Part 9 (2/2)

Luther, in his Sermon on Good Works, already noticed as so replete with wholesome doctrine and advice, had already complained that G.o.d's ministry was perverted into a means of supporting the lowest creatures of the Pope, and had declared that the best and only thing left was for kings, princes, n.o.bles, towns, and parishes to set to work themselves, and 'make a breach in the abuse,' so that the hitherto intimidated clergy might follow. As for excommunication and threats, such things need not trouble them: they meant as little as if a mad father were to threaten his son who was guarding him.

The sharpest replies on the part of Luther were next provoked by two writings which justified and glorified the Divine authority and power of the Papacy. One was by a Franciscan friar, Augustin von Alveld; the other by Silvester Prierias, already mentioned, who was his most active opponent in this matter.

Luther broke out against 'the Alveld a.s.s' (as he called him in a letter to Spalatin) in a long reply ent.i.tled 'The Popedom at Rome,'

with the object of exposing once and finally the secrets of Antichrist. 'From Rome' he says 'flow all evil examples of spiritual and temporal iniquity into the world, as from a sea of wickedness.

Whoever mourns to see it, is called by the Romans a 'good Christian,' or in their language, a fool. It was a proverb among them that one ought to wheedle the gold out of the German simpletons as much as one could.' If the German princes and n.o.bles did not 'make short work of them in good earnest,' Germany would either be devastated or would have to devour herself.

Prierias' pamphlet provoked him to exclaim, in that same letter to Spalatin, 'I think that at Rome they are all mad, silly, and raging, and have become mere fools, sticks and stones, h.e.l.ls and devils.'

His remarks on this pamphlet, written in Latin, contain the strongest words that we have yet heard from his lips about the 'only means left,' and the 'short work' to be made of Rome. Emperors, kings, and princes, he says, would yet have to take up the sword against the rage and plague of the Romanists. 'When we hang thieves, and behead murderers, and burn heretics, why do not we lay hands on these Cardinals and Popes and all the rabble of the Romish Sodom, and bathe our hands in their blood?' What Luther now in reality wished to see done, was, as he goes on to say, that the Pope should be corrected as Christ commands men to deal with their offending brethren (St. Matth. xviii. 15 sqq.), and, if he neglected to hear, should be held as an heathen man and a publican.

While these pages of Luther's were in the press, towards the middle of June, Hutten, full of hope himself, and carrying with him the hopes of Luther and Melancthon, set off on his journey to the Emperor's brother in the Netherlands, and, on his way, paid a visit at Cologne to the learned Agrippa von Nettesheim, accompanied, as the latter says, by a 'few adherents of the Lutheran party.' There, as Agrippa relates with terror, they expressed aloud their thoughts.

'What have we to do with Rome and its Bishop?' they asked. 'Have we no Archbishops and Bishops in Germany, that we must kiss the feet of this one? Let Germany turn, and turn she will, to her own bishops and pastors.' Hutten paid the expenses of this journey out of money given him by the Archbishop Albert; between these two, therefore, the bonds of friends.h.i.+p were not yet broken. Albert was the first of the German bishops; Hutten, and very possibly the Archbishop also, might reasonably suppose that a reform proceeding from the Emperor and the Empire, might place him at the head of a German National Church.

But Luther had already put his pen to a composition which was to summon the German laity to the grand work before them, to establish the foundations of Christian belief, and to set forth in full the most crying needs and aims of the time. He had resolved to give the strongest and amplest expression in his power to the truth for which he was contending.

CHAPTER VII.

LUTHER'S WORKS TO THE CHRISTIAN n.o.bILITY OF THE GERMAN NATION, AND ON THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY.

In a dedication to his friend and colleague Amsdorf, prefixed to the first of these works, he begins, 'The time of silence is past, and the time for speaking is come.' He had several points, he tells us, concerning the improvement of the Christian condition, to lay before the Christian n.o.bility of Germany; perhaps G.o.d would help His Church through the laity, since the clergy had become entirely careless. If charged with presumption in venturing to address such high people on such great matters, so be it, then perhaps he was guilty of a folly towards his G.o.d and the world, and might one day become court-jester.

But inasmuch as he was a sworn doctor of Holy Scripture, he rejoiced in the opportunity of satisfying his oath in this manner.

He then turns to the 'Most ill.u.s.trious, Most powerful Imperial Majesty, and to the Christian n.o.bility of the German nation,' with the greeting, 'Grace and strength from G.o.d first of all, most ill.u.s.trious, gracious, and beloved Lords!'

The need and troubles of Christendom, and especially of Germany, constrained him, as he said, to cry to G.o.d that He might inspire some one to stretch out his hand to the suffering nation. His hopes were in the n.o.ble young blood now given by G.o.d as her head. He would likewise do his part.

The Romanists, in order to prevent their being reformed, had shut themselves within three walls. Firstly, they said, the temporal power had no rights over them, the spiritual power, but the spiritual was above the temporal; secondly, the Scriptures, which were sought to be employed against them, could only be expounded by the Pope; thirdly, no one but the Pope could summon a Council.

Against this, Luther calls to G.o.d for one of those trumpets which once blew down the walls of Jericho, in order to blow down also, these walls of straw and paper.

His a.s.sault upon the first wall was decisive for the rest. He accomplished it with his doctrine of the spiritual and priestly character of all Christians, who had been baptised and consecrated by the blood of Christ (1 Peter ii. 9; Rev. v. 10). Thus, according to Luther, they are all of one character, one rank. The only thing peculiar to the so-called ecclesiastics or priests, is the special office or work of 'administering the Word of G.o.d and the Sacraments'

to the congregation. The power to do this is given, indeed, by G.o.d to all Christians as priests, but, being so given, cannot be a.s.sumed by an individual without the will and command of the community. The ordination of priests, as they are called, by a bishop can in reality only signify that, out of the collective body of Christians, all possessing equal power, one is selected, and commanded to exercise this power on behalf of the rest. They hold, therefore, this peculiar office, like their fellow-members of the community who are entrusted with temporal authority, namely, to wield the sword for the punishment of the bad and the protection of the good. They hold it, as every shoemaker, smith, or builder holds office in his particular trade, and yet all alike are priests. Moreover, this temporal magisterial power has the right to exercise its office free and unhindered in its own sphere of action; no Pope or bishop must here interfere, no so-called priest must usurp it.

As a consequence of this spiritual character of Christians, the second wall was also doomed to fall. Christ said of all Christians, that they shall all be taught of G.o.d (St. John vi. 45). Thus any man, however humble, if he was a true Christian, could have a right understanding of the Scriptures; and the Pope, if wicked and not a true Christian, was not taught of G.o.d. If the Pope alone were always in the right, one would have to pray 'I believe in the Pope at Rome,'

and the whole Christian Church would then be centred in one man, which would be nothing short of devilish and h.e.l.lish error. After this the third wall fell by itself. For, says Luther, when the Pope acts against the Scriptures, it is our duty to stand by the Scriptures and to punish him as Christ taught us to punish offending brethren (St. Matthew xviii. 17), when He said, 'Tell it unto the Church.' Now the Church or Christendom must be gathered together in a Council. And like as the most famous of the Councils, that of Nice, and others after it, had been summoned by the Emperor, so must everyone, as a true member of the whole body, and when necessary, do what he can to make it a really free Council: 'which n.o.body can do so well as the temporal authorities, who meet these as fellow-Christians, fellow-priests.' Just as if a fire broke out in a city, no one, because he had not the power of the burgomaster, durst stand still and let it burn, but every citizen must run and call others together, so was it in the spiritual city of Christ, if a fire of trouble and affliction should arise. The question as to the composition of such a Council Luther does not proceed to discuss. That he wished, however, the laity to be represented, we may safely a.s.sume from the whole context, though it is doubtful how far he may then have thought of a representation of the temporal authorities as such, and, above all, of the Christian body collectively, through its political members. But the main point on which he insisted was, that the Council should be a free and really Christian one, bound by no oath to the Pope, fettered by no so-called Canon law, but subject only to the Word of G.o.d in Holy Writ.

Under twenty-six heads Luther then proceeds to enumerate the points on which such a Council should treat, and which should be urged in particular in connection with the question of reform.

The whole arrogance of the Papacy, the temporal pride with which the Pope clothed himself, the idolatry with which he was treated, were to Luther a scandal and unchristian. Lord of the universe, the Pope styled himself, and paraded about with a triple crown in all temporal splendour, and with an endless train of followers and baggage, whilst claiming to be the vicegerent of the Lord who wandered about in poverty, and gave Himself up to the Cross, and declared that His kingdom was not of this world. Clearly and fully Luther shows the various ways, embracing the whole life of the Church, in which Romish tyranny had enslaved the Churches of other countries, especially of Germany, and had turned them to account and plundered them: by means of fees and taxes of all kinds, by drawing away the trial of ecclesiastical cases to Rome, by acc.u.mulating benefices in the hands of Papal favourites of the worst description, by the unprincipled and usurious sale of dispensations, by the oath which made the bishops mere va.s.sals of the Pope, and effectually prevented all reform. In this greed for money in particular, and in the crafty methods of collecting it, Luther saw the genuine Antichrist, who, as Daniel had foretold, was to gather the treasures of the earth (Daniel xi. 8, 39, 43).

To confront this oppression and these acts of usurpation, Luther would not have men wait for a Council. As for these impositions and taxes, he says that every prince, n.o.ble, and town should straightway repudiate and forbid them. This lawless pillaging of ecclesiastical benefices and fiefs by Rome should be resisted at once by the n.o.bility. Anyone coming from the Papal court to Germany with such claims, must be ordered to desist, or to jump into the nearest piece of water with his seals and letters and the ban of excommunication.

Luther insists especially on demanding, as Hutten had already demanded, that the individual Churches, and particularly those of Germany, should order and conduct their own affairs independently of Rome. The bishops were not to obtain their confirmation at Rome, but, as already decreed by the Nicene Council, from a couple of neighbouring bishops or an archbishop. The German bishops were to be under their own primate, who might hold a general consistory with chancellors and counsellors, to receive appeals from the whole of Germany. The Pope, in other respects, was still to be left a position of supremacy in the collective Christian Church, and the adjudication of matters of importance on which the primates could not agree. One other matter Luther dwells on, as affecting the entire const.i.tution of the Church. It is not the mere administrative and judicial functions that const.i.tute the true meaning of office, whether in a priest, a bishop, or a Pope, but a constant service to G.o.d's Word. Luther therefore is anxious that the Pope should not be burdened with small matters. He calls to mind how once the Apostles would not leave the Word of G.o.d, and serve tables, but wished to give themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word (Acts vi.

2, 4). But he would have a clean sweep made of the so-called ecclesiastical law, contained in the law-books of the Church. The Scriptures were sufficient. Besides, the Pope himself did not keep that law, but pretended to carry all law in the shrine of his own heart.

Consistently with all that he has said about the relative positions of the temporal and spiritual powers, Luther goes on to protest, on behalf especially of the German Empire, against the 'overbearing and criminal behaviour' of the Pope, who arrogates to himself power over the Emperor, and allows the latter to kiss his foot and hold his stirrup. Granted that he is superior to the Emperor in spiritual office, in preaching, in administering the Word of grace; in other matters he is his inferior.

But the most important demand advanced by Luther, while pus.h.i.+ng further his inquiries into the moral and social regulations and condition of the Church, is the abolition of the celibacy of the clergy. If Popes and bishops wish to impose upon themselves the burden of an unmarried life, he has nothing to say to that. He speaks only of the clergy in general, whom G.o.d has appointed, who are needed by every Christian community for the service of preaching and the sacraments, and who must live and keep house amongst their fellow-Christians. Not an angel from Heaven, much less a Pope, dare bind this man to what G.o.d has never bound him, and thereby precipitate him into danger and, sin. A limit at least must be imposed on monastic life. Luther would like to see the convents and cloisters turned into Christian schools, where men might learn the Scriptures and discipline, and be trained to govern others and to preach. He would further give full liberty to quit such inst.i.tutions at pleasure. He reverts to the question of clerical celibacy, in lamenting the gross immoralities of the priesthood, and complaining that marriage was so frequently avoided on account simply of the responsibilities it entailed, and the restraints it imposed on loose living.

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