Collected Works of Martin Luther

by Martin Luther

  He reproaches Luther with having in later days failed to distinguish between the outward Word or preaching and the inward living Word of God. The blunt assertion of the preachers — which was encouraged by “Luther’s unapostolic treatment of the problem of Christian experience” — that faith referred solely to the written Word and was elicited merely by preaching, leads in practice to neglect of those passages of Scripture which speak of the Divine character of faith and of its transmission by the Holy Ghost; owing to the lack of a faith really felt, there was also wanting any “holiness of life worked by the Spirit, and any moral justice and sanctification.”

  Schwenckfeld on the Popular Church and the New Divine Service

  The system of a State Church then being set up, the externalism of the Lutheran Popular Church and the worship introduced were naturally looked at askance by the promoter of the Church Apart of true believers; at the same time his strictures are not unduly biassed.

  He looks at the matter from the standpoint of Lutheran freedom, or as Carl Ecke expresses it, of “the early Christian individualism rediscovered by Luther.” From this point of view Schwenckfeld can detect in the official Lutheran Church only a shadow of the Apostolic Church. Not merely the principle of the multitude, but also the appeal to the authorities for help and coercion was opposed to the spirit of Christ, at least according to all he had learnt from Luther.

  “He raises the question whether that can possibly be the true Church of Christ where human coercion, force, commands and prohibitions, rather than Christian freedom and willingness, rule over faith and conscience.... The secular sword has no place in the Churches of Christ, but belongs to the secular authorities for the punishment of the wicked.... As little as it is in the power of the authorities to bestow the faith on anyone, to strengthen or increase it, so little does it befit it to force, coerce or urge.... What the authorities do here [in matters of faith] is nothing but violence, insolence and tyranny.”

  But “we always want to attract the great crowd!” “They saw the great multitude and feared lest the churches should dwindle away.” How were they to keep “Mr. Omnes, the common people, faithful to their churches without the help of the secular arm?” They do not even think of first honestly instructing the magistrates how to become Christians and what the duty of a Christian is.... I am unable in conscience to agree with those who make idols of them so speedily and persuade them that they already have that, which their own conscience tells them they have never received.

  At the Supper, too, so he complains, owing to the want of proper discrimination between the converted and unconverted, “a false security of conscience is aroused, whereby people are led away from true repentance; for they teach that it is a source of grace, indulgence, ablution of sin, and salvation, whereas it is plain that no one receives anything of the kind.” In his view it is not right to say that the Supper leads man to reconciliation with God by enlivening his faith, and that even that man “who is full of sin or has a bad conscience gnawed and bitten by his sins” should receive it, as the preachers teach; on the contrary, only those who are reconciled have the right to approach. “Not the man who wants to be holy [the unjustified], but he who has already been hallowed by Christ, is fit for the Supper.”

  From the standpoint of his own peculiar doctrine he characterises it as a downright error on Luther’s part to have “put Justification even into the Sacrament” — Schwenckfeld himself had thrown all the sacraments overboard. — He also reproaches Luther with teaching, that: “Forgiveness of sins, which is only to be found in Christ as ruler, is to be sought in the Sacrament.”

  Now, Schwenckfeld was far from advising people to forsake the official Church; he did not recommend that the church service and its ceremonies and sermons should be shunned, he feared lest such advice might play into the hands of the Anabaptists. He recommends as necessary an “external practice of godliness.” Yet, according to him, this was more readily carried out in private conventicles, i.e. in some sort of congregation apart of the true believers such as Luther himself had long dreamt of, and in conversation with Schwenckfeld, in 1525, regretted his inability to establish owing to the fewness of true Christians. (Above, f.)

  Luther in the meantime had become reconciled to the outer, Popular, Church, and, with his preachers’ help, had made of the outward Word a law.

  The imperious behaviour of Luther and the preachers in the matter of the outward Word was, however, odious to Schwenckfeld. He protested strongly against being tied down to professions of faith liable at any moment to be rendered obsolete by new discoveries in Scripture truth. Interest in things Divine was regarded as a privilege of the pastor’s office and the layman was kept in ignorance on the ground, that “one must believe blindly.” Luther “is setting up a new tyranny, and wishes to tie men to his doctrine.”

  CHAPTER XXX

  LUTHER AT THE ZENITH OF HIS LIFE AND SUCCESS, FROM 1540 ONWARDS. APPREHENSIONS AND PRECAUTIONS

  1. The Great Victories of 1540-1544.

  The opening of the Diet of Ratisbon in 1541 coincided with the advance of Protestantism in one of the strongholds of the power and influence of Albert of Mayence. The usual residence of the Archbishop and Elector was at Halle, in his diocese of Magdeburg. Against this town accordingly all the already numerous Protestants in Albert’s sees of Magdeburg and Halberstadt directed their united efforts. Albert was compelled by the local Landtag to abolish the Catholic so-called “Neue Stift” at Halle, and to remove his residence to Mayence. Thereupon Jonas, Luther’s friend, at once, on Good Friday, 1541, commenced to preach at the church of St. Mary’s at Halle. He then became permanent preacher and head of the growing movement in the town, while two other churches were also seized by Lutheran preachers.

  The town and bishopric of Naumburg, which had been much neglected by its bishop, Prince Philip of Bavaria, who resided at Freising, fell a prey to the innovations under the Elector Johann Frederick of Saxony; this in spite of being an imperial city under the immediate protection of the Emperor. The Elector had taken advantage of his position as arbitrator, thanks to his influence and to the authority he soon secured, gradually to establish himself in Naumburg. By his orders, in 1541, as soon as Philip was dead, Nicholas Medler began to preach at the Cathedral as “Superintendent of Naumburg”; Julius Pflug, the excellent Provost, who had been elected bishop by the Cathedral chapter, was prevented by the Elector from taking possession of the see. Even the Wittenberg theologians were rather surprised at the haste and violence with which the Elector proceeded to upset the religious conditions there, and — a matter which concerned him deeply — to seize the city and the whole diocese. (See below, f.)

  The storm was already gathering over the archbishopric of Cologne under the weak and illiterate Archbishop, Hermann von Wied. This man, who was in reality more of a secular ruler, after having in earlier days shown himself kindly disposed to the Church, was won over, first by Peter Medmann in 1539 and then by Martin Bucer in 1541, and persuaded to introduce Lutheranism. Only by the energetic resistance of the chapter, and particularly of the chief Catholics of the archdiocese, was the danger warded off; to them the Archbishop owed, first his removal, and then his excommunication.

  On March 28, 1546, shortly before the excommunication, the Emperor Charles V said to Landgrave Philip of Hesse, who had been pleading the cause of Hermann: “Why does he start novelties? He knows no Latin, and, in his whole life, has only said three Masses, two of which I attended myself. He does not even understand the Confiteor. To reform does not mean to bring in another belief or another religion.”

  “We are beholders of the wonders of God,” so Luther wrote to Hermann Bonn, his preacher, at Osnabrück; “such great Princes and Bishops are now being called of God by the working of the Holy Ghost.” He was speaking not only of the misguided Archbishop of Cologne but also of the Bishop of Münster and Osnabrück, who had introduced the new teaching at Osnabrück by means of Bonn, Superintendent of Lübeck. Luther, however, was rath
er too sanguine. In the same year he announced to Duke Albert of Prussia: “The two bishops of ‘Collen’ and Münster, have, praise be to God, accepted the Evangel in earnest, strongly as the Canons oppose it. Things are also well forward in the Duchy of Brunswick.” As a matter of fact he turned out right only as regards Brunswick. Henry, the Catholic Duke, was expelled in 1542 by the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse after the war which broke out on account of Goslar had issued in his loss of the stronghold of Wolfenbüttel; thereupon with the help of Bugenhagen the churches of the land were forcibly brought over to Lutheranism.

  In 1544 the appointment at Merseburg of a bishop of the new faith in the person of George of Anhalt followed on Duke Maurice of Saxony’s illegal seizure of the see. So barefaced was this act of spoliation that even Luther entered a protest against “this rapacious onslaught on Church property.” The appointment of an “Evangelical bishop” at Naumburg took place in 1542 under similar circumstances.

  From Metz, where the preacher Guillaume Farel was working for the Reformation, an application was received for admission into the Schmalkalden League. The Lutherans there received at least moral support from Melanchthon who, in the name of the League, addressed a writing to the Duke of Lorraine. Not only distant Transylvania, but even Venice, held correspondence with Luther in order to obtain from him advice and instructions concerning the Protestant congregations already existing in those regions.

  Thus the author of the religious upheaval might well congratulate himself, when, in the evening of his days, he surveyed the widespread influence of his work.

  He was at the same time well aware what a potent factor in all this progress was the danger which menaced Germany from the Turks. The Protestant Estates continued to exploit the distress of the Empire to their own advantage in a spirit far from loyal. They insisted on the Emperor’s granting their demands within the Empire before they would promise effectual aid against the foe without; their conduct was quite inexcusable at such a time, when a new attack on Vienna was momentarily apprehended, and when the King of France was quite openly supporting the Turks.

  In the meantime as a result of the negotiations an Imperial army was raised and Luther published his prudent “Vermanunge zum Gebet wider den Türcken.” In this he advised the princes to do their duty both towards God and the Evangel and towards the Empire by defending it against the foe. The Pope is as much an enemy as the Turk, and the world has reached its close, for the last Judgment is at hand.

  The Emperor found it advisable to show himself even more lenient than before; the violent encroachments of the Protestants, which so unexpectedly strengthened their position, were allowed to pass unresisted; the ecclesiastical and temporal penalties pronounced against the promoters of the innovations remained a dead letter, and for the time being the Church property was left in their hands. At the Diet of Spires, in 1544, the settlement was deferred to a General Council which the Reichsabschied describes as a “Free Christian Council within the German Nation.”

  As was only to be expected, Paul III, the supreme head of Christendom, energetically protested against such a decision. With dignity, and in the supreme consciousness of his rights and position, the Pope reminded the Emperor that a Council had long since been summoned (above, vol. iii., ) and was only being delayed on account of the war. It did not become the civil power, nor even the Emperor, to inaugurate the religious settlement, least of all at the expense of the rights of Church and Pope as had been the case; to the Vicar of Christ and the assembly summoned by him it fell to secure the unity of the Church and to lay down the conditions of reunion; yet the civil power had left the Pope in the lurch in his previous endeavours to summon a Council and to establish peace in Germany; “God was his witness that he had nothing more at heart than to see the whole of the noble German people reunited in faith and all charity”; “willingly would he spend life and blood, as his conscience bore him witness, in the attempt to bring this about in the right way.”

  These admonitions fell on deaf ears, as the evil work was already done. The consent, which, by dint of defiance and determination, the Protestant princes wrung from Empire and Emperor, secured the triumph of the religious revolution in ever wider circles.

  2. Sad Forebodings

  In spite of all his outward success, Luther, at the height of his triumph, was filled with melancholy forebodings concerning the future of his work.

  He felt more and more that the new Churches then being established lacked inward stability, and that the principle on which they were built was wanting in unity, cohesion and permanence. Neither for the protection of the faith nor for the maintenance of an independent system of Church government were the necessary provisions forthcoming. Indeed, owing to the very nature of his undertaking, it was impossible that such could be effectually supplied; thus a vision of coming disunion, particularly in the domain of doctrine, unrolled itself before his eyes; this was one of the factors which saddened him.

  As early as the ‘thirties we find him giving vent to his fears of an ever-increasing disintegration. In the ‘forties they almost assume the character of definite prophecies.

  In the Table-Talk of 1538, which was noted down by the Deacon Lauterbach, he seeks comfort in the thought that every fresh revival of religion had been accompanied by quarrels due to false brethren, by heresies and decay; it was true that now “the morning star had arisen” owing to his preaching, but he feared “that this light would not endure for long, not for more than fifty years”; the Word of God would “again decline for want of able ministers of the Word.” “There will come want and spiritual famine”; “many new interpretations will arise, and the Bible will no longer hold. Owing to the sects that will spring up I would rather I had not printed my books.”

  “I fear that the best is already over and that now the sects will follow.” The pen was growing heavy to his fingers; there “will be no end to the writings,” he says; “I have outlived three frightful storms, Münzer, the Sacramentarians and the Anabaptists; these are over, but now others will come.” “I wish not to live any longer since no peace is to be hoped for.” “The Evangel is endangered by the sectarians, the revolutionary peasants and the belly servers, just as once the Roman empire was at Rome.”

  “On June 27 ,” we read, “Dr. Luther and Master Philip were dining together at his house. They spoke much, with many a sigh, of the coming times when many dangers would arise.” The greatest confusion would prevail. No one would then allow himself to be guided by the doctrine or authority of another. “Each one will wish to be his own Rabbi, like Osiander and Agricola. From this the worst scandals and the greatest desolation will come. Hence it would be best [one said], that the Princes should forestall it by some council, if only the Papists would not hold back and flee from the light. Master Philip replied: The Pope will never be brought to hold a General Council.... Oh, that our Princes and the Estates would bring about a council and some sort of unity in doctrine and worship so as to prevent each one undertaking something on his own account to the scandal of many, as some are already doing. The Church is a spectacle of woe, with so much weakness and scandal heaped upon her.”

  Shortly after this Luther instituted a comparison — which for him must have been very sad — between the “false Church [of the Pope] which stands erect, a cheerful picture of dignity, strength and holiness,” and the Church of Christ “which lies in such misery and ignominy, sin and insignificance as though God had no care for her.” He fancied he could find some slight comfort in the Article of the Creed: “I believe in the Holy Church,” for, so he observes, “because we don’t see it, therefore we believe in it.”

  In the midst of the great successes of those years he still gives utterance to the gloomiest of predictions for the future of his doctrine, which dissensions would eat to the very core. His pupil Mathesius reports him as holding forth as follows:

  “Alas, good God,” he groaned in 1540, “how we have to suffer from divisions!... And many more sects w
ill come. For the spirit of lies and murder does not sleep.... But God will save His Christendom.” — In 1542 someone remarked in his presence: “Were the world to last fifty years longer many things would happen.” Thereupon Luther interjected: “God forbid, things would get worse than ever before; for many sects will arise which yet are hidden in men’s hearts, so that we shall not know how we stand. Hence, dear Lord, come with Thy Judgment Day, for no further improvement is now to be looked for!” — After instancing the principal sects that had arisen up to that time he said, in 1540: “After our death many sects will arise, God help us!” “But whoever after my death despises the authority of this school — so long as the Church and the school remain as they are — is a heretic and an evil man. For in this school [of Wittenberg] God has revealed His Word, and this school and town can take a place side by side with any others in the matter of doctrine and life, even though our life be not yet quite above reproach.... Those who flee from us and secretly contemn us have denied the faith.... Who knew anything five-and-twenty years ago [before my preaching started]? Alas for ambition; it is the cause of all the misfortunes.”

  Frequently he reverts to the theory, that the Church must needs put up with onsets and temptations to despair. “Now even greater despair has come upon us on account of the sectarians,” he said in 1537; “the Church is in despair according to the words of the Psalmist (cviii. 92): ‘Unless Thy Law had been my meditation I had then perhaps perished in my abjection.’”

  At an earlier period (1531) a sermon of Luther’s vividly pictures this despair: “If, in spiritual matters, it comes about, that the devil sows his seed in Christ’s kingdom and it springs up both in doctrine and life, then we have a crop of misery and distress. In the preaching it happens, that although God has appointed one man and commanded him to preach the Evangel, yet others are found even amongst his pupils who think they know how to do it ten times better than he.... Every man wants to be master in doctrine.... Now they are saying: ‘Why should not we have the Spirit and understand Scripture just as well as anyone else?’ Thus a new doctrine is at once set up and sects are formed.... Hence a deadly peril to Christendom ensues, for it is torn asunder and pure doctrine everywhere perishes.” Christ had indeed “foretold that this would happen”; true enough, it is not forbidden to anyone “who holds the public office of preacher to judge of doctrine”; but whoever has not such an office has no right to do so; if he does this of “his own doctrine and spirit,” then “I call such judging of doctrine one of the greatest, most shameful and most wicked vices to be found upon earth, one from which all the factious spirits have arisen.”