The Papacy Attacked--Appeal to the Nobility--The Three
Walls--All Christians are Priests--The Magistrate's duty to
Correct the Clergy--Abuses of Rome--Ruin of Italy--Dangers
of Germany--The Pope--The Legates--The Monks--The Marriage
of Priests--Celibacy--Festivals--The Bohemians--Charity--The
Universities--The Empire--The Emperor must retake Rome--A
Book not Published--Luther's Modesty--Success of the
Address.
[Sidenote: THE THREE WALLS.]
But the substitution of a system of meritorious works for the idea of
grace and amnesty was not the only evil existing in the Church. A
domineering power had risen up among the humble pastors of Christ's
flock. Luther must attack this usurped authority. A vague and distant
rumour of Eck's intrigues and success at Rome awakened a warlike
spirit in the Reformer, who, amid all his turmoil, had calmly studied
the origin, progress, and usurpations of the papacy. His discoveries
having filled him with surprise, he no longer hesitated to communicate
them and strike the blow which was destined, like the rod of Moses of
old, to awaken a whole nation out of a lethargy, the result of long
bondage. Even before Rome had time to publish her formidable bull, he
published his declaration of war. "The time of silence," exclaims he,
"is past; the time for speaking has arrived. The mysteries of
Antichrist must at length be unveiled." On the 24th June, 1502, he
published his famous '_Appeal to his Imperial Majesty, and the Christian
Nobility of Germany, on the Reformation of Christianity._'[205]
This work was the signal of the attack which was at once to complete
the rupture and decide the victory.
[205] L. Op. (L.) xvii, 457-502.
"It is not from presumption," says he, at the outset of this Treatise,
"that I, who am only one of the people, undertake to address your
lordships. The misery and oppression endured at this moment by all the
States of Christendom, and more especially by Germany, wring from me a
cry of distress. I must call for aid; I must see whether God will not
give his Spirit to some one of our countrymen, and stretch out a hand
to our unhappy nation. God has given us a young and generous prince,
(the Emperor Charles V,)[206] and thus filled our hearts with high
hopes. But we too must, on our own part, do all we can.
[206] Gott hat uns ein junges edles Blut zum Haupt gegeben. (Ibid., p.
457.)
"Now, the first thing necessary is, not to confide in our own great
strength, or our own high wisdom. When any work otherwise good is
begun in self-confidence, God casts it down, and destroys it.
Frederick I, Frederick II, and many other emperors besides, before
whom the world trembled, have been trampled upon by the popes, because
they trusted more to their own strength than to God. They could not
but fall. In this war we have to combat the powers of hell, and our
mode of conducting it must be to expect nothing from the strength of
human weapons--to trust humbly in the Lord, and look still more to the
distress of Christendom than to the crimes of the wicked. It may be
that, by a different procedure, the work would begin under more
favourable appearances, but suddenly in the heat of the contest
confusion would arise, bad men would cause fearful disaster, and the
world would be deluged with blood. The greater the power, the greater
the danger, when things are not done in the fear of the Lord."