The Gospel In Italy--Discourse on the Mass--The Babylonish
Captivity of the Church--Baptism--Abolition of
Vows--Progress of the Reformation.
[Sidenote: THE GOSPEL IN ITALY. LUTHER'S DISCOURSE ON THE MASS.]
But fiercer combats awaited Luther. Rome was brandishing the sword
with which she had resolved to attack the gospel. Her threatened
sentence, however, so far from dispiriting the Reformer increased his
courage. The blows of this arrogant power gave him little concern. He
will himself give more formidable blows, and thereby neutralize those
of his adversaries. While Transalpine consistories are fulminating
their anathemas against him, he will, with the sword of the gospel,
pierce to the very heart of the Italian states. Luther having been
informed, by letters from Venice, of the favourable reception which
had been given to his opinions, felt an ardent desire to carry the
gospel over the Alps. Evangelists must be found to transport it. "I
wish," said he, "that we had living books, I mean preachers,[239] and
that we could multiply them, and afford them protection in all
quarters, in order that they might convey the knowledge of holy things
to the people. The prince could not do a work more worthy of him. Were
the inhabitants of Italy to receive the truth our cause would be
unassailable." It does not appear that this project of Luther was
realised. It is true that, at a later period, evangelists, even Calvin
himself, sojourned for a while in Italy, but at this time the design
was not followed out. He had applied to one of the great ones of the
earth. Had he made his appeal to men low in station, but full of zeal
for the kingdom of God, the result might have been very different. The
idea at this period was, that every thing behoved to be done by
governments. The association of private individuals, by which so much
is now accomplished in Christendom, was almost unknown.
[239] Si vivos libros, hoc est concionatores possemus multiplicare...
(L. Ep. i, p. 491.)
If Luther did not succeed in his plans of spreading the truth in a
distant country, he was only the more zealous in proclaiming it
himself. At this time his discourse, 'On the Holy Mass,'[240] was
delivered at Wittemberg. In it he inveighed against the numerous sects
of the Romish Church, and justly reproached it with its want of unity.
"The multiplicity of spiritual laws," said he, "has filled the world
with sects and divisions. Priests, monks, and laics, have shown more
hatred of each other than subsists between Christians and Turks. What
do I say? Priests are mortal enemies of priests, and monks of monks.
Each is attached to his particular sect, and despises all others.
There is an end of Christian love and unity." He then attacks the idea
that the mass is a sacrifice, and has any efficacy in itself. "The
best thing in every sacrament, and consequently in the Supper, is the
word and promises of God. Without faith in this word, and these
promises, the sacrament is dead; a body without a soul, a flagon
without wine, a purse without money, a type without an antitype, the
letter without the spirit, a casket without its diamond, a scabbard
without its sword."
[240] L. Op. (L.) xvii, p. 490.
[Sidenote: THE "BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY OF THE CHURCH." VOWS.]
Luther's voice, however, was not confined to Wittemberg; and if he
failed to procure missionaries to carry his instructions to distant
lands, God provided him with a missionary of a new description. The
art of printing supplied the place of evangelists. The press was
destined to make a breach in the Roman fortress. Luther had prepared
a mine, the explosion of which shook the Roman edifice to its very
foundations. This was his famous treatise on the _Babylonish Captivity
of the Church_, which appeared 6th October, 1520.[241] Never had man
displayed such courage in such critical circumstances.
[241] L. Op. Lat. xi. 63, and Leip. xvii, p. 511.
In this writing he first enumerates, with a kind of ironical pride,
all the advantages for which he is indebted to his enemies.
"Whether I will or not," says he, "I daily become more learned,
spurred on as I am by so many celebrated masters. Two years ago I
attacked indulgences, but with so much fear and indecision, that I am
now ashamed of it. But, after all, the mode of attack is not to be
wondered at, for I had nobody who would help me to roll the stone." He
returns thanks to Prierio, Eck, Emser, and his other opponents, and
continues--"I denied that the papacy was of God, but I granted that it
had the authority of man. Now, after reading all the subtleties by
which these sparks prop up their idol, I know that the papacy is only
the kingdom of Babylon, and the tyranny of the great hunter Nimrod. I
therefore beg all my friends, and all booksellers, to burn the books
which I wrote on this subject, and to substitute for them the single
proposition--'_The papacy is a general chace, by command of the Roman
pontiff, for the purpose of running down and destroying souls_.'"[242]
[242] "Papatus est robusta venatio Romani Episcopi." The papacy is a
vigorous hunt by the Roman bishop.
Luther afterwards attacks the prevailing errors on the sacraments, on
monastic vows, etc. The seven sacraments of the Church he reduces to
three--viz., baptism, penitence, and the Lord's supper. He then
proceeds to baptism, and when discussing it dwells especially on the
excellence of faith, and makes a vigorous attack upon Rome. "God,"
says he, "has preserved this single sacrament to us clear of human
traditions. God has said, '_Whoso believeth_, and is _baptized_, shall
be saved.' This divine promise must take precedence of all works
however splendid, of all vows, all satisfactions, all indulgences, all
that man has devised. On this promise, if we receive it in faith, all
our salvation depends. If we believe, our heart is strengthened by the
divine promise, and though all else should abandon the believer, this
promise will not abandon him. With it he will resist the adversary who
assaults his soul, and will meet death though pitiless, and even the
judgment of God himself. In all trials his comfort will be to say,
'God is faithful to his promises, and these were pledged to me in
baptism; if God be for me, who can be against me?' Oh, how rich the
Christian, the baptized! Nothing can destroy him but his own refusal
to believe."
[Sidenote: PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION.]
"It may be that, to my observations on the necessity of faith will be
opposed the baptism of little children. But as the Word of God is
powerful to change even the heart of the wicked, though neither less
deaf, nor less impotent than a little child; so the prayer of the
Church, to which all things are possible, changes the little child by
means of the faith which God is pleased to pour into its soul, and so
cleanses and renews it."[243]
[243] "Sicut enim verbum Dei potens est dum sonat, etiam impii cor
immutare, quod non minus est surdum et incapax quam ullus parvulus,
ita per orationem Ecclesiæ offerentis et credentis parvulus, fide
infusa mutatur, mundatur, et renovatur." (L. Op. Lat. ii, p. 77.)
After explaining the doctrine of baptism, Luther employs it as a
weapon against the papacy. In fact, if the Christian finds complete
salvation in the renewal which accompanies the baptism of faith, what
need has he of the prescriptions of Rome?
"Wherefore," says Luther, "I declare that neither the pope, nor the
bishop, nor any man whatever, is entitled to impose the smallest
burden on a Christian--at least without his consent. Whatsoever is
done otherwise is done tyrannically.[244] We are free of all men. The
vow which we made in baptism is sufficient by itself alone, and is
more than all we could ever accomplish.[245] Therefore, all other vows
may be abolished. Let every one who enters the priesthood, or a
religious order, consider well that the works of a monk or a priest,
how difficult soever they may be, are, in the view of God, in no
respect superior to those of a peasant labouring in the field, or a
woman attending to the duties of her house.[246] God estimates all
these things by the rule of faith. And it often happens that the
simple labour of a man-servant, or a maid-servant, is more agreeable
to God than the fastings and works of a monk, these being deficient in
faith.... The Christian people is the people of God led away into
captivity, to Babylon, and there robbed of their baptism."
[244] "Dico itaque, neque papa, neque episcopus, neque ullus hominum
habet jus unius syllabæ constituendæ super Christianum hominem, nisi
id fiat ejusdem consensu; quidquid aliter fit, tyrannico spiritu fit."
(Ibid. p. 77.)
[245] "Generali edicto tollere vota .... abunde enim vovimus in
baptismo, et plus quam possimus implere." (Ibid, p. 78.) There ought
to be a general edict abolishing vows ... for in baptism we vow
enough, and more than we can perform.
[246] "Opera quantum libet sacra et ardua religiosorum et sacerdotum,
in oculis Dei prorsus nihil distare ab operibus rustici in agro
laborantis aut mulieris in domo sua curantis." (Ibid.)
Such were the weapons by which the religious revolution whose history
we are tracing was accomplished. First, the necessity of faith was
established, and then the reformers used it as a hammer to break
superstition in pieces. They attacked error with that divine power
which removes mountains. These, and many similar passages of Luther
circulated in towns, convents, and the country, were the leaven which
leavened the whole lump.
[Sidenote: MILTITZ AT EISLEBEN.]
The conclusion of this famous production on the captivity of Babylon
is in the following terms:--
"I learn that a new papal excommunication has been prepared against
me. If so, the present book may be regarded as part of my future
recantation. In proof of my obedience, the rest will soon follow, and
the whole will, with the help of Christ, form a collection, the like
to which Rome never saw or heard before."