Chapter 10
Progress of Reform in Germany
Luther's mysterious disappearance excited
consternation throughout all Germany. Inquiries concerning him were
heard everywhere. The wildest rumors were circulated, and many believed
that he had been murdered. There was great lamentation, not only by his
avowed friends, but by thousands who had not openly taken their stand
with the Reformation. Many bound themselves by a solemn oath to avenge
his death.
The Romish leaders saw with terror to what a pitch
had risen the feeling against them. Though at first exultant at the
supposed death of Luther, they soon desired to hide from the wrath of
the people. His enemies had not been so troubled by his most daring acts
while among them as they were at his removal. Those who in their rage
had sought to destroy the bold Reformer were filled with fear now that
he had become a helpless captive. "The only remaining way of saving
ourselves," said one, "is to light torches, and hunt for
Luther through the whole world, to restore him to the nation that is
calling for him."--D'Aubigne, b. 9, ch. 1. The edict of the emperor
seemed to fall powerless. The papal legates were filled with indignation
as they saw that it commanded far less attention than did the fate of
Luther.
The tidings that he was safe, though a prisoner,
calmed the fears of the people, while it still further aroused their
enthusiasm in his favor. His writings were read with greater
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eagerness than ever before. Increasing numbers joined
the cause of the heroic man who had, at such fearful odds, defended the
word of God. The Reformation was constantly gaining in strength. The
seed which Luther had sown sprang up everywhere. His absence
accomplished a work which his presence would have failed to do. Other
laborers felt a new responsibility, now that their great leader was
removed. With new faith and earnestness they pressed forward to do all
in their power, that the work so nobly begun might not be hindered.
But Satan was not idle. He now attempted what he has
attempted in every other reformatory movement--to deceive and destroy
the people by palming off upon them a counterfeit in place of the true
work. As there were false christs in the first century of the Christian
church, so there arose false prophets in the sixteenth century.
A few men, deeply affected by the excitement in the
religious world, imagined themselves to have received special
revelations from Heaven, and claimed to have been divinely commissioned
to carry forward to its completion the Reformation which, they declared,
had been but feebly begun by Luther. In truth, they were undoing the
very work which he had accomplished. They rejected the great principle
which was the very foundation of the Reformation--that the word of God
is the all-sufficient rule of faith and practice; and for that unerring
guide they substituted the changeable, uncertain standard of their own
feelings and impressions. By this act of setting aside the great
detector of error and falsehood the way was opened for Satan to control
minds as best pleased himself.
One of these prophets claimed to have been instructed
by the angel Gabriel. A student who united with him forsook his studies,
declaring that he had been endowed by God Himself with wisdom to expound
His word. Others who were naturally inclined to fanaticism united with
them. The proceedings of these enthusiasts created no little excitement.
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The preaching of Luther had aroused the people
everywhere to feel the necessity of reform, and now some really honest
persons were misled by the pretensions of the new prophets.
The leaders of the movement proceeded to Wittenberg
and urged their claims upon Melanchthon and his colaborers. Said they:
"We are sent by God to instruct the people. We have held familiar
conversations with the Lord; we know what will happen; in a word, we are
apostles and prophets, and appeal to Dr. Luther."--Ibid., b. 9, ch.
7.
The Reformers were astonished and perplexed. This was
such an element as they had never before encountered, and they knew not
what course to pursue. Said Melanchthon: "There are indeed
extraordinary spirits in these men; but what spirits? . . . On the one
hand, let us beware of quenching the Spirit of God, and on the other, of
being led astray by the spirit of Satan."--Ibid., b. 9, ch. 7.
The fruit of the new teaching soon became apparent.
The people were led to neglect the Bible or to cast it wholly aside. The
schools were thrown into confusion. Students, spurning all restraint,
abandoned their studies and withdrew from the university. The men who
thought themselves competent to revive and control the work of the
Reformation succeeded only in bringing it to the verge of ruin. The
Romanists now regained their confidence and exclaimed exultingly:
"One last struggle, and all will be ours."--Ibid., b. 9, ch.
7.
Luther at the Wartburg, hearing of what had occurred,
said with deep concern: "I always expected that Satan would send us
this plague."--Ibid., b. 9, ch. 7. He perceived the true character
of those pretended prophets and saw the danger that threatened the cause
of truth. The opposition of the pope and the emperor had not caused him
so great perplexity and distress as he now experienced. From the
professed friends of the Reformation had risen its worst enemies. The
very truths which had brought him so great joy and
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consolation were being employed to stir up strife and
create confusion in the church.
In the work of reform, Luther had been urged forward
by the Spirit of God, and had been carried beyond himself. He had not
purposed to take such positions as he did, or to make so radical
changes. He had been but the instrument in the hand of Infinite Power.
Yet he often trembled for the result of his work. He had once said:
"If I knew that my doctrine injured one man, one single man,
however lowly and obscure,--which it cannot, for it is the gospel
itself,-- I would rather die ten times than not retract it."--Ibid.,
b. 9, ch. 7.
And now Wittenberg itself, the very center of the
Reformation, was fast falling under the power of fanaticism and
lawlessness. This terrible condition had not resulted from the teachings
of Luther; but throughout Germany his enemies were charging it upon him.
In bitterness of soul he sometimes asked: "Can such, then, be the
end of this great work of the Reformation?"--Ibid., b. 9, ch. 7.
Again, as he wrestled with God in prayer, peace flowed into his heart.
"The work is not mine, but Thine own," he said; "Thou
wilt not suffer it to be corrupted by superstition or fanaticism."
But the thought of remaining longer from the conflict in such a crisis,
became insupportable. He determined to return to Wittenberg.
Without delay he set out on his perilous journey. He
was under the ban of the empire. Enemies were at liberty to take his
life; friends were forbidden to aid or shelter him. The imperial
government was adopting the most stringent measures against his
adherents. But he saw that the work of the gospel was imperiled, and in
the name of the Lord he went out fearlessly to battle for the truth.
In a letter to the elector, after stating his purpose
to leave the Wartburg, Luther said: "Be it known to your highness
that I am going to Wittenberg under a protection far higher than that of
princes and electors. I think not of soliciting your highness's support,
and far from desiring your protection,
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I would rather protect you myself. If I knew that
your highness could or would protect me, I would not go to Wittenberg at
all. There is no sword that can further this cause. God alone must do
everything, without the help or concurrence of man. He who has the
greatest faith is he who is most able to protect."--Ibid., b. 9, ch.
8.
In a second letter, written on the way to Wittenberg,
Luther added: "I am ready to incur the displeasure of your highness
and the anger of the whole world. Are not the Wittenbergers my sheep?
Has not God entrusted them to me? And ought I not, if necessary, to
expose myself to death for their sakes? Besides, I fear to see a
terrible outbreak in Germany, by which God will punish our nation."--Ibid.,
b. 9, ch. 7.
With great caution and humility, yet with decision
and firmness, he entered upon his work. "By the word," said
he, "must we overthrow and destroy what has been set up by
violence. I will not make use of force against the superstitious and
unbelieving. . . . No one must be constrained. Liberty is the very
essence of faith."--Ibid., b. 9, ch. 8.
It was soon noised through Wittenberg that Luther had
returned and that he was to preach. The people flocked from all
directions, and the church was filled to overflowing. Ascending the
pulpit, he with great wisdom and gentleness instructed, exhorted, and
reproved. Touching the course of some who had resorted to violent
measures in abolishing the mass, he said:
"The mass is a bad thing; God is opposed to it;
it ought to be abolished; and I would that throughout the whole world it
were replaced by the supper of the gospel. But let no one be torn from
it by force. We must leave the matter in God's hands. His word must act,
and not we. And why so? you will ask. Because I do not hold men's hearts
in my hand, as the potter holds the clay. We have a right to speak: we
have not the right to act. Let us preach; the rest belongs unto God.
Were I to employ force, what should I gain? Grimace, formality, apings,
human ordinances, and hypocrisy. . . . But there would be no sincerity
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of heart, nor faith, nor charity. Where these three
are wanting, all is wanting, and I would not give a pear stalk for such
a result. . . . God does more by His word alone than you and I and all
the world by our united strength. God lays hold upon the heart; and when
the heart is taken, all is won. . . .
"I will preach, discuss, and write; but I will
constrain none, for faith is a voluntary act. See what I have done. I
stood up against the pope, indulgences, and papists, but without
violence or tumult. I put forward God's word; I preached and wrote--this
was all I did. And yet while I was asleep, . . . the word that I had
preached overthrew popery, so that neither prince nor emperor has done
it so much harm. And yet I did nothing; the word alone did all. If I had
wished to appeal to force, the whole of Germany would perhaps have been
deluged with blood. But what would have been the result? Ruin and
desolation both to body and soul. I therefore kept quiet, and left the
word to run through the world alone."--Ibid., b. 9, ch. 8.
Day after day, for a whole week, Luther continued to
preach to eager crowds. The word of God broke the spell of fanatical
excitement. The power of the gospel brought back the misguided people
into the way of truth.
Luther had no desire to encounter the fanatics whose
course had been productive of so great evil. He knew them to be men of
unsound judgment and undisciplined passions, who, while claiming to be
specially illuminated from heaven, would not endure the slightest
contradiction or even the kindest reproof or counsel. Arrogating to
themselves supreme authority, they required everyone, without a
question, to acknowledge their claims. But, as they demanded an
interview with him, he consented to meet them; and so successfully did
he expose their pretensions that the impostors at once departed from
Wittenberg.
The fanaticism was checked for a time; but several
years later it broke out with greater violence and more terrible
results. Said Luther, concerning the leaders in this movement:
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"To them the Holy Scriptures were but a dead
letter, and they all began to cry, 'The Spirit! the Spirit!' But most
assuredly I will not follow where their spirit leads them. May God of
His mercy preserve me from a church in which there are none but saints.
I desire to dwell with the humble, the feeble, the sick, who know and
feel their sins, and who groan and cry continually to God from the
bottom of their hearts to obtain His consolation and support."--Ibid.,
b. 10, ch. 10.
Thomas Munzer, the most active of the fanatics, was a
man of considerable ability, which, rightly directed, would have enabled
him to do good; but he had not learned the first principles of true
religion. "He was possessed with a desire of reforming the world,
and forgot, as all enthusiasts do, that the reformation should begin
with himself."--Ibid., b. 9, ch. 8. He was ambitious to obtain
position and influence, and was unwilling to be second, even to Luther.
He declared that the Reformers, in substituting the authority of
Scripture for that of the pope, were only establishing a different form
of popery. He himself, he claimed, had been divinely commissioned to
introduce the true reform. "He who possesses this spirit,"
said Munzer, "possesses the true faith, although he should never
see the Scriptures in his life."--Ibid., b. 10, ch. 10.
The fanatical teachers gave themselves up to be
governed by impressions, regarding every thought and impulse as the
voice of God; consequently they went to great extremes. Some even burned
their Bibles, exclaiming: "The letter killeth, but the Spirit
giveth life." Munzer's teaching appealed to men's desire for the
marvelous, while it gratified their pride by virtually placing human
ideas and opinions above the word of God. His doctrines were received by
thousands. He soon denounced all order in public worship, and declared
that to obey princes was to attempt to serve both God and Belial.
The minds of the people, already beginning to throw
off the yoke of the papacy, were also becoming impatient under the
restraints of civil authority. Munzer's revolutionary
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teachings, claiming divine sanction, led them to
break away from all control and give the rein to their prejudices and
passions. The most terrible scenes of sedition and strife followed, and
the fields of Germany were drenched with blood.
The agony of soul which Luther had so long before
experienced at Erfurt now pressed upon him with redoubled power as he
saw the results of fanaticism charged upon the Reformation. The papist
princes declared--and many were ready to credit the statement--that the
rebellion was the legitimate fruit of Luther's doctrines. Although this
charge was without the slightest foundation, it could not but cause the
Reformer great distress. That the cause of truth should be thus
disgraced by being ranked with the basest fanaticism, seemed more than
he could endure. On the other hand, the leaders in the revolt hated
Luther because he had not only opposed their doctrines and denied their
claims to divine inspiration, but had pronounced them rebels against the
civil authority. In retaliation they denounced him as a base pretender.
He seemed to have brought upon himself the enmity of both princes and
people.
The Romanists exulted, expecting to witness the
speedy downfall of the Reformation; and they blamed Luther, even for the
errors which he had been most earnestly endeavoring to correct. The
fanatical party, by falsely claiming to have been treated with great
injustice, succeeded in gaining the sympathies of a large class of the
people, and, as is often the case with those who take the wrong side,
they came to be regarded as martyrs. Thus the ones who were exerting
every energy in opposition to the Reformation were pitied and lauded as
the victims of cruelty and oppression. This was the work of Satan,
prompted by the same spirit of rebellion which was first manifested in
heaven.
Satan is constantly seeking to deceive men and lead
them to call sin righteousness, and righteousness sin. How successful
has been his work! How often censure and reproach are cast upon God's
faithful servants because they
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will stand fearlessly in defense of the truth! Men
who are but agents of Satan are praised and flattered, and even looked
upon as martyrs, while those who should be respected and sustained for
their fidelity to God, are left to stand alone, under suspicion and
distrust.
Counterfeit holiness, spurious sanctification, is
still doing its work of deception. Under various forms it exhibits the
same spirit as in the days of Luther, diverting minds from the
Scriptures and leading men to follow their own feelings and impressions
rather than to yield obedience to the law of God. This is one of Satan's
most successful devices to cast reproach upon purity and truth.
Fearlessly did Luther defend the gospel from the
attacks which came from every quarter. The word of God proved itself a
weapon mighty in every conflict. With that word he warred against the
usurped authority of the pope, and the rationalistic philosophy of the
schoolmen, while he stood firm as a rock against the fanaticism that
sought to ally itself with the Reformation.
Each of these opposing elements was in its own way
setting aside the Holy Scriptures and exalting human wisdom as the
source of religious truth and knowledge. Rationalism idolizes reason and
makes this the criterion for religion. Romanism, claiming for her
sovereign pontiff an inspiration descended in unbroken line from the
apostles, and unchangeable through all time, gives ample opportunity for
every species of extravagance and corruption to be concealed under the
sanctity of the apostolic commission. The inspiration claimed by Munzer
and his associates proceeded from no higher source than the vagaries of
the imagination, and its influence was subversive of all authority,
human or divine. True Christianity receives the word of God as the great
treasure house of inspired truth and the test of all inspiration.
Upon his return from the Wartburg, Luther completed
his translation of the New Testament, and the gospel was soon after
given to the people of Germany in their own
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language. This translation was received with great
joy by all who loved the truth; but it was scornfully rejected by those
who chose human traditions and the commandments of men.
The priests were alarmed at the thought that the
common people would now be able to discuss with them the precepts of
God's word, and that their own ignorance would thus be exposed. The
weapons of their carnal reasoning were powerless against the sword of
the Spirit. Rome summoned all her authority to prevent the circulation
of the Scriptures; but decrees, anathemas, and tortures were alike in
vain. The more she condemned and prohibited the Bible, the greater was
the anxiety of the people to know what it really taught. All who could
read were eager to study the word of God for themselves. They carried it
about with them, and read and reread, and could not be satisfied until
they had committed large portions to memory. Seeing the favor with which
the New Testament was received, Luther immediately began the translation
of the Old, and published it in parts as fast as completed.
Luther's writings were welcomed alike in city and in
hamlet. "What Luther and his friends composed, others circulated.
Monks, convinced of the unlawfulness of monastic obligations, desirous
of exchanging a long life of slothfulness for one of active exertion,
but too ignorant to proclaim the word of God, traveled through the
provinces, visiting hamlets and cottages, where they sold the books of
Luther and his friends. Germany soon swarmed with these bold
colporteurs." --Ibid., b. 9, ch. 11.
These writings were studied with deep interest by
rich and poor, the learned and the ignorant. At night the teachers of
the village schools read them aloud to little groups gathered at the
fireside. With every effort some souls would be convicted of the truth
and, receiving the word with gladness, would in their turn tell the good
news to others.
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The words of Inspiration were verified: "The
entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the
simple." Psalm 119:130. The study of the Scriptures was working a
mighty change in the minds and hearts of the people. The papal rule had
placed upon its subjects an iron yoke which held them in ignorance and
degradation. A superstitious observance of forms had been scrupulously
maintained; but in all their service the heart and intellect had had
little part. The preaching of Luther, setting forth the plain truths of
God's word, and then the word itself, placed in the hands of the common
people, had aroused their dormant powers, not only purifying and
ennobling the spiritual nature, but imparting new strength and vigor to
the intellect.
Persons of all ranks were to be seen with the Bible
in their hands, defending the doctrines of the Reformation. The papists
who had left the study of the Scriptures to the priests and monks now
called upon them to come forward and refute the new teachings. But,
ignorant alike of the Scriptures and of the power of God, priests and
friars were totally defeated by those whom they had denounced as
unlearned and heretical. "Unhappily," said a Catholic writer,
"Luther had persuaded his followers to put no faith in any other
oracle than the Holy Scriptures."--D'Aubigne, b. 9, ch. 11. Crowds
would gather to hear the truth advocated by men of little education, and
even discussed by them with learned and eloquent theologians. The
shameful ignorance of these great men was made apparent as their
arguments were met by the simple teachings of God's word. Laborers,
soldiers, women, and even children, were better acquainted with the
Bible teachings than were the priests and learned doctors.
The contrast between the disciples of the gospel and
the upholders of popish superstition was no less manifest in the ranks
of scholars than among the common people. "Opposed to the old
champions of the hierarchy, who had neglected
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the study of languages and the cultivation of
literature, . . . were generous-minded youth, devoted to study,
investigating Scripture, and familiarizing themselves with the
masterpieces of antiquity. Possessing an active mind, an elevated soul,
and intrepid heart, these young men soon acquired such knowledge that
for a long period none could compete with them. . . . Accordingly, when
these youthful defenders of the Reformation met the Romish doctors in
any assembly, they attacked them with such ease and confidence that
these ignorant men hesitated, became embarrassed, and fell into a
contempt merited in the eyes of all."--Ibid., b. 9, ch. 11.
As the Romish clergy saw their congregations
diminishing, they invoked the aid of the magistrates, and by every means
in their power endeavored to bring back their hearers. But the people
had found in the new teachings that which supplied the wants of their
souls, and they turned away from those who had so long fed them with the
worthless husks of superstitious rites and human traditions.
When persecution was kindled against the teachers of
the truth, they gave heed to the words of Christ: "When they
persecute you in this city, flee ye into another." Matthew 10:23.
The light penetrated everywhere. The fugitives would find somewhere a
hospitable door opened to them, and there abiding, they would preach
Christ, sometimes in the church, or, if denied that privilege, in
private houses or in the open air. Wherever they could obtain a hearing
was a consecrated temple. The truth, proclaimed with such energy and
assurance, spread with irresistible power.
In vain both ecclesiastical and civil authorities
were invoked to crush the heresy. In vain they resorted to imprisonment,
torture, fire, and sword. Thousands of believers sealed their faith with
their blood, and yet the work went on. Persecution served only to extend
the truth, and the fanaticism which Satan endeavored to unite with it
resulted in making more clear the contrast between the work of Satan and
the work of God.
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