the +reason why Luther worded the first two of his Ninety-five Theses as he +did: "Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ in saying: _Poenitentiam agite!_ +meant that the whole life of the faithful should be repentance. And +these words cannot refer to penance--that is, confession and +satisfaction." The Latin phrase "poenitentiam agere" has a double +meaning: it may mean "repent" and "do penance." Our Lord used the phrase +in the first, the indulgence-sellers in the second sense. Since the +people had been raised in the belief that the Church had the authority +from God to impose church fines on them for their trespasses, by which +they were to remove the temporal punishment of their sins, this was +called "doing penance,"--they were actually led to believe that the +were obeying a command of Christ in buying a letter of indulgence. And +not only did the people believe that they were purchasing release from +temporal punishment, but from the guilt of sin and all its effects. The +common man from the fields and the streets did not make the fine +distinction of the hair-splitting theologians: his bargain meant to him +that hell was closed and heaven open for him. + +Another favorite defense of modern Catholic writers is, that the money +paid for an indulgence was not meant to purchase anything, but was to be +viewed as a thank-offering which the grateful hearts of the pardoned +prompted them to make to the Church who had brought them the pardon +free, gratis, and for nothing. This is Cardinal Gibbons's argument. He +points triumphantly to the fact that the letters of indulgence were +never handed the applicants at the same desk at which the +"thank-offerings" were received. He does not say which desk the +applicant approached first. But, supposing he obtained the letter first +and then, with a heart bounding with joy and gratitude, hurried to the +other desk, we have an interesting psychological problem confronting us. +The two acts, the delivery of the letter of indulgence and the +surrendering of the thank-offering, we are told, are independent the one +of the other. Both are free acts, the one the free forgiveness of the +Church, the other the free giving of the pardoned. The Church's grant of +pardon has nothing to do with the payment of indulgence-money, and the +indulgence-money is not related to the letter of indulgence. Now, then, +the purchaser of an indulgence performs this remarkable feat: when he +stands at the desk where the letter is handed to him, he does not think +of any cost that he incurs. He views the letter as a pure gift. Then, +obeying a sudden impulse of gratitude, he turns to the other desk and +hands the official some money. He manages to think that he is not paying +for anything, that would be utterly improper. How could a person pay for +a donation, especially such a donation of spiritual and heavenly +treasures? One disturbing element, however, remains: the amount of the +thank-offering was fixed beforehand for particular sins, probably to +regulate the recipient's gratitude and make it adequate. The writer has +resolved to test the psychology of this process on himself the next time +the Boston Symphony Company comes to town. He will try and think of the +great singers as true benefactors of mankind, who go about the country +bestowing favors on the public, and when he comes to the ticket-window +he will merely make a thank-offering for the pleasure he is receiving. +The scheme ought to work as well in this instance as in the other. + + +14. The Case of Luther's Friend Myconius. + +There is a remarkable instance recorded in the annals of the Reformation +which strikingly illustrates the operations of the indulgence-venders. +This record deserves not to be forgotten. Gustav Freitag, the famous +writer of German history, has embodied it in his sketch "Doktor Luther." + +Frederic Mecum, in Latin Myconius, had become a monk in the Franciscan +order. He had had an experience with Tetzel which caused him to turn to +Luther with joy and wonder when the latter had published his Theses. Few +of the writings of Myconius, who afterwards became the evangelical +pastor of the city of Gotha, have been preserved. In the ducal library +at Gotha Freitag found [tr. note: sic] an account in Latin of the +incident to which we have referred. It is as follows: "John Tetzel, of +Pirna in Meissen, a Dominican friar, was a powerful peddler of +indulgences or the remission of sins by the Roman Pope. He tarried with +this purpose of his for two years in the city of Annaberg, new at that +time, and deceived the people so much that they all believed there was +no other way of obtaining the forgiveness of sins and eternal life +except to make amends with our works; concerning this making of amends, +however, he said that it was impossible. But a single way was still +left, that is, if we purchased the same for money from the Roman Pope, +bought for ourselves, therefore, the Pope's indulgence, which he called +the forgiveness of sins and a certain entrance into eternal life. Here I +might tell wonders upon wonders and incredible things, what kind of +sermons I heard Tetzel preach these two years in Annaberg, for I heard +him preach quite diligently, and he preached every day; I could repeat +his sermons to others, too, with all the gestures and intonations; not +that I made him an object of ridicule, but I was entirely in earnest. +For I considered everything as oracles and divine words, which one had +to believe, and what came from the Pope I regarded as if coming from +Christ Himself. + +"Finally, at Pentecost, in the year of our Lord 1510, he threatened he +would lay down the red cross and lock the door of heaven and put out the +sun, and it would never again come about that the forgiveness of sins +and eternal life could be obtained for so little money. Yes, he said, it +was not to be expected that such charitableness of the Pope should come +hither again as long as the world would stand. He also exhorted that +every one should attend well to the salvation of his own soul and to +that of his deceased and living friends. For now was at hand, according +to him, the day of his salvation and the accepted time. And he said: +'Let no one under any condition neglect his own salvation; for if you do +not have the Pope's letters, you cannot be absolved and delivered by any +human being from many sins and "reserved cases"' (that is, cases with +which an ordinary priest was not qualified to deal). On the doors and +walls of the church printed letters were publicly posted in which it was +ordered that one should henceforth not sell the letters of indulgence +and the full power at the close as dear as in the beginning, in order to +give the German people a sign of gratitude for their devotion; and at +the end of the letter at the foot was written in addition, _'Pauperibus +dentur gratis,'_ to the needy the letters of indulgence are to be given +for nothing, without money, for the sake of God. + +"Then I began to deal with the deputies of this indulgence-peddler; but, +in truth, I was impelled and urged to do so by the Holy Ghost, although +I myself did not understand at the time what I was doing. + +"My dear father had taught me in my childhood the Ten Commandments, the +Lord's Prayer, and the Christian Creed, and compelled me always to pray. +For, he said, we had everything from God alone, gratis, for nothing, and +He would also govern and lead us if we prayed with diligence. Of the +indulgences and Roman remission of sins he said that they were only +snares with which one tricked the simple out of their money and took it +from their purses, that the forgiveness of sins and eternal life could +certainly not be purchased and acquired with money. But the priests or +preachers became angry and enraged when one said such things. Because I +heard then nothing else in the sermons every day but the greatest praise +of the remission of sins, I was filled with doubt as to whom I was to +believe more, my father or the priests as teachers of the Church. I was +in doubt, but still I believed the priests more than the instruction of +my father. But one thing I did not grant, that the forgiveness of sins +could not be acquired unless it was purchased with money, above all by +the poor. On this account I was wonderfully well pleased with the little +clause at the end of the Pope's letter, _'Pauperibus gratis dentur +propter Deum.'_ + +"And as they, in three days, intended to lay down the cross with special +magnificence and cut off the steps and ladders to heaven, I was impelled +by my spirit to go to the commissioners and ask for the letters of the +forgiveness of sins 'out of mercy for the poor.' I declared also that I +was a sinner and poor and in need of the forgiveness of sins, which was +granted through divine grace. On the second day, around evening, I +entered Hans Pflock's house where Tetzel was assembled with the +father-confessors and crowds of priests, and I addressed them in Latin +and requested that they might allow me, poor man, to ask, according to +the command in the Pope's letter, for the absolution of all my sins for +nothing and for the sake of God, _'etiam nullo casu reservato,'_ without +reserving a single case, and in regard to the same they should give me +the Pope's _'literas testimoniales,'_ or written testimony. Then the +priests were astonished at my Latin speech, for that was a rare thing at +this time, especially in the case of young boys; and they soon went out +of the room into the small chamber which I was alongside, to the +commissioner Tetzel. They made my desire known to him, and also asked in +my behalf that he might give me the letters of indulgence for nothing. +Finally, after long counsel, they returned and brought this answer: +_'Dear son, we have put your petition before the commissioner with all +diligence, and he confesses that he would gladly grant your request, but +that he could not; and although he might wish to do so, the concession +would nevertheless be naught and ineffective. For he declared unto us +that it was clearly written in the Pope's letter that those would +certainly share in the exceeding generous indulgences and treasures of +the Church and the merits of Christ _qui porrigerent manum adjutricem,_ +who offered a helping hand; that is, those who would give money.' And +all that they told me in German, for there was not one among them who +could have spoken three Latin words correctly with any one. + +"In return, however, I entreated anew, and proved from the Pope's letter +which had been posted that the Holy Father, the Pope, had commanded that +such letters should be given to the poor for nothing, for the sake of +the Lord; and especially because there had also been written there _'ad +mandatum domini Papae proprium,'_ that is, at the Pope's own command. + +"Then they went in again and asked the proud, haughty friar, that he +might kindly grant my request and let me go from him with the letter of +indulgence, since I was a clever and fluently-speaking young man and +worthy of having something exceptional granted me. But they came out +again and brought again the answer, _'de manu auxiliatrice,' concerning +the helping hand, which alone was fit for the holy indulgence. I, +however, remained firm and said that they were doing me, a poor man, an +injustice; the one whom both God and the Pope were unwilling to shut out +of divine grace was rejected by them for some few pennies which I did +not have. Then a contention arose that I should at least give something +small, in order that the helping-hand might not be lacking, that I +should only give a groschen; I said, 'I do not have it, I am poor.' At +last it came to the point where I was to give six pfennigs; then I +answered again that I did not have a single pfennig. They tried to +console me and spoke with one another. Finally I heard that they were +worried about two things, in the first place, that I should in no case +be allowed to go without a letter of indulgence, for this might be a +plan devised by others, and that some bad affair might hereafter result +from it, since it was clear in the Pope's letter that it should be given +to the poor for nothing. Again, however, something would nevertheless +have to be taken from me in order that the others might not hear that +the letters of indulgence were being given out for nothing; for the +whole pack of pupils and beggars would then come running, and each one +would want the same for nothing. They should not have found it necessary +to be worried about that, for the poor beggars were looking more for +their blessed bread to drive away their hunger. + +"After they had held their deliberation, they came again to me and one +gave me six pfennigs that I should give them to the commissioner. +Through this contribution I, too, should become, according to them, a +builder of the Church of St. Peter, at Rome, likewise a slayer of the +Turk, and should furthermore share in the grace of Christ and the +indulgences. But then I said frankly, impelled by the Spirit, if I +wished to buy indulgences and the remission of sins for money, I could +in all likelihood sell a book and buy them for my own money. I wanted +them, however, for nothing, as gifts, for the sake of God, or they would +have to give an account before God for having neglected and trifled away +my soul's salvation on account of six pfennigs, since, as they knew, +both God and the Pope wished that my soul should share in the +forgiveness of all my sins for nothing, through grace. This I said, and +yet, in truth, I did not know how matters stood with the letters of +indulgence. + +"At last, after a long conversation, the priests asked me by whom I had +been sent to them, and who had instructed me to carry on such dealings +with them. Then I told them the pure, simple truth, as it was, that I +had not been exhorted or urged by any one at all or brought to it by any +advisers, but that I had made such a request alone, without counsel of +any man, only with the confidence and trust in the gracious forgiveness +of sins which is given for nothing; and that I had never spoken or had +dealings with such great people during all my life. For I was by nature +timid, and if I had not been forced by my great thirst for God's grace, +I should not have undertaken anything so great and mixed with such +people and requested anything like that of them. Then the letters of +indulgence were again promised me, but yet in such a way that I should +buy them for six pfennigs which were to be given to me, as far as I was +concerned, for nothing. I, however, continued to insist that the letters +of indulgence should be given to me for nothing by him who had the power +to give them; if not, I should commend and refer the matter to God. And +so I was dismissed by them. + +"The holy thieves, notwithstanding, became sad in consequence of these +dealings; I, however, was partly downcast that I had received no letter +of indulgence, partly I rejoiced, too, that there was, in spite of all, +still One in heaven who was willing to forgive the penitent sinner his +sins without money and loan, according to the words that I had often +sung in church: 'As true as I live, says the Lord, I desire not the +death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live.' Oh, dear Lord +and God, Thou knowest that I am not lying in this matter, or inventing +anything about myself. + +"While doing this, I was so moved that I, on returning to my inn, almost +gushed forth and melted to tears. Thus I came to my inn, went to my +room, and took the cross which always lay upon the little table in my +study-room, placed it upon the bench, and fell down upon the floor +before it. I cannot describe it here, but at that time I was able to +feel the spirit of prayer and divine grace which Thou, my Lord and God, +pouredst out over me. The essential import of the same, however, was +this: I asked that Thou, dear God, mightst be willing to be my Father, +that Thou mightst be willing to forgive me for my sins, that I submitted +myself wholly to Thee, that Thou mightst make of me now whatsoever +pleased Thee, and because the priests did not wish to be gracious to me +without money, that Thou mightst be willing to be my gracious God and +Father. + +"Then I felt that my whole heart was changed. I was disgusted with +everything in this world, and it seemed to me that I had quite enough of +this life. One thing only did I desire, that is, to live for God, that I +might be pleasing to Him. But who was there at that time who would have +taught me how I had to go about it? For the word, life, and light of +mankind was buried throughout the whole world in the deepest darkness of +human ordinances and of the quite foolish good works. Of Christ there +was complete silence, nothing was known about Him, or, if mention was +made of Him, He was represented unto us as a dreadful, fearful Judge, +whom scarcely His mother and all the saints in heaven could reconcile +and make merciful with bloody tears; and yet it was done in such a way +that He, Christ, thrust the human being who did penance into the pains +of purgatory seven years for each capital sin. It was claimed that the +pain of purgatory differed from the pain of hell in nothing except that +it was not to last forever. The Holy Ghost, however, now brought me the +hope that God would be merciful unto me. + +"And now I began to take counsel a few days with myself as to how I +might take up some other vocation in life. For I saw the sin of the +world and of the whole human race; I saw my manifold sin, which was very +great. I had also heard something of the secret holiness and the pure, +innocent life of the monks, how they served God day and night, were +separated from all the wicked life of the world, and lived very sober, +pious, and virtuous lives, read masses, sang psalms, fasted, and prayed +at all times. I had also seen this sham life, but I did not know and +understand that it was the greatest idolatry and hypocrisy. + +"Thereupon I made my decision known to the preceptor, Master Andreas +Staffelstein, who was the chief regent of the school; he advised me +straightway to enter the Franciscan cloister, the rebuilding of which +had been begun at that time. And in order that I might not become +differently minded in consequence of long delay, he straightway went +with me himself to the monks, praised my intellect and ability, declared +in terms of praise that he bad considered me the only one among his +pupils of whom he was entirely confident that I should become a very +devout man. + +"I wished, however, first to announce my intention to my parents, too, +and hear their ideas about the matter, since I was a lone son and heir +of my parents. The monks, however, taught me from St. Jerome that I +should drop father and mother, and not take them into consideration, and +run to the cross of Christ. They quoted, too, the words of Christ, 'No +one who lays hands to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of +God.' All of this was bound to impel and enjoin me to become a monk. I +will not speak here of many ropes and fetters with which they bound and +tied my conscience. For they said that I could never become blessed if I +did not soon accept and use the grace offered by God. Thereupon I, who +would rather have been willing to die than be without the grace of God +and eternal life, straightway promised and engaged to come into the +cloister again in three days and begin the year of probation, as they +called it, in the cloister; that is, I wanted to become a pious, devout, +and God-fearing monk. + +"In the year of Christ 1510, the 14th of July, at two o'clock in the +afternoon, I entered the cloister, accompanied by my preceptor, some few +of my school-comrades, and some very devout matrons, to whom I had in +part made known the reason why I was entering the spiritual order. And +so I blessed my companions to the cloister, all of whom, amid tears, +wished me God's grace and blessing. And thus I entered the cloister. +Dear God, Thou knowest that this is all true. I did not seek idleness or +provision for my stomach, nor the appearance of great holiness, but I +wished to be pleasing unto Thee--Thee I wished to serve. + +"Thus I at that time groped about in very great darkness" (p. 38 ff.)* + *This account is published by the courtesy of the Lutheran +Publication Society of Philadelphia; it is taken from their publication +_Doctor Luther,_ by Gustav Freitag. + +Few Christians can read this old record without pity stirring in them. +The man of whom Myconius tells all this, Tetzel, has been recently +represented to the American public as a theologian far superior to +Luther, calm, considerate, kind, and of his actions the public has been +advised that they were so utterly correct that the Roman Catholic Church +of to-day does not hesitate one moment to do what Tetzel did. So mote it +be! We admire the writer's honesty, and blush for his brazen boldness. + + +15. Luther's Faith without Works. + +Out of Luther's opposition to the sale of indulgences there grew in the +course of time one of the fundamental principles of Protestantism: +complete, universal, and free salvation of sinners by grace through +faith in Jesus Christ. In the controversies which started immediately +after the publication of the Ninety-five Theses, Luther was led step by +step to a greater clearness in his view of sin and grace, faith and +works, human reason and the divine revelation. Not yet realizing the +full import of his act, Luther had in the Theses made that article of +the Christian faith with which the Church either stands or falls the +issue of his lifelong conflict with Rome--the article of the +justification of a sinner before God. It is, therefore, convenient to +review the misrepresentations which Luther has suffered from Catholic +writers because of his teaching on the subject of justification at this +early stage in our review, though in doing so a great many things will +have to be anticipated. + +Catholic writers charge Luther with having perverted the meaning of +justifying faith. Luther held that justifying faith is essentially the +assurance that since Christ lived on earth as a man, labored, suffered, +died, and rose again in the place of sinners, the world _en masse_ and +every individual sinner are without guilt in the estimation of God. "God +was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their +trespasses unto them." (2 Cor. 5, 19.) To this reconciliation the sinner +has contributed nothing. It has been accomplished without him. He cannot +add anything to it. God only asks the sinner to believe in his salvation +as finished by Jesus Christ. To believe this fact does not mean to +perform a work of merit in consideration of which God is willing to +bestow salvation on the believer, but it means to accept the work of +Christ as performed in our place, to rejoice therein, and to repose a +sure confidence in this salvation in defiance of the accusations of our +own conscience, the incriminations which the broken Law of God hurls at +us, and the terrors of the final judgment. The believer regards himself +as righteous before God not because of any good work that he has done, +but because of the work which Christ has performed in his place. The +believer holds that, when God, by raising Christ from the dead, accepted +His work as a sufficient atonement for men's guilt and an adequate +fulfilment of the divine Law, He accepted each and every sinner. The +believer is certain that through the work of his Great Brother, Christ, +he has been restored to a child relationship with God and enjoys child's +privileges with his Father in heaven. The idea that he himself has done +anything to bring about this blessed state of affairs is utterly foreign +to this faith in Christ. + +Catholic writers assert that the doctrine which we have just outlined is +not Scriptural, but represents the grossest perversion of Scripture. +They say this doctrine originated in "the erratic brain of Luther." +Luther "was not an exact thinker, and being unable to analyze an idea +into its constituents, as is necessary for one who will apprehend it +correctly, he failed to grasp questions which by the general mass of the +people were thoroughly and correctly understood. . . . He allowed +himself to cultivate an unnecessary antipathy to so-called 'holiness by +works,' and this attitude, combined with his tendency to look at the +worst side of things, and his knowledge of some real abuses then +prevalent in the practise of works, doubtless contributed to develop his +dislike for good works in general, and led him by degrees to strike at +the very roots of the Catholic system of sacraments and grace, of +penance and satisfaction, in fact, all the instruments or means +instituted by God both for conferring and increasing His saving +relationship with man." Luther's teaching on justification is said to be +the inevitable reverse of his former self-exaltation. Abandoning the +indispensable virtue of humility, he had become a prey to spiritual +pride, and had entered the monastery to achieve perfect righteousness by +his own works. He had disregarded the wise counsels of his brethren, who +had warned him not to depend too much on his own powers, but seek the +aid of God. Then failing to make himself perfect, he had run to the +other extreme and declared that there was nothing good in man at all, +and that man could not of himself perform any worthy action. Finally he +had hit upon the idea that justification means, "not an infusion of +justice into the heart of the person justified, but a mere external +imputation of it." Faith, in Luther's view, thus becomes an assurance +that this imputation has taken place, and man accordingly need not give +himself any more trouble about his salvation. + +This teaching, Catholic writers contend, subverts the prominent teaching +of the Scriptures that man must obey God and keep His commandments, that +he must be perfect, even as his Father in heaven is perfect, that he +must follow in the footsteps of Jesus who said: "I am not come to +destroy the Law, but to fulfil it." Furthermore, this teaching is said +to dehumanize man and make out of him a stock and a stone, utterly unfit +for any spiritual effort. God, they say, constituted man a rational +being and imposed certain precepts on him which he was free to keep or +violate as he might choose unto eternal happiness or eternal misery. The +sin which all inherit from Adam has weakened the powers of man to do +good, but it has not entirely abolished them. There is still something +good in man by nature, and if he wants to please God and obtain His aid +in his good endeavors, he must at least do as much as is still in his +power to do, and believe that God for Jesus' sake will assist him to +become perfect, if not in this life, then, at any rate, in the life to +come. He cannot avoid sin altogether, but he can avoid sin to a certain +extent; he can at least lead an outwardly decent life. That is worth +something, that is "meritorious." He may not feel a very deep contrition +over his wrong-doings, but he can feel at least an attrition, that is, a +little sorrow, or he can wish that he might feel sorry. That is worth +something; that is "meritorious." He cannot love God with all his heart +and all his soul, and all his strength, but he can love Him some. That +is worth something; that is "meritorious." Accordingly, when the rich +young man asked the Lord what he must do to gain heaven, the Lord did +not say, "Believe in Me, Accept Me for your personal Savior, Have faith +in Me," but He said: "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the +commandments." Paul, likewise teaches that faith and love must cooperate +in man, for "faith worketh by love." Therefore, "faith in love and love +in faith justify," but not faith alone. Faith without works is dead and +cannot justify. A live faith is a faith that has works to show as its +credentials that it is real faith. Hence, faith alone does not justify, +but faith and works. Love is the fulfilment of the Law; faith works by +love, hence, by the fulfilment of the Law. Therefore, faith alone does +not justify, but faith plus the fulfilment of the Law. In endless +variations Catholic writers thus seek to upset with Scripture Luther's +teaching that man is justified by faith in Christ alone, and that all +the righteousness which a sinner can present before God without fear +that it will be rejected is a borrowed righteousness, not his own +work-righteousness. + +We might express a just surprise that Catholics should be offended at +the doctrine that the righteousness of Christ is imputed, that is, +reckoned or counted, to the sinner as his own. For, does not their +system of indulgences rest on a theory of imputation? Do they not, by +selling from the Treasure of the Church the superabundant merits of +Christ and the saints to the sinner who has not a sufficient amount of +them, make those merits the sinner's own by just such a process of +imputation? They surely cannot infuse those merits into the sinner. But +Catholics probably object to the Protestant imputation-teaching because +that is too cheap and easy, and because Protestant success has spoiled a +lucrative Catholic imputation-business.--This in passing. Let the Bible +decided [tr. note: sic] whether Luther was right in teaching +justification by faith alone, by faith without works. + +What does the Bible say about the condition of natural man after the +fall? It says: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," that is, +corrupt (John 3, 6); "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his +youth" (Gen. 8, 21); "They are all gone aside, they are altogether +become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Ps. 14, 3); +"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one" (Job 14, 4); +"There is here no difference; for all have sinned and come short of the +glory of God (Rom. 3, 22. 23). + +What does the Bible say about the powers of natural man after the fall +in reference to spiritual matters? It says: "The natural man receiveth +not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; +neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 +Cor. 2, 14); "Ye were dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2, 1); "The +carnal mind," that is, the mind of flesh, the natural mind of man, "is +enmity against God" (Rom. 8, 7); "Without Me"--Jesus is the Speaker--"ye +can do nothing" John 15, 5). + +What does the Bible say about the value of man's works of righteousness +performed by his natural powers? It says: "We are all as an unclean +thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Is. 64, 6); "A +corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit" (Matt. 7, 17). + +What does the Bible say about man's ability to fulfil the Law of God? It +says: "Cursed is he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to do +them" (Deut. 27, 26) ; "Whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet +offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (Jas. 2, 10) ; "What the Law +could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His +own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in +the flesh" (Rom. 8, 38); "The Law worketh wrath," that is, by convincing +man that he has not fulfilled it and never will fulfil it, it rouses +man's anger against God who has laid this unattainable Law upon him +(Rom. 4, 15). + +What does the Bible say about the relation of Christ to the Law and to +sin? It says: "God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the +Law, that He might redeem them that were under the Law" (Gal. 4, 4); +"Christ is the end of the Law 'for righteousness to every one that +believeth" (Rom. 10, 4); "God hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no +sin, that we might be made the righteous of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5, 21); +"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law; being made a curse +for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" +(Gal. 3, 13). + +What does the Bible say about faith without works as a means of +justification? It says: "We conclude that a man is justified by faith, +without the deeds of the Law" (Rom. 3, 28); "To him that worketh not, +but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted +for righteousness" (Rom. 4, 5); "I rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no +confidence in the flesh, though I might also have confidence in the +flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in +the flesh, I more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, +of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the Law, +a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the Church; touching the +righteousness which is in the Law, blameless. [The speaker is the +apostle Paul.] But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for +Christ. Yea, doubtless; and I count all things but loss for the +excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have +suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may +win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which +is of the Law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the +righteousness which is of God by faith" (Phil. 3, 3-9) ; "If by grace, +then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it +be of works, then is it no more grace; otherwise work is no more work" +(Rom. 11, 6). (The Catholic Bible omits the last half of this text.) + +What does the Bible say about faith being assurance of pardon and +everlasting life? It says: "If God be for us, who can be against us? He +that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall +He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything +to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that +condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, +who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for +us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or +distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? +Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that +loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, +nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, +nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate +us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord" (Rom. 8, +31-39); "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able +to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day" (2 Tim. +1, 12). + +Here we rest our case. If Luther was wrong in teaching the justification +of the sinner by faith, without the deeds of the Law, then Paul was +wrong, Jesus Christ was wrong, the apostles and prophets were wrong, the +whole Bible is wrong. Catholics must square themselves to these texts +before they dare to open their mouths against Luther. If Luther was a +heretic, the Lord Jesus made him one, and He is making a heretic of +every reader of the texts aforecited. Rome will have to answer to Him. + +But what about the answer of the Lord to the rich young man? What about +the commandment to be perfect? Does not the doctrine of justification by +faith alone, without the deeds of the Law, abolish the holy and good Law +of God? Not at all. When Paul expounds to the Galatians the doctrine of +justification by faith as compared with justification by works, he +arrays the Law against the Gospel, and raises this question: "Is the +Law, then, against the promises of God?" His answer reveals the whole +difficulty that attends every effort to obtain righteousness by +fulfilling the Law, he says: "God forbid: for if there had been a law +given which could have given life, verily, righteousness should have +been by the Law." (Gal. 3, 21.) Christ expressed the same truth when He +said to the lawyer: "Do this, and thou shalt live." (Luke 10, 28.) The +reason why the Law makes no person righteous is not because it is not a +sufficient rule or norm of good works by which men could earn eternal +life, but because it does not furnish man any ability to achieve that +righteousness which it demands. No law does that. The law only creates +duties, and insists on their fulfilment under threat of punishment. It +is not the function of the law to make doers of the law. Originally the +Law was issued to men who were able to fulfil it, because they were +created after the image of God, in perfect holiness and righteousness. +That they lost this concreate [tr. note: sic] ability through the fall is +no reason why God should change or abrogate His Law. He purposes to help +them in another way, by sending them His Son for a Redeemer, who fulfils +the Law in their stead. But this wonderful plan of God for the rescue of +lost man is not appreciated by any one who still believes, as the +Catholics do, that he has some good powers in him left which he can +develop with the help of God to such an extent that he can make himself +righteous. To such a person Jesus says to-day as He said to the rich +young man: "Keep the commandments!" That means, since you believe in +your ability, proceed to employ it. Your reward is sure, provided only +you do what the Law demands. But just as surely the curse of God rests +on you if you do not do it. When you have become convinced that it is +impossible to fulfil the Law, you may ask a different question, a +question which the knowledge of your spiritual disability has wrested +from you as it did from the jailer at Philippi: "What must I do to be +saved?" and you will not receive the answer: "Keep the commandments!" +but: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," (Acts +16, 29. 30.) Not a word will be said any more about anything that you +must do. You will be told: All that you ought to have done has been +accomplished by One who died with the exclamation: "It is finished!" +(John 19, 30), and who now sends His messengers abroad inviting men to +His free salvation: "Come, for all things are now ready!" (Luke 14, 17.) +"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath +no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without +money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is +not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken +diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good" (Is. 55, 1. 2.) When +you have wearied yourself to death by your efforts to achieve +righteousness, as Paul did when he was still the Pharisee Saul of +Tarsus, as Luther did while he was still in the bondage of popery, when +you have become hot in your confused and despairing mind against God and +the Law, which you cannot fulfil, you will appreciate the voice that +calls to you as it has called to millions before you: "Come unto Me, all +ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt. 11, +28.) And if you are wise, then, with the wisdom which the Spirit gives +the children of God, you will not delay a minute, but come rejoicing +that you need not get salvation by works, and will sing: + + Just as I am, without one plea + But that Thy blood was shed for me, + And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, + O Lamb of God, I come, I come! + +Rome has cursed Luther for teaching justification by faith, without the +deeds of the Law. The principles which he had timidly uttered in the +Theses led to bolder declarations later, when the full light of the +blessed Gospel had come to him. It brought him the curse of the Pope in +the bull _Exsurge, Domine!_ of June 15, 1520. The following estimate by +a recent Catholic writer is a fair sample of the sentiments cherished by +official Rome for Luther: "From out the vast number whom the enemy of +man raised up to invent heresies, which, St. Cyprian says, 'destroy +faith and divide unity,' not one, or all together, ever equaled or +surpassed Martin Luther in the wide range of his errors, the ferocity +with which he promulgated them, and the harm he did in leading souls +away from the Church, the fountain of everlasting truth. The heresies of +Sabellius, Arius, Pelagius, and other rebellious men were insignificant +as compared with those Luther formulated and proclaimed four hundred +years ago, and which, unfortunately, have ever since done service +against the Church of the living God. In Luther most, if not all, former +heresies meet, and reach their climax. To enumerate fully all the +wicked, false, and perverse teachings of the arch-heretic would require +a volume many times larger than the Bible, and every one of the lies and +falsehoods that have been used against the Catholic Church may be traced +back to him as to their original formulator." The cause for this +undisguised hatred of Luther is chiefly Luther's teaching of +justification by faith, without works. In its Sixth Session the Council +of Trent condemned the following doctrines: + +_On Free Will:_ Canon IV: "If any one says that the free will of man, +when moved and stirred by God, cannot, by giving assent, cooperate with +God, who is stirring and calling man, so that he disposes and prepares +himself for obtaining the grace of justification, or that he cannot +dissent if he wills, but, like some inanimate thing, does absolutely +nothing and is purely passive,--let him be accursed." + +_On Justification:_ Canon IX: "If any one says that the ungodly are +justified by faith alone, in the sense that nothing else is required on +their part that might cooperate to the end of obtaining the grace of +justification, and that it is in no wise necessary that they be prepared +and disposed (for this grace) by a movement of the will,--let him be +accursed." + +Canon XI: "If any one says that man is justified either by the +imputation of the righteousness of Christ alone or by the remission of +his sins alone, without grace and love being diffused through his heart +by the Holy Spirit and inhering therein, or that the grace whereby we +are justified is merely the good will of God,--let him be accursed." + +Canon XII: "If any one says that justifying faith is nothing else than +trust in the divine mercy which forgives sins for Christ's sake, or that +it is this trust alone by which we are justified,--let him be accursed." + +Canon XXIV: "If any one says that righteousness, after having been +received, is not conserved nor augmented before God by good works, but +that these works are merely the fruits or signs of the justification +which one has obtained, and that they are not a reason why justification +is increased,--let him be accursed." + +It is a well-known characteristic of the decrees of the Council of Trent +that truth and error appear skilfully interwoven in them. They are like +a double motion that is offered in a deliberative body: they contain +things which one must affirm, and other things which one must negative. +They cannot be voted on--many of them--except after a division of the +question. They contain "riders" like those in a bill that comes before a +legislative body: in order to pass the bill at all, the "rider" must be +passed along with the bill. But enough crops out in these decrees to +show that the Catholic Church is not willing to let the merits of Christ +be regarded as the only thing that justifies the sinner. He must +cooperate with the Holy Spirit to the end of being justified. He must +prepare and dispose himself for receiving justifying grace, and this +grace is infused into him, and manifests itself in holy movements of the +heart and by good works, in acts of love. The Roman Catholic Christian +is taught to believe that he is justified partly by what Christ has +done, partly by what he himself is doing. He cannot subscribe to Paul's +statement: "By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of +yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should +boast." (Eph. 2, 8. 9.) Nor is his justification ever complete, because +his love is never perfect. It must be increased even after his death. +The Roman purgatory contains sinners whom God had justified as far as He +could, the sinners remaining in arrears with their, part of the +contract. Accordingly, the sinner can never have the assurance that he +will enter heaven. It would be presumptuous for him to think so. He must +live on and work on at his poor dying rate, and hope for the best. + +This teaching of the Church of Rome subverts Christianity. It strikes at +the root of the faith that saves. It is a relapse into paganism and an +affront offered to the Savior. It borrows the language of Scripture to +express the most hideous error. By this teaching Rome does not drive men +into purgatory,--which does not exist,--but into hell. It is only by a +miracle of divine grace that sinners are saved where such teaching +prevails: they must forget what is told them about the necessity of +their own works and cling only to the Redeemer, and must thus +practically repudiate the teaching of their Church. Some do this, and +escape the pernicious consequences of the error of their Church. All of +them will rise up in the Judgment to accuse their teachers of a heresy +the worst imaginable. + +Rome has, indeed, assailed "the article with which the Church either +stands or falls." All its other errors, crass, grotesque, and repulsive +though they are, are mere child's play in comparison with this damning +and destructive error of justification by works. Luther rightly +estimated the virulence of this abysmal heresy when he said that those +who attacked his teaching of justification by grace through faith alone +were aiming at his throat. Rome's teaching on justification is an +attempt to strike at the vitals of Christian faith and life. It sinks +the dagger into the heart of Christianity. + + +16. The Fatalist Luther. + +Catholic writers have discovered a fatalistic tendency in Luther's +teaching of justification by faith without works. They declare that +Luther's theory of the utter depravity of man by reason of inherited sin +and his incapacity to perform any work that can be accounted good in the +sight of God kills every ambition to virtuous living in man. They argue +that when you tell a person that he is not capable to do good, he is apt +to believe you and make no effort to perform a good deed. The situation +becomes still worse when the divine predestination is introduced at this +point, as has been done, they say, by Luther. If God has determined all +things beforehand by a sovereign decree, if there really is no such +thing as human choice, and all things occur according to a foreordained +plan, man no longer has any responsibility. He is reduced to an +automaton. Free will is denied him; he cannot elect by voluntary choice +to engage in any God-pleasing action; for he is told that his natural +reason is blinded by sin and his understanding darkened, rendering it +impossible for him to discern good and evil, and leading him constantly +into errors of judgment on what is right or wrong, while he is made to +believe that his will is enslaved by evil lusts and passions, ever prone +to wickedness and averse to godliness. As a consequence, it is claimed, +man must necessarily become morally indifferent: he will not fight +against sin nor follow after righteousness, because he has become +convinced that it is useless for him to make any effort either in the +one direction or in the other. The doctrine of man's natural depravity +and the divine foreordination of all things, it is held, must drive man +either to despair, insanity, and suicide, or land him hopelessly in +fatalism: he will simply continue his physical life in a mechanical way, +like a brute or a plant; he merely vegetates. + +These fatal tendencies which are charged against Luther are refuted by +no one more effectually than by Luther himself. As regards the doctrine +of original sin and man's natural depravity, Luther preached that with +apostolic force and precision. That doctrine is a Bible-doctrine. No +person has read his Bible aright, no expounder of Scripture has begun to +explain the divine plan of salvation for sinners, if he has failed to +find this teaching in the Bible. This doctrine is, indeed, extremely +humiliating to the pride of man; it opens up appalling views of the +misery of the human race under sin. We can understand why men would want +to get away from this doctrine. But no one confers any benefit on men by +minimizing the importance of the Bible-teaching, or by weakening the +statements of Scripture regarding this matter. Any teaching which admits +the least good quality in man by which he can prepare or dispose himself +so as to induce God to view him with favor is a contradiction of the +passages of Scripture which were cited in a previous chapter, and works +a delusion upon men that will prove just as fatal as when a physician +withholds from his patient the full knowledge of his critical condition. +Yea, it is worse; for a physician who is not frank and sincere to his +patient may deprive the latter of his physical life, but the +teacher of God's Word who instils in men false notions of their moral +and spiritual power robs them of life eternal. + +Luther avoided this error. He led men to a true estimate of themselves +as they are by nature. But over and against the fell power of sin he +magnified the greater power of divine grace. "Where sin abounded, grace +hath much more abounded" (Rom. 5, 20),--along this line Luther found the +solution for the awful difficulty which confronts every man when he +studies the Bible-doctrine of original sin, and when he discovers, +moreover, that this Bible-doctrine is borne out fully by his own +experience. Just for this reason, because man can do nothing to restore +himself to the divine favor, God by His grace proposes to do all, and +has sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to do all, and, last +not least, publishes the fact that all has been done in the Gospel of +the forgiveness of sin by grace through faith in Christ. Luther has +taught men to confess: "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or +strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him," but he taught them +also to follow up this true confession with the other: "The Holy Ghost +has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified +and kept me in the true faith." + +The Gospel is called in the Scriptures "the Word of Life," not only +because it speaks of the life everlasting which God has prepared for His +children, but also because it gives life. It approaches man, dead in +trespasses and sins, and quickens him into new life. It removes from the +mind of man its natural blindness and from the will of man its innate +impotency. It regenerates all the dead powers of the soul, and makes man +walk in newness of life. The difficulty which original sin has created +is not greater than the means and instruments which God has provided for +coping with it. "God hath concluded all in unbelief, that He might have +mercy on all." (Rom. 11, 32.) + +This is the only true salvation, every other is fictitious. It teaches +man both to face the fearful odds against him because of his corruption, +and to relish all the more the points in his favor by reason of God's +redeeming and regenerating grace. It starts its work with crushing man's +pride and self-confidence utterly, and hurling him into the abyss of +despair, but it lifts him out of despair with a mighty power that breaks +the power of evil in him. This change is brought about in such a gentle, +tender way that the sinner has no sensation of being coerced into the +new life by some farce which he cannot resist. It wins him over to God +and his Christ in spite of his resistance, and makes out of his +unwilling heart a willing one, which gladly coincides with the leadings +of grace. + +The Roman scheme of salvation might be called the ostrich method: it +teaches men the foolish strategy of the bird of the desert, which hides +its head in the sand when it sees an enemy approaching, and then +imagines the enemy does not exist. Original sin may be disputed out of +the Bible by a false interpretation, but it is not thereby ruled out of +existence. When face to face with his God--if no sooner, then in the +hour of death--every man feels that he is utterly corrupt and worthless, +and he will curse any teacher that caused him to believe otherwise. Free +will is not created by assertions. Let the apostles of free will only +try, and they will find out that their freedom is nil. Catholics +denounce Luther for having declared the free will of man to be nothing +than a word without substance: we hear the sound when the word is +pronounced, and grasp its grammatical meaning, but we do not realize it +in ourselves. Every person, however, who has truly come to know himself +will side with Luther, or rather with the Bible. Furthermore, to the +same extent to which the Roman view exalts man's natural powers for +good, it lowers and limits the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit, and +begets a false confidence and security that is rudely shaken when the +first slip and fall occurs in the person's Christian life. He has never +really laid hold of the grace of God, because he has not been taught to +trust only to the grace of God to lead and preserve him in the way of +life. He will begin to distrust the Gospel as a very inefficient +instrument, and this will lead him to become indifferent to it, and +finally fall away from it entirely. A real danger of apostasy and +despair exists wherever the Roman dogma of man's natural free will is +proclaimed. + +It is, however, doing Luther a flagrant injustice when he is made to +deny that man has no longer any natural reason and will in the secular +affairs of this life. Luther used to divide the entire life of man into +two hemispheres, the upper embracing man's relation to God, holy things, +the interests of the soul here and hereafter, and the lower, embracing +the purely human, temporal, and secular interests of man. It is only in +the higher hemisphere that Luther denies the existence of free will. +Throughout his writings Luther asserts the existence, the actual +operation, and the necessity of human free will, though sadly weakened +by sin, in the affairs of this present life. It will be sufficient to +cite as evidence the Augsburg Confession which was drawn up with +Luther's aid and submitted to Emperor Charles V in 1530 as the joint +belief of Luther and his followers. "Of the Freedom of the Will," say +the Protestant confessors, "they teach that man's will has some liberty +for the attainment of civil righteousness and for the choice of things +subject to reason. Nevertheless, it has not power, without the Holy +Ghost, to work the righteousness of God, that is, spiritual +righteousness, since the natural man receiveth not the things of the +Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2, 14); but this righteousness is wrought in the +heart when the Holy Ghost is received through the Word. These things are +said in as many words by Augustine in his _Hypognosticon_ (Book III): +'We grant that all men have a certain freedom of will in judging +according to natural reason; not such freedom, however, whereby it is +capable, without God, either to begin, much less to complete aught in +things pertaining to God, but only in works of this life, whether good +or evil. "Good" I call those works which spring from the good in Nature, +that is, to have a will to labor in the field, to eat and drink, to have +a friend, to clothe oneself, to build a house, to marry, to keep cattle, +to learn divers useful arts, or whatsoever good pertains to this life, +none of which things are without dependence on the providence of God; +yea, of Him and through Him they are and have their beginning. "Evil" I +call such things as, to have a will to worship an idol, to commit +murder,' etc." (Art. 18.) + +Luther has always held that there is a natural intelligence and wisdom, +a natural will-power and energy which men employ in their daily +occupations, their trades and professions, their trade and commerce, +their literature and art, their culture and refinement, yea, that there +is also a natural knowledge of God even among the Gentiles, who yet +"know not God," and a seeming performance of the things which God has +commanded. But these natural abilities do not reach into the higher +hemisphere; they cannot pass muster at the bar of divine justice. They +do not spring from right motives, nor do they aim at right ends; they +are determined by man's self-interest. They come short of that glory +which God ought to receive from worshipers in spirit and in truth (Rom. +3, 23; John 4, 23); they are evil in as far as they are the corrupt +fruits of corrupt trees. In condemning the moral quality of these +natural works of civil righteousness, Luther has said no more than +Christ and His apostles have said. + +Luther taught the Bible-doctrine that there is in God a hidden will +which He has reserved to His majesty (Dent. 29); that His judgments are +unsearchable and His ways past finding out (Rom. 11, 33); that not even +a sparrow falls to the ground without His will, and that the very hairs +of our head are numbered (Matt. 10, 29. 30); that no evil can occur +anywhere without His permission (Amos 3, 6; Is. 45, 7). To deny these +truths is to reject the Bible and to destroy the sovereign omniscience +and omnipotence of God. Those who attack Luther for believing that also +the evil in this world is related to God will have to change their bill +of indictment: their charge is really directed against Scripture. Luther +has, however, warned men not to attempt a study of this secret will of +God, for the plain reason that it is secret, and it would be blasphemous +presumption to try and find it out. All our dealings with God must be on +the basis of His revealed will. If we only will study that, we will be +fully occupied our whole life. + +As regards the Scriptural doctrine of predestination, that those who +ultimately attain to the life everlasting have been chosen to that end, +Luther has warned men not to study this doctrine outside of Christ and +the Gospel. God has told His children for their comfort amid the +vicissitudes of this life that He has secured their eternal happiness +against all dangers, but He has not asked them, nor does He permit them, +to find out _a priori_ whether this or that person is elect. Jesus +Christ is the Book of Life in which the elect are to find their names +recorded, and in the general way of salvation through repentance, faith, +and sanctification of life they are to be led to the heritage of the +saints in light. In his summary of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh +chapters of Romans, Luther states that by His eternal election God has +taken our salvation entirely out of our hands and placed it in His own +hands. "And this is most highly necessary. For we are so feeble and +fickle that, if salvation depended upon us, not a person would be saved; +the devil would overcome them all. But since God is reliable and His +election cannot fail or be thwarted by any one, we still have hope over +and against sin. But at this point a limit must be fixed for the +presumptuous spirits who soar too high. They lead their reason first to +this subject, they start at the pinnacle, they want to explore first the +abyss of the divine election, and wrestle vainly with the question +whether they are elect. These people bring about their own overthrow: +they are either driven to despair or become reckless.--Follow the order +of this Epistle: First, occupy yourself with Christ and the Gospel, in +order that you may learn to know your sin and His grace; next, begin to +wrestle with your sin, as chapters 1-8 teach you to do. Then, after you +have reached the doctrine concerning crosses and tribulations in the +eighth chapter, you will rightly learn the doctrine of election in +chapters 9-11, because you will realize what a comfort this doctrine +contains. For the doctrine of election can be studied without injury and +secret anger against God only by those who have passed through +suffering, crosses, and anguish of death. Accordingly, the old Adam in +you must be dead before you can bear this subject and drink this strong +wine. See that you do not drink wine while you are still a babe. There +is a proper time, age, and manner for propounding the various doctrines +of God to men." What is there fatalistic about this? + + +17. Luther a Teacher of Lawlessness. + +Luther's teaching on the forgiveness of sin is sternly rebuked by +Catholic writers because of its immoral tendencies. They say, when the +forgiveness of sins is made as easy as Luther makes it, the people will +cease being afraid if sinning. + +The danger of the Gospel of the gracious forgiveness of sins being +misapplied has always existed in the Church. Every student of church +history knows this. Catholic writers know this. Paul wrestled with this +practical perversion of the loving intentions of our heavenly Father in +his day. After declaring to the Romans: "Where sin abounded, grace did +much more abound," he raises the question: "What shall we say then? +Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" He returns this +horrified answer: "God forbid! How shall we, that are dead to sin, live +any longer therein?" (Rom. 5, 20-6, 2.) Actually there were people in +the apostle's days who drew from his evangelical teaching this +pernicious inference, that by sinning they gave the forgiving grace of +God a larger opportunity to exert itself, hence, that they were +glorifying grace by committing more sin. This meant putting a premium on +sinning. For God's sake, how can you conceive a thought like that? the +apostle exclaims. He repudiates the idea as blasphemous, which it is. To +sin in the assurance that sin will be forgiven is not honoring, but +dishonoring God and His grace; it is not exalting, but traducing faith; +it is not Christian, but devilish. Summarizing the contents of Romans, +chapter 5, Luther says: "In the fifth chapter Paul comes to speak of the +fruits and works of faith, such as peace, joy, love of God and all men, +and in addition to these, security, boldness, cheerfulness, courage and +hope amid tribulations and suffering. All these effects follow where +there is genuine faith, because of the superabundant blessing which God +has conferred upon us in Christ by causing Him to die for us before we +could pray that He might do this, yea, while we were yet His enemies. +Accordingly, we conclude that faith justifies without works of any kind, +and yet it does not follow that we must not do any good works. Genuine +good works cannot fail to flow from faith,--works of which the +self-righteous know nothing, and in the place of which they invent their +own works, in which there is neither peace, joy, security, love, hope, +boldness, nor any other of the characteristics of a genuine Christian +work and faith." In his Preface to Romans, Luther meets a somewhat +different objection to faith: Christians, after they have begun to +believe, still discover sin in themselves, and on account of this +imagine that faith alone cannot save them. There must be something done +in addition to believing to insure their salvation. In replying to this +scruple, Luther has given a classical description of the quality and +power of faith. This description serves to blast the Catholic charge +that Luther's easy way of justifying the sinner leads to increased +sinning. Luther says: "Faith is not the human notion and dream which +some regard as faith. When they observe that no improvement of life nor +any good works flow from faith even where people hear and talk much +about faith, they fall into this error that they declare: faith is not +sufficient, you must do works if you wish to become godly and be saved. +The reason is, these people, when they hear the Gospel, hurriedly +formulate by their own powers a thought in their heart which asserts: I +believe. This thought they regard as genuine faith. However, as their +faith is but a human figment and idea that never reaches the bottom of +the heart, it is inert and effects no improvement. Genuine faith, +however, is a divine work in us by which we are changed and born anew of +God. (John 1, 13.) It slays the old Adam, and makes us entirely new men +in our heart, mind, ideas, and all our powers. It brings us the Holy +Spirit. Oh, this faith is a lively, active, busy, mighty thing! It is +impossible for faith not to be active without ceasing. Faith does not +ask whether good works are to be done, but before the question has been +asked, it has accomplished good works; yea, it is always engaged in +doing good works. Whoever does not do such good works is void of faith; +he gropes and mopes about, looking for faith and good works, but knows +neither what faith nor what good works are, though he may prate and +babble ever so much about faith and good works." + +There has never been a time when the Gospel and the grace of God have +not been wrested to wicked purposes by insincere men, hypocrites, and +bold spirits. For this reason God has instructed Christians: "Give not +that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before +swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend +you." (Matt. 7, 6.) The danger of misapplied grace is a present-day +danger in every evangelical community. Earnest Christian ministers and +laymen strive with this misapplication wherever they discover it. Can +they do any more? + +Rome will say: Why do you not do as we do in our Church? We do not +preach the Gospel in such a reckless fashion, we make men work for their +salvation. Rome would abolish or considerably limit the preaching of +free and abundant grace to the sinner. We recoil from this suggestion +because it makes the entire work of Christ of none effect, and wipes out +the grandest portions of our Bible. If every abuse of something that is +good must be stopped by abolishing the proper use, then let us give up +eating because some make gluttons of themselves; drinking, because some +are drunkards; wearing clothes, because there is much vanity in dresses; +marriage, because some marriages are shamefully conducted, etc., etc. + +The Roman Church does not operate on evangelical principles. Does it +succeed better in cultivating true holiness among its members by its +system of penances and its teaching of the meritoriousness of men's acts +of piety? Catholics say to us sneeringly: It is easy to have faith; it +is very convenient, when you wish to indulge, or have indulged, some +passion, to remember that there is grace for forgiveness. But is any +great difficulty connected with going through a penance that the priest +has imposed, buying a wax candle, reciting sixteen Paternosters and ten +Ave Marias, and then sitting down and saying to yourself: "Good boy! +you've done it, you have squared your account again with the Almighty"? +What sanctifying virtue lies in abstaining from beefsteak on Friday? +Rome nowhere has improved men by her mechanical piety. What she has +accomplished was made possible by the fear of purgatorial torments, by +slavish dread of her mysterious powers, by ambition and bigotry. We +would not exchange our abused treasures for her system of workmongery. + +But the Catholic charge of tendencies to lawlessness that are said to be +contained in. Luther's teaching of faith without works are more serious. +Luther is cited by them as declaring that one may commit innumerable +sins, and they will not harm one as long as one keeps on believing in +the grace of forgiveness. It is true, Luther has spoken words to this +effect, and that, on quite a number of occasions. Worse +than that, what Luther has said is actually true. As a matter of fact, +no sin can deprive the believer of salvation. There is only one sin that +ultimately damns, final impenitence and unbelief, by which is understood +the rejection of the atonement which Christ offered for the sins of the +world. That atonement is actually the full satisfaction rendered to our +Judge for all the sins which we have done, are doing, and will be doing +till the end of our lives. For the person that dies a perfect saint, +sinless and impeccable, is still to be born. The comfort that I derive +from my Redeemer to-day will be my comfort to-morrow, that will be my +only prop and stay in my dying hour. I shall need Him every hour. This +is a perfectly Christian thought. St. John writes: "My little children, +these things write I unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin,"-- +mark this well: "If any man sin," though he ought not to sin,--what does +the apostle say to him? He does not say: Then you are damned! or: It +will require so many fasts, masses, and candles to restore you! but this +is what he says: "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, +Jesus Christ the Righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins, and +not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John +2, 1. 2.) John, then, must be included in the Catholic indictment of +Luther. Luther would not have been a preacher of the genuine and full +Gospel if he had not declared the impossibility of any sin or any number +of sins depriving a believer of salvation. + +But if the Catholics mean to say that Luther's evangelical declaration +means that no believer can fall from grace by sinning, that he may sin +and remain in a state of grace,--that is simply slander. Luther holds, +indeed, that a person does not cease to be a Christian by every slip and +fault, but he insists that no dereliction of duty, no deviation from the +rule of godly living can be treated with indifference. It must be +repented of, God's forgiveness must be sought, and only in this way will +the Holy Spirit again be bestowed on the sinner. God may bear awhile +with a Christian who has fallen into sin, but the backslider has no +pleasant time with his God while he stays a backslider. This being a +question of every-day, practical Christianity, Luther frequently touches +this subject in his sermons, both in the Church Postil, the House +Postil, and in his occasional sermons. Luther's Catholic critics could +disabuse their mind about the tendencies to lawlessness in Luther's +teaching if they would look up references such as these: 9, 730. 1456 +f.; 11, 1790; 12, 448. 433; 13, 394; 6, 294. 1604. In one of these +references (9, 1456) Luther comments on 1 John 3, 6: "Whosoever abideth +in Him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known +Him," as follows: "'Seeing' and 'knowing' in the phraseology of John is +as much as believing. `That every one which seeth the Son, and believeth +on Him, may have everlasting life' (John 6, 40). 'This is life eternal, +that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou +hast sent.' Accordingly, he that sins does not believe in Him; for faith +and sin cannot coexist. We may fall, but we may not cling to sin. The +kingdom of Christ is a kingdom of righteousness, not of sin." In the +Smalcald Articles Luther says: "But if certain sectarists would arise, +some of whom are perhaps already present, and in the time of the +insurrection of the peasants came to my view, holding that all those who +have once received the Spirit or the forgiveness of sins, or have become +believers, even though they would afterwards sin, would still remain in +the faith, and sin would not injure them, and cry thus: 'Do whatever you +please; if you believe, it is all nothing; faith blots out all sins,' +etc. They say, besides, that if any one sins after he has received faith +and the Spirit, he never truly had the Spirit and faith. I have seen and +heard of many men so insane, and I fear that such a devil is still +remaining in some. If, therefore, I say, such persons would hereafter +also arise, it is necessary to know and teach that if saints who still +have and feel original sin, and also daily repent and strive with it, +fall in some way into manifest sins, as David into adultery, murder, and +blasphemy, they cast out faith and the Holy Ghost. For the Holy Ghost +does not permit sin to have dominion, to gain the upper hand so as to be +completed, but represses and restrains it so that it must not do what it +wishes. But if it do what it wishes, the Holy Ghost and faith are not +there present. For St. John says (1. Ep. 3, 9): 'Whosoever is born of +God doth not commit sin, . . . and he cannot sin.' And yet that is also +the truth which the same St. John says (1. Ep. 1, 8): 'If we say that we +have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.'" (Part +III, Art. 3, §§ 42-45; p. 329.) The Lutheran Church has received this +statement of Luther into her confessional writings. This is the Luther +of whom a modern Catholic critic says: "This thought of the +all-forgiving nature of faith so dominated his mind that it excluded the +notion of contrition, penance, good works, or effort on the part of the +believer, and thus his teaching destroyed root and branch the whole idea +of human culpability and responsibility for the breaking of the +Commandments." + +It is amazing boldness in Catholics to prefer this charge against +Luther, when they themselves teach a worse doctrine than they impute to +Luther. The Council of Trent in its Sixth Session, Canon 15, also in its +Sixteenth Session, Canon 15, Coster in his Enchiridion, in the chapter +on Faith, p. 178, Bellarminus on Justification, chapter 15, declare it +to be Catholic teaching that the believer cannot lose his faith by any, +even the worst, sin he may commit. They speak of believing fornicators, +believing adulterers, believing thieves, believing misers, believing +drunkards, believing slanderers, etc. The very teaching which Catholics +falsely ascribe to Luther is an accepted dogma of their own Church. +Their charge against Luther is, at best, the trick of crying, "Hold +thief!" to divert attention from themselves. + +But did not Luther in the plainest terms advise his friends Weller and +Melanchthon to practise immoralities as a means for overcoming their +despondency? Is he not reported in his Table Talk to have said that +looking at a pretty woman or taking a hearty drink would dispel gloomy +thoughts? that one should sin to spite the devil? Yes; and now that +these matters are paraded in public, it is best that the public be given +a complete account of what Luther wrote to Weller and Melanchthon. There +are three letters extant written to Weller during Luther's exile at +Castle Coburg while the Diet of Augsburg was in progress. On June 19, +1530, Luther writes: "Grace and peace in Christ! I have received two +letters from you, my dear Jerome [this was Weller's first name], both of +which truly delighted me; the second, however, was more than delightful +because in that you write concerning my son Johnny, stating that you are +his teacher, and that he is an active and diligent pupil. If I could, I +would like to show you some favor in return; Christ will recompense you +for what I am too little able to do. Magister Veit has, moreover, +informed me that you are at times afflicted with the spirit of +despondency. This affliction is most harmful to young people, as +Scripture says: 'A broken spirit drieth the bones' (Prov. 17, 22). The +Holy Spirit everywhere forbids such melancholy, as, for instance, in +Eccles. 11., 9: 'Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart +cheer thee in the days of thy youth,' and in the verse immediately +following: 'Remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy +flesh.' Ecclesiasticus, likewise, says, chap. 30, 22-25: 'The gladness +of the heart is the life of man, and the joyfulness of a man prolongeth +his days. Love thine own soul, and comfort thy heart, remove sorrow far +from the; for sorrow hath killed many, and there is no profit therein. +Envy and wrath shorten the life, and carefulness bringeth age before the +time. A cheerful and good heart will have a care of his meat and diet.' +Moreover, Paul says 2 Cor. 7, 10: 'The sorrow of the world worketh +death.' Above all, therefore, you must firmly cling to this thought, +that these evil and melancholy thoughts are not of God, but of the +devil; for God is not a God of melancholy, but a God of comfort and +gladness, as Christ Himself says: 'God is not the God of the dead, but +of the living' (Matt. 22, 32). What else does living mean than to be +glad in the Lord? Accordingly, become used to different thoughts, in +order to drive away these evil thoughts, and say: The Lord has not sent +you. This chiding which you experience is not of Him who has called you. +In the beginning the struggle is grievous, but by practise it becomes +more easy. You are not the only one who has to endure such thoughts, all +the saints were afflicted by them, but they fought against them and +conquered. Therefore, do not yield to these evils, but meet them +bravely. The greatest task in this struggle is not to regard these +thoughts, not to explore them, not to pursue the matters suggested, but +despise them like the hissing of a goose and pass them by. The person +that has learned to do this will conquer; whoever has not learned it +will be conquered. For to muse upon these thoughts and debate with them +means to stimulate them and make them stronger. Take the people of +Israel as an example: they overcame the serpents, not by looking at them +and wrestling with them, but by turning their eyes away from them and +looking in a different direction, namely, at the brazen serpent, and +they conquered. In this struggle that is the right and sure way of +winning the victory. A person afflicted with such thoughts said to a +certain wise man: What evil thoughts come into my mind! He received the +answer: Well, let them pass out again. That remark taught the person a +fine lesson. Another answered the same question thus: You cannot keep +the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from +building their nests in your hair. Accordingly, you will do the correct +thing when you are merry and engage in some pleasant pastime with some +one, and not scruple afterwards over having done so. For God is not +pleased with sadness, for which there is no reason. The sorrow over our +sins is brief and at the same time is made pleasant to us by the promise +of grace and the forgiveness of sins. But the other sorrow is of the +devil and without promise; it is sheer worry over useless and impossible +things which concern God. I shall have more to say to you when I return. +Meanwhile give my greetings to your brother; I began writing to him, but +the messenger who is to take this letter along is in a hurry. I shall +write to him later, also to Schneidewein and others. I commend your +pupil to you. May the Spirit of Christ comfort and gladden your heart! +Amen.' (21a, 1487 ff.) + +The second letter to Weller was presumably written some time in July. It +reads as follows: "Grace and peace in Christ. My dearest Jerome, you +must firmly believe that your affliction is of the devil, and that you +are plagued in this manner because you believe in Christ. For you see +that the most wrathful enemies of the Gospel, as, for instance, Eck, +Zwingli, and others, are suffered to be at ease and happy. All of us who +are Christians must have the devil for our adversary and enemy, as Peter +says: 'Your adversary, the devil, goeth about,' etc., 1 Pet. 5, 8. +Dearest Jerome, you must rejoice over these onslaughts of the devil, +because they are a sure sign that you have a gracious and merciful God. +You will say: This affliction is more grievous than I can bear; you fear +that you will be overcome and vanquished, so that you are driven to +blasphemy and despair. I know these tricks of Satan: if he cannot +overcome the person whom he afflicts at the first onset, he seeks to +exhaust and weaken him by incessantly attacking him, in order that the +person may succumb and acknowledge himself beaten. Accordingly, whenever +this affliction befalls you, beware lest you enter into an argument with +the devil, or muse upon these death-dealing thoughts. For this means +nothing else than to yield to the devil and succumb to him. You must +rather take pains to treat these thoughts which the devil instils in you +with the severest contempt. In afflictions and conflicts of this kind +contempt is the best and easiest way for overcoming the devil. Make up +your mind to laugh at your adversary, and find some one whom you can +engage in a conversation. You must by all means avoid being alone, for +then the devil will make his strongest effort to catch you; he lies in +wait for you when you are alone. In a case like this the devil is +overcome by scorning and despising him, not by opposing him and arguing +with him. My dear Jerome, you must engage in merry talk and games with +my wife and the rest, so as to defeat these devilish thoughts, and you +must be intent on being cheerful. This affliction is more necessary to +you than food and drink. I shall relate to you what happened to me when +I was about your age. When I entered the cloister, it happened that at +first I always walked about sad and melancholy, and could not shake off +my sadness. Accordingly, I sought counsel and confessed to Dr. Staupitz, +--I am glad to mention this man's name. I opened my heart to him, +telling him with what horrid and terrible thoughts I was being visited. +He said in reply: Martin, you do not know how useful and necessary this +affliction is to you; for God does not exercise you thus without a +purpose. You will see that He will employ you as His servant to +accomplish great things by you. This came true. For I became a great +doctor--I may justly say this of myself--; but at the time when I was +suffering these afflictions I would never have believed that this could +come to pass. No doubt, that is what is going to happen to you: you will +become a great man. In the mean time be careful to keep a brave and +stout heart, and impress on your mind this thought that such remarks +which fall from the lips chiefly of learned and great men contain a +prediction and prophecy. I remember well how a certain party whom I was +comforting for the loss of his son said to me: Martin, you will see, you +will become a great man. I often remembered this remark, for, as I said, +such remarks contain a prediction and a prophecy. Therefore, be cheerful +and brave, and cast these exceedingly terrifying thoughts entirely from +you. Whenever the devil worries you with these thoughts, seek the +company of men at once, or drink somewhat more liberally, jest and play +some jolly prank, or do anything exhilarating. Occasionally a person +must drink somewhat more liberally, engage in plays, and jests, or even +commit some little sin from hatred and contempt of the devil, so as to +leave him no room for raising scruples in our conscience about the most +trifling matters. For when we are overanxious and careful for fear that +we may be doing wrong in any matter, we shall be conquered. Accordingly, +if the devil should say to you: By all means, do not drink! you must +tell him: Just because you forbid it, I shall drink, and that, +liberally. In this manner you must always do the contrary of what Satan +forbids. When I drink my wine unmixed, prattle with the greatest +unconcern, eat more frequently, do you think that I have any other +reason for doing these things than to scorn and spite the devil who has +attempted to spite and scorn me? Would God I could commit some real +brave sin to ridicule the devil, that he might see that I acknowledge no +sin and am not conscious of having committed any. We must put the whole +law entirely out of our eyes and hearts,--we, I say, whom the devil thus +assails and torments. Whenever the devil charges us with our sins and +pronounces us guilty of death and hell, we ought to say to him: I admit +that I deserve death and hell; what, then, will happen to me? Why, you +will be eternally damned! By no means; for I know One who has suffered +and made satisfaction for me. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. +Where He abides, there will I also abide." (21a, 1532 ff.) + +The third letter to Weller is dated August 15th. It reads as follows: +"Grace and peace in Christ. I have forgotten, my dear Jerome, what I +wrote you in my former letter concerning the spirit of melancholy, and I +may now be writing you the same things and harping on the same string. +Nevertheless, I shall repeat what I said, because we all share each +other's afflictions, and as I am suffering in your behalf, so you, no +doubt, are suffering in mine. It is one and the same adversary that +hates and persecutes every individual brother of Christ. Moreover, we +are one body, and in this body one member suffers for every other +member, and that, for the sole reason that we worship Christ. Thus it +happens that one is forced to bear the other's burden. See, then, that +you learn to despise your adversary. For you have not sufficiently +learned to understand this spirit, who is an enemy to spiritual +gladness. You may rest assured that you are not the only one who bears +this cross and are not suffering alone. We are all bearing it with you +and are suffering with you. God, who commanded: 'Thou shalt not kill,' +certainly declares by this commandment that He is opposed to these +melancholy and death-bringing thoughts, and that He, on the contrary, +would have us cherish lively and exceedingly cheerful thoughts. So the +Psalmist declares, saying: 'In His favor is life,' Ps. 30, 5 [Luther +understands this to mean: He favors life] and in Ezekiel God says: 'I +have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn +from his way and live' (chap. 33, 11). On the other hand, etc. Now, +then, since it is certain that such melancholy is displeasing to God, we +have this reliable comfort that if this demon cannot be entirely removed +from us, divine strength will be supplied to us, so that we may not feel +the affliction so much. I know that it is not in our power to remove +these thoughts at our option, but I also know that they shall not gain +the upper hand; for we are told: 'He shall not suffer the righteous to +be moved,' if we only learn to cast our burden upon Him. The Lord Jesus, +the mighty Warrior and unconquerable Victor, will be your aid. Amen." +(21a, 1543 f.) + +These three letters constitute the whole evidence for the Catholic +charge against Luther that he offered advice to Weller that is immoral +and demoralizing. The indictment culminates in these three distinct +points: Luther advises Weller 1. to drink freely and be frivolous; 2. to +commit sin to spite the devil; 3. to have no regard for the Ten +Commandments. Since we shall take up the last point in a separate +chapter, we limit our remarks to the first two points. + +When Luther advises Weller to drink somewhat more liberally, that does +not mean that Luther advises Weller to get drunk. This, however, is +exactly what Luther is made to say by his Catholic critics. They make no +effort to understand the situation as it confronted Luther, but pounce +upon a remark that can easily be understood to convey an offensive +meaning. Neither does what Luther says about his own drinking mean that +he ever got drunk. We have spoken of this matter in a previous chapter, +and do not wish to repeat. Luther's remarks about jesting, merry plays, +and jolly pranks in which he would have Weller engage are likewise +vitiated by the Catholic insinuation that he advises indecent +frivolities, yea, immoralities. Why, all the merriment which he urges +upon Weller is to take place in Luther's home and family circle, in the +presence of Luther's wife and children, in the presence of Weller's +little pupil Hans, who at that time was about four years old. The +friends of the family members of the Faculty at the University, +ministers, students who either stayed at Luther's home, like Weller, or +frequently visited there, are also included in this circle whose company +Weller is urged to seek. Imagine a young man coming into this circle +drunk, or half drunk, and disporting himself hilariously before the +company! We believe that not even all Catholics can be made to believe +the insinuations of their writers against Luther when all the facts in +the case are presented to them. + +Let us, moreover, remind ourselves once more that, to measure the social +proprieties of the sixteenth century by modern standards, is unfair. A +degree of culture in regard to manners and speech can be reached by very +refined people that grows away from naturalness. The old Latin saying: +_Naturalia non sunt turpia_ (We need not feel ashamed of our natural +acts), will never lose its force. There are expressions in Luther's +writings--and in the Bible--that nowadays are considered unchaste, but +are in themselves chaste and pure. Even the extremest naturalness that +speaks with brutal frankness about certain matters is a better criterion +of moral purity than the supersensitive prudishness that squirms and +blushes, or pretends to blush, at the remotest reference to such +matters. It all depends on the thoughts which the heart connects with +the words which the mouth utters. This applies also to the manner in +which former centuries have spoken about drinking. We sometimes begin to +move uneasily, as if something Pecksniffian had come into our presence, +when we behold the twentieth century sitting in judgment on the manners +and morals of the sixteenth century. + +In Luther's remarks about sinning to spite the devil we have always +heard an echo from his life at the cloister. One's judgment about the +monastic life is somewhat mitigated when one hears how Dr. Staupitz and +the brethren in the convent at Erfurt would occasionally speak to Luther +about the latter's sins. Staupitz called them "Puppensuenden." It is not +easy to render this term by a short and apt English term; "peccadillo" +would come near the meaning. A child playing with a doll will treat it +as if it were a human being, will dress it, talk to it, and pretend to +receive answers from it, etc. That is the way, good Catholics were +telling Luther, he was treating his sins. His sins were no real sins, or +he had magnified their sinfulness out of all proportion. This same +advice Luther hands on to another who was becoming a hypochondriac as he +had been. When the mind is in a morbid state it imagines faults, errors, +sins, where there are none. The melancholy person in his self-scrutiny +becomes an intolerant tyrant to himself. He will flay his poor soul for +trifles as if they were the blackest crimes: In such moments the devil +is very busy about the victim of gloom and despair. Luther has diagnosed +the case of Weller with the skill of a nervous specialist. He counsels +Weller not to judge himself according to the devil's prompting, and, in +order to break Satan's thrall over him, to wrench himself free from his +false notions of what is sinful. In offering this advice, Luther uses +such expressions as: "Sin, commit sin," but the whole context shows that +he advises Weller to do that which is in itself not sinful, but looks +like sin to Weller in his present condition. When Luther declares he +would like to commit a real brave sin himself as a taunt to the devil, +he adds: "Would that I could!" That means, that, as a matter of fact, he +could not do it and did not do it, because it was wrong. What bold +immoral act did Weller commit in consequence of Luther's advice? What +immoralities are there in Luther's own life? Luther's letters did not +convey the meaning to his morbid young friend that Catholic writers +think and claim they did. + +Luther's advice to Melanchthon which is so revolting to Catholics that +they have made it the slogan in their campaign against Luther refers to +a state of affairs that is identical with what we noted in our review of +the correspondence with Weller. It is contained in a letter which Luther +wrote August 1, 1521, while he was an exile in the Wartburg. He says to +his despondent friend and colleague at the University of Wittenberg: "If +you are a preacher of grace, do not preach a fictitious, but the true +grace. If grace is of the true sort, you will also have to bear true, +not fictitious, sins. God does not save those who only acknowledge +themselves sinners in a feigned manner. Be a sinner, then, and sin +bravely, but believe more bravely still and rejoice in Christ, who is +the Victor over sin, death, and the world. We must sin as long as we are +in this world; the present life is not an abode of righteousness; +however, we look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth +righteousness, says Peter (2. Ep. 3, 13). We are satisfied, by the +richness of God's glory, to have come to the knowledge of the Lamb that +taketh away the sins of the world. No sin shall wrest us from Him, were +we even in one day to commit fornication and manslaughter a thousand +times. Do you think the price paltry and the payment small that has been +made for us by this great Lamb?" (15, 2589.) + +"Be a sinner, and sin bravely, but believe more bravely still"--this is +the _chef d'oeuvre_ of the muck-rakers in Luther's life. The reader has +the entire passage which contains the outrageous statement of Luther +before him, and will be able to judge the connection in which the words +occur. What caused Luther to write those words? Did Melanchthon +contemplate some crime which he was too timid to perpetrate? According +to the horrified expressions of Catholics that must have been the +situation. Luther, in their view, says to Melanchthon: Philip, you are a +simpleton. Why scruple about a sin? You are still confined in the +trammels of very narrow-minded moral views. You must get rid of them. +Have the courage to be wicked, Make a hero of yourself by executing some +bold piece of iniquity. Be an "Uebermensch." Sin with brazen unconcern; +be a fornicator, a murderer, a liar, a thief, defy every moral statute, +--only do not forget to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. His grace is +intended, not for hesitating, craven sinners, but for audacious, +spirited, high-minded criminals. + +This, we are asked to believe, is the sentiment of the same Luther who +in his correspondence with Weller declares that he could not if he would +commit a brave sin to spite the devil. Can the reader induce himself to +believe that Luther advised Melanchthon to do what he himself knew was a +moral impossibility to himself because of his relation to God? And again +we put the question which we put in connection with the Weller letters: +What brave sin did Melanchthon actually commit upon being thus advised +by Luther? + +One glance at the context, a calm reflection upon the tenor of this +entire passage in the letter to Melanchthon, suffices to convince every +unbiased reader that Luther is concerned about Melanchthon as he was +about Weller: he fears his young colleague is becoming a prey to morbid +self-incrimination. It is again a case of "Puppensuenden" being expanded +till they seem ethical monstrosities. But, as the opening words of the +paragraph show, Luther had another purpose in writing to Melanchthon as +he did. Melanchthon was a public preacher and expounder of the doctrine +of evangelical grace. He must not preach that doctrine mincingly, +haltingly. Is that possible? Indeed, it is. Just as there are preachers +afraid to preach the divine Law and to tell men that they are under the +curse of God and merit damnation, so there are preachers afraid, +actually afraid, to preach the full Gospel, without any limiting clauses +and provisos. Just as there are teachers of Christianity who promptly +put on the soft pedal when they reach the critical point in their public +deliverances where they must reprove sin, and who hate intensive +preaching of the Ten Commandments, so there are evangelical teachers who +dole out Gospel grace in dribbles and homeopathic doses, as if it were +the most virulent poison, of which the sinner must not be given too +much. Luther tells Melanchthon: If you are afraid to draw every stop in +the organ when you play the tune of Love Divine, All Love Excelling, you +had better quit the organ. There are some sinners in this world that +will not understand your faint evangelical whispers; they need to have +the truth that Christ forgives their sins, all their sins,--their worst +sins, blown into them with all the trumpets that made the walls of +Jericho fall. If Melanchthon did not require a strong faith in the +forgiving grace of God for himself, he needed it as a teacher of that +grace to others; he must, therefore, familiarize himself with the +immensity and power of that grace. + +In conclusion, it should be noted that the Catholic writers who express +their extreme disgust at the immoral principles of Luther belong to a +Church whose theologians have made very questionable distinctions +between venial sins and others. Papal dispensations and decisions of +Catholic casuists, especially in the order of the Jesuits, have startled +the world by their moral perverseness. Yea, the very principles of +probabilism and mental reservation which the Jesuits have espoused are +antiethical. In accordance with the principle last named, "when +important interests are at stake, a negative or modifying clause may +remain unuttered which would completely reverse the statement actually +made. This principle justified unlimited lying when one's interest or +convenience seemed to require it. Where the same word or phrase has +more than one sense, it may be employed in an unusual sense with the +expectation that it will be understood in the usual. [This is called +"amphibology" by them.] Such evasions may be used under oath in a civil +court. Equally destructive of good morals was the teaching of many +Jesuit casuists that moral obligation may be evaded by directing the +intention when committing an immoral act to an end worthy in itself; as +in murder, to the vindication of one's honor; in theft, to the supplying +of one's needs or those of the poor; in fornication or adultery, to the +maintenance of one's health or comfort. Nothing did more to bring upon +the society the fear and distrust of the nations and of individuals than +the justification and recommendation by several of their writers of the +assassination of tyrants, the term 'tyrant' being made to include all +persons in authority who oppose the work of the papal church or order. +The question has been much discussed, Jesuits always taking the negative +side, whether the Jesuits have taught that 'the end justifies the +means.' It may not be possible to find this maxim in these precise words +in Jesuit writings; but that they have always taught that for the +'greater glory of God,' identified by them with the extension of Roman +Catholic (Jesuit) influence, the principles of ordinary morality may be +set aside, seems certain. The doctrine of philosophical sin, in +accordance with which actual attention to the sinfulness of an act when +it is being committed is requisite to its sinfulness for the person +committing it, was widely advocated by members of the society. The +repudiation of some of the most scandalous maxims of Jesuit writers by +later writers, or the placing of books containing scandalous maxims on +the Index, does not relieve the society or the Roman Catholic Church +from responsibility, as such books must have received authoritative +approval before publication, and the censuring of them does not +necessarily involve an adverse attitude toward the teaching itself, but +way be a more measure of expediency." (A. H. Newman, in _New +Schaff-Herzog Encycl.,_ 6, 146.) + + +18. Luther, Repudiates the Ten Commandments? + +In Luther's correspondence with Weller there occurs a remark to the +effect that Weller must put the Decalog out of his mind. Similar +statements occur in great number throughout Luther's writings. In some +of these statements Luther speaks in terms of deep scorn and contempt of +the Law, and considers it the greatest affront that can be offered +Christians to place them under the Law of Moses. He declares that Moses +must be regarded by Christians as if he were a heretic, excommunicated +by the Church, and assigns him to the gallows. Some of the strongest +invectives of this kind are found in his exposition of the Epistle to +the Galatians. These stern utterances of Luther against the Law serve +the Catholics as the basis for their charge that Luther is the most +destructive spirit that has arisen within the Church. He is said to have +destroyed the only perfect norm of right and wrong by his violent +onslaughts on Moses. Once the commandments of God are abrogated, the +feeling of duty and responsibility, they argue, is plucked from the +hearts of men, and license and vice rush in upon the world with the +force of a springtide. + +The reader will remember what has been said in a previous chapter about +Luther's labors to expound and apply the divine Law, also about the +intimate and loving relation which he maintained to the Ten Commandments +to the end of his life. Luther has spoken of Moses as a teacher of true +holiness in terms of unbounded admiration and praise. Ho declares the +writings of Moses the principal part of our Bible, because all the +prophets and apostles have drawn their teaching from Moses and +have expanded the teaching of Moses. Christ Himself has appealed to +Moses as an authority in matters of religion. The greatest distinction +of Moses in Luther's view is that he has prophesied concerning Christ, +and by revealing the people's sin through the teaching of the Law has +made them see and feel the necessity of a redemption through the +Mediator. However, also the laws of Moses are exceedingly fine, Luther +thinks. The Ten Commandments are essentially the natural moral law +implanted in the hearts of man. But also his forensic laws, his civil +statutes, his ecclesiastical ordinances, his regulations regarding the +hygiene, and the public order that must be maintained in a great +commonwealth, are wise and salutary. The Catholics are forced to admit +that alongside of the open contempt which Luther occasionally voices for +Moses and the Mosaic righteousness inculcated by the Law there runs a +cordial esteem of the great prophet. Luther regards the Law of Moses as +divine; it is to him just as much the Word of God as any other portion +of the Scriptures. To save their faces in a debate they must concede +this point, but they charge Luther with being a most disorderly +reasoner, driven about in his public utterances by momentary impulses: +He will set up a rule to-day which he knocks down to-morrow. He will +cite the same Principle for or against a matter. He is so erratic that +he can be adduced as authority by both sides to a controversy. The +Catholic may succeed with certain people in getting rid of Luther on the +claim that his is a confused mind, and that in weighty affairs he adopts +the policy of the opportunist. Most men will demand a better explanation +of the seeming self-contradiction in Luther's attitude toward the divine +Law. + +There is only one connection in which Luther speaks disparagingly of the +Law, and we shall show that what he says is no real disparagement, but +the correct Scriptural valuation of the Law. Luther holds that the Ten +Commandments do not save any person nor contribute the least part to his +salvation. They must be entirely left out of account when such questions +are to be answered as these: How do I obtain a gracious God? How is my +sin to be forgiven? How do I obtain a good conscience? How can I come to +I live righteously? How can I hope to die calmly, in the confidence that +I am going to heaven? On such occasions Luther says: Turn your eyes away +from Moses and his Law; he cannot help you; you apply at the wrong +office when you come to him for rest for your soul here and hereafter. +He gives you no comfort, and he cannot, because it is not his function +to do so. It is Another's business to do that. Him you grossly dishonor +and traduce when you refuse to come to Him for what He alone can give, +and when you go to some one who does not give you what you need, though +you pretend that you get it from this other. A proper relation to God is +established for us only by Jesus Christ. He is the exclusive Mediator +appointed by God for His dealing with man and for man in his dealings +with God. There is salvation in none other; nor can our hope of heaven +be placed on any other foundation than that which God laid when He +appointed Christ our Redeemer (Acts 4, 12; 1 Cor. 3, 11). + +This is Bible-doctrine. "The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth +came by Jesus Christ," says John (chap. 1, 17). Here the two fundamental +teachings of the Scriptures are strictly set apart the one from the +other. They have much in common: they have the same holy Author, God; +their contents are holy; they serve holy ends. But they are differently +related to sinful man: the Law tells man what he must do, the Gospel, +what Christ has done for him; the Law issues demands, the Gospel, +gratuitous offers; the Law holds out rewards for merits or severe +penalties, the Gospel, free and unconditioned gifts; the Law terrifies, +the Gospel cheers the sinner; the Law turns the sinner against God by +proving to him his incapacity to practise it, the Gospel draws the +sinner to God and makes him a willing servant of God. + +Paul demands of the Christian minister that he "rightly divide the Word +of Truth" (2 Tim. 2, 15). To preach the Bible-doctrine of salvation +aright and with salutary effect, the Law and the Gospel must be kept +apart as far as East is from the West. The Law is truth, but, it is not +the truth that saves, because it knows of no grace for the breakers of +the Law. The Gospel teaches holiness and righteousness, however, not +such as the sinner achieves by his own effort, but such as has been +achieved for the sinner by his Substitute, Jesus Christ. The Gospel is +not for men who imagine that they can do the commandments of God; Jesus +Christ says: "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to +repentance" (Matt. 9, 13). On the other hand, the Law is not for sinners +who know themselves saved. "The Law is not made for a righteous man" (1 +Tim. 1, 9). Christians employ the Law for the regulation of their lives, +as a pattern and index of holy works which are pleasing to God and as a +deterrent from evil works, but they do not seek their salvation, neither +wholly nor in part, in the Law, nor do they look to the Law for strength +to do the will of God. Moreover Christians, while they are still in the +flesh, apply the Law to the old Adam in themselves; they bruise the +flesh with its deceitful lusts with the scourge of Moses, and thus they +are in a sense under the Law, and can never be without the Law while +they live. But in another sense they are not under the Law: all their +life is determined by divine grace; their faith, their hope, their +charity, is entirely from the Gospel, and the new man in them +acknowledges no master except Jesus Christ, who is all in all to them +(Eph. 1, 23). + +When Luther directed men for their salvation away from the Law, he did +what Christ Himself had done when He called to the multitudes: "Come +unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you +rest" (Matt. 11, 28). The people to whom these words were addressed had +the Law of Moses and wearied themselves with its fulfilment, such as it +was under the direction of teachers and guides who had misinterpreted +and were misapplying that Law continually. Even in that false view of +the Law which they had been taught, and which did not at all exhaust its +meaning, there was no ease of conscience, no assurance of divine favor, +no rest for their souls. Christ with His gracious summons told them, in +effect: You must forget the Law and the ordinances of your elders and +your miserable works of legal service. You must turn your back upon +Moses. In Me, only in Me, is your help. + +Moses himself never conceived his mission to be what the Catholics +declare it to be by their doctrine of salvation by faith plus works. +Moses directed his people to the greater Prophet who was to come in the +future, and told them: "Unto Him shall ye hearken" (Deut. 18, 15). Jesus +was pointed out to the world as that Prophet of whom Moses had spoken, +when the Father at the baptism and the transfiguration of Christ +repeated from heaven the warning cry of Israel's greatest teacher under +the old dispensation (Matt. 3, 17; 17, 5). + +But was it necessary, in speaking of the inability of the Law to save +men, to use such strong and contemptuous terms as Luther has used? Yes. +The Catholics do not seen to know in what strong terms the Bible has +rejected the Law as a means of salvation. Paul denounces the Galatians +again and again as "foolish," "bewitched," and bastards of a bondwoman, +because they think they will be saved by their works done according to +the Law (chap. 3, 1. 3; 4, 21 ff.). He calls them godless infidels, +slaves, silly children still in their nonage, because they imagine that +they become acceptable to God by their own righteousness (chap. 4, 9; 3, +23 ff.). Yea, he reprobates their legal service when he says: "As many +as are of the works of the Law are under the curse" (chap. 3, 10). How +contemptuous does it not sound to hear him call the legal ordinances +which the Galatians were observing "beggarly elements" (chap. 4, 9), and +the law a "schoolmaster" (chap. 3, 24), that is, a tutor fit only for +little abecedarians who cannot be treated as full-grown persons that are +able to make a right use of their privileges as children and heirs of +God. Why do not the Catholics turn up their nose at Paul, as they do at +Luther, when Paul calls all his legal righteousness "dung" (Phil. 2, 8), +or when he speaks slightingly of the observance on which the Colossians +prided themselves as "rudiments of the world" (Col. 2, 20)? Why does he +call the Law "the handwriting of ordinances that has been blotted out" +(Col. 2, 14) but to declare to the Colossians that they are to fear the +Law as little as a debtor fears a canceled note that had been drawn +against him? What was it that Paul rebuked Peter for when he told him +that he was building again the things which they both had destroyed +(Gal. 2, 18)? Mark you, he says, "destroyed." Why, it was this very +thing for which Luther is faulted by Rome, the Law as an instrument for +obtaining righteousness before God. Could a person renounce the Law in +more determined, one might almost say, ruthless fashion, than by saying: +"I am dead to the Law, that I might live unto God"? Paul is the person +who thus speaks of the Law (Gal. 2, 19). The Catholics have again taken +hold of the wrong man when they assail Luther for repudiating the Law of +God; they must start higher up; they will find the real culprit whom +they are trying to prosecute among the holy apostles. Yea, even the +apostles will decline the honor of being the original criminals, they +will pass the charges preferred against them higher up still; for what +contemptuous terms were used by them in speaking of the Law were +inspired terms which they received from God the Holy Ghost. That +contempt for the Law which Luther voices under very particular +circumstances Luther has learned from his Bible and under the guidance +of the Holy Ghost. + +That contempt is a mark of every evangelical preacher to-day. If +ministers of the Gospel to-day do not denounce the Law when falsely +applied, they betray a sacred trust and become traitors to Christ and +the Church. For every one who teaches men to seek their salvation in any +manner and to any degree in their own works serves not Christ, but +Antichrist. This is such a fearful calamity that no terms should be +regarded as too scathing in which to rebuke legalistic tendencies. These +tendencies are the bane and blight of Christianity; if they are not +rooted out, Christianity will perish from off the face of the earth. +Workmongers are missionaries of the father of lies and the murderer from +the beginning: so far as in them lies, they slay the souls of men by +their false teaching of the Law. + +However, Luther reveals another attitude toward the Law. At three +distinct times in his public career he had to do with people who had +assumed a hostile attitude to the Law of God. If the contention of +Luther's Catholic critics were true, Luther ought to have hailed these +occasions with delight and made common cause with the repudiators of the +Law. While he was at the Wartburg, a disturbance broke out at +Wittenberg. Under the leadership of Carlstadt, a professor at the +University, men broke into the churches and smashed images. Church +ordinances of age-long standing were to be abrogated, the cloisters were +to be thrown open, and a new order of things was to be inaugurated by +violence. Against the will of the Elector of Saxony, who had afforded +Luther an asylum in his castle, Luther, at the risk of his life, came +out of his seclusion, boldly went to Wittenberg, and preached a series +of sermons by which he quelled the riotous uprising. Even before his +return to Wittenberg he had published a treatise in which he warned +Christians to avoid tumult and violent proceedings. The eight sermons +which he preached to the excited people of Wittenberg are an invaluable +evidence that Luther meant to proceed in the way of order. The mass and +the confessional would have been abolished at that time, had it not been +for Luther's interference. He made some lifelong enemies by insisting +that the reformatory movement must be conservative. He held that before +men's consciences had been liberated by the teaching of Christ, they +were not qualified for exercising true Christian liberty, and their +violent proceedings were nothing but carnal license. Everybody knows how +deeply Luther himself was interested in the abolition of the idolatrous +Mass and the spiritual peonage which Rome had created for men by means +of the confessional. Only a person who puts principles above policies +could have acted as Luther did in those turbulent days. He wanted for +his followers, not wanton rebels and frenzied enthusiasts, but men who +respect the Word of Cod, discreet and gentle men whose weapons of +warfare were not carnal. A man who is so cautious as not to approve the +putting down of acknowledged evils because he is convinced that the +attempt is premature and exceeds the limits of propriety, will not lend +his hand to abolishing the divine norm of right, the holy commandments +of God. + +The second occasion on which Luther in a most impressive manner showed +his profound regard for the maintenance of human and divine laws was +during the bloody uprising of the peasants. While thoroughly in sympathy +with the rebellious peasants in their righteous grievances against their +secular and spiritual oppressors, the barons and the bishops, and +pleading the peasants' cause in its just demands before their lords, he +unflinchingly rebuked their extreme demands and their still extremer +actions. If by his preaching of the Gospel Luther had been the +instigator of the peasants' uprising, what a brazen hypocrite he must +have been in denouncing acts which he must have acknowledged to be +fruits of his teaching! Among the noblemen of Germany Luther counted not +a few frank admirers and staunch supporters of his reformatory work. +Their influence was of the highest value to him in those critical days +when his own life was not safe. Yet he rebuked the sins of the high and +mighty, their avarice and insolence, which had brought on this terrible +disturbance. In his writings dealing with this sad conflict Luther +impresses one like one of the ancient prophets who stand like a rock +amid the raging billows of popular passions and with even-handed justice +deliver the oracles of God to high and low, calling upon all to bow +before the supreme will of the righteous Lawgiver. Would the great lords +of the land have meekly taken Luther's rebuke if they had been able to +charge Luther with being an accessory to the peasants' crimes? + +The third occasion on which Luther's innocence of the charges of +Romanists that he was an instigator of lawlessness was most effectually +vindicated was the Antinomian controversy. This episode, more than any +other, embittered the life of the aging Reformer. The Antinomians drew +from the evangelical teachings those disastrous consequences which the +Catholics impute to Luther: they claimed that the Law is not in any way +applicable to Christians. They insisted that the Ten Commandments must +not be preached to Christians at all. Christians, they claimed, +determine in the exercise of their sovereign liberty what they may or +may not do. Being under grace, they are superior to the Law and a law +unto themselves. At first Luther had been inclined to treat this error +mildly, because it seemed incredible to him that enlightened children of +God could so fatally misread the teaching of God's Word. He thought the +Antinomians were either misunderstood by people who had no conception of +the Gospel and of evangelical liberty, or they were grossly slandered by +persons ill-disposed to them because of their successful preaching of +the Gospel. When their error had been established beyond a doubt, he did +not hesitate a moment to attack it. In sermons and public disputations, +before the common people of Wittenberg and the learned doctors and the +students of the University, he defended the holy Law of God as the norm +of right conduct and the mirror showing up the sinfulness of man also +for Christians, and he insisted that those who had fallen into this +error must publicly recant. It was due to Luther's unrelenting +opposition that Agricola, one of the leaders of the Antinomians and at +one time a dear friend of Luther, withdrew his false teaching and +offered apologies in a published discourse. To his guests Luther in +those days remarked at the table: "Satan, like a furious harlot, rages +in the Antinomians, as Melanchthon writes from Frankfort. The devil will +do much harm through them and cause infinite and vexatious evils. If +they carry their lawless principles into the State as well as the +Church, the magistrate will say: I am a Christian, therefore the law +does not pertain to me. Even a Christian hangman would repudiate the +law. If they teach only free grace, infinite license will follow, and +all discipline will be at an end." (Preserved Smith, p. 283.) Luther +held that forbidding the preaching of the Law meant to prohibit +preaching God's truth (20, 1635), and to abrogate the Law he regarded as +tantamount to abrogating the Gospel (22, 1029). + +Far from repudiating the Ten Commandments, then, Luther, by insisting on +a distinction between Law and Gospel, and assigning to each a separate +sphere of operation in the lives of Christians, has done more than any +other teacher in the Church since the days of Paul to impress men with a +sincere respect of the Law, and to honor it by obedience to its +precepts. + + +19. Luther's Invisible Church. + +In his Theses against the sale of indulgences, especially in the first +two, Luther had uttered a thought which led to a new conception of the +Church. He had declared that Christian life does not consist in the +performance of certain works of piety, such as going to confession, +performing the penances imposed by priests, hearing Mass, etc.,--all of +which are external, visible acts,--but in a continuous penitential +relation of the heart to God. The Christian, conscious of his innate +corruption and his daily sinning, faces God at all times in the attitude +of a humble suitor for mercy. The posture of the publican is the typical +attitude of the Christian. He recognizes no merit in himself, he pleads +no worthiness which would give him a just claim upon God's favor. His +single hope and sole reliance is in the merit and atoning work of his +Savior Jesus Christ. The Christian's penitence embraces as a constituent +element faith in the forgiveness of sin for Christ's sake. In the +strength of his faith the Christian begins to wrestle with the sin which +is still indwelling in him and which besets him from without. The agony +of the Redeemer which he places before his eyes at all times proves a +deterrent from sin, and the holy example of Jesus, who ran with +rejoicing the way of the commandments of God, becomes an inspiring +example to him: actuated by gratitude for the love of the Son of God who +gave Himself for him and reclaimed him from certain perdition, he begins +to reproduce the life of Jesus in his own conversation. His whole life +is determined by his relation to Jesus: his thoughts, affections, words, +and deeds are a reflex of the life of his Lord. For him to live is +Christ (Phil. 1, 21). All his acts become expressions of his faith. He +says with Paul: "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the +life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of +God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2, 20). + +During the discussions which followed the publication of the Theses, +especially during the Leipzig Debate with Eck in 1519, this thought of +Luther was expanded, and applied to the idea of the Church. +Christianity, in Luther's teaching, came to be set forth as something +vastly different from the external and mechanical religiousness which +had been accepted as Christianity by Rome. Christianity meant a new +life, swayed by new motives, governed by new principles. It was seen to +be entirely inward, an affair of the heart and soul and mind, and, +ulteriorly, an affair of the body and the natural life. The religion of +Rome, with its constant emphasis on works of men's piety and the merit +resulting therefrom, had become thoroughgoing externalism. So many +prayers recited, so many altars visited, so many offerings made, meant +so many merits achieved. The scheme worked out with mathematical +precision. Devout Catholics might well keep a ledger of their devotional +acts, as Gustav Freitag in his _Ancestors_ represents Marcus Koenig as +having done. + +In the Catholic view the Church is a visible society, an ecclesiastical +organization with a supreme officer at the head, and a host of +subordinate officers who receive their orders from him, and lastly, a +lay membership that acknowledges the rule of this organization. The +Church in this view is a religious commonwealth, only in form and +operation differing from secular commonwealths. Cardinal Gibbons calls +it "the Christian Republic." In Luther's view the Church is, first of +all, an invisible society, known to God, the Searcher of hearts, alone. +The Church of Christ is the sum-total of believers scattered through the +whole world and existing in all ages. To this Church we refer when we +profess in the Apostles' Creed: "I believe one holy, Christian Church, +the communion of saints." This is the Church, the real Church, the +Church which God acknowledges as the spiritual body of Christ, who is +the Head of the Church, and with which He maintains the most intimate +and tender relations. + +This invisible Church exists within the visible societies of organized +Christianity, in the local Christian congregations. Christian faith is +never independent of the means which God has appointed for producing +faith, the Gospel and the Sacraments. "Faith cometh by hearing, and +hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. 10, 17). This faith-creating word of +evangelical grace is an audible and visible matter. Its presence in any +locality is cognizable by the senses. It becomes attached, moreover, by +Christ's ordaining, to certain visible elements, as the water in Baptism +and the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper. Hence these two Christian +ordinances--the only two for which a divine word of command and promise, +hence, a divine institution can be shown--also become related to faith, +to its origin and preservation. For of Baptism our Lord says: "Except a +man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of +God" (John 3, 5). To be "born again," or to become a child of God, +according to John 1, 12, is the same as "to believe." Accordingly, Paul +says: "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as +many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. +3, 26. 27). Of the Sacrament our Lord says: "This is the blood of the +covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matt. 26, +28); and His apostle declares that communicants, "as often as they eat +of this bread and drink of this cup, do show the Lord's death till He +come" (1 Cor. 11, 26). + +The Gospel and the Sacraments, now, become the marks of the Church, the +unfailing criteria of its existence in any place. For, according to the +declaration of God, they are never entirely without result, though many +to whom they are brought resist the gracious operation of the Spirit +through these means. By Isaiah God has said: "As the rain cometh down, +and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the +earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the +sower and bread to the eater: so shall My Word be that goeth forth out +of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish +that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent +it" (Is. 55, 10. 11). + +Among the people who in a given locality rally around the Word and the +Sacraments and profess allegiance to them, there is the Church, because +there is the power of God unto salvation, the faith-producing and +faith-sustaining Gospel of Jesus Christ. Those who embrace what the +Gospel offers with a lively faith, and in the power of their faith +proceed to lead holy lives in accordance with the teaching of God's +Word, are the members of the true Church of God, the kingdom of Christ. +Those who adhere only externally to these institutions are merely +nominal members. They may at heart be hypocrites and secret blasphemers. + +Catholic writers charge Luther with having set up this teaching, partly +to spite the Pope whom he hated, partly to gratify his vainglorious +aspirations to become famous. He had at one time held the Catholic dogma +that the Church is the visible society of men who profess allegiance to +the Bishop of Rome and accept his overlordship in matters of their +religion. But through neglect of his religious duties and the failure to +bridle his imperious temper he had by degrees begun to revolt from the +teaching of the Catholic Church, until he publicly renounced the Church +that had existed in all the ages before him, and set up his own Church. +By forsaking the communion of the Roman church organization he severed +his soul from Christ and became an apostate. For, according to Catholic +belief, Christ founded the Church to be a visible organization with a +visible head, the Pope, and plainly and palpably "governing" men. + +Everybody who has read the records of Luther's work knows that no +thought was more foreign to his mind than that of founding a new church. +He believed himself in hearty accord with the Catholic Church and the +Pope when he published his Theses. He did not wantonly leave the Church, +but was driven from it by most ruthless measures. It was while he was +defending the principles which he had first uttered against Tetzel that +his eyes were opened to the appalling defection which had occurred in +the Catholic Church from every true conception of what the Church really +is. His appeals to the Word of God were answered by appeals to the +Church, the councils of the Church, the Pope. In his unsophisticated +mind Luther held that Church, councils, and Pope are all subject to +Christ, the Head of the Church. They cannot teach and decree anything +but what Christ has taught and ordained. It is only by abiding in the +words of Christ that men become and remain the true disciples of Christ, +hence, His Church (John 8, 31). Now, he was told that Christ had erected +the visible organization of the Catholic Church with the Pope at its +head into the Church, and had handed over all authority to this society, +with the understanding that there can be no appeal from this body to +Christ Himself. Salvation is only by submitting to the rule of this +society, adopting its ways, following its precepts. From this teaching +Luther recoiled with horror, and rightly so. + +At one time God had erected a theocracy on earth, a Church which was a +visible society, and for which He had made special laws and ordinances. +The Church of the Old Covenant is the only visible Church which God +created. But even in this Church He declared that external compliance +with its ways did not constitute any one a true member of His Church. He +told the Jews by Isaiah: "To this man will I look, even to him that is +poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My Word. He that killeth +an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut +off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation as if he offered swine's +blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol" (chap. 66, 2. +8). Here God abominates the mere external performance of acts of worship +as an outrage and a crime that is perpetrated against His holy name. +Repeating a saying of this same prophet, our Lord said to the members of +the Jewish Church in His day: "Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy +of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and +honoreth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. But in vain +do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" +(Matt. 15, 7-9). The Pharisees in the days of Christ are the true +ancestors of Catholics in their belief that the Church is a great, +powerful, visible organization in this world, subject to the supreme +will of a visible ruler, and capable of being employed in great worldly +enterprises like a political machine. The Pharisees were always looking +for the establishment of a mighty church organization which would +dominate the world. They expected the Messiah to inaugurate a Church of +this kind. With this ambitious thought in their heart they approached +Christ on a certain occasion and asked Him "when the kingdom of God +should come. He answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not +with observation; neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, Lo, there! for, +behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17, 20. 21). To the same +effect Paul declares "He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is +that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which +is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, +and not in the letter" (Rom. 2, 28. 29). And to a young pastor whom he +had trained for work in the Church, he describes the Church as follows: +"The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth +them that are His. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ +depart from iniquity" (2 Tim. 2, 19). + +By making the Gospel the mark of the Church and faith the Gospel the +badge of membership in the Church Luther has rendered an incalculable +service to Christianity. This view of the Church shows the immense +importance of a live, intelligent, and active personal faith. It puts a +ban on religious indifference and mechanical worship. It destroys +formalism, ceremonialism, Pharisaism in the affairs of religion. Justly +Luther has ridiculed the implicit, or blind, faith of Catholics, when he +writes: "The papists say that they believe what the Church believes, +just as it is being related of the Poles that they say: I believe what +my king believes. Indeed! Could there be a better faith than this, a +faith less free from worry and anxiety? They tell a story about a doctor +meeting a collier on a bridge in Prague and condescendingly asking the +poor layman, 'My dear man, what do you believe?' The collier replied, +'Whatever the Church believes.' The doctor: 'Well, what does the Church +believe?' The collier: 'What I believe.' Some time later the doctor was +about to die. In his last moments he was so fiercely assailed by the +devil that he could not maintain his ground nor find rest until he said, +'I believe what the collier believes.' A similar story is being told of +the great [Catholic theologian] Thomas Aquinas, viz., that in his last +moments he was driven into a corner by the devil, and finally declared, +'I believe what is written in this Book.' He had the Bible in his arms +while he spoke these words. God grant that not much of such faith be +found among us! For if these people did not believe in a different +manner, both the doctor and the collier have been landed in the abyss of +hell by their faith." (17, 2013.) + +Luther's teaching regarding the Church leads to a proper valuation of +the means of grace. Only through the evangelical Word and the +evangelical ordinances is the Church planted, watered, and sustained. It +is, therefore, necessary that the world be supplied in abundance with +the Word through the missionary operations of Christians, and that the +Christians themselves have the Word dwell among them richly (Col. 3, +16). "He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much +fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing," says the Head of the Church to +His disciples (John 15, 5); and in His last prayer He pleads with the +Father in their behalf: "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is +truth" (John 17, 17). For the same reason it is necessary that the Word +and Sacraments be preserved in their Scriptural purity, that any +deviation from the clear teaching of the Bible be resisted, and +orthodoxy be maintained. Errors in doctrine are like tares in a +wheat-field: they are useless in themselves, and they hinder the growth +of good plants. Error saves no one, but some are still saved in spite of +error by clinging to the truth which is offered them along with the +error. Luther believed that this happened even in the error-ridden +Catholic Church. + +Luther's teaching regarding the Church enables us, furthermore, to form +a right estimate of the ministry in the Church. Christ wants all +believers to be proclaimers of His truth and grace. The apostle whom +Catholics regard as the first Pope says to all Christians: "Ye are a +chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar +people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you +out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Pet. 2, 9). To the local +congregation of believers, which is to deal with an offending brother, +even to the extent of putting him out of the church, Christ says: "If he +neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a +publican. Verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth +shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall +be loosed in heaven." There is nothing that God denies even to the +smallest company of believers while they are engaged in the discharge of +their rights and duties as members of the Church; for Christ adds: +"Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as +touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My +Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together +in My name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18, 17-20). All +rights and duties of the Church are common to all members. All have the +right to preach, to administer the Sacraments, etc. Over and above this, +however, Christ has instituted also a personal ministry, men who can be +"sent" even as He was sent by the Father (John 20, 21; comp. Rom. 10, +15: "How shall they preach, except they be sent?"); men who are to +devote themselves exclusively to the reading of the Word (1 Tim. 4, 13), +to teaching and guiding their fellow-believers in the way of divine +truth (see the Epistles to Timothy and Titus). But the ministry in the +Church does not represent a higher grade of Christianity,--the laymen +representing the lower,--but the ministry is a service ordained for the +"perfecting of the saints and the edifying of the body of Christ," viz., +His Church (Eph. 4, 11. 12; 1, 23). _Minister_ is derived from _minus,_ +"less," not from _magis_--from which we have _Magister_--meaning "more." +The ministry of the Church of the New Testament is not a hierarchy, +endowed with special privileges and powers by the Lord, but a body of +humble workmen who serve their fellow-men and fellow-Christians in the +spirit of Christ, who said: "The Son of Man came not to be ministered +unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20, +28). Ministers merely exercise in public the common rights of all +believers and are the believers' representatives in all their official +acts. So Paul viewed the absolution which he pronounced upon the +penitent member of the Corinthian congregation (2 Cor. 2, 10). When the +Corinthians had begun to exalt their preachers unduly, he told them that +they were "carnal." "Who is Paul," he exclaims, "and who is Apollos, but +ministers by whom ye believed? . . . Let no man glory in men. For all +things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or +life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours" (1 +Cor. 3, 4. 5. 20. 21). And Peter, the original Pope in the Catholics' +belief, says: "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an +elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of +the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among +you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not +for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's +heritage, but being ensamples to the flock" (1 Pet. 5, 1-3). + +Lastly, Luther's teaching regarding the Church affords a wealth of +comfort and sound direction in view of the divided condition of the +visible Church. Through the ignorance and malice of men and through the +wily activity of Satan, who creates divisions and offenses contrary to +the doctrine of Christ, and is busy sowing tares among the wheat, there +have arisen many church organizations, known by party names, differing +from one another in their creedal statements, and warring upon each +other. This is a sad spectacle to contemplate, and grieves Christian +hearts sorely. But these divisions in the external and visible +organizations do not touch the body of Christ, the communion of saints, +the one holy Christian Church. In all ages and places the true believers +in Christ are a unit. Among those who by faith have "put on the new man, +which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him, +there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, +barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free; but Christ is all, and in all" +(Col. 3, 10. 11). This is the true Catholic, that is, universal, Church. +The visible society which has usurped this name never was, nor is +to-day, the universal Church. Before Protestantism arose, there was the +Eastern Church, which has maintained a separate organization. This holy +Christian Church is indestructible, because the Word of Christ, which is +its bond, shall never pass away, and Christ rules even in the midst of +His enemies. Visible church organizations are valuable only in as far as +they shelter, and are nurseries of, the invisible Church. Luther never +conceived the idea of founding a visible organization more powerful than +the Catholic; he did not mean to pit one ecclesiastical body of men +against another. His single aim was to restore the purity of teaching +and the right administration of the Sacraments in accordance with the +Scriptures. That his followers were named after him, we have shown not +to be Luther's fault: Luther did not form a Church, but reformed the +Church; he did not establish a new creed, but reestablished the old. The +visible society of Lutherans to-day does not regard itself as the +alone-saving Church, or as immune from error, or as infallible, but it +does claim to be the Church of the pure Word and Sacraments. It knows +that it is one in faith with all the children of God throughout the +world and in all ages. + + +20. Luther on the God-Given Supremacy of the Pope. + +In the opinion of Catholics Luther's greatest offense is what he has +done to their Pope. This is Luther's unpardonable sin. Luther has done +two things to the Pope: he has denied that the Pope exists by divine +right, and he has in the most scurrilous manner spoken and written about +the Pope and made his vaunted dignity the butt of universal ridicule. +The indictment is true, but when the facts are stated, it will be seen +to recoil on the heads of those who have drawn it. + +Luther denies that Matt. 16, 18. 19 establishes the papacy in the Church +of Christ. He denies that this text creates a one-man power in the +Church, that it vests one individual with a sovereign jurisdiction over +the spiritual affairs of all other men, making him the sole arbiter of +their faith and the exclusive dispenser of divine grace, and, last, not +least, that it says one word about the Pope. Luther makes, indeed, a +clean and sweeping denial of every claim which Catholics advance for the +God-given supremacy of their Popes. Inasmuch as the papacy stands or +falls with Matt. 16, 18.19, he has put the Catholics in the worst +predicament imaginable. + +Catholics believe that Peter was singled out for particular honors in +the Church by being declared the rock on which Christ builds His Church, +and by being given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Peter's supremacy +as Primate of the World, they hold, passed over to Peter's successor and +is perpetuated in an unbroken line of succession in the Roman Popes. +Three questions, then, confronted Luther in the study of this text in +Matthew. First, does the "rock" in Matt. 16, 18 signify Peter? The Lord +had addressed to all His disciples the question, "Whom say ye that I +am?" Instead of all of them answering and creating a confusion, Peter, +the most impulsive of the apostles, speaks up and says, "Thou art the +Christ, the Son of the living God." With these words Peter expressed the +common faith of all the disciples. Not one of them dissented from his +statement; he had voiced the joint conviction of them all. Peter was the +spokesman, but the confession was that of the apostles. Any other +apostle might have spoken first and said the same, had he been quicker +than Peter. If there is any merit in Peter's confession of Christ, all +other disciples, yea, all who confess Christ as Peter did, share that +merit. In replying to Peter the Lord takes all merit away from Peter by +saying to him: "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood +hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven." He +addresses Peter by the name he had borne before he became an apostle: +Simon, son of Jonas, and tells him that if he were still what he used to +be before he came to Christ, he could not have made the confession which +he had just uttered. In his old unconverted state he would not have +formed any higher opinion concerning Christ than the people throughout +the country, some of whom thought that Christ was John the Baptist risen +from the dead; others, that he was Jeremias; still others, that he was +one of the ancient prophets come back to life. The deity of Jesus and +His mission as Christ, that is, as the Messiah, our Lord says, are +grasped by men only when the Father reveals these truths to them. A +spiritual nature, a new mind such as the Spirit gives in regeneration, +is required for such a confession. The glory of Peter's confession, +therefore, is the glory of every believer. To every Sunday-school child +which recites Luther's explanation of the Second Article: "I believe +that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and +also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed +me," the Lord would say the same thing as He did to Peter: My child, +yours is an excellent confession; there is nothing fickle or undecided +in it like in the vague and changing opinions which worldly men form +about Me. Thank God that He has given you the grace to know Me as I +ought to be known. + +But did not the Lord proceed to declare Peter the rock on which He would +build His Church? That is what Catholics believe, in spite of the fact +that this would be the only place in the whole Bible where a human being +would be represented as the foundation of the Church, while there are +scores of passages which name quite another person as the rock that +supports the Church. Catholics read this text thus: "Thou art Peter, and +_on thee_ will I build My Church." That is precisely what Christ did not +say, and what He was most careful not to express. The words "Peter" and +"rock" are plainly two different terms and denote two different objects. +That is the most natural view to take of the matter. In the original +Greek we find two words similar in sound, but distinct in meaning for +the two objects to which Christ refers: Peter's name is _Petros,_ which +is a personal noun; the word for "rock" is _petra,_ which is a common +noun. In the Greek, then, Christ's answer reads thus: "Thou art +_Petros,_ and on this _petra_ will I build my Church." Catholics claim +that Christ, in answering Peter, introduced a play upon words, such as a +witty person will indulge in: _Petros,_ the apostle's name, signifies a +rock-man, a firm person, and from this meaning it is an easy step to +_petra,_ which is plain rock or stone. If this interpretation is +admitted, the expression "upon thee" may be substituted for the +expression "on this rock." Yet not altogether. By adopting the peculiar +phraseology "upon this rock" in the place of "upon thee," Christ avoids +referring to the individual Peter, to the person known as Peter, and +refers rather to a characteristic in him, namely, his firmness and +boldness in confessing Christ. This every careful interpreter of this +text will admit. Christ could easily have said: Upon thee will I build +My Church, if it had been His intention to say just that. And we imagine +on such a momentous occasion Christ would have used the plainest terms, +containing no figure of speech, no ambiguities whatever; for was he not +now introducing to the Church the distinguished person who was to +preside over its affairs? Catholics claim that when Christ spoke these +words, "upon this rock," He had extended His hand and was pointing to +Peter. That would help us considerably in the interpretation of the +text. The trouble is only that we are not told anything about such a +gesture of Christ, and if a gesture must be invented, it is possible to +invent an altogether different one, as we shall see. But if Christ, by +saying, "upon this rock," instead of saying, "upon thee," referred not +to Peter as a person, but to a quality in Peter, namely, to his firm +faith, then it follows that the Church is not built on the person of +Peter, but on a quality of Peter. This is the best that Catholics can +obtain from the interpretation which they have attempted. But if the +Church is built on firm faith, there is no reason why that faith should +be just Peter's. Would not every firm believer in the deity and +Redeemership of Christ become the rock on which the Church is built just +as much as Peter? Luther declared quite correctly: "We are all Peters if +we believe like Peter." Really, the Catholics ought to be willing to +help strengthen the foundation of the Church by admitting that the rock +would become a stouter support if, instead of the firm faith of one man, +the equally firm faith of hundreds, thousands, and millions of other men +were added to prop up the Church. In all seriousness, it will be +absolutely necessary to give Peter some assistants; for we know that the +job of holding up the Church was too big for him on at least two +occasions. What became of the Church in the night when Peter denied the +Lord? In that night, the Catholics would have to believe, the Church was +built on a liar and blasphemer. What became of the Church in the days +when Peter came to Antioch and Paul withstood him to the face because he +was dissembling his Christian convictions not to offend a Judaizing +party in the Church? (Gal. 2.) Was the Church in those days built on a +canting hypocrite? + +But the greatest difficulty in admitting the Catholic interpretation is +met when one remembers those Bible-texts which name an altogether +different rock as the foundation and corner-stone of the Church. Paul +says that in their desert wanderings the Israelites were accompanied by +Christ. He was their unseen Guide and Benefactor. He supported their +faith. "They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that +Rock was Christ" (1 Cor. 10, 4). At the conclusion of the Sermon on the +Mount the Lord relates a parable about a wise and a foolish builder. The +foolish builder set up his house on sand; the wise builder built on +rock. By the rock, however, the Lord would have us understand "these +sayings of Mine" (Matt. 7, 24). Paul speaks of the Church to the +Ephesians thus: "Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and +prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone" (chap. 2, +20). Most fatal, however, to the Catholic interpretation is the +testimony of Peter. Exhorting the Christians to eager study of the Word +of the Lord, he goes on to say: "To whom coming, as unto a living stone, +disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as +lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to +offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. +Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a +chief corner-stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth on Him shall +not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe He is precious, but +unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, +the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a +rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the Word, being +disobedient" (1 Pet. 2, 4-8). Here Peter in the plainest and strongest +terms declares Christ to be the rock on which the Church is built. The +scribes and Pharisees rejected Him, as had been foretold, but the common +people who heard Him gladly embraced His message of salvation, and +rested their faith on what He had taught them and done for them. Peter +evidently did not understand the text in Matthew as the Catholics +understand it. Peter in his Epistle is really a heretic in what he says +about the rock, and if the Catholics could spare him from under the +Church, they ought to burn him. + +Instead of connecting the two parts of the statement: "Thou art Peter," +and, "Upon this rock I will build My Church," as closely as Catholics +do, the two parts ought to be kept separate. What the Lord says to Peter +may be paraphrased thus: Peter, there was a time when you were merely +Simon, Jonas's son. At that time you had thoughts and formed opinions +about holy matters such as your flesh and blood, your natural reason, +suggested to you. All that is changed now that you are a Peter, a firm +believer in the revelation which the Father makes to men about Me. What +you have confessed is the exact truth; cling to that against all odds; +for upon this person whom you have confessed, as upon a rock, I will +build My Church.--And now we may imagine that the Lord, while uttering +the words, "upon this rock," pointed to Himself. The text does not say +that the Lord made such a gesture; we simply imagine this, but our +imagination is not only just as good as that of the Catholics, but +better, for the gesture which we assume agrees with the teachings of all +the Scriptures that speak of Christ's person and work. + +However, the Catholics remind us that Christ gave to Peter the keys of +the kingdom of heaven and made him the doorkeeper of paradise. Yes, so +the text reads, and with Luther we should now inquire: Was it a brass, +or silver, or golden, or wooden key? Is the lock on the gate of heaven a +common padlock, or like the cunning contrivances which are nowadays +employed in safety vaults? Catholics are very much offended when one +speaks thus of the keys of Peter. They say sarcasm is out of place in +such holy matters. That is quite true; but, again with Luther, we would +urge that the keys of which we are speaking sarcastically are not the +keys in Matt. 16, 10, but the keys in the Catholic imagination. And +these latter one can hardly treat with reverence. The Catholics must +admit that no real key, or anything resembling a key, was given to Peter +by Christ. The language in this text is figurative: the words which +follow state the Lord's meaning in plain terms. The power of the keys is +the preaching of the forgiveness of sins to penitent sinners, and the +withholding of grace from those who do not repent. If that is admitted +to be the meaning, we need turn only one leaf in our Bible, and read +what is stated in Matt. 18, 18. There the Lord confers the same +authority on all the disciples which He is said in Matt. 16, 19 to have +conferred on Peter exclusively. On this latter occasion Peter, if the +Catholics have the right view of the keys, ought to have interposed an +objection and said to the Lord, What you give to the others is my +property. Evidently Peter did not connect the same meaning with the +words of Christ about the keys as the Catholics. Christ spoke of this +matter once more, and in terms still plainer, at the meeting on Easter +Eve, and again addressed all the disciples. Again Peter made no +complaint. (John 20.) + +It should be noted , moreover, that in this entire text in Matthew the +Lord speaks in the future tense: "I will build," "I will give." The +words do not really confer a grant, but are at best a promise. It is +necessary now that the Catholics find a complement to this text in +Matthew, a text which relates that Christ actually carried out later +what He promised to Peter in Matt. 16, 18. 19. The Lord seems to have +forgotten the fulfilment of His promise, and the matter seems to have +slipped Peter's mind, too; for we are not told that he reminded the Lord +of His promise, though he asked him on another occasion what would be +the reward of his discipleship. (Matt. 19, 27 ff.) + +Luther has, furthermore, appealed to the Catholics to prove from the +Scriptures that Peter ever exercised such an authority as they claim for +him. If Peter had been created the prince of the apostles or the visible +head of the Church, we should expect to find evidence in our Bible that +Peter acted as a privileged person and was so regarded by the other +apostles. But we may read through the entire book of Acts and all the +apostolic epistles: they tell us very minutely how the Church was +planted in many lands, how it grew and spread, but there is not even a +faint hint that Peter was regarded as the primate, or Pope, in his day. +When a certain question of doctrine was to be decided in which the +congregations of Paul were interested, Paul did not lay the matter +before Peter to obtain his judgment on it, but referred it to a council +of the Church. At this council many spoke, and it was not Peter's, but +James's speech which finally decided the matter. (Acts 15.) When Philip +had organized congregations in Samaria, the church at Jerusalem sent +Peter and John to visit them. Peter did not assume control of these +churches by his own right, nor had Philip in the first place directed +the Samaritans to Peter as their head. (Acts 8, 14 ff.) We have thirteen +letters of Paul, three of John, besides the Revelation, one of James, +and one of Jude. The state of the Church, its affairs and development, +are the subject-matter of all these writings, but not one of them +reveals the popedom of Peter. Yea, Peter himself has written two +epistles and appears utterly ignorant of the fact that the Lord had +created him His vicegerent and the visible head of the Church. + +The Catholic argument for the God-given supremacy of their Pope, +however, becomes perfectly reckless when we bear in mind that their +banner text speaks only of Peter, but says nothing at all about Peter's +successors. If Peter possessed the supremacy that Catholics claim for +him, how and by what right did he dispose of it at his death? How did +this power become attached to Rome? On all these questions the Bible is +silent. Catholics construct a skilful argument from fragmentary and +doubtful historical records, which are not God's Word, to show that +Peter chore Rome as his episcopal see, and therewith transferred his +primacy for all time to this place. To fabricate a dogma that is to be +binding on the consciences of all Christians in such a way is daring +impudence. The devout Catholic must close his eyes to all history if he +is to believe that Christ really appointed a Pope. When he reads the +history of the Popes, and comes to the period of the papal schism, when +the Church had not only one, but two visible heads, one residing at +Rome, the other at Avignon, yea, when he reads of three contestants for +papal honors, and beholds the Church as a tricephalous monster, he must +stop thinking. + +Luther regarded the papacy as the most monstrous fraud that has been +practised on Christianity. In its gradual and persistent development and +the success with which it has maintained itself through all reverses, it +impresses one as something uncanny. It requires more than human wiliness +to originate, foster, perfect, and support such a thoroughly unbiblical +and antichristian institution. Luther spoke of the papal deception as +one of the signs foreboding the end of the world. He has not spoken in +delicate terms of the Popes. His most virulent utterances are directed +against the "Vicar of Christ" at Rome. He traces the papacy to +diabolical origin. When he lays bare the shocking perversions of +revealed truths of which Rome has been guilty, and talks about the foul +practises of the Popes and their courtesans, Luther's language becomes +appalling. In a series of twenty-six cartoons Luther's friend Cranach +depicted the rule of Christ and Antichrist. The series was published +under the title "Passional Christi und Antichristi." (14, 184 ff.) By +placing alongside of one another scenes from the life of the Lord and +scenes from the lives of the Popes, the artist displayed very +effectually the contrast between the true religion which the Redeemer +had taught men by His Word and example, and the false religiousness +which was represented by the papacy. On the one side was humility, on +the other, pride; poverty was shown in contrast with wealth; meekness +was placed over and against arrogance, etc. At a glance the people saw +the chasm that yawned between the preaching and practise of Jesus and +that of His pretended representative and vicar, and they verified the +pictures showing the Pope in various attitudes from their own +experience. These cartoons became very popular, and have maintained +their popularity till the most recent times. During the "Kulturkampf" +which the German government under Bismarck waged against the aggressive +policy of the Vatican, the German painter Hofmann issued a new edition +of the "Passionale," and Emperor William I sent a copy to the Pope with +a warning letter. + +Catholics complain about the rudeness and nastiness of these cartoons +and others that followed. Luther is supposed to have furnished the +rhymes and descriptive matter which accompanied them. Lather is also +cited as uttering most repulsive and scurrilous sentiments about the +Pope. + +What are we to say about this antipapal violence of Luther? Certainly, +it is not a pleasant subject. We are in this instance facing essentially +the same situation as that which confronted us when we studied Luther's +"coarseness" (chap. 5), and all that was said in that connection applies +with equal force to the subject now before us. One may deplore the +necessity of these passionate outbursts ever so much, but when all the +evidence in the case has been gathered and the jury begins to sift the +evidence and weigh the arguments on either side, there is at the worst a +drawn jury. All who have truly sounded "the mystery of iniquity" which +has been set up in the Church by the papacy will affirm Luther's +sentiments about the Pope as true. + +It is necessary, however, to point out certain facts that may be +regarded as additional argument to what was said in chap. 5. In the +first place, the cartoon is a recognized weapon in polemics. The +struggle of the Protestants against the Pope was not altogether a +religious and spiritual one; political matters were discussed together +with affairs of religion at every German diet in those days. The age was +rude and largely illiterate. Many who could never have made any sense +out of a page of printed matter, very easily understood a picture. It +conveyed truthful information, though in a form that hurt, as cartoons +usually do, and it roused a healthy sentiment against a very malignant +evil in the Church and in the body politic. If the Popes would keep out +of politics, they and their followers would enjoy more quiet nerves. + +In the second place, it should be borne in mind that the claim of papal +supremacy is no small and innocent matter. The Popes wrested to +themselves the supreme spiritual and temporal power in the world. They +pretended to be the custodians of heaven, the directors of purgatory, +and the lords of the earth. Across the history of the world in the era +of Luther is written in all directions the one word ROME. It is Rome at +the altar swinging the censer, Rome in the panoply of battle storming +trenches and steeping her hands in gore, Rome in the councils of kings, +Rome in the halls of guilds, Rome in the booth of the trader at a +town-fair, Rome in the judge's seat, Rome in the professor's chair, Rome +receiving ambassadors from, and dispatching nuncios to, foreign courts, +Rome dictating treaties to nations and arranging the cook's _menu,_ Rome +labeling the huckster's cart and the vintner's crop, Rome levying a tax +upon the nuptial bed, Rome exacting toll at the gate of heaven. Out of +the wreck of the imperial Rome of the Caesars has risen papal Rome. Once +more, though through different agents, the City of the Seven Hills is +ruling an _orbis terrarum Romanus,_ a Roman world-empire. The rule +extends through nearly a thousand years. How deftly do cunning priests +manipulate every means at their command to increase their power! +Learning, wealth, beauty, art, piety,--everything is used as an asset in +the ambitious game for absolute supremacy which the mitered vicegerent +of Christ is playing against the world. Rome's ancient pontifex maximus +--the pagan high priest of the Rome before Christ--had been a tool of +the consuls and the Caesars; the new pontiff makes the Caesars his +tools. Princes kiss his feet and hold the stirrup for him as he mounts +his bedizened palfrey. An emperor stands barefoot in the snow of the +Pope's courtyard suing pardon for having dared to govern without the +Pope's sanction.--The forests of Germany are reverberating with the +blows of axes which Rome's missionaries wield against Donar's Oaks. The +sanctuaries of pagan Germany are razed. Out of the wood of idols +crucifixes are erected along the highways. Chapels and abbeys and +cathedrals rise where the aurochs was hunted. Sturdy barbarians bend the +knee at the shrines of saints. Hosts set out to see the land where the +Lord had walked and suffered, and brave all dangers and hardships to +wrest its possession from infidel hands. But at the place where all +these activities center, and whence they are being fed, a shocking +abomination is seen: Venus is worshiped, and Bacchus, and Mercurius, and +Mars, while white-robed choirs chant praises to the mother of God, and +clouds of incense are wafted skyward. Here is a mystery--a mystery of +iniquity: the son of perdition in the temple of God! Proud, haughty +Rome, wealthy, wicked and wanton, is filling up her measure of wrath +against the day of retribution.--We are now so far removed from these +scenes that they seem unreal; in Luther's days they were decidedly real. +Rome's aggressiveness has been perceptibly checked during the last four +centuries; in Luther's days papal pretensions were a more formidable +proposition. + +Human arrogance may be said to have reached its limit in the papacy. The +Pope is practically a God on earth. "Sitting in the temple of God as +God, he is showing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. 2, 4). He has been +addressed by his followers in terms of the Deity. "When the Pope thinks, +it is God thinking," wrote the papal organ of Rome, the _Civilta +Cattolica,_ in 1869. He has asserted the right to make laws for +Christians, and to dispense with the laws of the Almighty. Although this +seemed a superfluous proceeding, he declared himself infallible on July +18, 1870. Under a glowering sky, as if Heaven frowned angrily at the +Pope's attempt, Plus IX had entered St. Peter's. As a "second Moses" he +mounted the papal throne to read the Constitution "Aeternus Pater," the +document in which he made the following claims: Canon III: "If any one +says that the Roman Pontiff has only authority to inspect and direct, +but not plenary and supreme authority of jurisdiction over the entire +Church, not only in matters which relate to faith and morals, but also +in matters that belong to the discipline and government of the Church +scattered through the whole earth; or that he has only the more eminent +part of such authority, but not the full plenitude of this supreme +authority; or that this authority of his is not his ordinary authority +which he holds from no intermediary, and that it does not extend over +all churches and every single one of them, over all pastors and every +single one of them, over all the faithful and every single one of them, +--let him be accursed!" Canon IV: "With the approval of the Sacred +Council we teach and declare it to be a dogma revealed from heaven that +the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks _ex cathedra,_ that is, when, in +accordance with his supreme apostolic authority, be discharges his +office as Pastor and Teacher of all Christians, and defines a doctrine +relating to the faith or morals which is to be embraced by the entire +Church, he is, by divine assistance promised to him in the blessed +Peter, vested with that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer +desired His Church to be endowed in defining the doctrine of faith and +morals; and that for this reason such definitions of the Roman Pontiff +are in their very nature, not, however, by reason of the consent of the +Church, unchangeable. If--which God may avert!--any one should presume +to contradict this definition of ours,--let him be accursed!" Amid +flashes of lightning and peals of thunder this document was read to a +council whose membership had shrunk during seven months of deliberation +from 767 to 547 attendants,--277 qualified members had never put in an +appearance,--and of these all but two had been cowed into abject +submission. When one recalls scenes like these, and remembers that +Catholic teaching on justification attacks the very heart of +Christianity, anything that Luther has said about the Popes appears +mild. Such heaven-storming and God-defying arrogance deserves to be +dragged through the mire--with apologies to the mire. + + +21. Luther the Translator of the Bible. + +A violent attack upon Luther by Catholic writers is caused by the +admiration which Protestants manifest for Luther because he translated +the Bible into German. Catholics, of course, cannot deny that Luther did +translate the Bible, and that his translation is still a cherished +treasure of Protestants; but in order to belittle this achievement of +Luther, which inflicted incalculable damage on Rome, they talk about +Luther's unfitness for the work of Bible-translation and about the +unwarranted liberties Luther took with the Bible. + +These writers claim that Luther was, in the first place, morally unfit +to undertake the translation of the Bible. To show to what desperate +means Luther's Catholic critics will resort in order to make out a case +against him, we note that one of the most recent disparagers of Luther +informs the public that Luther's original name had been Luder. This name +conveys the idea of "carrion," "beast," "low scoundrel." When Luther +began to translate the Bible, we are told, he changed his name into +"Squire George." Once before this, at the time of his entering the +university, Catholics note that he changed his name from Luder to +Lueder. But these changes of his name, they say, did not improve his +character. We are told that, while Luther was engaged upon the work of +rendering the Bible into German, he was consumed with fleshly lust and +given to laziness. Luther's own statements in letters to friends are +cited to corroborate this assertion. The conclusion which we are to draw +from these "facts" is this: Such a corrupt person could not possibly be +a proper instrument for the Holy Spirit to employ in so pious an +undertaking as the translation of the Word of God. + +Catholics should be reminded that they misquote the book of +matriculation in which the students at Erfurt signed their names on +entering the university. Luther's signature is not "Lueder" but +"Ludher." Other forms of the name "Luder" and "Lueder" occur elsewhere. +But in any form the name has a more honorable derivation and meaning +than Catholic writers are inclined to give it. It is derived from +"Luither," which means as much as "People's Man," (= der Leute Herr). +Another well-known form of the same name is Lothar, which some, tracing +the derivation still further, derive from the old German Chlotachar, +which means as much as "loudly hailed among the army" (= _hluit,_ loud, +and _chari,_ army). Respectable scholars to-day so explain the name +Luther. + +At the Wartburg, where Luther was an exile for ten months, his name was +changed by the warden of the castle, Count von Berlepsch. This was done +the better to conceal his identity from the henchmen of Rome, who by the +imperial edict of outlawry had been given liberty to hunt Luther and +slay him where they found him. + +The sexual condition of Luther during the years before his marriage was +the normal condition of any healthy young man at his age. Luther speaks +of this matter as a person nowadays would speak about it to his +physician or to a close friend. The matter to which he refers is in +itself perfectly pure: it is an appeal of nature. Do Luther's Catholic +critics mean to infer that Luther was the only monk, then or now, that +felt this call which human nature issues by the ordination of the +Creator? Rome can inflict celibacy even on priests that look like +stall-fed oxen, but she cannot unsex men. Mohammedans are less inhuman +to their eunuchs. Moreover, it must be borne in mind that Luther +complains of this matter as something that disturbs him. It vexed his +pure mind, and he fought against it as not many monks of his day have +done, by fasting, prayer, and hard work. Yes, hard work! The remarks of +Luther about his physical condition are simply twisted from their true +import when Luther is represented as a victim of fleshly lust and a +habitual debauchee. Luther's Catholic critics fail to mention that +during his brief stay at the Wartburg Luther not only translated the +greater part of the New Testament, but also wrote about a dozen +treatises, some of them of considerable size, and that of his +correspondence during this period about fifty letters are still +preserved. Surely, a fairly respectable record for a lazy man! + +Catholic writers also declare Luther spiritually unfit for translating +the Bible. They say that all the time that Luther spent at the Wartburg +he was haunted by the devil. He would hear strange noises and see weird +shadows flit before him. He felt that he had come under the sway of the +powers of darkness. This, we are assured, was because he had risen in +rebellion against the divine power of the papacy. The Holy Father whom +he had attacked was being avenged upon Luther by an accusing conscience. +Luther was given a foretaste of the terrors that await the reprobate. He +had become an incipient demoniac. The inference which we are to draw +from this delightful description is this: Could such an abandoned wretch +as Luther was during the exile at the Wartburg be favored with the holy +calm and composure and the heavenly light which any person must possess +who sets out upon the arduous task of telling men in their own tongue +what God has said to them in a foreign tongue? + +There is hardly a period in Luther's life that is entirely free from +spiritual affliction. In this respect Luther shares the common lot of +godly men in responsible positions in Church or State during critical +times. Moreover, Luther with all Christians believed in a personal and +incessantly active devil. Luther's devil was not the denatured +metaphysical and scientific devil of modern times, which meets us in the +form of the principle of negation, or logical contradiction, or a +demoralizing tendency and influence, but an energetic devil, possessed +of an intelligence and will of his own, and going about as a roaring +lion, seeking whom he may devour. Luther accepted the teaching of the +Bible that this devil is related to men's sinning, that men can be made +to do, and are doing, his will, and are led about by the devil like +slaves. Luther knew that for His own reasons God permits the devil to +afflict His children, as happened to Job and Paul. Add to this the +reaction that must have set in after Luther had quitted the stirring +scenes and the severe ordeals through which he had passed before the +imperial court at Worms. In the silence and solitude of his secluded +asylum in the Thuringian Forest the recent events in which he had been a +principal actor passed in review before his mind, and he began to spell +out many a grave and ominous meaning from them. If it is true that the +devil loves to find a lonely man, here was his chance. + +And if the devil ever had material interests at stake in attacking a +particular person, he made no mistake in assailing this isolated monk, +Martin Luther, in his moments of brooding and depression. Lastly, +Luther's physical condition at the Wartburg must be taken into +consideration. Trained to frugal habits in the cloister and habituated +to fasts and mortification of the flesh, Luther found the new mode of +living which he was compelled to adopt uncongenial. He was the guest of +a prince and was treated like a nobleman. The rich and abundant food +that was served him was a disastrous diet for him, even though he did +not yield overmuch to his appetite. He complains in his letters to +friends during the Wartburg period about his physical distress, chiefly +constipation, to which he was constitutionally prone. + +But after all these elements have been noted, it must be stated that the +reports about diabolical visitations to which Luther was subject at the +Wartburg are overdrawn for a purpose by Catholics. Luther's references +to this matter in his letters written at the time suggest only spiritual +conflicts, but no physical contact with the devil. Reminiscences of his +first exile which he relates at a much later period to the guests at his +table are also exaggerated. These soul-battles, far from unfitting him +for the work of translating the Bible, were rather a fine +training-school through which God put His humble servant, and helped him +to understand the sacred text over which he sat poring in deep +meditation. + +Lastly, Catholic critics have pronounced Luther intellectually +disqualified for translating the Bible. His Greek scholarship, they say, +was poor. He had barely begun to study that language. It stands to +reason that his translation must be very faulty. They also emphasize the +rapidity with which Luther worked. The translation of the entire New +Testament was completed between December 8, 1521, and September 22 the +following year. (It will be remembered that Luther had returned to +Wittenberg in the first days of March, 1522, and all through the spring +and summer of that year was busily engaged, with the aid of friends, on +his German New Testament.) Finally, Catholics, in their efforts to +belittle Luther's works, have claimed that he plagiarized a German +translation already in existence, the so-called Codex Teplensis. + +It seems a mere waste of time to answer these criticisms. They remind +one of a scene in the life of Columbus: the learned Catholic divines of +Salamanca had to their own satisfaction routed the bold navigator with +their arguments that he could not possibly start out by his proposed +route. No doubt, some of them contended that he never made his famous +voyage even after his return. What profit can there be in arguing the +impossibility of a thing when the reality confronts you? Luther's +translation is before the world; everybody who knows Greek can compare +it with the original text. The Teplensian translation, too, can be +looked into. In fact, all this has been done by competent scholars, and +Luther's translation has been pronounced a masterpiece. Not only does it +reproduce the original text faithfully, but it speaks a good and correct +German. Luther's translation of the Bible is now regarded as one of the +classics of German literature. It is true that the philological +attainments of the world have increased since Luther, and that +improvements in his translations have been suggested, but they do not +affect any essential teaching of the Christian religion. Bible +commentators to-day are still citing Luther's rendering as an authority. +The movement recently started in Germany to replace Luther's translation +by a modern one deserves little consideration because it originated in +quarters that are professedly hostile to Christianity. The things in +Luther's German Bible which vex Catholics most are in the original Greek +text. Luther did not manufacture them, he merely reproduced them. It is +the fact that Luther made it possible for Germans to see what is really +in the Bible that hurts. To please the Catholics, Luther should not have +translated the Bible at all. + +The truth of this remark is readily seen when one examines specific +exceptions which Catholics have taken to Luther's translation. They find +fault with Luther's translation of the angel's address to Mary: "Du +Holdselige," that is, Thou gracious one, or well-favored one. The +Catholics demand that this term should be rendered "full of grace," +because in their belief Mary is really the chief dispenser of grace. +They complain that in Matt. 3, 2 Luther has rendered the Baptist's call: +"Tut Busse," that is, Repent, instead of, Do penance. They fault Luther +for translating in Acts 19, 18: "Und verkuendigten, was sie ausgerichtet +hatten," that is, They reported what they had accomplished. Catholics +regard this text as a stronghold for their doctrine of confession, +especially for that part of it which makes satisfaction by works of +penance a part of confession; they insist that the text must be +rendered: They declared their deeds, that is, the works which they had +performed by order of their confessors. Catholics charge Luther with +having inserted a word in Rom. 4, 15, which he translates: "Das Gesetz +richtet nur Zorn an," that is, The law worketh only wrath, or nothing +but wrath. They object to the word "only," because in their view man can +by his own natural powers make himself love the Law. They set up a great +hue and cry about another insertion in Rom. 3, 28, which Luther +translates: "So halten wir es nun, dass der Mensch gerecht werde ohne +des Gesetzes Werk', allein durch den Glauben," that is, We conclude, +therefore, that a man is justified without the deeds of the Law, by +faith alone; they object to the word "alone," because in their teaching +justification is by faith plus works. It is known that there are +translations before Luther which contain the same insertion. On this +insertion Luther deserves to be heard himself. "I knew full well," he +says, "that in the Latin and Greek texts of Rom. 3, 28 the word solum +(alone) does not occur, and there was no need of the papists teaching me +that. True, these four letters sola, at which the dunces stare as a cow +at a new barn-door, are not in the text. But they do not see that they +express the meaning of the text, and they must be inserted if we wish to +clearly and forcibly translate the text. When I undertook to translate +the Bible into German, my aim was to speak German, not Latin or Greek. +Now, it is a peculiarity of our German language, whenever a statement is +made regarding two things, one of which is affirmed while the other is +negatived, to add the word solum, 'alone,' to the word 'not' or 'none.' +As, for instance: The peasant brings only grain, and no money. Again: +Indeed, I have no money now, but only grain. As yet I have only eaten, +and not drunk. Have you only written, and not read what you have +written? Innumerable instances of this kind are in daily usage. While +the Latin or the Greek language does not do this, the German has this +peculiarity, that in all statements of this kind it adds the word 'only' +(or 'alone'), in order to express the negation completely and clearly. +For, though I may say: The peasant brings grain and no money, still the +expression 'no money' is not as perfect and plain as when I say: The +peasant brings grain only, and no money. Thus the word 'alone' or 'only' +helps the word 'no' to become a complete, clear German statement. When +you wish to speak German, you must not consult the letters in the Latin +language, as these dunces are doing, but you must inquire of a mother +how she talks to her children, of the children how they talk to each +other on the street, of the common people on the market-place. Watch +them how they frame their speech, and make your translation accordingly, +and they will understand it and know that some one is speaking German to +them. For instance, Christ says: _Ex abundantia cordis os loquitur._ If +I were to follow the dunces, I would have to spell out those words and +translate: 'Aus dem Ueberfluss des Herzens redet der Mund!' Tell me, +would that be German? What German would understand that? What sort of +thing is 'abundance of heart (Ueberfluss des Herzens)' ? No German +person could explain that, unless he were to say that, possibly, the +person had enlargement of the heart, or too much heart. And that would +not be the correct meaning. 'Ueberfluss des Herzens' is not German, as +little as it is German to say 'Ueberfluss des Hauses (abundance of +house), Ueberfluss des Kachelofens (abundance of tile-oven), Ueberfluss +der Bank (abundance of bench).' This is the way the mother speaks to her +children and the common people to one another: 'Wes das Herz voll ist, +des gehet der Mund ueber.' That is the way to speak good German. That is +what I have endeavored to do, but I did not succeed nor achieve my aim +in all instances. Latin terms are an exceedingly great hindrance to one +who wishes to talk good German." (19, 974.) + +In insisting on the principle that a translation must reproduce the +exact thought of a language, that idiomatic utterances of the one +language must be replaced by similar utterances in the other, and that +the genius of both the language from which and the one into which the +translation is made must be observed by the translator, Luther has every +rhetoric and grammar on his side. Those who find fault with him on this +score deserve no better titles than those which he applied to them, all +the more because he knew the true reason of their faultfinding. The +Catholic charges of Bible perversion against Luther flow, not from a +knowledge of good grammar, but from bad theology. Luther was, of course, +fundamentally in error according to the opinion of Catholics by not +making his translation from the approved and authorized Latin Vulgate, +the official Catholic Bible, but from the Greek original. + +To return favor for favor, we shall note a few places where Catholics +might bring their own Bible into better harmony with the original text. +In Gen. 3, 15 their translation reads: "She shall crush thy head, and +thou shalt lie in wait for her heel." This rendering has been adopted in +order to enable them to refer this primeval prophecy of the future +Redeemer to Mary. Gen. 4, 13 they have rendered: "My iniquity is greater +than that I may deserve pardon." This is to favor their teaching of +justification on the basis of merit. The rendering "Speak not much" for +"Use not vain repetitions" in Matt. 6, 7 weakens the force of the Lord's +warning. In Rom. 14, 5 the Catholic Bible tells its readers: "Let every +man abound in his own sense," whatever the sense of that direction may +be. What the apostle really means is: "Let every man be fully persuaded +in his own mind." In Gal. 3, 24 the Catholic Bible calls the Law "our +pedagog in Christ"; the correct rendering is: "our schoolmaster to bring +us unto Christ." In the Catholic Bible the following remarkable event +takes place in Luke 16, 22: "The rich man also died: and he was buried +in hell." The pall-bearers, funeral director, and mourners at these +obsequies deserve a double portion of our sympathy. In Acts 2, 42 we are +told that the disciples at Jerusalem were persevering "in the +communication of the breaking of the bread." The last verse in +Galatians, chap. 4, is made to read: "So then, brethren, we are not the +children of the bondwoman, but of the free: by the freedom wherewith +Christ has made us free." The next chapter begins: "Stand fast," etc. + +Luther has expressed opinions of certain books of the Bible which +question their divine authorship. These opinions are being assiduously +canvassed by Catholic writers to prove that Luther accepted only such +portions of the Bible as suited his purpose, and rejected all the rest +as spurious. He is said to have arrogated to himself the authority to +declare any book of the Scriptures inspired or not inspired, and is, +therefore, justly regarded as the father of the higher criticism of +modern times, which has taken the Bible to pieces and destroyed its +power. But Catholic writers fail to state that the uncertainty which +Luther occasionally manifests regarding the divine origin and +authenticity of certain books of the Bible is due to the confusion which +the Catholic Church has created by decreeing that the apocryphal books +shall be considered on a par with the canonical writings of the Bible. +Setting aside the verdict of the ancient Church, and even of their +famous church-father Jerome, the Catholic Church has by an arbitrary +decree ruled the following books into the Bible: 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, +Tobit, Judith, The Rest of Esther, The Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus +(Sirach), Baruch, with the Epistle of Jeremiah, The Song of the Three +Holy Children, The History of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, The Prayer of +Manasses, 1 and 2 Maccabees. These writings are called apocrypha because +their divine origin is in doubt. Scrupulously careful to keep the +divinely inspired writings separate from all other writings, no matter +how godly their contents might seem to be, the Church of the Old +Covenant excluded these writings from the canon, that is, from the list +of fully accredited inspired writings. Besides, in the Catholic Bible in +Luther's days there were apocryphal portions inserted in canonical +writings like Esther. + +In the course of his studies Luther learned that certain writings in the +Catholic Bible represented as Biblical were no part of the Bible. Acting +upon the direction which the Lord gave to the Jews: "Search the +Scriptures . . . they are they which testify of Me" (John 5, 39), he +considered this a good test of the genuineness of any portion of the +Bible, viz., that it conveyed to him knowledge of Christ and the way of +salvation. The Bible, he held, can speak only for, never against Christ. +By this principle he determined for himself the respective value of +various writings in the Bible. Ecclesiastes and Jonah did not appeal to +him as very full of Christ. In the New Testament he seems strongly +attracted by the Gospel of John. But there are statements in his +writings in which he expresses a preference for Matthew, Mark, and Luke. +One must understand Luther's view-point and aim on a given occasion to +grasp these valuations. In regard to Job he expressed the opinion that +the book is dramatic rather than historical: it does not relate actual +occurrences, but rather points a moral in the form of a narrative. In +the New Testament the overgreat emphasis which he thought James placed +on works as against faith caused him to depreciate this Epistle and to +question its apostolic authorship. Luther also knew that in the earliest +centuries of the Christian era the question had been raised whether +Second Peter, Jude, James, Revelation, really belonged in the canon. + +Unbiased readers will see in all these remarks of Luther nothing but the +earnest struggle of a sincere soul to get at the real Word of God. A +person may express a preference for certain portions of the Bible +without declaring all the rest of the Bible worthless. Doubts concerning +the divine character of certain, portions of the Scripture arise and are +occasionally expressed by the best of Christians. But Luther's critical +attitude toward certain books of the Bible is either misunderstood or +misrepresented when it is made to appear that Luther permanently +rejected, or tore out of his Bible, such books as Esther, Jonah, +Ecclesiastes, Second Peter, James, Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation. Some +Catholics go so far as to charge Luther with having rejected the +Pentateuch, the first five books in the Bible, because he speaks +slightingly of Moses' law as a means of justification. Not only did +Luther translate and take into his German Bible all the writings just +named, but he also cites them in his doctrinal writings as proof-texts. +In the Index of Scripture citations which Dr. Hoppe, the editor of the +only complete edition of Luther's works printed in America, has added to +the last volume we find 11 such references to Job, 12 to Ecclesiastes, 6 +to Jonah, 48 to Second Peter, 18 to James, 6 to Jude, 61 to Hebrews, 17 +to Revelation. We have counted only such references as show that Luther +employed these writings as divine in his doctrinal arguments. By actual +enumeration it would be found that he has referred to them much more +frequently. On Jonah, Second Peter, and Jude he wrote special +commentaries, and for all the books of the Bible he furnished +illuminating summaries, in some cases, as in Revelation, the summaries +are furnished chapter for chapter. This goes to prove that Luther had +ultimately reached very clear and settled opinions regarding the +authenticity and divine character of those books of the Bible which he +is charged with having blasphemously criticized. Luther's criticism of +these portions of the Bible is the most respectable criticism that has +come to our knowledge. It shows his scrupulous care not to admit +anything as being God's Word of the divine origin of which he was not +fully convinced. It is Rome, not Luther, that has vitiated the Bible and +created confusion in Christian minds, by admitting into the sacred +volume portions which do not belong there. + +Luther's questioning attitude towards the books of the Bible, which we +have named is the attitude of the early Christians. There was doubt +expressed in the first centuries as to the genuineness of these books, +and it required convincing information in those days when facilities for +communication were poor to secure the adoption of the books which we now +have in the Bible. Why do not the Catholics embrace the early Christians +in their charge of Bible mutilation? Nor were those early Christians who +questioned the divine authorship of certain books about the origin of +which they had no definite knowledge any less Christian than those who +had convincing information about them. For the former possessed in the +writings which they had accepted as authentic the same truths which the +latter had embraced. + +Luther voices his profound reverence for the Scriptures in innumerable +places throughout his writings. "The Holy Scriptures," he says, "did not +grow on earth." (7, 2094.) Again: "When studying the Scriptures, you +must reflect that it is God Himself who is speaking to you." (3, 21.) +Again: "The Scriptures are older and possess greater authority than all +Councils and Fathers. Moreover, all the angels side with God and the +Scriptures. . . . If age, duration, greatness, multitude [of followers], +holiness, are inducements to believe something, why do we believe men +who live but a short time rather than God, who is the Oldest, the +Greatest, the Holiest, the Mightiest of all? Why do we not believe all +the angels, since a single one of them has greater authority than the +Pope? Why do we not believe the Bible, when one passage of Scripture +outweighs all the books in the world?" (19, 1734.) Again: "The Bible +alone is the true lord and master over all writings on earth. If this +is not so, of what use is the Bible? Then let us cast it aside, and be +satisfied with the books and teachings of men." (15, 1481.) Again: "All +Scripture is full of Christ, the Son of God and Mary. Its sole object is +to teach us to know Him as a distinct person, and that through Him we +may in eternity behold the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God. The +Scriptures are ajar to him who has the Son, and in the same proportion +as his faith in Christ increases the Scriptures become clear to him" (3, +1959.) How little Luther would have in common with the destructive +higher critics of the Bible in our day, we can gather from the following +statement: "If cutting and tearing the Bible to pieces were a great art, +what a famous Bible would I produce! Especially if I were to lay my hand +on the important passages, those on which the articles of our faith rest. +. . . My position, then, is this: In view of the fact that our faith is +supported by Holy Writ, we must not depart from its words as they read, +nor from the order in which they are placed. . . . Otherwise, what is to +become of the Bible?" (20, 213.) + + +22. Luther a Preacher of Violence against the Hierarchy. + +In his fight against papal supremacy Luther discovered that the Roman +priesthood was the Pope's chief support. The principle of community of +interests had knitted both the higher and the lower clergy, the +cardinals, archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, parish priests, monks, +etc., together into one firmly compacted society. All its members +understood that they were working in a common cause, and kept in +constant and close rapport with one another: What concerned one +concerned all the rest. Each aided and abetted the other, and all strove +jointly to exalt their master, the Pope. Like a huge net the rule of +priests was spread over mankind, and all men, with their spiritual and +secular interests, were caught in this net. The system was called a +hierarchy, that is, a holy government. The priesthood and the holy +orders were the Pope's collateral. All its members derived what +authority they possessed from the Pope; their fortunes were bound up in +the Pope's. This priest-rule Luther overthrew by causing men to see the +liberty with which Christ has made them free. Catholic critics claim +that by so doing Luther rebelled against an ordinance of God. We have +shown in chapter 18 that Luther acknowledges in the Church of Christ a +ministry that exists by divine appointment. Hence the Catholic charge +that Luther revolted from God when he disputed the divine right of the +hierarchy is silly. + +However, Luther is said to have "recklessly encouraged the destruction +of the episcopate, and openly commanded sacrilege and murder" to mobs. +The appeal of Luther that the _rule_ of bishops be exterminated is +interpreted to mean that the bishops be exterminated. This is one of the +most wanton charges that could be preferred against Luther. By the +Theses against Tetzel the attention of many prominent men in Germany was +attracted to Luther. Princes and noblemen of the Empire had for some +time been studying from a secular point of view the evils which Luther +had begun to attack on spiritual grounds. These men understood the +character of the Roman hierarchy much better than Luther. They saw at +once that Luther's action would lead to serious complication that might +ultimately have to be settled with the sword. When Luther was still +dreaming about convincing the Pope with arguments from Scripture, German +noblemen were preparing to defend him against physical violence. They +knew that the hierarchy would not without a fierce struggle submit to +any curtailment of their power. They offered Luther armed support. +Luther recoiled with horror from this suggestion. In a letter from the +Wartburg which he wrote to his friend Spalatin who was still tarrying at +Worms, Luther refers to one of these warlike knights as follows: "What +Hutten has in mind you can see [from the writings of the knight which he +enclosed]. I would not like to see men fight for the Gospel with force +and bloodshed. I have answered that parson (_dem Menschen_) accordingly. +By the Word the world has been overcome, the Church has been preserved; +by the Word it will also be restored. As to Antichrist, he began his +rule without physical force, and will also be destroyed without physical +force, by the Word." (15, 2506.) The letter from which these words are +quoted is dated January 16, 1522. Nine months before this date, on May +14, when he had been on the Wartburg about ten days, Luther writes to +the same party: "It is for good reasons that I have not answered your +letter ere this: I hesitated from fear that the report recently gone out +of my being held captive might prompt somebody to intercept my letters. +A great many things are related about me at this place; however, the +opinion is beginning to prevail that I was captured by friends sent for +this purpose from Franconia. To-morrow the safe-conduct granted me by +the emperor expires. I am sorry that, as you write me, there is an +intention to apply the very severe [imperial] edict also for the purpose +of exploring men's consciences; not on my account, but because they [the +papists] are ill-advised in this and will bring misfortune on their own +heads, and because they continue to load themselves with very great +odium. Oh, what hatred will this shameless violence kindle! However, +they may have their way; perhaps the time of their visitation is near. +--So far I have not heard from our people either at Wittenberg or +elsewhere. About the time of our arrival at Eisenach the young men [the +students] at Erfurt had, during the night, damaged a few priests' +dwellings, from indignation because the dean of St. Severus Institute, a +great papist, had caught Magister Draco, a gentleman who is favorably +inclined to us, by his cassock and had publicly dragged him from the +choir, pretending that he had been excommunicated for having gone to +meet me at my arrival at Erfurt. Meanwhile people are fearing greater +disturbances; the magistrates are conniving, for the local priests are +in ill repute, and it is being reported that the artisans are allying +themselves with the student-body. The prophetic saying seems about to +come true which runs: Erfurt is another Prague. [There was rioting in +Prague in the days of Hus, whom Rome burned at the stake.]--I was told +yesterday that a certain priest at Gotha has met with rough treatment +because his people had bought certain estates (I do not know which), in +order to increase the revenue of the church, and, under pretext of their +ecclesiastical immunity, had refused to pay the incumbrances and taxes +on the same. We see that the people, as also Erasmus writes, are unable +and unwilling any longer to bear the yoke of the Pope and the papists. +And still we do not cease coercing and burdening them, although--now +that everything has been brought to light--we have lost our reputation +and their good will, and our former halo of sanctity can no longer avail +or exert the influence which it exerted formerly. Heretofore we have +increased hatred by violence and by violence have suppressed it; +however, whether we can continue suppressing it experience will show." +(15, 2510.) To Melanchthon he wrote about this time: "I hear that at +Erfurt they are resorting to violence against the dwellings of priests. +I am surprised that the city council permits this and connives at it, +and that our dear friend Lang keeps silent. For although it is good that +those impious men who will not desist are kept in check, still this +procedure will bring the Gospel into disrepute, and will cause men +justly to spurn it. I would write to Lang, but as yet I dare not. For +such a display of friendliness to our cause as these people show is very +offensive to me, because it clearly shows that we are not yet worthy +servants in God's sight, and that Satan is mocking and laughing at our +efforts [of reform]. Oh, how I do fear that all this is like the fig +tree in the parable, of which the Lord, Matt. 21, predicts that it will +merely sprout before the Day of Judgment, but will bear no fruit. What +we teach is, indeed, the truth; however, it amounts to nothing if we do +not practise what we preach." (15, 1906.) + +Disquieting rumors of excesses that were being perpetrated by radical +followers of the evangelical teaching had reached Luther also from +Wittenberg. To obtain a clear insight into the actual state of affairs, +he made a secret visit to his home town in the beginning of December, +1521. Returning to his exile, he wrote his _Faithful Admonition to All +Christians to Avoid Tumult and Rebellion._ In this treatise Luther +reasons as follows: The papacy, with all its great institutions, +cloisters, universities, laws and doctrines, is nothing but lies. On +lies it was raised, by lies it is supported, with lies and frauds and +cheats it deceives, misleads, and oppresses men. Accordingly, all that +is necessary to overthrow its dominion is to recognize its lying +character, and to publish it and the papacy will collapse as if blown +aside by the breath of the Almighty, as Scripture says it shall happen +to Antichrist. To start a riot against the papists would never improve +them, and would only cause them to vilify the cause of their opponents. +In times of tumult, people lose their reason and do more harm to +innocent people than to the guilty. Public wrongs should be redressed by +the magistrates, who are vested with authority for that purpose. No +matter how just a cause may be, it never justifies rioting. Luther +declares that he will rather side with those who suffer in, than with +those who start, a riot. Rioting is forbidden in God's Law (Dent. 16, +20; 32, 35). This particular rioting against the papists has been +instigated by the devil, in order to divert people's minds from the real +spiritual issues of the times, and to bring the cause of the Gospel into +disrepute. Luther feels these tumultuous proceedings as a disgrace. +"People who read and understand my teaching correctly," he says, "do not +start riots. They were not taught such things by me. If any engage in +such proceedings and drag my name into it, what can I do to stop them? +How many things are the papists doing in the name of Christ which Christ +never commanded!" Luther begs all who glory in the name of Christians to +conduct themselves as Paul demands 2 Cor. 6, 3: "Giving no offense in +anything, that the ministry be not blamed." (10, 360 ff.) Whoever can, +ought to treat himself to the reading of this fine treatise of the +exiled monk of Wittenberg. + +The iconoclastic uprising which broke out in Wittenberg in the closing +days of the month of February, 1522, finally decided Luther, at the risk +of his life, to quit his exile and to fight the devil, who was trying to +subvert his good doctrine by such wicked practises. The world knows that +it was Luther who quelled the riot in his town. Luther's face was ever +sternly set against those who wanted to wage the Lord's wars with the +devil's weapons. No murder or sacrilege that was committed in those days +can be laid at the door of Luther's teaching. + +The Catholics are trying to divert attention from their own unwarranted +and violent proceedings by charging Luther with preaching a war of +extermination against their hierarchy. How did they treat the just +claims and reasonable demands of the German nation for measures that +were admitted to be crying needs of the times? No German diet met but a +long list of grievances was submitted by the suffering people. It was of +no avail. The haughty clergy rode over the people's rights and prayers +rough-shod. The tyrannous devices which their cunning had invented were +executed with brazen impudence. How had they treated simple laymen in +whose possession a Bible was found? What was their inquisitorial court +but the anteroom to holy butchers' shambles, the legal vestibule to +murder that had been sanctioned by the Popes? How had they treated +Luther? If the papal nuncio at the Diet of Worms had had his way with +the emperor and the princes, Luther would not have left that city alive. +They openly declared to the emperor that he was not obliged to keep his +plighted word for a safe-conduct to a heretic. These people come now at +this late day prating about violence that they have suffered from this +sacrilegious and bloodthirsty Luther. They themselves were the +perpetrators of the most appalling violence against God and men: their +whole system rests, as Johann Gerhard in his famous _Confessio +Catholica_ rightly asserts, on _Fraus et Vis,_ that is, Fraud and +Violence. + + +23. Luther, Anarchist and Despot All in One. + +Extremes met, with most disastrous effect-so Catholic writers tell us-in +Luther's views of the political rights of men. At one time he was so +outspoken in his condemnation of the oppression which the common people +were suffering from the clergy, the nobility, and their aristocratic +governors that he incited them to discontent with their humble lot in +life, to unrest, and to open rebellion against their magistrates. At +another time he became the spokesman for the most pronounced absolutism +and despotism. He turned suddenly against the very people whose cause +he had so signally championed, and who hailed him as their prophet and +leader. When the poor, downtrodden people needed him most, Luther +cowardly deserted them, and by frenzied utterances excited the nobility +to slay the common people without mercy in the most ruthless fashion, +and even promised the lords whom he had denounced as tyrants heaven for +enacting the barbaric cruelties to which he was urging them. This is the +Catholic portrayal of Luther during the Peasants' War. + +The relation of the peasant uprising to Luther's preaching is grossly +misrepresented when the impression is created that Luther had before +this sad upheaval worked hand in glove with the malcontent rustics for +the overthrow of the government. Disturbances of this kind had been +periodical occurrences in Europe for many hundreds of years. The heavy +taxes and tithes, and the forced labor which the lords exacted from +their tenants, who were little better than serfs, the galling +restrictions in regard to hunting, fishing, gathering wood in the +forests which they had imposed on them, the foreign Roman law under +which they tried cases in court, and, in general, their haughty and +contemptuous bearing toward the common people had for many generations +created strained relations between the upper and the lower classes. The +estrangement which developed into open defiance existed among the +peasants before Luther had begun to preach. Nor can Luther's teaching be +said to have fanned the slumbering embers of discontent into a huge +flame. The liberty of a Christian man which he had proclaimed was not +such liberty as the peasants demanded and wrested to themselves when the +revolt had reached its height. Luther had consistently taught that +obedience to the government is a Christian duty. He had, as we have +shown in the preceding chapter, warned with telling force against riot, +tumult, and sedition. He had deprecated any allying of the cause of the +Gospel and of spiritual freedom with the carnal strivings of disaffected +men for mere temporal and secular advantages. He had reminded Christians +that it was their duty to suffer wrong rather than do wrong. + +On the other hand, Luther had pleaded the cause of the poor before the +lords, and had earnestly warned the nobility not to continue their +tyranny, but conciliate their subjects by yielding to their just +demands. He had fearlessly pointed out to the lords what was galling in +their conduct to the common, people-their pride and luxurious living, +their disregard of the commonest rights of man, their despotic dealings +with their humble subjects, their rude behavior and exasperating conduct +toward the men, women, and children whom they made toil and slave for +them. + +Maintaining, thus, an honest equipoise between the two contrary forces, +and dealing out even-handed justice to both, Luther was conscious of +serving the true interests of either side and laboring for the common +welfare of all. With his implicit faith in the power of God's Word he +was hoping for a gradual improvement of the situation. The conflict +would be adjusted in a quiet and orderly manner by the truth obtaining +greater and greater sway over the minds of men. Luther had had no +inkling of an impending clash between the peasants and the nobility when +the revolt broke out with the fury of a cyclone. Luther was shocked. He +promptly hurried to the scene of the disturbances by request of the +Count of Mansfeld. It speaks volumes for the integrity of Luther that +both sides were willing to permit him to arbitrate their differences. +The invitation came originally from the peasants and was addressed to +Luther, Melanchthon, Bugenhagen, and the Elector Frederick jointly, but +it was not acted on until Count Albert invited Luther to come to +Eisleben. The _Exhortation to Peace on the Twelve Articles of the +Peasants_ which Luther issued, after having investigated the situation, +rebukes the lords with considerably more sternness than the commoners, +but makes fair suggestions for the composition of the differences. +Before Luther takes up the "Twelve Articles of the Peasants" for +detailed discussion, he informs them that he considers their whole +procedure wrong, even if all their demands were just, because they have +resorted to force to secure their right. A beautiful sentiment for an +anarchist to utter, is it not? In Article I the peasants demanded +freedom to elect their own pastors, who were to preach the Gospel +without any human additions. That this request should be embodied in the +peasants' plea for their political rights, and that it should be made +the foremost demand, is highly suggestive as to the principal cause of +their unrest. To this article Luther gave his unreserved endorsement. +Article II sought to regulate the income of priests-again a very +suggestive request: preachers were to receive for their sustenance no +more than the tithes, the remainder of the church-income was to be set +aside so as to render it unnecessary to tax the poor in war-times. On +this point Luther held that the tithes belong to the government, and to +turn them over to any one else would be simple robbery. Article III +demanded the abolition of serfdom, however, as a test whether the +Christianity of the lords was genuine. The peasants implied that their +political liberty had been secured by Christ, and that the lords were +withholding it from them. This argument Luther rejected as a carnal +perversion of the Gospel. Articles IV-X submitted these demands: The +poor man is to be accorded the right to fish and hunt; all wooded lands +usurped by bishops or noblemen without making payment therefor are to +revert to the community, and in case payment had been made, a settlement +is to be effected by mutual agreement; burdensome exactions, services, +taxes, and fines are to be rescinded; court trials are to be free from +partiality and jealousy; meadows and lands which of right belong to the +community are to be returned by their present owners. On these points +Luther suggests that the opinions of good lawyers be obtained. Article +XI deals with the right of heriot, or the death-tax imposed upon the +widow or heir of a tenant. This was approved. In the last article the +peasants express their readiness to withdraw any or all of these +requests that are shown to be contrary to Scripture, and ask permission +to substitute others for them. + +Luther was in a fair way of bringing about an amicable settlement of the +differences. Philip of Hesse had at the same time come to a full +agreement with the peasants in his domains, and peace seemed near, when +the real genius of the whole peasant movement, Muenzer, interfered. +Luther had suspected for some time that this unscrupulous agitator was +spreading the teaching of unbridled license under pretense of preaching +liberty, and that the mystical piety which he was reported as +practising, his leaning towards the reform movement, and his references +to Luther and the "new Gospel," were nothing but the angel's garment +which a very wicked devil had borrowed for purposes of deception. When +Muenzer at the head of hordes of men who through his inflammatory +speeches had been turned into unreasoning brutes was spreading ruin and +desolation along his path, wiping out in a few days the products of the +patient labors of generations, subverting the fundamental principles of +honesty, justice, and morality on which the organized public life of the +community and the private life of the individual must rest, and rapidly +changing even the well-meaning and reasonable among the peasants into +frenzied madmen, Luther recognized that conciliatory measures and +arbitration would not avail with these mobs. His duty as a teacher of +God's Word and as a loyal subject of his government demanded prompt and +stern action from him. However, back of the terrible mien with which +Luther now faced the wild peasants there is a heart of love; in the +appalling language which he now uses against men whose cause he had +befriended there is discernible a note of pity for the poor deluded +wretches who thought they were rearing a paradise when they were +building bedlam. Above all, the great heart of Luther is torn with +anguish over the shame that is now being heaped on the blessed Gospel of +his dear Lord. Luther did not desert the peasants, but they deserted +him; they were the traitors, not he. + +There is a diabolical streak in the character of Thomas Muenzer. He +parades as the People's Man, and the German people in the sixteenth +century never had a worse enemy. His fluent speech and great oratory +seemed honey to the peasants, but they were the veriest poison. He +spoke the language of a saint, and lived the life of a profligate and a +reprobate. It is hard to believe that his error was merely the honest +fanaticism of a blind bigot; there is a malign element in it that +betrays conscious wickedness. This raving demon should be studied more +by Catholics when they investigate the Peasants' Revolt. They have their +eyes on Luther; his every word and action are placed under the +microscope. But the real culprit is treated as the hero in a tragedy. He +was a blind enthusiast; he mistook his aims; he selected wrong means and +methods for achieving his aim. He did wickedly, and we may have to curse +him some for decency's sake, but be deserves pity, too, for he was the +misguided pupil of that arch-heretic Luther. That is Catholic equity in +estimating Luther's share in the peasant uprising. We only note in +conclusion that Thomas Muenzer died in the arms of the alone-saving +Church, a penitent prodigal that had returned to the bosom of "Holy +Mother." Luther did not die thus, and that makes a great deal of +difference. + +Catholics father upon Luther not only the Peasants' Revolt, but every +revolutionary movement which since then has occurred in Europe. The +political unrest which has at various times agitated the masses in +France, England, and Germany, the changes in the government which were +brought about in such times, are all attributed to the revolutionary +tendencies in Luther's writings. So is the disrespect shown by citizens +of the modern State to persons in authority, the bold and scathing +criticism indulged in by subjects against their government. There is +hardly a political disturbance anywhere but what ingenious Catholics +will manage to connect with Luther. Read Luther, and you will inevitably +become an anarchist. + +But Luther is also credited with the very opposite of anarchism. When +the Peasants' Revolt had been put down by the lords, they began to +strengthen their despotic power over the people, and a worse tyranny +resulted than had existed before. It is pointed out that absolutism, the +claim of kings that they are ruling by divine right and are not +responsible to the people, has taken firm root in all Protestant +countries, and that even the Protestant churches in these countries are +mere fixtures of the State. This, too, we are asked to believe, is a +result of Luther's teaching. Luther is not only the spiritual +ring-leader of mobs, but also the sycophant of despots. It is +particularly offensive to Catholics to see Luther hailed as the champion +of political liberty. Let us try and make up our minds about Luther's +views of the secular government from Luther's own words. Dr. Waring, in +his _Political Theories of Luther,_ has made a very serviceable +collection of statements of Luther on this matter. + +"In his tract on Secular Authority (10, 374 ff.) Luther maintains that +the State exists by God's will and institution; for the Apostle Paul +writes: 'Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is +no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever +therefore resisteth the power resiseth [tr. note: sic] the ordinance of +God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation' (Rom. +13, 1. 2). The Apostle Peter exhorts: 'Submit yourselves to every +ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king, as +supreme, or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the +punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well' (1 +Pet. 2, 13. 14). The right of the sword has existed since the beginning +of the world. When Cain killed his brother Abel, he was so fearful of +being put to death himself that God laid a special prohibition thereupon +that no one should kill him, which fear he would not have had, had he +not seen and heard from Adam that murderers should be put to death. +Further, after the Flood, God repeated and confirmed it in explicit +language, when He declared: 'Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall +his blood be shed' (Gen. 9, 6). This law was ratified later by the law +of Moses: 'But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay +him with guile, thou shalt take him from Mine altar, that he may die' +(Ex. 21, 14); and yet again: 'Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for +tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for +wound, stripe for stripe' (Ex. 21, 23-25). Christ confirmed it also when +He said to Peter in the garden: 'All they that take the sword shall +perish with the sword' (Matt. 26, 52). The words of Christ: 'But I say +unto you, That ye resist not evil' (Matt. 5, 38. 39), 'Love your +enemies, . . . do good to them that hate you' (Matt. 5, 44), and similar +passages, having great weight, might seem to indicate that Christians +under the Gospel should not have a worldly sword; but the human race is +to be divided into two classes, one belonging to the kingdom of God and +the other to the kingdom of the world. To the first class belong all +true believers in Christ and under Christ, for Christ is King and Lord +in the kingdom of God (Ps. 2, 6, and throughout the Scriptures). These +people need no worldly sword or law, for they have the Holy Ghost in +their hearts who suffer wrong gladly and themselves do wrong to no one. +There is no need of quarrel or contention, of court or punishment. St. +Paul says: 'The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless +and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners' (1 Tim. 1, 9), for the +righteous man of himself does everything that the law demands, and more; +but the unrighteous do nothing right, and they therefore need the law to +teach, constrain, and compel them to do right. A good tree requires no +instruction or law that it may bring forth good fruit, but its nature +causes it to bear fruit after its kind. Thus are all Christians so +fashioned through the Spirit and faith that they do right naturally, +more than man could teach them with all laws. All those who are not +Christians in this particular sense belong to the kingdom of the world. +Inasmuch as there are few who are true Christians in faith and life, God +established, in addition to the kingdom of God, another rule-that of +temporal power and civil government, and gave it the sword to compel the +wicked to be orderly. It is for this worldly estate that law is given. +Christ rules without law, alone through the Spirit, but worldly +government protects the peace with the sword. Likewise, true Christians, +although not in need of it for themselves, nevertheless render cheerful +obedience to this government, through love for the others who need it. A +Christian himself may wield the sword when called upon to maintain peace +among men and to punish wrong. This authority, which is God's handmaid, +as St. Paul says, is as necessary and good as other worldly callings. +God therefore instituted two regimens, or governments-the spiritual, +which, through the Holy Ghost under Christ, makes Christians and pious +people, and the worldly or temporal, which warns the non-Christians and +the wicked that they must maintain external peace. We must clearly +distinguish between these two powers and let them remain-the one that +makes pious, the other that makes for external peace and protects +against wickedness. Neither one is sufficient in the world without the +other; for without the spiritual estate of Christ no one can be good +before God through the worldly estate. Where civil government alone +rules, there would be hypocrisy, though its laws were like God's +commandments themselves; for without the Holy Spirit in the heart none +can be pious, whatever good works he may perform. Where the spiritual +estate rules over land and people, there will be unbridled wickedness +and opportunity for all kinds of villainy, for the common world cannot +accept or understand it.-But it may be said, If, then, Christians do not +need the temporal power or law, why does St. Paul say to all Christians: +'Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers' (Rom. 13, 1)? In +reply to this, it is to be said again that Christians among themselves +and by and for themselves require no law or sword, for to them they are +not necessary or useful. But because a true Christian on earth lives for +and serves not himself, but his neighbor, so he also, from the nature of +his spirit, does that which he himself does not need, but which is +useful and necessary to his neighbor. The sword is a great and necessary +utility to the whole world for the maintenance of peace, the punishment +of wrong, and the restraint of the wicked. So the Christian pays tribute +and tax, honors civil authority, serves, assists, and does everything he +can do to maintain that authority with honor and fear." (p. 73 ff.) + +In his _Appeal to the German Nobility_ (10, 266 ff.) Luther says: +"Forasmuch as the temporal power has been ordained by God for the +punishment of the bad and the protection of the good, therefore we must +let it do its duty throughout the whole Christian body, without respect +of persons, whether it strike Popes, bishops, priests, monks, nuns, or +whoever it may be. If it were sufficient reason for fettering the +temporal power that it is inferior among the offices of Christianity to +the offices of priest or confessor, to the spiritual estate,-if this +were so, then we ought to restrain tailors, cobblers, masons, +carpenters, cooks, cellarmen, peasants, and all secular workmen from +providing the Pope or bishops, priests and monks, with shoes, clothes, +houses, or victuals, or from paying them tithes. But if these laymen are +allowed to do their work without restraint, what do the Romanist scribes +mean by their laws? They mean that they withdraw themselves from the +operation of temporal Christian power, simply in order that they may be +free to do evil, and thus fulfil what St. Peter said: 'There shall be +false teachers among you, . . . and through covetousness shall they with +feigned words make merchandise of you' (2 Pet. 2, 1. 3). Therefore the +temporal Christian power must exercise its office without let or +hindrance, without considering whom it may strike, whether Pope or +bishop, or priest. Whoever is guilty, let him suffer for it.-Whatever +the ecclesiastical law has said in opposition to this is merely the +invention of Romanist arrogance. For this is what St. Paul says to all +Christians: 'Let every soul' (I presume, including the Popes) 'be +subject unto the higher powers. . . . Do that which is good, and thou +shalt have praise of the same, . . . for he beareth not the sword in +vain; for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon +him that doeth evil' (Rom. 13, 1-4). Also St. Peter: 'Submit yourselves +to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake; . . . for so is the will +of God' (1 Pet. 2, 13. 15). He has also foretold that men would come who +would despise government (2 Pet. 2), as has come to pass through +ecclesiastical law.-Although the work of the temporal power relates to +the body, it yet belongs to the spiritual estate. Therefore it must do +its duty without let or hindrance upon all members of the whole body, to +punish or urge, as guilt may deserve, or need may require, without +respect of Pope, bishops, or priests, let them threaten or excommunicate +as they will. That is why a guilty priest is deprived of his priesthood +before being given over to the secular arm; whereas this would not be +right if the secular powers had not authority over him already by divine +ordinance.-It is, indeed, past bearing that the spiritual law should +esteem so highly the liberty, life, and property of the clergy, as if +laymen were not as good spiritual Christians, or not equally members of +the Church. Why should your body, life, goods, and honor be free, and +not mine, seeing that we are equal as Christians, and have received +alike baptism, faith, spirit, and all things? If a priest is killed, the +country is laid under an interdict; why not also if a peasant is killed? +Whence comes this great difference among equal Christians? Simply from +human laws and inventions." (p. 96 ff.) This citation deserves to be +specially pondered in view of the Catholic charge that Luther was a +defender of absolutism, the divine right of kings. If Rome's attitude to +kingcraft be studied, it will be found that Rome has been the supporter +of the most tyrannous rulers. It is well, too, to remember Rome's claim +of a "divine right" of priests. Special laws of exemption and immunity, +laws creating special privileges for priests, are not unknown in the +annals of the world's history. Whoever can, ought to read the entire +_Appeal to the German Nobility;_ it will tell him many things that +explain the Peasants' Revolt. + +In his _Severe Booklet against the Peasants_ (16, 71 ff.) Luther +explains the reasons for the harsh language which he uses against the +marauders. "He says that the maxims dealing with mercy belong to the +kingdom of God and among Christians, not to the kingdom of the world, +which is the instrument of godly wrath upon the wicked. The instrument +in the hand of the State is not a garland of roses or a flower of love, +but a naked sword. As I declared at the time, he says, so declare I yet: +Let every one who can, as he may be able, cut, stab, choke, and strike +the stiff-necked, obdurate, blind, infatuated peasants; that mercy may +be shown towards those who are destroyed, driven away, and misled by the +peasants; that peace and security may be had. It is better to +mercilessly cut off one member rather than lose the entire body through +fire or plague. Furthermore, the insurgents are notoriously faithless, +perjured, disobedient, riotous thieves, robbers, murderers, and +blasphemers, so that there is not one of them but has well deserved +death ten times over without mercy. If my advice had been followed in +the very beginning, and a few lives had been taken, before the +insurrection assumed such large proportions, thousands of lives would +have been saved. The experience should make all parties involved wise." +-"If it be said," he continues, "that I myself teach lawlessness, when I +urge all who can to cut down the rioters, my booklet was not written +against common evil-doers, but against seditious rioters. There is a +marked distinction between such a one and a murderer or robber and other +ordinary criminals; for a murderer or similar criminal lets the head and +civil authority itself stand, and attacks merely its members or its +property. He, indeed, fears the government. Now, while the head remains, +no individual should attack the murderer, because the head [civil +authority] call punish him, but should wait for the judgment and +sentence of that authority to which God has given the sword and office. +But the rioter attacks the head itself, so that his offense bears no +comparison with that of the murderer." (p. 147.) + +Under the restriction under which this book was written as regards +space, we cannot enter as we would like to upon an exhaustive +discussion of Luther's political views. Luther was in this respect the +most enlightened European citizen of his age. He has voiced sound +principles on the rights of the State and its limitations and the +objects for which the State exists and does not exist, on the separation +of Church and State, on the removal of bad rulers from authority, and +especially on liberty. The power of the State he values because it +secures to each individual citizen the highest degree of liberty +possible in this life. Those who represent Luther as a defender of +anarchy or tyranny either do not know what they are talking about, or +they do it for a purpose, and deserve the contempt of all intelligent +men. + + +24. Luther the Destroyer of Liberty of Conscience. + +Catholics claim that Luther's work, though ostensibly undertaken in +behalf of religious liberty, necessarily had to result in the very +opposite of freedom. They point to the fact that in most countries which +accepted the Protestant faith the Church became subservient to the +State. These state churches of Europe, however, which in the view of +Catholics are the product of Luther's reform movement, are to be +regarded as only one symptom of the intolerance which characterizes the +entire activity of Luther. He had indeed adopted the principle of +"private interpretation" of the Scriptures, however, only for himself. +He was unwilling to accord to others the right which he claimed for +himself. All who dissented from his teaching were promptly attacked by +him, and that, in violent and scurrilous language. The Protestant party +in the course of time became a warring camp of Ishmaelites, Luther +fighting everybody and everybody fighting Luther. Religious intolerance +and persecution became the prevailing policy of Protestants in their +dealings with other Protestants. The burning of Servetus at Geneva by +Calvin was the logical outcome of Luther's teaching. The maxim, _Cuius +regio, eius religio,_ that is, The prince, or government, in whose +territory I reside determines my religion, became a Protestant tenet. +America got its first taste of religious liberty, not from the original +Protestant settlers, but from the Catholic colonists whom Lord +Baltimore brought to Maryland, etc., etc. + +The view here propounded is in plain contravention of what the world has +hitherto believed, and to a very large extent still believes, regarding +Luther's attitude toward the right of the individual to choose his own +religion and to determine for himself matters of faith. The position +which Luther occupies in his final answer before the Emperor at Worms is +generally believed to state Luther's position on the question of +religious liberty in a nutshell. "Unless convinced by the Word of God or +by cogent reason" that he was wrong, he declared at the Diet of Worms, +he could not and would not retract what he had written. The individual +conscience, he maintained, cannot be bound. Each man must determine the +meaning of the Word for himself. And the inevitable result of this +principle is individual liberty. This principle Luther maintained to the +end of his life. His appeal to the magistrates to suppress the Peasants' +Revolt was not a call to suppress the false teachings of the peasants, +but their disorderly conduct. Against their spiritual aberrations Luther +proposed to wage war with his written and oral testimony. "The peace and +order of the State must be maintained against disorder, personal +violence, destruction of property, public immorality, and treason, +though they come in the guise of religion. The State must grant liberty +of conscience, freedom of speech, and the privilege of the press. These +are inalienable rights belonging alike to every individual, subject only +to the limitation that they are not permitted to encroach upon the +rights of others. The natural, the almost inevitable, consequence of the +declaration and recognition of these principles was eventually the +establishment of modern constitutional law. It was not in consequence of +his teaching, but merely in spite of it, that for the next two centuries +(in certain instances) monarchical government became more autocratic, as +feudalism was being transformed into civil government. . . . All through +Luther's writings, and in his own acts as well, is to be read the right +of the individual to think and believe in matters political, religious, +and otherwise as he sees proper. His is the right to read the Bible, and +any other book he may desire. He has the right to confer and counsel, +with others, to express and declare his views _pro_ and _con,_ in speech +and print, so long as he abides by, and remains within, the laws of the +land. Luther firmly believed in the liberty of the individual as to +conscience, speech, and press. The search for truth must be +untrammeled." (Waring, _Political Theories of Luther,_ p. 235 f.) + +This testimony of one who has made a careful investigation of Luther's +writings on the subject of liberty of conscience is, of course, not +first-hand evidence; it merely shows what impressions people take away +from their study of Luther. Let us hear Luther himself. In the _Appeal +to the German Nobility_ he says: "No one can deny that it is breaking +God's commandments to violate faith and a safe-conduct, even though it +be promised to the devil himself, much more then in the case of a +heretic. . . . Even though John Hus were a heretic, however bad he may +have been, yet he was burned unjustly and in violation of God's +commandments, and we must not force the Bohemians to approve this, if +we wish ever to be at one with them. Plain truth must unite us, not +obstinacy. It is no use to say, as they said at the time, that a +safe-conduct need not be kept if promised to a heretic; that is as much +as to say, one may break God's commandments in order to keep God's +commandments. They were infatuated and blinded by the devil, that they +could not see what they said or did. God has commanded us to observe a +safe-conduct; and this we must do though the world should perish; much +more, then, where it is only a question of a heretic being set free. We +should overcome heretics with books, not with fire, as the old Fathers +did. If there were any skill in overcoming heretics with fire, the +executioner would be the most learned doctor in the world; and there +would be no need of study, but he that could get another into his power +could burn him." (10, 332.) + +In his treatise _On the Limits of Secular Authority,_ Luther says: +"Unbearable loss follows where the secular authority is given too much +room, and it is likewise not without loss where it is too restricted. +Here it punishes too little; there it punishes too much. Although it is +more desirable that it offend on the side of punishing too little than +that it punish too severely; because it is always better to permit a +knave to live than to put a good man to death, inasmuch as the world +still has and must have knaves, but has few good men. + +"In the first place, it is to be noted that the two classes of the human +race, one of whom is in the kingdom of God under Christ, and the other +in the kingdom of the world under civil authority, have two kinds of +laws; for every kingdom must have its laws and its rights, and no +kingdom or _regime_ can stand without law, as daily experience shows. +Temporal government has laws that do not reach farther than over person +and property, and what is external on the earth; for God will not permit +any one to rule over the soul of man but Himself. Therefore, where +temporal power presumes to give laws to the soul, it touches God's rule, +and misleads and destroys the souls. We wish to make that so clear that +men may comprehend it, in order that our knights, the princes and +bishops, may see what fools they are when seeking to force people by +their laws and commandments to believe thus or so. When a man lays a +human law or commandment upon the soul, that it must believe this or +that, as the man prescribes, it is assuredly not God's Word. . . . +Therefore it is a thoroughly foolish thing to command a man to believe +the Church, the Fathers, the councils, although there is nothing on it +from God's Word. + +"Now tell me, how much sense does the head have that lays down a command +on a matter where it has no authority? Who would not hold as of unsound +mind the person who would command the moon to shine when it wishes? How +fitting would it be if the Leipzig authorities would lay down laws for +us at Wittenberg, or we at Wittenberg for the people of Leipzig? +Moreover, let men thereby understand that every authority should and may +concern itself only where it can see, know, judge, sentence, transform, +and change; for what kind of judge is he to me who would blindly judge +matters he neither hears nor sees? Now tell me, how can a man see, know, +judge, sentence, and change the heart? For that is reserved to God +alone. A court should and must be certain when it sentences, and have +everything in clear light. But the soul's thoughts and impulses can be +known to no one but God. Therefore it is futile and impossible to +command or compel a man by force to believe thus or so. For that purpose +another grip is necessary. Force does not accomplish it. For my +ungracious lords, Pope and bishops, should be bishops and preach God's +Word; but they leave that and have become temporal princes and rule with +laws that concern only person and property. They have reversed the order +of things. Instead of ruling souls (internally) through God's Word, they +rule (externally) castles, cities, lands, and people, and kill souls +with indescribable murder. The temporal lords should, in like manner, +rule (externally) land and people; but they leave that. They can do +nothing more than flay and shave the people, set one tax and one rent on +another; there let loose a bear and here a wolf; respect no right, or +faith, or truth, and conduct affairs so that robbers and knaves +increase in number; and their temporal _regime_ lies as far beneath as +the _regime_ of the spiritual tyrants. Faith is a matter concerning +which each one is responsible for himself; for as little as one man can +go to heaven or hell for me, so little can he believe or not believe for +me; and as little as he can open or close heaven or hell for me, so +little can he drive me to belief or unbelief. We have the saying from +St. Augustine: 'No one can or should be compelled to believe.' The blind +and miserable people do not see what a vain and impossible thing they +undertake; for, however imperiously they command, and however hard they +drive, they cannot force people any farther than they follow with their +mouth and the hand. They cannot compel the heart, though they should +break it. For true is the maxim: _Gedanken sind zollfrei_. (No toll is +levied on thought.) When weak consciences are driven by force to lie, +deceive, and say otherwise than they believe in the heart, they burden +themselves also with a heavy sin; for all the lies and false witness +given by such weak consciences rest upon him who forces them. + +"Christ Himself clearly recognized and concisely stated this truth when +He said: 'Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, +and unto God the things that are God's' (Matt. 22, 21). Now, when +imperial authority stretches itself over into God's kingdom and +authority and does not keep within its own separate jurisdiction, this +discrimination between the two realms has not been made. For the soul is +not under authority of the emperor. He can neither teach nor guide it, +neither kill it nor give it life, neither bind nor loose, neither judge +nor sentence, neither hold nor let alone; which necessarily would exist +had he authority so to do, for they are under his jurisdiction and +power. + +"David long ago expressed it briefly: 'The heaven, even the heavens, are +the Lord's; but the earth hath He given to the children of men' (Ps. +115, 16). That is to say, over what is on the earth and belongs to the +temporal earthly kingdom, man has power from God; but what belongs to +heaven and to the eternal kingdom is under the Lord of heaven alone. But +finally, this is the meaning of Peter: 'We ought to obey God rather than +men' (Acts 5, 29). He here clearly marks a limit to temporal authority; +for were men obliged to observe everything that civil authority wished, +the command, 'We ought to obey God rather than men,' would have been +given in vain. + +"If, now, your princes or temporal lord command you to believe this or +that, or to dispense with certain books, say: 'I am under obligations to +obey you with body and estate; command me within the compass of your +authority on earth, and I will obey you. Put if you command me as to +belief, and order me to put away books, I will not obey, for then you +become a tyrant and overreach yourself, and command where you have +neither right nor power.' If your goods are taken and your disobedience +is punished, you are blessed, and you may thank God that you are worthy +to suffer for God's Word. When a prince is in the wrong, his subjects +are not under obligations to follow him, for no one is obliged to do +anything against the right; but we must obey God, who desires to have +the right rather than men. + +"But thou sayest once more: 'Yea, worldly power cannot compel to belief. +It is only external protection against the people being misled by false +doctrine. How else can heretics be kept it bay?' Answer: That is the +business of bishops, to whom the office is entrusted, and not to +princes. For heresy can never be kept off by force; another grip is +wanted for that. This is another quarrel and conflict than that of the +sword. God's Word must contend here. If that avail nothing, temporal +power will never settle the matter, though it fill the world with blood. +Heresy pertains to the spiritual world. You cannot cut it with iron, nor +burn it with fire, nor drown it in water. You cannot drive the devil out +of the heart by destroying, with sword or fire, the vessel in which he +lives. This is like fighting a blade of straw." (10, 395 ff.) + +Referring to the Anabaptists, Luther wrote in 1528: "It is not right, +and I think it a great pity, that such wretched people should be so +miserably slain, burned, cruelly put to death; every one should be +allowed to believe what he will. If he believe wrongly, he will have +punishment enough in the eternal fire of hell. Why should he be tortured +in this life, too; provided always that it be a case of mistaken belief +only, and that they are not also unruly and oppose themselves to the +temporal power?" (17, 2188.) + +To his friend Cresser he wrote: "If the courts wish to govern the +churches in their own interests, God will withdraw His benediction from +them, and things will become worse than before. Satan still is Satan. +Under the Popes he made the Church meddle in politics; in our time he +wishes to make politics meddle with the Church." (21b, 2911. +Translations by Waring.) + +But why did not these excellent principles attain better results in +Luther's own time? On this question we have no better answer than that +given by Bryce: "The remark must not be omitted in passing how much less +than might have been expected the religious movement did at first +actually effect in the way of promoting either political progress or +freedom of conscience. The habits of centuries were not to be unlearned +in a few years, and it was natural that ideas struggling into existence +and activity should work erringly and imperfectly for a time." (_Holy +Roman Empire_, p. 381.) This would be Luther's own answer. His work was +among people who were just emerging from the ignorance and spiritual +bondage in which they had been reared in the Catholic Church. They had +to be gradually and with much patience taught, not only in regard to +their rights and privileges, but also in regard to their proper and most +efficient application. But it is not in agreement with the facts when +the charge is directed against Luther that he employed the authority of +the State for furthering the ends of the Church because he urged the +Saxon Elector to arrange for a visitation of the demoralized churches +in the country, and to order such improvements to be made as would be +found necessary (Erlangen Ed. 55, 223); also when he sought the +Elector's aid for the reform party at Naumburg at the election of a new +bishop (17, 113). In both instances he speaks of the Elector as a +"Notbischof," that is, an emergency bishop. But his remarks must be +carefully studied to get his exact meaning. For he declares that the +Elector as a magistrate is under no obligation to attend to these +matters. They are not state business. But he is asked as a Christian to +place himself at the head of a laudable and necessary movement, and to +place his influence and ability at the disposition of the Master, just +as a Christian laborer, craftsman, merchant, musician, painter, poet, +author, consecrate their abilities to the Lord. This means that the +"emergency bishop" has not the right to issue commands in the Church, +but he has the privilege and duty to serve. The people needed a leader, +and who was better qualified for that than their trusted prince? +Besides, the churches had to be protected in their secular and civil +interests in those days. The young Protestant faith would have been +mercilessly extirpated by Rome, which was gathering the secular powers +around her to fight her battles with material weapons against +Protestants. The Protestant princes would have betrayed a trust which +citizens rightly repose in their government, if they had not taken steps +to afford the Protestant churches in their domains every legal +protection. The protection of citizens in the exercise of their +religious liberty is within the sphere of the civil magistrates. The +citizens can appeal to the government for such protection, and when the +government in the interest of religious liberty represses elements that +are hostile, it is not intolerant, but just. If a religion, like that of +the bomb-throwing anarchists and the vice-breeding Mormons, is forbidden +to practise its faith in the land, that is not intolerance, but common +equity. + +One of the most pathetic spectacles which the student of medieval +history has to contemplate is the treatment of the Jews at the hands of +the Christians. "Few were the monarchs of Christendom," says Prof. +Worman, "who rose above the barbarism of the Middle Ages. By +considerable pecuniary sacrifices only could the sons of Israel enjoy +tolerance. In Italy their lot had always been most severe. Now and then +a Roman pontiff would afford them his protection, but, as a rule, they +have received only intolerance in that country. Down even to the time of +the deposition of Pius IX from the temporal power (1810) it has been the +barbarous custom, on the last Saturday before the Carnival, to compel +the Jews to proceed _en masse_ to the capitol, and ask permission of the +pontiff to reside in the city another year. At the foot of the hill the +petition was refused them, but, after much entreaty, they were granted +the favor when they had reached the summit, and as their residence the +Ghetto was assigned them." In France a prelate condemned the Jews +because the "country people looked upon them as the only people of +God," whereupon "all joined in a carnival of persecution, and the +history of the Jews became nothing else than a successive series of +massacres." In Spain the Jews were treated more kindly by the Moors than +by the Catholics. At first their services were valued in the crafts and +trades, "but the extravagance and consequent poverty of the nobles, as +well as the increasing power of the priesthood, ultimately brought about +a disastrous change. The estates of the nobles and, it is also believed, +those attached to the cathedrals and churches, were in many cases +mortgaged to the Jews; hence it was not difficult for 'conscience' to +get up a persecution when goaded to its 'duty' by the pressure of want +and shame. Gradually the Jews were deprived of the privilege of living +where they pleased; their rights were diminished and their taxes +augmented." + +To their lowest stage of misery, however, the Jews were reduced during +one of the most holy enterprises which the papacy launched during the +Middle Ages--the Crusades. "The crusading movement was inaugurated by a +wholesale massacre and persecution first of the Jew, and afterwards of +the Mussulman. . . . Shut out from all opportunity for the development +of their better qualities, the Jews were gradually reduced to a decline +both in character and condition. From a learned, influential, and +powerful class of the community, we find them, after the inauguration of +the Crusades, sinking into miserable outcasts; the common prey of clergy +and nobles and burghers, and existing in a state worse than slavery +itself. The Christians deprived the Jews even of the right of holding +real estate; and confined them to the narrower channels of traffic. +Their ambition being thus fixed upon one subject, they soon mastered all +the degrading arts of accumulating gain; and prohibited from investing +their gain in the purchase of land, they found n more profitable +employment of it in lending it at usurious interest to the thoughtless +and extravagant." In course of time the borrowers recouped their losses +by inaugurating raids upon the Jews. Jew-baiting, persecutions, +expatriations of Jewish settlers, were of frequent occurrence. Towards +the end of the thirteenth century 16,000 Jews were expelled from England +and their property confiscated. In Germany "they had to pay all manner +of iniquitous taxes--body tax, capitation tax, trade taxes, coronation +tax, and to present a multitude of gifts, to mollify the avarice or +supply the necessities of emperor, princes, and barons. It did not +suffice, however, to save them from the loss of their property. The +populace and the lower clergy also must be, satisfied; they, too, had +passions to gratify. A wholesale slaughter of the 'enemies of +Christianity' was inaugurated. Treves, Metz, Cologne, Mentz, Worms, +Spires, Strassburg, and other cities were deluged with the blood of the +'unbelievers.' The word _Hep_ (said to be the initials of _Hierosolyma +est perdita_, Jerusalem is taken) throughout all the cities of the +empire became the signal for massacres, and if an insensate monk sounded +it along the streets, it threw the rabble into paroxysms of murderous +rage. The choice of death or conversion was given to the Jews; but few +were found willing to purchase their life by that form of perjury. +Rather than subject their offspring to conversion and such Christian +training, fathers presented their breast to the sword after putting +their children to death, and wives and virgins sought refuge from the +brutality of the soldiers by throwing themselves into the river with +stones fastened to their bodies." (_McClintock and Strong Cyclop_., 4, +908 f.) + +All this happened under the most Christian rule of the Popes. The +characteristic temper of the Jew in the Middle Ages, his fierce hatred +of Christianity, his sullen mood, his blasphemous treatment of matters +and objects sacred to Christians, are the result of the treatment he +received even from the members and high officials of the Church. Now +here comes Rome in our day asserting the kindness and generosity shown +the Jews by their Popes, because these afforded them shelter in the +Ghetto of the Holy City! How differently, they say, was this from the +treatment accorded the Jews by Luther. Why, these Catholic writers do +not tell the hundredth part of the truth about the attitude of their +Church to the Jews in the Middle Ages. + +Let this be remembered when Luther's remarks about the Jews are taken up +for study. He is very outspoken against them; his utterances, however, +relate for the most part to the false teaching and religious practises, +to their perversion of the text and the meaning of the Scriptures, and +to the blasphemies which they utter against God, Jesus Christ, and His +Church, and to the lies which they assiduously spread about the +Christian religion. In all that Luther says against the Jews under this +head he is simply discharging the functions of a teacher of +Christianity; for Scripture says that it was given also "for reproof" +(2 Tim. 3, 16). No one can be a true theologian without being polemical +on occasion. In another class of his references to the Jews Luther +refers to their character: their arrogance and pride, their +stiffneckedness and contumacy, their greed and avarice, which makes +their presence in any land a public calamity. Though their church and +state has long been overthrown, and they are a people without a country, +homeless wanderers on the face of the earth, they still boast of being +"the people of God," and are indulging the wildest dreams about the +reestablishment of their ancient kingdom. They are looking for a Messiah +who will be a secular prince, and will make them all barons living in +beautiful castles and receiving the tribute of the Goyim. One may reason +and plead with them and show them that their belief contradicts their +own Scriptures, that their Talmud is filled with palpable falsehoods, +and that their hope is a chimera; but they turn a deaf ear to argument +and entreaty, and turn upon you with fierce resentment at your efforts +to show them the truth. Although they know that their habits of grasping +and hoarding wealth, driving hard and unfair bargains, their hunting for +small profits by contemptible methods like hungry dogs searching the +offal in the alley, rouses the enmity of communities against them and +causes them to become a blight to all true progress, to honest trade and +business in any land where they have become firmly established, so that +laws must be made against them, still they blindly and passionately +continue their covetous strivings. When Luther observes the corrupting +influence of the Jews on the public life and morals, he declares that +they ought to be expelled from the country, and their synagogs ought to +be destroyed, that is, they have deserved this treatment. But it is a +remarkable fact that even in these terrible denunciations of the Jews +Luther moves on Bible ground, as any one can see that will examine his +exposition of an imprecatory psalm, like Psalm 109 and 59. If these +words of God mean anything and admit of any application to an apostate +and hardened race, the Jews are that race, and a teacher of the Bible +has the duty to point out this fact. But Luther has not been a +Jewbaiter; he has not incited a riot against then, nor headed a raid +upon them, as Prof. Worman tells us that Catholic priests in the Middle +Ages occasionally would do. What Luther thought of persecuting the Jews +for their religion can be seen from his exposition of Psalm 14. He did +not believe in a general conversion of the Jews, but he held that +individual Jews would ever and anon be won for Christ and would be +grafted on the olive-tree of the true Church. "Therefore," he says, "we +ought to condemn the rage of some Christians--if they really deserve to +be called Christians--who think that they are doing God a service by +persecuting the Jews in the most hateful manner, imagining all manner of +evil about them, proudly and haughtily mocking them in their pitiful +misery. According to the statement in this Psalm (Ps. 14, 7) and the +example of the Apostle Paul in Rom. 9, 1, we ought rather to feel a +profound and cordial pity for them and always pray for them. . . . By +their tyrannical bearing these wicked people, who are nominally +Christians, cause not a little injury, not only to the cause of +Christianity, but also to Christian people, and they are responsible +for, and sharers in, the impiety of the Jews, because by their cruel +bearing toward them they drive them away from the Christian faith +instead of attracting them with all possible gentleness, patience, +pleading, and anxious concern for them. There are even some theologians +so unreasonable as to sanction such cruelty to the Jews and to encourage +people to it; in their proud conceit they assert that the Jews are the +Christians' slaves and tributary to the emperor, while in truth they are +themselves Christians with as much right as any one nowadays is Roman +Emperor. Good God, who would want to join our religion, even though he +were of a meek and submissive mind, when he sees how spitefully and +cruelly he is treated; and that the treatment he can expect is not only +unchristian, but worse than bestial? If hating Jews and heretics and +Turks makes people Christians, we insane people would indeed be the best +Christians. But if loving Christ makes Christians, we are beyond a doubt +worse than Jews, heretics, and Turks, because no one loves Christ less +than we. The rage of these people reminds me of children and fools, who, +when they see a picture of a Jew on a wall, go and cut out his eyes, +pretending that they want to help the Lord Christ. Most of the preachers +during Lent treat of nothing else than the cruelty of the Jews towards +the Lord Christ, which they are continually magnifying. Thus they +embitter believers against them, while the Gospel aims only at showing +and exalting the love of God and Christ." (4, 927.) + +The Catholic claim that the Maryland Colony in the days of the Calverts +became the first home of true religious liberty on American soil has +been so often blasted by historians that one is loath to enter upon this +moth-eaten claim for fear of merely repeating what others have more +exhaustively stated. Catholics seem to forget what Bishop Perry has +called attention to: "The Maryland charter of toleration was the gift of +an English monarch, the nominal head of Church of England, and the +credit of any merit in this donative is due the giver, and not the +recipient, of the kingly grant." Prof. Fisher has called attention to +another fact: "Only two references to religion are to be found in the +Maryland charter. The first gives to the proprietary patronage and +advowson of churches. The second empowers him to erect churches, +chapels, and oratories, which he may cause to be consecrated according +to the ecclesiastical laws of England. The phraseology is copied from +the Avalon patent (drawn up in England in 1623 for a portion of the +colony of Newfoundland) that was given to Sir George Calvert (first +Lord Baltimore) when he was a member of the Church of England. Yet the +terms were such that recognition of that Church as the established form +of religion does not prevent the proprietary and the colony from the +exercise of full toleration toward other Christian bodies." (_Colonial +Era_, p. 64.) The Maryland Colony was admittedly organized as a +business venture, and its original members were largely Protestants. It +was to secure the financial interests of the proprietary that tolerance +was shown the colonists. Prof. Fisher says: "Any attempt to proscribe +Protestants would have proved speedily fatal to the existence of the +colony. In a document which emanated partly from Baltimore himself, it +is declared to be evident that the distinctive privileges 'usually +granted to ecclesiastics of the Roman Catholic Church by Catholic +princes in their own countries could not be possibly granted hero (in +Maryland) without great offense to the King and State of England.'" (p. +63.) We have not the space in this review of Catholic charges and claims +to go into the religious history of the Maryland Colony as we should +like to do; otherwise we should explain the machinations of the Jesuits +in this colony, and prove that what tolerance Maryland in its early days +enjoyed it owed to the preponderating influence of non-Catholic forces. + +It requires an unusual amount of courage for a Catholic writer at this +late day to parade his Church as the mother and protectress of religious +liberty and tolerance. Any person who has but a smattering knowledge of +the history of the world during the last four centuries will smile at +this claim. The old Rome of the days of the Inquisition and the _auto da +fes_ may seem tolerant in our days, but she is so from sheer necessity, +not from any voluntary and joyous choice of her own. Her intolerant +principles remain the same, only she has not the power to carry them +into effect. + +One of the Catholic bishops who was opposed to the dogma of papal +infallibility, Reinkens, published a book bearing the remarkable title +_Revolution and Church_. In this book a thought is suggested which +connects the Roman Curia with political disturbances that occur in the +world. The author regards the declaration of papal infallibility as +another step forward in the imperialistic program of the Curia looking +towards world-dominion. He argues that it is in the interest of the +Vatican policies to foment trouble and breed revolutions in the +commonwealths of the world. "The thoughts of the Roman Curia," he says, +"are not the thoughts of God. Inasmuch, however, as it is these latter +that are realized with increasing force in the history of the world, and +that animate the formation of every true civil and ecclesiastical +institution, the Curia is gradually forced into a conflict with the +whole world. . . . The Curia (to carry its aims into effect) tries one +last means: its last attempt is to bring about a revolution. As 'the +Church' succeeded in digging her charter out of the ruins of the +commonwealths of the ancient world, so the spirits of Vaticanism hope +again to rebuild the palace of their dominion out of ruins." (p. 4.) +Again: "Bishop Hefele entertains the fear that the recent elevation of +the Pope to power (the infallibility dogma) will soon become the primary +dogma in the instruction of children. We regret to say that this fear +has proven well founded: all the governments, even the German, aid in +this instruction of the schoolchildren, because they retain religious +instruction on a confessional basis [we in America say on "sectarian" +lines], hence also that prescribed by the Vatican, as obligatory, and +the infallibilist clergy is salaried by the State for providing this +instruction The divine authority of the Pope extending over all men +tends to disturb the minds of the children in the schools: they are +taught at an early age to obey the Viceregent of God in preference to +obeying the Emperor and the State. In the higher schools this is done by +the clergy that is commissioned to teach in such schools." (p. 7.) +Again: "The Roman order of the Jesuits is not only spread like a net +over all countries, but it sinks its roots into every age, sex, estate, +and loosens and forces apart the ligaments of civil institutions." (p. +8.) + +Luther's views on human free will are brought forward once more to show +that his teaching necessarily is hostile to liberty. Luther's famous +reply to Erasmus _On the Bondage of the Will_ is made to do yeoman's +service in this respect. What Luther has declared regarding the +sovereignty of God's rulership over men, regarding the relation of God +also to the evil existing in this world, regarding the absence of chance +in the affairs of men, regarding man's utter helplessness over and +against the supreme will of God, is cited to prove that Luther's +teaching leads, not to liberty, but either to recklessness or despair. +Luther's views on "the captive, or enslaved, will" are declared to be +the most degrading and demoralizing teaching that men have been offered +during the last centuries. Luther's famous illustration, _viz_., that +man is like a horse which either God or the devil rides, has prompted +the following remarks of one of Luther's most recent critics: "This +parable summarizes the whole of Luther's teaching on the vital and +all-important subject of man's free will. . . . All who are honest and +fearless of consequences must admit in frankest terms that Luther's +teaching on free will, as expounded in his book, and explicitly making +God the author of man's evil thoughts and deeds, cannot but lend a +mighty force to the passions and justify the grossest violations of the +moral law. Indeed, the enemy of souls, as Anderson remarks, 'could not +inspire a doctrine more likely to effect his wicked designs than +Luther's teaching oil the enslavement of the human will.'" There is a +dogmatic reason for this excoriation of Luther: Rome's teaching of +righteousness by works and human merit. The same author says, in +immediate connection with the foregoing: "Likening man to a 'beast of +burden,' does Luther not maintain that man is utterly powerless 'by +reason of his fallen nature' to lead a godly life, and merit by the +practise of virtue the rewards of eternal happiness? Does he not say: +'It is written in the hearts of men that there is no freedom of will,' +that 'all takes place in accordance with inexorable necessity,' and +that, even 'were free will offered him, he should not care to have it'? +But does not all this contradict the Spirit of God when, speaking in the +Book of Ecclesiasticus, He says: 'Before man is life and death, good and +evil; that which he shall choose shall be given him'?" + +We submitted in chap. 15 the Scriptural evidence on the spiritual +disability of man. (The passage from Ecclesiasticus in the last +quotation is not Scripture.) It is useless to argue with a person who +refuses to accept this teaching of Scripture. We can only repeat what we +said before: Let the advocates of human free will proceed to do what +they claim they are able to do, and do it thoroughly. No one will +begrudge them the crown of glory when they obtain it. On the other hand, +they will have none but themselves to blame if they do not obtain it. In +the light of God's holy Word, in the light, moreover, of the experience +of the most spiritual-minded and saintly men that have lived on earth, +we see in the claim of the advocates of human free will regarding the +fulfilment of God's Law nothing but a vain boast, and a most mischievous +attempt to be smarter than God. The theory of salvation by merit is the +most disastrous risk that the human heart can take. Christ has +mercifully warned men not to take this risk. If they will not hear Him, +they will have to perish in their sins (John 8, 24). + +In chap. 15 we also explained Luther's views on human free will in the +affairs of this life. We only have to add a word on the subject of +contingency. Are Luther's Catholic, critics really so blind as not to +see that man even in his ordinary affairs of common every-day life is +subject to the inscrutable government of God? Our physical life in its +most trivial aspects is entirely dependent not only on the laws of +nature, which are nothing but the order which the Creator has appointed +for the created universe, but also on extraordinary acts of God over +which no man has control. The farmer sows his wheat and expects to reap +a crop. How? By reason of the power of germination which the Creator has +put in the grain, and the laws which govern atmospheric changes, which +laws, again, the Creator governs. The farmer can do nothing to make the +wheat grow and ripen. He is utterly dependent upon God.--A merchant +decides that he will make a business trip to New York. He will leave the +next morning on the nine o'clock train. He orders his transportation, +and the next morning-he does not leave. "Something happened; I had to +change my plans," he tells his friends. Ah, says our Catholic critic, +but was he not free to change his mind? We say: You may talk as much as +you wish about the person's freedom; the fact remains that the person +would not have changed his mind unless he had to. - Let us follow this +merchant a little further: He actually starts on his trip two days +later. He is to arrive at his destination at two o'clock in the +afternoon of the next day, and very much depends on his arriving just at +that time. But he does not even get to Cincinnati. "Something happened," +he wires to his friend. And now his human free will goes into operation +again: he changes his mind. - "Man proposes, but God disposes," this +belief is ineradicably written into the consciousness of all intelligent +men, even of intelligent pagans, and no philosophy of free will will +wipe it out. The wise farmer, after he has finished sowing his field, +says, "God willing, I shall reap a good crop." The wise merchant says, +"God willing, I shall be in New York to-morrow." And God approves of +this wise reservation which causes the prudent to submit their most +ordinary actions to divine revision. He says in Jas. 4, 13-16: "Go to +now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and +continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain, whereas ye know +not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a +vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For +that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or +that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil." +Let Luther's Catholic critics wrestle with these and similar texts of +Scripture, with these and similar facts of daily life. Luther has +rightly declared the sovereignty of God a mighty ax and thunderbolt that +shatters the assertion of human free will. + +We have shown that Luther is no fatalist. His warning, on the one hand, +not to disregard the secret will of God, and on the other, not to seek +to find it out, is a masterpiece of wisdom. In view of the absolute +sovereignty of God and man's absolute dependence upon it, Luther urges +man to go to work in his chosen occupation in childlike reliance upon +God. He is to employ to the utmost capacity all his God-given energies +of mind and body and work as if everything depended on his industry, +strength, prudence, thrift, planning, and arranging. Having done all, +he is to say: Dear Lord, it is all subject to Thy approval. Thou art +Master; do Thou boss my business. If Thou overrulest my plans, I have +nothing to say; Thou knowest better. Not my will, but Thine, be done. + +This is the whole truth in a nutshell that Luther drives home in that +part of his reply to Erasmus which treats of contingency. If ever +statements garbled from the context are unfair to the author, what the +Catholics are constantly doing in quoting Luther on the Bondage of the +Will is one of the most glaring exhibitions of unfairness on record. +This treatise of Luther deserves to be studied thoroughly and +repeatedly, and measured against the facts of the common experience of +all men. For a profitable study of this treatise there is, moreover, +required a very humble mind, a mind that knows its sin, and is sincere +in acknowledging its insufficiency. + +The generation of Luther and the generations after him have had this +particular teaching of Luther before them four hundred years. What +effect has it had on human progress in every field of secular activity +in Protestant lands? Has it created that chaos and confusion which +Catholics claim it must inevitably lead to? Quite the contrary has +happened. And now let the patrons of the theory of human free will +measure their own success as recorded by history against that of +Protestants. + + +25. "The Adam and Eve of the New Gospel of Concubinage." + +This is the honorary title which Catholics bestow upon Martin Luther and +Catherine von Bora, who were married June 13, 1525, during the Peasants' +War. Luther was forty-two years old at the time and his bride past +twenty-six. She had left the cloister two years before her marriage, and +had found employment during that time in the home of one of the citizens +of Wittenberg. Their first child, Hans, was born June 7, 1526. + +The grounds on which Catholics object to this marriage are, chiefly, +three. In the first place, they declare the marriage the outcome of an +impure relation which had existed between Luther and Catherine prior to +their marriage. The marriage had virtually become a matter of necessity, +to prevent greater scandal. Moreover, in this impure relationship Luther +with his lascivious and lustful mind, in which fleshly desires were +continually raging, had been the prime mover. The second ground on which +Catholics object to Luther's marriage is, because Luther held +professedly low views of the virtue of chastity and the state of +matrimony. He had stripped matrimony of its sacramental character, and +regarded it as a mere physical necessity and a social and civil +contract. Thirdly, Catholics criticize Luther's marriage because it was +entered into by both the contracting parties in violation of a sacred +vow: Luther had been a monk and Catherine a nun, both sworn to perpetual +celibacy. + +Moral cleanness is indelibly stamped upon hundreds of pages of Luther's +writings. The Sixth Commandment in its wider application to the mutual +relation of the sexes and the sexual condition of the individual was to +Luther the solemn voice of God by which the holy and wise Creator guards +and protects the fountains whence springs human life. "Because there is +among us," he says, "such a shameful mixture and the very dregs of all +kinds of vice and lewdness, this commandment is also directed against +all manner of impurity, whatever it may be called; and not only is the +external act forbidden, but every kind of cause, incitement, and means, +so that the heart, the lips, and the whole body may be chaste and afford +no opportunity, help, or persuasion for impurity. And not only this, but +that we may also defend, protect, and rescue wherever there is danger +and need; and give help and counsel, so as to maintain our neighbor's +honor. For wherever you allow such a thing when you could prevent it, or +connive at it as if it did not concern you, you are as truly guilty as +the one perpetrating the deed. Thus it is required, in short, that every +one both live chastely himself and help his neighbor do the same." +(_Large Catechism_, p. 419.) The reason why God in the Sixth Commandment +refers to only one form of sexual impurity Luther states correctly thus: +"He expressly mentions adultery, because among the Jews it was a command +and appointment that every one must be married. Therefore also the young +were early married, so that the state of celibacy was held in small +esteem, neither were public prostitution and lewdness tolerated as now. +Therefore adultery was the most common form of unchastity among them." +(_Ibid_.) + +In his _Appeal to the German Nobility_ Luther says: "Is it not a +terrible thing that we Christians should maintain public brothels, +though we all vow chastity in our baptism? I well know all that can be +said on this matter; that it is not peculiar to one nation, that it +would be difficult to demolish it, and that it is better thus than that +virgins, or married women, or honorable women should be dishonored. But +should not the spiritual and temporal powers combine to find some means +of meeting these difficulties without any such heathen practise? If the +people of Israel existed without this scandal, why should not a +Christian nation be able do so? How do so many towns and villages manage +to exist without these houses? Why should not great cities be able to do +so? . . . It is the duty of those in authority to see the good of their +subjects. But if those in authority considered how young people might be +brought together in marriage, the prospect of marriage would help every +man and protect him from temptations." (10, 349; transl. by Waring.) + +This is the Luther of whom Catholic writers say that he would not be +considered qualified to sit with a modern Vice Commission. + +But what about the many coarse references in Luther's writings to sexual +matters-references which are unprintable nowadays? Do these not show +that Luther was far from being even an ordinary gentleman, that he was +depraved in thought and vulgar nauseating, in speech whenever he +approached the subject of marriage and sexual conditions? We have just +cited a few of Luther's references to these matters. They are clean and +proper. We could fill pages with them, and they would prove most +profitable reading in our loose, profligate, and adulterous age. Those +other references which are also found in Luther's writings should be +studied in their connection. Leaving out of the account humorous +references and playful remarks, which only malice can twist into a +lascivious meaning, they are indignant and scornful expostulations with +the defenders and practisers of vice that flaunted its shame in the face +of the public. Righteous anger will give a person the courage to speak +out boldly and in no mincing words about things which otherwise nauseate +him. When Catholic writers cull from Luther vile and disgusting remarks +about sexual affairs, it should be investigated to whom Luther made +those remarks, and what reason he had for making them. There is another +side to this matter, and that concerns medieval Catholicism itself. We +have indicated in sundry places in this review the social conditions in +respect of the sex relations that existed under the spiritual +sovereignty of the Roman Church in Luther's day in the very city of +Rome, and had grown up and were being fostered by her leading men. +Luther's references to lustfulness are paraded as evidence of the lust +that was consuming him; they are, in reality, evidences of the lust that +he knew to be raging in very prominent people with whom he had dealings. + +Luther's words and teaching would count for little if his personal +conduct and his acts were in open contradiction to his chaste +professions. We would simply have to set him down as a hypocrite. But so +would the people in Luther's own day have done. It is a poor argument to +say that the common people were no match for Luther in an argument. They +were cowed into silence, they were afraid to tell him to his face that +he ought to practise what he preached. Luther's work proved the +spiritual emancipation of the common people, and one of the effects +which mark his reformatory work is the intelligent layman, who forms his +own judgment on what he hears and sees, and speaks out to his superiors. +The Wittenbergers in Luther's day were not a set of ninnies; the +constant association with the professors and students of the university, +the growing fame of their town, which brought many strangers to it, +important civil and religious affairs on which they had to come to a +decision, had made many of them far-sighted and resolute men of affairs. +Luther's home life before and after his marriage was open to public +inspection as few homes are. The most intimate and delicate affairs had +to be arranged before company at times. In a small town-and Wittenberg +was no modern metropolis-what one person knows becomes public +information in a short time. Small communities have no secrets, or at +least find it extremely difficult to have any. + +But the lewdness which Luther attacked in his writings on chastity +existed chiefly among persons of wealth and among the nobility. Not a +few of them resented Luther's invectives against their mode of life. +They surely did not lack the courage nor the ability to express +themselves in retaliation against Luther if they had known him to be +immoral himself while preaching morality to others. Last, not least, +there were the Catholic priests and dignitaries of the Roman Church +whose scandalous life Luther exposed. Aside from their disagreement from +Luther in point of doctrine, personal revenge animated not a few of them +with the desire to find a flaw in Luther's conduct. A few reckless +spirits among them insinuated and declared openly that Luther was +immoral, but the animus back of the charge was so well understood at +the time, and the people who were in daily and close touch with Luther +were so fully convinced of the purity of his life, that the charges were +treated with contempt. + +Luther's life from the age of puberty to his marriage was, indeed, a +fight against temptations to unchastity. Is it anything else in the case +of other men? The physical effects of adolescence, as we remarked +before, are a natural and morally pure phenomenon; Luther's frank way of +speaking of them does not make them impure. But this physical condition +in a growing young man or woman may become the occasion for impure acts. +Against these Luther strove as every Christian strives against them who +has not the special grace of which our Lord speaks Matt. 19, 12, in the +first part of the verse. Luther had his flesh fairly well in subjection +to the Spirit. History has not recorded those acts of immorality which +his enemies insinuate or openly charge him with. The illegitimate +children which are imputed to him were born in Catholic fancy. His +constitutional amorous propensities, too, are fiction. Though Luther +admits a few months prior to his marriage that he wears no armor plate +around his heart, it is known that he had been all his life anything +rather than a ladies' man. + +Luther's courtship of Catherine--if we may call it that--was almost void +of romance. The nine nuns who had fled from the cloister at Nimpschen to +escape "the impurities of the life of celibacy," had turned to +Wittenberg in their trouble. They were not seeking new impurities, but +running away from old ones. What was more natural than that they should +seek the protection of the man whose teaching had opened the road to +liberty for them. They did not come to Wittenberg to surrender +themselves to Luther, but to seek his protection, advice, and help in +beginning a new, natural life after the unnatural life which they had +been leading. Luther responded to the call of distress. He did not +receive them into his own domicile in the cloister where he lived, but +found shelter for them with kind citizens of the town. Next, he found +husbands for them. In less than two years after the escape from the +cloister all had been respectably married, except Catherine. A +love-affair of hers with Jerome Baumgaertner of Nuernberg had terminated +unhappily, in spite of Luther's urging the young man. Another choice +which Luther proposed to her--Dr. Glatz of Orlamuende--was declined +peremptorily by Catherine, because, it seems, she had read the man's +character. In declining this second offer, Catherine had made complaint +to Luther's friend Amsdorf that Luther was trying to marry her against +her will. She appears to have been a frank and resolute woman; in her +conversation with Amsdorf she remarked that her decision would be +altogether different if either he or even Luther were to ask for her +hand. This was not, as has been said, a bald invitation to either of +these two gentlemen, but only Catherine's energetic way of explaining +what sort of a husband she would like, and why she would not take Glatz. +Amsdorf so understood her remark and made nothing of it. By an accident +he came to relate it to Luther six months later, when the latter had +written to him in great despondency, describing his lonely life and the +disorderly state of his domicile which needed very much the care of a +woman's hand. Then it was that Amsdorf related what Catherine had +remarked. Luther had never thought of her in such a relation. He had +been attracted, it seems, by another of the nine escaped nuns, Ave von +Schoenfeld, but whatever affection he may have entertained for her must +have been a passing incident, never seriously entertained, for it must +be remembered that at that time Luther declared that he would live and +die a bachelor. Besides, Ave had now been happily married to another. At +this juncture the influence of another woman enters into the private +life of Luther. Argula von Staufen, a noblewoman who had been won over +to the cause of the Reformation and was actively engaged in breaking +down the power of the hierarchy even by her pen, wrote to Luther, +expressing her surprise that he who had written so ably and so well on +the holy estate of matrimony was still single. Among the peasants, too, +the question was being debated whether Luther would follow up his +preaching with the logical action. Luther was ruminating on these +matters when the Peasants' Revolt broke out, and with them in his mind +went to Mansfeld. He soon reached the conclusion that he owed it to his +profession as a preacher of the divine Word, to his Creator, to himself, +and to the lonely Catherine to marry. He foresaw that the celibate +clergy of Rome would raise a hue and cry about the act, but he +considered it a noble work to offend these men, because they had by +their law of celibacy offended the most holy God. He would marry to +spite all of them, and the Pope, and the devil. This resolution was +promptly carried out, for Luther was not in the habit of dallying long +with serious matters. If he had asked his timid friend Melanchthon, he +would most likely have been advised against his marriage. Faint-hearted +Philip was not the man to advise in a matter which at the time required +a heroic faith. Philip, therefore, was duly shocked when he heard about +it. His consternation is now used by Catholics to prove that he regarded +Luther's marriage as a wanton act prompted by lust. This is utterly +unhistorical: Philip was only afraid of the wild talk that would now be +started against all of them. On the right and duty of the clergy to +marry he believed with Luther. + +And now a word about the chastity of Rome, particularly that peculiar +brand which was inaugurated by Gregory VII for the Roman clergy and the +religious of both sexes, and riveted upon them by the Council of Trent- +the chastity of the celibate state. That the unnatural principle had +never worked out toward true chastity, that the robbery which it has +perpetrated on men and women had to be compensated for by connivance at, +and open permission of, concubinage, is a matter of current knowledge. +Luther's advice to priests and bishops who had opened their hearts to +him on the state of their chastity to marry their cooks, even if they +had to do it secretly; rather than maintain the other relation to them, +was a good man's effort to meet a grave difficulty as best he could. +This advice is now used to show that Luther was ready to approve any +kind of cohabitation. The very opposite is true: it was because he did +not approve of any kind of sexual intercourse, but because he desired to +obtain some kind of a legal character for that relation, that he gave +the advice to which we have referred. + +Before the assembled representatives of the Church and of the German +nation the following statements were read in Article XXIII of the +Augsburg Confession: "There has been common complaint concerning the +examples of priests who were not chaste. For that reason, also, Pope +Pius is reported to have said that there were certain reasons why +marriage was taken away from priests, but that there were far weightier +ones why it ought to be given back; for so Platina writes. Since, +therefore, our priests were desirous to avoid these open scandals, they +married wives, and taught that it was lawful for them to contract +matrimony. First, because Paul says (1 Cor. 7, 2): 'To avoid +fornication, let every man have his own wife.' Also (9): 'It is better +to marry than to burn.' Secondly, Christ says (Matt. 19, 11): 'All men +cannot receive this saying,' where He teaches that not all men are fit +to lead a single life; for God created man for procreation (Gen. 1, 23). +Nor is it in man's power, without a singular gift and work of God, to +alter this creation. Therefore, those that are not fit to lead a single +life ought to contract matrimony. For no man's law, no vow, can annul +the commandment and ordinance of God. For these reasons the priests +teach that it is lawful for them to marry wives. It is also evident that +in the ancient Church priests were married men. For Paul says (1 Tim. 3, +2) that a bishop should be the husband of one wife. And in Germany, four +hundred years ago for the first time, the priests were violently +compelled to lead a single life, who indeed offered such resistance that +the Archbishop of Mayence, when about to publish the Pope's decree +concerning this matter, was almost killed in the tumult raised by the +enraged priests. And so harsh was the dealing in the matter that not +only were marriages forbidden for the time to come, but also existing +marriages were torn asunder, contrary to all laws, divine and human, +contrary even to the canons themselves, made not only by the Popes, but +by most celebrated councils. + +"Seeing also that, as the world is aging, man's nature is gradually +growing weaker, it is well to guard that no more vices steal into +Germany. Furthermore, God ordained marriage to be a help against human +infirmity. The old canons themselves say that the old rigor ought now +and then, in the latter times, to be relaxed because of the weakness of +men; which, it is to be devoutly wished, were also done in this matter. +And it is to be expected that the churches shall at length lack pastors, +if marriage should any longer be forbidden. + +"But while the commandment of God is in force, while the custom of the +Church is well known, while impure celibacy causes many scandals, +adulteries, and other crimes deserving the punishments of just +magistrates, yet it is a marvelous thing that in nothing is more cruelty +exercised than against the marriage of priests. God has given +commandment to honor marriage. By the laws of all well-ordered +commonwealths, even among the heathen, marriage is most highly honored. +But now men, and also priests, are cruelly put to death, contrary to the +intent of the canons, for no other cause than marriage. Paul (in 1 Tim. +4, 3) calls that a doctrine of devils which forbids marriage. This may +now be readily understood when the law against marriage is maintained by +such penalties. + +"But as no law of man can annul the commandment of God, so neither can +it be done by any vow. Accordingly Cyprian also advises that women who +do not keep the chastity they have promised should marry. His words are, +these (Book I, Epistle XIX): 'But if they be unwilling or unable to +persevere, it is better for them to marry than to fall into the fire by +their lusts; at least, they should give no offense to their brethren and +sisters.' And even the canons show some leniency toward those who have +taken vows before the proper age, as heretofore has generally been the +case." (p. 48 f.) + +Not a word of dissent arose in the august assembly while these facts and +arguments were presented. The Germans had not forgotten the riotous +proceedings and the cruel heartaches that were caused by the enforcement +of the decrees of the Lenten Synod of 1074 under the theocratic Gregory +VII, who wanted to set up a universal monarchy over the whole world and +required an unmarried priesthood as his consecrated army. In his +historical novel, _Die Letzten ihres Geschlechts_, M. Ruediger has +graphically described the scenes enacted throughout Germany when +Gregory's inhuman order was put into effect. + +Similar statements regarding priestly celibacy are found in Art. XXVII +of the First, and in Art. XXIX of the Second Helvetic Confession of the +Reformed. The Episcopal Church has declared itself to the same effect in +Art. XXXII of the Thirty-nine Articles. + +However, did not Luther and Catherine both perjure themselves by +marrying? What about their religious vow, which had been given to God? +Also on this matter we might cite Luther's numerous statements and +expository writings, but we prefer to quote again the Augsburg +Confession which grew out of Luther's testimony for the truth. In +Article XXVII the Lutheran confessors state: "What is taught on our part +concerning monastic vows will be better understood if it be remembered +what has been the state of the monasteries, and how many things were +daily done in those very monasteries, contrary to the canons. In +Augustine's time they were free associations. Afterward, when discipline +was corrupted, vows were everywhere added for the purpose of restoring +discipline, as in a carefully planned prison. Gradually, many other +observances were added besides vows. And these fetters were laid upon +many before the lawful age, contrary to the canons. [Catherine von Bora +had taken the veil at the age of sixteen.] Many also entered into this +kind of life through ignorance, being unable to their own strength, +though they were of sufficient age. Being thus ensnared, they were +compelled to remain, even though some could have been freed by the +provision of the canons. And this was more the case in convents of women +than of monks, although more consideration should have been shown the +weaker sex. This rigor displeased many good men before this time, who +saw that young men and maidens were thrown into convents for a living, +and what unfortunate results came of this procedure, and what scandals +were created, what snares were cast upon consciences! They were grieved +that the authority of the canons in so momentous a matter was utterly +despised and set aside. + +"To these evils was added an opinion concerning vows, which, it is well +known, in former times, displeased even those monks who were more +thoughtful. They taught that vows were equal to Baptism; they taught +that, by this kind of life, they merited forgiveness of sins and +justification before God. Yea, they added that the monastic life not +only merited righteousness before God, but even greater things, because +it kept not only the precepts, but also the so-called 'evangelical +counsels.' + +"Thus they made men believe that the profession of monasticism was far +better than Baptism, and that the monastic life was mere meritorious +than that of magistrates, than the life of pastors and such like, who +serve their calling in accordance with God's commands, without any +man-made services. None of these things can be denied; for they appear +in their own books. . . . + +"These things we have rehearsed without odious exaggerations, to the end +that the doctrine of our teachers, on this point, might be better +understood. First, concerning such as contract matrimony." Here the 27th +Article rehearses in the main the argument of Article XXIII. + +"In the second place, why do our adversaries exaggerate the obligation +or effect of a vow, when, at the same time, they have not a word to say +of the nature of the vow itself, that it ought to be in a thing +possible, free, and chosen spontaneously and deliberately? But it is not +known to what extent perpetual chastity is in the power of man. And how +few are they who have taken the vow spontaneously and deliberately! +Young men and maidens, before they are able to judge, are persuaded, and +sometimes even compelled, to take the vow. Wherefore it is not fair to +insist so rigorously on the obligation, since it is granted by all that +it is against the nature of a vow to take it without spontaneous and +deliberate action. . . . + +"But although it appears that God's command concerning marriage delivers +many from their vows, yet our teachers introduce also another argument +concerning vows to show that they are void. For every service of God +ordained and chosen of men without commandment of God to merit +justification and grace is wicked as Christ says (Matt. 15, 9): 'In vain +they worship Me with the commandments of men.' And Paul teaches +everywhere that righteousness is not to be sought by our own observances +and acts of worship devised by men, but that it comes by faith to those +who believe that they are received by God into grace for Christ's sake." + +The confessors then proceed to show how spiritual pride was fostered by +the monkish teaching of perfection, and how by their rites and +ordinances and rules the true worship of God was obscured, and men were +withdrawn from useful pursuits in life to be buried in cloisters. They +conclude: "All these things, since they are false and empty, make vows +null and void." (p. 57 ff.) + +Luther never had taken his own nor other monks' vows lightly. He spoke +and wrote to Melanchthon from the Wartburg against the mere throwing off +of the vows on the ground that they were not binding anyway. He argued +the sacredness of the oath, and held that first the consciences of those +bound by vows must be set free through the evangelical teaching; then, +when they are qualified to make an intelligent choice on spiritual +grounds, they may discard their vows. When he married Catherine, he had +long become a free man in his mind. So had Catherine. + +Luther is charged with having entertained a purely secular view of the +essence of marriage. It is true that Luther repudiated the Catholic view +of the sacramental character of matrimony. By the teaching of the Roman +Church a legal marriage can be effected only by the ratification of the +marriage-promise and the blessing spoken over the couple by a +consecrated priest, who thus, by his official quality, imparts to the +marriage which he solemnizes a sacred character. In Luther's days it was +held that "the Church alone properly had jurisdiction over the question +of marriage, and the canonical laws (of the Church) included civil as +well as spiritual affairs. Luther repudiated these canonical laws on the +subject of marriage, and separated its civil from its ecclesiastical +aspect. He maintained that marriage, as the basis of all family rights, +lies entirely within the province of the State, and mast be regulated of +necessity by the civil government. 'Marriage and the married state,' he +declared in his _Traubuechlein_ (10, 721), 'are civil matters, in the +management of which we priests and ministers of the Church must not +intermeddle. But when we are required, either before the church, or in +the church, to bless the pair, to pray over them, or even to marry them, +then it is our bounden duty to do so.'" (Waring, p. 221.) + +In 1906, a papal decree was published which declares any betrothal or +marriage entered into by a Catholic with a Catholic, or by a Catholic +with a non-Catholic, to be valid only on condition that either the +betrothal or the marriage take place in the presence or with the +sanction of a Catholic priest This decree is known as the _Ne Temere_ +decree. It is called thus according to a custom prevailing in the +Catholic Church by which the official deliverances of the Popes are +cited by giving the initial word, or words, of such a deliverance. The +two Latin terms _Ne Temere_ are a warning against reckless action, and +the reckless action intended is the one indicated above. + +We quote a few statements from the _Ne Temere_ decree, from the work of +Dr. Leitner of Passau, which was issued in its fifth edition at +Regensburg in 1908. Dr. Leitner is a Catholic professor at Passau and +bears the title "Doctor of Theology and Canon Law." Dr. Leitner's book +is in German: _Die Verlobungs- und Eheschliessungsform nach dem Dekrete +Ne Temere_, which means, "The Form of Betrothal and Marriage according +to the _Ne Temere_ Decree." Throughout his book the author cites the +original language of the papal deliverance. The decree reaffirms, in the +first place, the decree of the Council of Trent, to this effect: "The +Holy Congregation declares any person who dares to enter into the estate +of matrimony, except upon license from the parish priest or of some +other priest of the same parish, or of the ordinary, and of two or three +witnesses, incapacitated for such a contract, and contracts of this kind +are declared null and void." (p.9.) + +Regarding betrothals the decree declares: "Only such betrothals are +regarded as valid and efficacious, according to the law of the Church, +as are set down in a document signed by the contracting parties and by +the parish priest, or the local ordinary, and by at least two +witnesses." + +Regarding marriage the decree hands down the following ruling: "Only +such marriages are valid as are entered into in the presence of the +parish priest, or the local ordinary, or of a priest delegated for the +purpose by either of these, and of two witnesses." Again: "To the above +law are amenable all persons baptized in the Catholic Church, also who +have joined the Catholic Church from errorist or schismatic societies +(notwithstanding the fact that either former or the latter have +apostatized later) whenever they entered into betrothal or matrimony." +Lastly: "The laws apply to the aforenamed Catholics whenever they enter +into betrothal or matrimony with non-Catholics, baptized or not, even +when they have obtained a dispensation from the obstacle of a mixed +religion or of a disparity of cult; except the Holy See decrees +otherwise for a certain or locality." + +The operations of this decree have been peculiar. Some countries as +Germany and Belgium, promptly secured exemption from it. In Canada the +decree has caused law suits. One of them, Morin _vs_. Le Croix, was +tried in Justice Greenshield's court at Montreal, June 21, 1912. The +judge in his ruling said; "No Church, be it the powerful Roman Catholic +Church, or the equally great and powerful Anglican Catholic Church, +possesses any authority to overrule the civil law. Such authority as any +Church has (in the matter of marriages) is given it by the civil law and +is subservient to the civil law." + +The _Protestant Magazine_, in Vol. IV, No. 2, published a facsimile of a +baptismal certificate for Anna Susanna Dagonya, daughter of Stephen +Dagonya, Roman Catholic, and Mary Csoma, Reformed, who were married at +Perth Amboy, N. J., August 4, 1909, by Rev. Louis Nannassy, Reformed. +Their child was born November 6, 1910, and baptized by Rev. Francis +Gross, priest of the Holy Cross Church at Perth Amboy. In writing out +the baptismal certificate, the priest has stated that the child is +illegitimate, and that the parents are living in concubinage. + +Under the civil laws of most states the _Ne Temere_ decree will lead to +actions for libel. As related to the authority of the State, it is +riotous and seditious. For the State will protect even those for whom +the decree is specially published in their civil rights as over against +their Church. But the decree shows to what absurdities the logical +application of Rome's teaching on matrimony leads. Concubinage--that is +the name which it applies to every marriage which she has not +sanctioned. Marriages of this kind began to be celebrated in countries +which Rome had theretofore held firmly under its jurisdiction, when +Martin Luther and Catherine von Bora were married. Accordingly, they are +entitled to the distinction of being called the Adam and Eve of the +non-Catholic paradise of concubinage which pretends to be matrimony. +Enough said. + + +26. Luther an Advocate of Polygamy. + +During the debate on the abolition of polygamy Congressman Roberts of +Utah, on January 29, 1900, made a speech in the House of Representatives +in which he said: "Here, in the resident portion of this city you +erected--May 21, 1884--a magnificent statue of stern old Martin Luther, +the founder of Protestant Christendom. You hail him as the apostle of +liberty and the inaugurator of a new and prosperous era of civilization +for mankind, but he himself sanctioned polygamy with which I am charged. +For me you have scorn, for him a monument." Taking his cue from this +Mormon speaker, one of the most recent of Luther's Catholic critics +remarks: "Let the wives and mothers of America ponder well the +polygamous phase of the Reformation before they say 'Amen' to the +unsavory and brazen laudations of the profligate opponent of Christian +marriage, Christian decency, and Christian propriety. Compare the +teachings of Luther on polygamy with those of Joseph Smith, the Mormon +prophet and visionary, and see their striking similarity. Mormonism in +Salt Lake City, in Utah, which has brought so much disgrace to the +American people, is but a legitimate outgrowth of Luther and +Lutheranism." This, then, is what will have to be done: a comparison +will have to be instituted between the teaching of Martin Luther and +that of the Mormon prophet on the subject of polygamy. We may assume +that the teachings of the latter are universally known, and shall, +accordingly, confine ourselves to Luther. + +Two curious facts may be noted before we start our investigation of +Luther's writings: 1. Is it not remarkable that Joseph Smith himself +does not cite Luther as his authority in defense of plural marriages? +What an impression would the man have made, had he known what Mr. +Roberts and some Catholics know! 2. Charging Lutheranism, that is, the +Lutheran Church, with teaching polygamy, implies that the confessional +writings of the Lutheran Church contain this teaching. The person who +will furnish the evidence for this charge from the Book of Concord, +which contains the symbolical writings of the Lutheran Church, will +become famous. Mr. Roberts was not so bold as to embrace Lutheranism +among the sponsors of his polygamous cult; he only spoke of Luther. He +was wise. And now, what does Luther say on the subject of polygamy? We +pass by, as unworthy of note, Luther's humorous remarks made in a spirit +of banter to his wife, that he would marry another wife. Only ill-will +can find in this friendly jest an evidence of Luther's polygamous +propensities. + +Serious references to this matter occur in Luther's remarks on the +practise of polygamy among the Israelites. The Mosaic account of +Abraham's relation to Agar, the two marriages of Jacob, the regulations +regarding women who had become captives in war, the harems of the kings +of Judah and Israel,--all these Biblical records, which have perplexed +many a student of the Bible, necessarily interested Luther as a +theologian and expounder of the Scriptures. Every reader of the Bible +has to form an opinion on these matters. Polygamous thoughts, therefore, +did not originate in the lustful mind of Luther, but statements on the +subject of polygamy were demanded of him as a religious teacher. He held +that the polygamous relations which the Bible notes among the +Israelites, even among saintly members of this people, must be explained +either on the ground of a special dispensation of God for which we do +not know the reason, or they must be regarded in the same light as +Christ regarded the divorces among the Jews of His day, namely, as +things which God permits among men because of their hardness of heart, +and in order to prevent greater evils. (3, 1556.) This view determined +Luther's attitude toward Carlstadt, after this turbulent spirit had +quitted Wittenberg and gone to Orlamuende, where he advocated, amongst +other things, the introduction of polygamy. Inasmuch as Carlstadt did +not mean to enforce his strange reforms by arms, as Muenzer and the +peasants were doing, Luther inclined to condone his views on polygamy. +He evidently regards this matter as a matter of public policy, like +prostitution, which every community and commonwealth must regulate by +such statutes as can be devised, "because of the hardness of men's +hearts." Luther has frequently propounded this perfectly sound view +regarding the life and conduct of non-Christians: since these people do +not acknowledge the laws of God as binding, it matters little what +practises they adopt. All that can be done to keep the animal impulses +in them somewhat in check is to fix certain limits by means of civil +laws beyond which their license may not go. For their rejection of God's +laws they will have to answer to their future Judge. + +In a letter addressed to Joseph Levin Metzsch of December 9, 1526, +Luther says: "Your first question: Whether person may have more than one +wife? I answer thus: Let unbelievers do what they please; Christian +liberty, however, is regulated by love (charity), so that all that a +Christian does is done to serve his fellow-man, provided only that he +can render such service without jeopardy and damage to his faith and +conscience. Nowadays, however, everybody is striving for a liberty that +profits and pleases him, without regard for the profit and improvement +which his neighbor might derive from his action. This is contrary to +the teaching of St. Paul, who says: 'All things are lawful unto me, but +all things are not expedient' (1 Cor. 6, 12). Only see that your liberty +does not become an occasion to the flesh. . . . Moreover, although the +patriarchs had many wives, Christians may not follow their example, +because there is no necessity for doing this, no improvement is obtained +thereby, and, especially, there is no word of God to justify this +practise, while great offense and trouble may come from it. Accordingly, +I do not believe that Christians any longer have this liberty. God would +have to publish a command that would declare such a liberty." (21a, 901 +f.) To Clemens Ursinus, pastor at Bruck, Luther writes under date of +March 21, 1527: "Polygamy, which in former times was permitted to the +Jews and Gentiles, cannot be honestly approved of among Christians, and +cannot be engaged in with a good conscience, unless in an extreme case +of necessity, as, for instance, when one of the spouses is separated +from the other by leprosy or for a similar cause. Accordingly, you may +say to the carnal people (with whom you have to do), if they want to be +Christians, they must keep married fidelity and bridle their flesh, not +give it license. If they want to be heathen, let them do what they +please, at their own risk." (21a, 928.) + +In his comment on the question of the Pharisees regarding divorce (Matt. +19, 3-6), Luther says: "Many divorces occur still among the Turks. If a +wife does not yield to the husband, nor act according to his whim and +fancy, he forthwith drives her out of the house, and takes one, two, +three, or four additional wives, and defends his action by appealing to +Moses. They have taken out of Moses such things as please them and +pander to their lust. In Turkey they are very cruel to women; any woman +that will not submit is cast aside. They toy with their women like a dog +with a rag. When they are weary of one woman, they quickly put her +beneath the turf and take another. Moses has said nothing to justify +this practise. My opinion is that there is no real married life among +the Turks; theirs is a whorish life. It is a terrible tyranny, all the +more to be regretted because God does not withhold the common blessing +from their intercourse: children are procreated thereby, and yet the +mother is sent away by the husband. For this reason there is no true +matrimony among the Turks. In my opinion, all the Turks at the present +time are bastards." (7, 965.) + +All this is plain enough and should suffice to secure Luther against the +charge of favoring polygamy. The seeming admission that polygamy might +be permissible relates to cases for which the laws of all civilized +nations make provisions. How a Christian must conduct himself in such a +case must be decided on the evidence in each case. Likewise, the +reference to the Christian's liberty from the law does not mean that the +Christian has the potential right to polygamy, but it means that he must +maintain his monogamous relation from a free and willing choice to obey +God's commandments in the power of God's grace. Polygamy, this is the +firm conviction of Luther, could only be sanctioned if there were a +plain command of God to that effect. Luther's remarks about matrimony +among the Turks should be remembered when Catholics cite Luther's +remarks about King Ahasuerus dismissing Vashti and summoning Esther, and +the right of the husband to take to himself his maid-servant when his +wife refuses him. By all divine and human laws the matter to which +Luther refers is a just ground for divorce, and that is all that Luther +declares. + +But did not Luther sanction the bigamy of Philip of Hesse? So he did. +Luther's decision in this case must be studied in the light of all the +evidence which we possess. Catholic theologians, before all others, +should be able to appreciate Luther's claim that what was said to the +Landgrave was said to him "in the person of Christ," as the counsel +which a confessor gave to a burdened conscience. Catholics fail to +mention that Luther repelled bigamous thoughts in Philip of Hesse +fourteen years before the Landgrave took Margaret von der Saal. The +evidence was found in the state archives at Kassel, now at Marburg, in +a fragment of a letter which Niedner published in the _Zeitschrift fuer +historische Theologie_, 1852, No. 2, p. 265. The letter is dated +November 28, 1526; Philip's bigamous marriage took place March 9, 1540. +In this letter Luther says to Philip: "As regards the other matter, my +faithful warning and advice is that no man, Christians in particular, +should have more than one wife, not only for the reason that offense +would be given, and Christians must not needlessly give, but most +diligently avoid giving, offense, but also for the reason that we have +no word of God regarding this matter on which we might base a belief +that such action would be well-pleasing to God and to Christians. Let +heathen and Turks do what they please. Some of the ancient fathers had +many wives, but they were urged to this by necessity, as Abraham and +Jacob, and later many kings, who according to the law of Moses obtained +the wives of their friends, on the death of the latter, as an +inheritance. The example of the fathers is not a sufficient argument to +convince a Christian: he must have, in addition, a divine word that +makes him sure, just as they had a word of that kind from God. For where +there was no need or cause, the ancient fathers did not have more than +one wife, as Isaac, Joseph, Moses, and many others. For this reason I +cannot advise for, but must advise against, your intention, particularly +since you are a Christian, unless there were an extreme necessity, as, +for instance, if the wife were leprous or the husband were deprived of +her for some other reason. On what grounds to forbid other people such +marriages I know not" (21a, 900 f.) This letter effected that the +Landgrave did not carry out his intention, but failing, nevertheless, to +lead a chaste life, he did not commune, except once in extreme illness, +because of his accusing conscience. + +How Luther, fourteen years later, was induced to virtually reverse his +opinion he has told himself in a lengthy letter to the Elector +Frederick. This letter is Luther's best justification. It is dated June +10, 1540, and reads: "Most serene, high-born Elector, most gracious +Lord:--I am sorry to learn that Your Grace is importuned by the court of +Dresden about the Landgrave's business. Your Grace asks what answer to +give the men of Meissen. As the affair was one of the confessional, both +Melanchthon and I were unwilling to communicate it even to Your Grace, +for it is right to keep confessional matters secret, both the sin +confessed and the counsel given, and had the Landgrave not revealed the +matter and the confessional counsel, there would never have been all +this nauseating unpleasantness.--I still say that if the matter were +brought before me to-day, I should not be able to give counsel different +from what I did. Setting apart the fact that I know I am not as wise as +they think they are, I need conceal nothing, especially as it has +already been made known. The state of affairs is as follows: Martin +Bucer brought a letter and pointed out that, on account of certain +faults in the Landgrave's wife, the Landgrave was not able to keep +himself chaste, and that he had hitherto lived in a way which was not +good, but that he would like to be at one with the principal heads of +the Evangelic Church, and he declared solemnly before God and his +conscience that he could not in future avoid such vices unless he were +permitted to take another wife. We were deeply horrified at this tale +and the offense which must follow, and we begged his Grace not to do as +he proposed. But we were told again that he could not abandon his +project, and if he could not obtain what he wanted from us, he would +disregard us and turn to the Emperor and Pope. To prevent this we +humbly begged that if his Grace would not, or, as he averred before God +and his conscience, could not, do otherwise, yet that he could keep it a +secret. Though necessity compelled him, yet he could not defend his act +before the world and the imperial laws; this he promised to do, and we +accordingly agreed to help him before God and cover it up as much as +possible with such examples as that of Abraham. This all happened as +though in the confessional, and no one can accuse us of having acted as +we did willingly or voluntarily or with pleasure or joy. It was hard +enough for our hearts, but we could not prevent it, we thought to give +his conscience such counsel as we could.--I have indeed learned several +confessional secrets, both while I was still a papist and later, which, +if they were revealed, I should live to deny or else publish the whole +confession. Such things belong not to the secular courts, nor are they +to be published. God has here His own judgment, and must counsel souls +in matters where no worldly law nor wisdom can help. My preceptor in the +cloister, a fine old man, had many such affairs, and once had to say of +them with a sigh: 'Alas, alas! such things are so perplexed and +desperate that no wisdom, law, nor reason can avail; one must commend +them to divine goodness.' So instructed, I have, accordingly, in this +case also acted agreeably to divine goodness.--But had I known that the +Landgrave had long before satisfied his desires, and could well satisfy +them with others, as I have now just learned that he did with her of +Eschwege, truly no angel would have induced me to give such counsel. I +gave it only in consideration of his unavoidable necessity and weakness, +and to put his conscience out of peril, as Bucer represented the case to +me. Much less would I ever have advised that there should be a public +marriage, to which (though he told me nothing of this) a young princess +and young countess should come, which is truly not to be borne and is +insufferable to the whole empire. But I understood and hoped, as long as +he had to go the common way with sin and shame and weakness of the +flesh, that he would take some honorable maiden or other in secret +marriage, even if the relation did not have a legal look before the +world. My concession was on account of the great need of his +conscience--such as happened to other great lords. In like manner I +advised certain priests in the Catholic lands of Duke George and the +bishops secretly to marry their cooks.--This was my confessional counsel +about which I would much rather have kept silence, but it has been wrung +from me, and I could do nothing but speak. But the men of Dresden speak +as though I had taught the same for thirteen years, and yet they give us +to understand what a friendly heart they have to us, and what great +desire for love and unity, just as if there were no scandal or sin in +their lives, which are ten times worse before God than anything I ever +advised. But the world must always smugly rail at the moat in its +neighbor's eye, and forget the beam in its own eye. If I must defend all +I have said or done in former years, especially at the beginning, I must +beg the Pope to do the same, for if they defend their former acts (let +alone their present ones), they would belong to the devil more than to +God.--I am not ashamed of my counsel, even if it should be published in +all the world; but for the sake of the unpleasantness which would then +follow, I should prefer, if possible, to have kept it secret. Martin +Luther, with his own hand." (21b, 2467; transl. by Preserved Smith.) + +About a year later a Hessian preacher, by the name of Johann Lening, +undertook to justify the bigamy of the Landgrave. Under the pseudonym +"Huldricus Neobulus" he published a "Dialogus," that is, "an amicable +conversation between two persons on the question whether it is in +accordance with, or contrary to, divine, natural, imperial, and +spiritual laws for a person to have more than one wife at a time," etc. +The writer defended bigamy. In an unfinished reply to this book Luther +takes strong grounds against him. Referring to the author's argument +that bigamy was sanctioned by Moses, Luther says: "The reference to the +fathers of whom Moses speaks is irrelevant: Moses is dead. Granted, +however, that bigamy was legal in the days of the fathers and Moses, +--which can never be established,--still they had God's word for it that +such a permission was given them. That we have not. And although it was +permitted to the Jews and tolerated by God, while God Himself considered +it wrong, . . . it was merely a dispensation. . . . Now, there is a +great difference between a legal right and a dispensation, or something +that is tolerated or permitted. A legal right is not a dispensation, and +a dispensation is not a legal right; whoever does, obtains, or holds +something by a dispensation does not do, obtain, or hold it by legal +right." Luther then enters upon a brief discussion of the bigamous +relationships which were created by the Mosaic laws, and explains that +legislation as emergency legislation. He says: "What need is there why +we should try to find all sorts of reasons to explain why the fathers +under Moses were permitted to have many wives? God is sovereign; He may +abrogate, alter, mitigate a law as He pleases, for emergency's sake or +not. But it does not behoove us to imitate such instances, much less to +establish them as a right. But this Tulrich [so Luther calls the unknown +author] rashly declares carnal lust free, and wants to put the world +back to where it was before the Flood, when they took them wives, not +like the Jews by God's permission, or because of an emergency or for +charity's sake towards homeless women, as Moses directs, but, as the +text says, 'which they chose' (Gen. 6, 2). That is the way nowadays to +rise to the stars. In this way we have Moses and the fathers with their +examples as beautiful cloaks for carnal liberty; we say with our lips +that we are following the examples of the fathers, but in very deed we +act contrary to them. Lord, have mercy! If the world continues, what all +may we not expect to happen these times, if even now shameless fellows +may print what they please." (21b, 2691 f.) + +One might go more exhaustively into the evidence, but the materials here +submitted will suffice to convince most men that, while Luther's advice +to Philip did create a bigamous relation, Luther was not a defender of +bigamy. Every one who has had to deal with questions relating to married +life knows that situations arise in the matrimonial relation which +simply cannot be threshed out in public, and in which the honest advice +of a pious person is invoked to find a way out of a complication. That +was the situation confronting Luther: what he advised was meant as an +emergency measure to prevent something that was worse. In the same +manner Luther had expressed the opinion that it would have been easier +to condone a bigamous relation in Henry VIII of England than the unjust +divorce which the king was seeking. As a matter of fact, however, Luther +and his Wittenberg colleagues were grossly hoodwinked in the matter, +both by the Landgrave himself and, what is worse, by the Landgrave's +court-preacher, Bucer. Had the true facts been known, the advice, as +Luther clearly states, would never have been given. But we can well +understand how Luther can declare that under the circumstances under +which he thought he was acting he could not have given any different +advice. Personally, we have always resented the veiled threat in the +Landgrave's request that he would apply to the Pope or the Emperor. +Perhaps the remark was not understood as a threat, but as an expression +of despair. At any rate, Philip was confident of getting from Rome what +he was not sure of obtaining from Luther. + +Ought not this remark of the Landgrave caution Luther's Catholic critics +to be very careful in what they say about the heinousness of Luther's +offense in granting a dispensation from a moral precept? Have they +really no such thing as a "dispensation" at Rome? Has not the married +relationship come up for "dispensation" in the chancelleries of the +Vatican innumerable times? Has not one of the canonized saints of Rome, +St. Augustine, declared that bigamy might be permitted if a wife was +sterile? Was not concubinage still recognized by law in the sixteenth +century in Ireland? Did not King Diarmid have two legitimate wives and +two concubines? And he was a Catholic. What have Catholics to say in +rejoinder to Sir Henry Maine's assertion that the Canon Law of their +Church brought about numerous sexual inequalities? Or to Joseph +MacCabe's statement that not until 1060 was there any authoritative +mandate of the Church against polygamy, and that even after this +prohibition there were numerous instances of concubinage and polygamic +marriages in Christian communities? Or to Hallam in his _Middle Ages_, +where he reports concubinage in Europe? Or to Lea, who proves that this +evil was not confined to the laity? (See Gallighan, _Women under +Polygamy_, pp. 43. 292. 295. 303. 330. 339.) + +All that has so far been said about Luther's views on the subject of +polygamy could be most powerfully reinforced by a review of Luther's +teaching on matrimony as a divine institution, which Luther consistently +throughout his writings regards as monogamous. But this is too well +known to require restatement, and is really outside of the scope of this +review, which must content itself with submitting the direct argument in +rebuttal of the Catholic charge of Luther's advocacy of polygamy. This +polygamous Luther, too, is a vision that is rendered possible only +through spectacles of hopeless bias. + + +27. Luther Announces His Death. + +Mark Twain awoke one morning to find himself reported dead. He did not +accept the invitation suggested in the report, but wired to his friends: +"Reports of my death grossly exaggerated." Luther was placed in a +similar predicament by Catholics who were deeply interested in the +question how long he was to continue to live. One day, in the early part +of March, 1545, he was handed a printed letter in Italian which +contained the news of his demise under curious circumstances. He thought +that he ought not to withhold this interesting information from the +world: he had a German translation made of the document, which he +published with his remarks as follows: + +"Copy of a Letter of the Ambassador of the Most Christian King regarding +a Horrible Sign which Occurred in the Shameful Death of Martin Luther. + +"A horrible and unheard-of miracle which the blessed God has wrought in +the shameful death of Martin Luther, who went to hell, soul and body, as +may be clearly seen from a chapter of the letter of the ambassador of +the Most Christian King, to the praise and glory of Jesus Christ and the +confirmation and comfort of the faithful. + +_"Copy of the Letter_. + +"1. Martin Luther, having been taken ill, desired the holy Sacrament of +the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. He died immediately upon receiving +it. When he saw that his sickness was very violent and he was near +death, he prayed that his body might be placed on an altar and worshiped +as Cod. But the goodness and providence of God had resolved to put an +end to his great error and to silence him forever. Accordingly, God did +not omit to work this great miracle, which was very much needed, to +cause the people to desist from the great, destructive, and ruinous +error which the said Luther has caused in the world. As soon as his body +had been placed in the grave, an awful rumbling and noise was heard, as +if hell and the devils were collapsing. All present were seized with a +great fright, terror, and fear, and when they raised their eyes to +heaven, they plainly saw the most holy host of our Lord Jesus Christ +which this unworthy man was permitted to receive unworthily. I affirm +that all who were present saw the most holy host visibly floating in the +air. They took the most holy host very devoutly and with great +reverence, and gave it a decent place in the sanctuary. + +"2. When this had been done, no such tumult and hellish rumbling was +heard any more that day. However, during the following night, at the +place where Martin Luther's corpse had been buried, there was heard by +everybody in the community a much greater confusion than the first time. +The people arose and flocked together in great fear and terror. At +daybreak they went to open the grave where the wicked body of Luther had +been placed. When the grave was opened, you could clearly see that there +was no body, neither flesh nor bone, nor any clothes. But such a +sulphuric stench rose from the grave that all who were standing around +the grave turned sick. On account of this miracle many have reformed +their lives by returning to the holy Christian faith, to the honor, +praise, and glory of Jesus Christ, and to the strengthening and +confirmation of His holy Christian Church, which is a pillar of truth." + +Luther appended the following comment to this pious document: + +"And I, Martinus Luther, D., do by these indentures acknowledge and +testify that I have received this angry fiction concerning my death on +the twenty-first day of March, and that I have read it with considerable +pleasure and joy, except the blasphemous portion of the document in +which this lie is attributed to the exalted majesty of God. Otherwise I +felt quite tickled on my knee-cap and under my left heel at this +evidence how cordially the devil and his minions, the Pope and the +papists, hate me. May God turn them from the devil! + +"However, if it is decreed that theirs is a sin unto death, and that my +prayer is in vain, then may God grant that they fill up their measure +and write nothing else but such books for their comfort and joy. Let +them run their course; they are on the right track; they want to have it +so. Meanwhile I want to know how they are going to be saved, and how +they will atone for and revoke all their lies and blasphemies with which +they have filled the world." (21b, 3376 f.) + +Similar, even more grotesque tales have been served the faithful by +Catholic writers. The star production of this kind was published years +ago in the _Ohio-Waisenfreund_. It related that horrible and uncanny +signs had accompanied Luther's death. Weird shrieks and noises were +heard, devils were flying about in the air; the heavens were shrouded in +a pall of gloom. When the funeral cortege started from Eisleben, a vast +flock of ravens had gathered and accompanied the corpse croaking +incessantly and uttering dismal cries all the way to Wittenberg, etc., +etc. + +These crude stories have now been censored out of existence. Catholics +nowadays prefer to lie in a more refined and cultured manner about +Luther's death: Luther committed suicide; he was found hanging from his +bedpost one morning. + +Comment is unnecessary. + +Luther died peacefully in the presence of friends, confessing, Christ +and asserting his firm allegiance to the faith he had proclaimed with +his last breath. The probable cause of his death was a stroke of +paralysis. Luther began to feel pains in the chest late in the afternoon +of February 17, 1546. He bore up manfully and continued working at his +business for the Count of Mansfeld who had called him to Eisleben. After +a light evening meal he sat chatting in a cheerful mood with his +companions, and retired early, as was his custom in his declining years. +The pains in the chest became worse, and he began to feel chilly. +Medicaments were administered, and after a while he fell into a slumber, +which lasted an hour. He awoke with increased pain and a feeling of +great congestion, which caused the death-perspiration to break out. He +was rapidly turning cold. All this time he was praying and reciting +portions from the Psalms and other texts. Three times in succession he +repeated his favorite text, John 3, 16. Gradually he became peaceful, +and his end was so gentle that the bystanders were in doubt whether he +had expired or was only in a swoon. They worked with him, trying to +rouse him, until they were convinced that he had breathed his last. The +Catholic apothecary John Landau, who had been called in while Luther was +thought to be in a swoon, helped to establish the fact of his death. + + +28. Luther's View of His Slanderers. + +Luther was the subject of gross misrepresentation and vile slander +during his lifetime: At first he used to correct erroneous reports about +himself, usually in his polemical writings, later he merely noted them +with a brief and scornful comment, and finally ignored them altogether. +He relates that he had treated many slanderous publications of Eck, +Faber, Emser, Cochlaeus, and many others with silent contempt. (18, +1991; 14, 331.) It was a physical impossibility for him to reply to all +the misleading and vicious reports that were being circulated about him. +He was convinced that he must use his time and strength for more +necessary matters. His friends in many instances relieved him of the +unpleasant task. Moreover, after he had answered those who had first +assailed him in the beginning of his public activity, he could afford to +disregard many slanders, because they were mere repetitions. + +Luther was aware that he was probably the worst-hated man of his times. +He declares his belief that in the last hundred years there has not +lived a man to whom the world was more hostile than to himself. (22, +1660.) Persons praising him, he says, are regarded as having committed +a more grievous sin than any idolater, blasphemer, perjurer, fornicator, +adulterer, murderer, or thief. (9, 553.) Anything that Luther has said, +he observes, is denounced as coming from the devil; what Duke George +(one of his fiercest enemies), Faber, or Bucer say or do is highly +approved, (4, 1606.) Like Elijah, he was charged with having disturbed +Israel: before he began preaching there was peace and quiet, now all is +confusion. (9, 587.) He is held responsible for the Peasants' Revolt and +the rise of the Sacramentarian sects. (22, 1602.) A laborer whom his +wife had hired became drunk and committed murder; at once the rumor was +spread that Luther kept a murderer as his servant. (21b, 2225.) What he +writes is represented as having been inspired by envy, pride, +bitterness, yea, by Satan himself; those, however, who write against him +are regarded as being inspired by the Holy Ghost. (18, 2005.) He +observes that beggars become rich, obtain favors from princes and kings, +remunerative positions, honors, and bishoprics by turning against him. +(18, 2005.) Some attribute the election of Adrian VI as Pope to Luther +(this Pope was believed to favor reforms: he did not last long); and +Luther expects that he is helping Dr. Schmid to become a cardinal +because he is opposing him. (19, 1347.) Dunces become doctors, knaves +become saints, and the most besotted characters are glorified when they +try their vile mouths and pens against Luther. (19, 1347.) The easiest +way for any man to become a canonized saint even during his lifetime, +though he were a person of the stripe of a Nero or Caligula, is by +hating Luther. (18, 2005.) On the cover of the pamphlet containing his +Sermon on the Sacrament Luther ordered a picture consisting of two +monstrances printed; this was promptly explained to mean that he had +adopted the Bohemian errors, for Hus had administered the Lord's Supper +in both kinds. (19, 457.) Some pretended that they could see two geese +in this picture; the meaning was plain: one of them signified Hus (Hus +in Bohemian means goose), the other, Luther. (19, 458.) + +Luther would not have been human if incidents like these had not caused +him pain. Occasionally he would give vent to his grief, but his manly +courage, too, would soon assert itself, and he would expose the +hollowness, insincerity, and futility of the lying tales that were +spread about him. At a public meeting in Campo Flore he was cursed, +sentenced to death, and burned in effigy. (21a, 174.) He has read +offensive reports about himself, and puts them down with the calm +declaration: There is not a man that writes against Luther without +having to resort to horrible and manifest lies. (19, 583.) He is sure +that he has not had an opponent who in an argument would stick to the +point; they all had to evade the issue. (22, 658.) Shameful falsehoods +are canvassed about him at the court of King Ferdinand (15, 2623); +Luther comforts himself with the reflection that others have suffered +the same vilification before him, for instance, Wyclif, Hus, and others +(5, 308). Besides, he is able to understand that the real reason why +the papists regard him as such a perverse and untractable person is +because they are utterly perverse themselves. (4, 1499.) + +But his sweetest comfort is in reflecting that it is his preaching which +has brought his manifold afflictions upon him. Poor Luther is always +wrong: the Sacramentarians and Anabaptists hate him worse than they hate +the Pope, and the Pope hates him worse than he hates other heretics, +because they all fight against the Gospel which Luther preaches. (22, +1015.) If I were to keep silent, he says, or preach as I used to do, +concerning indulgences, pilgrimages, adoration of the saints, purgatory, +the carnival of the Mass, I could easily keep the favor and friendship +of the great. (8, 569.) But for the sake of the true doctrine and those +who profess it,--whom his opponents wish to suppress, Luther is willing +to suffer hatred, persecution, calumnies, and everything else that his +enemies may devise against him. (5, 587.) What have I done, he exclaims, +to deserve the enmity of the Pope and his rabble, except that I have +preached Christ? (8, 569.) He is convinced from the papists' own +confession that he is being persecuted for no other reason than because +he is preaching the Gospel. (8, 399.} + +Knowing the reason why he is hated, Luther glories in his tribulations. +Duke George, he says, calls me a desperate, low-bred, perjured knave: I +shall consider those ugly names my emeralds, rubies, and diamonds. (19, +457.) He would fear that there must be something wrong about his +teaching if the people whom he knows would not fight against him: if +these people do not condemn his doctrine, his doctrine cannot be +acceptable to God. (10, 351.) He prefers to have them rage against him. +Their violence shall not disturb him greatly, because he has championed +the Lord's cause, and that, in all sincerity, without malice toward any +person. (21a, 301.) . Let the papists exhaust themselves in slanders +against him: he knows he has the Scriptures on his side, and they have +the Scriptures against them. (5, 310.) They intend to grind Luther to +pieces, not a hair of him is to remain; he knows that they will not be +able to harm a hair on his head. (8, 119.) + +Thus Luther thought and spoke of his detractors and defamers. Such was +his comfort and his courage in the face of base calumnies and undeserved +hatred. Those who know him best will continue to love him, and admire +him the more for the enemies he has made. + +-- + +If the reader of this book has had the sensation of a traveler in a +storm-tossed vessel, he has experienced mentally what Luther faced in +dread reality during almost the whole of his agitated life. He had to +weather many a squall, and storm, and hurricane. Outwardly his life +seems a continuous hurly-burly. Yet there is in this man's heart a great +and holy calm. The tumult of his life is all on the surface. He reminds +one of the lines in Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Hymn": + + When winds are raging o'er the upper ocean, + And billows wild contend with angry roar, + 'T is said, far down beneath the wild commotion, + That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore. + + Far, far beneath, the noise of tempest dieth, + And silver waves chime ever peacefully, + And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er it flieth, + Disturbs the Sabbath of that deeper sea. + +We have had glimpses of the hidden depths in Luther's mind: his thought +reaches down to the lowest depths of human misery, and then goes deeper +still towards the limits of God's rescuing love and conquering grace +which human mind has never reached. For these divine profundities no +plummet will ever sound. He who could surrender himself wholly to the +study of the greatness and beauty of Luther's constructive thought would +enjoy a spiritual luxury and be drawn into that sublime and solemn peace +of God which passes all understanding. He would behold this strenuous +man; who has been shown mostly in his working-clothes in these pages, in +his holiday-attire, with that Sabbath in his heart which occurs wherever +Christ is the loved and adored object of the thinker's contemplation. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Luther Examined and Reexamined, by W. H. T. Dau + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LUTHER EXAMINED AND REEXAMINED *** + +***** This file should be named 16322-8.txt or 16322-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/2/16322/ + +Produced by Kurt A. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/16322-8.zip b/16322-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..55301ab --- /dev/null +++ b/16322-8.zip diff --git a/16322.txt b/16322.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a197b41 --- /dev/null +++ b/16322.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8552 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Luther Examined and Reexamined, by W. H. T. Dau + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Luther Examined and Reexamined + A Review of Catholic Criticism and a Plea for Revaluation + +Author: W. H. T. Dau + +Release Date: July 18, 2005 [EBook #16322] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LUTHER EXAMINED AND REEXAMINED *** + + + + +Produced by Kurt A. Bodling, Ganser Library, Millersville +University, Millersville, PA, USA + + + + + + +Luther Examined and Reexamined +A Review of Catholic Criticism and a Plea +for Revaluation + +By W.H.T. Dau, +Professor, Concordia Theological Seminary + +St. Louis, Mo. +Concordia Publishing House +1917 + +PREFACE. +One may deplore the pathetic courage which periodically heartens +Catholic writers for the task of writing against Luther, but one can +understand the necessity for such efforts, and, accordingly, feel a real +pity for those who make them. Attacks on Luther are demanded for +Catholics by the law of self-preservation. A recent Catholic writer +correctly says: "There is no doubt that the religious problem to-day is +still the Luther problem." "Almost every statement of those religious +doctrines which are opposed to Catholic moral teaching find their +authorization in the theology of Martin Luther." + +Rome has never acknowledged her errors nor admitted her moral defeat. +The lessons of past history are wasted upon her. Rome is determined to +assert to the end that she was not, and cannot be, vanquished. In the +age of the Reformation, she admits, she suffered some losses, but she +claims that she is fast retrieving these, while Protestantism is +decadent and decaying. No opposition to her can hope to succeed. + +This is done to bolster up Catholic courage. The intelligent Catholic +layman of the present day makes his own observations, and draws his own +conclusions as to the status and the future prospect of Protestantism. +Therefore, he must be invited to "acquaint himself with the lifestory of +the man, whose followers can never explain away the anarchy of that +immoral dogma: 'Be a sinner, and sin boldly; but believe more boldly +still!' He must be shown the many hideous scenes of coarseness, +vulgarity, obscenity, and degrading immorality in Martin Luther's life." +When the Catholic rises from the contemplation of these scenes, it is +hoped that his mind has become ironclad against Protestant argument. +These attacks upon Luther are a plea _pro domo_, the effort of a strong +man armed to keep his palace and his goods in peace. + +Occurring, as they do, in this year of the Four-hundredth Anniversary of +the Reformation, these attacks, moreover, represent a Catholic +counter-demonstration to the Protestant celebration of the +Quadricentenary of Luther's Theses. They are the customary cries of +dissent and vigorous expressions of disgust which at a public meeting +come from parties in the audience that are not pleased with the speaker +on the stage. If the counter-demonstration includes in its program the +obliging application of eggs in an advanced state of maturity to the +speaker, and chooses to emphasize its presence to the very nostrils of +the audience, that, too, is part of the prevailing custom. It is +aesthetically incorrect, to be sure, but it is in line historically with +former demonstrations. No Protestant celebration would seem normal +without them. They help Protestants in their preparations for the +jubilee to appreciate the remarks of David in Psalm 2, 11: "Rejoice with +trembling." And if Shakespeare was correct in the statement: "Sweet are +the uses of adversity," they need not be altogether deplored. + +An attempt is made in these pages to review the principal charges and +arguments of Catholic critics of Luther. The references to Luther's +works are to the St. Louis Edition; those to the Book of Concord, to the +People's Edition. + +Authors must be modest, and as a rule they are. In the domain of +historical research there is rarely anything that is final. This +observation was forced upon the present writer with unusual power as the +rich contents of his subjects opened up to him during his study. He has +sought to be comprehensive, at least, as regards essential facts, in +every chapter; he does not claim that his presentation is final. He +hopes that it may stimulate further research. + +This book is frankly polemical. It had to be, or there would have been +no need of writing it. It seeks to meet both the assertions and the +spirit of Luther's Catholic critics. A review ought to be a mirror, and +mirrors must reflect. But there is no malice in the author's effort. + +W. H. T. Dau. + +Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo. +May 10, 1917. + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS. + + l. Luther Worship + 2. Luther Hatred + 3. Luther Blemishes + 4. Luther's Task + 5. The Popes in Luther's Time + 6. Luther's Birth and Parentage + 7. Luther's Great Mistake + 8. Luther's Failure as a Monk + 9. Professor Luther, D. D. + 10. Luther's "Discovery" of the Bible + 11. Rome and the Bible + 12. Luther's Visit at Rome + 13. Pastor Luther + 14. The Case of Luther's Friend Myconius + 15. Luther's Faith without Works + 16. The Fatalist Luther + 17. Luther a Teacher of Lawlessness + 18. Luther Repudiates the Ten Commandments + 19. Luther's Invisible Church + 20. Luther on the God-given Supremacy of the Pope + 21. Luther the Translator of the Bible + 22. Luther a Preacher of Violence against the Hierarchy + 23. Luther, Anarchist and Despot All in One + 24. Luther the Destroyer of Liberty of Conscience + 25. "The Adam and Eve of the New Gospel of Concubinage" + 26. Luther an Advocate of Polygamy + 27. Luther Announces His Death + 28. Luther's View of His Slanderers + + +1. Luther Worship. + +Catholic writers profess themselves shocked by the unblushing veneration +which Luther receives from Protestants. Such epithets as "hero of the +Reformation," "angel with the everlasting Gospel flying through the +midst of heaven," "restorer of the Christian faith," grate on Catholic +nerves. Luther's sayings are cited with approval by all sorts of men. +Men feel that their cause is greatly strengthened by having Luther on +their side. Luther's name is a name to conjure with. Hardly a great man +has lived in the last four hundred years but has gone on record as an +admirer of Luther. Rome, accordingly, cries out that Luther is become +the uncanonized saint of Protestantism, yea, the deified expounder of +the evangelical faith. + +Coming from a Church that venerates and adores and prays to--you must +not say "worships"--as many saints as there are days in the calendar, +this stricture is refreshing. Saints not only of questionable sanctity, +but of doubtful existence have been worshiped--beg pardon! venerated-- +by Catholics. What does the common law say about the prosecution coming +into court with clean hands? If there is such a thing among Protestants +as "religious veneration" of Luther, what shall we call the veneration +of Mary among Catholics? Pius IX, on December 8, 1854, proclaimed the +"immaculate conception," that is, the sinlessness of Mary from the very +first moment of her existence, thus removing her from the sphere of +sin-begotten humanity. In 1913, the press of the country was preparing +its readers for another move towards the deification of Mary: her +"assumption" was to be declared. That is, it was to be declared a +Catholic dogma that the corpse of Mary did not see corruption, and was +at the moment of her death removed to heaven. The _Pasadena Star_ of +August 15th in that year wrote: "It is now known that since his recent +illness Pope Pius, realizing that his active pontificate is practically +at an end, has expressed to some of the highest dignitaries of the +Catholic Church at Rome the desire to round out his career by this last +great act." The _Western Watchman_ of July 3d in that year had in its +inimitable style referred to the coming dogma, thus: "What Catholic in +the world to-day would say that the immaculately conceived body of +the Blessed Virgin was allowed to rot in the grave? The Catholic mind +would rebel against the thought; and death would be preferred to the +blasphemous outrage." The grounds for wanting the "assumption" of Mary +fixed in a dogma were these: "Catholics believe in the bodily assumption +of the Blessed Virgin, because their faith instinctively teaches them +that such a thing is possible and proper, and that settles it in favor +of the belief. The body of our Lord should not taste corruption, neither +should the body that gave Him His body. The flesh that was bruised for +our sins was the flesh of Mary. The blood that was shed for our +salvation was drawn from Mary's veins. It would be improper that the +Virgin Mother should be allowed to see corruption if her Son was +exempted from the indignity." If any should be so rash as to question +the propriety of the new dogma, the writer held out this pleasant +prospect to them: "Dogmas are stones at the heads of heretics. . . . The +eyes of all Catholics see aright; if they are afflicted with strabismus, +the Church resorts to an operation. All Catholics hear aright; if they +do not, the Church applies a remedy to their organ of hearing. These +surgical operations go under the name of dogmas." The world remembers +with what success an operation of this kind was performed on a number of +Roman prelates, who questioned the infallibility of the Pope. The dogma +was simply declared in 1870, and that put a quietus to all Catholic +scruples. Some day the "assumption" of Mary will be proclaimed as a +Catholic dogma. We should not feel surprised if ultimately a dogma were +published to the effect that the Holy Trinity is a Holy Quartet, with +Mary as the fourth person of the Godhead. + +The Roman Church is accustomed to speak of her Supreme Pontiff, the Holy +Father, the Vicegerent of Christ, His Infallible Holiness, in terms that +lift a human being to heights of adoration unknown among Protestants. +For centuries the tendency in the Roman Church to make of the Pope "a +god on earth" has been felt and expressed in Christendom. + +This Church wants to preach to Protestants about the sin of man-worship! +Verily, here we have the parable of the mote and the beam in a twentieth +century edition. Catholic teachers would be the last ones, we imagine, +whom scrupulous Christians would choose for instructing them regarding +the sin of idolatry and the means to avoid it. + +No Protestant regards Luther as Catholics regard Mary, not even Patrick. +Luther has taught them too well for that. Unwittingly the Catholics +themselves have immortalized Luther by naming the Evangelical Church +after Luther. Luther declined the honor. "I beg," he said, "not to have +my name mentioned, and to call people not Lutheran, but Christian. What +is Luther? The doctrine is not mine, nor have I been crucified for any +one. . . . The papists deserve to have a party-name, for they are not +content with the doctrine and name of Christ; they want to be popish +also. Well, let them be called popish, for the Pope is their master. I +am not, and I do not want to be, anybody's master." (10, 371.) + +It is likely that the frequent laudatory mention of Luther's name, +especially in connection with the present anniversary of the +Reformation, is taken as a challenge by Catholics. If it is that, it is +so by the choice of Catholics. It is impossible to speak of a great man +without referring to the conflicts that made him great. "He makes no +friend," says Tennyson, "who never made a foe." "The man who has no +enemies," says Donn Piatt, "has no following." Opposition is one of the +accepted marks of greatness. The opposition which great men aroused +during their lifetime lives after them, and crops out again on a given +occasion. This is deplorable, but it is the ordinary course. Moreover, +it is possible that in a season of great joy like that which the +Quadricentenary of the Reformation has ushered in orators and writers +may fail to put a due check on their enthusiasm and may overstate a +fact. Such things happen even among Catholics, we believe, But they will +be negligible quantities in the present celebration. The proper +corrective for them will be provided by Protestants themselves. The vast +majority of those who have embraced the spiritual leadership of Luther +in matters pertaining to Christian doctrine and morals will prove again +that they are in no danger of inaugurating man-worship. The spirit of +Luther is too much alive in them for that. They will, with the Marquis +of Brandenburg, declare: "If I be asked whether with heart and lip I +confess that faith which God has restored to us by Luther as His +instrument, I have no scruple, nor have I a disposition to shrink from +the name Lutheran. Thus understood, I am, and shall to my dying hour +remain, a Lutheran." They will ever be able to distinguish between the +man Luther, prone to error and sin like any other mortal, and the Luther +who fought the battle of the Lord and had a mission of everlasting +import to the Church and the world. They have shown on numerous +occasions that they can be friends of Luther, and yet criticize him or +dissent from him. If they had not, there would be no Protestants whom +Catholics can quote as "opponents" of Luther. On the other hand, if any +one undertakes to enlighten the public with a view of Luther, +Protestants will insist that his estimate comport with the facts in the +case, and that the name of a great man who deserves well of posterity be +not traduced. Why, even the Catholic von Schlegel thinks Luther has not +been half esteemed as he ought to be. + + +2. Luther Hatred. + +Catholic writers have found so much to censure in the character and +writings of Luther that one is amazed, after reading them, how Luther +ever could become regarded as a great and good man. Criminal blindness +must have held the eyes, not only of Luther's associates, but of his +entire age, yea, of men for centuries after, if they failed to see +Luther's constitutional baseness. Quite recently a Catholic writer has +told the world in one chapter of his book that "the apostate monk of +Wittenberg" was possessed of "a violent, despotic, and uncontrolled +nature," that he was "depraved in manners and in speech." He speaks of +Luther's "ungovernable transports, riotous proceedings, angry conflicts, +and intemperate controversies," of Luther's "contempt of all the +accepted forms of human right and all authority, human and divine," of +"his unscrupulous mendacity," "his perverse principles," "his wild +pronouncements." He calls Luther "a lawless one," "one of the most +intolerant of men," "a revolutionist, not a reformer." He says that +Luther "attempted reformation and ended in deformation." He charges +Luther with having written and preached "not for, but against good +works," with having assumed rights to himself in the matter of liberty +of conscience which "he unhesitatingly and imperiously denied to all who +differed from him," with having "rent asunder the unity of the Church," +with having "disgraced the Church by a notoriously wicked and scandalous +life," with having "declared it to be the right of every man to +interpret the Bible to his own individual conception," with "one day +proclaiming the binding force of the Ten Commandments and the next +declaring they were not obligatory on Christian observance," with having +"reviled and hated and cursed the Church of his fathers." + +These opprobrious remarks are only a part of the vileness of which the +writer has delivered himself in his first chapter. His whole book +bristles with assertions of Luther's inveterate badness. This coarse and +crooked Luther, we are told, is the real Luther, the genuine article. +The Luther of history is only a Protestant fiction. Protestants like +Prof. Seeberg of Berlin, and others, who have criticized Luther, are +introduced as witnesses for the Catholic allegation that Luther was a +thoroughly bad man. We should like to ascertain the feelings of these +Protestants when they are informed what use has been made of their +remarks about Luther. Some of them may yet let the world know what they +think of the attempt to make them the squires of such knights errant as +Denifle and Grisar. + +It is about ten years ago since the Jesuit Grisar began to publish his +_Life of Luther,_ twice that time, since Denifle painted his caricature +of Luther. Several generations ago Janssen, in his _History of the +German Nation,_ gave the Catholic interpretation of Luther and the +Reformation. Going back still further, we come to the Jesuit Maimbourg, +to Witzel, and in Luther's own time to Cochlaeus and Oldecop, all of +whom strove to convince the world that Luther was a moral degenerate and +a reprobate. The book of Mgr. O'Hare, which has made its appearance on +the eve of the Four-hundredth Anniversary of Luther's Theses, is merely +another eruption from the same mud volcano that became active in +Luther's lifetime. It is the old dirt that has come forth. Rome must +periodically relieve itself in this manner, or burst. Rome hated the +living Luther, and cannot forget him since he is dead. It hates him +still. Its hatred is become full-grown, robust, vigorous with the +advancing years. When Rome speaks its mind about Luther, it cannot but +speak in terms of malignant scorn. If Luther could read Mgr. O'Hare's +book, he would say: "Wes das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund ueber." +(Matt. 12, 34: "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.") + +Luther has done one thing which Rome will never pardon: he dared to +attack the supreme authority of the Pope. He made men see the +ignominious bondage in which cunning priests had ensnared them, and by +restoring them to the liberty with which Christ had made them free +Luther caused the papacy an irreparable loss. The papal system of +teaching and government was so thoroughly exposed by Luther, and has +since been so completely disavowed by a great part of professing +Christians that Rome cannot practise its old frauds any longer. Men have +become extremely wary of Rome. That is what hurts. The Catholic writer +to whom we referred sums up the situation thus: Since Luther "all +Protestant mankind descending by ordinary generation have come into the +world with a mentality biased, perverted, and prejudiced." That is +Rome's way of looking at the matter. The truth is: the world is +forewarned, hence forearmed against the pleas of Rome. It pays only an +indifferent attention to vilifications of Luther that come from that +quarter, because it expects no encomiums and only scant justice for +Luther from Rome. But it is the business of the teachers of Protestant +principles in religion, particularly of the church historians of +Protestantism, to take notice of the campaign of slander that is +launched against Luther by Catholic writers at convenient intervals. It +is not a task to delight the soul, rather to try the patience, of +Christians. For in the study of the causes for these calumnies against a +great man of history, and of the possible means for their removal, one +is forced invariably to the conclusion that there is but one cause, and +that is hatred. What can poor mortal man do to break down such a cause? +It does not yield to logic and historical facts, because it is in its +very nature unreasoning and unreasonable. + +Still, for the hour that God sends to all the Sauls that roam the earth +breathing threatening and slaughter, the counter arguments should be +ready. No slander against Luther has ever gone unanswered. As the +charges against Luther have become stereotyped, so the rejoinder cannot +hope to bring forward any new facts. But it seems necessary that each +generation in the Church Militant be put through the old drills, and +learn its fruitful lessons of spiritual adversity. Thus even these +polemical exchanges between Catholics and Protestants become blessings +in disguise. But they do not affect Luther. The sublime figure of the +courageous confessor of Christ that has stood towering in the annals of +the Christian Church for four hundred years stands unshaken, silent, and +grand, despite the froth that is dashed against its base and the +lightning from angry clouds that strikes its top. "Surely, the wrath of +man shall praise thee." (Ps. 76, 10.) + + +3. Luther Blemishes. + +When Luther is charged with immoral conduct, and the specific facts +together with the documentary evidence are not submitted along with the +charge, little can be done in the way of rebuttal. One can only guess at +the grounds on which the charge is based. For instance, when Luther is +said to have disgraced the Church by a notoriously wicked and scandalous +life, the reason is most likely because he married although he was a +monk sworn to remain single. Moreover, he married a noble lady who was a +nun, also sworn to celibacy. According to the inscrutable ethics of Rome +this is concubinage, although the Scripture plainly declares that a +minister of the Church should be the husband of one wife, 1 Tim. 3, 2, +and no vows can annul the ordinance and commandment of God: "It is not +good that man should be alone." Gen. 2, 18. Comp. 1 Cor. 7, 2, and +Augsburg Confession, Art. 27. + +When Luther is said to have reviled, hated, and cursed the Church of his +fathers, the probable reason is, because he wrote the _Babylonian +Captivity of the Church_ and _The Papacy at Rome Founded by the Devil_. +In these writings Luther depicts the true antichristian inwardness of +the papacy. By so doing, however, Luther restored the Church of his +fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers in Christ down to the first +ancestor of our race. Luther's faith is none other than the faith of the +true Church in all the ages. Luther's own father and mother died in that +faith. + +When Luther is said to have taught Nietzsche's insanity about the +"Superhuman" (Uebermensch) before Nietzsche, to have put the Ten +Commandments out of commission for Christians, and to have preached +against good works, the reasons most likely are these: Luther taught +salvation in accordance with Rom. 3, 25: "We conclude that a man is +justified by faith, without the deeds of the Law." Luther taught that a +person is not saved by his own works, and if he performs good works with +that end in view, he shames his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the +end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth (Rom. 10, +4), and he falls under the curse of God for placing his own merits +alongside of the merit of the Redeemer's sacrifice. In no other +connection has Luther spoken against good works. He has rather taught +men how to become fruitful in well-doing by the sanctifying grace of God +and according to the inspiring example of the matchless Jesus. +Concerning the Law, Luther preached 1 Tim. 1, 9: "The Law is not made +for a righteous man," that is, Christians do the works of the Law, not +for the Law's sake, but for the sake of Christ, whom they love and whose +mind is in them. They must not be driven like slaves to obey God, but +their very faith prompts them to live soberly, righteously, and godly in +this present world (Tit. 2, 12). But Luther always held that the rule +for good works is laid down in the holy Law of God, and only in that; +also that the Law must be applied to Christians, in as far as they still +live in, the flesh, and are not become altogether spiritual. Luther's +public activity as a preacher began with a series of sermons on the Ten +Commandments, and this effort to expound the divine norm of +righteousness was repeated several times during Luther's life. Luther's +expositions of the Decalog are among the finest that the world +possesses. Moreover, Luther wrote the Small Catechism. Hand any Catholic +who talks about Luther having abolished the Ten Commandments this little +book. That is a sufficient refutation. What Luther teaches in this book +he has given his life to reduce to practise in himself and others. He +says in a sermon on Easter Monday, 1530: "When rising in the morning, I +pray with my children the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's +Prayer, and some Psalm. I do this because I want to make myself cling to +these truths. I shall not suffer my faith to become mildewed with the +imagination that I am above these things (_dass ich's koenne_)." His +sermon on the First Sunday in Advent in the same year he begins thus: +"Dear friends, I am now an old Doctor, still I find every day that I +must recite with the children the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the +Lord's Prayer, and I have always derived a great benefit and blessing +from this practise." (12, 1611. 1641.) + +Luther is charged with mendacity, that is, he is said to have lied. The +reasons that will be given for this charge, when called for, will +probably be these: Luther at various times in his life gave three +different years as the year of his birth, three different years as the +year when he made his journey to Rome, and advised somebody in 1512 to +become a monk when he had already commenced to denounce the monastic +life: It is true that Luther did all these things, but it is also true +that Luther believed himself right in each of his statements. He was +simply mistaken. Other people have misstated the year of their birth +without being branded liars on that account. Sometimes even a professor +forgets things, and Luther was a professor. What Luther has said about +the rigor of his monastic life is perfectly true, but it was no reason +why in 1512 he should counsel men to become monks. He had not yet come +to the full knowledge of the wrong principles underlying that mode of +life. To adduce such inaccuracies as evidence of prevarication is itself +an insincere act and puts the claimant by right in the Ananias Club. + +Luther is said to have been a glutton and a drunkard. "Let us examine +the facts. What is the evidence? Luther's obesity and his gout. Is that +evidence? Not in any court. It would be evidence if both conditions were +caused, and caused only, by gluttony and tippling. But this notoriously +is not the case. Obesity may be due to disease. A man may even eat +little and wax stout if what he eats turns into adipose rather than into +muscular tissue. As for gout, it is the result of uric acid diathesis. +Now uric acid diathesis may be, and very often is, caused by high +living, but often, too, it is due to quite different causes. Just as in +the case of Bright's disease. I do not deny that Luther drank freely +both beer and wine. So did everybody else. People drank beer as we do +coffee. . . . Moreover, in the sixteenth century alcoholic beverages +were prescribed for the maladies from which Luther suffered much--kidneys +and nervous trouble. We now know that in such cases alcohol proves a +very poison; but this Luther could not know. But intemperate . . . in +his use of strong drink Luther was not. Neither was he a glutton. Before +he married, he ate very irregularly, and often completely forgot his +meals. When he could not get meat and wine, he contented himself with +bread and water. . . . Melanchthon tells us that Luther loved the coarse +food as he did the coarse speech of the peasantry, and even of that food +ate little, so little that Melanchthon marveled how Luther could +maintain strength upon such a diet.--It is further a noteworthy fact +that, when we read the sermons of the day, we find nobody who so +frequently and so earnestly attacks the prevailing vice of drunkenness +as does Luther. Now, whatever Luther may or may not have been, hypocrite +he was not. Had he himself been intemperate, he would not have preached +against it in such a manner. Furthermore, Luther was under constant +espionage. His every move was noted. People knew how many patches there +were on his undergarments. Think you, think you for a moment, that the +Wittenbergians would have listened meekly to Luther's repeated assaults +upon the wide-spread sin of intemperance, had they known him for a +confirmed tippler? It is too absurd.--But the best evidence for the +defense comes from a mute witness--Luther's industry. He wrote more than +four hundred books, brochures, sermons, and so forth, filling more than +one hundred volumes of the Erlangen edition. There are extant more than +three thousand of his letters, which represent only a small proportion +of all that he wrote. Thus we know, for example, that one evening in +1544 Luther wrote ten letters, of which only two have been preserved. He +was, furthermore, in frequent conference with leaders in both Church and +State. He preached on Sundays and lectured on week-days. Now, a man may, +it is true, perform a considerable amount of manual labor even after +overeating and overdrinking, but every physician will admit the +correctness of my assertion, it is a physiological impossibility that a +man could habitually overindulge in food or liquor, or both, and still +get over the enormous amount of intellectual work that Luther performed +day to day" (Boehmer, _The Man Luther,_ p. 16 f.) + +Most shameless have been the charges of lewdness and immorality against +Luther. His relation to Frau Cotta has been represented as impure. Think +of it, a boy of sixteen to eighteen thus related to an honorable +housewife! Illegitimate children have been foisted upon him. A humorous +remark about his intention to marry and being unable to choose between +several eligible parties has been twisted into an immoral meaning. The +fact that he gave shelter overnight to a number of escaped nuns, when he +was already a married man, has been meaningly referred to. Boehmer has +exhaustively gone into these charges, examining without flinching every +asserted fact cited in evidence of Luther's moral corruptness, and has +shown the purity of Luther as being above reproach. Not one of the +sexual vagaries imputed to Luther rests on a basis of fact. (Boehmer, +_Luther in Light of Recent Research,_ pp. 215-223.) + +When the modern reader meets with a general charge of badness, or even +with the assertion of some specific form of badness, in Luther, he +should inquire at once to what particular incident in Luther's life +reference is made. These charges have all been examined and the evidence +sifted, and that by impartial investigators. Protestants have taken the +lead in this work and have not glossed anything over. Boehmer's able +treatise has been translated into English. Walther's _Fuer Luther wider +Rom_ will, no doubt, be given the public in an English edition soon. +Works like these have long blasted the claim of Catholics that +Protestants are afraid to have the truth told about Luther. They only +demand that the _truth_ be told. + + +4. Luther's Task. + +One blemish in the character of Luther that is often cited with +condemnation even by Protestants deserves to be examined separately. It +is Luther's violence in controversy, his coarse language, his angry +moods. All will agree that violence and coarse speech must not be +countenanced in Christians, least of all in teachers of Christianity. In +the writings of Luther there occur terms, phrases, passages that sound +repulsive. The strongest admirer of Luther will have moments when he +wishes certain things could have been said differently. Luther's +language cannot be repeated in our times. Some who have tried to do that +in all sincerity have found to their dismay that they were wholly +misunderstood. What Jove may do any ox may not do, says an old Latin +proverb. + +Shall we, then, admit Luther's fault and proceed to apologize for him +and find plausible reasons for extenuating his indiscretions in speech +and his temperamental faults? We shall do neither. We shall let this +"foul-mouthed," coarse Luther stand before the bar of public opinion +just as he is. His way cannot be our way, but ultimately none of us will +be his final judges. The character of the duties which Luther was sent +to perform must be his justification. + +It is true, indeed, that the manners of the age of Luther were generally +rough. Even in polite society language was freely used that would make +us gasp. Coarse terms evidently were not felt to be such. In their +polemical writings the learned men of the age seem to exhaust a +zoological park in their frantic search for striking epithets to hurl at +their opponent. It was an age of strong feeling and sturdy diction. It +is also true that Luther was a man of the people. With a sort of homely +pride he used to declare: "I am a peasant's son; all my forbears were +peasants." But all this does not sufficiently explain Luther's +"coarseness." + +Most people that criticize Luther for his strong speech have read little +else of Luther. They are not aware that in the, great mass of his +writings there is but a small proportion of matter that would nowadays +be declared objectionable. Luther speaks through many pages, yea, +through whole books, with perfect calmness. It is interesting to observe +how he develops a thought, illustrates a point by an episode from +history or from every-day life, urges a lesson with a lively +exhortation. He is pleasant, gentle, serious, compassionate, artlessly +eloquent, and, withal, perfectly pure in all he says. When Luther +becomes "coarse," there is a reason. One must have read much in Luther, +one should have read all of Luther, and his "billingsgate" will assume a +different meaning. If there is madness in his reckless speech, there is +method in it. One must try and understand Luther's objective and +purpose. + +Luther had a very coarse subject to deal with, and Luther believed that +a spade is best called a spade. Luther never struck at wickedness with +the straw of a fine circumlocution. He believed that he had the right, +yea, the duty, to call coarse things by coarse names; for the Bible does +the same. Luther has called the gentlemen at the Pope's court in his day +some very descriptive names. He did not merely insinuate that the +cardinals of his day were no angels, but said outright what they were. +He did not feebly question the holiness of His Holiness, but he called +some of the Popes monsters of iniquity and reprobates. We shall show +anon that in that age there lived men who spoke of the same matters as +Luther, who told tales and used expressions that would render their +writings unmailable to-day. + +The great men of any age are products of that age. Man is as much the +creature of circumstances as circumstances are the creatures of men-- +Disraeli to the contrary notwithstanding. While men may create +situations, they may also be made to fit into a situation. Men have +become great for this very reason that they understand the spirit of +their age and were able to respond to its call. Back of both men and +circumstances, however, stands sovereign Providence, shaping our ends, +rough-hew them how we will. + +No character-study is just that fails to take into consideration the +force of circumstances under which the subject of the study has acted at +a given moment in his life. In the case of Luther there is a more than +ordinary necessity for adopting this equitable method; for Luther has +declared hundreds of times that his stirring utterances and incisive +deeds were not the result of long premeditation, or the sudden outbursts +of uncontrolled passion,--though neither he nor we would have any +interest in denying that he could be angry and did become angry,--but +the answer to crying needs of the times. This answer was on many a +signal occasion wrung from Luther after much wrestling with God in +prayer. He was moved to action by the heroism of that faith which had +been kindled in him. He acted in harmony with the particular issue with +which he was called upon to deal. Deep compassion at the sight of his +suffering fellow-men put strong language on his lips. Between the +pleading of friends and the storming of enemies he had no choice but to +act as he did. Luther often seems unconscious of the greatness of his +acts: he speaks of them as "his poor way of doing things," and invites +others to improve what he has attempted. We fear that many in our day +fail to see the greatness of the achievement while they stricture the +manner of achieving it. + +Few men have so utterly lived for a cause, in a cause, and with a cause +as Luther. It is the heart of an entire people that cries out through +Luther; it is the soul of outraged Christianity that moans in anguish, +and speaks with the majesty of righteous anger through Luther. An age of +unparalleled ferment that had begun long before Luther has reached its +culminating point, and lifts up its strident voice of long-restrained +expostulation through Luther. Remove the conditions under which Luther +had to live and labor, and the Luther whom men bless or curse becomes an +impossibility. + +In Luther's life-work there is discernible the influence not only of +good men, such as the scholarly Melanchthon, the faithful Jonas, the +firm and kind Saxon electors, the eager Amsdorf, the alert Link, but +also of evil men like the blunt Tetzel, the wily Prierias, and the horde +of ignorant monks which the monasteries and chancelleries of Rome let +loose upon one man. The course which Luther had to pursue was shaped for +him by others. We do not mean to suggest that Luther in his polemical +writings employed the cheap method of replying to the coarse language +adopted by his opponents in similar language; but it is fair to him that +this fact be recorded. Some people remember very well that Luther +addressed the Pope "Most hellish father!" and are horrified, but they +forget that the Pope had been extremely lurid in the appellatives which +he applied to Luther. "Child of Belial," "son of perdition," were some +of the endearing terms with which Luther was to be assured of the loving +interest the Holy Father took in him. That Luther called Henry VIII "a +damnable and rotten worm" seems to be well remembered, but that the +British king had called Luther "a wolf of hell" is forgotten. It goes +without saying that the contact with such opponents did for Luther what +it does for every person who is not made of granite and cast iron: it +roused his temper. It should not have been permitted to do that, we say. +Assuredly. Luther thinks so too, but with a reservation, as we shall +learn. + +The "imperious spirit" and "violent measures" charged against Luther a +careful reader of history will rather find on the side of Luther's +opponents. They plainly relied on the power of Rome to crush Luther by +brute force. What respect could a plain, honest man like Luther conceive +for men like Cajetanus, Eck, and Hoogstraten, who were first sent by the +Vatican to negotiate his surrender? For publishing simple Bible-truth +the cardinal at Augsburg roared and bellowed at him, "Recant! Recant!" +Even at this early stage of the affair matters assumed such an ominous +aspect that Luther's friends urged him to quietly leave the city. They +did not trust the amicable gentleman from the polished circle of the +Pope's immediate counselors. At Leipzig, Eck had been driven into the +corner by Luther's unanswerable arguments from Scripture; then he turned +to abuse and called Luther a Bohemian and a Hussite, and finally left +the hall with the air of a victor to celebrate his achievement in the +taverns and brothels of the city, where he found his customary delights +learned from his masters at Rome. Can any language of contempt in which +Luther afterwards spoke of this doughty champion of Rome be too strong? +Among the attendants at the Leipzig Debate was Hoogstraten. This +gentleman followed the elevating profession of torturing and burning +heretics in Germany,--the territory especially assigned to him. It +looked as if he had come to Leipzig to follow up Eck's verbal thunder +with the inquisitorial lightning, and make of Luther actually another +Hus. When he found that he would not have an opportunity for plying his +hideous trade this time, he ventured into territory where he was a +stranger: he attempted a theological argument with Luther. He asserted +that by denying the primacy of the Pope, Luther had contradicted the +Scriptures and defied the Council of Nice, and must be suppressed. +Luther called him an unsophisticated ass and a bloodthirsty enemy of the +truth. Certainly, that does not sound nice, but such things happen, as a +rule, when fools rush in where angels fear to tread. + +What was the papal bull of excommunication against Luther, with its list +of most opprobrious terms, but an unwarranted provocation of Luther, who +had a right to expect different treatment from the foremost teacher of +Christianity to whom he had entrusted his just grievance as a dutiful +son of the Church? Thus we might go on for pages citing instances of +reckless attack upon Luther, often by most unworthy persons, that drew +from Luther a reply such as his assailants deserved. + +It is a gratuitous criticism to say that Christians must not revile when +they are reviled. Those who think that Luther did not know this rule of +the Christian religion, or did not apply it to himself, do not know the +full story of his life. He certainly did wrestle with the flesh and +blood in himself. He sighed for peace, but the moment he seemed to +become conciliatory and pacific, his enemies set up a shout that he was +vanquished. It seemed that they could not be made to comprehend the +issues confronting them unless they were blown in upon them on the wings +of a hurricane. As early as 1520 Luther replies to an anxious letter of +Spalatin, who thought that Luther had used too strong language against +the Bishop of Meissen, as follows: "Good God! how excited you are, my +Spalatin! You seem even more stirred up than I and the others. Do you +not see that my patience in not replying to Emser's and Eck's five or +six wagonloads of curses is the sole reason why the framers of this +document have dared to attack me with such silly and ridiculous +nonsense? For you know how little I cared that my sermon at Leipzig was +condemned and suppressed by a public edict; how I despised suspicion, +infamy, injury, hatred. Must these audacious persons even be permitted +to add to these follies scandalous pamphlets crammed full of falsehoods +and blasphemies against Gospel-truth? Do you forbid even to bark at +these wolves? The Lord is my witness how I restrained myself lest I +should not treat with reverence this accursed and most impotent document +issued in the bishop's name. Otherwise I should have said things those +heads ought to hear, and I will yet, when they acknowledge their +authorship by beginning to defend themselves. I beg, if you think +rightly of the Gospel, do not imagine its cause can be accomplished +without tumult, scandal, and sedition. Out of the sword you cannot make +a feather, nor out of war, peace. The Word of God is a sword, war, ruin, +destruction, poison, and, as Amos says, it meets the children of Ephraim +like a bear in the way and a lioness in the woods.--I cannot deny that I +have been more vehement than is seemly. But since they knew this, they +ought not to have stirred up the dog. How difficult it is to temper +one's passions and one's pen you can judge even from your own case. This +is the reason I have always disliked to engage in public controversy; +but the more I dislike it, the more I am involved against my will, and +that only by the most atrocious slanders brought against me and the Word +of God. If I were not carried away thereby either in temper or pen, even +a heart of stone would be moved by the indignity of the thing to take up +arms; and how much more I, who am both passionate and possessed of a pen +not altogether blunt! By these monstrosities I am driven beyond modesty +and decorum. At the same time, I wonder where this new religion came +from, that whatever you say against an adversary is slander. What do you +think of Christ? Was He a slanderer when He called the Jews an +adulterous and perverse generation, the offspring of vipers, hypocrites, +sons of the devil? And what about Paul when he used the words dogs, vain +babblers, seducers, ignorant, and in Acts 13 so inveighed against a +false prophet that he seems almost insane: `Oh, thou full of deceit and +of all craft, thou son of the devil, enemy of the truth'? Why did he not +gently flatter him, that he might convert him, rather than thunder in +such a way? It is not possible, if acquainted with the truth, to be +patient with inflexible and ungovernable enemies of the truth. But +enough of this nonsense. I see that everybody wishes I were gentle, +especially my enemies, who show themselves least so of all. If I am too +little gentle, I am at least simple and open, and therein, as I believe, +surpass them, for they dispute only in a deceitful fashion." (19, 482 f. +Translation by McGiffert.) + +Nobody should make Luther any better than he makes himself. Still, the +question is pertinent whether violent polemics can ever be engaged in by +Christians with a good conscience. Luther has asserted that, while he +hurled his terrible denunciations against the adversaries of the truth, +his heart was disposed to friendship and peace with them. (16, 1718 f.) +Is a state of mind like this altogether inconceivable, viz., that a +person can curse another for a certain act and at the same time love +him? We think not. In his day this boisterous, turbulent Luther was +understood, trusted, and loved by the people. After the publication of +the Theses against Tetzel "the hearts of men in all parts of the land +turned toward him, and his heart turned toward them. For the religious +principles underlying the theses they cared little, for the arguments +sustaining them still less. They saw only that here was a man, muzzled +by none of the prudential considerations closing the mouths of many in +high places, who dared to speak his mind plainly and emphatically, and +was able to speak it intelligently and with effect upon a great and +growing evil deplored by multitudes. It is such a man the people love +and such a man they trust." (McGiffert, _Luther,_ p. 98 f.) + +McGiffert has the right perception of the Luther of 1517-1519 when he +describes him as "the awakening reformer," thus: "He had the true +reformer's conscience--the sense of responsibility for others as well as +for himself, and the true reformer's vision of the better things that +ought to be. He was never a mere faultfinder, but he was endowed with +the gifts of imagination and sympathy, leading him to feel himself a +part of every situation he was placed in, and with the irrepressible +impulse to action driving him to take upon himself the burden of it. In +any crowd of bystanders he would have been first to go to the rescue +where need was, and quickest to see the need not obvious to all. The +aloofness of the mere observer was not his; he was too completely one +with all he saw to stand apart and let it go its way alone. Fearful and +distrustful of himself he long was, but his timidity was only the +natural shrinking before new and untried duties of a soul that saw more +clearly and felt more keenly than most. The imperative demands +inevitably made upon him by every situation led him instinctively to +dread putting himself where he could not help responding to the call of +unfamiliar tasks; but once there, the summons was irresistible, and he +threw himself into the new responsibilities with a forgetfulness of self +possible only to him who has denied its claims, and with a fearlessness +possible only to him who has conquered fear. He might interpret his +confidence as trust in God, won by the path of a complete contempt of +his own powers; but however understood, it gave him an independence and +a disregard of consequences which made his conscience and his vision +effective for reform." + +McGiffert suggests a comparison of Luther with, let us say, Erasmus. Had +he been a humanist, he would have laughed the whole thing [Tetzel's +selling of indulgences] to scorn as an exploded superstition beneath the +contempt of an intelligent man; had he been a scholastic theologian, he +would have sat in his study and drawn fine distinctions to justify the +traffic without bothering himself about its influence upon the lives of +the vulgar populace. But he was neither humanist nor schoolman. He had a +conscience which made indifference impossible, and a simplicity and +directness of vision which compelled him to brush aside all equivocation +and go straight to the heart of things. With it all he was at once a +devout and believing son of the Church, and a practical preacher +profoundly concerned for the spiritual and moral welfare of the common +people." (p. 66f. 87.) Had Luther considered his personal interests as +Erasmus did, he would not have become the Luther that we know. Erasmus +in his day was regarded as the wisest of men; Luther in his own view, +like Paul, frequently had to make a fool of himself in order to achieve +his purpose. For instance, when he wrote against the dullards at the +University of Louvain, against the sacrilegious coterie at Rome that was +running the Church and the world pretty much as they pleased, or against +the brutal "Hans Wurst" (Duke Henry of Brunswick). Erasmus and his +school of gentle reformers always counseled a slackening of the pace and +the use of the soft pedal. Where is Erasmus to-day in the world's +valuation? Even Rome, in whose bosom he nestled, and who fondled him for +a season, has cast him aside as worthless. Luther lives yet, to the +delight not only of Coleridge, but of millions of the world's best men, +who, with the British divine, regard him this very hour as "a purifying +and preserving spirit to Christianity at large." + +Luther was conscious of the difference in the method of warfare between +himself and his colaborer Melanchthon. He says: "I am rough, boisterous, +stormy, and altogether warlike. I am born to fight against innumerable +monsters and devils. I must remove stumps and stones, cut away thistles +and thorns, and clear wild forests; but Master Philip comes along softly +and gently, sowing and watering with joy, according to the gifts which +God has abundantly bestowed upon him," (14, 176.) + +Dr. Tholuck, writing on "Luther's rashness," says: "What would have +become of the Church if the Lord's servants and prophets had at all +times done nothing else than spread salves upon sores and walk softly?" +He introduces Luther in his own defense: "On one occasion, when asked by +the Marquis Joachim I why he wrote against the princes, he returned the +beautiful answer: 'When God intends to fertilize the ground, He must +needs send first of all a good thunderstorm, and afterwards slow and +gentle rain, and thus make it thoroughly productive.' Elsewhere he says: +'A willow-branch may be cut with a knife and bent with a finger, but for +a great and gnarled oak we must use an ax and a wedge'; and again: 'If +my teeth had been less sharp, the Pope would have been more voracious.' +'Of what use is salt,' he exclaims in another passage, 'if it do not +bite the tongue? or the blade of a sword unless it be sharp enough to +cut? Does not the prophet say, "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the +Lord deceitfully, and keepeth back his sword from blood"?'" + +One reflection suggests itself in this connection that goes far to +exonerate Luther: the language which the Bible employs against heretics +and ungodly men. It calls them dogs, Ps. 22, 20; 59, 6; Is. 56, 10; +Matt. 7, 6; Phil. 3, 2; Rev. 22, 15; swine, Matt. 7, 6; boars and wild +beasts, Ps. 80, 13; dromedaries and asses, Jer. 2, 23f.; bullocks, Jer. +31, 18; bellowing bulls, Jer. 50, 11; viper's brood, Matt. 3, 7; foxes, +Cant. 2, 5; Luke 13, 32; serpents, Matt. 23, 33; sons of Belial, 1 Sam. +2, 12; children of the devil, Acts 13, 10; Satan's synagog, Rev. 2, 9. +As regards its language, the Bible, too, agrees with the conditions of +the times in which it was written. When God, to express His righteous +anger, addresses the ungodly in such terms of utter contempt, He teaches +us how to regard them and, on occasion, to speak of them. This "coarse" +Luther is not more vehement and repulsive in his speech than the holy +Word of God. + +We remarked before that we would not apologize for Luther's rashness and +coarse speech. Luther's acts are self-vindicating; they will approve +themselves to the discriminating judgment of every reader of history. We +can appreciate this sentiment of McGiffert : "As well apologize for the +fury of the wind as for the vehemence of Martin Luther." The Psalmist +calls upon the forces of nature: "Praise the Lord, fire, and hail; snow +and vapors; stormy wind fulfilling His word." (Ps. 148, 7. 8.) God has a +mission that our philosophy does not fathom for the mad hurry and +destruction of the whirlwind. How silly it would be to criticize a +cyclone because it is not a zephyr! We can imagine a scene like this: +The battle of Gettysburg is in progress and a gentle lady is permitted +to see it from a distance by a grim, warlike guide, and the following +conversation ensues: + +"Why, they are shooting at each other! Did you see that naughty man stab +the pretty soldier right through his uniform?" + +"Yes, madam, that is what he is there for." + +"But is it not horrid?" + +"Yes, madam, it is perfectly horrid. It is hell." + +"But what are they doing this beastly work for?" + +"Madam, they are fighting for a principle that is to keep this country a +united republic." + +"Can anything be more horrid?--I mean, not the principle, but this awful +butchery." + +"Yes, madam, there is something more horrid than that." + +"What is it?" + +"If there would be no one to fight for that principle." + +War is never a pleasant affair. When men are forced to fight for what is +dearer to them than life, they will strike hard and deep. It is silly to +expect a soldier to walk up to his enemy with a fly brush and shoo him +away, or to stop and consider what posterity would probably regard as +the least objectionable way for dispatching an enemy. Luther was called +to be a warrior; he had to use warriors' methods. Any general in a +bloody campaign can be criticized for violence with as much reason as is +shown by some critics of Luther. + + +5. The Popes in Luther's Time. + +To judge intelligently the activity of Luther it is necessary to +understand the state of the Church in his day and the character of the +chief bishops of the Church. When reading modern censures of Luther's +attacks upon the papacy, one wonders why nothing is said about the thing +that Luther attacked. Catholic critics of Luther surely must know what +papal filth lies accumulated in the _Commentarii di Marino Sanuto,_ in +Alegretto Alegretti's _Diari Sanesi,_ in the _Relazione di Polo +Capello,_ in the _Diario de Sebastiano di Branca de Tilini,_ in the +_Successo di la Morte di Papa Alessandro,_ in Tommaso Inghirami's _Fea, +Notizie Intorno Rafaele Sanzio da Urbino,_ and others. Ranke worked with +these authorities when he wrote his _History of the Popes_. What about +the authorities which Gieseler cites in his _Ecclesiastical History_-- +Muratori, Fabronius, Machiavelli, Sabellicus, Raynaldus, Eccardus, +Burchardus, etc.? A compassionate age has relegated the exact account of +the moral state of the papacy in Luther's days to learned works, and +even in these they are given mostly in Latin footnotes. In the language +of Augustus Birrell, they are "too coarse." + +Luther's life (1483-1546) falls into the administration of nine Popes: +Sixtus IV, 1471-1484; Innocent VIII, 1484-1492; Alexander VI, 1492-1503; +Pius III, 26 days in 1503; Julius II, 1503-1513; Leo X, 1513-1521; +Hadrian VI, 1522-1523; Clement VII, 1523-1534; Paul III, 1534-1549. + +Speaking of this series of Popes, the historian Gieseler says: "The +succession of Popes which now follows proves the degeneracy of the +cardinals (from among whom the Pope is chosen) as to all discipline and +sense of shame: they were distinguished for nothing but undisguised +meanness and wickedness; they were reprobates." + +Of Sixtus IV he says: "His chief motive was the small ambition to raise +his family from their low estate to the highest rank." Infamous +transactions which resulted in the murder of Julian de Medici while at +high mass in church and the hanging of the archbishop of Pisa from a +window of the town hall by the exasperated people, wars, conspiracies, +alliances, annulments of alliances, in short, all the acts that fill up +the turbulent life of a crafty and grasping politician, are recorded for +his administration. He did not scruple to employ the authority of his +exalted office for the furtherance of his political schemes. Thus he +excommunicated Venice and formed a warlike alliance against the city. +But the Venetians regarded his religious thunderbolts as little as his +physical prowess. "Vexation at this hastened the death of the Pope, who +was hated as much as he was despised." + +Ranke, on the authority of Alegretti, relates of Pope Sixtus IV: "The +Colonna family, opponents of the Pope's nephew Riario, was persecuted by +him with the most savage ferocity. He seized on their domain of Marino, +and causing the prothonotary Colonna to be attacked in his own house, +took him prisoner, and put him to death. The mother of Colonna came to +St. Celso, in Banchi, where the corpse lay, and lifting the severed head +by its hair, she exclaimed: 'Behold the head of my son. Such is the +truth of the Pope. He promised that my son should be set at liberty if +Marino were delivered into his hands. He is possessed of Marino, and, +behold, we have my son--but dead. Thus does the Pope keep his word.'" + +His successor, Innocent VIII, "in defiance of the conditions of his +election, sought with a still more profligate vileness to exalt and +enrich his seven illegitimate children." He had been elected on the +condition that he would make only one blood relative a cardinal, and +that certain other benefices of the Church should not be given to any +one related to him. The people called him Nocens (the Guilty One, or the +Harmful One) instead of Innocent, and immortalized the prolific +paternity of this saintly celibate in the following epigram: + + Octo Nocens genuit pueros totidemque puellas, + Hunc merito poterit dicere Roma patrem, + +that is, + + Nocens begat eight boys and an equal number of maidens; + Rightly, then, Rome will be able to call this gentleman father. + +"He carried on two wars with Ferdinand, king of Naples, until the year +1492, and brought forward Renatus, duke of Lorraine, as pretender to his +crown. True, he proceeded, as his predecessors had done, to encourage +princes and people to undertake expeditions against the Turks; but when +Dschem, the brother and rival of the Turkish Sultan Bajazet, was +delivered over to him at the head of an army against the Turks, he chose +rather to detain him in prison on consideration of an annual tribute +from the Turkish Sultan." The story how the Pope got possession of the +Turkish prince and refused 200,000 ducats ransom for him because he had +received an offer of 600,000 from another party, reads like a story of +professional brigandage. + +Alexander VI, "the most depraved of all the Popes, likewise recognized +no loftier aim than to heap honors and possessions upon his five +illegitimate children, and among them especially his favorite, Caesar +Borgia." The nuptials celebrated for the Pope's daughter Lucretia--who, +by the way, was a _divorcee_--were "by no means peculiarly decorous." +The Latin chronicler who has related them reports in this connection +that the moral state of the clergy at Rome was indescribably low. The +example of the Popes had set the pace for the rest. From the highest to +the lowest each priest had his concubine as a substitute for married +life (_"concubinas in figura matrimonii"_), and that, quite openly. The +good chronicler remarks: "If God does not provide a restraint, this +corruption will pass on to the monks and the religious orders; however, +the monasteries of the city are nearly all become brothels already, and +no one raises his voice against it." Wading through the mephitic +rottenness of these ancient chronicles, one is seized with nausea. + +Holy things, religious privileges, had become merchandise with which the +Popes trafficked. The chronicler Burchardus relates: "In those days the +following couplet was sung in nearly the whole Christian world: + + "Vendit Alexander claves, Altaria, Christum, + Emerat ista prius, vendere juste potest." + +The meaning of this satire is: Alexander sells the power of the keys of +heaven, the right to officiate at the altar, yea, Christ Himself; he had +first bought these things himself, therefore he has a right to sell them +again. Unblushing perfidy was practised by this Pope in his dealings +with kings who were his religious subjects. In a quarrel with Charles +VIII of France he threatened the king with excommunication, and sought +aid from the Turkish Sultan. "However, when Charles appeared in Rome, +the Pope went over to his side immediately, and delivered up to him +Prince Dschem; but he took care to have him poisoned immediately, that +he might not lose the price set upon his head by the Sultan." Thus he +conciliated the French monarch and filled his purse by one and the same +act. "By traffic in benefices, sale of indulgences, exercise of the +right of spoils, and taxes for the Turkish war, as well as by the murder +of rich or troublesome persons, Alexander was seeking to scrape together +as much money as possible to support the wanton luxury and shameful +licentiousness of his court, and provide treasures for his children." In +their correspondence men who had dealings with him would refer to him in +such terms as these: "That monstrous head--that infamous beast!" ("_Hoc +monstruoso capite--hac infami belua!"_) + +"At length the poison which the Pope had meant for a rich cardinal, in +order to make himself master of his wealth, brought upon himself +well-deserved death." The Pope's butler had been bribed and exchanged +the poison-cup intended for the Pope's victim for the Pope's cup, and +the Pope took his own medicine. + +On the basis of Alegretti's notes, Ranke has drawn a fine pen-picture of +the reign of terror which Caesar Borgia, the favorite son of Alexander +VI, inaugurated at Rome. "With no relative or favorite would Caesar +Borgia endure the participation of his power. His own brother stood in +his way: Caesar caused him to be murdered and thrown into the Tiber. His +brother-in-law was assailed and stabbed, by his orders, on the steps of +his palace. The wounded man was nursed by his wife and sister, the +latter preparing his food with her own hands, to secure him from poison; +the Pope set a guard upon the house to protect his son-in-law from his +son. Caesar laughed these precautions to scorn. 'What cannot be done at +noonday,' said he, 'may be brought about in the evening.' When the +prince was on the point of recovery, he burst into his chamber, drove +out the wife and sister, called in the common executioner, and caused +his unfortunate brother-in-law to be strangled. Toward his father, whose +life and station he valued only as a means to his own aggrandizement, he +displayed not the slightest respect or feeling. He slew Peroto, +Alexander's favorite, while the unhappy man clung to his patron for +protection, and was wrapped within the pontifical mantle. The blood of +the favorite flowed over the face of the Pope.--For a certain time the +city of the apostles and the whole state of the Church were in the hands +of Caesar Borgia. . . . How did Rome tremble at his name! Caesar +required gold, and possessed enemies. Every night were the corpses of +murdered men found in the streets, yet none dared move; for who but +might fear that his turn would be next? Those whom violence could not +reach were taken off by poison. There was but one place on earth where +such deeds were possible--that, namely, where unlimited temporal power +was united to the highest spiritual authority, where the laws, civil and +ecclesiastical, were held in one and the same hand." + +Pope Julius, who came into power after the twenty-six days' reign of +Pius III, was a warlike man. "He engaged in the boldest operations, +risking all to obtain all. He took the field in person, and having +stormed Mirandola, he pressed into the city across the frozen ditches +and through the breach; the most disastrous reverses could not shake his +purpose, but rather seemed to waken new resources in him." "He wrested +Perugia and Bologna from their lords. As the powerful state of Venice +refused to surrender her conquests, he resolved at length, albeit +unwillingly, to avail himself of foreign aid; he joined the League of +Cambrai, concluded between France and the Emperor, and assisted with +spiritual and temporal weapons to subdue the republic. Venice, now hard +pressed, yielded to the Pope, in order to divide this overwhelming +alliance. Julius, already alarmed at the progress of the French in +Italy, readily granted his forgiveness, and now commenced hostilities +against the French and their ally, Alphonso, Duke of Ferrara. He +declared that the king of France had forfeited his claim on Naples, and +invested Ferdinand the Catholic with the solo dominion of his realm. He +issued a sentence of condemnation against the Duke of Ferrara. Lewis XII +strove in vain to alarm him by the National Council of Tours,--Germany, +by severe gravamina (complaints of national grievances against the Papal +See), and by the threat of the Pragmatic Sanction (an imperial order to +confirm the decrees of such reform councils as that of Basel). Not even +a General Council, summoned at Pisa by the two monarchs for the first of +September, 1511, with the dread phantom of a reform of the Church, could +bend the violent Pope." The Council of Pisa the Pope neutralized by +convening a Lateran Council, which at the Pope's bidding hurled its +thundering manifestos in the name of the Almighty against the Pope's +enemies. He died while this conflict was raging. Luther was in Rome +while the Pope was engaged as just related. + +What elements of appalling greed and levity had entered the holiest +transactions of the Church can be seen from the following summing up of +the situation daring Luther's time: "A large amount of worldly power was +at this time conferred in most instances, together with the bishoprics; +they were held more or less as sinecures according to the degree of +influence or court favor possessed by the recipient or his family. The +Roman Curia thought only of how it might best derive advantage from the +vacancies and presentations; Alexander extorted double annates or +first-fruits, and levied double, nay, triple tithes; there remained few +things that had not become matter of purchase. The taxes of the papal +chancery rose higher from day to day, and the comptroller, whose duty it +was to prevent all abuses in that department, most commonly referred the +revision of the imposts to those very men who had fixed their amounts. +For every indulgence obtained from the datary's office, a stipulated sum +was paid; nearly all the disputes occurring at this period between the +states of Europe and the Roman Court arose out of these exactions, which +the Curia sought by every possible means to increase, while the people +of all countries as zealously strove to restrain them. + +"Principles such as these necessarily acted on all ranks affected by the +system based on them, from the highest to the lowest. Many ecclesiastics +were found ready to renounce their bishoprics; but they retained the +greater part of the revenues, and not unfrequently the presentation of +the benefices dependent on them also. Even the laws forbidding the son +of a clergyman (!) to procure induction to the living of his father, and +enacting that no ecclesiastic should dispose of his office by will (!), +were continually evaded; for as all could obtain permission to appoint +whomsoever he might choose as his coadjutor, provided he were liberal of +his money, so the benefices of the Church became in a manner hereditary. + +"It followed of necessity that the performance of ecclesiastical duties +was grievously neglected. . . . In all places incompetent persons were +intrusted with the performance of clerical duties; they were appointed +without scrutiny or selection. The incumbents of benefices were +principally interested in finding substitutes at the lowest possible +cost; thus the mendicant friars were frequently chosen as particularly +suitable in this respect. These men occupied the bishoprics under the +title (previously unheard of in that sense) of suffragans; the cures +they held in the capacity of vicars." (!) + +In order not to extend this review too long, we shall refer only to one +other Pope, Leo X. It was in the main a prosperous reign that was +inaugurated by Leo X. A treaty was concluded with France, which had +invaded Italy. By a diplomatic maneuver the Pragmatic Sanction was +annulled, and the Lateran Council was ordered to pronounce its +death-warrant. France was humbled. "All resistance was vain against the +alliance of the highest spiritual with the highest temporal power. Now, +at last, the papacy seemed once more to have quelled the hostile spirit +which had grown up at Constance and Basel (two church councils which +tried to reform the papacy, but failed), and found its stronghold in +France, and at this very time it was near its most grievous fall." Two +years later Luther, not fathoming as yet the depths of iniquity which he +was beginning to lay bare, published his Ninety-Five Theses. + +Leo X is the Pope that excommunicated Luther. Ranke describes the +closing hours of his life. The Pope had been extremely successful in his +political schemes. "Parma and Placentia were recovered, the French were +compelled to withdraw, and the Pope might safely calculate on exercising +great influence over the new sovereign of Milan. It was a crisis of +infinite moment: a new state of things had arisen in politics--a great +movement had commenced in the Church. The aspect of affairs permitted +Leo to flatter himself that he should retain the power of directing the +first, and he had succeeded in repressing the second." (This refers to +Luther's protest; the Pope was, of course, mistaken in the view that he +had put a stop to Luther's movement by excommunicating him.) "He was +still young enough to indulge the anticipation of fully profiting by the +results of this auspicious moment. Strange and delusive destiny of man! +The Pope was at his villa of Malliana when he received intelligence that +his party had triumphantly entered Milan; he abandoned himself to the +exultation arising naturally from the successful completion of an +important enterprise, and looked cheerfully on at the festivities his +people were preparing on the occasion. He paced backward and forward +till deep in the night, between the window and the blazing hearth--it +was the month of November. Somewhat exhausted, but still in high +spirits, he arrived at Rome, and the rejoicings there celebrated for his +triumph were not yet concluded, when he was attacked by a mortal +disease. 'Pray for me,' said he to his servants, 'that I may yet make +you all happy.' We see that he loved life, but his hour was come, he had +not time to receive the sacrament nor extreme unction. So suddenly, so +prematurely, and surrounded by hopes so bright! he died-'as the poppy +fadeth.'" In the record of Sanuto, who is witness for these events, +there is a "Lettera di Hieronymo Bon a suo barba, a di 5 Dec." which +contains the following: "It is not certainly known whether the Pope died +of poison or not. He was opened. Master Fernando judged that he was +poisoned, others thought not. Of this last opinion is Master Severino, +who saw him opened, and says he was not poisoned." (Ranke, I, 34 ff.; +Gieseler, III, 290 ff., at random.) + +Out of such conditions grew Luther's work. But on these conditions +Catholic critics of Luther maintain a discreet--shall we not say, a +guilty?--silence. Few Catholic laymen to whom the horrors of Luther's +life are painted with repulsive effect know the horrors which Luther +faced. They are only told that Luther attacked "Holy Mother." They are +not told that "Holy Mother" had become the harlot of the ages. + + +6. Luther's Birth and Parentage. + +Catholic writers make thorough work in explaining the reasons for +Luther's "defection" from Rome. They apply to Luther's stubborn +resistance the law of heredity: Luther's wildness was congenital. Some +have declared him the illegitimate child of a Bohemian heretic, others, +the oaf of a witch, still others, a changeling of Beelzebub, etc. + +Many of these writers, giving themselves the airs of painstaking +investigators who have made careful research, repeat the tale of +Barbour, viz., that Luther was born in the day-and-night room of an inn +at Eisleben. If this is so, Luther's mother must have been a traveler on +the day of her first confinement. If this were so, the fact could, of +course, be easily explained without dishonor to Luther's mother: she +merely miscalculated the date of the birth of her first-born,--not an +unusual occurrence. Carlyle believed this story, but gave it an almost +too honorable turn, by likening the inn at Eisenach to the inn at +Bethlehem. + +But this story of Luther's birth in a bar-room is not history; it +belongs in the realm of mythology. Nobody knows to-day the house where +Luther was born. Preserved Smith, his latest American biographer, says +there is a house shown at Eisleben as Luther's birthplace, but it is +"not well authenticated." (p. 2.) There is a bar and a restaurant in +this particular building _now,_ for the accommodation of foreign +visitors. It is possible that in this mythical birthplace of Luther you +can get a stein of foaming "monk's brew" or a "benedictine" from the +monastery at Fecamp, or a "chartreuse" from Tarragona, distilled +according to the secret formula of the holy fathers of La Grande +Chartreuse. If you sip a sufficient quantity of these persuasive +liquors, you will find it possible to believe most anything. And the +blessing of the holy fathers who have prepared the beverages for your +repast will be given you gratis in addition to their liquors. + +The journey of Luther's mother to Eisleben which compelled her to put up +at an inn is, likewise, imaginary. Melanchthon, Luther's associate +during the greater part of the Reformer's life, investigated the matter +and states that Luther was born at his parents' home in Eisenach during +their temporary sojourn in that city, prior to their removal to Mansfeld. + +These stories about the place and manner of Luther's birth originated in +the seventeenth century. They were unknown in Luther's time. Generations +after a great man has died gossip becomes busy and begins to relate +remarkable incidents of his life. Lincoln did not say or do one half of +the interesting things related about him. He has been drawn into that +magical circle where myths are formed, because his great name will +arouse interest in the wildest tale. That is what has happened to +Luther. These "myths" are an unconscious tribute to his greatness. One +might let them pass as such and smile at them. + +But the Catholic version of Luther's birth is needed by their writers as +a corollary to another "fact" which they have discovered about Luther's +father Hans. Hans Luther, so their story runs, was a fugitive from +justice at the time of his Martin's birth. In a fit of anger he had +assaulted or slain a man in his native village of Moehra, and abandoning +his small landholdings, he fled with his wife, who was in an advanced +stage of pregnancy. Color is lent to this story by the discovery that +the Luthers at Moehra were generally violent folk. Research in the +official court-dockets at Salzungen, the seat of the judicial district +to which Moehra belonged, shows that brawls were frequent in that +village, and some Luthers were involved in them. Now follows the +Catholic deduction, plausible, reasonable, appealing, just like the +"assumption" of Mary: "Out of the gnarly wood of this relationship, +consisting mostly of powerful, pugnacious farmers, assertive of their +rights, Luther's father grew." + +This story was started in Luther's lifetime. George Wicel, who had +fallen away from the evangelical faith, accused Luther of having a +homicide for a father. In 1565, he published the story under a false +name at Paris, but gave no details. In Moehra nothing was known of the +matter until the first quarter of the twentieth century. This +circumstance alone is damaging to the whole story. Luther was during his +lifetime exposed to scrutiny of his most private affairs as no other +man. If Wicel's tale could have been authenticated, we may rest assured +that would have been done at the time. + +In the eighteenth century a mining official in Thuringia by the name of +Michaelis told the story of Hans Luther's homicide with the necessary +detail to make it appear real. Observe, this was 220 years after the +alleged event. It had been this way: Hans Luther had quarreled with a +person who was plowing his field, and had accidentally slain the man +with the bridle, or halter, of his horse. Several Protestant writers now +began to express belief in the story. Travelers came to Moehra for the +express purpose of investigating the matter, _e.g.,_ Mr. Mayhew of the +_London Punch_. Behold, the story had assumed definite shape through +being kept alive a hundred years: the accommodating citizens of Moehra +were now able to point out to the inquiring Englishman the very meadow +where the homicide had taken place. It takes an Englishman on the +average two years and four months to see the point of a joke. By this +time, we doubt not, it will be possible to exhibit to any confiding +dunce the very horse-bridle with which Hans Luther committed +manslaughter, also the actual hole which he knocked into the head of his +victim, beautifully surrounded by a border of blue and green, which are +the colors which the bruise assumed six hours after the infliction. The +border may not be genuine, but we dare any Catholic investigator to +disprove the genuineness of the hole. + +Writers belonging to a church that is rich in legends of the saints and +in relics ought to know how a tale like Wicel's can assume +respectability and credibility in the course of time. It is not any more +difficult to account for these tales about Hans Luther's homicide than +for the existence in our late day of the rope with which Judas hanged +himself, or the tears which Peter wept in the night of the betrayal, or +the splinters from the cross of the Lord, or the feathers from the wings +of the angel Gabriel, and sundry other marvels which are exhibited in +Catholic churches for the veneration of the faithful. + +No historian that has a reputation as a scholar to lose to-day credits +the story of Hans Luther's homicide. It is improbable on its face. The +small landholdings of Hans at Moehra are not real, but irreal estate. +Nobody has found the title for them. There is, however, a very good +reason why Hans should want to leave Moehra. He was, according to all +that is known of his father's family, the oldest son. According to the +old Thuringian law the home place and appurtenances of a peasant +freeholder passed to the youngest son. McGiffert regards the custom as +"admirably careful of those most needing care." (p. 4.) Luther's father, +on coming of age, was by this law compelled to go and seek his fortune +elsewhere, because opportunity for rising to independence there was none +for him at Moehra. + +If Hans was a fugitive from justice, he was certainly unwise in not +fleeing far enough. For at Eisenach, whither he went, he was still under +the same Saxon jurisdiction as at Moehra. He seems to have had no fear +of abiding under the sovereignty which he is claimed to have offended. +This observation has led one of the most exact and painstaking of modern +biographers of Luther, Koestlin, to say that the homicide story, if it +rests on any basis of fact, must either refer to a different Luther, or +if to Hans, the incident cannot have been a homicide. It should be +remembered that there is no authentic record which in any way +incriminates Hans Luther. + +Lastly, this homicide Hans Luther, eight years after coming to Mansfeld, +is elected by his fellow-townsmen one of the "Vierherren," or aldermen, +of the town. Only most trusted and well-reputed persons were given such +an office. A homicide would not have been allowed to settle at Mansfeld, +much less to govern the town. Any rogue in the town that he had to +discipline in his time of office would have thrown his bloody record up +to him. + +A Catholic writer says: "The wild passion of anger was an unextinguished +and unmodified heritage transmitted congenitally to the whole Luther +family, and this to such an extent that the Lutherzorn (Luther rage) has +attained the currency of a German colloquialism." Mr. Mayhew thinks that +"Martin was a veritable chip of the hard old block," the "high-mettled +foal cast by a fiery blood-horse." Catholic writers cite Mr. Mayhew as a +distinguished Protestant. If you have not heard of him before, look him +up in _Who is Who?_ most anywhere. + +All this, however, is a desperate attempt to find proof against an +assumed criminal by circumstantial evidence. No direct evidence has ever +been available to implicate Luther's father in a village brawl. As to +the Lutherzorn, Luther has in scores of places explained the real reason +of it: Luther did not inherit, but Rome roused it. This Lutherzorn may +arise in any person that is not remotely related to the Luthers after +reading Catholic biographies of Martin Luther. + + +7. Luther's Great Mistake. + +Catholic writers contend that Luther made a mistake when he became monk. +Protestants share this view, but put the emphasis in the sentence: +Luther became a monk, at a different place. In the Protestant view the +mistake is this, that Luther became a _monk,_ in the Catholic view, it +is this, that _Luther_ became a monk. Protestants regard monasticism +largely as a perversion of the laws of nature and of Christian morals. +In an institution of this kind Luther could not find the relief he +sought. His mistake was that he sought it there. Catholics view monkery +as the highest ideal of the Christian life, and blame Luther for +entering this mode of life when he was altogether unfit for it. They +regard Luther as guilty of sacrilege far seeking admission into the +order of Augustinian friars. When he was permitted to turn monk, that +which is holy was given unto a dog, and pearls were cast before a swine. + +Catholics argue that Luther's cheerless boyhood, the poverty of his +parents, the hard work and close economy that was the order in the home +at Mansfeld, the harsh and cruel treatment which Luther received from +parents that were given to "fits of uncontrollable rage" induced in +Luther a morose, sullen spirit. He became brooding and stubborn when yet +a child. He was a most unruly boy at school. His character was not +improved when he was sent abroad for his education and had to sing for +his bread or beg in the streets. His rebellious spirit found nourishment +in these humiliations. Owing to his melancholy temperament and gloomy +fits, he made no friends. He felt himself misunderstood everywhere. Even +the little season of sunshine that came into his young life at the Cotta +home in Eisenach did not cure him of the morbid feeling that nobody +appreciated him. He began to loathe the studies which he was pursuing in +accordance with the wish of his father. To certain occurrences, like the +slaying of a fellow-student, an accident with which he met on a vacation +trip, and a sudden thunderstorm, he gave an ominous interpretation which +deepened his despondency. At last he determined, "inconsiderately and +precipitately," to enter a cloister. His friends "instinctively felt he +was not qualified or fitted for the sublime vocation to which he +aspired, and they accordingly used all their powers to dissuade him from +the course he had chosen. All their efforts were fruitless, and from the +gayety and frolic of the banquet" which he had given his fellow-students +as a farewell party "he went to the monastery." He was so reckless that +he took this step even without the consent of his parents. "He knew +little about the ways of God, and was not well informed of the gravity +and responsibilities of the step he was taking." "He was not called by +God to conventual life; . . . he was driven by despair, rather than the +love of higher perfection, into a religious career." Catholics feel so +sure that they have a case against Luther that in all seriousness they +ask Protestants the question: Did he act honestly when he knelt before +the prior asking to be received into the order? + +Luther has later in life given various reasons for entering the +monastery. His case was not simple, but complex. One reason, however, +which he has assigned is the severe bringing up which he had at his +home. Hausrath is satisfied with this one reason, and many Catholic +writers adopt his view. But this remark of Luther is evidently +misapplied if it is made to mean that Luther sought ease, comfort, +leniency in the cloister as a relief from the hard life which he had +been leading. Luther had grasped the fundamental idea in monkery quite +well: flight from the secular life as a means to become exceptionally +holy. He sought quiet for meditation and devotion, but no physical ease +and earthly comforts. He knew of the rigors of cloister-life. He +willingly bowed to "the gentle yoke of Christ"--thus ran the monkish +ritual--which the life of an eremite among eremites was to impose on +him. His hard life in the days of his boyhood and youth had been an +unconscious preparation for this life. He had been strictly trained to +fear God and keep His commandments. The holy life of the saints had been +held up to him as far back as he could remember as the marvel of +Christian perfection. Home and Church had cooperated in deepening the +impressions of the sanctity of the monkish life in him. When he saw the +emaciated Duke of Anhalt in monk's garb with his beggar's wallet on his +back tottering through the streets of Magdeburg, and everybody held his +breath at this magnificent spectacle of advanced Christianity, and then +broke forth in profuse eulogies of the princely pilgrim to the glories +of monkish sainthood, that left an indelible impression on the +fifteen-year-old boy. When he observed the Carthusians at Eisenach, +weary and wan with many a vigil, somber and taciturn, toiling up the +rugged steps to a heaven beyond the common heaven; when he talked with +the young priests at the towns where he studied, and all praised the +life of a monk to this young seeker after perfect righteousness; when in +cloister-ridden Erfurt he observed that the monks were outwardly, at +least, treated with peculiar reverence, can any one wonder that in a +mind longing for peace with God the resolve silently ripened into the +act: I will be a monk? + +We, too, would call this an act of despair. We would say with Luther: +Despair makes monks. But the despair which we mean, and which Luther +meant, is genuine spiritual despair. What Catholics call Luther's +despair is really desperation, a reckless, dare-devil plunging of a +criminal into a splendid Catholic sanctuary. That Luther's act decidedly +was not. By Rome's own teaching Luther belonged in the cloister. That +mode of life was originally designed to meet the needs of just such +minds as his. His entering the monastery was the logical sequence of his +previous Catholic tutelage. Rome has this monk on its conscience, and a +good many more besides. + +As piety went in those days, Luther had been raised a pious young man. +He was morally clean. He was a consistent, yea, a scrupulous member of +his Church, regular in his daily devotions, reverencing every ordinance +of the Church. Also during his student years he kept himself unspotted +from the moral contaminations of the academic life. He abhorred the +students who were devoted to King Gambrinus and Knight Tannhaeuser. He +loathed the taverns and brothels of Erfurt. The Cotta home was no +_Bierstube_ in his day. The banquet-hall where he met his friends the +evening before he entered the cloister was no banquet-hall in the modern +sense of the term. That he played the lute at this farewell party, and +that there were some "honorable maidens" present, is nowadays related +with a wink of the eye by Catholics. But there was nothing wrong in all +the proceedings of that evening. It was indeed an honorable gathering. +Luther was never a prudish man or fanatic. He loved the decent joys and +pleasures of life. Luther gathered his friends about him to take a +decent leave of them. He did not run away from them secretly, as many +monks have done. He opened up his mind to them at this last meeting. The +conversation that ensued was a test of the strength of the convictions +he had formed. His was an introspective nature. He had wrestled daily +with the sin that ever besets us. He knew that with all his conventional +religiousness he could not pass muster before God. Over his wash-basin +he was overheard moaning: "The more we wash, the more unclean we +become." He felt like Paul when he groaned: "O wretched man that I am, +who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom. 7, 24.) He was +sorrowing for his poor soul. He was hungering and thirsting for +righteousness. "When will I ever attain to that state of mind that I am +sure God is pleased with me?" he mused distractedly. What he could not +find while engaged in his secular pursuits, that, he was told, the +cloister could give him. To obtain that he entered the monastery. If +ever Rome had an honest applicant for monkery, Luther is that man. + +Nor did he act precipitately. As shown, the thought of this act had been +quietly forming in him for years. When he made his rash vow to St. Anna, +he still allowed two weeks to pass before he put his resolution into +action. Try and picture to yourself his state of mind during those +fourteen days! Moving about in his customary surroundings, he was daily +probing the correctness of his contemplated change of life. He fought a +soul-battle in those days, and the remembrance of his father made that +battle none the easier. From the Catholic standpoint Luther deserves an +aureole for that struggle. After entering the cloister, he was still at +liberty for a year and a half to retrace his fatal step. But his first +impressions were favorable; monkery really seemed to bring him heart's +ease and peace, and there was no one to disabuse his mind of the +delusion. After nearly two years in the monastery, while sitting with +his father at the cloister board on the event of his ordination to the +priesthood, he declares to his father that he enjoys the quiet, +contemplative life that he has chosen. Surely, he made a mistake by +becoming monk, but Catholics cannot fault him for that mistake. If the +life of monks and nuns is really what they claim that it is: the highest +and most perfect form of Christianity, they should consistently give any +person credit for making the effort to lead that life. In fact, they +ought all to turn monks and nuns to honor their own principles. + + +8. Luther's Failure as a Monk. + +Monasticism is a pagan shoot grafted on a Christian tree. At its base +lies the heathenish notion that sin can be extirpated by severe +onslaughts upon the body and the physical life. It has existed in +Buddhism before some Christians adopted it. In the early days of +Christianity it was proclaimed as superior wisdom by the Platonic +philosophers. Like many a lie it has been decked out with Bible-texts to +give it respectability, and to soothe disquieted consciences. The +Scripture-sayings regarding fasting, sexual continence, chastity, +crucifying the flesh, etc., are made to stand sponsor for this bastard +offspring of the brain of Christian mystics. + +With excellent discrimination Mosheim has traced the origin of +monasticism to the early Christian fathers. The earliest impulses to +monasticism are contained in such writings as the Epistle to Zenas, +found among the writings of Justinus, the tracts of Clement of +Alexandria on Calumny, Patience, Continence, and other virtues, the +tracts of Tertullian on practical duties, such as Chastity, Flight from +Persecution, Fasting, Theatrical Exhibitions, the Dress of Females, +Prayer, etc. These writings "would be perused with greater profit, were +it not for the gloomy and morose spirit which they everywhere breathe. . +. . In what estimation they ought to be held, the learned are not +agreed. Some hold them to be the very best guides to true piety and a +holy life; others, on the contrary, think their precepts were the worst +possible, and that the cause of practical religion could not be +committed to worse hands. . . . To us it appears that their writings +contain many things excellent, well considered, and well calculated to +kindle pious emotions; but also many things unduly rigorous, and derived +from the Stoic and Academic philosophy; many things vague and +indeterminate; and many things positively false, and inconsistent with +the precepts of Christ. If one deserves the title of a bad master in +morals who has no just ideas of the proper boundaries and limitations of +Christian duties, nor clear and distinct conceptions of the different +virtues and vices, nor a perception of those general principles to which +recurrence should be had in all discussions respecting Christian virtue, +and therefore very often talks at random, and blunders in expounding the +divine laws; though he may say many excellent things, and excite in us +considerable emotion; then I can readily admit that in strict truth this +title belongs to many of the Fathers. . . . They admitted, with good +intentions no doubt, yet most inconsiderately, a great error in regard +to morals, and pernicious to Christianity; an error which, through all +succeeding ages to our times, has produced an infinity of mistakes and +evils of various kinds. Jesus, our Savior, prescribed one and the same +rule of life or duty to all His disciples. But the Christian doctors, +either by too great a desire of imitating the nations among whom they +lived, or from a natural propensity to austerity and gloom, (a disease +that many labor under in Syria, Egypt, and other provinces of the East,) +were induced to maintain that Christ had prescribed a twofold rule of +holiness and virtue; the one ordinary, the other extraordinary; the one +lower, the other higher; the one for men of business, the other for +persons of leisure, and such as desired higher glory in the future +world. They therefore early divided all that had been taught them either +in books or by tradition, respecting a Christian life and morals, into +Precepts and Counsels. They gave the name Precepts to those laws which +were universally obligatory, or were enacted for all men of all +descriptions; but the Counsels pertained solely to those who aspire +after superior holiness and a closer union with God. There soon arose, +therefore, a class of persons who professed to strive after that +extraordinary and more eminent holiness, and who, of course, resolved to +obey the Counsels of Christ, that they might have intimate communion +with God in this life, and might, on leaving the body, rise without +impediment or difficulty to the celestial world. They supposed many +things were forbidden to them which were allowed to other Christians, +such as wine, flesh, matrimony, and worldly business. They thought they +must emaciate their bodies with watching, fasting, toil, and hunger. +They considered it a blessed thing to retire to desert places, and by +severe meditation to abstract their minds from all external objects, and +whatever delights the senses. Both men and women imposed these severe +restraints on themselves, with good intentions, I suppose, but setting a +bad example, and greatly to the injury of the cause of Christianity. +They were, of course, denominated Ascetics, Zealous Ones, Elect, and +also Philosophers; and they were distinguished from other Christians, +not only by a different appellation, but by peculiarities of dress and +demeanor. Those who embraced this austere mode of life lived indeed only +for themselves, but they did not withdraw themselves altogether from the +society and converse of men. But in process of time, persons of this +description at first retired into deserts, and afterwards formed +themselves into associations, after the manner of the Essenes and +Therapeutae. + +"The causes of this institution are at hand. First, the Christians did +not like to appear inferior to the Greeks, the Romans, and the other +people among whom there were many philosophers and sages, who were +distinguished from the vulgar by their dress and their whole mode of +life, and who were held in high honor. Now among these philosophers (as +is well known) none better pleased the Christians than the Platonists +and Pythagoreans, who are known to have recommended two modes of living, +the one for philosophers who wished to excel others in virtue, and the +other for people engaged in the common affairs of life. The Platonists +prescribed the following rule for philosophers: The mind of a wise man +must be withdrawn, as far as possible, from the contagious influence of +the body. And as the oppressive load of the body and social intercourse +are most adverse to this design, therefore all sensual gratifications +are to be avoided; the body is to be sustained, or rather mortified, +with coarse and slender fare; solitude is to be sought for; and the mind +is to be self-collected and absorbed in contemplation, so as to be +detached as much as possible from the body. Whoever lives in this manner +shall in the present life have converse with God, and, when freed from +the load of the body, shall ascend without delay to the celestial +mansions, and shall not need, like the souls of other men, to undergo a +purgation. The grounds of this system lay in the peculiar sentiments +entertained by this sect of philosophers and by their friends, +respecting the soul, demons, matter, and the universe. And as these +sentiments were embraced by the Christian philosophers, the necessary +consequences of them were, of course, to be adopted also. + +"What is here stated will excite less surprise if it be remembered that +Egypt was the land where this mode of life had its origin. For that +country, from some law of nature, has always produced a greater number +of gloomy and hypochondriac or melancholy persons than any other; and it +still does so. Here it was long before the Savior's birth, not only the +Essenes and Therapeutae--those Jewish sects, composed of persons with a +morbid melancholy, or rather partially deranged--had their chief +residence; but many others also, that they might better please the gods, +withdrew themselves as by the instinct of nature from commerce with men +and with all pleasures of life. From Egypt this mode of life passed into +Syria and the neighboring countries, which in like manner always +abounded with unsociable and austere individuals: and from the East it +was at last introduced among the nations of Europe. Hence the numerous +maladies which still deform the Christian world; hence the celibacy of +the clergy; hence the numerous herds of monks; hence the two species of +life, the theoretical and mystical." (_Eccles. Hist.,_ I, 128 f.) + +One may well feel pity for the original monks. Their zeal was heroic, +but it was spent upon an issue that is in its very root and core a +haughty presumption and a lie. Exhaust all the Scripture-texts which +speak of indwelling sin, of the lust that rages in our members, of the +duty to keep the body under by fasting and vigilance, and there will not +be found enough Bible to cover the nakedness of the monastic principle. +Its fundamental thought of a select type of piety to be attained by +spectacular efforts at self-mortification flies in the face of the +doctrine that we are rid of sin and sanctified by divine grace alone. +Monkish holiness is a slander of the Redeemer's all-sufficient sacrifice +for sin and of the work of the Holy Spirit. It started in paganism, and +wants to drag Christianity back into paganism. + +But monasticism in Luther's day was no longer of the sort which one may +view with a pathetic interest. The old monastic ideals had been largely +abandoned. Instead of crucifying the flesh, the monks were nursing and +fondling carnal-mindedness. The cloisters had become cesspools of +corruption. Because the reputation of monks was utterly bad, and monks +were publicly scorned and derided, Luther's friends tried to dissuade +him from entering the cloister. That was the reason, too, why Luther's +father was so deeply shocked when he heard of what his Martin had done, +and Luther had to assure his father that he had not gone into the herd +of monks to seek what people believed men sought in that profligate +company. For that reason, too, he had chosen the Augustinian order, +because a strong reform movement had been started in that order, and its +reputation was better than that of the other orders. Luther meant to be +a monk of the original type. + +Since the days of Alexander of Hales, Albert the Great, and Thomas +Aquinas the Roman Church teaches that there is in the Church a treasury +of supererogatory works, that is, of good works which Christ and the +saints have performed in excess of what is ordinarily demanded of every +man in the way of upright living. We shall meet with this idea again in +another connection. It flows from the monastic principles. Monks must +have not only enough sanctity for their own needs, but to spare. Of this +superfluous sanctity they may make an assignment in favor of others. Do +not smile incredulously; monks actually make such assignments. Luther +may not have thought of this when he entered the cloister, but he +rejoiced in this scheme of substitutive sanctity later. He thought he +had found in monkery a gold-mine of holiness that would be sufficient +not only for himself, but also for his parents. While at Rome some years +later, he was in a way sorry that his father and mother were not already +in purgatory. He had such a fine chance there to accumulate +supererogatory good works which he might have transferred to them to +shorten their agonies, or release them entirely. + +In order to make a successful monk, one must be either a Pharisee or an +epicurean. The Pharisee takes an inventory of the works named in the Law +of God, and sets out to perform these in an external, mechanical manner. +He adds a few works of his own invention for good measure. Every work +performed counts; it constitutes merit. On the basis of his two pecks +and a half of merit the Pharisee now begins to drive a bargain with God: +for so much merit he claims so much distinction and glory. He figures it +all out to God, so that God shall not make a mistake at the time of the +settlement: I have not been this, nor that, nor the other thing; I have +done this, and that, and some more. Consequently . . . ! The epicurean +is a jolly fatalist. Whatever is to happen will happen. Why worry? Go +along at an even pace; eat, drink, be merry, but for Heaven's sake do +not take a serious or tragical view of anything! Take things as they +are; if you can improve them, well and good; if not, let it pass; forget +it; eat a good meal and go to sleep. + +Luther was never an epicurean. The seriousness of life had confronted +him at a very early date. The sense of duty was highly developed in him +from early youth. In all that he did he felt himself as a being that is +responsible to his Maker and Judge. Easy-going indifference and ready +self-pity were not in his character. For this Luther is now faulted by +Catholics. It is said he extended the rigors of monasticism beyond the +bounds of reasonableness. He was too severe with himself. He outraged +human nature. Quite correct; but is not monasticism by itself an +outrage upon human nature? Luther had endured the monastery for the very +purpose of enduring hardness. He did not flinch when the battle into +which he had gone commenced in earnest. Luther is said to have been +tardy and neglectful in the observance of the rules of the order. +Sometimes he would omit the canonical hours, that is, the stated +prayers, or some form of prescribed devotion, and then he would endeavor +to make up for the loss by redoubled effort, which overtaxed his +physical strength. Quite true. It is not such a rare occurrence that a +monk forgets the one or the other of the minutiae of the daily monkish +routine. The regulations of his orders extended to such things as the +posture which he must assume while standing, while sitting, while +kneeling; the movement of his arms, of his hands; how to approach, how +to move in front of the altar, how to leave it, etc. When his mind was +engrossed with the study of the Bible or some commentary of a Church +Father, it was easy for Luther to forget parts of the program which he +was to carry out. Whenever this happened, was it not his duty to +endeavor to repair the damage? Were not penances imposed on him in the +confessional for every default? Luther is said to have been led into +still deeper gloom by his study of the doctrine of predestination. True, +but even this study did not lead Luther off into fatalism. It terrified +him, because he studied that profound doctrine without a true perception +of divine grace and the meaning of the Redeemer's work. However, this +study did not at any time permanently affect his vigorous striving after +holiness. + +When Catholics explain Luther's failure as a monk by such assertions, +they involve themselves in self-contradiction. By their own principles +monkery is not a natural life; yet, when a monk fails in his monkery, +they fault him for not being natural. First, they tell the applicant +that he must not be what he is, and afterwards they blame him for +wanting to be what they told him to be, and what he finds he cannot be. +If this is not adding insult to injury, what is? Francis of Assisi +became a great saint by that very inhuman treatment of himself for which +Luther is censured. But then Francis of Assisi did not quit his order +and did not attack the Pope. + +The other reason why Luther failed is, because he could not make a +Pharisee of himself, which is only another name for hypocrite. The Law +of God had such a terrible meaning to him because he applied it as the +Lawgiver wants it applied, to his whole inner life, to the heart, the +soul, the mind, and all his powers of intellect and will. It is +comparatively easy to make the members of the body go through certain +external performances, but to make the mind obey is a different +proposition. The discovery which disheartened Luther was, that while he +was outwardly leading the life of a blameless monk, his inward life was +not improved. Sin was ever present with him, as it is with every human +being. He felt the terrible smitings of the accusing conscience because +he was keenly alive to the real demands of God's Law. The holy Law of +God wrought its will upon him to the fullest extent: it roused him to +anger with the God who had given this Law to man; it led him into +blasphemous thoughts, so that he recoiled with horror from himself. Does +the true Law of God, when properly applied, ever have any other effect +upon natural man? Paul says: "It worketh wrath" (Rom. 4, 15), namely, +wrath in man against God. It drives man to despair. That is its +legitimate function: No person has touched the essence of the Law who +has not passed through these awful experiences. Nor did any man ever +flee from the Law and run to Christ for shelter but for these +unendurable terrors which the Law begets. That was Luther's whole +trouble, and that is why he failed as a monk: he had started out to +become a saint, and he did not even succeed in making a Pharisee of +himself. If Rome has produced a monk that succeeded better than Luther, +he ought to be exhibited and examined. He will be found either an angel +or a brazen fraud. He will not be a true man. + + +9. Professor Luther, D. D. + +Catholic writers greedily grab every opportunity to belittle Luther's +scholarship. Incentives to study at home, they say, he received none. +His common school education was wretched. During his high school studies +he was favored with good teachers, but hampered by his home-bred +roughness and uncouthness and his poverty. He applied himself diligently +to his studies, but gave no sign of being a genius. At the University of +Erfurt, too, he was studious, but he seems to have made no great +impression on the University. "He paid little attention to grammatical +details, and never attained to Ciceronian purity and elegance in speech +and writing." When he made his A. B:, he ranked thirteenth in a class of +fifty-seven. He did a little better in his effort for the title of A. +M., when he came out second among seventeen candidates. But Melanchthon +is declared entirely wrong when he relates that Luther was the wonder of +the University. His theological studies preparatory to his entering the +priesthood were very hasty and superficial. Still less prepared was he +for the work of a professor. His duties in the cloister left him little +time for learned studies. Yet he went to "bibulous Wittenberg," to a +little five-year-old university, and lectured "as best he could." By the +way, our Catholic friends seem to forget that "bibulous" Wittenberg was +a good old Catholic town at the time. All things considered, Luther's +advancement was all too rapid; it was not justified by his preparatory +studies, which had been "anything but deep, solid, systematic." "The +theological culture he received was not on a par with that required now +by the average seminarian, let alone a Doctor of Divinity." He accepted +the title of D. D. very reluctantly, being conscious that he did not +deserve it. A feeling of the insufficiency of his education tormented +him all through life. "It cannot be denied that he was industrious, +self-reliant, ambitious, but withal, he was not a methodically trained +man. At bottom, he was neither a philosopher nor a theologian, and at no +time of his life, despite his efforts to acquire knowledge, did he show +himself more than superficially equipped to grapple with serious and +difficult philosophical and religious problems. His study never rose to +brilliancy." Thus runs the Catholic account of Professor and Doctor +Luther. + +We have not quoted the worst Catholic estimates of Luther's scholarship. +He has also been called a dunce, an ignoramus, a barbarian. Again it +seems to escape the Catholics that this ill-trained, insufficient, +half-baked Doctor of Divinity is a product of their own educational art. +Whatever advancement he received in those days was actually forced upon +him by Catholics. All his academic and ecclesiastical honors came from +Catholic sources, came to him, moreover, as a good Catholic. Also that +highest and noblest distinction which made him a duly called and +accredited expounder of the Holy Scriptures. If there is fault to be +found with anything in this matter, it lies with the Catholic method and +process of making a young man within the space of ten years a Bachelor +of Arts, a Master of Arts, a priest, a professor, and a Doctor of Sacred +Theology; it does not lie with the innocent subject to whom this presto! +change! process was applied. + +But does this estimate of Luther square with the facts in the case? For +a dunce or a mediocre scholar Luther has been a fair success. His little +ability and scanty preparation makes his achievements all the more +remarkable. The most brilliant minds of the race, for whom the home, the +Church and the State, religion, science and art, had done their best, +have accomplished immeasurably less than this poor and mostly +self-taught country boy. God give His Church many more such dunces! + +The net results of Luther's learning are open to inspection by the world +in his numerous works. Able scholars of most recent times have looked +into Luther's writings with a view of determining how much learned +knowledge he had actually acquired, even before he began his reformatory +work, They have found that Luther was "very well versed in the favorite +Latin authors of the day: Vergil, Terence, Ovid, Aesop, Cicero, Livy, +Seneca, Horace, Catullus, Juvenal, Silius, Statius, Lucan, Suetonius, +Sallust, Quintilian, Varro, Pomponius Mela, the two Plinies, and the +_Germania_ of Tacitus." He possessed a creditable amount of knowledge of +General History and Church History. He had made a profound study of the +leading philosophers and scholastic theologians of the Middle Ages: +Thomas of Aquinas, Peter Lombard, Bernard of Clairvaux, Duns Scotus, +Occam, Gregory of Rimini, Pierre d'Ailly, Gerson, and Biel. Two of these +he knew almost by heart. He had studied the ancient Church Fathers: +Irenaeus, Cyprian, Eusebius, Athanasius, Hilary, Ambrose, Gregory of +Nanzianzen, Jerome, and such later theologians as Cassiodorus, Gregory +the Great, and Anselm of Canterbury; Tauler, Lefevre, Erasmus, and Pico +della Mirandola. "He was quite at home in the exegetical Middle Ages, in +the Canon Law, in Aristotle and Porphyry." "He was one of the first +German professors to learn Greek and Hebrew." Moreover, Luther +possessed, besides knowledge, those indispensable requisites in a good +professor: "the faculty of plain, clear, correct, and independent +thought, resourcefulness, acumen" (Boehmer, p. 179 f.). He had the +courage to tell the Church that it was a shame, that a heathen +philosopher, Aristotle, should formulate the doctrines which Christians +are to believe and their pastors are to teach. He threw this heathen, +who had for ages dominated Christian teaching, out of his lecture-room, +and took his students straight to the pure fountain of religious truth, +the Word of God. He publicly burned the Canon Law by which the Roman +Church had forged chains for the consciences of men, and which she +upholds to this day. His lecture-room became crowded with eager and +enthusiastic students, and the stripling university planted on the edge +of civilization in the sands along the Elbe became for a while the +religious and theological hub of the world. The students who gathered +about Luther knew that they had a real professor in him. The world of +his day came to this fledgling doctor with the weightiest questions, and +received answers that satisfied. That part of the intelligent world of +to-day which has read and studied Luther endorses the verdict of +Luther's contemporaries as regards his ample learning and proficiency as +a teacher. + +More learned men, indeed, than Luther there have been. Some of these +have also made attempts to introduce needed reforms in the corrupt Roman +Church. Rome met their learned and labored arguments with the consummate +skill of a past master in sophistry. Those learned efforts came to +naught. Rome will never be reformed by human learning and scholarship. +Scholars are rarely men of action. It is because Professor Luther taught +_and acted_ that Rome hates him. He would have been permitted to lecture +in peace whatever he wished--others in the universities were doing that +at the time--if he had only been careful not to do anything, at least +not publicly, against the authority of the Church. That was the +unpardonable blunder of Luther that he wanted to live as he believed, +and that he taught others to do the same. For this reason he is a +dullard, an ignoramus, a poor scholar, a poor writer, in a word, an +inferior person from a literary and scholarly point of view. + +In Numbers (chap. 22) there is a story told of the prophet Balaam, who +went out on a wicked mission for which a great reward had been promised +him. He rode along cheerfully, feasting his avaricious heart on the +great hoard he would bring back, when suddenly the ass that bore him +balked. The prophet began to beat the animal, but it did not budge an +inch. All at once this dunce of an ass which had never been put through +a spelling-book began to talk and remonstrated with the prophet: "Am I +not thine ass? What have I done unto thee that thou hast smitten me?" To +his amazement the prophet was able to understand the ass quite well. +This dumb brute made its meaning plain to a learned man. It was an +intolerable outrage that an ass should lecture a doctor, and balk him in +his designs. Luther is that ass. Rome rode him, and he patiently bore +his wicked master until the angel of the Lord stopped him and he would +go no further. The only difference is that Balaam had his eyes opened, +left off beating his ass, and felt sorry for what he had done. Rome's +eyes have not been opened for four hundred years. It is still beating +the poor ass. It does not see the Lord who has blocked her path and +said, You shall go no further! + +In 2 Kings, chap. 5, there is another story told of the Syrian captain +Naaman, who came to be healed of his leprosy by the prophet Elijah. With +his splendid suite the great statesman drove up in grand style to the +prophet's cottage. He expected that the holy man would come out to meet +him, and very deferentially engage to do the great lord's bidding. The +prophet did not even come out of his hut, but sent Naaman word to go and +wash seven times in Jordan and he would be cleansed. Now Naaman flew +into a rage, because the prophet had, in the first place, not even +deigned to speak to him, and, secondly, had ordered a ridiculously +commonplace cure for him. He stormed that he would do no such thing as +wash in that old Jordan River. He had better waters at home. Let the +prophet keep his old Jordan for such as he was. And he rode off in great +dudgeon. Rome is the leprous gentleman, and Luther is the man of God who +told her how to become clean. The only difference is this: Naaman +listened to wise counsel, and finally did what he had been told to do, +and was cleansed. Rome disdains to this day to listen to the ill-bred +son of a peasant, the theological upstart Luther, and remains as filthy +as she has been. + + +10. Luther's "Discovery" of the Bible. + +Since Luther's study of the Bible has been referred to several times in +these pages, it is time that the righteousness of a certain indignation +be examined which Catholic writers display. They pretend to be +scandalized by the tale that in Luther's time the Bible was such a rare +book that it was practically unknown. With the air of outraged innocence +some of them rise to protest against the stupid myth that Luther +"discovered" the Bible. They claim that their Church had been so eager +to spread the Bible, and had published editions of the Bible in such +rapid succession, that in Luther's age Christian Europe was full of +Bibles. Moreover, that age, they tell us, was an age of intense +Bible-study. Not only the theologians, but also the laymen, not only the +wealthy and highly educated, but also the common people, had unhindered +access to the Bible. The historical data for Rome's alleged zeal in +behalf of the Bible these Catholic writers gather largely from +Protestant authors. For greater effect they propose to buttress, with +the fruits of the laborious research of Protestants, their charge that +Luther's ignorance of the Bible was self-inflicted and really +inexcusable. + +What are the facts in the case? The whole account which we possess of +Luther's "discovery" of the Bible is contained in Luther's Table Talk. +(22, 897.) This is a book which Luther did not personally compose nor +edit. It is a collection of sayings which his guests noted down while at +meat with Luther, or afterwards from memory. From a casual remark during +a meal Mathesius obtained the information which he published in his +biography of Luther, _viz.,_ that, when twenty-two years old, Luther one +day had found the Bible in a library at Erfurt. + +Now, we do not wish to question the general credibility of the Table +Talk, nor the authenticity of this particular remark of Luther about his +stumbling upon the Bible by accident. But it is certainly germane to our +subject to strip the incident of the dramatic features with which +Catholic writers claim that most Protestants still surround the event. +Did Luther say, and did Mathesius report, that up to the year 1505 he +had not known of the Bible? Not at all. He merely stated that up to that +time he had not seen _a complete copy of the Bible_. Luther himself has +told scores of times that when a schoolboy at Mansfeld, and later at +Magdeburg and Eisenach where he studied, he had heard portions of the +Gospels and Epistles read during the regular service at church. Some +passages he had learned by heart. Luther's guests would have laughed at +him if he had claimed such a "discovery" of the Bible as Catholic +writers--and some of their Protestant authorities--think that Mathesius +has claimed for him and modern Protestants still credit him with. + +What Luther did relate we are prepared to show was not, and could not +be, an unusual occurrence in those days. "Even in the University of +Paris, which was considered the mother and queen of all the rest, not a +man could be found, when Luther arose, competent to dispute with him out +of the Scriptures. This was not strange. Many of the doctors of theology +in those times had never read the Bible. Carolostadt expressly tells us +this was the case with himself. Whenever one freely read the Bible, he +was cried out against, as one making innovations, as a heretic, and +exposing Christianity to great danger by making the New Testament known. +Many of the monks regarded the Bible as a book which abounded in +numerous error." (Mosheim, III, 15.) The spiritual atmosphere in which +Luther and all Christians of his time were brought up was unfavorable to +real Bible-study. + +But before we exhibit the true attitude of Rome toward the Bible, it +will be necessary to examine the Catholic claim regarding the extensive +dissemination and the intensive study of the Bible among the people in +and before Luther's times. Before the age of printing one cannot speak, +of course, of "editions" of the Bible. The earliest date for the +publication of a printed edition of the Bible is probably 1460-- +twenty-three years before Luther's birth. That was an event fully as +momentous as the opening of the transatlantic cable in our time. Before +printing had been invented, the Bible was multiplied by being copied. +That was a slow process. Even when a number of copyists wrote at the +same time to dictation, it was a tedious process, requiring much time, +and not very many would join in such a cooperative effort of Bible +production. Besides, few men in those early ages were qualified for this +work. A certain degree of literary proficiency was required for the +task. The centuries during which the papacy rose to the zenith of its +power are notorious for the illiteracy of the masses. It was considered +a remarkable achievement even for a nobleman to be able to scribble his +name. Among those who possessed the ability few had the inclination and +persistency necessary for the effort to transcribe the Bible. The +cloisters of those days were the chief seats of learning and centers of +lower education, but even these asylums of piety sheltered many an +ignorant monk and others who were afflicted with the proverbial monks' +malady--laziness. It is to the credit of the pious members of the Roman +Church in that unhappy age that they manifested such a laudable interest +in the Bible. The achievement of copying the entire Bible with one's own +hand in that age is so great that it palliates some of the glaring evils +of the inhuman system of monasticism. But if every monk in every +cloister, every priest in every Catholic parish, every professor in +every Catholic university, could have produced twenty copies of the +Bible during his lifetime, how little would have been accomplished to +make the Bible available for the millions of men then living! + +Reading is the correlate of writing. The person who cannot write, as a +rule, cannot read. For this reason the Bible must have remained a sealed +book to many who had ample opportunity to become acquainted with it. The +wide diffusion of Bible knowledge which Catholic writers would lead us +to believe always existed in the Roman Church is subject to question. It +is true that in the first centuries of the Christian era there was a +great hunger and thirst for the Word of God. But that was before the +Roman Church came into existence. For it is a reckless assumption that +the papacy is an original institution in the Church of Christ, and that +Roman Catholicism and Christianity are identical. It is also true that +in the early days of the Reformation the people manifested a great +desire for the Word of God. It was as new to them as it had been to +Luther. They would crowd around a person who was able to read, and would +listen for hours. At St. Paul's in London public reading of the Bible +became a regular custom. But between the early days of Christianity and +the beginning of the Reformation lies a period which. is known as the +Dark Ages. No amount of oratory will turn that age into a Bright Age. +"From the seventh to the eleventh century books were so scarce that +often not one could be found in an entire city, and even rich +monasteries possessed only a single text-book." (_Universal Encycl.,_ +2, 96.) These conditions were not greatly improved until printing was +invented. Luther had to do with people who were emerging from the sad +conditions of that age, the effects of which were still visible +centuries after. He writes: "The deplorable destitution which I recently +observed, during a visitation of the churches, has impelled and +constrained me to prepare this Catechism, or Christian Doctrine, in such +a small and simple form. Alas, what manifold misery I beheld! The common +people, especially in the villages, know nothing at all of Christian +doctrine; and many pastors are quite unfit and incompetent to teach. Yet +all are called Christians, have been baptized, and enjoy the use of the +Sacraments, although they know neither the Lord's Prayer, nor the Creed, +nor the Ten Commandments, and live like the poor brutes and irrational +swine." (Preface to the Small Catechism.) Remember, these people lived +in that age when Luther was born and grew up, which Catholic writers +picture to us as a Bible-knowing and Bible-loving age. + +The invention of printing wrought a mighty change in this respect. This +glorious art became hallowed from the beginning by being harnessed for +service to the Bible. But even this invention did not at once remove the +prevailing ignorance. We must not transfer modern conditions to the +fifteenth century. In 1906, one of the many Protestant Bible Societies +reported that it had disposed in one year of nearly 80,000,000 Bibles +and parts of the Bible in many languages. The Bible is perhaps the +cheapest book of modern times. It was not so in the days of Gutenberg, +Froschauer, Luft, and the Claxtons. Even after printing had been +invented, Bibles sold at prices that would be considered prohibitive in +our day. When the Duke of Anhalt ordered three copies of the Bible +printed on parchment, he was told that for each copy he must furnish 340 +calf-skins, and the expense would be sixty gulden. (Luther's Works, 21b, +2378.) But even the low-priced editions of the Bible, printed on common +paper (which was not introduced into Europe until the thirteenth +century), cost a sum of money which a poor man would consider a fortune, +and which even the well-to-do would hesitate to spend in days when money +was scarce and its purchasing power was considerably different from what +it is to-day. At a period not so very remote from the present a Bible +was considered a valuable chattel of which a person would dispose by a +special codicil in his will. For generations Bibles would thus be handed +down from father to son, not only because of the sacred memories that +attached to them as heirlooms, but also because of their actual value in +money. + +Everything considered, then, we hold the argument that the Bible was a +widely diffused book in the days before Luther to be historically +untrue, because it implies physical impossibilities. With the +magnificent printing and publishing facilities of our times, how many +persons are still without the Bible? How many parishioners in all the +Catholic churches of this country to-day own a Bible? The modern Bible +societies are putting forth an energy in spreading the Bible that is +unparalleled in history. Still their annual reports leave the impression +that all they accomplish is as a drop in the bucket over and against the +enormous Bible-need still unsupplied. Catholic writers paint the +Bible-knowledge of the age before Luther in such exceedingly bright +colors that one is led to believe that age surpassed ours. They +overshoot their aim. Nobody finds fault with the Roman Church for not +having invented the printing-press. All would rather be inclined to +excuse her little achievement in spreading the Bible during the Middle +Ages on the ground of the poor facilities at her command. Every +intelligent and fair person will accord the Roman Church every moiety of +credit for the amount of Bible-knowledge which she did convey to the +people. We heartily join Luther in his belief that even in the darkest +days of the papacy men were still saved in the Roman Church, because +they clung in their dying hour to simple texts of the Scriptures which +they had learned from their priests. (22, 577.) But no one must try and +make us believe that the Roman Church before Luther performed marvels in +spreading the Bible. She never exhausted even the poor facilities at her +command. + +Far from wondering, then, that Luther had not seen the complete Bible +until his twenty-second year, we regard this as quite natural in view of +his lowly extraction, and we consider the censure which superficial +Protestant writers have applied to Luther because of his early ignorance +of the Bible as uncommonly meretricious. When we bear in mind the known +character of the Popes in Luther's days, we doubt whether even they had +read the entire Bible. Luther's "discovery" of the Bible, however is not +regarded by Protestants as a discovery such as Columbus made when he +found the American continent. Luther knew of the existence of the Bible +and could cite sayings of the Bible at the time when he found the bulky +volume in the library that made such a profound impression upon him. + +And yet his find was a true discovery. Luther discovered that his Church +had not told him many important and beautiful things that are in the +Bible. He became so absorbed with the novel contents of this wonderful +book that the desire was wrung from his: heart: Oh, that I could possess +this book! But this enthusiastic wish at once became clouded by another +discovery which he made while poring over the precious revelation of the +very heart of Jesus: his Church had told him things differently from +what he found them stated in the Bible. He was shocked when he +discovered that in his heart a new faith was springing up which had come +to him out of the Bible,--a faith which contradicted the avowed faith of +the Roman Church. Poor Luther! He had for the first time come under the +influence of that Word which is quick and powerful, and sharper than any +two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and +spirit, and of the joints and marrow (Hebr. 4, 12), and he did not know +it. Some of the noblest minds in the ages before him have had to pass +through the same experience. With the implicit trust which at that time +lie reposed in the Roman Church, Luther suppressed his "heretical" +thoughts. He said: "Perhaps I am in error. Dare I believe myself so +smart as to know better than the Church?" (Hausrath, 1, 18.) Yes, Luther +had really discovered the Bible, namely, the Bible which the Roman +Church never has been, and never will be, willing to let the people see +while she remains what she is to-day. This "discovery"-tale which so +offends Catholic writers could be verified in our day. Let Catholic +writers put into the hands of every Catholic of America the true, +genuine, unadulterated Word of God, without any glosses and comment, and +let them watch what is going to happen. There will be astonishing +"discoveries" made by the readers, and those discoveries will be no +fabrications. + + +11. Rome and the Bible. + +Catholic writers claim for the Roman Church the distinction which at one +time belonged to the Hebrews, that of being the keepers of the oracles +of God. They claim that to the jealous vigilance of the Roman Church +over the sacred writings of Christianity the world to-day owes the +Bible. The pagan emperors of Rome would have destroyed the Bible in the +persecutions which they set on foot against the early Christians, if the +faithful martyrs had not refused to surrender their sacred writings. +Again, the Roman Church is represented as the faithful custodian of the +Bible during the political and social upheaval that wrecked the Roman +Empire when the barbarian peoples of the North overran Rome and Greece. +Only through the care of the Roman Church the Bible is said to have been +saved from destruction in the general confusion. + +The reasoning of Catholics on this matter is specious. In the first +place, the early Christian martyrs were not Roman Catholics. The claim +of the Roman Church that the papacy starts with Peter is a myth. In the +second place, much patient labor has been expended in the last centuries +to collate existing manuscripts of the Bible for the purpose of removing +errors that had crept into the text and making the original text of the +Bible as accurate as it is possible to make it. In these labors mostly +Protestants were engaged. Fell, Mill, Kuster, Bengel, Wetzstein, +Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, have +through three centuries of untiring research cooperated in placing +before the world the authentic text of the Bible. + +To-day we have not a single one of the autograph manuscripts of the +Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament. If the Roman Church existed +in the days when Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, Jude, and James +wrote, and if she exercised such scrupulous care over the Bible, why has +she not preserved a single one of these invaluable documents? We suggest +this thought only in view of the unfounded Catholic boast; we do not +charge the Catholic Church with a crime for having permitted the +autographs of our Bible to become lost, we only hold that the Catholic +Church is not entitled to the eulogies which her writers bestow upon +her. + +Even the condition of the copies that were made from the autograph +writings of the apostles does not speak well for the care which the +Roman Church took of the Bible, assuming, of course, that she existed in +those early centuries. "It is evident that the original purity (of the +New Testament text) was early lost. . . . Irenaeus (in the second +century) alludes to the differences between the copies. . . . Origen, +early in the third century, expressly declares that matters were growing +worse. . . . From the fourth century onward we have the manuscript text +of each century, the writings of the Fathers, and the various Oriental +and Occidental versions, all testifying to varieties of readings." +(_New Schaff-Herzog Encycl.,_ II, 102.) Our sole purpose in calling +attention to this fact, which every scholar to-day knows, is, to bring +the fervor of Catholic admiration for the Bible-protecting and +Bible-preserving Church of Rome somewhat within the bounds of reason. We +do not charge the Roman Church with having corrupted the text, but if +the claim of Catholics as to the age of their Church is correct, every +corruption in the copies that were made from the original documents +occurred while she was exercising her remarkable custodianship over the +Bible. That officials of the Church, especially as we approach the +Middle Ages, had something to do with corrupting the sacred text is the +belief of the authority just quoted. "The early Church," he says, "did +not know anything of that anxious clinging to the letter which +characterizes the scientific rigor and the piety of modern times, and +therefore was not bent upon preserving the exact words. Moreover, the +first copies were made rather for private than for public use." Not a +few were found in sarcophagi; they had been buried with their owners. +"Copyists were careless, often wrote from dictation, and were liable to +misunderstand. Attempted improvements of the text in grammar and style; +efforts to harmonize the quotations in the New Testament with the Greek +of the Septuagint, but especially to harmonize the Gospels; the writing +out of abbreviations; incorporation of marginal notes in the text; the +embellishing of the Gospel narratives with stories drawn from +non-apostolic, though trustworthy, sources,--it is to these that we must +attribute the very numerous 'readings' or textual variations. It is true +that the copyists were sometimes learned men; but their zeal in making +corrections may have obscured the true text as much as the ignorance of +the unlearned. The copies, indeed, came under the eye of an official +reviser, but he may have sometimes exceeded his functions, and done more +harm than good by his changes." + +All this happened while the Roman Church, according to Catholic writers, +was keeper of the Bible. The honor which these writers assert for their +Church is spurious. If there is any class of men for whom the glory must +be vindicated of having given to the world the pure Word of God in a +reliable text, it is the band of textual, or lower, critics who have +gathered and collated all existing manuscripts of the Bible. What an +immense amount of painstaking labor this necessitated the reader can +guess from the fact that for the New Testament alone about 3,000 +manuscripts had to be examined word for word and letter for letter. The +men who undertook this gigantic task, arid who are always on the watch +for new finds, do not belong in the Roman fold, and did not receive the +incentive for their work from the Roman Church. This work started soon +after the Reformation, and the intense interest aroused in God's Word by +that movement is the true cause of it. The Protestant Church, not the +Church of Rome, has given back to the world the pure Word of God in more +than one sense. + +The official Bible of the Roman Church to-day is the Latin Vulgate. This +Bible, which is a revision by Jerome and others of many variant Latin +texts in use towards the end of the fourth century, has been elevated to +the dignity of the inspired text. The original purpose was good: it was +to remove the confusion of many conflicting texts and to establish +uniformity in quoting the Bible. The errors of the Vulgate are many, but +while it was understood that the Vulgate was merely a translation, the +errors could be corrected from the original sources. Little, however, +was done in this respect before the Reformation, and since then the +Roman Church has become rigid and petrified in its adherence to this +Latin Bible. In its fourth session (April 8, 1546) the Council of Trent +decreed that "of all Latin editions the old and vulgate edition be held +as authoritative in public lectures, disputations, sermons, and +expositions; and that no one is to dare or presume under any pretext to +reject it." "The meaning of this decree," says Hodge, "is a matter of +dispute among Romanists themselves. Some of the more modern and liberal +of their theologians say that the council simply intended to determine +which among several Latin versions was to be used in the service of the +Church. They contend that it was not meant to forbid appeal to the +original Scriptures, or to place the Vulgate on a par with them in +authority. The earlier and stricter Romanists take the ground that the +Synod did intend to forbid an appeal to the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, +and to make the Vulgate the ultimate authority. The language of the +council seems to favor this interpretation." We might add, the practise +of Romanists, too. At the debate in Leipzig Eck contended that the Latin +Vulgate was inspired by the Holy Ghost. (Koestlin, I, 455.) + +Whatever knowledge of Scripture the people in the Middle Ages possessed +was confined to those who could read Latin. Catholic writers claim this +was at that time the universal language of Europe, but they wisely add: +"among the educated." One of them says: "Those who could read Latin +could read the Bible, and those who could not read Latin could not read +anything." Exactly. And now, to prove the wide diffusion of +Bible-knowledge in their Church before Luther, these Catholic writers +should give us some exact data as to the extent of the Latin scholarship +in that age. Fact is, the Latin tongue acted as a lock upon the +Scriptures to the common people. Hence arose the desire to have the +Bible translated into the vernacular of various European countries. + +This desire Rome sought to suppress with brutal rigor. The bloody +persecutions of the Waldensians in France, which almost resulted in the +extirpation of these peaceful mountain people, of the followers of +Wyclif in England, whose remains Rome had exhumed after his death and +burned, of the Hussites in Bohemia, were all aimed at translations of +the Bible into the languages which the common people understood. + +In July, 1199, Pope Innocent III issued a breve, occasioned by the +report that parts of the Bible were found in French translation in the +diocese of Metz. The breve praises in a general way the zeal for +Bible-study, but applies to all who are not officially appointed to +engage in such study the prohibition in Ex. 19, 12. 13, not to touch the +holy mountain of the Law. + +During the reign of his successor, Honorius III, in 1220, laymen in +Germany were forbidden to read the Bible. + +Under Gregory IX the same prohibition was issued, in 1229, to laymen in +Great Britain. + +In the same year the crusades against the Albigenses were concluded, and +the Council of Toulouse issued a severe order, making it a grave offense +for a layman to possess a Bible. + +In 1234, the Synod of Tarragona demanded the immediate surrender of all +translations of the Bible for the purpose of having them burned. + +In 1246, the Synod of Baziers issued a prohibition forbidding laymen to +possess any theological books whatsoever, and even enjoining the clergy +from owning any theological books written in the vernacular. + +Eleven years after Luther's death, in 1557, Pope Paul IV published the +Roman Index of Forbidden Books, and, with certain exceptions, prohibited +laymen from reading the Bible. + +Not until the reign of King Edward VI was the "Act inhibiting the +reading of the Old and New Testament in English tongue, and the +printing, selling, giving, or delivering of any such other books or +writings as are therein mentioned and condemned" (namely, in 34 Hen. +VIII. Cap. 1) abrogated. + +The Council of Trent ordered all Catholic publishers to see to it that +their editions have the approval of the respective bishop. + +Not until February 28, 1759, did Pope Clement XIII give permission to +translate the Bible _into all the languages of the Catholic states_. + +Not until November 17, 1893, did Pope Leo XIII issue an encyclical +enjoining upon Catholics the study of the Bible, always, however, _in +editions approved by the Roman Church_. (Kurtz, _Kirchengesch_. II, 2, +94. 217; _Univers. Encycl_., under title "Bible"; Peter Heylyn, +_Ecclesia Restaurata_ I, 99; Denzinger, _Enchiridion,_ 1429. 1439. 1567. +1607.) + +Catholic writers seek to make a great impression in favor of their +Church by enumerating, on the authority of Protestant scholars, the +number of German translations of the Bible that are known to have been +in existence before Luther. But they omit to inform the public that not +a single one of those translations obtained the approbation of a bishop. +One cannot view but with a pathetic interest these sacred relies of an +age that was hungering for the Word of God. The origin of these early +German Bibles has been traced by scholars to Wycliffite and Hussite +influences, which Rome never stamped out, though her inquisitors tried +their best to do so. The earliest of these Bibles do not state the place +nor the year of publication. Can the reader guess why? They were not +published at the seat of the German Archbishop, Mainz, but most of them +at the free imperial city of Augsburg. Can the reader suggest a reason? +Many of them are printed in abnormally small sizes, facilitating quick +concealment. Can the reader imagine a cause for this phenomenon? In +these old German Bibles particular texts are emphasized, for example, +Rom. 8, 18; 1 Cor. 4, 9; 2 Cor. 4, 8 ; 11, 23; 1 Pet. 2, 19; 4, 16; 5, +9; Acts 5, 18. 41; 8, 1; 12, 4; 14, 19. If the reader will take the +trouble to look up these texts, he will find that they warn Christians +to be prepared to be persecuted for their faith. Has the reader ever +heard of such an officer of the Roman Church as the inquisitor, one of +whose duties it was to hunt for Bibles among the people? In places these +old German Bibles contain significant marginal glosses, for example, at +1 Tim. 2, 5 one of them has this gloss: "_Ain_ mitler Christus, ach +merk!" that is: _One_ mediator, Christ--note this well! + +In 1486, Archbishop Berchtold of Mainz, Primate of Germany, issued an +edict, full of impassioned malice against German translations of the +Bible, and against laymen who sought edification from them. He says that +"no prudent person will deny that there is need of many supplements and +explanations from other writings" than the Bible, to the end, namely, +that a person may construe from the German Bibles the true Catholic +faith. Fact is, that faith is not in the Bible. This happened three +years after the birth of Luther. (Kurtz, II, 2, 304.) + +Instead of finding fault, then, with Luther's ignorance of the Bible +prior to 1505, we feel surprised that the young man knew as much of the +Bible as he did. He must in this respect have surpassed many in his age. + +The Roman Church does not permit her laymen to read a Bible that she has +not published with annotations. "Believing herself to be the divinely +appointed custodian and interpreter of Holy Writ," says a writer in the +_Catholic Encyclopedia_ (II, 545), "she cannot, without turning traitor +to herself, approve the distribution of Scripture 'without note or +comment.'" For this reason the Roman Church has cursed the Bible +societies which early in the eighteenth century began to be formed in +Protestant Churches, and aimed at supplying the poor with cheap Bibles. +In 1816, Pope Pius VII anathematized all Bible societies, declaring them +"a pest of Christianity," and renewed the prohibition which his +predecessors had issued against translations of the Bible. (Kurtz, II, +2, 94.) Leo XII, on May 5, 1824, in the encyclical _Ubi Primum,_ said: +"Ye are aware, venerable brethren, that a certain Bible society is +impudently spreading throughout the world, which, despising the +traditions of the holy Fathers and the decree of the Council of Trent, +is endeavoring to translate, or rather to pervert, the Scriptures into +the vernacular of all nations. . . . It is to be feared that by false +interpretation the Gospel of Christ will become the gospel of men, or, +still worse, the gospel of the devil." Pius IX, on November 9, 1846, in +the encyclical _Qui Pluribus,_ said: "These crafty Bible societies, +which renew the ancient guile of heretics, cease not to thrust their +Bible upon all men, even the unlearned--their Bibles, which have been +translated against the laws of the Church and after certain false +explanations of the text. Thus the divine traditions, the teaching of +the fathers, and the authority of the Catholic Church are rejected, and +every one in his own way interprets the words of the Lord, and distorts +their meaning, thereby falling into miserable error." (_Cath. Encycl_. +II, 545.) The writer whom we have just quoted says: "The fundamental +fallacy of private interpretation of the Scriptures is presupposed by +the Bible societies." These papal pronunciamentos arc directed chiefly +against the Canstein Bibelgesellschaft and her later sisters, such as +the Berliner Bibelgesellschaft, and against the British and American +Bible Societies. + +The face of the Roman Church is sternly set against the plain text of +the Scriptures. To defeat the meaning of the original text, she not only +mutilates the text and adds glosses which twist the meaning of the text +into an altogether different meaning, but she declares that the Bible is +not the only source from which men must obtain revealed truth. Alongside +of the Bible she places an unwritten word of God, her so-called +traditions. These, she claims, are divine revelations which were handed +down orally from generation to generation. The early fathers and the +councils of the Church referred to them in defining the true doctrine +and prescribing the correct practise of the Church. Nobody has collected +these traditions, and nobody will. But to what extent the Roman Church +operates with them, is well known. + +Speaking of learned Bible-study in the Middle Ages, Mosheim says: +"Nearly all the theologians were _Positivi_ and _Sententiarii_ [that is, +they taught what the Church ordered to be taught], who deemed it a great +achievement, both in speculative and practical theology, either to +overwhelm the subject with a torrent of quotations from the fathers, or +to anatomize it according to the laws of dialectics [that is, the laws +of reasoning, logic]. And whenever they had occasion to speak of the +meaning of any text, they appealed invariably to what was called the +_Glossa Ordinaria_ [that is, the official explanation], and the phrase +_Glossa dicit_ (the Gloss says), was as common and decisive on their +lips as anciently the phrase _Ipse dixit_ (he, viz., the teacher, has +said) in the Pythagorean school." (III, 15.) + +In his controversies with the theologians of Rome, Luther found that +they were constantly wriggling out of the plain text of the Bible and +running for shelter to the traditions, to the fathers, to the decrees of +councils of the Church. + +At the Council of Trent some one rose to inquire whether all the +traditions recognized as genuine by the Church could not be named; he +was told that he was out of order. (Pallavivini, VI, 11, 9; 18, 7.) Hase +has invited the Roman Church to say whether all the traditions are now +known. He has not been answered. (_Protest. Polem_., p. 83.) If +Romanists answer: Yes, the reasonable request will be made of them to +publish those traditions once for all time, in order that men may know +all that God is supposed to have really said to men that is not in the +Bible. If they answer: No, the conclusion is inevitable that the +Christian faith is an uncertain thing. Any tradition may bob up that +upsets a part of the Creed. + +Add to this the dogma of papal infallibility, promulgated July 18, 1870, +which asserts for the Pope "the entire plenitude of supreme power" to +determine the faith and morals of Christians, and we have reached a +point where it becomes plain to any thoughtful person that the Bible is, +from the Catholic view-point, not at all such a necessary book as men +have believed. Nor can the faith of a Romanist be a fixed and stable +quantity. Any papal deliverance may bring about a change, and the +conscientious Catholic must study the news from the Vatican with the +same vital interest as the merchant studies the market reports in his +morning paper, and a very pertinent question that he may ask his wife +over his coffee at the breakfast table would be, "Wife, what do we +believe to-day?" + + +12. Luther's Visit at Rome. + +Catholic writers ask the world not to believe Luther's tales about the +city of Rome. Luther, they say, came to Rome as a callow rustic comes to +a metropolis. To the wily Italians he was German Innocence Abroad; they +hoaxed him by telling him absurd tales about the Popes, the priests, the +wonders of the city, etc., and the credulous monk believed all they told +him. He left Rome with his faith in the Church unimpaired. Later in +life, after his "defection" from Rome, he told as true facts and as +reminiscences of his visit at the Holy City many of the false stories +which had been palmed off on him. This is said to have given rise to the +prevailing Protestant view that during his visit at Rome Luther's eyes +were opened to the corruption of the Roman Church and his resolution +formed to overthrow that Church. Luther himself is said to be +responsible for this false view. He fostered it by his tales of what he +had seen and heard at Rome with disgust and horror. His horrid +impressions are declared pure fiction, and simply serve to show how +little the man can be trusted in anything he states. + +To leave a way open for a decent retreat, Catholics also point to a +difference in temperament between the phlegmatic Luther coming from a +northern clime, which through its atmospheric rigors begets somber +reflections and gloomy thoughts, and the airy, fairy Italians, who revel +in sunshine, flowers, and fruits, drink fiery wines, and naturally grow +up into a freedom of manners and lack of restraint that is +characteristic of people living in southern climes. All of which means-- +if it means anything serious--that the Ten Commandments are subject to +revision according to the geographic latitude in which a person happens +to be. When your austere gentleman, raised among the fens and bogs of +the Frisian coast, sees something in a grove in Sicily which he +denounces as wicked, you must tell him that there is nothing wrong in +what he has seen. He has only omitted to adjust his temperament to the +locality. If you follow out this line of thought to the end, you will +come to a point where you strike hands with Rudyard Kipling, who has +sung enthusiastically about a certain locality beyond Aden where the Ten +Commandments do not exist. And to think that this plea is made by people +who have charged Luther with having put the Ten Commandments out of +commission for himself and others! Italians, lovers of freedom and +unrestraint, were the first to fill the world with tales about the moral +besottedness of Luther! This goes to show that in any application of the +Ten Commandments it matters very much who does the applying. + +We have in a previous chapter briefly reviewed the Popes that were +contemporaries of Luther. Their character was stamped on the life of the +Holy City: The Popes and their following gave Rome its moral, or +immoral, face. The chroniclers of those days have described the existing +conditions. Luther need not have said one word about what wicked things +he had seen and heard at Rome, either ten years, or twenty years, or +thirty years after he had been there, and the world would still know the +record of the residence of the Popes. Luther really saw very little of +what he might have seen, and it is probable that he has told less. But +what he did see and hear are facts. He did not grasp their full meaning +nor see their true bearing at the time. The real import of his Roman +experiences dawned on him at a later period. He spoke as a man of things +that he had seen as a child. But that does not alter the facts. + +Luther was shocked at the levity of Italian monks who were babbling +faulty Latin prayers which they did not understand and remarked laughing +to him: "Never mind; the Holy Ghost understands us, and the devil flees +apace." + +Luther's confidence in the boasted unity of the Roman Church was +somewhat shaken when he discovered that he could not read mass in any +church in the territory at Milan, because there the Ambrosian form of +service was prescribed while he had been trained to the Gregorian. + +Luther shook his head at the freedom of certain public manners of the +Italians which reminded him of dogs and of what he had read about +Kerkyra. + +Luther heard of a Lenten collation, probably at the abbey of San +Benedetto de Larione, where the word "fast" had to be spelled with an +_e_ as the second letter. + +The loquaciousness, spicy talk, blasphemy, dishonesty, treachery, +quarrelsomeness, and deadly animosities of the Italians, Luther regards +as strange, considering that they live so near to the Holy City. + +He wondered why the Italians do not permit their women to go out of +their houses except deeply veiled. + +He finds that the Italians show no respect for their beautiful churches +and the divine service conducted in them. Even on great festivals the +magnificent cathedrals are almost empty, the worshipers are chatting +with one another while the service is in progress. Even quarrels are +settled at these holy places, sometimes with the knife. When there is a +burial, they hurry the corpse to the grave, not even the relatives being +in attendance. + +He is grieved at the irreligious manner in which the priests at Rome +read mass. They hurry through the performance with incredible rapidity. +They crowd each other away from the altar in their haste to get their +performance finished. "Hurry, hurry! Begone! Come away!" he hears them +calling to one-another. Sometimes two priests are reading mass at one +altar at the same time. They had finished the whole mass before Luther +had reached the Gospel in the service of the mass. And then they would +receive money from the bystanders who had come in and had watched them. +In a half hour a priest could get a handful of silver. Luther refused +such gifts. + +Luther heard few preachers at Rome, and those that he heard he did not +like. They were very lively in the delivery of their sermons, they would +run to and fro in their pulpit, bend far over toward the audience, utter +violent cries, change their voice suddenly, and gesticulate like madmen. + +Luther saw Pope Julius from a distance several times. He thought it +queer that a healthy and strong man like the Pope should have himself +carried to church in a litter instead of walking thither, and that such +show should be made of his going there and a procession should be formed +to accompany him. He saw the Pope sit at the altar and hold out his foot +to be kissed by people. He saw the Pope take communion. He did not +kneel like other communicants, but sat on his magnificent throne; a +cardinal priest handed him the chalice, and he sipped the wine through a +silver tube. + +However, these and other things did not at the time shake Luther's +belief in the Catholic Church. He came to Rome and left Rome a devout +Catholic. Staupitz, the vicar of his order, had really gratified him in +permitting him to go to Rome as the traveling companion of another monk. +Luther had expressed the wish to make a general confession at Rome. With +this thought on his mind he started out, and he treated the whole +journey as a pilgrimage. After the manner of pious monks the two +companions walked one behind the other, reciting prayers and litanies. +Whether his general confession and his first mass at Rome, probably at +Santa Maria del Popolo, gave him that sense of spiritual satisfaction +which he craved, he has not told us. When he had come in sight of the +city, he had fallen on his face like the crusaders in sight of +Jerusalem, and had fervently blessed that moment. Now he ran through the +seven stations of Rome, read masses wherever he could, gathered an +abundance of indulgences by going through prescribed forms of worship at +many shrines, listened to miracle-tales, knelt before the veil of St. +Veronica near the Golden Gate at San Giovanni and before the bronze +statue of St. Peter in the chapel of St. Martin, where a crucifix had of +its own accord raised itself up and become transfixed in the dome, saw +the rope with which Judas hanged himself fastened to the altar of the +Apostles Simon and Judas at St. Peter's, the stone in the chapel of St. +Petronella on which the penitential tears of Peter had fallen, cutting a +groove in it two fingers wide, had the guide show him the Pope's crown, +the tiara, which, he thought, cost more money than all the princes of +Germany possessed, was perplexed at finding the heads and bodies of +Peter and Paul assigned to different places, at the Lateran Church and +at San Paolo Fuori, mounted the Scala Santa--Pilate's staircase--on his +knees, passed with awe the relief picture in one of the streets which +the popular legend declared to be that of the female Pope Johanna and +her child, saw the ancient pagan deities of Rome depicted in Santa Maria +della Rotonda, the old Pantheon, stared at the head of John the Baptist +in San Silvestro in Capite, tried, but failed to read the famous +Saturday mass at San Giovanni, the oldest and greatest sanctuary of +Christianity, rested from a fatiguing tour through the Lateran in Santa +Croce in Gerusalemme, where Pope Sylvester II, the Faustus of the +Italians, was carried away by the devils, went through the catacombs +with its 6 martyred Popes and 176,000 other martyrs, etc., etc. + +Looking back to this visit later, Luther remarked, "I believed +everything" Just what official Rome expected every devout pilgrim to do, +just what it expects them to do to-day. And these Romanists want to +point the finger of ridicule at the simpleton, the easy dupe, the holy +fool Luther! Does Rome perhaps think the same of all the pious pilgrims +that annually crowd Rome? Luther heard himself called "un buon +Christiano" at Rome and discovered that that meant as much as "an +egregious ass." But he considered that a part of Italian wickedness. The +Church, he was sure, approved of all that he did, in fact, had taught +him to do all that. It required ten years or more to disabuse his mind +of the frauds that had been practised on him, and then he declared that +he would not take 100,000 gulden not to have seen with his own eyes how +scandalously the Popes were hoodwinking Christians. If it were not for +his visit at Rome, he says, he might fear that he was slandering the +Popes in what he wrote about them. + +While Luther's visit at Rome, then, brought about no spiritual change in +him, it helped to give him a good conscience afterwards when his +conflict with Rome had begun. + + +13. Pastor Luther. + +Luther's famous protest against the sale of indulgences, published +October 31, 1517, in the form of ninety-five theses, is represented by +Catholic writers as an outburst of Luther's violent temper and an +assault upon the Catholic Church that he had long premeditated. By this +time, it is said, Luther had become known to his colleagues as a +quarrelsome man, loving disputations and jealous of victory in a debate. +His methods of teaching at the university were novel, in defiance of the +settled customs of the Church. His dangerous innovations caused the +suspicion to spring up that he was plotting rebellion against the +authority of the Church. The arrival of the indulgence-hawker Tetzel in +the neighborhood of Wittenberg gave him the long-looked-for occasion to +strike a blow at the sacred teachings of the Church which he had +solemnly promised to support and defend against all heretics, and from +whose teachings he had already apostatized in his heart. + +The fact is that Luther was so little conscious of an intention to stir +up strife for his Church that he was probably the most surprised man in +Germany when he observed the excitement which his Theses were causing. +The method he had chosen for voicing his opinion had no revolutionary +element in it. It was an invitation to the learned doctors to debate +with him the doctrinal grounds for the sale of indulgences. Catholic +writers point to the fact that Luther declared at a later time that he +did not know what an indulgence was when he attacked Tetzel. They seek +to prove from this remark of Luther that it was not conscientious +scruples, but the desire to cause trouble in the Church that prompted +Luther to his action. They do not see that this remark speaks volumes +for Luther. By his Theses he meant to get at the truth of the teaching +concerning indulgences. His Theses were written in Latin, not in the +people's language. Others translated them into German and scattered them +broadcast throughout Germany. The Theses are no labored effort to set +up, by skilful, logical argument and in carefully chosen terms, a new +dogma in oppositon [tr. note: sic] to the teaching of the Church, but +they are exceptions hurriedly thrown on paper, like the notes jotted +down by a speaker to guide him in a discussion of his subject. Last, not +least, the Theses, while contradicting the prevailing practise of +selling indulgences, breathe loyalty to the Catholic Church. From our +modern standpoint Luther appears in the Theses as half Protestant, or +evangelical, half Roman Catholic. In his own view he was altogether +Catholic. His Theses were merely a call: Let there be light! Let our +consciences be duly instructed! + +We still have a letter which Luther wrote to Pope Leo X about six months +after he had published the Theses. This letter shows in what an orderly +and quiet way Luther proceeded in his attack upon the traffic in +indulgences, and how much he believed himself in accord with the Pope +and the Church. We shall quote a few statements from this letter: "In +these latter days a jubilee of papal indulgences began to be preached, +and the preachers, thinking everything allowed them under the protection +of your name, dared to teach impiety and heresy openly, to the grave +scandal and mockery of ecclesiastical powers, totally disregarding the +provisions of the Canon Law about the misconduct of officials. . . . +They met with great success, the people were sucked dry on false +pretenses, . . . but the oppressors lived on the fat and sweetness of +the land. They avoided scandals only by the terror of your name, the +threat of the stake, and the brand of heresy, . . . if, indeed, this can +be called avoiding scandals and not rather exciting schisms and revolt +by crass tyranny. . . . + +"I privately warned some of the dignitaries of the Church. By some the +admonition was well received, by others ridiculed, by others treated in +various ways, for the terror of your name and the dread of censure are +strong. At length, when I could do nothing else, I determined to stop +their mad career if only for a moment; I resolved to call their +assertions in question. So I published some propositions for debate, +inviting only the more learned to discuss them with me, as ought to be +plain to my opponents from the preface to my Theses. [This was, by the +way, a common practise in those days among the learned professors at +universities.] Yet this is the flame with which they seek to set the +world on fire! . . ." (15, 401; transl. by Preserved Smith.) + +Luther's publication of the Theses was the act of a conscientious +Christian pastor. Being a priest, Luther had to hear confession. Through +the confessional he learned how the common people viewed the +indulgences: they actually believed that by buying indulgences they were +freed from all the guilt and punishment of their sins. Absolution became +a plain business transaction: you pay your money and you take your +goods. Luther wrote this to his archbishop the same day on which he +published his Theses. "Papal indulgences," he says in the letter to +Albert, Archbishop of Mayence and Primate of Germany, "for the building +of St. Peter's are hawked about under your illustrious sanction. I do +not now accuse the sermons of the preachers who advertise them, for I +have not seen the same, but I regret that the people have conceived +about them the most erroneous ideas. Forsooth, these unhappy souls +believe that, if they buy letters of pardon, they are sure of their +salvation; likewise, that souls fly out of purgatory as soon as money is +cast into the chest; in short, that the, grace conferred is so great +that there is no sin whatever which cannot be absolved thereby, even if, +as they say, taking an impossible example, a man should violate the +mother of God. They also believe that indulgences free them from all +penalty and guilt." (15, 391; transl. by Preserved Smith, p. 42.) + +Luther had preached against the popular belief in indulgences, +pilgrimages to shrines of the saints and their relics, for two years +before he published his Theses. He was confident that the Church could +not countenance this belief. Forgiveness of sins is to the penitent in +heart who are sorry for their sins, and their sins are forgiven for +Christ's sake, who atoned for them, and in whom we have the forgiveness +of sin by the redemption through His blood. This is the Scriptural +doctrine of penitence,--that sorrowful, contrite, and believing attitude +of the heart which is the characteristic of true Christians throughout +their lives. Through penitence we become absolved in the sight of God +from all guilt and punishment of our sins, and the minister, by +announcing this fact, is to convey to the penitent the assurance that +his sins have been forgiven. Whatever penances or pious exercises the +Church may impose an sinners who have confessed their sins can only be +imposed as a wholesome disciplinary measure and as aids to the needed +reformation of life. These penances, since they originate in the choice +of the Church, may also be remitted by the Church, and for these +penances the Church may accept a commutation in money, which payment, +however, cannot supersede the paramount duty of the penitent to amend +his sinful conduct. Such were Luther's views in brief outline at the +time he published his Theses. If we are to take modern Catholic critics +of Luther seriously, that has also been the teaching of their Church on +the subject of indulgences. They claim that the good intentions of the +Popes were grossly misinterpreted and the system of indulgences was put +to uses for which it was never intended. If that is the case, why do +they attack Luther for his attempt to have the abuses corrected? +According to their own presentation of the true teaching of the Church +on the subject of indulgences, Luther was the most dutiful son of the +Church in his day in what he did on All Souls' Eve, 1517. + +But the Roman teaching on indulgences is not such an innocent affair as +Catholics would have us believe. The practise of substituting for +penances some good work or contribution to a pious purpose had arisen in +the Church at a very early time. "This," says Preserved Smith, who has +well condensed the history of indulgences, "was the seed of indulgence +which would never have grown to its later enormous proportions had it +not been for the crusades. Mohammed promised his followers paradise if +they fell in battle against unbelievers, but Christian warriors were at +first without this comforting assurance. Their faith was not long left +in doubt, however, for as early as 855 Leo IV promised heaven to the +Franks who died fighting against the Moslems. A quarter of a century +later John VIII proclaimed absolution for all sins and remission of all +penalties to soldiers in the holy war, and from this time on the +'crusade indulgence' became a regular means of recruiting, used, for +example, by Leo IX in 1052 and by Urban II in 1095. By this time the +practise had grown up of regarding an indulgence as a remission not only +of penance, but of the pains of purgatory. The means which had proved +successful in getting soldiers for the crusade were first used in 1145 +or 1146 to get money for the same end, pardon being assured to those who +gave enough to fit out one soldier on the same terms as if they had gone +themselves. + +"When the crusades ceased, in the thirteenth century, indulgences did +not fall into desuetude. At the jubilee of Pope Boniface VIII, in 1300, +a plenary indulgence was granted to all who made a pilgrimage to Rome. +The Pope reaped such an enormous harvest from the gifts of these +pilgrims that he saw fit to employ similar means at frequent intervals, +and soon extended the same privileges as were granted to pilgrims to all +who contributed for some pious purpose at their own homes. Agents were +sent out to sell these pardons, and were given power to confess and +absolve, so that in 1393 Boniface IX was able to announce complete +remission of both guilt and penalty to the purchasers of his letters. + +"Having assumed the right to free living men from future punishment, it +was but a step for the Popes to proclaim that they had the power to +deliver the souls of the dead from purgatory. The existence of this +power was an open question until decided by Calixtus III in 1457, but +full use of the faculty was not made until twenty years later, after +which it became of all branches of the indulgence trade the most +profitable." + +The reader will note that the indulgence trade in its latest form had +not become a general thing until about six years before Luther's birth. +It was a comparatively new thing that Luther attacked. In our remarks on +monasticism in a previous chapter we alluded to the Roman teaching +concerning the Treasure of the Merits of the Saints, or the Treasure of +the Church. This teaching greatly fructified the theory of indulgences. +It has never been shown, and never will be, how this Treasure +originates. In the work of our Redeemer there was nothing superabundant +that the Scriptures name. He fulfilled the entire Law for man, and His +merits are of inestimable value. But they were all needed for the work +of satisfying divine justice. Moreover, all these merits of Christ are +freely given to each and every believer and cancel all his guilt, +according to the statement of Paul: "Christ is the end of the Law for +righteousness to every one that believeth." As regards the merits of the +saints, which they accumulated by doing good works in excess of what +they were required to do, this is a purely imaginary asset of the papal +bank of Rome. Every man, with all that he is and has and is able to do, +owes himself wholly to God. At the best he can only do his duty. There +is no chance for doing good works in excess of duty. If he were really +to do all, he would only do what it was his duty to do, Luke 17, 10, and +would be told to regard himself, even in that most favorable case, as an +unprofitable servant. + +But supposing there were superabundant merits, supererogatory works of +Christ and the saints, who has determined their quantity? Who takes the +inventory of this stock of the papal bank of Rome? Is he the same party +who determines the length of a person's stay in purgatory and can tell +how much he has been in arrears in the matter of goodness and +virtuousness, and how much cash will purchase his release? How is this +intelligence conveyed to purgatory that Mr. So-and-so is free to proceed +to heaven? A multitude of such questions arising in all thinking minds +that want to arrive at rock bottom facts in so serious a matter always +baffle the theologians of Rome. They owe the world an answer on these +questions for four hundred years. Is the world doing Rome an injustice +when it regards the sale of indulgences a pure confidence game in holy +disguise, the offer of a fictitious value for good cash, the boldest and +baldest gold-bricking that mankind has heen [tr. note: sic] subjected +to? + +The sale of indulgences which was started in Luther's days was a +particularly offensive enterprise. "It was not so much the theory of the +Church that excited Luther's indignation as it was the practises of some +of her agents. They encouraged the common man to believe that the +purchase of a papal pardon would assure him impunity without any real +repentance on his part. Moreover, whatever the theoretical worth of +indulgences, the motive of their sale was notoriously the greed of +unscrupulous ecclesiastics. The 'holy trade' as it was called had become +so thoroughly commercialized by 1500 that a banking house, the Fuggers +of Augsburg, were the direct agents of the Curia in Germany. In return +for their services in forwarding the Pope's bulls, and in hiring +sellers of pardons, this wealthy house made a secret agreement in 1507 +by which it received one-third of the total profits of the trade, and in +1514 formally took over the whole management of the business in return +for the modest commission of one-half the net receipts. Naturally not a +word was said by the preachers to the people as to the destination of so +large a portion of their money, but enough was known to make many men +regard indulgences as an open scandal. + +"The history of the particular trade attacked by Luther is one of +special infamy. Albert of Brandenburg, a prince of the enterprising +house of Hohenzollern, was bred to the Church and rapidly rose by +political influence to the highest ecclesiastical position in Germany. +In 1513, he was elected, at the age of twenty-three, Archbishop of +Magdeburg and administrator of the bishopric of Halberstadt,--an +uncanonical accumulation of sees confirmed by the Pope in return for a +large payment. Hardly had Albert paid this before he was elected +Archbishop and Elector of Mayence and Primate of Germany (March 9, +1514). As he was not yet of canonical age to possess even one bishopric, +not to mention three of the greatest in the empire, the Pope refused to +confirm his nomination except for an enormous sum. The Curia at first +demanded twelve thousand ducats for the twelve apostles. Albert offered +seven for the seven deadly sins. The average between apostles and sins +was struck at ten thousand ducats, or fifty thousand dollars, a sum +equal in purchasing power to near a million to-day. Albert borrowed +this, too, from the Fuggers, and was accordingly confirmed on August 15, +1514. + +"In order to allow the new prelate to recoup himself, Leo obligingly +declared an indulgence for the benefit of St. Peter's Church, to run +eight years from March 31, 1515. By this transaction, one of the most +disgraceful in the history of the papacy, as well as in that of the +house of Brandenburg, the Curia made a vast sum. Albert did not come off +so well. First, a number of princes, including the rulers of both +Saxonies, forbade the trade in their dominions, and the profits of what +remained were deeply cut by the unexpected attack of a young monk." +(Preserved Smith, p. 86 ff.) + +Luther had ample reason to dread the demoralizing effect of the +indulgence-venders' activity upon the common people. In the sermons of +Tetzel the church where he happened to do business was raised to equal +dignity with St. Peter's at Rome. Instead of confessing to an ordinary +priest, he told the masses they had now the rare privilege of confessing +to an Apostolical Vicar, specially detailed for this work. With +consummate skill he worked on the tender feelings of parents, of +mothers, who were mourning the loss of children, or of children who had +lost their parents. He impersonated the departed in their agonies in +purgatory, he made the people hear the pitiful moaning of the victims in +the purgatorial fires, and transmitted their heartrending appeals for +speedy help to the living. He clinched the argument by playing on the +people's covetousness: for the fourth part of a gulden they could +transfer a suffering soul safely to the home of the eternal paradise. +Had they ever had a greater bargain offered to them? Never would they +have this indispensable means of salvation brought within easier reach. +Now was the time, now or never! "0 ye murderers, ye usurers, ye robbers, +ye slaves of vice," he cried out, "now is the time for you to hear the +voice of God, who does not desire the death of the sinner, but would +have the sinner repent and live. Turn, then, O Jerusalem, to the Lord, +thy God!" He declared that the red cross of the indulgence-venders, with +the papal arms, raised in a church, possessed the same virtue as the +cross of Christ. If Peter were present in person, he would not possess +greater authority, nor could he dispense grace more effectually than he. +Yea, he would not trade his glory as an indulgence-seller with Peter's +glory; for he had saved more souls by selling the indulgences than Peter +by preaching. Every time a coin clinked in his money chest a liberated +soul was soaring to heaven. + +Catholic writers declare that the people were told that they must repent +in order to obtain forgiveness. So they were, in the manner aforestated. +Repenting meant buying a letter of pardon from the Pope. That is the +reason why Luther worded the first two of his Ninety-five Theses as he +did: "Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ in saying: _Poenitentiam agite!_ +meant that the whole life of the faithful should be repentance. And +these words cannot refer to penance--that is, confession and +satisfaction." The Latin phrase "poenitentiam agere" has a double +meaning: it may mean "repent" and "do penance." Our Lord used the phrase +in the first, the indulgence-sellers in the second sense. Since the +people had been raised in the belief that the Church had the authority +from God to impose church fines on them for their trespasses, by which +they were to remove the temporal punishment of their sins, this was +called "doing penance,"--they were actually led to believe that the +were obeying a command of Christ in buying a letter of indulgence. And +not only did the people believe that they were purchasing release from +temporal punishment, but from the guilt of sin and all its effects. The +common man from the fields and the streets did not make the fine +distinction of the hair-splitting theologians: his bargain meant to him +that hell was closed and heaven open for him. + +Another favorite defense of modern Catholic writers is, that the money +paid for an indulgence was not meant to purchase anything, but was to be +viewed as a thank-offering which the grateful hearts of the pardoned +prompted them to make to the Church who had brought them the pardon +free, gratis, and for nothing. This is Cardinal Gibbons's argument. He +points triumphantly to the fact that the letters of indulgence were +never handed the applicants at the same desk at which the +"thank-offerings" were received. He does not say which desk the +applicant approached first. But, supposing he obtained the letter first +and then, with a heart bounding with joy and gratitude, hurried to the +other desk, we have an interesting psychological problem confronting us. +The two acts, the delivery of the letter of indulgence and the +surrendering of the thank-offering, we are told, are independent the one +of the other. Both are free acts, the one the free forgiveness of the +Church, the other the free giving of the pardoned. The Church's grant of +pardon has nothing to do with the payment of indulgence-money, and the +indulgence-money is not related to the letter of indulgence. Now, then, +the purchaser of an indulgence performs this remarkable feat: when he +stands at the desk where the letter is handed to him, he does not think +of any cost that he incurs. He views the letter as a pure gift. Then, +obeying a sudden impulse of gratitude, he turns to the other desk and +hands the official some money. He manages to think that he is not paying +for anything, that would be utterly improper. How could a person pay for +a donation, especially such a donation of spiritual and heavenly +treasures? One disturbing element, however, remains: the amount of the +thank-offering was fixed beforehand for particular sins, probably to +regulate the recipient's gratitude and make it adequate. The writer has +resolved to test the psychology of this process on himself the next time +the Boston Symphony Company comes to town. He will try and think of the +great singers as true benefactors of mankind, who go about the country +bestowing favors on the public, and when he comes to the ticket-window +he will merely make a thank-offering for the pleasure he is receiving. +The scheme ought to work as well in this instance as in the other. + + +14. The Case of Luther's Friend Myconius. + +There is a remarkable instance recorded in the annals of the Reformation +which strikingly illustrates the operations of the indulgence-venders. +This record deserves not to be forgotten. Gustav Freitag, the famous +writer of German history, has embodied it in his sketch "Doktor Luther." + +Frederic Mecum, in Latin Myconius, had become a monk in the Franciscan +order. He had had an experience with Tetzel which caused him to turn to +Luther with joy and wonder when the latter had published his Theses. Few +of the writings of Myconius, who afterwards became the evangelical +pastor of the city of Gotha, have been preserved. In the ducal library +at Gotha Freitag found [tr. note: sic] an account in Latin of the +incident to which we have referred. It is as follows: "John Tetzel, of +Pirna in Meissen, a Dominican friar, was a powerful peddler of +indulgences or the remission of sins by the Roman Pope. He tarried with +this purpose of his for two years in the city of Annaberg, new at that +time, and deceived the people so much that they all believed there was +no other way of obtaining the forgiveness of sins and eternal life +except to make amends with our works; concerning this making of amends, +however, he said that it was impossible. But a single way was still +left, that is, if we purchased the same for money from the Roman Pope, +bought for ourselves, therefore, the Pope's indulgence, which he called +the forgiveness of sins and a certain entrance into eternal life. Here I +might tell wonders upon wonders and incredible things, what kind of +sermons I heard Tetzel preach these two years in Annaberg, for I heard +him preach quite diligently, and he preached every day; I could repeat +his sermons to others, too, with all the gestures and intonations; not +that I made him an object of ridicule, but I was entirely in earnest. +For I considered everything as oracles and divine words, which one had +to believe, and what came from the Pope I regarded as if coming from +Christ Himself. + +"Finally, at Pentecost, in the year of our Lord 1510, he threatened he +would lay down the red cross and lock the door of heaven and put out the +sun, and it would never again come about that the forgiveness of sins +and eternal life could be obtained for so little money. Yes, he said, it +was not to be expected that such charitableness of the Pope should come +hither again as long as the world would stand. He also exhorted that +every one should attend well to the salvation of his own soul and to +that of his deceased and living friends. For now was at hand, according +to him, the day of his salvation and the accepted time. And he said: +'Let no one under any condition neglect his own salvation; for if you do +not have the Pope's letters, you cannot be absolved and delivered by any +human being from many sins and "reserved cases"' (that is, cases with +which an ordinary priest was not qualified to deal). On the doors and +walls of the church printed letters were publicly posted in which it was +ordered that one should henceforth not sell the letters of indulgence +and the full power at the close as dear as in the beginning, in order to +give the German people a sign of gratitude for their devotion; and at +the end of the letter at the foot was written in addition, _'Pauperibus +dentur gratis,'_ to the needy the letters of indulgence are to be given +for nothing, without money, for the sake of God. + +"Then I began to deal with the deputies of this indulgence-peddler; but, +in truth, I was impelled and urged to do so by the Holy Ghost, although +I myself did not understand at the time what I was doing. + +"My dear father had taught me in my childhood the Ten Commandments, the +Lord's Prayer, and the Christian Creed, and compelled me always to pray. +For, he said, we had everything from God alone, gratis, for nothing, and +He would also govern and lead us if we prayed with diligence. Of the +indulgences and Roman remission of sins he said that they were only +snares with which one tricked the simple out of their money and took it +from their purses, that the forgiveness of sins and eternal life could +certainly not be purchased and acquired with money. But the priests or +preachers became angry and enraged when one said such things. Because I +heard then nothing else in the sermons every day but the greatest praise +of the remission of sins, I was filled with doubt as to whom I was to +believe more, my father or the priests as teachers of the Church. I was +in doubt, but still I believed the priests more than the instruction of +my father. But one thing I did not grant, that the forgiveness of sins +could not be acquired unless it was purchased with money, above all by +the poor. On this account I was wonderfully well pleased with the little +clause at the end of the Pope's letter, _'Pauperibus gratis dentur +propter Deum.'_ + +"And as they, in three days, intended to lay down the cross with special +magnificence and cut off the steps and ladders to heaven, I was impelled +by my spirit to go to the commissioners and ask for the letters of the +forgiveness of sins 'out of mercy for the poor.' I declared also that I +was a sinner and poor and in need of the forgiveness of sins, which was +granted through divine grace. On the second day, around evening, I +entered Hans Pflock's house where Tetzel was assembled with the +father-confessors and crowds of priests, and I addressed them in Latin +and requested that they might allow me, poor man, to ask, according to +the command in the Pope's letter, for the absolution of all my sins for +nothing and for the sake of God, _'etiam nullo casu reservato,'_ without +reserving a single case, and in regard to the same they should give me +the Pope's _'literas testimoniales,'_ or written testimony. Then the +priests were astonished at my Latin speech, for that was a rare thing at +this time, especially in the case of young boys; and they soon went out +of the room into the small chamber which I was alongside, to the +commissioner Tetzel. They made my desire known to him, and also asked in +my behalf that he might give me the letters of indulgence for nothing. +Finally, after long counsel, they returned and brought this answer: +_'Dear son, we have put your petition before the commissioner with all +diligence, and he confesses that he would gladly grant your request, but +that he could not; and although he might wish to do so, the concession +would nevertheless be naught and ineffective. For he declared unto us +that it was clearly written in the Pope's letter that those would +certainly share in the exceeding generous indulgences and treasures of +the Church and the merits of Christ _qui porrigerent manum adjutricem,_ +who offered a helping hand; that is, those who would give money.' And +all that they told me in German, for there was not one among them who +could have spoken three Latin words correctly with any one. + +"In return, however, I entreated anew, and proved from the Pope's letter +which had been posted that the Holy Father, the Pope, had commanded that +such letters should be given to the poor for nothing, for the sake of +the Lord; and especially because there had also been written there _'ad +mandatum domini Papae proprium,'_ that is, at the Pope's own command. + +"Then they went in again and asked the proud, haughty friar, that he +might kindly grant my request and let me go from him with the letter of +indulgence, since I was a clever and fluently-speaking young man and +worthy of having something exceptional granted me. But they came out +again and brought again the answer, _'de manu auxiliatrice,' concerning +the helping hand, which alone was fit for the holy indulgence. I, +however, remained firm and said that they were doing me, a poor man, an +injustice; the one whom both God and the Pope were unwilling to shut out +of divine grace was rejected by them for some few pennies which I did +not have. Then a contention arose that I should at least give something +small, in order that the helping-hand might not be lacking, that I +should only give a groschen; I said, 'I do not have it, I am poor.' At +last it came to the point where I was to give six pfennigs; then I +answered again that I did not have a single pfennig. They tried to +console me and spoke with one another. Finally I heard that they were +worried about two things, in the first place, that I should in no case +be allowed to go without a letter of indulgence, for this might be a +plan devised by others, and that some bad affair might hereafter result +from it, since it was clear in the Pope's letter that it should be given +to the poor for nothing. Again, however, something would nevertheless +have to be taken from me in order that the others might not hear that +the letters of indulgence were being given out for nothing; for the +whole pack of pupils and beggars would then come running, and each one +would want the same for nothing. They should not have found it necessary +to be worried about that, for the poor beggars were looking more for +their blessed bread to drive away their hunger. + +"After they had held their deliberation, they came again to me and one +gave me six pfennigs that I should give them to the commissioner. +Through this contribution I, too, should become, according to them, a +builder of the Church of St. Peter, at Rome, likewise a slayer of the +Turk, and should furthermore share in the grace of Christ and the +indulgences. But then I said frankly, impelled by the Spirit, if I +wished to buy indulgences and the remission of sins for money, I could +in all likelihood sell a book and buy them for my own money. I wanted +them, however, for nothing, as gifts, for the sake of God, or they would +have to give an account before God for having neglected and trifled away +my soul's salvation on account of six pfennigs, since, as they knew, +both God and the Pope wished that my soul should share in the +forgiveness of all my sins for nothing, through grace. This I said, and +yet, in truth, I did not know how matters stood with the letters of +indulgence. + +"At last, after a long conversation, the priests asked me by whom I had +been sent to them, and who had instructed me to carry on such dealings +with them. Then I told them the pure, simple truth, as it was, that I +had not been exhorted or urged by any one at all or brought to it by any +advisers, but that I had made such a request alone, without counsel of +any man, only with the confidence and trust in the gracious forgiveness +of sins which is given for nothing; and that I had never spoken or had +dealings with such great people during all my life. For I was by nature +timid, and if I had not been forced by my great thirst for God's grace, +I should not have undertaken anything so great and mixed with such +people and requested anything like that of them. Then the letters of +indulgence were again promised me, but yet in such a way that I should +buy them for six pfennigs which were to be given to me, as far as I was +concerned, for nothing. I, however, continued to insist that the letters +of indulgence should be given to me for nothing by him who had the power +to give them; if not, I should commend and refer the matter to God. And +so I was dismissed by them. + +"The holy thieves, notwithstanding, became sad in consequence of these +dealings; I, however, was partly downcast that I had received no letter +of indulgence, partly I rejoiced, too, that there was, in spite of all, +still One in heaven who was willing to forgive the penitent sinner his +sins without money and loan, according to the words that I had often +sung in church: 'As true as I live, says the Lord, I desire not the +death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live.' Oh, dear Lord +and God, Thou knowest that I am not lying in this matter, or inventing +anything about myself. + +"While doing this, I was so moved that I, on returning to my inn, almost +gushed forth and melted to tears. Thus I came to my inn, went to my +room, and took the cross which always lay upon the little table in my +study-room, placed it upon the bench, and fell down upon the floor +before it. I cannot describe it here, but at that time I was able to +feel the spirit of prayer and divine grace which Thou, my Lord and God, +pouredst out over me. The essential import of the same, however, was +this: I asked that Thou, dear God, mightst be willing to be my Father, +that Thou mightst be willing to forgive me for my sins, that I submitted +myself wholly to Thee, that Thou mightst make of me now whatsoever +pleased Thee, and because the priests did not wish to be gracious to me +without money, that Thou mightst be willing to be my gracious God and +Father. + +"Then I felt that my whole heart was changed. I was disgusted with +everything in this world, and it seemed to me that I had quite enough of +this life. One thing only did I desire, that is, to live for God, that I +might be pleasing to Him. But who was there at that time who would have +taught me how I had to go about it? For the word, life, and light of +mankind was buried throughout the whole world in the deepest darkness of +human ordinances and of the quite foolish good works. Of Christ there +was complete silence, nothing was known about Him, or, if mention was +made of Him, He was represented unto us as a dreadful, fearful Judge, +whom scarcely His mother and all the saints in heaven could reconcile +and make merciful with bloody tears; and yet it was done in such a way +that He, Christ, thrust the human being who did penance into the pains +of purgatory seven years for each capital sin. It was claimed that the +pain of purgatory differed from the pain of hell in nothing except that +it was not to last forever. The Holy Ghost, however, now brought me the +hope that God would be merciful unto me. + +"And now I began to take counsel a few days with myself as to how I +might take up some other vocation in life. For I saw the sin of the +world and of the whole human race; I saw my manifold sin, which was very +great. I had also heard something of the secret holiness and the pure, +innocent life of the monks, how they served God day and night, were +separated from all the wicked life of the world, and lived very sober, +pious, and virtuous lives, read masses, sang psalms, fasted, and prayed +at all times. I had also seen this sham life, but I did not know and +understand that it was the greatest idolatry and hypocrisy. + +"Thereupon I made my decision known to the preceptor, Master Andreas +Staffelstein, who was the chief regent of the school; he advised me +straightway to enter the Franciscan cloister, the rebuilding of which +had been begun at that time. And in order that I might not become +differently minded in consequence of long delay, he straightway went +with me himself to the monks, praised my intellect and ability, declared +in terms of praise that he bad considered me the only one among his +pupils of whom he was entirely confident that I should become a very +devout man. + +"I wished, however, first to announce my intention to my parents, too, +and hear their ideas about the matter, since I was a lone son and heir +of my parents. The monks, however, taught me from St. Jerome that I +should drop father and mother, and not take them into consideration, and +run to the cross of Christ. They quoted, too, the words of Christ, 'No +one who lays hands to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of +God.' All of this was bound to impel and enjoin me to become a monk. I +will not speak here of many ropes and fetters with which they bound and +tied my conscience. For they said that I could never become blessed if I +did not soon accept and use the grace offered by God. Thereupon I, who +would rather have been willing to die than be without the grace of God +and eternal life, straightway promised and engaged to come into the +cloister again in three days and begin the year of probation, as they +called it, in the cloister; that is, I wanted to become a pious, devout, +and God-fearing monk. + +"In the year of Christ 1510, the 14th of July, at two o'clock in the +afternoon, I entered the cloister, accompanied by my preceptor, some few +of my school-comrades, and some very devout matrons, to whom I had in +part made known the reason why I was entering the spiritual order. And +so I blessed my companions to the cloister, all of whom, amid tears, +wished me God's grace and blessing. And thus I entered the cloister. +Dear God, Thou knowest that this is all true. I did not seek idleness or +provision for my stomach, nor the appearance of great holiness, but I +wished to be pleasing unto Thee--Thee I wished to serve. + +"Thus I at that time groped about in very great darkness" (p. 38 ff.)* + *This account is published by the courtesy of the Lutheran +Publication Society of Philadelphia; it is taken from their publication +_Doctor Luther,_ by Gustav Freitag. + +Few Christians can read this old record without pity stirring in them. +The man of whom Myconius tells all this, Tetzel, has been recently +represented to the American public as a theologian far superior to +Luther, calm, considerate, kind, and of his actions the public has been +advised that they were so utterly correct that the Roman Catholic Church +of to-day does not hesitate one moment to do what Tetzel did. So mote it +be! We admire the writer's honesty, and blush for his brazen boldness. + + +15. Luther's Faith without Works. + +Out of Luther's opposition to the sale of indulgences there grew in the +course of time one of the fundamental principles of Protestantism: +complete, universal, and free salvation of sinners by grace through +faith in Jesus Christ. In the controversies which started immediately +after the publication of the Ninety-five Theses, Luther was led step by +step to a greater clearness in his view of sin and grace, faith and +works, human reason and the divine revelation. Not yet realizing the +full import of his act, Luther had in the Theses made that article of +the Christian faith with which the Church either stands or falls the +issue of his lifelong conflict with Rome--the article of the +justification of a sinner before God. It is, therefore, convenient to +review the misrepresentations which Luther has suffered from Catholic +writers because of his teaching on the subject of justification at this +early stage in our review, though in doing so a great many things will +have to be anticipated. + +Catholic writers charge Luther with having perverted the meaning of +justifying faith. Luther held that justifying faith is essentially the +assurance that since Christ lived on earth as a man, labored, suffered, +died, and rose again in the place of sinners, the world _en masse_ and +every individual sinner are without guilt in the estimation of God. "God +was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their +trespasses unto them." (2 Cor. 5, 19.) To this reconciliation the sinner +has contributed nothing. It has been accomplished without him. He cannot +add anything to it. God only asks the sinner to believe in his salvation +as finished by Jesus Christ. To believe this fact does not mean to +perform a work of merit in consideration of which God is willing to +bestow salvation on the believer, but it means to accept the work of +Christ as performed in our place, to rejoice therein, and to repose a +sure confidence in this salvation in defiance of the accusations of our +own conscience, the incriminations which the broken Law of God hurls at +us, and the terrors of the final judgment. The believer regards himself +as righteous before God not because of any good work that he has done, +but because of the work which Christ has performed in his place. The +believer holds that, when God, by raising Christ from the dead, accepted +His work as a sufficient atonement for men's guilt and an adequate +fulfilment of the divine Law, He accepted each and every sinner. The +believer is certain that through the work of his Great Brother, Christ, +he has been restored to a child relationship with God and enjoys child's +privileges with his Father in heaven. The idea that he himself has done +anything to bring about this blessed state of affairs is utterly foreign +to this faith in Christ. + +Catholic writers assert that the doctrine which we have just outlined is +not Scriptural, but represents the grossest perversion of Scripture. +They say this doctrine originated in "the erratic brain of Luther." +Luther "was not an exact thinker, and being unable to analyze an idea +into its constituents, as is necessary for one who will apprehend it +correctly, he failed to grasp questions which by the general mass of the +people were thoroughly and correctly understood. . . . He allowed +himself to cultivate an unnecessary antipathy to so-called 'holiness by +works,' and this attitude, combined with his tendency to look at the +worst side of things, and his knowledge of some real abuses then +prevalent in the practise of works, doubtless contributed to develop his +dislike for good works in general, and led him by degrees to strike at +the very roots of the Catholic system of sacraments and grace, of +penance and satisfaction, in fact, all the instruments or means +instituted by God both for conferring and increasing His saving +relationship with man." Luther's teaching on justification is said to be +the inevitable reverse of his former self-exaltation. Abandoning the +indispensable virtue of humility, he had become a prey to spiritual +pride, and had entered the monastery to achieve perfect righteousness by +his own works. He had disregarded the wise counsels of his brethren, who +had warned him not to depend too much on his own powers, but seek the +aid of God. Then failing to make himself perfect, he had run to the +other extreme and declared that there was nothing good in man at all, +and that man could not of himself perform any worthy action. Finally he +had hit upon the idea that justification means, "not an infusion of +justice into the heart of the person justified, but a mere external +imputation of it." Faith, in Luther's view, thus becomes an assurance +that this imputation has taken place, and man accordingly need not give +himself any more trouble about his salvation. + +This teaching, Catholic writers contend, subverts the prominent teaching +of the Scriptures that man must obey God and keep His commandments, that +he must be perfect, even as his Father in heaven is perfect, that he +must follow in the footsteps of Jesus who said: "I am not come to +destroy the Law, but to fulfil it." Furthermore, this teaching is said +to dehumanize man and make out of him a stock and a stone, utterly unfit +for any spiritual effort. God, they say, constituted man a rational +being and imposed certain precepts on him which he was free to keep or +violate as he might choose unto eternal happiness or eternal misery. The +sin which all inherit from Adam has weakened the powers of man to do +good, but it has not entirely abolished them. There is still something +good in man by nature, and if he wants to please God and obtain His aid +in his good endeavors, he must at least do as much as is still in his +power to do, and believe that God for Jesus' sake will assist him to +become perfect, if not in this life, then, at any rate, in the life to +come. He cannot avoid sin altogether, but he can avoid sin to a certain +extent; he can at least lead an outwardly decent life. That is worth +something, that is "meritorious." He may not feel a very deep contrition +over his wrong-doings, but he can feel at least an attrition, that is, a +little sorrow, or he can wish that he might feel sorry. That is worth +something; that is "meritorious." He cannot love God with all his heart +and all his soul, and all his strength, but he can love Him some. That +is worth something; that is "meritorious." Accordingly, when the rich +young man asked the Lord what he must do to gain heaven, the Lord did +not say, "Believe in Me, Accept Me for your personal Savior, Have faith +in Me," but He said: "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the +commandments." Paul, likewise teaches that faith and love must cooperate +in man, for "faith worketh by love." Therefore, "faith in love and love +in faith justify," but not faith alone. Faith without works is dead and +cannot justify. A live faith is a faith that has works to show as its +credentials that it is real faith. Hence, faith alone does not justify, +but faith and works. Love is the fulfilment of the Law; faith works by +love, hence, by the fulfilment of the Law. Therefore, faith alone does +not justify, but faith plus the fulfilment of the Law. In endless +variations Catholic writers thus seek to upset with Scripture Luther's +teaching that man is justified by faith in Christ alone, and that all +the righteousness which a sinner can present before God without fear +that it will be rejected is a borrowed righteousness, not his own +work-righteousness. + +We might express a just surprise that Catholics should be offended at +the doctrine that the righteousness of Christ is imputed, that is, +reckoned or counted, to the sinner as his own. For, does not their +system of indulgences rest on a theory of imputation? Do they not, by +selling from the Treasure of the Church the superabundant merits of +Christ and the saints to the sinner who has not a sufficient amount of +them, make those merits the sinner's own by just such a process of +imputation? They surely cannot infuse those merits into the sinner. But +Catholics probably object to the Protestant imputation-teaching because +that is too cheap and easy, and because Protestant success has spoiled a +lucrative Catholic imputation-business.--This in passing. Let the Bible +decided [tr. note: sic] whether Luther was right in teaching +justification by faith alone, by faith without works. + +What does the Bible say about the condition of natural man after the +fall? It says: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," that is, +corrupt (John 3, 6); "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his +youth" (Gen. 8, 21); "They are all gone aside, they are altogether +become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Ps. 14, 3); +"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one" (Job 14, 4); +"There is here no difference; for all have sinned and come short of the +glory of God (Rom. 3, 22. 23). + +What does the Bible say about the powers of natural man after the fall +in reference to spiritual matters? It says: "The natural man receiveth +not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; +neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 +Cor. 2, 14); "Ye were dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2, 1); "The +carnal mind," that is, the mind of flesh, the natural mind of man, "is +enmity against God" (Rom. 8, 7); "Without Me"--Jesus is the Speaker--"ye +can do nothing" John 15, 5). + +What does the Bible say about the value of man's works of righteousness +performed by his natural powers? It says: "We are all as an unclean +thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Is. 64, 6); "A +corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit" (Matt. 7, 17). + +What does the Bible say about man's ability to fulfil the Law of God? It +says: "Cursed is he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to do +them" (Deut. 27, 26) ; "Whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet +offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (Jas. 2, 10) ; "What the Law +could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His +own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in +the flesh" (Rom. 8, 38); "The Law worketh wrath," that is, by convincing +man that he has not fulfilled it and never will fulfil it, it rouses +man's anger against God who has laid this unattainable Law upon him +(Rom. 4, 15). + +What does the Bible say about the relation of Christ to the Law and to +sin? It says: "God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the +Law, that He might redeem them that were under the Law" (Gal. 4, 4); +"Christ is the end of the Law 'for righteousness to every one that +believeth" (Rom. 10, 4); "God hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no +sin, that we might be made the righteous of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5, 21); +"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law; being made a curse +for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree" +(Gal. 3, 13). + +What does the Bible say about faith without works as a means of +justification? It says: "We conclude that a man is justified by faith, +without the deeds of the Law" (Rom. 3, 28); "To him that worketh not, +but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted +for righteousness" (Rom. 4, 5); "I rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no +confidence in the flesh, though I might also have confidence in the +flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in +the flesh, I more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, +of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the Law, +a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the Church; touching the +righteousness which is in the Law, blameless. [The speaker is the +apostle Paul.] But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for +Christ. Yea, doubtless; and I count all things but loss for the +excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have +suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may +win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which +is of the Law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the +righteousness which is of God by faith" (Phil. 3, 3-9) ; "If by grace, +then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it +be of works, then is it no more grace; otherwise work is no more work" +(Rom. 11, 6). (The Catholic Bible omits the last half of this text.) + +What does the Bible say about faith being assurance of pardon and +everlasting life? It says: "If God be for us, who can be against us? He +that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall +He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything +to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that +condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, +who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for +us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or +distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? +Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that +loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, +nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, +nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate +us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord" (Rom. 8, +31-39); "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able +to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day" (2 Tim. +1, 12). + +Here we rest our case. If Luther was wrong in teaching the justification +of the sinner by faith, without the deeds of the Law, then Paul was +wrong, Jesus Christ was wrong, the apostles and prophets were wrong, the +whole Bible is wrong. Catholics must square themselves to these texts +before they dare to open their mouths against Luther. If Luther was a +heretic, the Lord Jesus made him one, and He is making a heretic of +every reader of the texts aforecited. Rome will have to answer to Him. + +But what about the answer of the Lord to the rich young man? What about +the commandment to be perfect? Does not the doctrine of justification by +faith alone, without the deeds of the Law, abolish the holy and good Law +of God? Not at all. When Paul expounds to the Galatians the doctrine of +justification by faith as compared with justification by works, he +arrays the Law against the Gospel, and raises this question: "Is the +Law, then, against the promises of God?" His answer reveals the whole +difficulty that attends every effort to obtain righteousness by +fulfilling the Law, he says: "God forbid: for if there had been a law +given which could have given life, verily, righteousness should have +been by the Law." (Gal. 3, 21.) Christ expressed the same truth when He +said to the lawyer: "Do this, and thou shalt live." (Luke 10, 28.) The +reason why the Law makes no person righteous is not because it is not a +sufficient rule or norm of good works by which men could earn eternal +life, but because it does not furnish man any ability to achieve that +righteousness which it demands. No law does that. The law only creates +duties, and insists on their fulfilment under threat of punishment. It +is not the function of the law to make doers of the law. Originally the +Law was issued to men who were able to fulfil it, because they were +created after the image of God, in perfect holiness and righteousness. +That they lost this concreate [tr. note: sic] ability through the fall is +no reason why God should change or abrogate His Law. He purposes to help +them in another way, by sending them His Son for a Redeemer, who fulfils +the Law in their stead. But this wonderful plan of God for the rescue of +lost man is not appreciated by any one who still believes, as the +Catholics do, that he has some good powers in him left which he can +develop with the help of God to such an extent that he can make himself +righteous. To such a person Jesus says to-day as He said to the rich +young man: "Keep the commandments!" That means, since you believe in +your ability, proceed to employ it. Your reward is sure, provided only +you do what the Law demands. But just as surely the curse of God rests +on you if you do not do it. When you have become convinced that it is +impossible to fulfil the Law, you may ask a different question, a +question which the knowledge of your spiritual disability has wrested +from you as it did from the jailer at Philippi: "What must I do to be +saved?" and you will not receive the answer: "Keep the commandments!" +but: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," (Acts +16, 29. 30.) Not a word will be said any more about anything that you +must do. You will be told: All that you ought to have done has been +accomplished by One who died with the exclamation: "It is finished!" +(John 19, 30), and who now sends His messengers abroad inviting men to +His free salvation: "Come, for all things are now ready!" (Luke 14, 17.) +"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath +no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without +money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is +not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken +diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good" (Is. 55, 1. 2.) When +you have wearied yourself to death by your efforts to achieve +righteousness, as Paul did when he was still the Pharisee Saul of +Tarsus, as Luther did while he was still in the bondage of popery, when +you have become hot in your confused and despairing mind against God and +the Law, which you cannot fulfil, you will appreciate the voice that +calls to you as it has called to millions before you: "Come unto Me, all +ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt. 11, +28.) And if you are wise, then, with the wisdom which the Spirit gives +the children of God, you will not delay a minute, but come rejoicing +that you need not get salvation by works, and will sing: + + Just as I am, without one plea + But that Thy blood was shed for me, + And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, + O Lamb of God, I come, I come! + +Rome has cursed Luther for teaching justification by faith, without the +deeds of the Law. The principles which he had timidly uttered in the +Theses led to bolder declarations later, when the full light of the +blessed Gospel had come to him. It brought him the curse of the Pope in +the bull _Exsurge, Domine!_ of June 15, 1520. The following estimate by +a recent Catholic writer is a fair sample of the sentiments cherished by +official Rome for Luther: "From out the vast number whom the enemy of +man raised up to invent heresies, which, St. Cyprian says, 'destroy +faith and divide unity,' not one, or all together, ever equaled or +surpassed Martin Luther in the wide range of his errors, the ferocity +with which he promulgated them, and the harm he did in leading souls +away from the Church, the fountain of everlasting truth. The heresies of +Sabellius, Arius, Pelagius, and other rebellious men were insignificant +as compared with those Luther formulated and proclaimed four hundred +years ago, and which, unfortunately, have ever since done service +against the Church of the living God. In Luther most, if not all, former +heresies meet, and reach their climax. To enumerate fully all the +wicked, false, and perverse teachings of the arch-heretic would require +a volume many times larger than the Bible, and every one of the lies and +falsehoods that have been used against the Catholic Church may be traced +back to him as to their original formulator." The cause for this +undisguised hatred of Luther is chiefly Luther's teaching of +justification by faith, without works. In its Sixth Session the Council +of Trent condemned the following doctrines: + +_On Free Will:_ Canon IV: "If any one says that the free will of man, +when moved and stirred by God, cannot, by giving assent, cooperate with +God, who is stirring and calling man, so that he disposes and prepares +himself for obtaining the grace of justification, or that he cannot +dissent if he wills, but, like some inanimate thing, does absolutely +nothing and is purely passive,--let him be accursed." + +_On Justification:_ Canon IX: "If any one says that the ungodly are +justified by faith alone, in the sense that nothing else is required on +their part that might cooperate to the end of obtaining the grace of +justification, and that it is in no wise necessary that they be prepared +and disposed (for this grace) by a movement of the will,--let him be +accursed." + +Canon XI: "If any one says that man is justified either by the +imputation of the righteousness of Christ alone or by the remission of +his sins alone, without grace and love being diffused through his heart +by the Holy Spirit and inhering therein, or that the grace whereby we +are justified is merely the good will of God,--let him be accursed." + +Canon XII: "If any one says that justifying faith is nothing else than +trust in the divine mercy which forgives sins for Christ's sake, or that +it is this trust alone by which we are justified,--let him be accursed." + +Canon XXIV: "If any one says that righteousness, after having been +received, is not conserved nor augmented before God by good works, but +that these works are merely the fruits or signs of the justification +which one has obtained, and that they are not a reason why justification +is increased,--let him be accursed." + +It is a well-known characteristic of the decrees of the Council of Trent +that truth and error appear skilfully interwoven in them. They are like +a double motion that is offered in a deliberative body: they contain +things which one must affirm, and other things which one must negative. +They cannot be voted on--many of them--except after a division of the +question. They contain "riders" like those in a bill that comes before a +legislative body: in order to pass the bill at all, the "rider" must be +passed along with the bill. But enough crops out in these decrees to +show that the Catholic Church is not willing to let the merits of Christ +be regarded as the only thing that justifies the sinner. He must +cooperate with the Holy Spirit to the end of being justified. He must +prepare and dispose himself for receiving justifying grace, and this +grace is infused into him, and manifests itself in holy movements of the +heart and by good works, in acts of love. The Roman Catholic Christian +is taught to believe that he is justified partly by what Christ has +done, partly by what he himself is doing. He cannot subscribe to Paul's +statement: "By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of +yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should +boast." (Eph. 2, 8. 9.) Nor is his justification ever complete, because +his love is never perfect. It must be increased even after his death. +The Roman purgatory contains sinners whom God had justified as far as He +could, the sinners remaining in arrears with their, part of the +contract. Accordingly, the sinner can never have the assurance that he +will enter heaven. It would be presumptuous for him to think so. He must +live on and work on at his poor dying rate, and hope for the best. + +This teaching of the Church of Rome subverts Christianity. It strikes at +the root of the faith that saves. It is a relapse into paganism and an +affront offered to the Savior. It borrows the language of Scripture to +express the most hideous error. By this teaching Rome does not drive men +into purgatory,--which does not exist,--but into hell. It is only by a +miracle of divine grace that sinners are saved where such teaching +prevails: they must forget what is told them about the necessity of +their own works and cling only to the Redeemer, and must thus +practically repudiate the teaching of their Church. Some do this, and +escape the pernicious consequences of the error of their Church. All of +them will rise up in the Judgment to accuse their teachers of a heresy +the worst imaginable. + +Rome has, indeed, assailed "the article with which the Church either +stands or falls." All its other errors, crass, grotesque, and repulsive +though they are, are mere child's play in comparison with this damning +and destructive error of justification by works. Luther rightly +estimated the virulence of this abysmal heresy when he said that those +who attacked his teaching of justification by grace through faith alone +were aiming at his throat. Rome's teaching on justification is an +attempt to strike at the vitals of Christian faith and life. It sinks +the dagger into the heart of Christianity. + + +16. The Fatalist Luther. + +Catholic writers have discovered a fatalistic tendency in Luther's +teaching of justification by faith without works. They declare that +Luther's theory of the utter depravity of man by reason of inherited sin +and his incapacity to perform any work that can be accounted good in the +sight of God kills every ambition to virtuous living in man. They argue +that when you tell a person that he is not capable to do good, he is apt +to believe you and make no effort to perform a good deed. The situation +becomes still worse when the divine predestination is introduced at this +point, as has been done, they say, by Luther. If God has determined all +things beforehand by a sovereign decree, if there really is no such +thing as human choice, and all things occur according to a foreordained +plan, man no longer has any responsibility. He is reduced to an +automaton. Free will is denied him; he cannot elect by voluntary choice +to engage in any God-pleasing action; for he is told that his natural +reason is blinded by sin and his understanding darkened, rendering it +impossible for him to discern good and evil, and leading him constantly +into errors of judgment on what is right or wrong, while he is made to +believe that his will is enslaved by evil lusts and passions, ever prone +to wickedness and averse to godliness. As a consequence, it is claimed, +man must necessarily become morally indifferent: he will not fight +against sin nor follow after righteousness, because he has become +convinced that it is useless for him to make any effort either in the +one direction or in the other. The doctrine of man's natural depravity +and the divine foreordination of all things, it is held, must drive man +either to despair, insanity, and suicide, or land him hopelessly in +fatalism: he will simply continue his physical life in a mechanical way, +like a brute or a plant; he merely vegetates. + +These fatal tendencies which are charged against Luther are refuted by +no one more effectually than by Luther himself. As regards the doctrine +of original sin and man's natural depravity, Luther preached that with +apostolic force and precision. That doctrine is a Bible-doctrine. No +person has read his Bible aright, no expounder of Scripture has begun to +explain the divine plan of salvation for sinners, if he has failed to +find this teaching in the Bible. This doctrine is, indeed, extremely +humiliating to the pride of man; it opens up appalling views of the +misery of the human race under sin. We can understand why men would want +to get away from this doctrine. But no one confers any benefit on men by +minimizing the importance of the Bible-teaching, or by weakening the +statements of Scripture regarding this matter. Any teaching which admits +the least good quality in man by which he can prepare or dispose himself +so as to induce God to view him with favor is a contradiction of the +passages of Scripture which were cited in a previous chapter, and works +a delusion upon men that will prove just as fatal as when a physician +withholds from his patient the full knowledge of his critical condition. +Yea, it is worse; for a physician who is not frank and sincere to his +patient may deprive the latter of his physical life, but the +teacher of God's Word who instils in men false notions of their moral +and spiritual power robs them of life eternal. + +Luther avoided this error. He led men to a true estimate of themselves +as they are by nature. But over and against the fell power of sin he +magnified the greater power of divine grace. "Where sin abounded, grace +hath much more abounded" (Rom. 5, 20),--along this line Luther found the +solution for the awful difficulty which confronts every man when he +studies the Bible-doctrine of original sin, and when he discovers, +moreover, that this Bible-doctrine is borne out fully by his own +experience. Just for this reason, because man can do nothing to restore +himself to the divine favor, God by His grace proposes to do all, and +has sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to do all, and, last +not least, publishes the fact that all has been done in the Gospel of +the forgiveness of sin by grace through faith in Christ. Luther has +taught men to confess: "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or +strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him," but he taught them +also to follow up this true confession with the other: "The Holy Ghost +has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified +and kept me in the true faith." + +The Gospel is called in the Scriptures "the Word of Life," not only +because it speaks of the life everlasting which God has prepared for His +children, but also because it gives life. It approaches man, dead in +trespasses and sins, and quickens him into new life. It removes from the +mind of man its natural blindness and from the will of man its innate +impotency. It regenerates all the dead powers of the soul, and makes man +walk in newness of life. The difficulty which original sin has created +is not greater than the means and instruments which God has provided for +coping with it. "God hath concluded all in unbelief, that He might have +mercy on all." (Rom. 11, 32.) + +This is the only true salvation, every other is fictitious. It teaches +man both to face the fearful odds against him because of his corruption, +and to relish all the more the points in his favor by reason of God's +redeeming and regenerating grace. It starts its work with crushing man's +pride and self-confidence utterly, and hurling him into the abyss of +despair, but it lifts him out of despair with a mighty power that breaks +the power of evil in him. This change is brought about in such a gentle, +tender way that the sinner has no sensation of being coerced into the +new life by some farce which he cannot resist. It wins him over to God +and his Christ in spite of his resistance, and makes out of his +unwilling heart a willing one, which gladly coincides with the leadings +of grace. + +The Roman scheme of salvation might be called the ostrich method: it +teaches men the foolish strategy of the bird of the desert, which hides +its head in the sand when it sees an enemy approaching, and then +imagines the enemy does not exist. Original sin may be disputed out of +the Bible by a false interpretation, but it is not thereby ruled out of +existence. When face to face with his God--if no sooner, then in the +hour of death--every man feels that he is utterly corrupt and worthless, +and he will curse any teacher that caused him to believe otherwise. Free +will is not created by assertions. Let the apostles of free will only +try, and they will find out that their freedom is nil. Catholics +denounce Luther for having declared the free will of man to be nothing +than a word without substance: we hear the sound when the word is +pronounced, and grasp its grammatical meaning, but we do not realize it +in ourselves. Every person, however, who has truly come to know himself +will side with Luther, or rather with the Bible. Furthermore, to the +same extent to which the Roman view exalts man's natural powers for +good, it lowers and limits the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit, and +begets a false confidence and security that is rudely shaken when the +first slip and fall occurs in the person's Christian life. He has never +really laid hold of the grace of God, because he has not been taught to +trust only to the grace of God to lead and preserve him in the way of +life. He will begin to distrust the Gospel as a very inefficient +instrument, and this will lead him to become indifferent to it, and +finally fall away from it entirely. A real danger of apostasy and +despair exists wherever the Roman dogma of man's natural free will is +proclaimed. + +It is, however, doing Luther a flagrant injustice when he is made to +deny that man has no longer any natural reason and will in the secular +affairs of this life. Luther used to divide the entire life of man into +two hemispheres, the upper embracing man's relation to God, holy things, +the interests of the soul here and hereafter, and the lower, embracing +the purely human, temporal, and secular interests of man. It is only in +the higher hemisphere that Luther denies the existence of free will. +Throughout his writings Luther asserts the existence, the actual +operation, and the necessity of human free will, though sadly weakened +by sin, in the affairs of this present life. It will be sufficient to +cite as evidence the Augsburg Confession which was drawn up with +Luther's aid and submitted to Emperor Charles V in 1530 as the joint +belief of Luther and his followers. "Of the Freedom of the Will," say +the Protestant confessors, "they teach that man's will has some liberty +for the attainment of civil righteousness and for the choice of things +subject to reason. Nevertheless, it has not power, without the Holy +Ghost, to work the righteousness of God, that is, spiritual +righteousness, since the natural man receiveth not the things of the +Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2, 14); but this righteousness is wrought in the +heart when the Holy Ghost is received through the Word. These things are +said in as many words by Augustine in his _Hypognosticon_ (Book III): +'We grant that all men have a certain freedom of will in judging +according to natural reason; not such freedom, however, whereby it is +capable, without God, either to begin, much less to complete aught in +things pertaining to God, but only in works of this life, whether good +or evil. "Good" I call those works which spring from the good in Nature, +that is, to have a will to labor in the field, to eat and drink, to have +a friend, to clothe oneself, to build a house, to marry, to keep cattle, +to learn divers useful arts, or whatsoever good pertains to this life, +none of which things are without dependence on the providence of God; +yea, of Him and through Him they are and have their beginning. "Evil" I +call such things as, to have a will to worship an idol, to commit +murder,' etc." (Art. 18.) + +Luther has always held that there is a natural intelligence and wisdom, +a natural will-power and energy which men employ in their daily +occupations, their trades and professions, their trade and commerce, +their literature and art, their culture and refinement, yea, that there +is also a natural knowledge of God even among the Gentiles, who yet +"know not God," and a seeming performance of the things which God has +commanded. But these natural abilities do not reach into the higher +hemisphere; they cannot pass muster at the bar of divine justice. They +do not spring from right motives, nor do they aim at right ends; they +are determined by man's self-interest. They come short of that glory +which God ought to receive from worshipers in spirit and in truth (Rom. +3, 23; John 4, 23); they are evil in as far as they are the corrupt +fruits of corrupt trees. In condemning the moral quality of these +natural works of civil righteousness, Luther has said no more than +Christ and His apostles have said. + +Luther taught the Bible-doctrine that there is in God a hidden will +which He has reserved to His majesty (Dent. 29); that His judgments are +unsearchable and His ways past finding out (Rom. 11, 33); that not even +a sparrow falls to the ground without His will, and that the very hairs +of our head are numbered (Matt. 10, 29. 30); that no evil can occur +anywhere without His permission (Amos 3, 6; Is. 45, 7). To deny these +truths is to reject the Bible and to destroy the sovereign omniscience +and omnipotence of God. Those who attack Luther for believing that also +the evil in this world is related to God will have to change their bill +of indictment: their charge is really directed against Scripture. Luther +has, however, warned men not to attempt a study of this secret will of +God, for the plain reason that it is secret, and it would be blasphemous +presumption to try and find it out. All our dealings with God must be on +the basis of His revealed will. If we only will study that, we will be +fully occupied our whole life. + +As regards the Scriptural doctrine of predestination, that those who +ultimately attain to the life everlasting have been chosen to that end, +Luther has warned men not to study this doctrine outside of Christ and +the Gospel. God has told His children for their comfort amid the +vicissitudes of this life that He has secured their eternal happiness +against all dangers, but He has not asked them, nor does He permit them, +to find out _a priori_ whether this or that person is elect. Jesus +Christ is the Book of Life in which the elect are to find their names +recorded, and in the general way of salvation through repentance, faith, +and sanctification of life they are to be led to the heritage of the +saints in light. In his summary of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh +chapters of Romans, Luther states that by His eternal election God has +taken our salvation entirely out of our hands and placed it in His own +hands. "And this is most highly necessary. For we are so feeble and +fickle that, if salvation depended upon us, not a person would be saved; +the devil would overcome them all. But since God is reliable and His +election cannot fail or be thwarted by any one, we still have hope over +and against sin. But at this point a limit must be fixed for the +presumptuous spirits who soar too high. They lead their reason first to +this subject, they start at the pinnacle, they want to explore first the +abyss of the divine election, and wrestle vainly with the question +whether they are elect. These people bring about their own overthrow: +they are either driven to despair or become reckless.--Follow the order +of this Epistle: First, occupy yourself with Christ and the Gospel, in +order that you may learn to know your sin and His grace; next, begin to +wrestle with your sin, as chapters 1-8 teach you to do. Then, after you +have reached the doctrine concerning crosses and tribulations in the +eighth chapter, you will rightly learn the doctrine of election in +chapters 9-11, because you will realize what a comfort this doctrine +contains. For the doctrine of election can be studied without injury and +secret anger against God only by those who have passed through +suffering, crosses, and anguish of death. Accordingly, the old Adam in +you must be dead before you can bear this subject and drink this strong +wine. See that you do not drink wine while you are still a babe. There +is a proper time, age, and manner for propounding the various doctrines +of God to men." What is there fatalistic about this? + + +17. Luther a Teacher of Lawlessness. + +Luther's teaching on the forgiveness of sin is sternly rebuked by +Catholic writers because of its immoral tendencies. They say, when the +forgiveness of sins is made as easy as Luther makes it, the people will +cease being afraid if sinning. + +The danger of the Gospel of the gracious forgiveness of sins being +misapplied has always existed in the Church. Every student of church +history knows this. Catholic writers know this. Paul wrestled with this +practical perversion of the loving intentions of our heavenly Father in +his day. After declaring to the Romans: "Where sin abounded, grace did +much more abound," he raises the question: "What shall we say then? +Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" He returns this +horrified answer: "God forbid! How shall we, that are dead to sin, live +any longer therein?" (Rom. 5, 20-6, 2.) Actually there were people in +the apostle's days who drew from his evangelical teaching this +pernicious inference, that by sinning they gave the forgiving grace of +God a larger opportunity to exert itself, hence, that they were +glorifying grace by committing more sin. This meant putting a premium on +sinning. For God's sake, how can you conceive a thought like that? the +apostle exclaims. He repudiates the idea as blasphemous, which it is. To +sin in the assurance that sin will be forgiven is not honoring, but +dishonoring God and His grace; it is not exalting, but traducing faith; +it is not Christian, but devilish. Summarizing the contents of Romans, +chapter 5, Luther says: "In the fifth chapter Paul comes to speak of the +fruits and works of faith, such as peace, joy, love of God and all men, +and in addition to these, security, boldness, cheerfulness, courage and +hope amid tribulations and suffering. All these effects follow where +there is genuine faith, because of the superabundant blessing which God +has conferred upon us in Christ by causing Him to die for us before we +could pray that He might do this, yea, while we were yet His enemies. +Accordingly, we conclude that faith justifies without works of any kind, +and yet it does not follow that we must not do any good works. Genuine +good works cannot fail to flow from faith,--works of which the +self-righteous know nothing, and in the place of which they invent their +own works, in which there is neither peace, joy, security, love, hope, +boldness, nor any other of the characteristics of a genuine Christian +work and faith." In his Preface to Romans, Luther meets a somewhat +different objection to faith: Christians, after they have begun to +believe, still discover sin in themselves, and on account of this +imagine that faith alone cannot save them. There must be something done +in addition to believing to insure their salvation. In replying to this +scruple, Luther has given a classical description of the quality and +power of faith. This description serves to blast the Catholic charge +that Luther's easy way of justifying the sinner leads to increased +sinning. Luther says: "Faith is not the human notion and dream which +some regard as faith. When they observe that no improvement of life nor +any good works flow from faith even where people hear and talk much +about faith, they fall into this error that they declare: faith is not +sufficient, you must do works if you wish to become godly and be saved. +The reason is, these people, when they hear the Gospel, hurriedly +formulate by their own powers a thought in their heart which asserts: I +believe. This thought they regard as genuine faith. However, as their +faith is but a human figment and idea that never reaches the bottom of +the heart, it is inert and effects no improvement. Genuine faith, +however, is a divine work in us by which we are changed and born anew of +God. (John 1, 13.) It slays the old Adam, and makes us entirely new men +in our heart, mind, ideas, and all our powers. It brings us the Holy +Spirit. Oh, this faith is a lively, active, busy, mighty thing! It is +impossible for faith not to be active without ceasing. Faith does not +ask whether good works are to be done, but before the question has been +asked, it has accomplished good works; yea, it is always engaged in +doing good works. Whoever does not do such good works is void of faith; +he gropes and mopes about, looking for faith and good works, but knows +neither what faith nor what good works are, though he may prate and +babble ever so much about faith and good works." + +There has never been a time when the Gospel and the grace of God have +not been wrested to wicked purposes by insincere men, hypocrites, and +bold spirits. For this reason God has instructed Christians: "Give not +that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before +swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend +you." (Matt. 7, 6.) The danger of misapplied grace is a present-day +danger in every evangelical community. Earnest Christian ministers and +laymen strive with this misapplication wherever they discover it. Can +they do any more? + +Rome will say: Why do you not do as we do in our Church? We do not +preach the Gospel in such a reckless fashion, we make men work for their +salvation. Rome would abolish or considerably limit the preaching of +free and abundant grace to the sinner. We recoil from this suggestion +because it makes the entire work of Christ of none effect, and wipes out +the grandest portions of our Bible. If every abuse of something that is +good must be stopped by abolishing the proper use, then let us give up +eating because some make gluttons of themselves; drinking, because some +are drunkards; wearing clothes, because there is much vanity in dresses; +marriage, because some marriages are shamefully conducted, etc., etc. + +The Roman Church does not operate on evangelical principles. Does it +succeed better in cultivating true holiness among its members by its +system of penances and its teaching of the meritoriousness of men's acts +of piety? Catholics say to us sneeringly: It is easy to have faith; it +is very convenient, when you wish to indulge, or have indulged, some +passion, to remember that there is grace for forgiveness. But is any +great difficulty connected with going through a penance that the priest +has imposed, buying a wax candle, reciting sixteen Paternosters and ten +Ave Marias, and then sitting down and saying to yourself: "Good boy! +you've done it, you have squared your account again with the Almighty"? +What sanctifying virtue lies in abstaining from beefsteak on Friday? +Rome nowhere has improved men by her mechanical piety. What she has +accomplished was made possible by the fear of purgatorial torments, by +slavish dread of her mysterious powers, by ambition and bigotry. We +would not exchange our abused treasures for her system of workmongery. + +But the Catholic charge of tendencies to lawlessness that are said to be +contained in. Luther's teaching of faith without works are more serious. +Luther is cited by them as declaring that one may commit innumerable +sins, and they will not harm one as long as one keeps on believing in +the grace of forgiveness. It is true, Luther has spoken words to this +effect, and that, on quite a number of occasions. Worse +than that, what Luther has said is actually true. As a matter of fact, +no sin can deprive the believer of salvation. There is only one sin that +ultimately damns, final impenitence and unbelief, by which is understood +the rejection of the atonement which Christ offered for the sins of the +world. That atonement is actually the full satisfaction rendered to our +Judge for all the sins which we have done, are doing, and will be doing +till the end of our lives. For the person that dies a perfect saint, +sinless and impeccable, is still to be born. The comfort that I derive +from my Redeemer to-day will be my comfort to-morrow, that will be my +only prop and stay in my dying hour. I shall need Him every hour. This +is a perfectly Christian thought. St. John writes: "My little children, +these things write I unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin,"-- +mark this well: "If any man sin," though he ought not to sin,--what does +the apostle say to him? He does not say: Then you are damned! or: It +will require so many fasts, masses, and candles to restore you! but this +is what he says: "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, +Jesus Christ the Righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins, and +not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John +2, 1. 2.) John, then, must be included in the Catholic indictment of +Luther. Luther would not have been a preacher of the genuine and full +Gospel if he had not declared the impossibility of any sin or any number +of sins depriving a believer of salvation. + +But if the Catholics mean to say that Luther's evangelical declaration +means that no believer can fall from grace by sinning, that he may sin +and remain in a state of grace,--that is simply slander. Luther holds, +indeed, that a person does not cease to be a Christian by every slip and +fault, but he insists that no dereliction of duty, no deviation from the +rule of godly living can be treated with indifference. It must be +repented of, God's forgiveness must be sought, and only in this way will +the Holy Spirit again be bestowed on the sinner. God may bear awhile +with a Christian who has fallen into sin, but the backslider has no +pleasant time with his God while he stays a backslider. This being a +question of every-day, practical Christianity, Luther frequently touches +this subject in his sermons, both in the Church Postil, the House +Postil, and in his occasional sermons. Luther's Catholic critics could +disabuse their mind about the tendencies to lawlessness in Luther's +teaching if they would look up references such as these: 9, 730. 1456 +f.; 11, 1790; 12, 448. 433; 13, 394; 6, 294. 1604. In one of these +references (9, 1456) Luther comments on 1 John 3, 6: "Whosoever abideth +in Him sinneth not; whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known +Him," as follows: "'Seeing' and 'knowing' in the phraseology of John is +as much as believing. `That every one which seeth the Son, and believeth +on Him, may have everlasting life' (John 6, 40). 'This is life eternal, +that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou +hast sent.' Accordingly, he that sins does not believe in Him; for faith +and sin cannot coexist. We may fall, but we may not cling to sin. The +kingdom of Christ is a kingdom of righteousness, not of sin." In the +Smalcald Articles Luther says: "But if certain sectarists would arise, +some of whom are perhaps already present, and in the time of the +insurrection of the peasants came to my view, holding that all those who +have once received the Spirit or the forgiveness of sins, or have become +believers, even though they would afterwards sin, would still remain in +the faith, and sin would not injure them, and cry thus: 'Do whatever you +please; if you believe, it is all nothing; faith blots out all sins,' +etc. They say, besides, that if any one sins after he has received faith +and the Spirit, he never truly had the Spirit and faith. I have seen and +heard of many men so insane, and I fear that such a devil is still +remaining in some. If, therefore, I say, such persons would hereafter +also arise, it is necessary to know and teach that if saints who still +have and feel original sin, and also daily repent and strive with it, +fall in some way into manifest sins, as David into adultery, murder, and +blasphemy, they cast out faith and the Holy Ghost. For the Holy Ghost +does not permit sin to have dominion, to gain the upper hand so as to be +completed, but represses and restrains it so that it must not do what it +wishes. But if it do what it wishes, the Holy Ghost and faith are not +there present. For St. John says (1. Ep. 3, 9): 'Whosoever is born of +God doth not commit sin, . . . and he cannot sin.' And yet that is also +the truth which the same St. John says (1. Ep. 1, 8): 'If we say that we +have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.'" (Part +III, Art. 3, Sec.Sec. 42-45; p. 329.) The Lutheran Church has received this +statement of Luther into her confessional writings. This is the Luther +of whom a modern Catholic critic says: "This thought of the +all-forgiving nature of faith so dominated his mind that it excluded the +notion of contrition, penance, good works, or effort on the part of the +believer, and thus his teaching destroyed root and branch the whole idea +of human culpability and responsibility for the breaking of the +Commandments." + +It is amazing boldness in Catholics to prefer this charge against +Luther, when they themselves teach a worse doctrine than they impute to +Luther. The Council of Trent in its Sixth Session, Canon 15, also in its +Sixteenth Session, Canon 15, Coster in his Enchiridion, in the chapter +on Faith, p. 178, Bellarminus on Justification, chapter 15, declare it +to be Catholic teaching that the believer cannot lose his faith by any, +even the worst, sin he may commit. They speak of believing fornicators, +believing adulterers, believing thieves, believing misers, believing +drunkards, believing slanderers, etc. The very teaching which Catholics +falsely ascribe to Luther is an accepted dogma of their own Church. +Their charge against Luther is, at best, the trick of crying, "Hold +thief!" to divert attention from themselves. + +But did not Luther in the plainest terms advise his friends Weller and +Melanchthon to practise immoralities as a means for overcoming their +despondency? Is he not reported in his Table Talk to have said that +looking at a pretty woman or taking a hearty drink would dispel gloomy +thoughts? that one should sin to spite the devil? Yes; and now that +these matters are paraded in public, it is best that the public be given +a complete account of what Luther wrote to Weller and Melanchthon. There +are three letters extant written to Weller during Luther's exile at +Castle Coburg while the Diet of Augsburg was in progress. On June 19, +1530, Luther writes: "Grace and peace in Christ! I have received two +letters from you, my dear Jerome [this was Weller's first name], both of +which truly delighted me; the second, however, was more than delightful +because in that you write concerning my son Johnny, stating that you are +his teacher, and that he is an active and diligent pupil. If I could, I +would like to show you some favor in return; Christ will recompense you +for what I am too little able to do. Magister Veit has, moreover, +informed me that you are at times afflicted with the spirit of +despondency. This affliction is most harmful to young people, as +Scripture says: 'A broken spirit drieth the bones' (Prov. 17, 22). The +Holy Spirit everywhere forbids such melancholy, as, for instance, in +Eccles. 11., 9: 'Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart +cheer thee in the days of thy youth,' and in the verse immediately +following: 'Remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy +flesh.' Ecclesiasticus, likewise, says, chap. 30, 22-25: 'The gladness +of the heart is the life of man, and the joyfulness of a man prolongeth +his days. Love thine own soul, and comfort thy heart, remove sorrow far +from the; for sorrow hath killed many, and there is no profit therein. +Envy and wrath shorten the life, and carefulness bringeth age before the +time. A cheerful and good heart will have a care of his meat and diet.' +Moreover, Paul says 2 Cor. 7, 10: 'The sorrow of the world worketh +death.' Above all, therefore, you must firmly cling to this thought, +that these evil and melancholy thoughts are not of God, but of the +devil; for God is not a God of melancholy, but a God of comfort and +gladness, as Christ Himself says: 'God is not the God of the dead, but +of the living' (Matt. 22, 32). What else does living mean than to be +glad in the Lord? Accordingly, become used to different thoughts, in +order to drive away these evil thoughts, and say: The Lord has not sent +you. This chiding which you experience is not of Him who has called you. +In the beginning the struggle is grievous, but by practise it becomes +more easy. You are not the only one who has to endure such thoughts, all +the saints were afflicted by them, but they fought against them and +conquered. Therefore, do not yield to these evils, but meet them +bravely. The greatest task in this struggle is not to regard these +thoughts, not to explore them, not to pursue the matters suggested, but +despise them like the hissing of a goose and pass them by. The person +that has learned to do this will conquer; whoever has not learned it +will be conquered. For to muse upon these thoughts and debate with them +means to stimulate them and make them stronger. Take the people of +Israel as an example: they overcame the serpents, not by looking at them +and wrestling with them, but by turning their eyes away from them and +looking in a different direction, namely, at the brazen serpent, and +they conquered. In this struggle that is the right and sure way of +winning the victory. A person afflicted with such thoughts said to a +certain wise man: What evil thoughts come into my mind! He received the +answer: Well, let them pass out again. That remark taught the person a +fine lesson. Another answered the same question thus: You cannot keep +the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from +building their nests in your hair. Accordingly, you will do the correct +thing when you are merry and engage in some pleasant pastime with some +one, and not scruple afterwards over having done so. For God is not +pleased with sadness, for which there is no reason. The sorrow over our +sins is brief and at the same time is made pleasant to us by the promise +of grace and the forgiveness of sins. But the other sorrow is of the +devil and without promise; it is sheer worry over useless and impossible +things which concern God. I shall have more to say to you when I return. +Meanwhile give my greetings to your brother; I began writing to him, but +the messenger who is to take this letter along is in a hurry. I shall +write to him later, also to Schneidewein and others. I commend your +pupil to you. May the Spirit of Christ comfort and gladden your heart! +Amen.' (21a, 1487 ff.) + +The second letter to Weller was presumably written some time in July. It +reads as follows: "Grace and peace in Christ. My dearest Jerome, you +must firmly believe that your affliction is of the devil, and that you +are plagued in this manner because you believe in Christ. For you see +that the most wrathful enemies of the Gospel, as, for instance, Eck, +Zwingli, and others, are suffered to be at ease and happy. All of us who +are Christians must have the devil for our adversary and enemy, as Peter +says: 'Your adversary, the devil, goeth about,' etc., 1 Pet. 5, 8. +Dearest Jerome, you must rejoice over these onslaughts of the devil, +because they are a sure sign that you have a gracious and merciful God. +You will say: This affliction is more grievous than I can bear; you fear +that you will be overcome and vanquished, so that you are driven to +blasphemy and despair. I know these tricks of Satan: if he cannot +overcome the person whom he afflicts at the first onset, he seeks to +exhaust and weaken him by incessantly attacking him, in order that the +person may succumb and acknowledge himself beaten. Accordingly, whenever +this affliction befalls you, beware lest you enter into an argument with +the devil, or muse upon these death-dealing thoughts. For this means +nothing else than to yield to the devil and succumb to him. You must +rather take pains to treat these thoughts which the devil instils in you +with the severest contempt. In afflictions and conflicts of this kind +contempt is the best and easiest way for overcoming the devil. Make up +your mind to laugh at your adversary, and find some one whom you can +engage in a conversation. You must by all means avoid being alone, for +then the devil will make his strongest effort to catch you; he lies in +wait for you when you are alone. In a case like this the devil is +overcome by scorning and despising him, not by opposing him and arguing +with him. My dear Jerome, you must engage in merry talk and games with +my wife and the rest, so as to defeat these devilish thoughts, and you +must be intent on being cheerful. This affliction is more necessary to +you than food and drink. I shall relate to you what happened to me when +I was about your age. When I entered the cloister, it happened that at +first I always walked about sad and melancholy, and could not shake off +my sadness. Accordingly, I sought counsel and confessed to Dr. Staupitz, +--I am glad to mention this man's name. I opened my heart to him, +telling him with what horrid and terrible thoughts I was being visited. +He said in reply: Martin, you do not know how useful and necessary this +affliction is to you; for God does not exercise you thus without a +purpose. You will see that He will employ you as His servant to +accomplish great things by you. This came true. For I became a great +doctor--I may justly say this of myself--; but at the time when I was +suffering these afflictions I would never have believed that this could +come to pass. No doubt, that is what is going to happen to you: you will +become a great man. In the mean time be careful to keep a brave and +stout heart, and impress on your mind this thought that such remarks +which fall from the lips chiefly of learned and great men contain a +prediction and prophecy. I remember well how a certain party whom I was +comforting for the loss of his son said to me: Martin, you will see, you +will become a great man. I often remembered this remark, for, as I said, +such remarks contain a prediction and a prophecy. Therefore, be cheerful +and brave, and cast these exceedingly terrifying thoughts entirely from +you. Whenever the devil worries you with these thoughts, seek the +company of men at once, or drink somewhat more liberally, jest and play +some jolly prank, or do anything exhilarating. Occasionally a person +must drink somewhat more liberally, engage in plays, and jests, or even +commit some little sin from hatred and contempt of the devil, so as to +leave him no room for raising scruples in our conscience about the most +trifling matters. For when we are overanxious and careful for fear that +we may be doing wrong in any matter, we shall be conquered. Accordingly, +if the devil should say to you: By all means, do not drink! you must +tell him: Just because you forbid it, I shall drink, and that, +liberally. In this manner you must always do the contrary of what Satan +forbids. When I drink my wine unmixed, prattle with the greatest +unconcern, eat more frequently, do you think that I have any other +reason for doing these things than to scorn and spite the devil who has +attempted to spite and scorn me? Would God I could commit some real +brave sin to ridicule the devil, that he might see that I acknowledge no +sin and am not conscious of having committed any. We must put the whole +law entirely out of our eyes and hearts,--we, I say, whom the devil thus +assails and torments. Whenever the devil charges us with our sins and +pronounces us guilty of death and hell, we ought to say to him: I admit +that I deserve death and hell; what, then, will happen to me? Why, you +will be eternally damned! By no means; for I know One who has suffered +and made satisfaction for me. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. +Where He abides, there will I also abide." (21a, 1532 ff.) + +The third letter to Weller is dated August 15th. It reads as follows: +"Grace and peace in Christ. I have forgotten, my dear Jerome, what I +wrote you in my former letter concerning the spirit of melancholy, and I +may now be writing you the same things and harping on the same string. +Nevertheless, I shall repeat what I said, because we all share each +other's afflictions, and as I am suffering in your behalf, so you, no +doubt, are suffering in mine. It is one and the same adversary that +hates and persecutes every individual brother of Christ. Moreover, we +are one body, and in this body one member suffers for every other +member, and that, for the sole reason that we worship Christ. Thus it +happens that one is forced to bear the other's burden. See, then, that +you learn to despise your adversary. For you have not sufficiently +learned to understand this spirit, who is an enemy to spiritual +gladness. You may rest assured that you are not the only one who bears +this cross and are not suffering alone. We are all bearing it with you +and are suffering with you. God, who commanded: 'Thou shalt not kill,' +certainly declares by this commandment that He is opposed to these +melancholy and death-bringing thoughts, and that He, on the contrary, +would have us cherish lively and exceedingly cheerful thoughts. So the +Psalmist declares, saying: 'In His favor is life,' Ps. 30, 5 [Luther +understands this to mean: He favors life] and in Ezekiel God says: 'I +have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn +from his way and live' (chap. 33, 11). On the other hand, etc. Now, +then, since it is certain that such melancholy is displeasing to God, we +have this reliable comfort that if this demon cannot be entirely removed +from us, divine strength will be supplied to us, so that we may not feel +the affliction so much. I know that it is not in our power to remove +these thoughts at our option, but I also know that they shall not gain +the upper hand; for we are told: 'He shall not suffer the righteous to +be moved,' if we only learn to cast our burden upon Him. The Lord Jesus, +the mighty Warrior and unconquerable Victor, will be your aid. Amen." +(21a, 1543 f.) + +These three letters constitute the whole evidence for the Catholic +charge against Luther that he offered advice to Weller that is immoral +and demoralizing. The indictment culminates in these three distinct +points: Luther advises Weller 1. to drink freely and be frivolous; 2. to +commit sin to spite the devil; 3. to have no regard for the Ten +Commandments. Since we shall take up the last point in a separate +chapter, we limit our remarks to the first two points. + +When Luther advises Weller to drink somewhat more liberally, that does +not mean that Luther advises Weller to get drunk. This, however, is +exactly what Luther is made to say by his Catholic critics. They make no +effort to understand the situation as it confronted Luther, but pounce +upon a remark that can easily be understood to convey an offensive +meaning. Neither does what Luther says about his own drinking mean that +he ever got drunk. We have spoken of this matter in a previous chapter, +and do not wish to repeat. Luther's remarks about jesting, merry plays, +and jolly pranks in which he would have Weller engage are likewise +vitiated by the Catholic insinuation that he advises indecent +frivolities, yea, immoralities. Why, all the merriment which he urges +upon Weller is to take place in Luther's home and family circle, in the +presence of Luther's wife and children, in the presence of Weller's +little pupil Hans, who at that time was about four years old. The +friends of the family members of the Faculty at the University, +ministers, students who either stayed at Luther's home, like Weller, or +frequently visited there, are also included in this circle whose company +Weller is urged to seek. Imagine a young man coming into this circle +drunk, or half drunk, and disporting himself hilariously before the +company! We believe that not even all Catholics can be made to believe +the insinuations of their writers against Luther when all the facts in +the case are presented to them. + +Let us, moreover, remind ourselves once more that, to measure the social +proprieties of the sixteenth century by modern standards, is unfair. A +degree of culture in regard to manners and speech can be reached by very +refined people that grows away from naturalness. The old Latin saying: +_Naturalia non sunt turpia_ (We need not feel ashamed of our natural +acts), will never lose its force. There are expressions in Luther's +writings--and in the Bible--that nowadays are considered unchaste, but +are in themselves chaste and pure. Even the extremest naturalness that +speaks with brutal frankness about certain matters is a better criterion +of moral purity than the supersensitive prudishness that squirms and +blushes, or pretends to blush, at the remotest reference to such +matters. It all depends on the thoughts which the heart connects with +the words which the mouth utters. This applies also to the manner in +which former centuries have spoken about drinking. We sometimes begin to +move uneasily, as if something Pecksniffian had come into our presence, +when we behold the twentieth century sitting in judgment on the manners +and morals of the sixteenth century. + +In Luther's remarks about sinning to spite the devil we have always +heard an echo from his life at the cloister. One's judgment about the +monastic life is somewhat mitigated when one hears how Dr. Staupitz and +the brethren in the convent at Erfurt would occasionally speak to Luther +about the latter's sins. Staupitz called them "Puppensuenden." It is not +easy to render this term by a short and apt English term; "peccadillo" +would come near the meaning. A child playing with a doll will treat it +as if it were a human being, will dress it, talk to it, and pretend to +receive answers from it, etc. That is the way, good Catholics were +telling Luther, he was treating his sins. His sins were no real sins, or +he had magnified their sinfulness out of all proportion. This same +advice Luther hands on to another who was becoming a hypochondriac as he +had been. When the mind is in a morbid state it imagines faults, errors, +sins, where there are none. The melancholy person in his self-scrutiny +becomes an intolerant tyrant to himself. He will flay his poor soul for +trifles as if they were the blackest crimes: In such moments the devil +is very busy about the victim of gloom and despair. Luther has diagnosed +the case of Weller with the skill of a nervous specialist. He counsels +Weller not to judge himself according to the devil's prompting, and, in +order to break Satan's thrall over him, to wrench himself free from his +false notions of what is sinful. In offering this advice, Luther uses +such expressions as: "Sin, commit sin," but the whole context shows that +he advises Weller to do that which is in itself not sinful, but looks +like sin to Weller in his present condition. When Luther declares he +would like to commit a real brave sin himself as a taunt to the devil, +he adds: "Would that I could!" That means, that, as a matter of fact, he +could not do it and did not do it, because it was wrong. What bold +immoral act did Weller commit in consequence of Luther's advice? What +immoralities are there in Luther's own life? Luther's letters did not +convey the meaning to his morbid young friend that Catholic writers +think and claim they did. + +Luther's advice to Melanchthon which is so revolting to Catholics that +they have made it the slogan in their campaign against Luther refers to +a state of affairs that is identical with what we noted in our review of +the correspondence with Weller. It is contained in a letter which Luther +wrote August 1, 1521, while he was an exile in the Wartburg. He says to +his despondent friend and colleague at the University of Wittenberg: "If +you are a preacher of grace, do not preach a fictitious, but the true +grace. If grace is of the true sort, you will also have to bear true, +not fictitious, sins. God does not save those who only acknowledge +themselves sinners in a feigned manner. Be a sinner, then, and sin +bravely, but believe more bravely still and rejoice in Christ, who is +the Victor over sin, death, and the world. We must sin as long as we are +in this world; the present life is not an abode of righteousness; +however, we look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth +righteousness, says Peter (2. Ep. 3, 13). We are satisfied, by the +richness of God's glory, to have come to the knowledge of the Lamb that +taketh away the sins of the world. No sin shall wrest us from Him, were +we even in one day to commit fornication and manslaughter a thousand +times. Do you think the price paltry and the payment small that has been +made for us by this great Lamb?" (15, 2589.) + +"Be a sinner, and sin bravely, but believe more bravely still"--this is +the _chef d'oeuvre_ of the muck-rakers in Luther's life. The reader has +the entire passage which contains the outrageous statement of Luther +before him, and will be able to judge the connection in which the words +occur. What caused Luther to write those words? Did Melanchthon +contemplate some crime which he was too timid to perpetrate? According +to the horrified expressions of Catholics that must have been the +situation. Luther, in their view, says to Melanchthon: Philip, you are a +simpleton. Why scruple about a sin? You are still confined in the +trammels of very narrow-minded moral views. You must get rid of them. +Have the courage to be wicked, Make a hero of yourself by executing some +bold piece of iniquity. Be an "Uebermensch." Sin with brazen unconcern; +be a fornicator, a murderer, a liar, a thief, defy every moral statute, +--only do not forget to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. His grace is +intended, not for hesitating, craven sinners, but for audacious, +spirited, high-minded criminals. + +This, we are asked to believe, is the sentiment of the same Luther who +in his correspondence with Weller declares that he could not if he would +commit a brave sin to spite the devil. Can the reader induce himself to +believe that Luther advised Melanchthon to do what he himself knew was a +moral impossibility to himself because of his relation to God? And again +we put the question which we put in connection with the Weller letters: +What brave sin did Melanchthon actually commit upon being thus advised +by Luther? + +One glance at the context, a calm reflection upon the tenor of this +entire passage in the letter to Melanchthon, suffices to convince every +unbiased reader that Luther is concerned about Melanchthon as he was +about Weller: he fears his young colleague is becoming a prey to morbid +self-incrimination. It is again a case of "Puppensuenden" being expanded +till they seem ethical monstrosities. But, as the opening words of the +paragraph show, Luther had another purpose in writing to Melanchthon as +he did. Melanchthon was a public preacher and expounder of the doctrine +of evangelical grace. He must not preach that doctrine mincingly, +haltingly. Is that possible? Indeed, it is. Just as there are preachers +afraid to preach the divine Law and to tell men that they are under the +curse of God and merit damnation, so there are preachers afraid, +actually afraid, to preach the full Gospel, without any limiting clauses +and provisos. Just as there are teachers of Christianity who promptly +put on the soft pedal when they reach the critical point in their public +deliverances where they must reprove sin, and who hate intensive +preaching of the Ten Commandments, so there are evangelical teachers who +dole out Gospel grace in dribbles and homeopathic doses, as if it were +the most virulent poison, of which the sinner must not be given too +much. Luther tells Melanchthon: If you are afraid to draw every stop in +the organ when you play the tune of Love Divine, All Love Excelling, you +had better quit the organ. There are some sinners in this world that +will not understand your faint evangelical whispers; they need to have +the truth that Christ forgives their sins, all their sins,--their worst +sins, blown into them with all the trumpets that made the walls of +Jericho fall. If Melanchthon did not require a strong faith in the +forgiving grace of God for himself, he needed it as a teacher of that +grace to others; he must, therefore, familiarize himself with the +immensity and power of that grace. + +In conclusion, it should be noted that the Catholic writers who express +their extreme disgust at the immoral principles of Luther belong to a +Church whose theologians have made very questionable distinctions +between venial sins and others. Papal dispensations and decisions of +Catholic casuists, especially in the order of the Jesuits, have startled +the world by their moral perverseness. Yea, the very principles of +probabilism and mental reservation which the Jesuits have espoused are +antiethical. In accordance with the principle last named, "when +important interests are at stake, a negative or modifying clause may +remain unuttered which would completely reverse the statement actually +made. This principle justified unlimited lying when one's interest or +convenience seemed to require it. Where the same word or phrase has +more than one sense, it may be employed in an unusual sense with the +expectation that it will be understood in the usual. [This is called +"amphibology" by them.] Such evasions may be used under oath in a civil +court. Equally destructive of good morals was the teaching of many +Jesuit casuists that moral obligation may be evaded by directing the +intention when committing an immoral act to an end worthy in itself; as +in murder, to the vindication of one's honor; in theft, to the supplying +of one's needs or those of the poor; in fornication or adultery, to the +maintenance of one's health or comfort. Nothing did more to bring upon +the society the fear and distrust of the nations and of individuals than +the justification and recommendation by several of their writers of the +assassination of tyrants, the term 'tyrant' being made to include all +persons in authority who oppose the work of the papal church or order. +The question has been much discussed, Jesuits always taking the negative +side, whether the Jesuits have taught that 'the end justifies the +means.' It may not be possible to find this maxim in these precise words +in Jesuit writings; but that they have always taught that for the +'greater glory of God,' identified by them with the extension of Roman +Catholic (Jesuit) influence, the principles of ordinary morality may be +set aside, seems certain. The doctrine of philosophical sin, in +accordance with which actual attention to the sinfulness of an act when +it is being committed is requisite to its sinfulness for the person +committing it, was widely advocated by members of the society. The +repudiation of some of the most scandalous maxims of Jesuit writers by +later writers, or the placing of books containing scandalous maxims on +the Index, does not relieve the society or the Roman Catholic Church +from responsibility, as such books must have received authoritative +approval before publication, and the censuring of them does not +necessarily involve an adverse attitude toward the teaching itself, but +way be a more measure of expediency." (A. H. Newman, in _New +Schaff-Herzog Encycl.,_ 6, 146.) + + +18. Luther, Repudiates the Ten Commandments? + +In Luther's correspondence with Weller there occurs a remark to the +effect that Weller must put the Decalog out of his mind. Similar +statements occur in great number throughout Luther's writings. In some +of these statements Luther speaks in terms of deep scorn and contempt of +the Law, and considers it the greatest affront that can be offered +Christians to place them under the Law of Moses. He declares that Moses +must be regarded by Christians as if he were a heretic, excommunicated +by the Church, and assigns him to the gallows. Some of the strongest +invectives of this kind are found in his exposition of the Epistle to +the Galatians. These stern utterances of Luther against the Law serve +the Catholics as the basis for their charge that Luther is the most +destructive spirit that has arisen within the Church. He is said to have +destroyed the only perfect norm of right and wrong by his violent +onslaughts on Moses. Once the commandments of God are abrogated, the +feeling of duty and responsibility, they argue, is plucked from the +hearts of men, and license and vice rush in upon the world with the +force of a springtide. + +The reader will remember what has been said in a previous chapter about +Luther's labors to expound and apply the divine Law, also about the +intimate and loving relation which he maintained to the Ten Commandments +to the end of his life. Luther has spoken of Moses as a teacher of true +holiness in terms of unbounded admiration and praise. Ho declares the +writings of Moses the principal part of our Bible, because all the +prophets and apostles have drawn their teaching from Moses and +have expanded the teaching of Moses. Christ Himself has appealed to +Moses as an authority in matters of religion. The greatest distinction +of Moses in Luther's view is that he has prophesied concerning Christ, +and by revealing the people's sin through the teaching of the Law has +made them see and feel the necessity of a redemption through the +Mediator. However, also the laws of Moses are exceedingly fine, Luther +thinks. The Ten Commandments are essentially the natural moral law +implanted in the hearts of man. But also his forensic laws, his civil +statutes, his ecclesiastical ordinances, his regulations regarding the +hygiene, and the public order that must be maintained in a great +commonwealth, are wise and salutary. The Catholics are forced to admit +that alongside of the open contempt which Luther occasionally voices for +Moses and the Mosaic righteousness inculcated by the Law there runs a +cordial esteem of the great prophet. Luther regards the Law of Moses as +divine; it is to him just as much the Word of God as any other portion +of the Scriptures. To save their faces in a debate they must concede +this point, but they charge Luther with being a most disorderly +reasoner, driven about in his public utterances by momentary impulses: +He will set up a rule to-day which he knocks down to-morrow. He will +cite the same Principle for or against a matter. He is so erratic that +he can be adduced as authority by both sides to a controversy. The +Catholic may succeed with certain people in getting rid of Luther on the +claim that his is a confused mind, and that in weighty affairs he adopts +the policy of the opportunist. Most men will demand a better explanation +of the seeming self-contradiction in Luther's attitude toward the divine +Law. + +There is only one connection in which Luther speaks disparagingly of the +Law, and we shall show that what he says is no real disparagement, but +the correct Scriptural valuation of the Law. Luther holds that the Ten +Commandments do not save any person nor contribute the least part to his +salvation. They must be entirely left out of account when such questions +are to be answered as these: How do I obtain a gracious God? How is my +sin to be forgiven? How do I obtain a good conscience? How can I come to +I live righteously? How can I hope to die calmly, in the confidence that +I am going to heaven? On such occasions Luther says: Turn your eyes away +from Moses and his Law; he cannot help you; you apply at the wrong +office when you come to him for rest for your soul here and hereafter. +He gives you no comfort, and he cannot, because it is not his function +to do so. It is Another's business to do that. Him you grossly dishonor +and traduce when you refuse to come to Him for what He alone can give, +and when you go to some one who does not give you what you need, though +you pretend that you get it from this other. A proper relation to God is +established for us only by Jesus Christ. He is the exclusive Mediator +appointed by God for His dealing with man and for man in his dealings +with God. There is salvation in none other; nor can our hope of heaven +be placed on any other foundation than that which God laid when He +appointed Christ our Redeemer (Acts 4, 12; 1 Cor. 3, 11). + +This is Bible-doctrine. "The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth +came by Jesus Christ," says John (chap. 1, 17). Here the two fundamental +teachings of the Scriptures are strictly set apart the one from the +other. They have much in common: they have the same holy Author, God; +their contents are holy; they serve holy ends. But they are differently +related to sinful man: the Law tells man what he must do, the Gospel, +what Christ has done for him; the Law issues demands, the Gospel, +gratuitous offers; the Law holds out rewards for merits or severe +penalties, the Gospel, free and unconditioned gifts; the Law terrifies, +the Gospel cheers the sinner; the Law turns the sinner against God by +proving to him his incapacity to practise it, the Gospel draws the +sinner to God and makes him a willing servant of God. + +Paul demands of the Christian minister that he "rightly divide the Word +of Truth" (2 Tim. 2, 15). To preach the Bible-doctrine of salvation +aright and with salutary effect, the Law and the Gospel must be kept +apart as far as East is from the West. The Law is truth, but, it is not +the truth that saves, because it knows of no grace for the breakers of +the Law. The Gospel teaches holiness and righteousness, however, not +such as the sinner achieves by his own effort, but such as has been +achieved for the sinner by his Substitute, Jesus Christ. The Gospel is +not for men who imagine that they can do the commandments of God; Jesus +Christ says: "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to +repentance" (Matt. 9, 13). On the other hand, the Law is not for sinners +who know themselves saved. "The Law is not made for a righteous man" (1 +Tim. 1, 9). Christians employ the Law for the regulation of their lives, +as a pattern and index of holy works which are pleasing to God and as a +deterrent from evil works, but they do not seek their salvation, neither +wholly nor in part, in the Law, nor do they look to the Law for strength +to do the will of God. Moreover Christians, while they are still in the +flesh, apply the Law to the old Adam in themselves; they bruise the +flesh with its deceitful lusts with the scourge of Moses, and thus they +are in a sense under the Law, and can never be without the Law while +they live. But in another sense they are not under the Law: all their +life is determined by divine grace; their faith, their hope, their +charity, is entirely from the Gospel, and the new man in them +acknowledges no master except Jesus Christ, who is all in all to them +(Eph. 1, 23). + +When Luther directed men for their salvation away from the Law, he did +what Christ Himself had done when He called to the multitudes: "Come +unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you +rest" (Matt. 11, 28). The people to whom these words were addressed had +the Law of Moses and wearied themselves with its fulfilment, such as it +was under the direction of teachers and guides who had misinterpreted +and were misapplying that Law continually. Even in that false view of +the Law which they had been taught, and which did not at all exhaust its +meaning, there was no ease of conscience, no assurance of divine favor, +no rest for their souls. Christ with His gracious summons told them, in +effect: You must forget the Law and the ordinances of your elders and +your miserable works of legal service. You must turn your back upon +Moses. In Me, only in Me, is your help. + +Moses himself never conceived his mission to be what the Catholics +declare it to be by their doctrine of salvation by faith plus works. +Moses directed his people to the greater Prophet who was to come in the +future, and told them: "Unto Him shall ye hearken" (Deut. 18, 15). Jesus +was pointed out to the world as that Prophet of whom Moses had spoken, +when the Father at the baptism and the transfiguration of Christ +repeated from heaven the warning cry of Israel's greatest teacher under +the old dispensation (Matt. 3, 17; 17, 5). + +But was it necessary, in speaking of the inability of the Law to save +men, to use such strong and contemptuous terms as Luther has used? Yes. +The Catholics do not seen to know in what strong terms the Bible has +rejected the Law as a means of salvation. Paul denounces the Galatians +again and again as "foolish," "bewitched," and bastards of a bondwoman, +because they think they will be saved by their works done according to +the Law (chap. 3, 1. 3; 4, 21 ff.). He calls them godless infidels, +slaves, silly children still in their nonage, because they imagine that +they become acceptable to God by their own righteousness (chap. 4, 9; 3, +23 ff.). Yea, he reprobates their legal service when he says: "As many +as are of the works of the Law are under the curse" (chap. 3, 10). How +contemptuous does it not sound to hear him call the legal ordinances +which the Galatians were observing "beggarly elements" (chap. 4, 9), and +the law a "schoolmaster" (chap. 3, 24), that is, a tutor fit only for +little abecedarians who cannot be treated as full-grown persons that are +able to make a right use of their privileges as children and heirs of +God. Why do not the Catholics turn up their nose at Paul, as they do at +Luther, when Paul calls all his legal righteousness "dung" (Phil. 2, 8), +or when he speaks slightingly of the observance on which the Colossians +prided themselves as "rudiments of the world" (Col. 2, 20)? Why does he +call the Law "the handwriting of ordinances that has been blotted out" +(Col. 2, 14) but to declare to the Colossians that they are to fear the +Law as little as a debtor fears a canceled note that had been drawn +against him? What was it that Paul rebuked Peter for when he told him +that he was building again the things which they both had destroyed +(Gal. 2, 18)? Mark you, he says, "destroyed." Why, it was this very +thing for which Luther is faulted by Rome, the Law as an instrument for +obtaining righteousness before God. Could a person renounce the Law in +more determined, one might almost say, ruthless fashion, than by saying: +"I am dead to the Law, that I might live unto God"? Paul is the person +who thus speaks of the Law (Gal. 2, 19). The Catholics have again taken +hold of the wrong man when they assail Luther for repudiating the Law of +God; they must start higher up; they will find the real culprit whom +they are trying to prosecute among the holy apostles. Yea, even the +apostles will decline the honor of being the original criminals, they +will pass the charges preferred against them higher up still; for what +contemptuous terms were used by them in speaking of the Law were +inspired terms which they received from God the Holy Ghost. That +contempt for the Law which Luther voices under very particular +circumstances Luther has learned from his Bible and under the guidance +of the Holy Ghost. + +That contempt is a mark of every evangelical preacher to-day. If +ministers of the Gospel to-day do not denounce the Law when falsely +applied, they betray a sacred trust and become traitors to Christ and +the Church. For every one who teaches men to seek their salvation in any +manner and to any degree in their own works serves not Christ, but +Antichrist. This is such a fearful calamity that no terms should be +regarded as too scathing in which to rebuke legalistic tendencies. These +tendencies are the bane and blight of Christianity; if they are not +rooted out, Christianity will perish from off the face of the earth. +Workmongers are missionaries of the father of lies and the murderer from +the beginning: so far as in them lies, they slay the souls of men by +their false teaching of the Law. + +However, Luther reveals another attitude toward the Law. At three +distinct times in his public career he had to do with people who had +assumed a hostile attitude to the Law of God. If the contention of +Luther's Catholic critics were true, Luther ought to have hailed these +occasions with delight and made common cause with the repudiators of the +Law. While he was at the Wartburg, a disturbance broke out at +Wittenberg. Under the leadership of Carlstadt, a professor at the +University, men broke into the churches and smashed images. Church +ordinances of age-long standing were to be abrogated, the cloisters were +to be thrown open, and a new order of things was to be inaugurated by +violence. Against the will of the Elector of Saxony, who had afforded +Luther an asylum in his castle, Luther, at the risk of his life, came +out of his seclusion, boldly went to Wittenberg, and preached a series +of sermons by which he quelled the riotous uprising. Even before his +return to Wittenberg he had published a treatise in which he warned +Christians to avoid tumult and violent proceedings. The eight sermons +which he preached to the excited people of Wittenberg are an invaluable +evidence that Luther meant to proceed in the way of order. The mass and +the confessional would have been abolished at that time, had it not been +for Luther's interference. He made some lifelong enemies by insisting +that the reformatory movement must be conservative. He held that before +men's consciences had been liberated by the teaching of Christ, they +were not qualified for exercising true Christian liberty, and their +violent proceedings were nothing but carnal license. Everybody knows how +deeply Luther himself was interested in the abolition of the idolatrous +Mass and the spiritual peonage which Rome had created for men by means +of the confessional. Only a person who puts principles above policies +could have acted as Luther did in those turbulent days. He wanted for +his followers, not wanton rebels and frenzied enthusiasts, but men who +respect the Word of Cod, discreet and gentle men whose weapons of +warfare were not carnal. A man who is so cautious as not to approve the +putting down of acknowledged evils because he is convinced that the +attempt is premature and exceeds the limits of propriety, will not lend +his hand to abolishing the divine norm of right, the holy commandments +of God. + +The second occasion on which Luther in a most impressive manner showed +his profound regard for the maintenance of human and divine laws was +during the bloody uprising of the peasants. While thoroughly in sympathy +with the rebellious peasants in their righteous grievances against their +secular and spiritual oppressors, the barons and the bishops, and +pleading the peasants' cause in its just demands before their lords, he +unflinchingly rebuked their extreme demands and their still extremer +actions. If by his preaching of the Gospel Luther had been the +instigator of the peasants' uprising, what a brazen hypocrite he must +have been in denouncing acts which he must have acknowledged to be +fruits of his teaching! Among the noblemen of Germany Luther counted not +a few frank admirers and staunch supporters of his reformatory work. +Their influence was of the highest value to him in those critical days +when his own life was not safe. Yet he rebuked the sins of the high and +mighty, their avarice and insolence, which had brought on this terrible +disturbance. In his writings dealing with this sad conflict Luther +impresses one like one of the ancient prophets who stand like a rock +amid the raging billows of popular passions and with even-handed justice +deliver the oracles of God to high and low, calling upon all to bow +before the supreme will of the righteous Lawgiver. Would the great lords +of the land have meekly taken Luther's rebuke if they had been able to +charge Luther with being an accessory to the peasants' crimes? + +The third occasion on which Luther's innocence of the charges of +Romanists that he was an instigator of lawlessness was most effectually +vindicated was the Antinomian controversy. This episode, more than any +other, embittered the life of the aging Reformer. The Antinomians drew +from the evangelical teachings those disastrous consequences which the +Catholics impute to Luther: they claimed that the Law is not in any way +applicable to Christians. They insisted that the Ten Commandments must +not be preached to Christians at all. Christians, they claimed, +determine in the exercise of their sovereign liberty what they may or +may not do. Being under grace, they are superior to the Law and a law +unto themselves. At first Luther had been inclined to treat this error +mildly, because it seemed incredible to him that enlightened children of +God could so fatally misread the teaching of God's Word. He thought the +Antinomians were either misunderstood by people who had no conception of +the Gospel and of evangelical liberty, or they were grossly slandered by +persons ill-disposed to them because of their successful preaching of +the Gospel. When their error had been established beyond a doubt, he did +not hesitate a moment to attack it. In sermons and public disputations, +before the common people of Wittenberg and the learned doctors and the +students of the University, he defended the holy Law of God as the norm +of right conduct and the mirror showing up the sinfulness of man also +for Christians, and he insisted that those who had fallen into this +error must publicly recant. It was due to Luther's unrelenting +opposition that Agricola, one of the leaders of the Antinomians and at +one time a dear friend of Luther, withdrew his false teaching and +offered apologies in a published discourse. To his guests Luther in +those days remarked at the table: "Satan, like a furious harlot, rages +in the Antinomians, as Melanchthon writes from Frankfort. The devil will +do much harm through them and cause infinite and vexatious evils. If +they carry their lawless principles into the State as well as the +Church, the magistrate will say: I am a Christian, therefore the law +does not pertain to me. Even a Christian hangman would repudiate the +law. If they teach only free grace, infinite license will follow, and +all discipline will be at an end." (Preserved Smith, p. 283.) Luther +held that forbidding the preaching of the Law meant to prohibit +preaching God's truth (20, 1635), and to abrogate the Law he regarded as +tantamount to abrogating the Gospel (22, 1029). + +Far from repudiating the Ten Commandments, then, Luther, by insisting on +a distinction between Law and Gospel, and assigning to each a separate +sphere of operation in the lives of Christians, has done more than any +other teacher in the Church since the days of Paul to impress men with a +sincere respect of the Law, and to honor it by obedience to its +precepts. + + +19. Luther's Invisible Church. + +In his Theses against the sale of indulgences, especially in the first +two, Luther had uttered a thought which led to a new conception of the +Church. He had declared that Christian life does not consist in the +performance of certain works of piety, such as going to confession, +performing the penances imposed by priests, hearing Mass, etc.,--all of +which are external, visible acts,--but in a continuous penitential +relation of the heart to God. The Christian, conscious of his innate +corruption and his daily sinning, faces God at all times in the attitude +of a humble suitor for mercy. The posture of the publican is the typical +attitude of the Christian. He recognizes no merit in himself, he pleads +no worthiness which would give him a just claim upon God's favor. His +single hope and sole reliance is in the merit and atoning work of his +Savior Jesus Christ. The Christian's penitence embraces as a constituent +element faith in the forgiveness of sin for Christ's sake. In the +strength of his faith the Christian begins to wrestle with the sin which +is still indwelling in him and which besets him from without. The agony +of the Redeemer which he places before his eyes at all times proves a +deterrent from sin, and the holy example of Jesus, who ran with +rejoicing the way of the commandments of God, becomes an inspiring +example to him: actuated by gratitude for the love of the Son of God who +gave Himself for him and reclaimed him from certain perdition, he begins +to reproduce the life of Jesus in his own conversation. His whole life +is determined by his relation to Jesus: his thoughts, affections, words, +and deeds are a reflex of the life of his Lord. For him to live is +Christ (Phil. 1, 21). All his acts become expressions of his faith. He +says with Paul: "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the +life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of +God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2, 20). + +During the discussions which followed the publication of the Theses, +especially during the Leipzig Debate with Eck in 1519, this thought of +Luther was expanded, and applied to the idea of the Church. +Christianity, in Luther's teaching, came to be set forth as something +vastly different from the external and mechanical religiousness which +had been accepted as Christianity by Rome. Christianity meant a new +life, swayed by new motives, governed by new principles. It was seen to +be entirely inward, an affair of the heart and soul and mind, and, +ulteriorly, an affair of the body and the natural life. The religion of +Rome, with its constant emphasis on works of men's piety and the merit +resulting therefrom, had become thoroughgoing externalism. So many +prayers recited, so many altars visited, so many offerings made, meant +so many merits achieved. The scheme worked out with mathematical +precision. Devout Catholics might well keep a ledger of their devotional +acts, as Gustav Freitag in his _Ancestors_ represents Marcus Koenig as +having done. + +In the Catholic view the Church is a visible society, an ecclesiastical +organization with a supreme officer at the head, and a host of +subordinate officers who receive their orders from him, and lastly, a +lay membership that acknowledges the rule of this organization. The +Church in this view is a religious commonwealth, only in form and +operation differing from secular commonwealths. Cardinal Gibbons calls +it "the Christian Republic." In Luther's view the Church is, first of +all, an invisible society, known to God, the Searcher of hearts, alone. +The Church of Christ is the sum-total of believers scattered through the +whole world and existing in all ages. To this Church we refer when we +profess in the Apostles' Creed: "I believe one holy, Christian Church, +the communion of saints." This is the Church, the real Church, the +Church which God acknowledges as the spiritual body of Christ, who is +the Head of the Church, and with which He maintains the most intimate +and tender relations. + +This invisible Church exists within the visible societies of organized +Christianity, in the local Christian congregations. Christian faith is +never independent of the means which God has appointed for producing +faith, the Gospel and the Sacraments. "Faith cometh by hearing, and +hearing by the Word of God" (Rom. 10, 17). This faith-creating word of +evangelical grace is an audible and visible matter. Its presence in any +locality is cognizable by the senses. It becomes attached, moreover, by +Christ's ordaining, to certain visible elements, as the water in Baptism +and the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper. Hence these two Christian +ordinances--the only two for which a divine word of command and promise, +hence, a divine institution can be shown--also become related to faith, +to its origin and preservation. For of Baptism our Lord says: "Except a +man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of +God" (John 3, 5). To be "born again," or to become a child of God, +according to John 1, 12, is the same as "to believe." Accordingly, Paul +says: "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as +many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. +3, 26. 27). Of the Sacrament our Lord says: "This is the blood of the +covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matt. 26, +28); and His apostle declares that communicants, "as often as they eat +of this bread and drink of this cup, do show the Lord's death till He +come" (1 Cor. 11, 26). + +The Gospel and the Sacraments, now, become the marks of the Church, the +unfailing criteria of its existence in any place. For, according to the +declaration of God, they are never entirely without result, though many +to whom they are brought resist the gracious operation of the Spirit +through these means. By Isaiah God has said: "As the rain cometh down, +and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the +earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the +sower and bread to the eater: so shall My Word be that goeth forth out +of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish +that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent +it" (Is. 55, 10. 11). + +Among the people who in a given locality rally around the Word and the +Sacraments and profess allegiance to them, there is the Church, because +there is the power of God unto salvation, the faith-producing and +faith-sustaining Gospel of Jesus Christ. Those who embrace what the +Gospel offers with a lively faith, and in the power of their faith +proceed to lead holy lives in accordance with the teaching of God's +Word, are the members of the true Church of God, the kingdom of Christ. +Those who adhere only externally to these institutions are merely +nominal members. They may at heart be hypocrites and secret blasphemers. + +Catholic writers charge Luther with having set up this teaching, partly +to spite the Pope whom he hated, partly to gratify his vainglorious +aspirations to become famous. He had at one time held the Catholic dogma +that the Church is the visible society of men who profess allegiance to +the Bishop of Rome and accept his overlordship in matters of their +religion. But through neglect of his religious duties and the failure to +bridle his imperious temper he had by degrees begun to revolt from the +teaching of the Catholic Church, until he publicly renounced the Church +that had existed in all the ages before him, and set up his own Church. +By forsaking the communion of the Roman church organization he severed +his soul from Christ and became an apostate. For, according to Catholic +belief, Christ founded the Church to be a visible organization with a +visible head, the Pope, and plainly and palpably "governing" men. + +Everybody who has read the records of Luther's work knows that no +thought was more foreign to his mind than that of founding a new church. +He believed himself in hearty accord with the Catholic Church and the +Pope when he published his Theses. He did not wantonly leave the Church, +but was driven from it by most ruthless measures. It was while he was +defending the principles which he had first uttered against Tetzel that +his eyes were opened to the appalling defection which had occurred in +the Catholic Church from every true conception of what the Church really +is. His appeals to the Word of God were answered by appeals to the +Church, the councils of the Church, the Pope. In his unsophisticated +mind Luther held that Church, councils, and Pope are all subject to +Christ, the Head of the Church. They cannot teach and decree anything +but what Christ has taught and ordained. It is only by abiding in the +words of Christ that men become and remain the true disciples of Christ, +hence, His Church (John 8, 31). Now, he was told that Christ had erected +the visible organization of the Catholic Church with the Pope at its +head into the Church, and had handed over all authority to this society, +with the understanding that there can be no appeal from this body to +Christ Himself. Salvation is only by submitting to the rule of this +society, adopting its ways, following its precepts. From this teaching +Luther recoiled with horror, and rightly so. + +At one time God had erected a theocracy on earth, a Church which was a +visible society, and for which He had made special laws and ordinances. +The Church of the Old Covenant is the only visible Church which God +created. But even in this Church He declared that external compliance +with its ways did not constitute any one a true member of His Church. He +told the Jews by Isaiah: "To this man will I look, even to him that is +poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My Word. He that killeth +an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut +off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation as if he offered swine's +blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol" (chap. 66, 2. +8). Here God abominates the mere external performance of acts of worship +as an outrage and a crime that is perpetrated against His holy name. +Repeating a saying of this same prophet, our Lord said to the members of +the Jewish Church in His day: "Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy +of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and +honoreth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. But in vain +do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" +(Matt. 15, 7-9). The Pharisees in the days of Christ are the true +ancestors of Catholics in their belief that the Church is a great, +powerful, visible organization in this world, subject to the supreme +will of a visible ruler, and capable of being employed in great worldly +enterprises like a political machine. The Pharisees were always looking +for the establishment of a mighty church organization which would +dominate the world. They expected the Messiah to inaugurate a Church of +this kind. With this ambitious thought in their heart they approached +Christ on a certain occasion and asked Him "when the kingdom of God +should come. He answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not +with observation; neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, Lo, there! for, +behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17, 20. 21). To the same +effect Paul declares "He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is +that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew which +is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, +and not in the letter" (Rom. 2, 28. 29). And to a young pastor whom he +had trained for work in the Church, he describes the Church as follows: +"The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth +them that are His. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ +depart from iniquity" (2 Tim. 2, 19). + +By making the Gospel the mark of the Church and faith the Gospel the +badge of membership in the Church Luther has rendered an incalculable +service to Christianity. This view of the Church shows the immense +importance of a live, intelligent, and active personal faith. It puts a +ban on religious indifference and mechanical worship. It destroys +formalism, ceremonialism, Pharisaism in the affairs of religion. Justly +Luther has ridiculed the implicit, or blind, faith of Catholics, when he +writes: "The papists say that they believe what the Church believes, +just as it is being related of the Poles that they say: I believe what +my king believes. Indeed! Could there be a better faith than this, a +faith less free from worry and anxiety? They tell a story about a doctor +meeting a collier on a bridge in Prague and condescendingly asking the +poor layman, 'My dear man, what do you believe?' The collier replied, +'Whatever the Church believes.' The doctor: 'Well, what does the Church +believe?' The collier: 'What I believe.' Some time later the doctor was +about to die. In his last moments he was so fiercely assailed by the +devil that he could not maintain his ground nor find rest until he said, +'I believe what the collier believes.' A similar story is being told of +the great [Catholic theologian] Thomas Aquinas, viz., that in his last +moments he was driven into a corner by the devil, and finally declared, +'I believe what is written in this Book.' He had the Bible in his arms +while he spoke these words. God grant that not much of such faith be +found among us! For if these people did not believe in a different +manner, both the doctor and the collier have been landed in the abyss of +hell by their faith." (17, 2013.) + +Luther's teaching regarding the Church leads to a proper valuation of +the means of grace. Only through the evangelical Word and the +evangelical ordinances is the Church planted, watered, and sustained. It +is, therefore, necessary that the world be supplied in abundance with +the Word through the missionary operations of Christians, and that the +Christians themselves have the Word dwell among them richly (Col. 3, +16). "He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much +fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing," says the Head of the Church to +His disciples (John 15, 5); and in His last prayer He pleads with the +Father in their behalf: "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is +truth" (John 17, 17). For the same reason it is necessary that the Word +and Sacraments be preserved in their Scriptural purity, that any +deviation from the clear teaching of the Bible be resisted, and +orthodoxy be maintained. Errors in doctrine are like tares in a +wheat-field: they are useless in themselves, and they hinder the growth +of good plants. Error saves no one, but some are still saved in spite of +error by clinging to the truth which is offered them along with the +error. Luther believed that this happened even in the error-ridden +Catholic Church. + +Luther's teaching regarding the Church enables us, furthermore, to form +a right estimate of the ministry in the Church. Christ wants all +believers to be proclaimers of His truth and grace. The apostle whom +Catholics regard as the first Pope says to all Christians: "Ye are a +chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar +people, that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you +out of darkness into His marvelous light" (1 Pet. 2, 9). To the local +congregation of believers, which is to deal with an offending brother, +even to the extent of putting him out of the church, Christ says: "If he +neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a +publican. Verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth +shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall +be loosed in heaven." There is nothing that God denies even to the +smallest company of believers while they are engaged in the discharge of +their rights and duties as members of the Church; for Christ adds: +"Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as +touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My +Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together +in My name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matt. 18, 17-20). All +rights and duties of the Church are common to all members. All have the +right to preach, to administer the Sacraments, etc. Over and above this, +however, Christ has instituted also a personal ministry, men who can be +"sent" even as He was sent by the Father (John 20, 21; comp. Rom. 10, +15: "How shall they preach, except they be sent?"); men who are to +devote themselves exclusively to the reading of the Word (1 Tim. 4, 13), +to teaching and guiding their fellow-believers in the way of divine +truth (see the Epistles to Timothy and Titus). But the ministry in the +Church does not represent a higher grade of Christianity,--the laymen +representing the lower,--but the ministry is a service ordained for the +"perfecting of the saints and the edifying of the body of Christ," viz., +His Church (Eph. 4, 11. 12; 1, 23). _Minister_ is derived from _minus,_ +"less," not from _magis_--from which we have _Magister_--meaning "more." +The ministry of the Church of the New Testament is not a hierarchy, +endowed with special privileges and powers by the Lord, but a body of +humble workmen who serve their fellow-men and fellow-Christians in the +spirit of Christ, who said: "The Son of Man came not to be ministered +unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20, +28). Ministers merely exercise in public the common rights of all +believers and are the believers' representatives in all their official +acts. So Paul viewed the absolution which he pronounced upon the +penitent member of the Corinthian congregation (2 Cor. 2, 10). When the +Corinthians had begun to exalt their preachers unduly, he told them that +they were "carnal." "Who is Paul," he exclaims, "and who is Apollos, but +ministers by whom ye believed? . . . Let no man glory in men. For all +things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or +life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours" (1 +Cor. 3, 4. 5. 20. 21). And Peter, the original Pope in the Catholics' +belief, says: "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an +elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of +the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among +you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not +for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's +heritage, but being ensamples to the flock" (1 Pet. 5, 1-3). + +Lastly, Luther's teaching regarding the Church affords a wealth of +comfort and sound direction in view of the divided condition of the +visible Church. Through the ignorance and malice of men and through the +wily activity of Satan, who creates divisions and offenses contrary to +the doctrine of Christ, and is busy sowing tares among the wheat, there +have arisen many church organizations, known by party names, differing +from one another in their creedal statements, and warring upon each +other. This is a sad spectacle to contemplate, and grieves Christian +hearts sorely. But these divisions in the external and visible +organizations do not touch the body of Christ, the communion of saints, +the one holy Christian Church. In all ages and places the true believers +in Christ are a unit. Among those who by faith have "put on the new man, +which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him, +there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, +barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free; but Christ is all, and in all" +(Col. 3, 10. 11). This is the true Catholic, that is, universal, Church. +The visible society which has usurped this name never was, nor is +to-day, the universal Church. Before Protestantism arose, there was the +Eastern Church, which has maintained a separate organization. This holy +Christian Church is indestructible, because the Word of Christ, which is +its bond, shall never pass away, and Christ rules even in the midst of +His enemies. Visible church organizations are valuable only in as far as +they shelter, and are nurseries of, the invisible Church. Luther never +conceived the idea of founding a visible organization more powerful than +the Catholic; he did not mean to pit one ecclesiastical body of men +against another. His single aim was to restore the purity of teaching +and the right administration of the Sacraments in accordance with the +Scriptures. That his followers were named after him, we have shown not +to be Luther's fault: Luther did not form a Church, but reformed the +Church; he did not establish a new creed, but reestablished the old. The +visible society of Lutherans to-day does not regard itself as the +alone-saving Church, or as immune from error, or as infallible, but it +does claim to be the Church of the pure Word and Sacraments. It knows +that it is one in faith with all the children of God throughout the +world and in all ages. + + +20. Luther on the God-Given Supremacy of the Pope. + +In the opinion of Catholics Luther's greatest offense is what he has +done to their Pope. This is Luther's unpardonable sin. Luther has done +two things to the Pope: he has denied that the Pope exists by divine +right, and he has in the most scurrilous manner spoken and written about +the Pope and made his vaunted dignity the butt of universal ridicule. +The indictment is true, but when the facts are stated, it will be seen +to recoil on the heads of those who have drawn it. + +Luther denies that Matt. 16, 18. 19 establishes the papacy in the Church +of Christ. He denies that this text creates a one-man power in the +Church, that it vests one individual with a sovereign jurisdiction over +the spiritual affairs of all other men, making him the sole arbiter of +their faith and the exclusive dispenser of divine grace, and, last, not +least, that it says one word about the Pope. Luther makes, indeed, a +clean and sweeping denial of every claim which Catholics advance for the +God-given supremacy of their Popes. Inasmuch as the papacy stands or +falls with Matt. 16, 18.19, he has put the Catholics in the worst +predicament imaginable. + +Catholics believe that Peter was singled out for particular honors in +the Church by being declared the rock on which Christ builds His Church, +and by being given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Peter's supremacy +as Primate of the World, they hold, passed over to Peter's successor and +is perpetuated in an unbroken line of succession in the Roman Popes. +Three questions, then, confronted Luther in the study of this text in +Matthew. First, does the "rock" in Matt. 16, 18 signify Peter? The Lord +had addressed to all His disciples the question, "Whom say ye that I +am?" Instead of all of them answering and creating a confusion, Peter, +the most impulsive of the apostles, speaks up and says, "Thou art the +Christ, the Son of the living God." With these words Peter expressed the +common faith of all the disciples. Not one of them dissented from his +statement; he had voiced the joint conviction of them all. Peter was the +spokesman, but the confession was that of the apostles. Any other +apostle might have spoken first and said the same, had he been quicker +than Peter. If there is any merit in Peter's confession of Christ, all +other disciples, yea, all who confess Christ as Peter did, share that +merit. In replying to Peter the Lord takes all merit away from Peter by +saying to him: "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood +hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven." He +addresses Peter by the name he had borne before he became an apostle: +Simon, son of Jonas, and tells him that if he were still what he used to +be before he came to Christ, he could not have made the confession which +he had just uttered. In his old unconverted state he would not have +formed any higher opinion concerning Christ than the people throughout +the country, some of whom thought that Christ was John the Baptist risen +from the dead; others, that he was Jeremias; still others, that he was +one of the ancient prophets come back to life. The deity of Jesus and +His mission as Christ, that is, as the Messiah, our Lord says, are +grasped by men only when the Father reveals these truths to them. A +spiritual nature, a new mind such as the Spirit gives in regeneration, +is required for such a confession. The glory of Peter's confession, +therefore, is the glory of every believer. To every Sunday-school child +which recites Luther's explanation of the Second Article: "I believe +that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and +also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed +me," the Lord would say the same thing as He did to Peter: My child, +yours is an excellent confession; there is nothing fickle or undecided +in it like in the vague and changing opinions which worldly men form +about Me. Thank God that He has given you the grace to know Me as I +ought to be known. + +But did not the Lord proceed to declare Peter the rock on which He would +build His Church? That is what Catholics believe, in spite of the fact +that this would be the only place in the whole Bible where a human being +would be represented as the foundation of the Church, while there are +scores of passages which name quite another person as the rock that +supports the Church. Catholics read this text thus: "Thou art Peter, and +_on thee_ will I build My Church." That is precisely what Christ did not +say, and what He was most careful not to express. The words "Peter" and +"rock" are plainly two different terms and denote two different objects. +That is the most natural view to take of the matter. In the original +Greek we find two words similar in sound, but distinct in meaning for +the two objects to which Christ refers: Peter's name is _Petros,_ which +is a personal noun; the word for "rock" is _petra,_ which is a common +noun. In the Greek, then, Christ's answer reads thus: "Thou art +_Petros,_ and on this _petra_ will I build my Church." Catholics claim +that Christ, in answering Peter, introduced a play upon words, such as a +witty person will indulge in: _Petros,_ the apostle's name, signifies a +rock-man, a firm person, and from this meaning it is an easy step to +_petra,_ which is plain rock or stone. If this interpretation is +admitted, the expression "upon thee" may be substituted for the +expression "on this rock." Yet not altogether. By adopting the peculiar +phraseology "upon this rock" in the place of "upon thee," Christ avoids +referring to the individual Peter, to the person known as Peter, and +refers rather to a characteristic in him, namely, his firmness and +boldness in confessing Christ. This every careful interpreter of this +text will admit. Christ could easily have said: Upon thee will I build +My Church, if it had been His intention to say just that. And we imagine +on such a momentous occasion Christ would have used the plainest terms, +containing no figure of speech, no ambiguities whatever; for was he not +now introducing to the Church the distinguished person who was to +preside over its affairs? Catholics claim that when Christ spoke these +words, "upon this rock," He had extended His hand and was pointing to +Peter. That would help us considerably in the interpretation of the +text. The trouble is only that we are not told anything about such a +gesture of Christ, and if a gesture must be invented, it is possible to +invent an altogether different one, as we shall see. But if Christ, by +saying, "upon this rock," instead of saying, "upon thee," referred not +to Peter as a person, but to a quality in Peter, namely, to his firm +faith, then it follows that the Church is not built on the person of +Peter, but on a quality of Peter. This is the best that Catholics can +obtain from the interpretation which they have attempted. But if the +Church is built on firm faith, there is no reason why that faith should +be just Peter's. Would not every firm believer in the deity and +Redeemership of Christ become the rock on which the Church is built just +as much as Peter? Luther declared quite correctly: "We are all Peters if +we believe like Peter." Really, the Catholics ought to be willing to +help strengthen the foundation of the Church by admitting that the rock +would become a stouter support if, instead of the firm faith of one man, +the equally firm faith of hundreds, thousands, and millions of other men +were added to prop up the Church. In all seriousness, it will be +absolutely necessary to give Peter some assistants; for we know that the +job of holding up the Church was too big for him on at least two +occasions. What became of the Church in the night when Peter denied the +Lord? In that night, the Catholics would have to believe, the Church was +built on a liar and blasphemer. What became of the Church in the days +when Peter came to Antioch and Paul withstood him to the face because he +was dissembling his Christian convictions not to offend a Judaizing +party in the Church? (Gal. 2.) Was the Church in those days built on a +canting hypocrite? + +But the greatest difficulty in admitting the Catholic interpretation is +met when one remembers those Bible-texts which name an altogether +different rock as the foundation and corner-stone of the Church. Paul +says that in their desert wanderings the Israelites were accompanied by +Christ. He was their unseen Guide and Benefactor. He supported their +faith. "They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that +Rock was Christ" (1 Cor. 10, 4). At the conclusion of the Sermon on the +Mount the Lord relates a parable about a wise and a foolish builder. The +foolish builder set up his house on sand; the wise builder built on +rock. By the rock, however, the Lord would have us understand "these +sayings of Mine" (Matt. 7, 24). Paul speaks of the Church to the +Ephesians thus: "Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and +prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone" (chap. 2, +20). Most fatal, however, to the Catholic interpretation is the +testimony of Peter. Exhorting the Christians to eager study of the Word +of the Lord, he goes on to say: "To whom coming, as unto a living stone, +disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as +lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to +offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. +Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a +chief corner-stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth on Him shall +not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe He is precious, but +unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, +the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a +rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the Word, being +disobedient" (1 Pet. 2, 4-8). Here Peter in the plainest and strongest +terms declares Christ to be the rock on which the Church is built. The +scribes and Pharisees rejected Him, as had been foretold, but the common +people who heard Him gladly embraced His message of salvation, and +rested their faith on what He had taught them and done for them. Peter +evidently did not understand the text in Matthew as the Catholics +understand it. Peter in his Epistle is really a heretic in what he says +about the rock, and if the Catholics could spare him from under the +Church, they ought to burn him. + +Instead of connecting the two parts of the statement: "Thou art Peter," +and, "Upon this rock I will build My Church," as closely as Catholics +do, the two parts ought to be kept separate. What the Lord says to Peter +may be paraphrased thus: Peter, there was a time when you were merely +Simon, Jonas's son. At that time you had thoughts and formed opinions +about holy matters such as your flesh and blood, your natural reason, +suggested to you. All that is changed now that you are a Peter, a firm +believer in the revelation which the Father makes to men about Me. What +you have confessed is the exact truth; cling to that against all odds; +for upon this person whom you have confessed, as upon a rock, I will +build My Church.--And now we may imagine that the Lord, while uttering +the words, "upon this rock," pointed to Himself. The text does not say +that the Lord made such a gesture; we simply imagine this, but our +imagination is not only just as good as that of the Catholics, but +better, for the gesture which we assume agrees with the teachings of all +the Scriptures that speak of Christ's person and work. + +However, the Catholics remind us that Christ gave to Peter the keys of +the kingdom of heaven and made him the doorkeeper of paradise. Yes, so +the text reads, and with Luther we should now inquire: Was it a brass, +or silver, or golden, or wooden key? Is the lock on the gate of heaven a +common padlock, or like the cunning contrivances which are nowadays +employed in safety vaults? Catholics are very much offended when one +speaks thus of the keys of Peter. They say sarcasm is out of place in +such holy matters. That is quite true; but, again with Luther, we would +urge that the keys of which we are speaking sarcastically are not the +keys in Matt. 16, 10, but the keys in the Catholic imagination. And +these latter one can hardly treat with reverence. The Catholics must +admit that no real key, or anything resembling a key, was given to Peter +by Christ. The language in this text is figurative: the words which +follow state the Lord's meaning in plain terms. The power of the keys is +the preaching of the forgiveness of sins to penitent sinners, and the +withholding of grace from those who do not repent. If that is admitted +to be the meaning, we need turn only one leaf in our Bible, and read +what is stated in Matt. 18, 18. There the Lord confers the same +authority on all the disciples which He is said in Matt. 16, 19 to have +conferred on Peter exclusively. On this latter occasion Peter, if the +Catholics have the right view of the keys, ought to have interposed an +objection and said to the Lord, What you give to the others is my +property. Evidently Peter did not connect the same meaning with the +words of Christ about the keys as the Catholics. Christ spoke of this +matter once more, and in terms still plainer, at the meeting on Easter +Eve, and again addressed all the disciples. Again Peter made no +complaint. (John 20.) + +It should be noted , moreover, that in this entire text in Matthew the +Lord speaks in the future tense: "I will build," "I will give." The +words do not really confer a grant, but are at best a promise. It is +necessary now that the Catholics find a complement to this text in +Matthew, a text which relates that Christ actually carried out later +what He promised to Peter in Matt. 16, 18. 19. The Lord seems to have +forgotten the fulfilment of His promise, and the matter seems to have +slipped Peter's mind, too; for we are not told that he reminded the Lord +of His promise, though he asked him on another occasion what would be +the reward of his discipleship. (Matt. 19, 27 ff.) + +Luther has, furthermore, appealed to the Catholics to prove from the +Scriptures that Peter ever exercised such an authority as they claim for +him. If Peter had been created the prince of the apostles or the visible +head of the Church, we should expect to find evidence in our Bible that +Peter acted as a privileged person and was so regarded by the other +apostles. But we may read through the entire book of Acts and all the +apostolic epistles: they tell us very minutely how the Church was +planted in many lands, how it grew and spread, but there is not even a +faint hint that Peter was regarded as the primate, or Pope, in his day. +When a certain question of doctrine was to be decided in which the +congregations of Paul were interested, Paul did not lay the matter +before Peter to obtain his judgment on it, but referred it to a council +of the Church. At this council many spoke, and it was not Peter's, but +James's speech which finally decided the matter. (Acts 15.) When Philip +had organized congregations in Samaria, the church at Jerusalem sent +Peter and John to visit them. Peter did not assume control of these +churches by his own right, nor had Philip in the first place directed +the Samaritans to Peter as their head. (Acts 8, 14 ff.) We have thirteen +letters of Paul, three of John, besides the Revelation, one of James, +and one of Jude. The state of the Church, its affairs and development, +are the subject-matter of all these writings, but not one of them +reveals the popedom of Peter. Yea, Peter himself has written two +epistles and appears utterly ignorant of the fact that the Lord had +created him His vicegerent and the visible head of the Church. + +The Catholic argument for the God-given supremacy of their Pope, +however, becomes perfectly reckless when we bear in mind that their +banner text speaks only of Peter, but says nothing at all about Peter's +successors. If Peter possessed the supremacy that Catholics claim for +him, how and by what right did he dispose of it at his death? How did +this power become attached to Rome? On all these questions the Bible is +silent. Catholics construct a skilful argument from fragmentary and +doubtful historical records, which are not God's Word, to show that +Peter chore Rome as his episcopal see, and therewith transferred his +primacy for all time to this place. To fabricate a dogma that is to be +binding on the consciences of all Christians in such a way is daring +impudence. The devout Catholic must close his eyes to all history if he +is to believe that Christ really appointed a Pope. When he reads the +history of the Popes, and comes to the period of the papal schism, when +the Church had not only one, but two visible heads, one residing at +Rome, the other at Avignon, yea, when he reads of three contestants for +papal honors, and beholds the Church as a tricephalous monster, he must +stop thinking. + +Luther regarded the papacy as the most monstrous fraud that has been +practised on Christianity. In its gradual and persistent development and +the success with which it has maintained itself through all reverses, it +impresses one as something uncanny. It requires more than human wiliness +to originate, foster, perfect, and support such a thoroughly unbiblical +and antichristian institution. Luther spoke of the papal deception as +one of the signs foreboding the end of the world. He has not spoken in +delicate terms of the Popes. His most virulent utterances are directed +against the "Vicar of Christ" at Rome. He traces the papacy to +diabolical origin. When he lays bare the shocking perversions of +revealed truths of which Rome has been guilty, and talks about the foul +practises of the Popes and their courtesans, Luther's language becomes +appalling. In a series of twenty-six cartoons Luther's friend Cranach +depicted the rule of Christ and Antichrist. The series was published +under the title "Passional Christi und Antichristi." (14, 184 ff.) By +placing alongside of one another scenes from the life of the Lord and +scenes from the lives of the Popes, the artist displayed very +effectually the contrast between the true religion which the Redeemer +had taught men by His Word and example, and the false religiousness +which was represented by the papacy. On the one side was humility, on +the other, pride; poverty was shown in contrast with wealth; meekness +was placed over and against arrogance, etc. At a glance the people saw +the chasm that yawned between the preaching and practise of Jesus and +that of His pretended representative and vicar, and they verified the +pictures showing the Pope in various attitudes from their own +experience. These cartoons became very popular, and have maintained +their popularity till the most recent times. During the "Kulturkampf" +which the German government under Bismarck waged against the aggressive +policy of the Vatican, the German painter Hofmann issued a new edition +of the "Passionale," and Emperor William I sent a copy to the Pope with +a warning letter. + +Catholics complain about the rudeness and nastiness of these cartoons +and others that followed. Luther is supposed to have furnished the +rhymes and descriptive matter which accompanied them. Lather is also +cited as uttering most repulsive and scurrilous sentiments about the +Pope. + +What are we to say about this antipapal violence of Luther? Certainly, +it is not a pleasant subject. We are in this instance facing essentially +the same situation as that which confronted us when we studied Luther's +"coarseness" (chap. 5), and all that was said in that connection applies +with equal force to the subject now before us. One may deplore the +necessity of these passionate outbursts ever so much, but when all the +evidence in the case has been gathered and the jury begins to sift the +evidence and weigh the arguments on either side, there is at the worst a +drawn jury. All who have truly sounded "the mystery of iniquity" which +has been set up in the Church by the papacy will affirm Luther's +sentiments about the Pope as true. + +It is necessary, however, to point out certain facts that may be +regarded as additional argument to what was said in chap. 5. In the +first place, the cartoon is a recognized weapon in polemics. The +struggle of the Protestants against the Pope was not altogether a +religious and spiritual one; political matters were discussed together +with affairs of religion at every German diet in those days. The age was +rude and largely illiterate. Many who could never have made any sense +out of a page of printed matter, very easily understood a picture. It +conveyed truthful information, though in a form that hurt, as cartoons +usually do, and it roused a healthy sentiment against a very malignant +evil in the Church and in the body politic. If the Popes would keep out +of politics, they and their followers would enjoy more quiet nerves. + +In the second place, it should be borne in mind that the claim of papal +supremacy is no small and innocent matter. The Popes wrested to +themselves the supreme spiritual and temporal power in the world. They +pretended to be the custodians of heaven, the directors of purgatory, +and the lords of the earth. Across the history of the world in the era +of Luther is written in all directions the one word ROME. It is Rome at +the altar swinging the censer, Rome in the panoply of battle storming +trenches and steeping her hands in gore, Rome in the councils of kings, +Rome in the halls of guilds, Rome in the booth of the trader at a +town-fair, Rome in the judge's seat, Rome in the professor's chair, Rome +receiving ambassadors from, and dispatching nuncios to, foreign courts, +Rome dictating treaties to nations and arranging the cook's _menu,_ Rome +labeling the huckster's cart and the vintner's crop, Rome levying a tax +upon the nuptial bed, Rome exacting toll at the gate of heaven. Out of +the wreck of the imperial Rome of the Caesars has risen papal Rome. Once +more, though through different agents, the City of the Seven Hills is +ruling an _orbis terrarum Romanus,_ a Roman world-empire. The rule +extends through nearly a thousand years. How deftly do cunning priests +manipulate every means at their command to increase their power! +Learning, wealth, beauty, art, piety,--everything is used as an asset in +the ambitious game for absolute supremacy which the mitered vicegerent +of Christ is playing against the world. Rome's ancient pontifex maximus +--the pagan high priest of the Rome before Christ--had been a tool of +the consuls and the Caesars; the new pontiff makes the Caesars his +tools. Princes kiss his feet and hold the stirrup for him as he mounts +his bedizened palfrey. An emperor stands barefoot in the snow of the +Pope's courtyard suing pardon for having dared to govern without the +Pope's sanction.--The forests of Germany are reverberating with the +blows of axes which Rome's missionaries wield against Donar's Oaks. The +sanctuaries of pagan Germany are razed. Out of the wood of idols +crucifixes are erected along the highways. Chapels and abbeys and +cathedrals rise where the aurochs was hunted. Sturdy barbarians bend the +knee at the shrines of saints. Hosts set out to see the land where the +Lord had walked and suffered, and brave all dangers and hardships to +wrest its possession from infidel hands. But at the place where all +these activities center, and whence they are being fed, a shocking +abomination is seen: Venus is worshiped, and Bacchus, and Mercurius, and +Mars, while white-robed choirs chant praises to the mother of God, and +clouds of incense are wafted skyward. Here is a mystery--a mystery of +iniquity: the son of perdition in the temple of God! Proud, haughty +Rome, wealthy, wicked and wanton, is filling up her measure of wrath +against the day of retribution.--We are now so far removed from these +scenes that they seem unreal; in Luther's days they were decidedly real. +Rome's aggressiveness has been perceptibly checked during the last four +centuries; in Luther's days papal pretensions were a more formidable +proposition. + +Human arrogance may be said to have reached its limit in the papacy. The +Pope is practically a God on earth. "Sitting in the temple of God as +God, he is showing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. 2, 4). He has been +addressed by his followers in terms of the Deity. "When the Pope thinks, +it is God thinking," wrote the papal organ of Rome, the _Civilta +Cattolica,_ in 1869. He has asserted the right to make laws for +Christians, and to dispense with the laws of the Almighty. Although this +seemed a superfluous proceeding, he declared himself infallible on July +18, 1870. Under a glowering sky, as if Heaven frowned angrily at the +Pope's attempt, Plus IX had entered St. Peter's. As a "second Moses" he +mounted the papal throne to read the Constitution "Aeternus Pater," the +document in which he made the following claims: Canon III: "If any one +says that the Roman Pontiff has only authority to inspect and direct, +but not plenary and supreme authority of jurisdiction over the entire +Church, not only in matters which relate to faith and morals, but also +in matters that belong to the discipline and government of the Church +scattered through the whole earth; or that he has only the more eminent +part of such authority, but not the full plenitude of this supreme +authority; or that this authority of his is not his ordinary authority +which he holds from no intermediary, and that it does not extend over +all churches and every single one of them, over all pastors and every +single one of them, over all the faithful and every single one of them, +--let him be accursed!" Canon IV: "With the approval of the Sacred +Council we teach and declare it to be a dogma revealed from heaven that +the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks _ex cathedra,_ that is, when, in +accordance with his supreme apostolic authority, be discharges his +office as Pastor and Teacher of all Christians, and defines a doctrine +relating to the faith or morals which is to be embraced by the entire +Church, he is, by divine assistance promised to him in the blessed +Peter, vested with that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer +desired His Church to be endowed in defining the doctrine of faith and +morals; and that for this reason such definitions of the Roman Pontiff +are in their very nature, not, however, by reason of the consent of the +Church, unchangeable. If--which God may avert!--any one should presume +to contradict this definition of ours,--let him be accursed!" Amid +flashes of lightning and peals of thunder this document was read to a +council whose membership had shrunk during seven months of deliberation +from 767 to 547 attendants,--277 qualified members had never put in an +appearance,--and of these all but two had been cowed into abject +submission. When one recalls scenes like these, and remembers that +Catholic teaching on justification attacks the very heart of +Christianity, anything that Luther has said about the Popes appears +mild. Such heaven-storming and God-defying arrogance deserves to be +dragged through the mire--with apologies to the mire. + + +21. Luther the Translator of the Bible. + +A violent attack upon Luther by Catholic writers is caused by the +admiration which Protestants manifest for Luther because he translated +the Bible into German. Catholics, of course, cannot deny that Luther did +translate the Bible, and that his translation is still a cherished +treasure of Protestants; but in order to belittle this achievement of +Luther, which inflicted incalculable damage on Rome, they talk about +Luther's unfitness for the work of Bible-translation and about the +unwarranted liberties Luther took with the Bible. + +These writers claim that Luther was, in the first place, morally unfit +to undertake the translation of the Bible. To show to what desperate +means Luther's Catholic critics will resort in order to make out a case +against him, we note that one of the most recent disparagers of Luther +informs the public that Luther's original name had been Luder. This name +conveys the idea of "carrion," "beast," "low scoundrel." When Luther +began to translate the Bible, we are told, he changed his name into +"Squire George." Once before this, at the time of his entering the +university, Catholics note that he changed his name from Luder to +Lueder. But these changes of his name, they say, did not improve his +character. We are told that, while Luther was engaged upon the work of +rendering the Bible into German, he was consumed with fleshly lust and +given to laziness. Luther's own statements in letters to friends are +cited to corroborate this assertion. The conclusion which we are to draw +from these "facts" is this: Such a corrupt person could not possibly be +a proper instrument for the Holy Spirit to employ in so pious an +undertaking as the translation of the Word of God. + +Catholics should be reminded that they misquote the book of +matriculation in which the students at Erfurt signed their names on +entering the university. Luther's signature is not "Lueder" but +"Ludher." Other forms of the name "Luder" and "Lueder" occur elsewhere. +But in any form the name has a more honorable derivation and meaning +than Catholic writers are inclined to give it. It is derived from +"Luither," which means as much as "People's Man," (= der Leute Herr). +Another well-known form of the same name is Lothar, which some, tracing +the derivation still further, derive from the old German Chlotachar, +which means as much as "loudly hailed among the army" (= _hluit,_ loud, +and _chari,_ army). Respectable scholars to-day so explain the name +Luther. + +At the Wartburg, where Luther was an exile for ten months, his name was +changed by the warden of the castle, Count von Berlepsch. This was done +the better to conceal his identity from the henchmen of Rome, who by the +imperial edict of outlawry had been given liberty to hunt Luther and +slay him where they found him. + +The sexual condition of Luther during the years before his marriage was +the normal condition of any healthy young man at his age. Luther speaks +of this matter as a person nowadays would speak about it to his +physician or to a close friend. The matter to which he refers is in +itself perfectly pure: it is an appeal of nature. Do Luther's Catholic +critics mean to infer that Luther was the only monk, then or now, that +felt this call which human nature issues by the ordination of the +Creator? Rome can inflict celibacy even on priests that look like +stall-fed oxen, but she cannot unsex men. Mohammedans are less inhuman +to their eunuchs. Moreover, it must be borne in mind that Luther +complains of this matter as something that disturbs him. It vexed his +pure mind, and he fought against it as not many monks of his day have +done, by fasting, prayer, and hard work. Yes, hard work! The remarks of +Luther about his physical condition are simply twisted from their true +import when Luther is represented as a victim of fleshly lust and a +habitual debauchee. Luther's Catholic critics fail to mention that +during his brief stay at the Wartburg Luther not only translated the +greater part of the New Testament, but also wrote about a dozen +treatises, some of them of considerable size, and that of his +correspondence during this period about fifty letters are still +preserved. Surely, a fairly respectable record for a lazy man! + +Catholic writers also declare Luther spiritually unfit for translating +the Bible. They say that all the time that Luther spent at the Wartburg +he was haunted by the devil. He would hear strange noises and see weird +shadows flit before him. He felt that he had come under the sway of the +powers of darkness. This, we are assured, was because he had risen in +rebellion against the divine power of the papacy. The Holy Father whom +he had attacked was being avenged upon Luther by an accusing conscience. +Luther was given a foretaste of the terrors that await the reprobate. He +had become an incipient demoniac. The inference which we are to draw +from this delightful description is this: Could such an abandoned wretch +as Luther was during the exile at the Wartburg be favored with the holy +calm and composure and the heavenly light which any person must possess +who sets out upon the arduous task of telling men in their own tongue +what God has said to them in a foreign tongue? + +There is hardly a period in Luther's life that is entirely free from +spiritual affliction. In this respect Luther shares the common lot of +godly men in responsible positions in Church or State during critical +times. Moreover, Luther with all Christians believed in a personal and +incessantly active devil. Luther's devil was not the denatured +metaphysical and scientific devil of modern times, which meets us in the +form of the principle of negation, or logical contradiction, or a +demoralizing tendency and influence, but an energetic devil, possessed +of an intelligence and will of his own, and going about as a roaring +lion, seeking whom he may devour. Luther accepted the teaching of the +Bible that this devil is related to men's sinning, that men can be made +to do, and are doing, his will, and are led about by the devil like +slaves. Luther knew that for His own reasons God permits the devil to +afflict His children, as happened to Job and Paul. Add to this the +reaction that must have set in after Luther had quitted the stirring +scenes and the severe ordeals through which he had passed before the +imperial court at Worms. In the silence and solitude of his secluded +asylum in the Thuringian Forest the recent events in which he had been a +principal actor passed in review before his mind, and he began to spell +out many a grave and ominous meaning from them. If it is true that the +devil loves to find a lonely man, here was his chance. + +And if the devil ever had material interests at stake in attacking a +particular person, he made no mistake in assailing this isolated monk, +Martin Luther, in his moments of brooding and depression. Lastly, +Luther's physical condition at the Wartburg must be taken into +consideration. Trained to frugal habits in the cloister and habituated +to fasts and mortification of the flesh, Luther found the new mode of +living which he was compelled to adopt uncongenial. He was the guest of +a prince and was treated like a nobleman. The rich and abundant food +that was served him was a disastrous diet for him, even though he did +not yield overmuch to his appetite. He complains in his letters to +friends during the Wartburg period about his physical distress, chiefly +constipation, to which he was constitutionally prone. + +But after all these elements have been noted, it must be stated that the +reports about diabolical visitations to which Luther was subject at the +Wartburg are overdrawn for a purpose by Catholics. Luther's references +to this matter in his letters written at the time suggest only spiritual +conflicts, but no physical contact with the devil. Reminiscences of his +first exile which he relates at a much later period to the guests at his +table are also exaggerated. These soul-battles, far from unfitting him +for the work of translating the Bible, were rather a fine +training-school through which God put His humble servant, and helped him +to understand the sacred text over which he sat poring in deep +meditation. + +Lastly, Catholic critics have pronounced Luther intellectually +disqualified for translating the Bible. His Greek scholarship, they say, +was poor. He had barely begun to study that language. It stands to +reason that his translation must be very faulty. They also emphasize the +rapidity with which Luther worked. The translation of the entire New +Testament was completed between December 8, 1521, and September 22 the +following year. (It will be remembered that Luther had returned to +Wittenberg in the first days of March, 1522, and all through the spring +and summer of that year was busily engaged, with the aid of friends, on +his German New Testament.) Finally, Catholics, in their efforts to +belittle Luther's works, have claimed that he plagiarized a German +translation already in existence, the so-called Codex Teplensis. + +It seems a mere waste of time to answer these criticisms. They remind +one of a scene in the life of Columbus: the learned Catholic divines of +Salamanca had to their own satisfaction routed the bold navigator with +their arguments that he could not possibly start out by his proposed +route. No doubt, some of them contended that he never made his famous +voyage even after his return. What profit can there be in arguing the +impossibility of a thing when the reality confronts you? Luther's +translation is before the world; everybody who knows Greek can compare +it with the original text. The Teplensian translation, too, can be +looked into. In fact, all this has been done by competent scholars, and +Luther's translation has been pronounced a masterpiece. Not only does it +reproduce the original text faithfully, but it speaks a good and correct +German. Luther's translation of the Bible is now regarded as one of the +classics of German literature. It is true that the philological +attainments of the world have increased since Luther, and that +improvements in his translations have been suggested, but they do not +affect any essential teaching of the Christian religion. Bible +commentators to-day are still citing Luther's rendering as an authority. +The movement recently started in Germany to replace Luther's translation +by a modern one deserves little consideration because it originated in +quarters that are professedly hostile to Christianity. The things in +Luther's German Bible which vex Catholics most are in the original Greek +text. Luther did not manufacture them, he merely reproduced them. It is +the fact that Luther made it possible for Germans to see what is really +in the Bible that hurts. To please the Catholics, Luther should not have +translated the Bible at all. + +The truth of this remark is readily seen when one examines specific +exceptions which Catholics have taken to Luther's translation. They find +fault with Luther's translation of the angel's address to Mary: "Du +Holdselige," that is, Thou gracious one, or well-favored one. The +Catholics demand that this term should be rendered "full of grace," +because in their belief Mary is really the chief dispenser of grace. +They complain that in Matt. 3, 2 Luther has rendered the Baptist's call: +"Tut Busse," that is, Repent, instead of, Do penance. They fault Luther +for translating in Acts 19, 18: "Und verkuendigten, was sie ausgerichtet +hatten," that is, They reported what they had accomplished. Catholics +regard this text as a stronghold for their doctrine of confession, +especially for that part of it which makes satisfaction by works of +penance a part of confession; they insist that the text must be +rendered: They declared their deeds, that is, the works which they had +performed by order of their confessors. Catholics charge Luther with +having inserted a word in Rom. 4, 15, which he translates: "Das Gesetz +richtet nur Zorn an," that is, The law worketh only wrath, or nothing +but wrath. They object to the word "only," because in their view man can +by his own natural powers make himself love the Law. They set up a great +hue and cry about another insertion in Rom. 3, 28, which Luther +translates: "So halten wir es nun, dass der Mensch gerecht werde ohne +des Gesetzes Werk', allein durch den Glauben," that is, We conclude, +therefore, that a man is justified without the deeds of the Law, by +faith alone; they object to the word "alone," because in their teaching +justification is by faith plus works. It is known that there are +translations before Luther which contain the same insertion. On this +insertion Luther deserves to be heard himself. "I knew full well," he +says, "that in the Latin and Greek texts of Rom. 3, 28 the word solum +(alone) does not occur, and there was no need of the papists teaching me +that. True, these four letters sola, at which the dunces stare as a cow +at a new barn-door, are not in the text. But they do not see that they +express the meaning of the text, and they must be inserted if we wish to +clearly and forcibly translate the text. When I undertook to translate +the Bible into German, my aim was to speak German, not Latin or Greek. +Now, it is a peculiarity of our German language, whenever a statement is +made regarding two things, one of which is affirmed while the other is +negatived, to add the word solum, 'alone,' to the word 'not' or 'none.' +As, for instance: The peasant brings only grain, and no money. Again: +Indeed, I have no money now, but only grain. As yet I have only eaten, +and not drunk. Have you only written, and not read what you have +written? Innumerable instances of this kind are in daily usage. While +the Latin or the Greek language does not do this, the German has this +peculiarity, that in all statements of this kind it adds the word 'only' +(or 'alone'), in order to express the negation completely and clearly. +For, though I may say: The peasant brings grain and no money, still the +expression 'no money' is not as perfect and plain as when I say: The +peasant brings grain only, and no money. Thus the word 'alone' or 'only' +helps the word 'no' to become a complete, clear German statement. When +you wish to speak German, you must not consult the letters in the Latin +language, as these dunces are doing, but you must inquire of a mother +how she talks to her children, of the children how they talk to each +other on the street, of the common people on the market-place. Watch +them how they frame their speech, and make your translation accordingly, +and they will understand it and know that some one is speaking German to +them. For instance, Christ says: _Ex abundantia cordis os loquitur._ If +I were to follow the dunces, I would have to spell out those words and +translate: 'Aus dem Ueberfluss des Herzens redet der Mund!' Tell me, +would that be German? What German would understand that? What sort of +thing is 'abundance of heart (Ueberfluss des Herzens)' ? No German +person could explain that, unless he were to say that, possibly, the +person had enlargement of the heart, or too much heart. And that would +not be the correct meaning. 'Ueberfluss des Herzens' is not German, as +little as it is German to say 'Ueberfluss des Hauses (abundance of +house), Ueberfluss des Kachelofens (abundance of tile-oven), Ueberfluss +der Bank (abundance of bench).' This is the way the mother speaks to her +children and the common people to one another: 'Wes das Herz voll ist, +des gehet der Mund ueber.' That is the way to speak good German. That is +what I have endeavored to do, but I did not succeed nor achieve my aim +in all instances. Latin terms are an exceedingly great hindrance to one +who wishes to talk good German." (19, 974.) + +In insisting on the principle that a translation must reproduce the +exact thought of a language, that idiomatic utterances of the one +language must be replaced by similar utterances in the other, and that +the genius of both the language from which and the one into which the +translation is made must be observed by the translator, Luther has every +rhetoric and grammar on his side. Those who find fault with him on this +score deserve no better titles than those which he applied to them, all +the more because he knew the true reason of their faultfinding. The +Catholic charges of Bible perversion against Luther flow, not from a +knowledge of good grammar, but from bad theology. Luther was, of course, +fundamentally in error according to the opinion of Catholics by not +making his translation from the approved and authorized Latin Vulgate, +the official Catholic Bible, but from the Greek original. + +To return favor for favor, we shall note a few places where Catholics +might bring their own Bible into better harmony with the original text. +In Gen. 3, 15 their translation reads: "She shall crush thy head, and +thou shalt lie in wait for her heel." This rendering has been adopted in +order to enable them to refer this primeval prophecy of the future +Redeemer to Mary. Gen. 4, 13 they have rendered: "My iniquity is greater +than that I may deserve pardon." This is to favor their teaching of +justification on the basis of merit. The rendering "Speak not much" for +"Use not vain repetitions" in Matt. 6, 7 weakens the force of the Lord's +warning. In Rom. 14, 5 the Catholic Bible tells its readers: "Let every +man abound in his own sense," whatever the sense of that direction may +be. What the apostle really means is: "Let every man be fully persuaded +in his own mind." In Gal. 3, 24 the Catholic Bible calls the Law "our +pedagog in Christ"; the correct rendering is: "our schoolmaster to bring +us unto Christ." In the Catholic Bible the following remarkable event +takes place in Luke 16, 22: "The rich man also died: and he was buried +in hell." The pall-bearers, funeral director, and mourners at these +obsequies deserve a double portion of our sympathy. In Acts 2, 42 we are +told that the disciples at Jerusalem were persevering "in the +communication of the breaking of the bread." The last verse in +Galatians, chap. 4, is made to read: "So then, brethren, we are not the +children of the bondwoman, but of the free: by the freedom wherewith +Christ has made us free." The next chapter begins: "Stand fast," etc. + +Luther has expressed opinions of certain books of the Bible which +question their divine authorship. These opinions are being assiduously +canvassed by Catholic writers to prove that Luther accepted only such +portions of the Bible as suited his purpose, and rejected all the rest +as spurious. He is said to have arrogated to himself the authority to +declare any book of the Scriptures inspired or not inspired, and is, +therefore, justly regarded as the father of the higher criticism of +modern times, which has taken the Bible to pieces and destroyed its +power. But Catholic writers fail to state that the uncertainty which +Luther occasionally manifests regarding the divine origin and +authenticity of certain books of the Bible is due to the confusion which +the Catholic Church has created by decreeing that the apocryphal books +shall be considered on a par with the canonical writings of the Bible. +Setting aside the verdict of the ancient Church, and even of their +famous church-father Jerome, the Catholic Church has by an arbitrary +decree ruled the following books into the Bible: 1 Esdras, 2 Esdras, +Tobit, Judith, The Rest of Esther, The Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus +(Sirach), Baruch, with the Epistle of Jeremiah, The Song of the Three +Holy Children, The History of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, The Prayer of +Manasses, 1 and 2 Maccabees. These writings are called apocrypha because +their divine origin is in doubt. Scrupulously careful to keep the +divinely inspired writings separate from all other writings, no matter +how godly their contents might seem to be, the Church of the Old +Covenant excluded these writings from the canon, that is, from the list +of fully accredited inspired writings. Besides, in the Catholic Bible in +Luther's days there were apocryphal portions inserted in canonical +writings like Esther. + +In the course of his studies Luther learned that certain writings in the +Catholic Bible represented as Biblical were no part of the Bible. Acting +upon the direction which the Lord gave to the Jews: "Search the +Scriptures . . . they are they which testify of Me" (John 5, 39), he +considered this a good test of the genuineness of any portion of the +Bible, viz., that it conveyed to him knowledge of Christ and the way of +salvation. The Bible, he held, can speak only for, never against Christ. +By this principle he determined for himself the respective value of +various writings in the Bible. Ecclesiastes and Jonah did not appeal to +him as very full of Christ. In the New Testament he seems strongly +attracted by the Gospel of John. But there are statements in his +writings in which he expresses a preference for Matthew, Mark, and Luke. +One must understand Luther's view-point and aim on a given occasion to +grasp these valuations. In regard to Job he expressed the opinion that +the book is dramatic rather than historical: it does not relate actual +occurrences, but rather points a moral in the form of a narrative. In +the New Testament the overgreat emphasis which he thought James placed +on works as against faith caused him to depreciate this Epistle and to +question its apostolic authorship. Luther also knew that in the earliest +centuries of the Christian era the question had been raised whether +Second Peter, Jude, James, Revelation, really belonged in the canon. + +Unbiased readers will see in all these remarks of Luther nothing but the +earnest struggle of a sincere soul to get at the real Word of God. A +person may express a preference for certain portions of the Bible +without declaring all the rest of the Bible worthless. Doubts concerning +the divine character of certain, portions of the Scripture arise and are +occasionally expressed by the best of Christians. But Luther's critical +attitude toward certain books of the Bible is either misunderstood or +misrepresented when it is made to appear that Luther permanently +rejected, or tore out of his Bible, such books as Esther, Jonah, +Ecclesiastes, Second Peter, James, Hebrews, Jude, and Revelation. Some +Catholics go so far as to charge Luther with having rejected the +Pentateuch, the first five books in the Bible, because he speaks +slightingly of Moses' law as a means of justification. Not only did +Luther translate and take into his German Bible all the writings just +named, but he also cites them in his doctrinal writings as proof-texts. +In the Index of Scripture citations which Dr. Hoppe, the editor of the +only complete edition of Luther's works printed in America, has added to +the last volume we find 11 such references to Job, 12 to Ecclesiastes, 6 +to Jonah, 48 to Second Peter, 18 to James, 6 to Jude, 61 to Hebrews, 17 +to Revelation. We have counted only such references as show that Luther +employed these writings as divine in his doctrinal arguments. By actual +enumeration it would be found that he has referred to them much more +frequently. On Jonah, Second Peter, and Jude he wrote special +commentaries, and for all the books of the Bible he furnished +illuminating summaries, in some cases, as in Revelation, the summaries +are furnished chapter for chapter. This goes to prove that Luther had +ultimately reached very clear and settled opinions regarding the +authenticity and divine character of those books of the Bible which he +is charged with having blasphemously criticized. Luther's criticism of +these portions of the Bible is the most respectable criticism that has +come to our knowledge. It shows his scrupulous care not to admit +anything as being God's Word of the divine origin of which he was not +fully convinced. It is Rome, not Luther, that has vitiated the Bible and +created confusion in Christian minds, by admitting into the sacred +volume portions which do not belong there. + +Luther's questioning attitude towards the books of the Bible, which we +have named is the attitude of the early Christians. There was doubt +expressed in the first centuries as to the genuineness of these books, +and it required convincing information in those days when facilities for +communication were poor to secure the adoption of the books which we now +have in the Bible. Why do not the Catholics embrace the early Christians +in their charge of Bible mutilation? Nor were those early Christians who +questioned the divine authorship of certain books about the origin of +which they had no definite knowledge any less Christian than those who +had convincing information about them. For the former possessed in the +writings which they had accepted as authentic the same truths which the +latter had embraced. + +Luther voices his profound reverence for the Scriptures in innumerable +places throughout his writings. "The Holy Scriptures," he says, "did not +grow on earth." (7, 2094.) Again: "When studying the Scriptures, you +must reflect that it is God Himself who is speaking to you." (3, 21.) +Again: "The Scriptures are older and possess greater authority than all +Councils and Fathers. Moreover, all the angels side with God and the +Scriptures. . . . If age, duration, greatness, multitude [of followers], +holiness, are inducements to believe something, why do we believe men +who live but a short time rather than God, who is the Oldest, the +Greatest, the Holiest, the Mightiest of all? Why do we not believe all +the angels, since a single one of them has greater authority than the +Pope? Why do we not believe the Bible, when one passage of Scripture +outweighs all the books in the world?" (19, 1734.) Again: "The Bible +alone is the true lord and master over all writings on earth. If this +is not so, of what use is the Bible? Then let us cast it aside, and be +satisfied with the books and teachings of men." (15, 1481.) Again: "All +Scripture is full of Christ, the Son of God and Mary. Its sole object is +to teach us to know Him as a distinct person, and that through Him we +may in eternity behold the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God. The +Scriptures are ajar to him who has the Son, and in the same proportion +as his faith in Christ increases the Scriptures become clear to him" (3, +1959.) How little Luther would have in common with the destructive +higher critics of the Bible in our day, we can gather from the following +statement: "If cutting and tearing the Bible to pieces were a great art, +what a famous Bible would I produce! Especially if I were to lay my hand +on the important passages, those on which the articles of our faith rest. +. . . My position, then, is this: In view of the fact that our faith is +supported by Holy Writ, we must not depart from its words as they read, +nor from the order in which they are placed. . . . Otherwise, what is to +become of the Bible?" (20, 213.) + + +22. Luther a Preacher of Violence against the Hierarchy. + +In his fight against papal supremacy Luther discovered that the Roman +priesthood was the Pope's chief support. The principle of community of +interests had knitted both the higher and the lower clergy, the +cardinals, archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, parish priests, monks, +etc., together into one firmly compacted society. All its members +understood that they were working in a common cause, and kept in +constant and close rapport with one another: What concerned one +concerned all the rest. Each aided and abetted the other, and all strove +jointly to exalt their master, the Pope. Like a huge net the rule of +priests was spread over mankind, and all men, with their spiritual and +secular interests, were caught in this net. The system was called a +hierarchy, that is, a holy government. The priesthood and the holy +orders were the Pope's collateral. All its members derived what +authority they possessed from the Pope; their fortunes were bound up in +the Pope's. This priest-rule Luther overthrew by causing men to see the +liberty with which Christ has made them free. Catholic critics claim +that by so doing Luther rebelled against an ordinance of God. We have +shown in chapter 18 that Luther acknowledges in the Church of Christ a +ministry that exists by divine appointment. Hence the Catholic charge +that Luther revolted from God when he disputed the divine right of the +hierarchy is silly. + +However, Luther is said to have "recklessly encouraged the destruction +of the episcopate, and openly commanded sacrilege and murder" to mobs. +The appeal of Luther that the _rule_ of bishops be exterminated is +interpreted to mean that the bishops be exterminated. This is one of the +most wanton charges that could be preferred against Luther. By the +Theses against Tetzel the attention of many prominent men in Germany was +attracted to Luther. Princes and noblemen of the Empire had for some +time been studying from a secular point of view the evils which Luther +had begun to attack on spiritual grounds. These men understood the +character of the Roman hierarchy much better than Luther. They saw at +once that Luther's action would lead to serious complication that might +ultimately have to be settled with the sword. When Luther was still +dreaming about convincing the Pope with arguments from Scripture, German +noblemen were preparing to defend him against physical violence. They +knew that the hierarchy would not without a fierce struggle submit to +any curtailment of their power. They offered Luther armed support. +Luther recoiled with horror from this suggestion. In a letter from the +Wartburg which he wrote to his friend Spalatin who was still tarrying at +Worms, Luther refers to one of these warlike knights as follows: "What +Hutten has in mind you can see [from the writings of the knight which he +enclosed]. I would not like to see men fight for the Gospel with force +and bloodshed. I have answered that parson (_dem Menschen_) accordingly. +By the Word the world has been overcome, the Church has been preserved; +by the Word it will also be restored. As to Antichrist, he began his +rule without physical force, and will also be destroyed without physical +force, by the Word." (15, 2506.) The letter from which these words are +quoted is dated January 16, 1522. Nine months before this date, on May +14, when he had been on the Wartburg about ten days, Luther writes to +the same party: "It is for good reasons that I have not answered your +letter ere this: I hesitated from fear that the report recently gone out +of my being held captive might prompt somebody to intercept my letters. +A great many things are related about me at this place; however, the +opinion is beginning to prevail that I was captured by friends sent for +this purpose from Franconia. To-morrow the safe-conduct granted me by +the emperor expires. I am sorry that, as you write me, there is an +intention to apply the very severe [imperial] edict also for the purpose +of exploring men's consciences; not on my account, but because they [the +papists] are ill-advised in this and will bring misfortune on their own +heads, and because they continue to load themselves with very great +odium. Oh, what hatred will this shameless violence kindle! However, +they may have their way; perhaps the time of their visitation is near. +--So far I have not heard from our people either at Wittenberg or +elsewhere. About the time of our arrival at Eisenach the young men [the +students] at Erfurt had, during the night, damaged a few priests' +dwellings, from indignation because the dean of St. Severus Institute, a +great papist, had caught Magister Draco, a gentleman who is favorably +inclined to us, by his cassock and had publicly dragged him from the +choir, pretending that he had been excommunicated for having gone to +meet me at my arrival at Erfurt. Meanwhile people are fearing greater +disturbances; the magistrates are conniving, for the local priests are +in ill repute, and it is being reported that the artisans are allying +themselves with the student-body. The prophetic saying seems about to +come true which runs: Erfurt is another Prague. [There was rioting in +Prague in the days of Hus, whom Rome burned at the stake.]--I was told +yesterday that a certain priest at Gotha has met with rough treatment +because his people had bought certain estates (I do not know which), in +order to increase the revenue of the church, and, under pretext of their +ecclesiastical immunity, had refused to pay the incumbrances and taxes +on the same. We see that the people, as also Erasmus writes, are unable +and unwilling any longer to bear the yoke of the Pope and the papists. +And still we do not cease coercing and burdening them, although--now +that everything has been brought to light--we have lost our reputation +and their good will, and our former halo of sanctity can no longer avail +or exert the influence which it exerted formerly. Heretofore we have +increased hatred by violence and by violence have suppressed it; +however, whether we can continue suppressing it experience will show." +(15, 2510.) To Melanchthon he wrote about this time: "I hear that at +Erfurt they are resorting to violence against the dwellings of priests. +I am surprised that the city council permits this and connives at it, +and that our dear friend Lang keeps silent. For although it is good that +those impious men who will not desist are kept in check, still this +procedure will bring the Gospel into disrepute, and will cause men +justly to spurn it. I would write to Lang, but as yet I dare not. For +such a display of friendliness to our cause as these people show is very +offensive to me, because it clearly shows that we are not yet worthy +servants in God's sight, and that Satan is mocking and laughing at our +efforts [of reform]. Oh, how I do fear that all this is like the fig +tree in the parable, of which the Lord, Matt. 21, predicts that it will +merely sprout before the Day of Judgment, but will bear no fruit. What +we teach is, indeed, the truth; however, it amounts to nothing if we do +not practise what we preach." (15, 1906.) + +Disquieting rumors of excesses that were being perpetrated by radical +followers of the evangelical teaching had reached Luther also from +Wittenberg. To obtain a clear insight into the actual state of affairs, +he made a secret visit to his home town in the beginning of December, +1521. Returning to his exile, he wrote his _Faithful Admonition to All +Christians to Avoid Tumult and Rebellion._ In this treatise Luther +reasons as follows: The papacy, with all its great institutions, +cloisters, universities, laws and doctrines, is nothing but lies. On +lies it was raised, by lies it is supported, with lies and frauds and +cheats it deceives, misleads, and oppresses men. Accordingly, all that +is necessary to overthrow its dominion is to recognize its lying +character, and to publish it and the papacy will collapse as if blown +aside by the breath of the Almighty, as Scripture says it shall happen +to Antichrist. To start a riot against the papists would never improve +them, and would only cause them to vilify the cause of their opponents. +In times of tumult, people lose their reason and do more harm to +innocent people than to the guilty. Public wrongs should be redressed by +the magistrates, who are vested with authority for that purpose. No +matter how just a cause may be, it never justifies rioting. Luther +declares that he will rather side with those who suffer in, than with +those who start, a riot. Rioting is forbidden in God's Law (Dent. 16, +20; 32, 35). This particular rioting against the papists has been +instigated by the devil, in order to divert people's minds from the real +spiritual issues of the times, and to bring the cause of the Gospel into +disrepute. Luther feels these tumultuous proceedings as a disgrace. +"People who read and understand my teaching correctly," he says, "do not +start riots. They were not taught such things by me. If any engage in +such proceedings and drag my name into it, what can I do to stop them? +How many things are the papists doing in the name of Christ which Christ +never commanded!" Luther begs all who glory in the name of Christians to +conduct themselves as Paul demands 2 Cor. 6, 3: "Giving no offense in +anything, that the ministry be not blamed." (10, 360 ff.) Whoever can, +ought to treat himself to the reading of this fine treatise of the +exiled monk of Wittenberg. + +The iconoclastic uprising which broke out in Wittenberg in the closing +days of the month of February, 1522, finally decided Luther, at the risk +of his life, to quit his exile and to fight the devil, who was trying to +subvert his good doctrine by such wicked practises. The world knows that +it was Luther who quelled the riot in his town. Luther's face was ever +sternly set against those who wanted to wage the Lord's wars with the +devil's weapons. No murder or sacrilege that was committed in those days +can be laid at the door of Luther's teaching. + +The Catholics are trying to divert attention from their own unwarranted +and violent proceedings by charging Luther with preaching a war of +extermination against their hierarchy. How did they treat the just +claims and reasonable demands of the German nation for measures that +were admitted to be crying needs of the times? No German diet met but a +long list of grievances was submitted by the suffering people. It was of +no avail. The haughty clergy rode over the people's rights and prayers +rough-shod. The tyrannous devices which their cunning had invented were +executed with brazen impudence. How had they treated simple laymen in +whose possession a Bible was found? What was their inquisitorial court +but the anteroom to holy butchers' shambles, the legal vestibule to +murder that had been sanctioned by the Popes? How had they treated +Luther? If the papal nuncio at the Diet of Worms had had his way with +the emperor and the princes, Luther would not have left that city alive. +They openly declared to the emperor that he was not obliged to keep his +plighted word for a safe-conduct to a heretic. These people come now at +this late day prating about violence that they have suffered from this +sacrilegious and bloodthirsty Luther. They themselves were the +perpetrators of the most appalling violence against God and men: their +whole system rests, as Johann Gerhard in his famous _Confessio +Catholica_ rightly asserts, on _Fraus et Vis,_ that is, Fraud and +Violence. + + +23. Luther, Anarchist and Despot All in One. + +Extremes met, with most disastrous effect-so Catholic writers tell us-in +Luther's views of the political rights of men. At one time he was so +outspoken in his condemnation of the oppression which the common people +were suffering from the clergy, the nobility, and their aristocratic +governors that he incited them to discontent with their humble lot in +life, to unrest, and to open rebellion against their magistrates. At +another time he became the spokesman for the most pronounced absolutism +and despotism. He turned suddenly against the very people whose cause +he had so signally championed, and who hailed him as their prophet and +leader. When the poor, downtrodden people needed him most, Luther +cowardly deserted them, and by frenzied utterances excited the nobility +to slay the common people without mercy in the most ruthless fashion, +and even promised the lords whom he had denounced as tyrants heaven for +enacting the barbaric cruelties to which he was urging them. This is the +Catholic portrayal of Luther during the Peasants' War. + +The relation of the peasant uprising to Luther's preaching is grossly +misrepresented when the impression is created that Luther had before +this sad upheaval worked hand in glove with the malcontent rustics for +the overthrow of the government. Disturbances of this kind had been +periodical occurrences in Europe for many hundreds of years. The heavy +taxes and tithes, and the forced labor which the lords exacted from +their tenants, who were little better than serfs, the galling +restrictions in regard to hunting, fishing, gathering wood in the +forests which they had imposed on them, the foreign Roman law under +which they tried cases in court, and, in general, their haughty and +contemptuous bearing toward the common people had for many generations +created strained relations between the upper and the lower classes. The +estrangement which developed into open defiance existed among the +peasants before Luther had begun to preach. Nor can Luther's teaching be +said to have fanned the slumbering embers of discontent into a huge +flame. The liberty of a Christian man which he had proclaimed was not +such liberty as the peasants demanded and wrested to themselves when the +revolt had reached its height. Luther had consistently taught that +obedience to the government is a Christian duty. He had, as we have +shown in the preceding chapter, warned with telling force against riot, +tumult, and sedition. He had deprecated any allying of the cause of the +Gospel and of spiritual freedom with the carnal strivings of disaffected +men for mere temporal and secular advantages. He had reminded Christians +that it was their duty to suffer wrong rather than do wrong. + +On the other hand, Luther had pleaded the cause of the poor before the +lords, and had earnestly warned the nobility not to continue their +tyranny, but conciliate their subjects by yielding to their just +demands. He had fearlessly pointed out to the lords what was galling in +their conduct to the common, people-their pride and luxurious living, +their disregard of the commonest rights of man, their despotic dealings +with their humble subjects, their rude behavior and exasperating conduct +toward the men, women, and children whom they made toil and slave for +them. + +Maintaining, thus, an honest equipoise between the two contrary forces, +and dealing out even-handed justice to both, Luther was conscious of +serving the true interests of either side and laboring for the common +welfare of all. With his implicit faith in the power of God's Word he +was hoping for a gradual improvement of the situation. The conflict +would be adjusted in a quiet and orderly manner by the truth obtaining +greater and greater sway over the minds of men. Luther had had no +inkling of an impending clash between the peasants and the nobility when +the revolt broke out with the fury of a cyclone. Luther was shocked. He +promptly hurried to the scene of the disturbances by request of the +Count of Mansfeld. It speaks volumes for the integrity of Luther that +both sides were willing to permit him to arbitrate their differences. +The invitation came originally from the peasants and was addressed to +Luther, Melanchthon, Bugenhagen, and the Elector Frederick jointly, but +it was not acted on until Count Albert invited Luther to come to +Eisleben. The _Exhortation to Peace on the Twelve Articles of the +Peasants_ which Luther issued, after having investigated the situation, +rebukes the lords with considerably more sternness than the commoners, +but makes fair suggestions for the composition of the differences. +Before Luther takes up the "Twelve Articles of the Peasants" for +detailed discussion, he informs them that he considers their whole +procedure wrong, even if all their demands were just, because they have +resorted to force to secure their right. A beautiful sentiment for an +anarchist to utter, is it not? In Article I the peasants demanded +freedom to elect their own pastors, who were to preach the Gospel +without any human additions. That this request should be embodied in the +peasants' plea for their political rights, and that it should be made +the foremost demand, is highly suggestive as to the principal cause of +their unrest. To this article Luther gave his unreserved endorsement. +Article II sought to regulate the income of priests-again a very +suggestive request: preachers were to receive for their sustenance no +more than the tithes, the remainder of the church-income was to be set +aside so as to render it unnecessary to tax the poor in war-times. On +this point Luther held that the tithes belong to the government, and to +turn them over to any one else would be simple robbery. Article III +demanded the abolition of serfdom, however, as a test whether the +Christianity of the lords was genuine. The peasants implied that their +political liberty had been secured by Christ, and that the lords were +withholding it from them. This argument Luther rejected as a carnal +perversion of the Gospel. Articles IV-X submitted these demands: The +poor man is to be accorded the right to fish and hunt; all wooded lands +usurped by bishops or noblemen without making payment therefor are to +revert to the community, and in case payment had been made, a settlement +is to be effected by mutual agreement; burdensome exactions, services, +taxes, and fines are to be rescinded; court trials are to be free from +partiality and jealousy; meadows and lands which of right belong to the +community are to be returned by their present owners. On these points +Luther suggests that the opinions of good lawyers be obtained. Article +XI deals with the right of heriot, or the death-tax imposed upon the +widow or heir of a tenant. This was approved. In the last article the +peasants express their readiness to withdraw any or all of these +requests that are shown to be contrary to Scripture, and ask permission +to substitute others for them. + +Luther was in a fair way of bringing about an amicable settlement of the +differences. Philip of Hesse had at the same time come to a full +agreement with the peasants in his domains, and peace seemed near, when +the real genius of the whole peasant movement, Muenzer, interfered. +Luther had suspected for some time that this unscrupulous agitator was +spreading the teaching of unbridled license under pretense of preaching +liberty, and that the mystical piety which he was reported as +practising, his leaning towards the reform movement, and his references +to Luther and the "new Gospel," were nothing but the angel's garment +which a very wicked devil had borrowed for purposes of deception. When +Muenzer at the head of hordes of men who through his inflammatory +speeches had been turned into unreasoning brutes was spreading ruin and +desolation along his path, wiping out in a few days the products of the +patient labors of generations, subverting the fundamental principles of +honesty, justice, and morality on which the organized public life of the +community and the private life of the individual must rest, and rapidly +changing even the well-meaning and reasonable among the peasants into +frenzied madmen, Luther recognized that conciliatory measures and +arbitration would not avail with these mobs. His duty as a teacher of +God's Word and as a loyal subject of his government demanded prompt and +stern action from him. However, back of the terrible mien with which +Luther now faced the wild peasants there is a heart of love; in the +appalling language which he now uses against men whose cause he had +befriended there is discernible a note of pity for the poor deluded +wretches who thought they were rearing a paradise when they were +building bedlam. Above all, the great heart of Luther is torn with +anguish over the shame that is now being heaped on the blessed Gospel of +his dear Lord. Luther did not desert the peasants, but they deserted +him; they were the traitors, not he. + +There is a diabolical streak in the character of Thomas Muenzer. He +parades as the People's Man, and the German people in the sixteenth +century never had a worse enemy. His fluent speech and great oratory +seemed honey to the peasants, but they were the veriest poison. He +spoke the language of a saint, and lived the life of a profligate and a +reprobate. It is hard to believe that his error was merely the honest +fanaticism of a blind bigot; there is a malign element in it that +betrays conscious wickedness. This raving demon should be studied more +by Catholics when they investigate the Peasants' Revolt. They have their +eyes on Luther; his every word and action are placed under the +microscope. But the real culprit is treated as the hero in a tragedy. He +was a blind enthusiast; he mistook his aims; he selected wrong means and +methods for achieving his aim. He did wickedly, and we may have to curse +him some for decency's sake, but be deserves pity, too, for he was the +misguided pupil of that arch-heretic Luther. That is Catholic equity in +estimating Luther's share in the peasant uprising. We only note in +conclusion that Thomas Muenzer died in the arms of the alone-saving +Church, a penitent prodigal that had returned to the bosom of "Holy +Mother." Luther did not die thus, and that makes a great deal of +difference. + +Catholics father upon Luther not only the Peasants' Revolt, but every +revolutionary movement which since then has occurred in Europe. The +political unrest which has at various times agitated the masses in +France, England, and Germany, the changes in the government which were +brought about in such times, are all attributed to the revolutionary +tendencies in Luther's writings. So is the disrespect shown by citizens +of the modern State to persons in authority, the bold and scathing +criticism indulged in by subjects against their government. There is +hardly a political disturbance anywhere but what ingenious Catholics +will manage to connect with Luther. Read Luther, and you will inevitably +become an anarchist. + +But Luther is also credited with the very opposite of anarchism. When +the Peasants' Revolt had been put down by the lords, they began to +strengthen their despotic power over the people, and a worse tyranny +resulted than had existed before. It is pointed out that absolutism, the +claim of kings that they are ruling by divine right and are not +responsible to the people, has taken firm root in all Protestant +countries, and that even the Protestant churches in these countries are +mere fixtures of the State. This, too, we are asked to believe, is a +result of Luther's teaching. Luther is not only the spiritual +ring-leader of mobs, but also the sycophant of despots. It is +particularly offensive to Catholics to see Luther hailed as the champion +of political liberty. Let us try and make up our minds about Luther's +views of the secular government from Luther's own words. Dr. Waring, in +his _Political Theories of Luther,_ has made a very serviceable +collection of statements of Luther on this matter. + +"In his tract on Secular Authority (10, 374 ff.) Luther maintains that +the State exists by God's will and institution; for the Apostle Paul +writes: 'Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is +no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever +therefore resisteth the power resiseth [tr. note: sic] the ordinance of +God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation' (Rom. +13, 1. 2). The Apostle Peter exhorts: 'Submit yourselves to every +ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be to the king, as +supreme, or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the +punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well' (1 +Pet. 2, 13. 14). The right of the sword has existed since the beginning +of the world. When Cain killed his brother Abel, he was so fearful of +being put to death himself that God laid a special prohibition thereupon +that no one should kill him, which fear he would not have had, had he +not seen and heard from Adam that murderers should be put to death. +Further, after the Flood, God repeated and confirmed it in explicit +language, when He declared: 'Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall +his blood be shed' (Gen. 9, 6). This law was ratified later by the law +of Moses: 'But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay +him with guile, thou shalt take him from Mine altar, that he may die' +(Ex. 21, 14); and yet again: 'Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for +tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for +wound, stripe for stripe' (Ex. 21, 23-25). Christ confirmed it also when +He said to Peter in the garden: 'All they that take the sword shall +perish with the sword' (Matt. 26, 52). The words of Christ: 'But I say +unto you, That ye resist not evil' (Matt. 5, 38. 39), 'Love your +enemies, . . . do good to them that hate you' (Matt. 5, 44), and similar +passages, having great weight, might seem to indicate that Christians +under the Gospel should not have a worldly sword; but the human race is +to be divided into two classes, one belonging to the kingdom of God and +the other to the kingdom of the world. To the first class belong all +true believers in Christ and under Christ, for Christ is King and Lord +in the kingdom of God (Ps. 2, 6, and throughout the Scriptures). These +people need no worldly sword or law, for they have the Holy Ghost in +their hearts who suffer wrong gladly and themselves do wrong to no one. +There is no need of quarrel or contention, of court or punishment. St. +Paul says: 'The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless +and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners' (1 Tim. 1, 9), for the +righteous man of himself does everything that the law demands, and more; +but the unrighteous do nothing right, and they therefore need the law to +teach, constrain, and compel them to do right. A good tree requires no +instruction or law that it may bring forth good fruit, but its nature +causes it to bear fruit after its kind. Thus are all Christians so +fashioned through the Spirit and faith that they do right naturally, +more than man could teach them with all laws. All those who are not +Christians in this particular sense belong to the kingdom of the world. +Inasmuch as there are few who are true Christians in faith and life, God +established, in addition to the kingdom of God, another rule-that of +temporal power and civil government, and gave it the sword to compel the +wicked to be orderly. It is for this worldly estate that law is given. +Christ rules without law, alone through the Spirit, but worldly +government protects the peace with the sword. Likewise, true Christians, +although not in need of it for themselves, nevertheless render cheerful +obedience to this government, through love for the others who need it. A +Christian himself may wield the sword when called upon to maintain peace +among men and to punish wrong. This authority, which is God's handmaid, +as St. Paul says, is as necessary and good as other worldly callings. +God therefore instituted two regimens, or governments-the spiritual, +which, through the Holy Ghost under Christ, makes Christians and pious +people, and the worldly or temporal, which warns the non-Christians and +the wicked that they must maintain external peace. We must clearly +distinguish between these two powers and let them remain-the one that +makes pious, the other that makes for external peace and protects +against wickedness. Neither one is sufficient in the world without the +other; for without the spiritual estate of Christ no one can be good +before God through the worldly estate. Where civil government alone +rules, there would be hypocrisy, though its laws were like God's +commandments themselves; for without the Holy Spirit in the heart none +can be pious, whatever good works he may perform. Where the spiritual +estate rules over land and people, there will be unbridled wickedness +and opportunity for all kinds of villainy, for the common world cannot +accept or understand it.-But it may be said, If, then, Christians do not +need the temporal power or law, why does St. Paul say to all Christians: +'Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers' (Rom. 13, 1)? In +reply to this, it is to be said again that Christians among themselves +and by and for themselves require no law or sword, for to them they are +not necessary or useful. But because a true Christian on earth lives for +and serves not himself, but his neighbor, so he also, from the nature of +his spirit, does that which he himself does not need, but which is +useful and necessary to his neighbor. The sword is a great and necessary +utility to the whole world for the maintenance of peace, the punishment +of wrong, and the restraint of the wicked. So the Christian pays tribute +and tax, honors civil authority, serves, assists, and does everything he +can do to maintain that authority with honor and fear." (p. 73 ff.) + +In his _Appeal to the German Nobility_ (10, 266 ff.) Luther says: +"Forasmuch as the temporal power has been ordained by God for the +punishment of the bad and the protection of the good, therefore we must +let it do its duty throughout the whole Christian body, without respect +of persons, whether it strike Popes, bishops, priests, monks, nuns, or +whoever it may be. If it were sufficient reason for fettering the +temporal power that it is inferior among the offices of Christianity to +the offices of priest or confessor, to the spiritual estate,-if this +were so, then we ought to restrain tailors, cobblers, masons, +carpenters, cooks, cellarmen, peasants, and all secular workmen from +providing the Pope or bishops, priests and monks, with shoes, clothes, +houses, or victuals, or from paying them tithes. But if these laymen are +allowed to do their work without restraint, what do the Romanist scribes +mean by their laws? They mean that they withdraw themselves from the +operation of temporal Christian power, simply in order that they may be +free to do evil, and thus fulfil what St. Peter said: 'There shall be +false teachers among you, . . . and through covetousness shall they with +feigned words make merchandise of you' (2 Pet. 2, 1. 3). Therefore the +temporal Christian power must exercise its office without let or +hindrance, without considering whom it may strike, whether Pope or +bishop, or priest. Whoever is guilty, let him suffer for it.-Whatever +the ecclesiastical law has said in opposition to this is merely the +invention of Romanist arrogance. For this is what St. Paul says to all +Christians: 'Let every soul' (I presume, including the Popes) 'be +subject unto the higher powers. . . . Do that which is good, and thou +shalt have praise of the same, . . . for he beareth not the sword in +vain; for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon +him that doeth evil' (Rom. 13, 1-4). Also St. Peter: 'Submit yourselves +to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake; . . . for so is the will +of God' (1 Pet. 2, 13. 15). He has also foretold that men would come who +would despise government (2 Pet. 2), as has come to pass through +ecclesiastical law.-Although the work of the temporal power relates to +the body, it yet belongs to the spiritual estate. Therefore it must do +its duty without let or hindrance upon all members of the whole body, to +punish or urge, as guilt may deserve, or need may require, without +respect of Pope, bishops, or priests, let them threaten or excommunicate +as they will. That is why a guilty priest is deprived of his priesthood +before being given over to the secular arm; whereas this would not be +right if the secular powers had not authority over him already by divine +ordinance.-It is, indeed, past bearing that the spiritual law should +esteem so highly the liberty, life, and property of the clergy, as if +laymen were not as good spiritual Christians, or not equally members of +the Church. Why should your body, life, goods, and honor be free, and +not mine, seeing that we are equal as Christians, and have received +alike baptism, faith, spirit, and all things? If a priest is killed, the +country is laid under an interdict; why not also if a peasant is killed? +Whence comes this great difference among equal Christians? Simply from +human laws and inventions." (p. 96 ff.) This citation deserves to be +specially pondered in view of the Catholic charge that Luther was a +defender of absolutism, the divine right of kings. If Rome's attitude to +kingcraft be studied, it will be found that Rome has been the supporter +of the most tyrannous rulers. It is well, too, to remember Rome's claim +of a "divine right" of priests. Special laws of exemption and immunity, +laws creating special privileges for priests, are not unknown in the +annals of the world's history. Whoever can, ought to read the entire +_Appeal to the German Nobility;_ it will tell him many things that +explain the Peasants' Revolt. + +In his _Severe Booklet against the Peasants_ (16, 71 ff.) Luther +explains the reasons for the harsh language which he uses against the +marauders. "He says that the maxims dealing with mercy belong to the +kingdom of God and among Christians, not to the kingdom of the world, +which is the instrument of godly wrath upon the wicked. The instrument +in the hand of the State is not a garland of roses or a flower of love, +but a naked sword. As I declared at the time, he says, so declare I yet: +Let every one who can, as he may be able, cut, stab, choke, and strike +the stiff-necked, obdurate, blind, infatuated peasants; that mercy may +be shown towards those who are destroyed, driven away, and misled by the +peasants; that peace and security may be had. It is better to +mercilessly cut off one member rather than lose the entire body through +fire or plague. Furthermore, the insurgents are notoriously faithless, +perjured, disobedient, riotous thieves, robbers, murderers, and +blasphemers, so that there is not one of them but has well deserved +death ten times over without mercy. If my advice had been followed in +the very beginning, and a few lives had been taken, before the +insurrection assumed such large proportions, thousands of lives would +have been saved. The experience should make all parties involved wise." +-"If it be said," he continues, "that I myself teach lawlessness, when I +urge all who can to cut down the rioters, my booklet was not written +against common evil-doers, but against seditious rioters. There is a +marked distinction between such a one and a murderer or robber and other +ordinary criminals; for a murderer or similar criminal lets the head and +civil authority itself stand, and attacks merely its members or its +property. He, indeed, fears the government. Now, while the head remains, +no individual should attack the murderer, because the head [civil +authority] call punish him, but should wait for the judgment and +sentence of that authority to which God has given the sword and office. +But the rioter attacks the head itself, so that his offense bears no +comparison with that of the murderer." (p. 147.) + +Under the restriction under which this book was written as regards +space, we cannot enter as we would like to upon an exhaustive +discussion of Luther's political views. Luther was in this respect the +most enlightened European citizen of his age. He has voiced sound +principles on the rights of the State and its limitations and the +objects for which the State exists and does not exist, on the separation +of Church and State, on the removal of bad rulers from authority, and +especially on liberty. The power of the State he values because it +secures to each individual citizen the highest degree of liberty +possible in this life. Those who represent Luther as a defender of +anarchy or tyranny either do not know what they are talking about, or +they do it for a purpose, and deserve the contempt of all intelligent +men. + + +24. Luther the Destroyer of Liberty of Conscience. + +Catholics claim that Luther's work, though ostensibly undertaken in +behalf of religious liberty, necessarily had to result in the very +opposite of freedom. They point to the fact that in most countries which +accepted the Protestant faith the Church became subservient to the +State. These state churches of Europe, however, which in the view of +Catholics are the product of Luther's reform movement, are to be +regarded as only one symptom of the intolerance which characterizes the +entire activity of Luther. He had indeed adopted the principle of +"private interpretation" of the Scriptures, however, only for himself. +He was unwilling to accord to others the right which he claimed for +himself. All who dissented from his teaching were promptly attacked by +him, and that, in violent and scurrilous language. The Protestant party +in the course of time became a warring camp of Ishmaelites, Luther +fighting everybody and everybody fighting Luther. Religious intolerance +and persecution became the prevailing policy of Protestants in their +dealings with other Protestants. The burning of Servetus at Geneva by +Calvin was the logical outcome of Luther's teaching. The maxim, _Cuius +regio, eius religio,_ that is, The prince, or government, in whose +territory I reside determines my religion, became a Protestant tenet. +America got its first taste of religious liberty, not from the original +Protestant settlers, but from the Catholic colonists whom Lord +Baltimore brought to Maryland, etc., etc. + +The view here propounded is in plain contravention of what the world has +hitherto believed, and to a very large extent still believes, regarding +Luther's attitude toward the right of the individual to choose his own +religion and to determine for himself matters of faith. The position +which Luther occupies in his final answer before the Emperor at Worms is +generally believed to state Luther's position on the question of +religious liberty in a nutshell. "Unless convinced by the Word of God or +by cogent reason" that he was wrong, he declared at the Diet of Worms, +he could not and would not retract what he had written. The individual +conscience, he maintained, cannot be bound. Each man must determine the +meaning of the Word for himself. And the inevitable result of this +principle is individual liberty. This principle Luther maintained to the +end of his life. His appeal to the magistrates to suppress the Peasants' +Revolt was not a call to suppress the false teachings of the peasants, +but their disorderly conduct. Against their spiritual aberrations Luther +proposed to wage war with his written and oral testimony. "The peace and +order of the State must be maintained against disorder, personal +violence, destruction of property, public immorality, and treason, +though they come in the guise of religion. The State must grant liberty +of conscience, freedom of speech, and the privilege of the press. These +are inalienable rights belonging alike to every individual, subject only +to the limitation that they are not permitted to encroach upon the +rights of others. The natural, the almost inevitable, consequence of the +declaration and recognition of these principles was eventually the +establishment of modern constitutional law. It was not in consequence of +his teaching, but merely in spite of it, that for the next two centuries +(in certain instances) monarchical government became more autocratic, as +feudalism was being transformed into civil government. . . . All through +Luther's writings, and in his own acts as well, is to be read the right +of the individual to think and believe in matters political, religious, +and otherwise as he sees proper. His is the right to read the Bible, and +any other book he may desire. He has the right to confer and counsel, +with others, to express and declare his views _pro_ and _con,_ in speech +and print, so long as he abides by, and remains within, the laws of the +land. Luther firmly believed in the liberty of the individual as to +conscience, speech, and press. The search for truth must be +untrammeled." (Waring, _Political Theories of Luther,_ p. 235 f.) + +This testimony of one who has made a careful investigation of Luther's +writings on the subject of liberty of conscience is, of course, not +first-hand evidence; it merely shows what impressions people take away +from their study of Luther. Let us hear Luther himself. In the _Appeal +to the German Nobility_ he says: "No one can deny that it is breaking +God's commandments to violate faith and a safe-conduct, even though it +be promised to the devil himself, much more then in the case of a +heretic. . . . Even though John Hus were a heretic, however bad he may +have been, yet he was burned unjustly and in violation of God's +commandments, and we must not force the Bohemians to approve this, if +we wish ever to be at one with them. Plain truth must unite us, not +obstinacy. It is no use to say, as they said at the time, that a +safe-conduct need not be kept if promised to a heretic; that is as much +as to say, one may break God's commandments in order to keep God's +commandments. They were infatuated and blinded by the devil, that they +could not see what they said or did. God has commanded us to observe a +safe-conduct; and this we must do though the world should perish; much +more, then, where it is only a question of a heretic being set free. We +should overcome heretics with books, not with fire, as the old Fathers +did. If there were any skill in overcoming heretics with fire, the +executioner would be the most learned doctor in the world; and there +would be no need of study, but he that could get another into his power +could burn him." (10, 332.) + +In his treatise _On the Limits of Secular Authority,_ Luther says: +"Unbearable loss follows where the secular authority is given too much +room, and it is likewise not without loss where it is too restricted. +Here it punishes too little; there it punishes too much. Although it is +more desirable that it offend on the side of punishing too little than +that it punish too severely; because it is always better to permit a +knave to live than to put a good man to death, inasmuch as the world +still has and must have knaves, but has few good men. + +"In the first place, it is to be noted that the two classes of the human +race, one of whom is in the kingdom of God under Christ, and the other +in the kingdom of the world under civil authority, have two kinds of +laws; for every kingdom must have its laws and its rights, and no +kingdom or _regime_ can stand without law, as daily experience shows. +Temporal government has laws that do not reach farther than over person +and property, and what is external on the earth; for God will not permit +any one to rule over the soul of man but Himself. Therefore, where +temporal power presumes to give laws to the soul, it touches God's rule, +and misleads and destroys the souls. We wish to make that so clear that +men may comprehend it, in order that our knights, the princes and +bishops, may see what fools they are when seeking to force people by +their laws and commandments to believe thus or so. When a man lays a +human law or commandment upon the soul, that it must believe this or +that, as the man prescribes, it is assuredly not God's Word. . . . +Therefore it is a thoroughly foolish thing to command a man to believe +the Church, the Fathers, the councils, although there is nothing on it +from God's Word. + +"Now tell me, how much sense does the head have that lays down a command +on a matter where it has no authority? Who would not hold as of unsound +mind the person who would command the moon to shine when it wishes? How +fitting would it be if the Leipzig authorities would lay down laws for +us at Wittenberg, or we at Wittenberg for the people of Leipzig? +Moreover, let men thereby understand that every authority should and may +concern itself only where it can see, know, judge, sentence, transform, +and change; for what kind of judge is he to me who would blindly judge +matters he neither hears nor sees? Now tell me, how can a man see, know, +judge, sentence, and change the heart? For that is reserved to God +alone. A court should and must be certain when it sentences, and have +everything in clear light. But the soul's thoughts and impulses can be +known to no one but God. Therefore it is futile and impossible to +command or compel a man by force to believe thus or so. For that purpose +another grip is necessary. Force does not accomplish it. For my +ungracious lords, Pope and bishops, should be bishops and preach God's +Word; but they leave that and have become temporal princes and rule with +laws that concern only person and property. They have reversed the order +of things. Instead of ruling souls (internally) through God's Word, they +rule (externally) castles, cities, lands, and people, and kill souls +with indescribable murder. The temporal lords should, in like manner, +rule (externally) land and people; but they leave that. They can do +nothing more than flay and shave the people, set one tax and one rent on +another; there let loose a bear and here a wolf; respect no right, or +faith, or truth, and conduct affairs so that robbers and knaves +increase in number; and their temporal _regime_ lies as far beneath as +the _regime_ of the spiritual tyrants. Faith is a matter concerning +which each one is responsible for himself; for as little as one man can +go to heaven or hell for me, so little can he believe or not believe for +me; and as little as he can open or close heaven or hell for me, so +little can he drive me to belief or unbelief. We have the saying from +St. Augustine: 'No one can or should be compelled to believe.' The blind +and miserable people do not see what a vain and impossible thing they +undertake; for, however imperiously they command, and however hard they +drive, they cannot force people any farther than they follow with their +mouth and the hand. They cannot compel the heart, though they should +break it. For true is the maxim: _Gedanken sind zollfrei_. (No toll is +levied on thought.) When weak consciences are driven by force to lie, +deceive, and say otherwise than they believe in the heart, they burden +themselves also with a heavy sin; for all the lies and false witness +given by such weak consciences rest upon him who forces them. + +"Christ Himself clearly recognized and concisely stated this truth when +He said: 'Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, +and unto God the things that are God's' (Matt. 22, 21). Now, when +imperial authority stretches itself over into God's kingdom and +authority and does not keep within its own separate jurisdiction, this +discrimination between the two realms has not been made. For the soul is +not under authority of the emperor. He can neither teach nor guide it, +neither kill it nor give it life, neither bind nor loose, neither judge +nor sentence, neither hold nor let alone; which necessarily would exist +had he authority so to do, for they are under his jurisdiction and +power. + +"David long ago expressed it briefly: 'The heaven, even the heavens, are +the Lord's; but the earth hath He given to the children of men' (Ps. +115, 16). That is to say, over what is on the earth and belongs to the +temporal earthly kingdom, man has power from God; but what belongs to +heaven and to the eternal kingdom is under the Lord of heaven alone. But +finally, this is the meaning of Peter: 'We ought to obey God rather than +men' (Acts 5, 29). He here clearly marks a limit to temporal authority; +for were men obliged to observe everything that civil authority wished, +the command, 'We ought to obey God rather than men,' would have been +given in vain. + +"If, now, your princes or temporal lord command you to believe this or +that, or to dispense with certain books, say: 'I am under obligations to +obey you with body and estate; command me within the compass of your +authority on earth, and I will obey you. Put if you command me as to +belief, and order me to put away books, I will not obey, for then you +become a tyrant and overreach yourself, and command where you have +neither right nor power.' If your goods are taken and your disobedience +is punished, you are blessed, and you may thank God that you are worthy +to suffer for God's Word. When a prince is in the wrong, his subjects +are not under obligations to follow him, for no one is obliged to do +anything against the right; but we must obey God, who desires to have +the right rather than men. + +"But thou sayest once more: 'Yea, worldly power cannot compel to belief. +It is only external protection against the people being misled by false +doctrine. How else can heretics be kept it bay?' Answer: That is the +business of bishops, to whom the office is entrusted, and not to +princes. For heresy can never be kept off by force; another grip is +wanted for that. This is another quarrel and conflict than that of the +sword. God's Word must contend here. If that avail nothing, temporal +power will never settle the matter, though it fill the world with blood. +Heresy pertains to the spiritual world. You cannot cut it with iron, nor +burn it with fire, nor drown it in water. You cannot drive the devil out +of the heart by destroying, with sword or fire, the vessel in which he +lives. This is like fighting a blade of straw." (10, 395 ff.) + +Referring to the Anabaptists, Luther wrote in 1528: "It is not right, +and I think it a great pity, that such wretched people should be so +miserably slain, burned, cruelly put to death; every one should be +allowed to believe what he will. If he believe wrongly, he will have +punishment enough in the eternal fire of hell. Why should he be tortured +in this life, too; provided always that it be a case of mistaken belief +only, and that they are not also unruly and oppose themselves to the +temporal power?" (17, 2188.) + +To his friend Cresser he wrote: "If the courts wish to govern the +churches in their own interests, God will withdraw His benediction from +them, and things will become worse than before. Satan still is Satan. +Under the Popes he made the Church meddle in politics; in our time he +wishes to make politics meddle with the Church." (21b, 2911. +Translations by Waring.) + +But why did not these excellent principles attain better results in +Luther's own time? On this question we have no better answer than that +given by Bryce: "The remark must not be omitted in passing how much less +than might have been expected the religious movement did at first +actually effect in the way of promoting either political progress or +freedom of conscience. The habits of centuries were not to be unlearned +in a few years, and it was natural that ideas struggling into existence +and activity should work erringly and imperfectly for a time." (_Holy +Roman Empire_, p. 381.) This would be Luther's own answer. His work was +among people who were just emerging from the ignorance and spiritual +bondage in which they had been reared in the Catholic Church. They had +to be gradually and with much patience taught, not only in regard to +their rights and privileges, but also in regard to their proper and most +efficient application. But it is not in agreement with the facts when +the charge is directed against Luther that he employed the authority of +the State for furthering the ends of the Church because he urged the +Saxon Elector to arrange for a visitation of the demoralized churches +in the country, and to order such improvements to be made as would be +found necessary (Erlangen Ed. 55, 223); also when he sought the +Elector's aid for the reform party at Naumburg at the election of a new +bishop (17, 113). In both instances he speaks of the Elector as a +"Notbischof," that is, an emergency bishop. But his remarks must be +carefully studied to get his exact meaning. For he declares that the +Elector as a magistrate is under no obligation to attend to these +matters. They are not state business. But he is asked as a Christian to +place himself at the head of a laudable and necessary movement, and to +place his influence and ability at the disposition of the Master, just +as a Christian laborer, craftsman, merchant, musician, painter, poet, +author, consecrate their abilities to the Lord. This means that the +"emergency bishop" has not the right to issue commands in the Church, +but he has the privilege and duty to serve. The people needed a leader, +and who was better qualified for that than their trusted prince? +Besides, the churches had to be protected in their secular and civil +interests in those days. The young Protestant faith would have been +mercilessly extirpated by Rome, which was gathering the secular powers +around her to fight her battles with material weapons against +Protestants. The Protestant princes would have betrayed a trust which +citizens rightly repose in their government, if they had not taken steps +to afford the Protestant churches in their domains every legal +protection. The protection of citizens in the exercise of their +religious liberty is within the sphere of the civil magistrates. The +citizens can appeal to the government for such protection, and when the +government in the interest of religious liberty represses elements that +are hostile, it is not intolerant, but just. If a religion, like that of +the bomb-throwing anarchists and the vice-breeding Mormons, is forbidden +to practise its faith in the land, that is not intolerance, but common +equity. + +One of the most pathetic spectacles which the student of medieval +history has to contemplate is the treatment of the Jews at the hands of +the Christians. "Few were the monarchs of Christendom," says Prof. +Worman, "who rose above the barbarism of the Middle Ages. By +considerable pecuniary sacrifices only could the sons of Israel enjoy +tolerance. In Italy their lot had always been most severe. Now and then +a Roman pontiff would afford them his protection, but, as a rule, they +have received only intolerance in that country. Down even to the time of +the deposition of Pius IX from the temporal power (1810) it has been the +barbarous custom, on the last Saturday before the Carnival, to compel +the Jews to proceed _en masse_ to the capitol, and ask permission of the +pontiff to reside in the city another year. At the foot of the hill the +petition was refused them, but, after much entreaty, they were granted +the favor when they had reached the summit, and as their residence the +Ghetto was assigned them." In France a prelate condemned the Jews +because the "country people looked upon them as the only people of +God," whereupon "all joined in a carnival of persecution, and the +history of the Jews became nothing else than a successive series of +massacres." In Spain the Jews were treated more kindly by the Moors than +by the Catholics. At first their services were valued in the crafts and +trades, "but the extravagance and consequent poverty of the nobles, as +well as the increasing power of the priesthood, ultimately brought about +a disastrous change. The estates of the nobles and, it is also believed, +those attached to the cathedrals and churches, were in many cases +mortgaged to the Jews; hence it was not difficult for 'conscience' to +get up a persecution when goaded to its 'duty' by the pressure of want +and shame. Gradually the Jews were deprived of the privilege of living +where they pleased; their rights were diminished and their taxes +augmented." + +To their lowest stage of misery, however, the Jews were reduced during +one of the most holy enterprises which the papacy launched during the +Middle Ages--the Crusades. "The crusading movement was inaugurated by a +wholesale massacre and persecution first of the Jew, and afterwards of +the Mussulman. . . . Shut out from all opportunity for the development +of their better qualities, the Jews were gradually reduced to a decline +both in character and condition. From a learned, influential, and +powerful class of the community, we find them, after the inauguration of +the Crusades, sinking into miserable outcasts; the common prey of clergy +and nobles and burghers, and existing in a state worse than slavery +itself. The Christians deprived the Jews even of the right of holding +real estate; and confined them to the narrower channels of traffic. +Their ambition being thus fixed upon one subject, they soon mastered all +the degrading arts of accumulating gain; and prohibited from investing +their gain in the purchase of land, they found n more profitable +employment of it in lending it at usurious interest to the thoughtless +and extravagant." In course of time the borrowers recouped their losses +by inaugurating raids upon the Jews. Jew-baiting, persecutions, +expatriations of Jewish settlers, were of frequent occurrence. Towards +the end of the thirteenth century 16,000 Jews were expelled from England +and their property confiscated. In Germany "they had to pay all manner +of iniquitous taxes--body tax, capitation tax, trade taxes, coronation +tax, and to present a multitude of gifts, to mollify the avarice or +supply the necessities of emperor, princes, and barons. It did not +suffice, however, to save them from the loss of their property. The +populace and the lower clergy also must be, satisfied; they, too, had +passions to gratify. A wholesale slaughter of the 'enemies of +Christianity' was inaugurated. Treves, Metz, Cologne, Mentz, Worms, +Spires, Strassburg, and other cities were deluged with the blood of the +'unbelievers.' The word _Hep_ (said to be the initials of _Hierosolyma +est perdita_, Jerusalem is taken) throughout all the cities of the +empire became the signal for massacres, and if an insensate monk sounded +it along the streets, it threw the rabble into paroxysms of murderous +rage. The choice of death or conversion was given to the Jews; but few +were found willing to purchase their life by that form of perjury. +Rather than subject their offspring to conversion and such Christian +training, fathers presented their breast to the sword after putting +their children to death, and wives and virgins sought refuge from the +brutality of the soldiers by throwing themselves into the river with +stones fastened to their bodies." (_McClintock and Strong Cyclop_., 4, +908 f.) + +All this happened under the most Christian rule of the Popes. The +characteristic temper of the Jew in the Middle Ages, his fierce hatred +of Christianity, his sullen mood, his blasphemous treatment of matters +and objects sacred to Christians, are the result of the treatment he +received even from the members and high officials of the Church. Now +here comes Rome in our day asserting the kindness and generosity shown +the Jews by their Popes, because these afforded them shelter in the +Ghetto of the Holy City! How differently, they say, was this from the +treatment accorded the Jews by Luther. Why, these Catholic writers do +not tell the hundredth part of the truth about the attitude of their +Church to the Jews in the Middle Ages. + +Let this be remembered when Luther's remarks about the Jews are taken up +for study. He is very outspoken against them; his utterances, however, +relate for the most part to the false teaching and religious practises, +to their perversion of the text and the meaning of the Scriptures, and +to the blasphemies which they utter against God, Jesus Christ, and His +Church, and to the lies which they assiduously spread about the +Christian religion. In all that Luther says against the Jews under this +head he is simply discharging the functions of a teacher of +Christianity; for Scripture says that it was given also "for reproof" +(2 Tim. 3, 16). No one can be a true theologian without being polemical +on occasion. In another class of his references to the Jews Luther +refers to their character: their arrogance and pride, their +stiffneckedness and contumacy, their greed and avarice, which makes +their presence in any land a public calamity. Though their church and +state has long been overthrown, and they are a people without a country, +homeless wanderers on the face of the earth, they still boast of being +"the people of God," and are indulging the wildest dreams about the +reestablishment of their ancient kingdom. They are looking for a Messiah +who will be a secular prince, and will make them all barons living in +beautiful castles and receiving the tribute of the Goyim. One may reason +and plead with them and show them that their belief contradicts their +own Scriptures, that their Talmud is filled with palpable falsehoods, +and that their hope is a chimera; but they turn a deaf ear to argument +and entreaty, and turn upon you with fierce resentment at your efforts +to show them the truth. Although they know that their habits of grasping +and hoarding wealth, driving hard and unfair bargains, their hunting for +small profits by contemptible methods like hungry dogs searching the +offal in the alley, rouses the enmity of communities against them and +causes them to become a blight to all true progress, to honest trade and +business in any land where they have become firmly established, so that +laws must be made against them, still they blindly and passionately +continue their covetous strivings. When Luther observes the corrupting +influence of the Jews on the public life and morals, he declares that +they ought to be expelled from the country, and their synagogs ought to +be destroyed, that is, they have deserved this treatment. But it is a +remarkable fact that even in these terrible denunciations of the Jews +Luther moves on Bible ground, as any one can see that will examine his +exposition of an imprecatory psalm, like Psalm 109 and 59. If these +words of God mean anything and admit of any application to an apostate +and hardened race, the Jews are that race, and a teacher of the Bible +has the duty to point out this fact. But Luther has not been a +Jewbaiter; he has not incited a riot against then, nor headed a raid +upon them, as Prof. Worman tells us that Catholic priests in the Middle +Ages occasionally would do. What Luther thought of persecuting the Jews +for their religion can be seen from his exposition of Psalm 14. He did +not believe in a general conversion of the Jews, but he held that +individual Jews would ever and anon be won for Christ and would be +grafted on the olive-tree of the true Church. "Therefore," he says, "we +ought to condemn the rage of some Christians--if they really deserve to +be called Christians--who think that they are doing God a service by +persecuting the Jews in the most hateful manner, imagining all manner of +evil about them, proudly and haughtily mocking them in their pitiful +misery. According to the statement in this Psalm (Ps. 14, 7) and the +example of the Apostle Paul in Rom. 9, 1, we ought rather to feel a +profound and cordial pity for them and always pray for them. . . . By +their tyrannical bearing these wicked people, who are nominally +Christians, cause not a little injury, not only to the cause of +Christianity, but also to Christian people, and they are responsible +for, and sharers in, the impiety of the Jews, because by their cruel +bearing toward them they drive them away from the Christian faith +instead of attracting them with all possible gentleness, patience, +pleading, and anxious concern for them. There are even some theologians +so unreasonable as to sanction such cruelty to the Jews and to encourage +people to it; in their proud conceit they assert that the Jews are the +Christians' slaves and tributary to the emperor, while in truth they are +themselves Christians with as much right as any one nowadays is Roman +Emperor. Good God, who would want to join our religion, even though he +were of a meek and submissive mind, when he sees how spitefully and +cruelly he is treated; and that the treatment he can expect is not only +unchristian, but worse than bestial? If hating Jews and heretics and +Turks makes people Christians, we insane people would indeed be the best +Christians. But if loving Christ makes Christians, we are beyond a doubt +worse than Jews, heretics, and Turks, because no one loves Christ less +than we. The rage of these people reminds me of children and fools, who, +when they see a picture of a Jew on a wall, go and cut out his eyes, +pretending that they want to help the Lord Christ. Most of the preachers +during Lent treat of nothing else than the cruelty of the Jews towards +the Lord Christ, which they are continually magnifying. Thus they +embitter believers against them, while the Gospel aims only at showing +and exalting the love of God and Christ." (4, 927.) + +The Catholic claim that the Maryland Colony in the days of the Calverts +became the first home of true religious liberty on American soil has +been so often blasted by historians that one is loath to enter upon this +moth-eaten claim for fear of merely repeating what others have more +exhaustively stated. Catholics seem to forget what Bishop Perry has +called attention to: "The Maryland charter of toleration was the gift of +an English monarch, the nominal head of Church of England, and the +credit of any merit in this donative is due the giver, and not the +recipient, of the kingly grant." Prof. Fisher has called attention to +another fact: "Only two references to religion are to be found in the +Maryland charter. The first gives to the proprietary patronage and +advowson of churches. The second empowers him to erect churches, +chapels, and oratories, which he may cause to be consecrated according +to the ecclesiastical laws of England. The phraseology is copied from +the Avalon patent (drawn up in England in 1623 for a portion of the +colony of Newfoundland) that was given to Sir George Calvert (first +Lord Baltimore) when he was a member of the Church of England. Yet the +terms were such that recognition of that Church as the established form +of religion does not prevent the proprietary and the colony from the +exercise of full toleration toward other Christian bodies." (_Colonial +Era_, p. 64.) The Maryland Colony was admittedly organized as a +business venture, and its original members were largely Protestants. It +was to secure the financial interests of the proprietary that tolerance +was shown the colonists. Prof. Fisher says: "Any attempt to proscribe +Protestants would have proved speedily fatal to the existence of the +colony. In a document which emanated partly from Baltimore himself, it +is declared to be evident that the distinctive privileges 'usually +granted to ecclesiastics of the Roman Catholic Church by Catholic +princes in their own countries could not be possibly granted hero (in +Maryland) without great offense to the King and State of England.'" (p. +63.) We have not the space in this review of Catholic charges and claims +to go into the religious history of the Maryland Colony as we should +like to do; otherwise we should explain the machinations of the Jesuits +in this colony, and prove that what tolerance Maryland in its early days +enjoyed it owed to the preponderating influence of non-Catholic forces. + +It requires an unusual amount of courage for a Catholic writer at this +late day to parade his Church as the mother and protectress of religious +liberty and tolerance. Any person who has but a smattering knowledge of +the history of the world during the last four centuries will smile at +this claim. The old Rome of the days of the Inquisition and the _auto da +fes_ may seem tolerant in our days, but she is so from sheer necessity, +not from any voluntary and joyous choice of her own. Her intolerant +principles remain the same, only she has not the power to carry them +into effect. + +One of the Catholic bishops who was opposed to the dogma of papal +infallibility, Reinkens, published a book bearing the remarkable title +_Revolution and Church_. In this book a thought is suggested which +connects the Roman Curia with political disturbances that occur in the +world. The author regards the declaration of papal infallibility as +another step forward in the imperialistic program of the Curia looking +towards world-dominion. He argues that it is in the interest of the +Vatican policies to foment trouble and breed revolutions in the +commonwealths of the world. "The thoughts of the Roman Curia," he says, +"are not the thoughts of God. Inasmuch, however, as it is these latter +that are realized with increasing force in the history of the world, and +that animate the formation of every true civil and ecclesiastical +institution, the Curia is gradually forced into a conflict with the +whole world. . . . The Curia (to carry its aims into effect) tries one +last means: its last attempt is to bring about a revolution. As 'the +Church' succeeded in digging her charter out of the ruins of the +commonwealths of the ancient world, so the spirits of Vaticanism hope +again to rebuild the palace of their dominion out of ruins." (p. 4.) +Again: "Bishop Hefele entertains the fear that the recent elevation of +the Pope to power (the infallibility dogma) will soon become the primary +dogma in the instruction of children. We regret to say that this fear +has proven well founded: all the governments, even the German, aid in +this instruction of the schoolchildren, because they retain religious +instruction on a confessional basis [we in America say on "sectarian" +lines], hence also that prescribed by the Vatican, as obligatory, and +the infallibilist clergy is salaried by the State for providing this +instruction The divine authority of the Pope extending over all men +tends to disturb the minds of the children in the schools: they are +taught at an early age to obey the Viceregent of God in preference to +obeying the Emperor and the State. In the higher schools this is done by +the clergy that is commissioned to teach in such schools." (p. 7.) +Again: "The Roman order of the Jesuits is not only spread like a net +over all countries, but it sinks its roots into every age, sex, estate, +and loosens and forces apart the ligaments of civil institutions." (p. +8.) + +Luther's views on human free will are brought forward once more to show +that his teaching necessarily is hostile to liberty. Luther's famous +reply to Erasmus _On the Bondage of the Will_ is made to do yeoman's +service in this respect. What Luther has declared regarding the +sovereignty of God's rulership over men, regarding the relation of God +also to the evil existing in this world, regarding the absence of chance +in the affairs of men, regarding man's utter helplessness over and +against the supreme will of God, is cited to prove that Luther's +teaching leads, not to liberty, but either to recklessness or despair. +Luther's views on "the captive, or enslaved, will" are declared to be +the most degrading and demoralizing teaching that men have been offered +during the last centuries. Luther's famous illustration, _viz_., that +man is like a horse which either God or the devil rides, has prompted +the following remarks of one of Luther's most recent critics: "This +parable summarizes the whole of Luther's teaching on the vital and +all-important subject of man's free will. . . . All who are honest and +fearless of consequences must admit in frankest terms that Luther's +teaching on free will, as expounded in his book, and explicitly making +God the author of man's evil thoughts and deeds, cannot but lend a +mighty force to the passions and justify the grossest violations of the +moral law. Indeed, the enemy of souls, as Anderson remarks, 'could not +inspire a doctrine more likely to effect his wicked designs than +Luther's teaching oil the enslavement of the human will.'" There is a +dogmatic reason for this excoriation of Luther: Rome's teaching of +righteousness by works and human merit. The same author says, in +immediate connection with the foregoing: "Likening man to a 'beast of +burden,' does Luther not maintain that man is utterly powerless 'by +reason of his fallen nature' to lead a godly life, and merit by the +practise of virtue the rewards of eternal happiness? Does he not say: +'It is written in the hearts of men that there is no freedom of will,' +that 'all takes place in accordance with inexorable necessity,' and +that, even 'were free will offered him, he should not care to have it'? +But does not all this contradict the Spirit of God when, speaking in the +Book of Ecclesiasticus, He says: 'Before man is life and death, good and +evil; that which he shall choose shall be given him'?" + +We submitted in chap. 15 the Scriptural evidence on the spiritual +disability of man. (The passage from Ecclesiasticus in the last +quotation is not Scripture.) It is useless to argue with a person who +refuses to accept this teaching of Scripture. We can only repeat what we +said before: Let the advocates of human free will proceed to do what +they claim they are able to do, and do it thoroughly. No one will +begrudge them the crown of glory when they obtain it. On the other hand, +they will have none but themselves to blame if they do not obtain it. In +the light of God's holy Word, in the light, moreover, of the experience +of the most spiritual-minded and saintly men that have lived on earth, +we see in the claim of the advocates of human free will regarding the +fulfilment of God's Law nothing but a vain boast, and a most mischievous +attempt to be smarter than God. The theory of salvation by merit is the +most disastrous risk that the human heart can take. Christ has +mercifully warned men not to take this risk. If they will not hear Him, +they will have to perish in their sins (John 8, 24). + +In chap. 15 we also explained Luther's views on human free will in the +affairs of this life. We only have to add a word on the subject of +contingency. Are Luther's Catholic, critics really so blind as not to +see that man even in his ordinary affairs of common every-day life is +subject to the inscrutable government of God? Our physical life in its +most trivial aspects is entirely dependent not only on the laws of +nature, which are nothing but the order which the Creator has appointed +for the created universe, but also on extraordinary acts of God over +which no man has control. The farmer sows his wheat and expects to reap +a crop. How? By reason of the power of germination which the Creator has +put in the grain, and the laws which govern atmospheric changes, which +laws, again, the Creator governs. The farmer can do nothing to make the +wheat grow and ripen. He is utterly dependent upon God.--A merchant +decides that he will make a business trip to New York. He will leave the +next morning on the nine o'clock train. He orders his transportation, +and the next morning-he does not leave. "Something happened; I had to +change my plans," he tells his friends. Ah, says our Catholic critic, +but was he not free to change his mind? We say: You may talk as much as +you wish about the person's freedom; the fact remains that the person +would not have changed his mind unless he had to. - Let us follow this +merchant a little further: He actually starts on his trip two days +later. He is to arrive at his destination at two o'clock in the +afternoon of the next day, and very much depends on his arriving just at +that time. But he does not even get to Cincinnati. "Something happened," +he wires to his friend. And now his human free will goes into operation +again: he changes his mind. - "Man proposes, but God disposes," this +belief is ineradicably written into the consciousness of all intelligent +men, even of intelligent pagans, and no philosophy of free will will +wipe it out. The wise farmer, after he has finished sowing his field, +says, "God willing, I shall reap a good crop." The wise merchant says, +"God willing, I shall be in New York to-morrow." And God approves of +this wise reservation which causes the prudent to submit their most +ordinary actions to divine revision. He says in Jas. 4, 13-16: "Go to +now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and +continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain, whereas ye know +not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a +vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For +that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or +that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil." +Let Luther's Catholic critics wrestle with these and similar texts of +Scripture, with these and similar facts of daily life. Luther has +rightly declared the sovereignty of God a mighty ax and thunderbolt that +shatters the assertion of human free will. + +We have shown that Luther is no fatalist. His warning, on the one hand, +not to disregard the secret will of God, and on the other, not to seek +to find it out, is a masterpiece of wisdom. In view of the absolute +sovereignty of God and man's absolute dependence upon it, Luther urges +man to go to work in his chosen occupation in childlike reliance upon +God. He is to employ to the utmost capacity all his God-given energies +of mind and body and work as if everything depended on his industry, +strength, prudence, thrift, planning, and arranging. Having done all, +he is to say: Dear Lord, it is all subject to Thy approval. Thou art +Master; do Thou boss my business. If Thou overrulest my plans, I have +nothing to say; Thou knowest better. Not my will, but Thine, be done. + +This is the whole truth in a nutshell that Luther drives home in that +part of his reply to Erasmus which treats of contingency. If ever +statements garbled from the context are unfair to the author, what the +Catholics are constantly doing in quoting Luther on the Bondage of the +Will is one of the most glaring exhibitions of unfairness on record. +This treatise of Luther deserves to be studied thoroughly and +repeatedly, and measured against the facts of the common experience of +all men. For a profitable study of this treatise there is, moreover, +required a very humble mind, a mind that knows its sin, and is sincere +in acknowledging its insufficiency. + +The generation of Luther and the generations after him have had this +particular teaching of Luther before them four hundred years. What +effect has it had on human progress in every field of secular activity +in Protestant lands? Has it created that chaos and confusion which +Catholics claim it must inevitably lead to? Quite the contrary has +happened. And now let the patrons of the theory of human free will +measure their own success as recorded by history against that of +Protestants. + + +25. "The Adam and Eve of the New Gospel of Concubinage." + +This is the honorary title which Catholics bestow upon Martin Luther and +Catherine von Bora, who were married June 13, 1525, during the Peasants' +War. Luther was forty-two years old at the time and his bride past +twenty-six. She had left the cloister two years before her marriage, and +had found employment during that time in the home of one of the citizens +of Wittenberg. Their first child, Hans, was born June 7, 1526. + +The grounds on which Catholics object to this marriage are, chiefly, +three. In the first place, they declare the marriage the outcome of an +impure relation which had existed between Luther and Catherine prior to +their marriage. The marriage had virtually become a matter of necessity, +to prevent greater scandal. Moreover, in this impure relationship Luther +with his lascivious and lustful mind, in which fleshly desires were +continually raging, had been the prime mover. The second ground on which +Catholics object to Luther's marriage is, because Luther held +professedly low views of the virtue of chastity and the state of +matrimony. He had stripped matrimony of its sacramental character, and +regarded it as a mere physical necessity and a social and civil +contract. Thirdly, Catholics criticize Luther's marriage because it was +entered into by both the contracting parties in violation of a sacred +vow: Luther had been a monk and Catherine a nun, both sworn to perpetual +celibacy. + +Moral cleanness is indelibly stamped upon hundreds of pages of Luther's +writings. The Sixth Commandment in its wider application to the mutual +relation of the sexes and the sexual condition of the individual was to +Luther the solemn voice of God by which the holy and wise Creator guards +and protects the fountains whence springs human life. "Because there is +among us," he says, "such a shameful mixture and the very dregs of all +kinds of vice and lewdness, this commandment is also directed against +all manner of impurity, whatever it may be called; and not only is the +external act forbidden, but every kind of cause, incitement, and means, +so that the heart, the lips, and the whole body may be chaste and afford +no opportunity, help, or persuasion for impurity. And not only this, but +that we may also defend, protect, and rescue wherever there is danger +and need; and give help and counsel, so as to maintain our neighbor's +honor. For wherever you allow such a thing when you could prevent it, or +connive at it as if it did not concern you, you are as truly guilty as +the one perpetrating the deed. Thus it is required, in short, that every +one both live chastely himself and help his neighbor do the same." +(_Large Catechism_, p. 419.) The reason why God in the Sixth Commandment +refers to only one form of sexual impurity Luther states correctly thus: +"He expressly mentions adultery, because among the Jews it was a command +and appointment that every one must be married. Therefore also the young +were early married, so that the state of celibacy was held in small +esteem, neither were public prostitution and lewdness tolerated as now. +Therefore adultery was the most common form of unchastity among them." +(_Ibid_.) + +In his _Appeal to the German Nobility_ Luther says: "Is it not a +terrible thing that we Christians should maintain public brothels, +though we all vow chastity in our baptism? I well know all that can be +said on this matter; that it is not peculiar to one nation, that it +would be difficult to demolish it, and that it is better thus than that +virgins, or married women, or honorable women should be dishonored. But +should not the spiritual and temporal powers combine to find some means +of meeting these difficulties without any such heathen practise? If the +people of Israel existed without this scandal, why should not a +Christian nation be able do so? How do so many towns and villages manage +to exist without these houses? Why should not great cities be able to do +so? . . . It is the duty of those in authority to see the good of their +subjects. But if those in authority considered how young people might be +brought together in marriage, the prospect of marriage would help every +man and protect him from temptations." (10, 349; transl. by Waring.) + +This is the Luther of whom Catholic writers say that he would not be +considered qualified to sit with a modern Vice Commission. + +But what about the many coarse references in Luther's writings to sexual +matters-references which are unprintable nowadays? Do these not show +that Luther was far from being even an ordinary gentleman, that he was +depraved in thought and vulgar nauseating, in speech whenever he +approached the subject of marriage and sexual conditions? We have just +cited a few of Luther's references to these matters. They are clean and +proper. We could fill pages with them, and they would prove most +profitable reading in our loose, profligate, and adulterous age. Those +other references which are also found in Luther's writings should be +studied in their connection. Leaving out of the account humorous +references and playful remarks, which only malice can twist into a +lascivious meaning, they are indignant and scornful expostulations with +the defenders and practisers of vice that flaunted its shame in the face +of the public. Righteous anger will give a person the courage to speak +out boldly and in no mincing words about things which otherwise nauseate +him. When Catholic writers cull from Luther vile and disgusting remarks +about sexual affairs, it should be investigated to whom Luther made +those remarks, and what reason he had for making them. There is another +side to this matter, and that concerns medieval Catholicism itself. We +have indicated in sundry places in this review the social conditions in +respect of the sex relations that existed under the spiritual +sovereignty of the Roman Church in Luther's day in the very city of +Rome, and had grown up and were being fostered by her leading men. +Luther's references to lustfulness are paraded as evidence of the lust +that was consuming him; they are, in reality, evidences of the lust that +he knew to be raging in very prominent people with whom he had dealings. + +Luther's words and teaching would count for little if his personal +conduct and his acts were in open contradiction to his chaste +professions. We would simply have to set him down as a hypocrite. But so +would the people in Luther's own day have done. It is a poor argument to +say that the common people were no match for Luther in an argument. They +were cowed into silence, they were afraid to tell him to his face that +he ought to practise what he preached. Luther's work proved the +spiritual emancipation of the common people, and one of the effects +which mark his reformatory work is the intelligent layman, who forms his +own judgment on what he hears and sees, and speaks out to his superiors. +The Wittenbergers in Luther's day were not a set of ninnies; the +constant association with the professors and students of the university, +the growing fame of their town, which brought many strangers to it, +important civil and religious affairs on which they had to come to a +decision, had made many of them far-sighted and resolute men of affairs. +Luther's home life before and after his marriage was open to public +inspection as few homes are. The most intimate and delicate affairs had +to be arranged before company at times. In a small town-and Wittenberg +was no modern metropolis-what one person knows becomes public +information in a short time. Small communities have no secrets, or at +least find it extremely difficult to have any. + +But the lewdness which Luther attacked in his writings on chastity +existed chiefly among persons of wealth and among the nobility. Not a +few of them resented Luther's invectives against their mode of life. +They surely did not lack the courage nor the ability to express +themselves in retaliation against Luther if they had known him to be +immoral himself while preaching morality to others. Last, not least, +there were the Catholic priests and dignitaries of the Roman Church +whose scandalous life Luther exposed. Aside from their disagreement from +Luther in point of doctrine, personal revenge animated not a few of them +with the desire to find a flaw in Luther's conduct. A few reckless +spirits among them insinuated and declared openly that Luther was +immoral, but the animus back of the charge was so well understood at +the time, and the people who were in daily and close touch with Luther +were so fully convinced of the purity of his life, that the charges were +treated with contempt. + +Luther's life from the age of puberty to his marriage was, indeed, a +fight against temptations to unchastity. Is it anything else in the case +of other men? The physical effects of adolescence, as we remarked +before, are a natural and morally pure phenomenon; Luther's frank way of +speaking of them does not make them impure. But this physical condition +in a growing young man or woman may become the occasion for impure acts. +Against these Luther strove as every Christian strives against them who +has not the special grace of which our Lord speaks Matt. 19, 12, in the +first part of the verse. Luther had his flesh fairly well in subjection +to the Spirit. History has not recorded those acts of immorality which +his enemies insinuate or openly charge him with. The illegitimate +children which are imputed to him were born in Catholic fancy. His +constitutional amorous propensities, too, are fiction. Though Luther +admits a few months prior to his marriage that he wears no armor plate +around his heart, it is known that he had been all his life anything +rather than a ladies' man. + +Luther's courtship of Catherine--if we may call it that--was almost void +of romance. The nine nuns who had fled from the cloister at Nimpschen to +escape "the impurities of the life of celibacy," had turned to +Wittenberg in their trouble. They were not seeking new impurities, but +running away from old ones. What was more natural than that they should +seek the protection of the man whose teaching had opened the road to +liberty for them. They did not come to Wittenberg to surrender +themselves to Luther, but to seek his protection, advice, and help in +beginning a new, natural life after the unnatural life which they had +been leading. Luther responded to the call of distress. He did not +receive them into his own domicile in the cloister where he lived, but +found shelter for them with kind citizens of the town. Next, he found +husbands for them. In less than two years after the escape from the +cloister all had been respectably married, except Catherine. A +love-affair of hers with Jerome Baumgaertner of Nuernberg had terminated +unhappily, in spite of Luther's urging the young man. Another choice +which Luther proposed to her--Dr. Glatz of Orlamuende--was declined +peremptorily by Catherine, because, it seems, she had read the man's +character. In declining this second offer, Catherine had made complaint +to Luther's friend Amsdorf that Luther was trying to marry her against +her will. She appears to have been a frank and resolute woman; in her +conversation with Amsdorf she remarked that her decision would be +altogether different if either he or even Luther were to ask for her +hand. This was not, as has been said, a bald invitation to either of +these two gentlemen, but only Catherine's energetic way of explaining +what sort of a husband she would like, and why she would not take Glatz. +Amsdorf so understood her remark and made nothing of it. By an accident +he came to relate it to Luther six months later, when the latter had +written to him in great despondency, describing his lonely life and the +disorderly state of his domicile which needed very much the care of a +woman's hand. Then it was that Amsdorf related what Catherine had +remarked. Luther had never thought of her in such a relation. He had +been attracted, it seems, by another of the nine escaped nuns, Ave von +Schoenfeld, but whatever affection he may have entertained for her must +have been a passing incident, never seriously entertained, for it must +be remembered that at that time Luther declared that he would live and +die a bachelor. Besides, Ave had now been happily married to another. At +this juncture the influence of another woman enters into the private +life of Luther. Argula von Staufen, a noblewoman who had been won over +to the cause of the Reformation and was actively engaged in breaking +down the power of the hierarchy even by her pen, wrote to Luther, +expressing her surprise that he who had written so ably and so well on +the holy estate of matrimony was still single. Among the peasants, too, +the question was being debated whether Luther would follow up his +preaching with the logical action. Luther was ruminating on these +matters when the Peasants' Revolt broke out, and with them in his mind +went to Mansfeld. He soon reached the conclusion that he owed it to his +profession as a preacher of the divine Word, to his Creator, to himself, +and to the lonely Catherine to marry. He foresaw that the celibate +clergy of Rome would raise a hue and cry about the act, but he +considered it a noble work to offend these men, because they had by +their law of celibacy offended the most holy God. He would marry to +spite all of them, and the Pope, and the devil. This resolution was +promptly carried out, for Luther was not in the habit of dallying long +with serious matters. If he had asked his timid friend Melanchthon, he +would most likely have been advised against his marriage. Faint-hearted +Philip was not the man to advise in a matter which at the time required +a heroic faith. Philip, therefore, was duly shocked when he heard about +it. His consternation is now used by Catholics to prove that he regarded +Luther's marriage as a wanton act prompted by lust. This is utterly +unhistorical: Philip was only afraid of the wild talk that would now be +started against all of them. On the right and duty of the clergy to +marry he believed with Luther. + +And now a word about the chastity of Rome, particularly that peculiar +brand which was inaugurated by Gregory VII for the Roman clergy and the +religious of both sexes, and riveted upon them by the Council of Trent- +the chastity of the celibate state. That the unnatural principle had +never worked out toward true chastity, that the robbery which it has +perpetrated on men and women had to be compensated for by connivance at, +and open permission of, concubinage, is a matter of current knowledge. +Luther's advice to priests and bishops who had opened their hearts to +him on the state of their chastity to marry their cooks, even if they +had to do it secretly; rather than maintain the other relation to them, +was a good man's effort to meet a grave difficulty as best he could. +This advice is now used to show that Luther was ready to approve any +kind of cohabitation. The very opposite is true: it was because he did +not approve of any kind of sexual intercourse, but because he desired to +obtain some kind of a legal character for that relation, that he gave +the advice to which we have referred. + +Before the assembled representatives of the Church and of the German +nation the following statements were read in Article XXIII of the +Augsburg Confession: "There has been common complaint concerning the +examples of priests who were not chaste. For that reason, also, Pope +Pius is reported to have said that there were certain reasons why +marriage was taken away from priests, but that there were far weightier +ones why it ought to be given back; for so Platina writes. Since, +therefore, our priests were desirous to avoid these open scandals, they +married wives, and taught that it was lawful for them to contract +matrimony. First, because Paul says (1 Cor. 7, 2): 'To avoid +fornication, let every man have his own wife.' Also (9): 'It is better +to marry than to burn.' Secondly, Christ says (Matt. 19, 11): 'All men +cannot receive this saying,' where He teaches that not all men are fit +to lead a single life; for God created man for procreation (Gen. 1, 23). +Nor is it in man's power, without a singular gift and work of God, to +alter this creation. Therefore, those that are not fit to lead a single +life ought to contract matrimony. For no man's law, no vow, can annul +the commandment and ordinance of God. For these reasons the priests +teach that it is lawful for them to marry wives. It is also evident that +in the ancient Church priests were married men. For Paul says (1 Tim. 3, +2) that a bishop should be the husband of one wife. And in Germany, four +hundred years ago for the first time, the priests were violently +compelled to lead a single life, who indeed offered such resistance that +the Archbishop of Mayence, when about to publish the Pope's decree +concerning this matter, was almost killed in the tumult raised by the +enraged priests. And so harsh was the dealing in the matter that not +only were marriages forbidden for the time to come, but also existing +marriages were torn asunder, contrary to all laws, divine and human, +contrary even to the canons themselves, made not only by the Popes, but +by most celebrated councils. + +"Seeing also that, as the world is aging, man's nature is gradually +growing weaker, it is well to guard that no more vices steal into +Germany. Furthermore, God ordained marriage to be a help against human +infirmity. The old canons themselves say that the old rigor ought now +and then, in the latter times, to be relaxed because of the weakness of +men; which, it is to be devoutly wished, were also done in this matter. +And it is to be expected that the churches shall at length lack pastors, +if marriage should any longer be forbidden. + +"But while the commandment of God is in force, while the custom of the +Church is well known, while impure celibacy causes many scandals, +adulteries, and other crimes deserving the punishments of just +magistrates, yet it is a marvelous thing that in nothing is more cruelty +exercised than against the marriage of priests. God has given +commandment to honor marriage. By the laws of all well-ordered +commonwealths, even among the heathen, marriage is most highly honored. +But now men, and also priests, are cruelly put to death, contrary to the +intent of the canons, for no other cause than marriage. Paul (in 1 Tim. +4, 3) calls that a doctrine of devils which forbids marriage. This may +now be readily understood when the law against marriage is maintained by +such penalties. + +"But as no law of man can annul the commandment of God, so neither can +it be done by any vow. Accordingly Cyprian also advises that women who +do not keep the chastity they have promised should marry. His words are, +these (Book I, Epistle XIX): 'But if they be unwilling or unable to +persevere, it is better for them to marry than to fall into the fire by +their lusts; at least, they should give no offense to their brethren and +sisters.' And even the canons show some leniency toward those who have +taken vows before the proper age, as heretofore has generally been the +case." (p. 48 f.) + +Not a word of dissent arose in the august assembly while these facts and +arguments were presented. The Germans had not forgotten the riotous +proceedings and the cruel heartaches that were caused by the enforcement +of the decrees of the Lenten Synod of 1074 under the theocratic Gregory +VII, who wanted to set up a universal monarchy over the whole world and +required an unmarried priesthood as his consecrated army. In his +historical novel, _Die Letzten ihres Geschlechts_, M. Ruediger has +graphically described the scenes enacted throughout Germany when +Gregory's inhuman order was put into effect. + +Similar statements regarding priestly celibacy are found in Art. XXVII +of the First, and in Art. XXIX of the Second Helvetic Confession of the +Reformed. The Episcopal Church has declared itself to the same effect in +Art. XXXII of the Thirty-nine Articles. + +However, did not Luther and Catherine both perjure themselves by +marrying? What about their religious vow, which had been given to God? +Also on this matter we might cite Luther's numerous statements and +expository writings, but we prefer to quote again the Augsburg +Confession which grew out of Luther's testimony for the truth. In +Article XXVII the Lutheran confessors state: "What is taught on our part +concerning monastic vows will be better understood if it be remembered +what has been the state of the monasteries, and how many things were +daily done in those very monasteries, contrary to the canons. In +Augustine's time they were free associations. Afterward, when discipline +was corrupted, vows were everywhere added for the purpose of restoring +discipline, as in a carefully planned prison. Gradually, many other +observances were added besides vows. And these fetters were laid upon +many before the lawful age, contrary to the canons. [Catherine von Bora +had taken the veil at the age of sixteen.] Many also entered into this +kind of life through ignorance, being unable to their own strength, +though they were of sufficient age. Being thus ensnared, they were +compelled to remain, even though some could have been freed by the +provision of the canons. And this was more the case in convents of women +than of monks, although more consideration should have been shown the +weaker sex. This rigor displeased many good men before this time, who +saw that young men and maidens were thrown into convents for a living, +and what unfortunate results came of this procedure, and what scandals +were created, what snares were cast upon consciences! They were grieved +that the authority of the canons in so momentous a matter was utterly +despised and set aside. + +"To these evils was added an opinion concerning vows, which, it is well +known, in former times, displeased even those monks who were more +thoughtful. They taught that vows were equal to Baptism; they taught +that, by this kind of life, they merited forgiveness of sins and +justification before God. Yea, they added that the monastic life not +only merited righteousness before God, but even greater things, because +it kept not only the precepts, but also the so-called 'evangelical +counsels.' + +"Thus they made men believe that the profession of monasticism was far +better than Baptism, and that the monastic life was mere meritorious +than that of magistrates, than the life of pastors and such like, who +serve their calling in accordance with God's commands, without any +man-made services. None of these things can be denied; for they appear +in their own books. . . . + +"These things we have rehearsed without odious exaggerations, to the end +that the doctrine of our teachers, on this point, might be better +understood. First, concerning such as contract matrimony." Here the 27th +Article rehearses in the main the argument of Article XXIII. + +"In the second place, why do our adversaries exaggerate the obligation +or effect of a vow, when, at the same time, they have not a word to say +of the nature of the vow itself, that it ought to be in a thing +possible, free, and chosen spontaneously and deliberately? But it is not +known to what extent perpetual chastity is in the power of man. And how +few are they who have taken the vow spontaneously and deliberately! +Young men and maidens, before they are able to judge, are persuaded, and +sometimes even compelled, to take the vow. Wherefore it is not fair to +insist so rigorously on the obligation, since it is granted by all that +it is against the nature of a vow to take it without spontaneous and +deliberate action. . . . + +"But although it appears that God's command concerning marriage delivers +many from their vows, yet our teachers introduce also another argument +concerning vows to show that they are void. For every service of God +ordained and chosen of men without commandment of God to merit +justification and grace is wicked as Christ says (Matt. 15, 9): 'In vain +they worship Me with the commandments of men.' And Paul teaches +everywhere that righteousness is not to be sought by our own observances +and acts of worship devised by men, but that it comes by faith to those +who believe that they are received by God into grace for Christ's sake." + +The confessors then proceed to show how spiritual pride was fostered by +the monkish teaching of perfection, and how by their rites and +ordinances and rules the true worship of God was obscured, and men were +withdrawn from useful pursuits in life to be buried in cloisters. They +conclude: "All these things, since they are false and empty, make vows +null and void." (p. 57 ff.) + +Luther never had taken his own nor other monks' vows lightly. He spoke +and wrote to Melanchthon from the Wartburg against the mere throwing off +of the vows on the ground that they were not binding anyway. He argued +the sacredness of the oath, and held that first the consciences of those +bound by vows must be set free through the evangelical teaching; then, +when they are qualified to make an intelligent choice on spiritual +grounds, they may discard their vows. When he married Catherine, he had +long become a free man in his mind. So had Catherine. + +Luther is charged with having entertained a purely secular view of the +essence of marriage. It is true that Luther repudiated the Catholic view +of the sacramental character of matrimony. By the teaching of the Roman +Church a legal marriage can be effected only by the ratification of the +marriage-promise and the blessing spoken over the couple by a +consecrated priest, who thus, by his official quality, imparts to the +marriage which he solemnizes a sacred character. In Luther's days it was +held that "the Church alone properly had jurisdiction over the question +of marriage, and the canonical laws (of the Church) included civil as +well as spiritual affairs. Luther repudiated these canonical laws on the +subject of marriage, and separated its civil from its ecclesiastical +aspect. He maintained that marriage, as the basis of all family rights, +lies entirely within the province of the State, and mast be regulated of +necessity by the civil government. 'Marriage and the married state,' he +declared in his _Traubuechlein_ (10, 721), 'are civil matters, in the +management of which we priests and ministers of the Church must not +intermeddle. But when we are required, either before the church, or in +the church, to bless the pair, to pray over them, or even to marry them, +then it is our bounden duty to do so.'" (Waring, p. 221.) + +In 1906, a papal decree was published which declares any betrothal or +marriage entered into by a Catholic with a Catholic, or by a Catholic +with a non-Catholic, to be valid only on condition that either the +betrothal or the marriage take place in the presence or with the +sanction of a Catholic priest This decree is known as the _Ne Temere_ +decree. It is called thus according to a custom prevailing in the +Catholic Church by which the official deliverances of the Popes are +cited by giving the initial word, or words, of such a deliverance. The +two Latin terms _Ne Temere_ are a warning against reckless action, and +the reckless action intended is the one indicated above. + +We quote a few statements from the _Ne Temere_ decree, from the work of +Dr. Leitner of Passau, which was issued in its fifth edition at +Regensburg in 1908. Dr. Leitner is a Catholic professor at Passau and +bears the title "Doctor of Theology and Canon Law." Dr. Leitner's book +is in German: _Die Verlobungs- und Eheschliessungsform nach dem Dekrete +Ne Temere_, which means, "The Form of Betrothal and Marriage according +to the _Ne Temere_ Decree." Throughout his book the author cites the +original language of the papal deliverance. The decree reaffirms, in the +first place, the decree of the Council of Trent, to this effect: "The +Holy Congregation declares any person who dares to enter into the estate +of matrimony, except upon license from the parish priest or of some +other priest of the same parish, or of the ordinary, and of two or three +witnesses, incapacitated for such a contract, and contracts of this kind +are declared null and void." (p.9.) + +Regarding betrothals the decree declares: "Only such betrothals are +regarded as valid and efficacious, according to the law of the Church, +as are set down in a document signed by the contracting parties and by +the parish priest, or the local ordinary, and by at least two +witnesses." + +Regarding marriage the decree hands down the following ruling: "Only +such marriages are valid as are entered into in the presence of the +parish priest, or the local ordinary, or of a priest delegated for the +purpose by either of these, and of two witnesses." Again: "To the above +law are amenable all persons baptized in the Catholic Church, also who +have joined the Catholic Church from errorist or schismatic societies +(notwithstanding the fact that either former or the latter have +apostatized later) whenever they entered into betrothal or matrimony." +Lastly: "The laws apply to the aforenamed Catholics whenever they enter +into betrothal or matrimony with non-Catholics, baptized or not, even +when they have obtained a dispensation from the obstacle of a mixed +religion or of a disparity of cult; except the Holy See decrees +otherwise for a certain or locality." + +The operations of this decree have been peculiar. Some countries as +Germany and Belgium, promptly secured exemption from it. In Canada the +decree has caused law suits. One of them, Morin _vs_. Le Croix, was +tried in Justice Greenshield's court at Montreal, June 21, 1912. The +judge in his ruling said; "No Church, be it the powerful Roman Catholic +Church, or the equally great and powerful Anglican Catholic Church, +possesses any authority to overrule the civil law. Such authority as any +Church has (in the matter of marriages) is given it by the civil law and +is subservient to the civil law." + +The _Protestant Magazine_, in Vol. IV, No. 2, published a facsimile of a +baptismal certificate for Anna Susanna Dagonya, daughter of Stephen +Dagonya, Roman Catholic, and Mary Csoma, Reformed, who were married at +Perth Amboy, N. J., August 4, 1909, by Rev. Louis Nannassy, Reformed. +Their child was born November 6, 1910, and baptized by Rev. Francis +Gross, priest of the Holy Cross Church at Perth Amboy. In writing out +the baptismal certificate, the priest has stated that the child is +illegitimate, and that the parents are living in concubinage. + +Under the civil laws of most states the _Ne Temere_ decree will lead to +actions for libel. As related to the authority of the State, it is +riotous and seditious. For the State will protect even those for whom +the decree is specially published in their civil rights as over against +their Church. But the decree shows to what absurdities the logical +application of Rome's teaching on matrimony leads. Concubinage--that is +the name which it applies to every marriage which she has not +sanctioned. Marriages of this kind began to be celebrated in countries +which Rome had theretofore held firmly under its jurisdiction, when +Martin Luther and Catherine von Bora were married. Accordingly, they are +entitled to the distinction of being called the Adam and Eve of the +non-Catholic paradise of concubinage which pretends to be matrimony. +Enough said. + + +26. Luther an Advocate of Polygamy. + +During the debate on the abolition of polygamy Congressman Roberts of +Utah, on January 29, 1900, made a speech in the House of Representatives +in which he said: "Here, in the resident portion of this city you +erected--May 21, 1884--a magnificent statue of stern old Martin Luther, +the founder of Protestant Christendom. You hail him as the apostle of +liberty and the inaugurator of a new and prosperous era of civilization +for mankind, but he himself sanctioned polygamy with which I am charged. +For me you have scorn, for him a monument." Taking his cue from this +Mormon speaker, one of the most recent of Luther's Catholic critics +remarks: "Let the wives and mothers of America ponder well the +polygamous phase of the Reformation before they say 'Amen' to the +unsavory and brazen laudations of the profligate opponent of Christian +marriage, Christian decency, and Christian propriety. Compare the +teachings of Luther on polygamy with those of Joseph Smith, the Mormon +prophet and visionary, and see their striking similarity. Mormonism in +Salt Lake City, in Utah, which has brought so much disgrace to the +American people, is but a legitimate outgrowth of Luther and +Lutheranism." This, then, is what will have to be done: a comparison +will have to be instituted between the teaching of Martin Luther and +that of the Mormon prophet on the subject of polygamy. We may assume +that the teachings of the latter are universally known, and shall, +accordingly, confine ourselves to Luther. + +Two curious facts may be noted before we start our investigation of +Luther's writings: 1. Is it not remarkable that Joseph Smith himself +does not cite Luther as his authority in defense of plural marriages? +What an impression would the man have made, had he known what Mr. +Roberts and some Catholics know! 2. Charging Lutheranism, that is, the +Lutheran Church, with teaching polygamy, implies that the confessional +writings of the Lutheran Church contain this teaching. The person who +will furnish the evidence for this charge from the Book of Concord, +which contains the symbolical writings of the Lutheran Church, will +become famous. Mr. Roberts was not so bold as to embrace Lutheranism +among the sponsors of his polygamous cult; he only spoke of Luther. He +was wise. And now, what does Luther say on the subject of polygamy? We +pass by, as unworthy of note, Luther's humorous remarks made in a spirit +of banter to his wife, that he would marry another wife. Only ill-will +can find in this friendly jest an evidence of Luther's polygamous +propensities. + +Serious references to this matter occur in Luther's remarks on the +practise of polygamy among the Israelites. The Mosaic account of +Abraham's relation to Agar, the two marriages of Jacob, the regulations +regarding women who had become captives in war, the harems of the kings +of Judah and Israel,--all these Biblical records, which have perplexed +many a student of the Bible, necessarily interested Luther as a +theologian and expounder of the Scriptures. Every reader of the Bible +has to form an opinion on these matters. Polygamous thoughts, therefore, +did not originate in the lustful mind of Luther, but statements on the +subject of polygamy were demanded of him as a religious teacher. He held +that the polygamous relations which the Bible notes among the +Israelites, even among saintly members of this people, must be explained +either on the ground of a special dispensation of God for which we do +not know the reason, or they must be regarded in the same light as +Christ regarded the divorces among the Jews of His day, namely, as +things which God permits among men because of their hardness of heart, +and in order to prevent greater evils. (3, 1556.) This view determined +Luther's attitude toward Carlstadt, after this turbulent spirit had +quitted Wittenberg and gone to Orlamuende, where he advocated, amongst +other things, the introduction of polygamy. Inasmuch as Carlstadt did +not mean to enforce his strange reforms by arms, as Muenzer and the +peasants were doing, Luther inclined to condone his views on polygamy. +He evidently regards this matter as a matter of public policy, like +prostitution, which every community and commonwealth must regulate by +such statutes as can be devised, "because of the hardness of men's +hearts." Luther has frequently propounded this perfectly sound view +regarding the life and conduct of non-Christians: since these people do +not acknowledge the laws of God as binding, it matters little what +practises they adopt. All that can be done to keep the animal impulses +in them somewhat in check is to fix certain limits by means of civil +laws beyond which their license may not go. For their rejection of God's +laws they will have to answer to their future Judge. + +In a letter addressed to Joseph Levin Metzsch of December 9, 1526, +Luther says: "Your first question: Whether person may have more than one +wife? I answer thus: Let unbelievers do what they please; Christian +liberty, however, is regulated by love (charity), so that all that a +Christian does is done to serve his fellow-man, provided only that he +can render such service without jeopardy and damage to his faith and +conscience. Nowadays, however, everybody is striving for a liberty that +profits and pleases him, without regard for the profit and improvement +which his neighbor might derive from his action. This is contrary to +the teaching of St. Paul, who says: 'All things are lawful unto me, but +all things are not expedient' (1 Cor. 6, 12). Only see that your liberty +does not become an occasion to the flesh. . . . Moreover, although the +patriarchs had many wives, Christians may not follow their example, +because there is no necessity for doing this, no improvement is obtained +thereby, and, especially, there is no word of God to justify this +practise, while great offense and trouble may come from it. Accordingly, +I do not believe that Christians any longer have this liberty. God would +have to publish a command that would declare such a liberty." (21a, 901 +f.) To Clemens Ursinus, pastor at Bruck, Luther writes under date of +March 21, 1527: "Polygamy, which in former times was permitted to the +Jews and Gentiles, cannot be honestly approved of among Christians, and +cannot be engaged in with a good conscience, unless in an extreme case +of necessity, as, for instance, when one of the spouses is separated +from the other by leprosy or for a similar cause. Accordingly, you may +say to the carnal people (with whom you have to do), if they want to be +Christians, they must keep married fidelity and bridle their flesh, not +give it license. If they want to be heathen, let them do what they +please, at their own risk." (21a, 928.) + +In his comment on the question of the Pharisees regarding divorce (Matt. +19, 3-6), Luther says: "Many divorces occur still among the Turks. If a +wife does not yield to the husband, nor act according to his whim and +fancy, he forthwith drives her out of the house, and takes one, two, +three, or four additional wives, and defends his action by appealing to +Moses. They have taken out of Moses such things as please them and +pander to their lust. In Turkey they are very cruel to women; any woman +that will not submit is cast aside. They toy with their women like a dog +with a rag. When they are weary of one woman, they quickly put her +beneath the turf and take another. Moses has said nothing to justify +this practise. My opinion is that there is no real married life among +the Turks; theirs is a whorish life. It is a terrible tyranny, all the +more to be regretted because God does not withhold the common blessing +from their intercourse: children are procreated thereby, and yet the +mother is sent away by the husband. For this reason there is no true +matrimony among the Turks. In my opinion, all the Turks at the present +time are bastards." (7, 965.) + +All this is plain enough and should suffice to secure Luther against the +charge of favoring polygamy. The seeming admission that polygamy might +be permissible relates to cases for which the laws of all civilized +nations make provisions. How a Christian must conduct himself in such a +case must be decided on the evidence in each case. Likewise, the +reference to the Christian's liberty from the law does not mean that the +Christian has the potential right to polygamy, but it means that he must +maintain his monogamous relation from a free and willing choice to obey +God's commandments in the power of God's grace. Polygamy, this is the +firm conviction of Luther, could only be sanctioned if there were a +plain command of God to that effect. Luther's remarks about matrimony +among the Turks should be remembered when Catholics cite Luther's +remarks about King Ahasuerus dismissing Vashti and summoning Esther, and +the right of the husband to take to himself his maid-servant when his +wife refuses him. By all divine and human laws the matter to which +Luther refers is a just ground for divorce, and that is all that Luther +declares. + +But did not Luther sanction the bigamy of Philip of Hesse? So he did. +Luther's decision in this case must be studied in the light of all the +evidence which we possess. Catholic theologians, before all others, +should be able to appreciate Luther's claim that what was said to the +Landgrave was said to him "in the person of Christ," as the counsel +which a confessor gave to a burdened conscience. Catholics fail to +mention that Luther repelled bigamous thoughts in Philip of Hesse +fourteen years before the Landgrave took Margaret von der Saal. The +evidence was found in the state archives at Kassel, now at Marburg, in +a fragment of a letter which Niedner published in the _Zeitschrift fuer +historische Theologie_, 1852, No. 2, p. 265. The letter is dated +November 28, 1526; Philip's bigamous marriage took place March 9, 1540. +In this letter Luther says to Philip: "As regards the other matter, my +faithful warning and advice is that no man, Christians in particular, +should have more than one wife, not only for the reason that offense +would be given, and Christians must not needlessly give, but most +diligently avoid giving, offense, but also for the reason that we have +no word of God regarding this matter on which we might base a belief +that such action would be well-pleasing to God and to Christians. Let +heathen and Turks do what they please. Some of the ancient fathers had +many wives, but they were urged to this by necessity, as Abraham and +Jacob, and later many kings, who according to the law of Moses obtained +the wives of their friends, on the death of the latter, as an +inheritance. The example of the fathers is not a sufficient argument to +convince a Christian: he must have, in addition, a divine word that +makes him sure, just as they had a word of that kind from God. For where +there was no need or cause, the ancient fathers did not have more than +one wife, as Isaac, Joseph, Moses, and many others. For this reason I +cannot advise for, but must advise against, your intention, particularly +since you are a Christian, unless there were an extreme necessity, as, +for instance, if the wife were leprous or the husband were deprived of +her for some other reason. On what grounds to forbid other people such +marriages I know not" (21a, 900 f.) This letter effected that the +Landgrave did not carry out his intention, but failing, nevertheless, to +lead a chaste life, he did not commune, except once in extreme illness, +because of his accusing conscience. + +How Luther, fourteen years later, was induced to virtually reverse his +opinion he has told himself in a lengthy letter to the Elector +Frederick. This letter is Luther's best justification. It is dated June +10, 1540, and reads: "Most serene, high-born Elector, most gracious +Lord:--I am sorry to learn that Your Grace is importuned by the court of +Dresden about the Landgrave's business. Your Grace asks what answer to +give the men of Meissen. As the affair was one of the confessional, both +Melanchthon and I were unwilling to communicate it even to Your Grace, +for it is right to keep confessional matters secret, both the sin +confessed and the counsel given, and had the Landgrave not revealed the +matter and the confessional counsel, there would never have been all +this nauseating unpleasantness.--I still say that if the matter were +brought before me to-day, I should not be able to give counsel different +from what I did. Setting apart the fact that I know I am not as wise as +they think they are, I need conceal nothing, especially as it has +already been made known. The state of affairs is as follows: Martin +Bucer brought a letter and pointed out that, on account of certain +faults in the Landgrave's wife, the Landgrave was not able to keep +himself chaste, and that he had hitherto lived in a way which was not +good, but that he would like to be at one with the principal heads of +the Evangelic Church, and he declared solemnly before God and his +conscience that he could not in future avoid such vices unless he were +permitted to take another wife. We were deeply horrified at this tale +and the offense which must follow, and we begged his Grace not to do as +he proposed. But we were told again that he could not abandon his +project, and if he could not obtain what he wanted from us, he would +disregard us and turn to the Emperor and Pope. To prevent this we +humbly begged that if his Grace would not, or, as he averred before God +and his conscience, could not, do otherwise, yet that he could keep it a +secret. Though necessity compelled him, yet he could not defend his act +before the world and the imperial laws; this he promised to do, and we +accordingly agreed to help him before God and cover it up as much as +possible with such examples as that of Abraham. This all happened as +though in the confessional, and no one can accuse us of having acted as +we did willingly or voluntarily or with pleasure or joy. It was hard +enough for our hearts, but we could not prevent it, we thought to give +his conscience such counsel as we could.--I have indeed learned several +confessional secrets, both while I was still a papist and later, which, +if they were revealed, I should live to deny or else publish the whole +confession. Such things belong not to the secular courts, nor are they +to be published. God has here His own judgment, and must counsel souls +in matters where no worldly law nor wisdom can help. My preceptor in the +cloister, a fine old man, had many such affairs, and once had to say of +them with a sigh: 'Alas, alas! such things are so perplexed and +desperate that no wisdom, law, nor reason can avail; one must commend +them to divine goodness.' So instructed, I have, accordingly, in this +case also acted agreeably to divine goodness.--But had I known that the +Landgrave had long before satisfied his desires, and could well satisfy +them with others, as I have now just learned that he did with her of +Eschwege, truly no angel would have induced me to give such counsel. I +gave it only in consideration of his unavoidable necessity and weakness, +and to put his conscience out of peril, as Bucer represented the case to +me. Much less would I ever have advised that there should be a public +marriage, to which (though he told me nothing of this) a young princess +and young countess should come, which is truly not to be borne and is +insufferable to the whole empire. But I understood and hoped, as long as +he had to go the common way with sin and shame and weakness of the +flesh, that he would take some honorable maiden or other in secret +marriage, even if the relation did not have a legal look before the +world. My concession was on account of the great need of his +conscience--such as happened to other great lords. In like manner I +advised certain priests in the Catholic lands of Duke George and the +bishops secretly to marry their cooks.--This was my confessional counsel +about which I would much rather have kept silence, but it has been wrung +from me, and I could do nothing but speak. But the men of Dresden speak +as though I had taught the same for thirteen years, and yet they give us +to understand what a friendly heart they have to us, and what great +desire for love and unity, just as if there were no scandal or sin in +their lives, which are ten times worse before God than anything I ever +advised. But the world must always smugly rail at the moat in its +neighbor's eye, and forget the beam in its own eye. If I must defend all +I have said or done in former years, especially at the beginning, I must +beg the Pope to do the same, for if they defend their former acts (let +alone their present ones), they would belong to the devil more than to +God.--I am not ashamed of my counsel, even if it should be published in +all the world; but for the sake of the unpleasantness which would then +follow, I should prefer, if possible, to have kept it secret. Martin +Luther, with his own hand." (21b, 2467; transl. by Preserved Smith.) + +About a year later a Hessian preacher, by the name of Johann Lening, +undertook to justify the bigamy of the Landgrave. Under the pseudonym +"Huldricus Neobulus" he published a "Dialogus," that is, "an amicable +conversation between two persons on the question whether it is in +accordance with, or contrary to, divine, natural, imperial, and +spiritual laws for a person to have more than one wife at a time," etc. +The writer defended bigamy. In an unfinished reply to this book Luther +takes strong grounds against him. Referring to the author's argument +that bigamy was sanctioned by Moses, Luther says: "The reference to the +fathers of whom Moses speaks is irrelevant: Moses is dead. Granted, +however, that bigamy was legal in the days of the fathers and Moses, +--which can never be established,--still they had God's word for it that +such a permission was given them. That we have not. And although it was +permitted to the Jews and tolerated by God, while God Himself considered +it wrong, . . . it was merely a dispensation. . . . Now, there is a +great difference between a legal right and a dispensation, or something +that is tolerated or permitted. A legal right is not a dispensation, and +a dispensation is not a legal right; whoever does, obtains, or holds +something by a dispensation does not do, obtain, or hold it by legal +right." Luther then enters upon a brief discussion of the bigamous +relationships which were created by the Mosaic laws, and explains that +legislation as emergency legislation. He says: "What need is there why +we should try to find all sorts of reasons to explain why the fathers +under Moses were permitted to have many wives? God is sovereign; He may +abrogate, alter, mitigate a law as He pleases, for emergency's sake or +not. But it does not behoove us to imitate such instances, much less to +establish them as a right. But this Tulrich [so Luther calls the unknown +author] rashly declares carnal lust free, and wants to put the world +back to where it was before the Flood, when they took them wives, not +like the Jews by God's permission, or because of an emergency or for +charity's sake towards homeless women, as Moses directs, but, as the +text says, 'which they chose' (Gen. 6, 2). That is the way nowadays to +rise to the stars. In this way we have Moses and the fathers with their +examples as beautiful cloaks for carnal liberty; we say with our lips +that we are following the examples of the fathers, but in very deed we +act contrary to them. Lord, have mercy! If the world continues, what all +may we not expect to happen these times, if even now shameless fellows +may print what they please." (21b, 2691 f.) + +One might go more exhaustively into the evidence, but the materials here +submitted will suffice to convince most men that, while Luther's advice +to Philip did create a bigamous relation, Luther was not a defender of +bigamy. Every one who has had to deal with questions relating to married +life knows that situations arise in the matrimonial relation which +simply cannot be threshed out in public, and in which the honest advice +of a pious person is invoked to find a way out of a complication. That +was the situation confronting Luther: what he advised was meant as an +emergency measure to prevent something that was worse. In the same +manner Luther had expressed the opinion that it would have been easier +to condone a bigamous relation in Henry VIII of England than the unjust +divorce which the king was seeking. As a matter of fact, however, Luther +and his Wittenberg colleagues were grossly hoodwinked in the matter, +both by the Landgrave himself and, what is worse, by the Landgrave's +court-preacher, Bucer. Had the true facts been known, the advice, as +Luther clearly states, would never have been given. But we can well +understand how Luther can declare that under the circumstances under +which he thought he was acting he could not have given any different +advice. Personally, we have always resented the veiled threat in the +Landgrave's request that he would apply to the Pope or the Emperor. +Perhaps the remark was not understood as a threat, but as an expression +of despair. At any rate, Philip was confident of getting from Rome what +he was not sure of obtaining from Luther. + +Ought not this remark of the Landgrave caution Luther's Catholic critics +to be very careful in what they say about the heinousness of Luther's +offense in granting a dispensation from a moral precept? Have they +really no such thing as a "dispensation" at Rome? Has not the married +relationship come up for "dispensation" in the chancelleries of the +Vatican innumerable times? Has not one of the canonized saints of Rome, +St. Augustine, declared that bigamy might be permitted if a wife was +sterile? Was not concubinage still recognized by law in the sixteenth +century in Ireland? Did not King Diarmid have two legitimate wives and +two concubines? And he was a Catholic. What have Catholics to say in +rejoinder to Sir Henry Maine's assertion that the Canon Law of their +Church brought about numerous sexual inequalities? Or to Joseph +MacCabe's statement that not until 1060 was there any authoritative +mandate of the Church against polygamy, and that even after this +prohibition there were numerous instances of concubinage and polygamic +marriages in Christian communities? Or to Hallam in his _Middle Ages_, +where he reports concubinage in Europe? Or to Lea, who proves that this +evil was not confined to the laity? (See Gallighan, _Women under +Polygamy_, pp. 43. 292. 295. 303. 330. 339.) + +All that has so far been said about Luther's views on the subject of +polygamy could be most powerfully reinforced by a review of Luther's +teaching on matrimony as a divine institution, which Luther consistently +throughout his writings regards as monogamous. But this is too well +known to require restatement, and is really outside of the scope of this +review, which must content itself with submitting the direct argument in +rebuttal of the Catholic charge of Luther's advocacy of polygamy. This +polygamous Luther, too, is a vision that is rendered possible only +through spectacles of hopeless bias. + + +27. Luther Announces His Death. + +Mark Twain awoke one morning to find himself reported dead. He did not +accept the invitation suggested in the report, but wired to his friends: +"Reports of my death grossly exaggerated." Luther was placed in a +similar predicament by Catholics who were deeply interested in the +question how long he was to continue to live. One day, in the early part +of March, 1545, he was handed a printed letter in Italian which +contained the news of his demise under curious circumstances. He thought +that he ought not to withhold this interesting information from the +world: he had a German translation made of the document, which he +published with his remarks as follows: + +"Copy of a Letter of the Ambassador of the Most Christian King regarding +a Horrible Sign which Occurred in the Shameful Death of Martin Luther. + +"A horrible and unheard-of miracle which the blessed God has wrought in +the shameful death of Martin Luther, who went to hell, soul and body, as +may be clearly seen from a chapter of the letter of the ambassador of +the Most Christian King, to the praise and glory of Jesus Christ and the +confirmation and comfort of the faithful. + +_"Copy of the Letter_. + +"1. Martin Luther, having been taken ill, desired the holy Sacrament of +the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. He died immediately upon receiving +it. When he saw that his sickness was very violent and he was near +death, he prayed that his body might be placed on an altar and worshiped +as Cod. But the goodness and providence of God had resolved to put an +end to his great error and to silence him forever. Accordingly, God did +not omit to work this great miracle, which was very much needed, to +cause the people to desist from the great, destructive, and ruinous +error which the said Luther has caused in the world. As soon as his body +had been placed in the grave, an awful rumbling and noise was heard, as +if hell and the devils were collapsing. All present were seized with a +great fright, terror, and fear, and when they raised their eyes to +heaven, they plainly saw the most holy host of our Lord Jesus Christ +which this unworthy man was permitted to receive unworthily. I affirm +that all who were present saw the most holy host visibly floating in the +air. They took the most holy host very devoutly and with great +reverence, and gave it a decent place in the sanctuary. + +"2. When this had been done, no such tumult and hellish rumbling was +heard any more that day. However, during the following night, at the +place where Martin Luther's corpse had been buried, there was heard by +everybody in the community a much greater confusion than the first time. +The people arose and flocked together in great fear and terror. At +daybreak they went to open the grave where the wicked body of Luther had +been placed. When the grave was opened, you could clearly see that there +was no body, neither flesh nor bone, nor any clothes. But such a +sulphuric stench rose from the grave that all who were standing around +the grave turned sick. On account of this miracle many have reformed +their lives by returning to the holy Christian faith, to the honor, +praise, and glory of Jesus Christ, and to the strengthening and +confirmation of His holy Christian Church, which is a pillar of truth." + +Luther appended the following comment to this pious document: + +"And I, Martinus Luther, D., do by these indentures acknowledge and +testify that I have received this angry fiction concerning my death on +the twenty-first day of March, and that I have read it with considerable +pleasure and joy, except the blasphemous portion of the document in +which this lie is attributed to the exalted majesty of God. Otherwise I +felt quite tickled on my knee-cap and under my left heel at this +evidence how cordially the devil and his minions, the Pope and the +papists, hate me. May God turn them from the devil! + +"However, if it is decreed that theirs is a sin unto death, and that my +prayer is in vain, then may God grant that they fill up their measure +and write nothing else but such books for their comfort and joy. Let +them run their course; they are on the right track; they want to have it +so. Meanwhile I want to know how they are going to be saved, and how +they will atone for and revoke all their lies and blasphemies with which +they have filled the world." (21b, 3376 f.) + +Similar, even more grotesque tales have been served the faithful by +Catholic writers. The star production of this kind was published years +ago in the _Ohio-Waisenfreund_. It related that horrible and uncanny +signs had accompanied Luther's death. Weird shrieks and noises were +heard, devils were flying about in the air; the heavens were shrouded in +a pall of gloom. When the funeral cortege started from Eisleben, a vast +flock of ravens had gathered and accompanied the corpse croaking +incessantly and uttering dismal cries all the way to Wittenberg, etc., +etc. + +These crude stories have now been censored out of existence. Catholics +nowadays prefer to lie in a more refined and cultured manner about +Luther's death: Luther committed suicide; he was found hanging from his +bedpost one morning. + +Comment is unnecessary. + +Luther died peacefully in the presence of friends, confessing, Christ +and asserting his firm allegiance to the faith he had proclaimed with +his last breath. The probable cause of his death was a stroke of +paralysis. Luther began to feel pains in the chest late in the afternoon +of February 17, 1546. He bore up manfully and continued working at his +business for the Count of Mansfeld who had called him to Eisleben. After +a light evening meal he sat chatting in a cheerful mood with his +companions, and retired early, as was his custom in his declining years. +The pains in the chest became worse, and he began to feel chilly. +Medicaments were administered, and after a while he fell into a slumber, +which lasted an hour. He awoke with increased pain and a feeling of +great congestion, which caused the death-perspiration to break out. He +was rapidly turning cold. All this time he was praying and reciting +portions from the Psalms and other texts. Three times in succession he +repeated his favorite text, John 3, 16. Gradually he became peaceful, +and his end was so gentle that the bystanders were in doubt whether he +had expired or was only in a swoon. They worked with him, trying to +rouse him, until they were convinced that he had breathed his last. The +Catholic apothecary John Landau, who had been called in while Luther was +thought to be in a swoon, helped to establish the fact of his death. + + +28. Luther's View of His Slanderers. + +Luther was the subject of gross misrepresentation and vile slander +during his lifetime: At first he used to correct erroneous reports about +himself, usually in his polemical writings, later he merely noted them +with a brief and scornful comment, and finally ignored them altogether. +He relates that he had treated many slanderous publications of Eck, +Faber, Emser, Cochlaeus, and many others with silent contempt. (18, +1991; 14, 331.) It was a physical impossibility for him to reply to all +the misleading and vicious reports that were being circulated about him. +He was convinced that he must use his time and strength for more +necessary matters. His friends in many instances relieved him of the +unpleasant task. Moreover, after he had answered those who had first +assailed him in the beginning of his public activity, he could afford to +disregard many slanders, because they were mere repetitions. + +Luther was aware that he was probably the worst-hated man of his times. +He declares his belief that in the last hundred years there has not +lived a man to whom the world was more hostile than to himself. (22, +1660.) Persons praising him, he says, are regarded as having committed +a more grievous sin than any idolater, blasphemer, perjurer, fornicator, +adulterer, murderer, or thief. (9, 553.) Anything that Luther has said, +he observes, is denounced as coming from the devil; what Duke George +(one of his fiercest enemies), Faber, or Bucer say or do is highly +approved, (4, 1606.) Like Elijah, he was charged with having disturbed +Israel: before he began preaching there was peace and quiet, now all is +confusion. (9, 587.) He is held responsible for the Peasants' Revolt and +the rise of the Sacramentarian sects. (22, 1602.) A laborer whom his +wife had hired became drunk and committed murder; at once the rumor was +spread that Luther kept a murderer as his servant. (21b, 2225.) What he +writes is represented as having been inspired by envy, pride, +bitterness, yea, by Satan himself; those, however, who write against him +are regarded as being inspired by the Holy Ghost. (18, 2005.) He +observes that beggars become rich, obtain favors from princes and kings, +remunerative positions, honors, and bishoprics by turning against him. +(18, 2005.) Some attribute the election of Adrian VI as Pope to Luther +(this Pope was believed to favor reforms: he did not last long); and +Luther expects that he is helping Dr. Schmid to become a cardinal +because he is opposing him. (19, 1347.) Dunces become doctors, knaves +become saints, and the most besotted characters are glorified when they +try their vile mouths and pens against Luther. (19, 1347.) The easiest +way for any man to become a canonized saint even during his lifetime, +though he were a person of the stripe of a Nero or Caligula, is by +hating Luther. (18, 2005.) On the cover of the pamphlet containing his +Sermon on the Sacrament Luther ordered a picture consisting of two +monstrances printed; this was promptly explained to mean that he had +adopted the Bohemian errors, for Hus had administered the Lord's Supper +in both kinds. (19, 457.) Some pretended that they could see two geese +in this picture; the meaning was plain: one of them signified Hus (Hus +in Bohemian means goose), the other, Luther. (19, 458.) + +Luther would not have been human if incidents like these had not caused +him pain. Occasionally he would give vent to his grief, but his manly +courage, too, would soon assert itself, and he would expose the +hollowness, insincerity, and futility of the lying tales that were +spread about him. At a public meeting in Campo Flore he was cursed, +sentenced to death, and burned in effigy. (21a, 174.) He has read +offensive reports about himself, and puts them down with the calm +declaration: There is not a man that writes against Luther without +having to resort to horrible and manifest lies. (19, 583.) He is sure +that he has not had an opponent who in an argument would stick to the +point; they all had to evade the issue. (22, 658.) Shameful falsehoods +are canvassed about him at the court of King Ferdinand (15, 2623); +Luther comforts himself with the reflection that others have suffered +the same vilification before him, for instance, Wyclif, Hus, and others +(5, 308). Besides, he is able to understand that the real reason why +the papists regard him as such a perverse and untractable person is +because they are utterly perverse themselves. (4, 1499.) + +But his sweetest comfort is in reflecting that it is his preaching which +has brought his manifold afflictions upon him. Poor Luther is always +wrong: the Sacramentarians and Anabaptists hate him worse than they hate +the Pope, and the Pope hates him worse than he hates other heretics, +because they all fight against the Gospel which Luther preaches. (22, +1015.) If I were to keep silent, he says, or preach as I used to do, +concerning indulgences, pilgrimages, adoration of the saints, purgatory, +the carnival of the Mass, I could easily keep the favor and friendship +of the great. (8, 569.) But for the sake of the true doctrine and those +who profess it,--whom his opponents wish to suppress, Luther is willing +to suffer hatred, persecution, calumnies, and everything else that his +enemies may devise against him. (5, 587.) What have I done, he exclaims, +to deserve the enmity of the Pope and his rabble, except that I have +preached Christ? (8, 569.) He is convinced from the papists' own +confession that he is being persecuted for no other reason than because +he is preaching the Gospel. (8, 399.} + +Knowing the reason why he is hated, Luther glories in his tribulations. +Duke George, he says, calls me a desperate, low-bred, perjured knave: I +shall consider those ugly names my emeralds, rubies, and diamonds. (19, +457.) He would fear that there must be something wrong about his +teaching if the people whom he knows would not fight against him: if +these people do not condemn his doctrine, his doctrine cannot be +acceptable to God. (10, 351.) He prefers to have them rage against him. +Their violence shall not disturb him greatly, because he has championed +the Lord's cause, and that, in all sincerity, without malice toward any +person. (21a, 301.) . Let the papists exhaust themselves in slanders +against him: he knows he has the Scriptures on his side, and they have +the Scriptures against them. (5, 310.) They intend to grind Luther to +pieces, not a hair of him is to remain; he knows that they will not be +able to harm a hair on his head. (8, 119.) + +Thus Luther thought and spoke of his detractors and defamers. Such was +his comfort and his courage in the face of base calumnies and undeserved +hatred. Those who know him best will continue to love him, and admire +him the more for the enemies he has made. + +-- + +If the reader of this book has had the sensation of a traveler in a +storm-tossed vessel, he has experienced mentally what Luther faced in +dread reality during almost the whole of his agitated life. He had to +weather many a squall, and storm, and hurricane. Outwardly his life +seems a continuous hurly-burly. Yet there is in this man's heart a great +and holy calm. The tumult of his life is all on the surface. He reminds +one of the lines in Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Hymn": + + When winds are raging o'er the upper ocean, + And billows wild contend with angry roar, + 'T is said, far down beneath the wild commotion, + That peaceful stillness reigneth evermore. + + Far, far beneath, the noise of tempest dieth, + And silver waves chime ever peacefully, + And no rude storm, how fierce soe'er it flieth, + Disturbs the Sabbath of that deeper sea. + +We have had glimpses of the hidden depths in Luther's mind: his thought +reaches down to the lowest depths of human misery, and then goes deeper +still towards the limits of God's rescuing love and conquering grace +which human mind has never reached. For these divine profundities no +plummet will ever sound. He who could surrender himself wholly to the +study of the greatness and beauty of Luther's constructive thought would +enjoy a spiritual luxury and be drawn into that sublime and solemn peace +of God which passes all understanding. He would behold this strenuous +man; who has been shown mostly in his working-clothes in these pages, in +his holiday-attire, with that Sabbath in his heart which occurs wherever +Christ is the loved and adored object of the thinker's contemplation. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Luther Examined and Reexamined, by W. H. T. Dau + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LUTHER EXAMINED AND REEXAMINED *** + +***** This file should be named 16322.txt or 16322.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/2/16322/ + +Produced by Kurt A. 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