Collected Works of Martin Luther

by Martin Luther

  That something was always sung in German is perfectly correct; in the liturgy properly so-called, viz. the Mass, the rule was to sing in Latin the Proper, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, etc. Hence the standing of vernacular hymns was different in the case of Catholics from what it was with Protestants. With the latter the edification of the congregation was the principal thing, whereas, for the Catholic, public worship had in the eucharistic sacrifice something quite independent of private devotion; it was in keeping with the character of this universal sacrifice offered by all nations and tongues that its rites should be conducted in Latin, the universal language. The only strictly liturgical Psalmody in the Middle Ages was the Latin Gregorian chant. The German hymn held only a subordinate place in the liturgy, being inserted sometimes in connection with the sequence after the Gradual, or, more usually, before and after the sermon. On the other hand, recourse to German hymns was usual in extra-liturgical devotions, in processions, pilgrimages and in pious gatherings of the people whether at home or in the church.

  The hymn tunes made use of in the Middle Ages were also in every case either Gregorian or quasi-Gregorian. Thus the musical language of popular piety was able to maintain its dignity, was preserved faithful to the traditions of the great ages of the Church and secure from the inroads of private fancy.

  The melodies to which Luther set his own compositions and those of his friends had also been handed down from earlier times. Some of them were purely Gregorian, others were those of older Catholic hymns or of popular ditties. The melody of “A Safe Stronghold,” as already observed, is derived from the Latin chant, and so is that of “Jesaia dem Propheten” and others. Even the setting of the versified creed “We all believe in one true God” is borrowed from a 15th-century composition.

  Protestant admiration for Luther has indeed led “to his being represented as a notable composer, and thus many of these tunes bear his name. Careful research has, however, shattered this delusion.... Many other melodies, which so far it has been impossible to trace to the Middle Ages, probably form part of the pre-reformation treasury of hymns.... Whether, as modern research is inclined to think, the simple new melody to ‘Saviour of the heathen known,’ ... is Luther’s own, it is not possible to determine.”

  The traditional fondness of Germans for song was used to spread erroneous doctrines not by Luther alone, but also by others of the New Believers; this was particularly the case with the followers of Schwenckfeld, who exploited it in the interests of their sect. Luther’s hymnbook even stood in danger of being “spoilt” by outside additions, hence the precaution he took of appending the authors’ names to the various hymns; he also prefixed a special “Warnung” to the Preface of an edition brought out towards the end of his life (1542).

  Among the songs falsely attributed to Luther is one on the “Out-driving of Antichrist.” In old editions this “Song for the Children, wherewith to drive out the Pope in Mid-Lent” is indeed ascribed to Luther, but we learn from Mathesius’s “Historien” that it was he who brought the text of it to Luther in the spring of 1545 on the occasion of his last visit. The song is a modification of an older one still sung in places even to-day, on Laetare Sunday, for the chasing away of winter. The unknown versifier, who was perhaps Mathesius himself, has transferred to the Pope-Antichrist what was intended for the winter. Luther was pleased with the verses and himself undertook their publication. There is a great difference between the cheerful, innocent verses still sung by children to-day: “Now let us drive the Winter out,” etc., and the malicious version which Luther popularised and which was even included in many of the Lutheran hymn-books, for instance in the collection dating from 1547, “Etliche tröstliche Gebet, Psalmen und geistliche Lieder,” etc. There it is entitled “A Christian song for Children.” It occurs in the Königsberg Enchiridion of 1560, together with another Old German children’s song, to be sung on the way home.

  The first lines of the hymn for the Out-driving of Antichrist run as follows:

  1. Now let us drive the Pope from out

  Christ’s kingdom and God’s house devout,

  For murderously he has ruled,

  And countless souls to ruin fooled.

  2. Be off with you, you damnéd son,

  You scarlet bride of Babylon;

  Horror and antichrist thou art,

  Lies, murder, cunning fill thy heart.

  CHAPTER XXXV

  LUTHER’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS SOCIETY AND EDUCATION

  1. Historical Outlines for Judging of his Social Work

  It would be beyond our present scope to examine in detail all the views advanced concerning Luther’s social and economic attitude. Recent research in social economics has already rectified many of these.

  What the historian of sociology chiefly misses is any appreciation of Luther in the light of the theories and conditions prevailing at the close of the Middle Ages. It has been remarked quite rightly, that, from the way in which the matter is dealt with in Protestant Church-history and “practical theology,” it is perfectly clear that, hitherto, the Middle Ages have in many instances been altogether misjudged.

  There is still much for historical research to do in this field. Neglect to study as they deserved whole centuries of our history, prolific though they were in great things, has avenged itself by the one-sided character of the prevalent views concerning them. In the case of many writers too much attention to the verdicts pronounced by Luther on every possible occasion against the Church of the past is what is chiefly responsible for their disinclination to pursue the matter further; they are too prone to regard things from the watch-tower of Lutheran theology. It is not so very long since hardly any paradox or calumny against the social “disorders” prevalent amongst the clergy and the monks, in family life and the commonwealth under Popery, was too monstrous, provided it had been uttered by the Wittenberg Professor, to be dished up again, though possibly under somewhat politer form, by the occupants of Protestant pulpits and chairs of theology.

  Statements such as the following, taken word for word from recent works, which, following our habit, we shall refrain from naming, are based on the traditional assertions of controversy and on insufficient acquaintance with the Middle Ages.

  “Luther accomplished something eminently positive when he put the State-idea on those lines which it was ultimately to follow in his own country.” For, “according to him, the duty of the State is the promotion of the general welfare.” “We have the fullest right to appeal to the spirit of his State policy, above all, because, in opposition to the mediæval view, it conceded to the State an independent status.” “The State, according to him, was to put in practice in social life the principle of ‘serving our neighbour.’”

  We often find all “political” as well as all “civil freedom” traced back to Luther. He it was, so we are told, who introduced, or laid the foundations for, the real mutual tolerance displayed by citizens in the State, just as he did for the principle of nationality, for scientific freedom, for the freedom for invention, and, finally, for the freedom of the Press.

  He “laid constant stress on charity towards our neighbour in direct contrast to the individualism of the Middle Ages, when even almsgiving resolved itself ultimately into mere selfish interest, the giver living in hope of a heavenly reward.” “He proclaimed that: Mendicancy was to be done away with.... The number of the destitute, and their claim on public benevolence he reduced to a minimum. These principles are in direct contrast with the devout and indiscriminate almsgiving of the Middle Ages and paved the way for the modern poor-law system.”

  “The sanctity of the home and the family had suffered severely under the influence of monasticism.” Luther had to “reorganise the methods of education in order to make, of the home and the family, institutions for the public welfare.” He became the “father of the modern National Schools.”

  “In his plans for the maintenance and direction of civic affairs Luther once more brought into their own the ‘principles of soci
al responsibility.’”

  He set aside the mediæval “contempt for material things and for labour as a means of production.” Luther performed a signal service to economics by restoring respect for work; for, “maybe, there was no phenomenon of mediæval life which presented a greater obstacle to material happiness than laziness.” “Economic progress was impossible” where the theory prevailed, that “the contemplative life was of greater value than the active.” “Luther bestowed new dignity not only on work in general, but also on its every branch”; according to him “no work is degrading which serves the interests of mankind.”

  He was the “guardian and promoter of the interests of society,” and the “importance of his influence is still more enhanced by the fact that he showed himself a conservative and guiding spirit in the midst of social disorder and confusion of ideas.”

  If this holds good of the service he rendered to society as a whole, he was also within narrower limits the “reformer and restorer” of family life. His own marriage was “one of his greatest reforming acts, by which he confirmed his rehabilitation of the conjugal state, and, by his labours as a whole, he secured to marriage, and thus to the very foundation of family life, the prerogative of being a ‘divine institution.’” He brought the duties of the family into respect, whereas, formerly, “the Church, which permeated everything, had been the cause of their neglect.”

  “It remains an historical truth that the greatness of the German people in politics, economics and intellectual life may be traced back to those divine powers which the Reformation set free by its recognition of the free grace of God in Christ.”

  There are, however, other Protestant scholars, who are not theologians, who regard such praise of Luther’s social importance as either quite mistaken or at least greatly exaggerated; in their opinion Luther’s services lay rather in his work for religion, and on behalf of the knowledge of God and union with Him by faith.

  L. Feuchtwanger, for instance, a representative sociologist, recently spoke in tones almost ironical of the view held “by most [Protestant] Church-historians,” who praise “the religion of Luther as having produced autonomous ethics, the modern State, a society that despises idleness, the German family, in short all that is great and good.” He is of opinion that such views call for “revision”; nor would such a revision, so he says, “detract from the eminent importance of the reformation.” We shall speak later on of the proofs he adduces to show the error of the “obstinate opinion,” as he terms it, “that Protestantism created the modern system of public charity,” and that Luther brought about the regeneration of benevolence.

  E. Troeltsch, the Heidelberg theologian, says in “Die Bedeutung des Protestantismus für die Entstehung der modernen Welt”: “As a matter of fact, the importance of Protestantism must not be one-sidedly exaggerated. The foundations of the modern world in the State, in society, in economics, learning and art were established in a great measure independently of Protestantism, partly as an outgrowth of the later Middle Ages, partly as the result of the Renaissance, particularly of the Renaissance as assimilated by Protestantism, partly — as in the case of the Catholic countries, Spain, Austria, Italy and especially France — after the rise of Protestantism and concurrently with it.” “With the principle of nationalism,” writes Troeltsch, “his [Luther’s] system of an established Church had no connection. The latter merely promoted the solidification and centralisation of the chief authorities, whereas the former is a product of the entirely modern democratic awakening of the masses and the romantic idea of a national spirit.” In another passage he says: “There can be no question of [Protestantism] having paved the way for the modern idea of freedom — of science, of thought, or of the press — nor of its having inspired the scholarship which it controlled with new aims, or led it to break new ground.”

  There are even Protestants who are disposed to deny that Luther took any interest in the State and in public affairs. “It follows from Luther’s views of life,” writes Erich Brandenburg, the author of “Luthers Anschauung vom Staate und der Gesellschaft,” that a Christian neither can nor ought to care for the outbuilding of the existing order of the State and society. For “God has thrown us into the world and put us under the rule of the devil, so that here we have no paradise but look forward hourly to every kind of misfortune to life and limb, wife and child, goods and honour.’... By the fact of his birth the Christian [according to Luther] has been given a definite place.... To seek for a better one, or to wish to create an entirely different state of things would be to rebel against the Will of God. Far from its being the Christian’s duty to strive after an improvement in the order of the State or of society, any such striving would be really sinful.” “He [Luther] regards civil life as merely one aspect of the probation which he has to endure on earth”; in his eyes the struggle for political freedom simply implies an “unlawful devotion to earthly aims, an absence of trust in God, and an attempt to create a paradise on earth by our own strength.” Where tyranny prevails one is not even allowed to emigrate, so Luther insists, unless indeed the ruler will not suffer the Evangel, when it became lawful and advisable, to seek another home. Nowadays people have a different conception, so Brandenburg points out, of national greatness and political freedom.

  Albert Kalthoff, a Bremen preacher, who belongs to the extreme left of the Protestant party, goes still further: “There is a considerable amount of conceit sticking to our Protestant churches, indeed the Reformation festival seems to afford it a fitting occasion for celebrating each year its orgy. What is not Protestantism supposed to have brought to the world? National freedom and prosperity, modern science and technicology, all this we hear described as the fruit of the tree of Protestant life; not long since I even read of a German professor who quite seriously ascribed the whole of our present-day civilisation to Luther.”

  Luther’s favourable traits in respect of social conditions, his eloquent admonitions on family life and love of our neighbour deserve a high place. There is no call again to bring forward examples after all we have quoted elsewhere. Luther is even fond of including under the “neighbourly love” of which he so frequently speaks the whole of our social activity on behalf of our fellow men.

  His struggle against voluntary celibacy and renunciation of the world, however ill advised, had at least one good result, viz. that it afforded him an opportunity to speak strongly on the duties of the home, which were so often neglected, on the importance of the humble, everyday tasks involved in matrimony and the training of children, on work at home and for the community, whether in a private or a public capacity. That plentiful children were a blessing, a principle which had always been recognised in the Christian world, he insisted upon emphatically in connection with his advocacy of marriage. The keeping of the fourth commandment, which had always been regarded as the corner-stone of society, was warmly emphasised by him as regards the relations both to parents and to other secular authorities. It would be hard to gainsay that his teaching has bequeathed to Protestantism a wealth of instructions on the cultivation of family affection and the maintenance of a well-ordered household. From the first it was beneficial to the social foundations of society, and its good influence has been apparent even down to our own times. Luther’s writings and sermons, as we soon shall see, also contain some excellent admonitions against usury as well as against begging; he preaches contentment with our lot as well as honest industry; he has also much to say of relief of the poor and education of the young either for the learned professions or for life in general. In the same way that he sought to interest the community more and more in the relief of the indigent — though by rather novel means, which it seemed to him might take the place of the help formerly afforded by the churches, monasteries and private charity — so also his appeals on behalf of the schools were addressed more to the congregation, the authorities and the State than had been customary in the days of the Church schools. The increased share now taken by these bodies in this work, if ke
pt within reasonable bounds, might indeed turn out advantageous, though the results did not reach his expectations, and in fact did not show themselves until much later, and then were due to factors altogether independent of Protestantism.

  It must also be pointed out to Luther’s credit that he at once vigorously withstood the communistic views which had begun to make their appearance even before his day, as soon as experience had opened his eyes to their dangers. He perceived the radical trend of the Anabaptists — which it is true was not without some affinity with his own doctrines. He came after a while to oppose in popular writings the extravagant social demands of the peasants, and, in spite of the crass exaggeration of his language, his tracts give many a useful hint for the improvement of existing conditions on Christian lines.

  The charge he brings against earlier times, viz. that, owing to the too great number of clergy and religious a premium had been placed on idleness, is perhaps not devoid of a grain of truth; nor was his complaint that the indolence of so many people who lived by the Church endangered the welfare of the State and was opposed to the interests of the community altogether unjustified. The strongly worded passages where Luther speaks in favour of work and exhorts the authorities to cultivate and promote labour were quite in place, though it is true they can be matched by a whole row of equally vigorous admonitions by Catholic writers, dating from the Middle Ages and from the years immediately preceding Luther’s day.

  Owing to his having by his attacks on ecclesiastical institutions dried up many of the existing sources of charity there can be no doubt that indirectly he contributed to awaken those who were less well off to a sense of their duty to work for their own living. In this wise the sense of responsibility was aroused in the masses. The secular authorities were also obliged to intervene more frequently owing to the falling off in the support afforded by the Church to the needy and oppressed, particularly in cases where all the labour and exertion of the individual were insufficient to guarantee subsistence or legal protection. In so far therefore, viz. in regard of the growing needs of social life, it has been truly remarked that the religious revolution of the 16th century smoothed the way for the material conditions of modern society and new cultural problems; in this sense Luther assisted in bringing about the economic conditions of the present day. We shall say nothing here of the rise of the modern spirit with its rejection of authority and its principle of unrestrained intellectual freedom.