Though fully conscious of the gravity of the political and theological
situation, and convinced that war and dissensions were bound to come,
Luther was at the same time confident that it would not occur during his
life. With respect to the coming war he said: "With great earnestness I
have asked God, and still pray daily, that He would thwart their [the
Papists'] plan and suffer no war to come upon Germany during my life.
And I am confident that God surely hears such prayer of mine, and I know
that there will be no war in Germany as long as I shall live." (St. L.
9, 1856.) In his Commentary on the Book of Genesis he wrote: "It is a
great consolation when he says (Is. 57, 1) that the righteous are taken
away from the evil to come. Thus we, too, shall die in peace before
misfortune and misery overtake Germany." (St. L. 1, 1758.)
Luther spoke frequently also of the impending doctrinal dissensions. As
early as 1531 he declared that the Gospel would abide only a short time.
"When the present pious, true preachers will be dead," said he, "others
will come who will preach and act as it pleases the devil." (8, 72.) In
1546 he said in a sermon preached at Wittenberg: "Up to this time you
have heard the real, true Word; now beware of your own thoughts and
wisdom. The devil will kindle the light of reason and lead you away
from the faith, as he did the Anabaptists and Sacramentarians.... I see
clearly that, if God does not give us faithful preachers and ministers,
the devil will tear our church to pieces by the fanatics
(_Rottengeister_), and will not cease until he has finished. Such is
plainly his object. If he cannot accomplish it through the Pope and the
Emperor, he will do it through those who are [now] in doctrinal
agreement with us.... Therefore pray earnestly that God may preserve
the Word to you, for things will come to a dreadful pass." (12, 1174.
437.)
Reading the signs of the times, Melanchthon also realized that Luther's
prophecies would be fulfilled. His address to the students of Wittenberg
University, on February 19, 1546, in which he announced the death of
Luther, concludes: "_Obiit auriga et currus Israel._ He is dead, the
chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof, who guided the Church in
this last old age of the world. For the doctrine of the forgiveness of
sins and of faith in the Son of God was not discovered by human
sagacity, but revealed by God through this man. Let us therefore love
his memory and his teaching, and may we be all the more humble and
ponder the terrible calamity and the great changes which will follow
this misfortune." (_C. R._ 6, 59.)
Nor were these prophecies of Luther mere intuitions or deductions based
on general reflections only. They were inductions from facts which he
had not failed to observe at Wittenberg, even in his immediate
surroundings. Seckendorf relates that Luther, when sick at Smalcald in
1537, told the Elector of Saxony that after his death, discord would
break out in the University of Wittenberg and that his doctrine would be
changed. (_Comm. de Lutheranismo_ 3, 165.) In his Preface to Luther's
Table Talk, John Aurifaber reports that Luther had frequently predicted
that after his death his doctrine would wane and decline because of
false brethren, fanatics, and sectarians, and that the truth, which in
1530 had been placed on a pinnacle at Augsburg, would descend into the
valley, since the Word of God had seldom flourished more than forty
years in one place. (Richard, _Conf. Hist_., 311.) Stephanus Tucher, a
faithful Lutheran preacher of Magdeburg, wrote in 1549: "Doctor Martin
Luther, of sainted memory, has frequently repeated before many
trustworthy witnesses, and also before Doctor Augustine Schurf, these
words: 'After my death not one of these [Wittenberg] theologians will
remain steadfast.'" Tucher adds: "This I have heard of Doctor Augustine
Schurf not once, but frequently. Therefore I also testify to it before
Christ, my Lord, the righteous Judge," etc. (St. L. 12, 1177; Walther,
_Kern und Stern,_ 7.)
It was, above all, the spirit of indifferentism toward false doctrine,
particularly concerning the Lord's Supper, which Luther observed and
deplored in his Wittenberg colleagues: Melanchthon, Bugenhagen,
Cruciger, Eber, and Major. Shortly before his last journey to Eisleben
he invited them to his house, where he addressed to them the following
solemn words of warning: They should "remain steadfast in the Gospel;
for I see that soon after my death the most prominent brethren will fall
away. I am not afraid of the Papists," he added, "for most of them are
coarse, unlearned asses and Epicureans; but our brethren will inflict
the damage on the Gospel; for 'they went out from us, but they were not
of us' (1 John 2, 19); they will give the Gospel a harder blow than did
the Papists." About the same time Luther had written above the entrance
to his study: "Our professors are to be examined on the Lord's Supper."
When Major, who was about to leave for the colloquy at Regensburg,
entered and inquired what these words signified, Luther answered: "The
meaning of these words is precisely what you read and what they say; and
when you and I shall have returned, an examination will have to be held,
to which you as well as others will be cited." Major protested that he
was not addicted to any false doctrine. Luther answered: "It is by your
silence and cloaking that you cast suspicion upon yourself. If you
believe as you declare in my presence, then speak so also in the church,
in public lectures, in sermons, and in private conversations, and
strengthen your brethren, and lead the erring back to the right path,
and contradict the contumacious spirits; otherwise your confession is
sham pure and simple, and worth nothing. Whoever really regards his
doctrine, faith and confession as true, right, and certain cannot remain
in the same stall with such as teach, or adhere to, false doctrine; nor
can he keep on giving friendly words to Satan and his minions. A teacher
who remains silent when errors are taught, and nevertheless pretends to
be a true teacher, is worse than an open fanatic and by his hypocrisy
does greater damage than a heretic. Nor can he be trusted. He is a wolf
and a fox, a hireling and a servant of his belly, and ready to despise
and to sacrifice doctrine, Word, faith, Sacrament, churches, and
schools. He is either a secret bedfellow of the enemies or a skeptic and
a weathervane, waiting to see whether Christ or the devil will prove
victorious; or he has no convictions of his own whatever, and is not
worthy to be called a pupil, let alone a teacher; nor does he want to
offend anybody, or say a word in favor of Christ, or hurt the devil and
the world." (Walther, 39f.)