Collected Works of Martin Luther

by Martin Luther

  2. “Wider das Bapstum zu Rom vom Teuffel Gestifft.” The Papacy renews its Strength

  Luther’s anger against the Papacy had been kindled into a glowing flame by the sight of the unity displayed by the Catholic Church in view of the Council. It seemed incredible to him that the old body which he had pronounced dead should again sit in Council and prepare to infuse new life into itself, to revive ecclesiastical discipline and to condemn the Church he himself had founded. His soreness at such a consolidation of Catholicism he relieved by a sort of last effort in his book “Against the Roman Papacy founded by the devil.”

  It was only his broken health, a foretoken of approaching death, and his many cares that prevented his following it up as he had threatened in his letter to Amsdorf just quoted. As he says there, he only hopes that God will give him “bodily strength and ghostly energy enough” to enable him, “like Samson of old, to wreak one act of vengeance on these Philistines.” The simile is truly a horrible one; the unhappy man, broken down from the effects of a life of tireless labour and endless excitement, still burns with the desire once more to shake the pillars of the ancient Church so as to bury all faithful Catholics beneath her ruins. As to what would be his, the blind Samson’s, fate beneath the ruins he does not consider as seriously as the true members of the ancient Church would have wished him to do.

  The occasion of the book was the following. Pope Paul III had sent to the Emperor two briefs in quick succession to dissuade him from making perilous concessions to the Protestants, and, in particular, in the interests of the Œcumenical Council, to oppose the project of holding a German National Council. Luther received from two different quarters an invitation to write against the supposed interference of the Pope. His Elector, through Chancellor Brück, requested, “that the said Martin may deal with the Pope’s writing, particularly as the formal announcement of the Council is now to hand; for we have no doubt that he is well able to do this. The same might then be printed and launched into the public.” Another invitation to the same effect, supported by information to be used against the Pope, reached Luther indirectly from the Imperial chancery itself through the intermediary of Nicholas Perrenoti, a councillor; some of the officials seem to have been anxious to avenge themselves on Paul III for crossing their plans.

  The work was published on March 26, 1545. As early as April 13, Marsupino, Secretary to King Ferdinand, was able to present a copy to the Papal Legates at the Council of Trent. Justice Jonas at once brought out a Latin translation entitled “Contra papatum romanum a diabolo inventum.” Thus at the very time the General Council made its bow before the world, Luther’s attack was brought to the notice of educated readers of all nations. No great harm was done to Catholic interests by Luther’s hanging up the drastic picture of himself, depicted in this scurrilous writing, as a warning to the whole world; humanistic culture and the grand classic idiom had, however, scarcely ever before suffered such degradation as in the Latin rendering of this foul book.

  The first and chief part of the work was to prove, that it was both wrong and presumptuous for the Popes to style themselves heads of Christendom, and that it was the devil alone who had put such a notion into their heads. In the second part it is demonstrated that in particular the claim made by the Popes that no one had the right to judge or to depose them was of fiendish origin. Finally, in the third, it is shown that the alleged handing over of the Roman Empire by the Greeks to the Germans through the instrumentality of the Popes was also a mere hellish lie.

  Sincere admirers of Luther read with amazement this book, which, for all its ferocity, is so reminiscent of the gutter. Some, even of his followers, again openly expressed the opinion that by it he had harmed himself more than any foe could have done — so unmeasured are his words and so utterly crazy the things he propounds. At times the pages seem to have been written in nothing short of a paroxysm of hate, and can only be understood by bearing in mind the author’s frightful state of inward turmoil.

  The very first words give us a glimpse of what is to come: “The most hellish Father, St. Paulus Tertius, as though he were Bishop of the Roman Churches, has written two briefs to Carolus Quintus, our Lord Emperor.... He has also, to speak by permission, issued a Bull almost for the fifth time, and now once more the Council is to meet at Trent; no one, however, may attend it but only his own brew, the Epicureans and those who please him.” Luther proceeds to ask whether this can really be a Council, which is ruled by the “gruesome abomination at Rome, who styles himself Pope,” and not rather some “puppet-show got up during the Carnival to tickle the Pope’s fancy.”

  The fury of the writer increases as he proceeds and he goes on to make the following demands: “Now let Emperor, kings, princes, lords and whoever can, set the axe to the root, and may God give no luck to hands that hang idle. First of all let them take from the Pope, Rome, Romandiol, Urbino, Bononia and all that he holds as Pope.... He won them by blasphemy and idolatry, and has laid waste the kingdom of Christ, wherefore he is termed the abomination of desolation [Mt. xxiv. 15]. After this the Pope himself, the Cardinals and the whole scoundrely train of his idolatrous Popish Holiness should be seized, and, as blasphemers, have their tongues torn from their throats and nailed in a row on the gallows-tree, in like manner as they affix their seals in a row to their Bulls; though even this would be but slight punishment for all their blasphemy and idolatry. After this let them hold as many Councils as they please on the gallows, or in hell with all the demons.... They are criminal, shameless, obstinate creatures.”

  The gloomy fancy that inspires his furious pen has, however, another kind of death in readiness for such opponents. “Were I Emperor I know full well what I should do: I would couple together all the blasphemous knaves, Pope, Cardinals and all the Popish crew, bind them and take them down to Ostia where there is a little stretch of water called in Latin the Mare Tyrrhenum.... Into it I would drop the lot and give them a good bath, along with the keys with which they bind and loose everything.... They might also take their pastoral staves so as to be able to smite the face of the waters.... And, lastly, as refreshing fodder and drink, they might have all the decrees, decretals, bulls, indulgences, etc. What do you wager that after half an hour in this healing bath all their diseases would cease?... On it I would risk Christ our Lord.”

  “The Pope,” so he exclaims on the same page, “is the head of the accursed Churches of all the worst knaves upon earth, a Vicar of the devil, a foe of God, an adversary of Christ and a destroyer of His Churches, a teacher of all lies, blasphemy and idolatry, an arch-church-thief and robber of the Church’s keys, a murderer of kings and an inciter to all kinds of bloodshed, a whoremonger above all whoremongers and the author of every kind of immorality, even of that which may not be mentioned, an antichrist, a man of sin, a child of destruction, a real werewolf. Whoever refuses to believe this, let him fare away with his God, the Pope.”

  “As an elect teacher and preacher to the Churches of Christ bound to speak the truth, I have herewith done my part. He who is set on stinking may go on stinking.... Let a Church be where it may throughout the world it can have no other Gospel ... than we have here in our Churches at Wittenberg.”

  As to how high Luther as a preacher and man of learning set himself and his Church above the Pope and his, we can see from what follows: “The whole Roman mob is nothing else but a stable full of great, rude, loutish, shameless donkeys, who know nothing of Holy Scripture, or of God, or of Christ, or what a bishop is, what God’s Word, or the Spirit, or baptism is, or what are sacraments, the keys and good works.... I, Dr. Martin, am still living, and having been brought up in the Pope’s school and donkey’s stable became a Doctor of Theology, and was even accounted a good and learned Doctor, which I assuredly was, so that I can truly testify how deep, and high, and broad, and long is their skill in Holy Scripture.” — And lest someone should object: “Have you any right to judge?” he replies lightheartedly: “It is enough for us to know that the Pope-Ass has been cond
emned by God Himself and all the angels.” “We cannot be heretics, for we have believed and confessed the Scriptures.”

  An earlier saying of his to the effect that: “I am carried away and know not by what spirit” (“rapior nescio quo spiritu”), comes before the mind of the reader when Luther describes yet a third form of death for the Pope and his courtiers. He would fain see him, the Cardinals and the whole court, dealt with according “to fox-law, their hides being dragged over their heads, that they may thus be taught to pay with their skins; after this the hides may be thrown into the healing bath of Ostia, or into the fire.” “See and behold,” he exclaims, “how my blood boils! How it longs to see the Papacy punished though my spirit is well aware that no temporal penalty can make amends, even for one single Bull or decree!”

  Luther’s defenders have, strange to say, thought it necessary to lay stress on the fact that these three proposals cannot have been seriously meant. Everyone will admit that they are not a settled plan, for the carrying out of one would have rendered the others difficult or unfeasible. But does this fact modify in any way the revolting character of these words or cancel the invitation to make use of violence? It would be better to argue, that, owing to his fanatism about which only a pathologist can judge, he was not fully aware of what he was doing. — Some Catholics have suggested that the abnormal virulence of many pages of this book was due to the excitement caused by intoxicating liquors. Of this unfortunately there is no proof. That the reason for his horrible language must be sought rather in mental overstrain, in the preponderance just then of an abnormal side of his spiritual life, seems fairly clear also from the other quotations from this work which we were obliged to adduce elsewhere.

  Some time before the work in question was written, Brück, the Chancellor, had written to the Elector that, if the Council convened by the Pope “were to resume and continue its knavery” it would be necessary for Luther “to put the axe to the root of the tree, which by the Grace of God he is better able to do than other men”; this he wrote on Jan. 20, 1545.

  At that same time a calmer scene was being enacted in Saxony. On Jan. 14, the Wittenberg theologians, headed by Luther, presented to the Elector the so-called Wittenberg Reformation, drawn up at the sovereign’s request. This work had a close connection with the Œcumenical Council. It is true it was merely written in view of the approaching negotiations at the Diet, to facilitate one of those “religious compromises” which had now become so common. It was, however, at the same time, so to speak, a theological manifesto of the Protestants called forth by the Council. Hence it had been drawn up by Melanchthon (and not by Luther) in terms cautious and moderate. “The theologians,” wrote Brück, “have drawn up their ‘Reformation’ very courteously, nor is there any trace of Dr. Martin’s boisterousness” in it.

  The “Reformation” treats successively of “doctrine true and undefiled,” which it asserts is to be found in the Confession of Augsburg, “of the right use of the sacraments,” of the preaching office and episcopal government, of the ecclesiastical courts and spiritual jurisdiction, of learning and the schools, and of the defence and support of the churches. Many useful elements which meet the actual needs of the time are found scattered through the document. Stress is laid on the need of some direction and supervision of the preachers in such a way as to suggest the recognition of episcopal authority; the German episcopate is to be retained ... provided it accepts Luther’s doctrine!

  It would in many respects be instructive to draw a parallel between the “Wittenberg Reformation” and the Catholic reformation proclaimed by the Council of Trent in the course of its successive sessions. We shall emphasise only one point. In the case of proceedings against “false doctrine” the Wittenbergers go much further than the Council in their demands for submission on the part of the individual. According to them the ecclesiastical courts (Consistories) were to lend their firm support to Luther’s own doctrine and interpretation of the Bible — for which, as a matter of fact, his name offered the sole guarantee — these courts were moreover to comprise “God-fearing men, chosen from among the laity of high standing in the Church.” The question of any deviation from the faith, was, with their assistance, “first to be examined into and then judgment pronounced in the ordinary way.” So painful a subordination of the individual to private opinions concerning faith, and so uncalled-for an introduction of the lay element into the spiritual courts, never entered the mind of any member of the Council.

  Conscious of its divine right the Council of Trent, even during Luther’s lifetime, solemnly laid the foundations of those decisions on doctrine which are now, and for ever will be, binding on the Catholic Church. It rose far above the quarrels of the day and the personal attacks on the successor of Peter and the venerable hierarchy; in what it laid down it was careful ever to preserve intact the great bond with the past.

  It was but a few days before Luther departed this life that the “Holy Œcumenical and General Synod legitimately called together in the Holy Ghost,” as in accordance with ancient usage it styles itself, declared in its third session, that its highest task was to oppose the heresies of the day and to reform the morals of the people. During this session, on Feb. 4, 1546, the Council renewed the creed of the Roman Church as the “basis on which all who confess the faith of Christ are agreed and as the one firm foundation against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.”

  As the opposing camp had the habit of constantly appealing to Holy Writ so the Council, in its next session, held after Luther’s death on April 8, 1546, solemnly declared Holy Scripture to be the “Spring of wholesome truth and discipline of morals,” though at the same time, agreeably to the ancient and uninterrupted teaching of the Church, it also included tradition: “Which truth is contained in the written books, and the unwritten traditions which the Apostles received from the lips of Christ ... and which, having been as it were handed down, have survived to our own day”; it, on the one hand, declared the sacred books of both Old and New Testament, the Canon of which it fixed anew, to have God for their author (“Deus auctor”) and to be worthy of equal affection and reverence; on the other, it reasserted the rights of the teaching office of the Church and of the tradition handed down from ages past, both of which Protestantism had questioned. To prevent any abuse of the Word of God, it also enacted that no member of the Church, relying on his own prudence, should, in matters of faith and morals, twist Holy Writ so as to make it mean anything else “than Holy Mother Church held and holds, seeing that it is hers to interpret Scripture” in accordance “with the unanimous consensus of the Fathers.” The Council’s first reforming decree also seeks to safeguard the treasure of Holy Scripture by forbidding any profanation of it or its use for superstitious purposes.

  After long adjournments, necessitated by the state of public affairs and after the ground had been prepared by careful study of the Bible, the Fathers and the Schoolmen, there followed, in 1546 and 1547, the weighty discussions on original sin and justification. In the final Canon on the justification of the sinner by grace (vol. iii., ), the point on which all the questions raised by the innovations turned, the Synod pronounces an anathema on any man who shall declare that the Catholic doctrine it has just laid down “detracts from the glory of God or the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord, and does not rather enhance the truth of our faith and the glory of God and of Jesus Christ.” There followed resolutions concerning the sacraments in general, then, in 1551, on the Holy Eucharist and the Sacrament of Penance; and finally, to pass over other points, in 1562 and 1563, the decrees on Communion, the Sacrifice of the Mass, the Sacrament of priestly ordination, and on Marriage. The 25th and last session, on Dec. 4, 1563, was devoted to the doctrine of Purgatory, of the veneration of the saints and relics, indulgences, fast-days and festivals, and also to the drawing up of various far-reaching regulations on discipline.

  The Synod had striven throughout to make its disciplinary decrees keep pace with its doctrinal promulgations. Thereby it provi
ded a lasting and effectual foundation for the reform of the Church. This, taken in connection with so clear a statement of the unanimity of the Church’s teaching throughout the ages, deprived the separatists of every pretext for remaining estranged from the unity of the faith. The main point was that the Church, purified from the many abuses to which human frailty had given rise, or at least earnestly resolved to remove those still remaining, stood forth again as the city on the hill, visible afar off in her splendour and calling all to her in order to make them sharers in the hope of life. She was confident that He Who had said: “I will be with you all days, even to the consummation of the world,” had extended His protecting Hand over the assembly, and had spoken through it for the instruction of the faithful and also of the erring brethren. The infallibility of such general Councils was never questioned by any Catholic.

  A fresh outburst of zeal was the result, and the ancient Church soon showed that she had within her unsuspected powers for self-improvement.

  3. Some Sayings of Luther’s on the Council and his own Authority

  “They now seek to get at us under cover of a nominal Council,” says Luther, “in order to be able to shriek at us.... This is Satan’s wisdom as against the foolishness of God. How will God extricate Himself from their cunning schemes? Still, he is the Lord Who will mock at His contemners. If we are to submit to this Council we might as well have submitted twenty-five years since to the lord of the Councils, viz. the Pope and his Bulls. We shall not consent to discuss the matter until the Pope admits that the Council stands above him, and until the Council takes sides [with us] against the Pope, for even the Pope’s own conscience already reproaches him. They are mad and crazy. ‘Deo gratias.’”