_Luther no Iconoclast_ (Vol. viii., p. 335.).--An occasional contributor
wishes the Editor to note down this Query. What could have led your
correspondent J. G. FITCH to use so peculiarly inappropriate a synonym for
Martin Luther as "the great Iconoclast?" Has he any historical evidence for
Luther's breaking a single image?
It is not to defend Luther, but to point out a defect in his teaching, as
it is regarded by the adherents of other Protestant churches, that Dr.
Maclaine has said, in his note on Book IV. ch. i. Sec. 18. of Mosheim:
"It is evident, from several passages in the writings of Luther, that
he was by no means averse to the use of images, but that, on the
contrary, he looked upon them as adapted to excite and animate the
devotion of the people."
Mosheim, and Merle D'Aubigne, and probably any other historian of the
Reformation in Germany, may be cited as witnesses for the notorious fact,
that Carlstadt excited the citizens of Wittemberg to break the images in
their churches when Luther was concealed in the Castle of Wartburg, and
that he rebuked and checked these proceedings on his return. See Mosheim,
as cited before, or D'Aubigne, book IX. ch. vii. and viii.