History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume II Part 12

[192] (Ibid.)

[193] "Nolo nisi Christo protectore niti." (L. Ep. i, p. 148.)

[194] Mea humana sunt; tu perfectior jam totus ex divinis pendes. (L.

Op. Lat. ii. p. 175.)

[195] Viam facturus libertati (cod. Bavar veritati) per maximos principes. (Corp. Reform. i, p. 201.) To make a way for liberty (in the Bavarian MS. "truth,") by means of the greatest princes.

Thus, on the one hand, Luther's enemies a.s.sail him, and on the other, his friends rise up to defend him. "My bark," says he, "floats here and there at the pleasure of the winds, ... hope and fear reign by turns, but what matters it?"[196] Still his mind was not uninfluenced by the marks of sympathy which he received. "The Lord reigns," said he, "and so visibly as to be almost palpable."[197] Luther saw that he was no longer alone; his words had proved faithful, and the thought inspired him with new courage. Now that he has other defenders prepared to brave the fury of Rome, he will no longer be kept back by the fear of compromising the Elector. He becomes more free, and, if possible, more decided. This is an important period in the development of Luther's mind. Writing at this time to the Elector's chaplain, he says, "Rome must be made aware, that though she should succeed, by her menaces, in exiling me from Wittemberg, she will only damage her cause. Those who are ready to defend me against the thunders of the papacy are to be found not in Bohemia, but in the heart of Germany. If I have not yet done to my enemies all that I am preparing for them, they must ascribe it neither to my moderation nor to their tyranny, but to my fear of compromising the name of the Elector, and the prosperity of the university of Wittemberg. Now, that I have no longer any such fears, I will rush with new impetuosity on Rome and her courtiers."[198]

[196] "Ita fluctuat navis mea; nunc spes, nunc timor regnat." (L. Ep.

i, p. 443.)

[197] "Dominus regnat, ut palpare possimus." (Ibid. p. 451.)

[198] "Saevius in Romanenses gra.s.saturus".... (L. Ep. i, p. 465.)

[Sidenote: FRUITS OF FAITH. FAITH AND WORKS.]

Still Luther's hope was not placed on the great. He had often been urged to dedicate a book to Duke John, the Elector's brother, but had never done it. "I fear," he had said, "that the suggestion comes from himself. The Holy Scriptures must be subservient only to the glory of G.o.d's name."[199] Luther afterwards laid aside his suspicions, and dedicated his discourse on good works to Duke John, a discourse in which he gives a forcible exposition of the doctrine of justification by faith, a mighty doctrine, whose power he rates far higher than the sword of Hutten, the army of Seckingen, or the protection of dukes and electors.

[199] "Scripturam sacram nolim alicujus nomini nisi Dei servire."

(Ibid. p. 431.) I would not have sacred Scripture subservient to any name but that of G.o.d.

"The first, the n.o.blest, the sublimest of all works," says he, "is faith in Jesus Christ.[200] From this work all other works should proceed; they are all the va.s.sals of faith, and from it alone derive their efficacy.

[200] Das erste und hochste, alleredelste ... gute Werck ist der Glaube in Christum.... (L. Op. (L.) xvii, p. 394.)

"If a man's own heart a.s.sures him, that what he is doing is agreeable to G.o.d, the work is good should it be merely the lifting up of a straw, but in the absence of this a.s.surance the work is not good, though it should be the raising of the dead. A pagan, a Jew, a Turk, a sinner, can do all other works, but to trust firmly in the Lord, and feel a.s.sured of pleasing him, are works of which none are capable but the Christian strengthened by grace.

"A Christian, who has faith in G.o.d, acts, at all times, with freedom and gladness, whereas, the man who is not at one with G.o.d is full of cares, and is detained in thraldom; he anxiously asks how many works he ought to do, he runs up and down interrogating this man and that man, and, nowhere finding any peace, does everything with dissatisfaction and fear.

"Hence, I have always extolled faith. But it is otherwise in the world: there the essential point is to have many works, works great and high, and of all dimensions, while it is a matter of indifference whether or not faith animates them. Thus men build their peace, not on the good pleasure of G.o.d, but on their own merits, that is to say, on the sand.... (Matt. vii, 27.)

"To preach faith is, it is said, to prevent good works; but though a single man should have in himself the powers of all men, or even of all creatures,[201] the mere obligation of living by faith would be a task too great for him ever to accomplish. If I say to a sick person, be in health and you will have the use of your members--will it be said that I forbid him to use his members? Must not health precede labour? The same holds true in the preaching of faith; it must be before works, in order that works themselves may exist.

[201] Wenn ein Mensch tausend, oder alle Menschen, oder alle Creaturen ware. (L. Op. (L.) p. 398.) "Were one man a thousand, or all men, or all creatures."

"Where then, you will ask, is this faith found, and how is it received? This, indeed, is the most important of all questions. Faith comes solely from Jesus Christ, who is promised, and given gratuitously.

[Sidenote: LUTHER JUDGING HIS WRITINGS.]

"O, man! represent Christ to thyself, and consider how in him G.o.d manifests his mercy to thee without being antic.i.p.ated by any merit on thy part.[202] In this image of his grace receive the faith and a.s.surance that all thy sins are forgiven thee. Works cannot produce it. It flows from the blood, the wounds, and the death of Christ, whence it wells up in the heart. Christ is the rock out of which come milk and honey. (Deut. x.x.xii.)

[202] Siehe, also musst du Christum in dich bilden, und sehen wie in Ihm Gott--seine Barmherzigkeit dir furhalt und arbeut (Ibid. p. 401.)

Not being able to give an account of all Luther's works, we have quoted some short fragments of this discourse on good works, on account of the opinion which the Reformer himself had of it. "It is in my judgment," said he, "the best work that I have published." He immediately subjoins this profound observation. "But I know that when any thing I write pleases myself, the infection of this bad leaven prevents it from pleasing others."[203] Melancthon, in sending a copy of this discourse to a friend, thus expressed himself, "Of all Greek and Latin authors none has come nearer the spirit of St. Paul than Luther."[204]

[203] "Erit meo judicio omnium quae ediderim, optimum: quanquam scio quae mihi mea placent, hoc ipso fermento infecta, non solere aliis placere." (L. Ep. i, p. 431.)

[204] "Quo ad Pauli spiritum nemo proprius accessit" (Corp. Refor. i, p. 202.)

CHAP. III.

The Papacy Attacked--Appeal to the n.o.bility--The Three Walls--All Christians are Priests--The Magistrate's duty to Correct the Clergy--Abuses of Rome--Ruin of Italy--Dangers of Germany--The Pope--The Legates--The Monks--The Marriage of Priests--Celibacy--Festivals--The Bohemians--Charity--The Universities--The Empire--The Emperor must retake Rome--A Book not Published--Luther's Modesty--Success of the Address.

[Sidenote: THE THREE WALLS.]

But the subst.i.tution of a system of meritorious works for the idea of grace and amnesty was not the only evil existing in the Church. A domineering power had risen up among the humble pastors of Christ's flock. Luther must attack this usurped authority. A vague and distant rumour of Eck's intrigues and success at Rome awakened a warlike spirit in the Reformer, who, amid all his turmoil, had calmly studied the origin, progress, and usurpations of the papacy. His discoveries having filled him with surprise, he no longer hesitated to communicate them and strike the blow which was destined, like the rod of Moses of old, to awaken a whole nation out of a lethargy, the result of long bondage. Even before Rome had time to publish her formidable bull, he published his declaration of war. "The time of silence," exclaims he, "is past; the time for speaking has arrived. The mysteries of Antichrist must at length be unveiled." On the 24th June, 1502, he published his famous '_Appeal to his Imperial Majesty, and the Christian n.o.bility of Germany, on the Reformation of Christianity._'[205]

This work was the signal of the attack which was at once to complete the rupture and decide the victory.

[205] L. Op. (L.) xvii, 457-502.

"It is not from presumption," says he, at the outset of this Treatise, "that I, who am only one of the people, undertake to address your lords.h.i.+ps. The misery and oppression endured at this moment by all the States of Christendom, and more especially by Germany, wring from me a cry of distress. I must call for aid; I must see whether G.o.d will not give his Spirit to some one of our countrymen, and stretch out a hand to our unhappy nation. G.o.d has given us a young and generous prince, (the Emperor Charles V,)[206] and thus filled our hearts with high hopes. But we too must, on our own part, do all we can.

[206] Gott hat uns ein junges edles Blut zum Haupt gegeben. (Ibid., p.

457.)

"Now, the first thing necessary is, not to confide in our own great strength, or our own high wisdom. When any work otherwise good is begun in self-confidence, G.o.d casts it down, and destroys it.

Frederick I, Frederick II, and many other emperors besides, before whom the world trembled, have been trampled upon by the popes, because they trusted more to their own strength than to G.o.d. They could not but fall. In this war we have to combat the powers of h.e.l.l, and our mode of conducting it must be to expect nothing from the strength of human weapons--to trust humbly in the Lord, and look still more to the distress of Christendom than to the crimes of the wicked. It may be that, by a different procedure, the work would begin under more favourable appearances, but suddenly in the heat of the contest confusion would arise, bad men would cause fearful disaster, and the world would be deluged with blood. The greater the power, the greater the danger, when things are not done in the fear of the Lord."

After this exordium, Luther continues:--

"The Romans, to guard against every species of reformation, have surrounded themselves with three walls. When attacked by the temporal power, they denied its jurisdiction over them, and maintained the superiority of the spiritual power. When tested by Scripture, they replied, that none could interpret it but the pope. When threatened with a council, they again replied, that none but the pope could convene it.

[Sidenote: POWER OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATE.]

"They have thus carried off from us the three rods destined to chastise them, and abandoned themselves to all sorts of wickedness.

But now may G.o.d be our help, and give us one of the trumpets which threw down the walls of Jericho. Let us blow down the walls of paper and straw which the Romans have built around them, and lift up the rods which punish the wicked, by bringing the wiles of the devil to the light of day."

Luther next commences the attack, and shakes to the foundation that papal monarchy which had for ages united the nations of the West into one body under the sceptre of the Roman bishop. There is no sacerdotal caste in Christianity. This truth, of which the Church was so early robbed, he vigorously expounds in the following terms:--

"It has been said that the pope, the bishops, the priests, and all those who people convents, form the spiritual or ecclesiastical estate; and that princes, n.o.bles, citizens, and peasants, form the secular or lay estate. This is a specious tale. But let no man be alarmed. All Christians belong to the spiritual estate, and the only difference between them is in the functions which they fulfil. We have all but one baptism, but one faith, and these const.i.tute the spiritual man. Unction, tonsure, ordination, consecration, given by the pope or by a bishop, may make a hypocrite, but can never make a spiritual man.

We are all consecrated priests by baptism, as St. Peter says, 'You are a royal priesthood;' although all do not actually perform the offices of kings and priests, because no one can a.s.sume what is common to all, without the common consent. But if this consecration of G.o.d did not belong to us, the unction of the pope could not make a single priest.

If ten brothers, the sons of one king, and possessing equal claims to his inheritance, should choose one of their number to administer for them, they would all be kings, and yet only one of them would be the administrator of their common power. So it is in the Church. Were several pious laymen banished to a desert, and were they, from not having among them a priest consecrated by a bishop, to agree in selecting one of their number, whether married or not, he would be as truly a priest, as if all the bishops of the world had consecrated him. In this way were Augustine, Ambrose, and Cyprian elected.

"Hence it follows that laymen and priests, princes and bishops, or, as we have said, ecclesiastics and laics, have nothing to distinguish them but their functions. They have all the same condition, but they have not all the same work to perform.

[Sidenote: PAPAL USURPATION. RUIN OF ITALY.]

"This being so, why should not the magistrate correct the clergy? The secular power was appointed by G.o.d for the punishment of the wicked and the protection of the good, and must be left free to act throughout Christendom without respect of persons, be they pope, bishops, priests, monks, or nuns. St. Paul says to all Christians, '_Let every soul_,' (and consequently the pope also,) '_be subject to the higher powers; for they bear not the sword in vain_.'"[207]

[207] ??sa ????, Rom. xiii. 1. 4.

Luther, after throwing down the other two walls in the same way, takes a review of all the abuses of Rome. With an eloquence of a truly popular description he exposes evils which had, for ages, been notorious. Never had a n.o.bler remonstrance been heard. The a.s.sembly which Luther addresses is the Church, the power whose abuses he attacks is that papacy which had for ages been the oppressor of all nations, and the Reformation for which he calls aloud is destined to exercise its powerful influence on Christendom, all over the world, and so long as man shall exist upon it.