Joseph A. Seiss - Luther and the Reformation:
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Joseph A. Seiss >> Luther and the Reformation:
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10 LUTHER AND THE REFORMATION:
THE
LIFE-SPRINGS
OF
OUR LIBERTIES.
BY
JOSEPH A. SEISS, D.D.,
PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY COMMUNION, PHILADELPHIA
AUTHOR OF
"A MIRACLE IN STONE," "VOICES FROM BABYLON," ETC. ETC.
[Illustration: JOSEPH A. SEISS.]
CHARLES C. COOK,
150 NASSAU STREET,
NEW YORK.
Copyright, 1883,
BY PORTER & COATES.
PREFACE.
The first part of this book presents the studies of the Author in
preparing a Memorial Oration delivered in the city of New York,
November 10, 1883, on the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of
Martin Luther. The second part presents his studies in a like
preparation for certain Discourses delivered in the city of
Philadelphia at the Bi-Centennial of the founding of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania. There was no intention, in either case, to make a
book, however small in size. But the utterances given on these
occasions having been solicited for publication in permanent shape for
common use, and the two parts being intimately related in the
exhibition of the most vital springs of our religious and civil
freedom, it has been concluded to print these studies entire and
together in this form, in hope that the same may satisfy all such
desires and serve to promote truth and righteousness.
Throughout the wide earth there has been an unexampled stir with
regard to the life and work of the great Reformer, and these
presentations may help to show it no wild craze, but a just and
rational recognition of God's wondrous providence in the constitution
of our modern world.
And to Him who was, and who is, and who is to come, the God of all
history and grace, be the praise, the honor, and the glory, world
without end!
THANKSGIVING DAY, 1883.
CONTENTS.
LUTHER AND THE REFORMATION pp. 7-134.
Human Greatness, 9.--_The Papacy_, 12.--Efforts at Reform, 14.--Time
of the Reformation, 17.--Frederick the Wise, 18.--Reuchlin,
19.--Erasmus, 21.--Ulric von Huetten, 23.--Ulrich Zwingli,
24.--Melanchthon, 24.--John Calvin, 25.--Luther the Chosen Instrument,
27.--His Origin, 28.--Early Training, 29.--_Nature of the
Reformation_, 32.--Luther's Spiritual Training, 34.--Development for
his Work, 39.--Visit to Rome, 42.--Elected Town-Preacher, 45.--Made a
Doctor, 45.--His Various Labors, 48.--Collision with the Hierarchy,
49.--The Indulgence-Traffic, 50.--Tetzel's Performances, 54.--Luther
on Indulgences, 57.--Sermon on Indulgences, 59.--Appeal to the
Bishops, 62.--_The Ninety-five Theses_, 63.--Effect of the Theses,
65.--Tetzel's End, 68.--Luther's Growing Influence, 68.--Appeal to the
Pope, 69.--Citation to Rome, 70.--Appears before Cajetan,
71.--Cajetan's Failure, 72.--Progress of Events, 74.--_The Leipsic
Disputation_, 75.--Results of the Debate, 76.--Luther's
Excommunication, 78.--Answer to the Pope's Bull, 81.--_The Diet of
Worms_, 83.--Doings of the Romanists, 85.--Luther Summoned to the
Diet, 87.--Luther at the Diet, 90.--Refuses to Retract, 92.--His
Condemnation, 95.--Carried to the Wartburg, 95.--_Translation of the
Bible_, 96.--His Conservatism, 98.--Growth of the Reformation,
100.--_Luther's Catechisms_, 103.--Protestants and War, 103.--_The
Confession of Augsburg_, 105.--League of Smalcald, 109.--Luther's
Later Years, 111.--_His Personale_, 114.--His Great Qualities,
119.--His Alleged Coarseness, 123.--His Marvelous Achievements,
126.--His Impress upon the World, 127.--His Enemies and Revilers, 131.
THE FOUNDING OF PENNSYLVANIA, pp. 135-206.
I. THE HISTORY AND THE MEN.
Beginning of Colonization in America, 137.--Movements in Sweden,
138.--Swedish Proposals, 143.--Was Penn Aware of these Plans?
145.--The Swedes in Advance of Penn, 147.--_The Men of those Times_,
151.--Gustavus Adolphus, 152.--Axel Oxenstiern, 155.--Peter Minuit,
157.--William Penn, 159.--Estimate of Penn, 161.--Penn and the
Indians, 162.--Penn's Work, 168.--The Greatness of Faith, 169.
II. THE PRINCIPLES ENTHRONED.
Man's Religious Nature, 173.--_Our State the Product of Faith_,
174.--Gustavus and the Swedes, 176.--The Feelings of William Penn,
178.--_Recognition of the Divine Being_, 180.--Enactments on the
Subject, 183.--Importance of this Principle, 185.--_Religious
Liberty_, 187.--Persecution for Opinion's Sake, 189.--Spirit of the
Founders of Pennsylvania, 190.--Constitutional Provisions,
193.--_Safeguards to True Liberty_, 194.--Laws on Religion and Morals,
197.--Forms of Government, 200.--_A Republican State_, 202.--The Last
Two Hundred Years, 203.
LUTHER AND THE REFORMATION.
A rare spectacle has been spreading itself before the face of heaven
during these last months.
Millions of people, of many nations and languages, on both sides of
the ocean, simultaneously engaged in celebrating the birth of a mere
man, four hundred years after he was born, is an unwonted scene in our
world.
Unprompted by any voice of authority, unconstrained by any command of
power, we join in the wide-ranging demonstration.
In the happy freedom which has come to us among the fruits of that
man's labors we bring our humble chaplet to grace the memory of one
whose worth and services there is scarce capacity to tell.
HUMAN GREATNESS.
Some men are colossal. Their characters are so massive, and their
position in history is so towering, that other men can hardly get
high enough to take their measure. An overruling Providence so endows
and places them that they affect the world, turn its course into new
channels, impart to it a new spirit, and leave their impress on all
the ages after them. Even humble individuals, without titles, crowns,
or physical armaments, have wrought themselves into the very life of
the race and built their memorials in the characteristics of epochs.
History tells of a certain Saul of Tarsus, a lone and friendless man,
stripped of all earthly possessions, forced into battle with a
universe of enthroned superstition, encompassed by perils which
threatened every hour to dissolve him, who, pressing his way over
mountains of difficulty and through seas of suffering, and dying a
martyr to his cause, gave to Europe a living God and to the nations
another and an everlasting King.
We likewise read of a certain Christopher Columbus, brooding in lowly
retirement upon the structure of the physical universe, ridiculed,
frowned on by the learned, repulsed by court after court, yet
launching out into the unknown seas to find an undiscovered
hemisphere, and opening the way for persecuted Liberty to cradle the
grand empire of popular rule amid the golden hills of a new and
independent continent.
And in this category stands the name of MARTIN LUTHER.
He was a poor, plain man, only a doctor of divinity, without place
except as a teacher in a university, without power or authority except
in the convictions and qualities of his own soul, and with no
implements save his Bible, tongue, and pen; but with him the ages
divided and human history took a new departure.
Two pre-eminent revolutions have passed over Europe since the
beginning of the Christian era. The one struck the Rome and rule of
emperors; the other struck the Rome and rule of popes. The one brought
the Dark Ages; the other ended them. The one overwhelmed the dominion
of the Caesars; the other humiliated a more than imperial dominion
reared in Caesar's place. Alaric, Rhadagaisus, Genseric, and Attila
were the chief instruments and embodiment of the first; _Martin
Luther_ was the chief instrument and embodiment of the second. The one
wrought bloody desolation; the other brought blessed renovation, under
which humanity has bloomed its happiest and its best.
THE PAPACY.
Since Phocas decreed the bishop of Rome the supreme head of the Church
on earth there had grown up strange power which claimed to decide
beyond appeal respecting everybody and everything--from affairs of
empire to the burial of the dead, from the thoughts of men here to the
estate of their souls hereafter--and to command the anathemas of God
upon any who dared to question its authority. It held itself divinely
ordained to give crowns and to take them away. Kings and potentates
were its vassals, and nations had to defer to it and serve it, on pain
of _interdicts_ which smote whole realms with gloom and desolation,
prostrated all the industries of life, locked up the very graveyards
against decent sepulture, and consigned peoples and generations to an
irresistible damnation. It was omnipresent and omnipotent in civilized
Europe. Its clergy and orders swarmed in every place, all sworn to
guard it at every point on peril of their souls, and themselves held
sacred in person and retreat from all reach of law for any crime save
lack of fealty to the great autocracy.[1] The money, the armies, the
lands, the legislatures, the judges, the executives, the police, the
schools, with the whole ecclesiastical administration, reaching even
to the most private affairs of life, were under its control. And at
its centre sat its absolute dictator, unanswerable and supreme, the
alleged Vicar of God on earth, for whom to err was deemed impossible.
Think of a power which could force King Henry IV., the heir of a long
line of emperors, to strip himself of every mark of his station, put
on the linen dress of a penitent, walk barefooted through the winter's
snow to the pope's castle at Canossa, and there to wait three days at
its gates, unbefriended, unfed, and half perishing with cold and
hunger, till all but the alleged Vicar of Jesus Christ were moved with
pity for his miseries as he stood imploring the tardy clemency of
Hildebrand, which was almost as humiliating in its bestowal as in its
reservation.
Think of a power which could force the English king, Henry II., to
walk three miles of a flinty road, with bare and bleeding feet, to
Canterbury, to be flogged from one end of the church to the other by
the beastly monks, and then forced to spend the whole night in
supplications to the spirit of an obstinate, perjured, and defiant
archbishop, whom four of his over-zealous knights, without his orders,
had murdered, and whose inner garments, when he was stripped to
receive his shroud, were found alive with vermin!
Think of a power which, in defiance of the sealed safe-conduct of the
empire, could seize John Huss, one of the worthiest and most learned
men of his time, and burn him alive in the presence of the emperor!
Think of a power which, by a single edict, caused the deliberate
murder of more than fifty thousand men in the Netherlands alone!
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Many assumed the clerical character for no other reason than that
it might screen them from the punishment which their actions deserved,
and the monasteries were full of people who entered them to be secure
against the consequences of their crimes and atrocities.--Rymer's
_Foedera_, vol. xiii. p. 532.
EFFORTS AT REFORM.
To restrain and humble this gigantic power was the desideratum of
ages. For two hundred years had men been laboring to curb and tame it.
From theologians and universities, from kings and emperors, from
provinces and synods, from general councils, and even the College of
Cardinals--in every name of right, virtue, and religion--appeal after
appeal and solemn effort after effort were made to reform the Roman
court and free the world from the terrible oppression. Wars on wars
were waged; provinces on provinces were deluged with blood;
coalitions, bound by sacred oaths, were formed against the giant
tyranny. And yet the hierarchy managed to maintain its assumptions and
to overwhelm all remedial attempts. Whether made by individuals or
secular powers, by councils or governments, the result was the same.
The Pontificate still triumphed, with its claims unabridged, its
dominion unbroken, its scandals uncured.
A general council sat at Constance to reform the clergy in head and
members. It managed to rid itself of three popes between whom
Christendom was divided, when the emperor moved that the work of
reform proceed. But the cardinals said, How can the Church reform
itself without a head? So they elected a pope who was to lead reform.
Yet a day had hardly passed before they found themselves in a
traitor's power, who reaffirmed all the acts of the iniquitous John
XXIII., who had just been deposed for his crimes, and presently
endowed him with a cardinal's hat!
When this pope, Martin V., died, the cardinals thought to remedy their
previous mistake. They would secure their reforms before electing a
pope. So they erected themselves into a standing senate, without
which no future pope could act. And they each took solemn oath, before
God and all angels, by St. Peter and all apostles, by the holy
sacrament of Christ's body and blood, and by all the powers that be,
if elected, to conform to these arrangements and to use all the rights
and prerogatives of the sublime position to put in force the reforms
conceded to be necessary.
But what are oaths and fore-pledges to candidates greedy for office?
The tickets which elected the new pope had hardly been counted when he
absolved himself from all previous obligations, disowned the senate of
cardinals he had helped to erect, began his career with violence and
robbery, plundered the cities and states of Italy, religiously
violated all compacts but those which favored his absolute supremacy,
brought to none effect the reform Council of Basle, deceived Germany
with his specious and hollow concessions, averted the improvements he
had sworn to make, and by his perfidy and cunning managed to retain in
subordination to the old regime nearly the whole of that Christendom
which he had outraged!
In spite of the efforts of centuries, this super-imperial power held
by the throat a struggling world.
To break that gnarled and bony hand, which locked up everything in its
grasp; to bring down the towering altitude of that olden tyranny,
whose head was lifted to the clouds; to strike from the soul its
clanking chains and set the suffering nations free; to champion the
inborn rights of afflicted humanity, and conquer the ignorance and
imposture which had governed for a thousand years,--constituted the
work and office of the man the four hundredth anniversary of whose
birth half the civilized world is celebrating to-day.
TIME OF THE REFORMATION.
It has been said that when this tonsured Augustinian came upon the
stage almost any brave man might have brought about the impending
changes. The Reformers before the Reformation, though vanquished, had
indeed not lived in vain. The European peoples were outgrowing feudal
vassalage, and moving toward nationalization and separation between
the secular and ecclesiastical powers. Travel, exploration, and
discovery had introduced new subjects of human interest and
contemplation. Schools of law, medicine, and liberal education were
being established and largely attended. The common mind was losing
faith in the professions and teachings of the old hierarchy. Free
inquiry was overturning the dominion of authority in matters of
thought and opinion. The intellect of man was beginning to recover
from the nightmare of centuries. A mightier power than the sword had
sprung up in the art of printing. In a word, the world was gravid with
a new era. But it was not so clear who would be able to bring it
safely to the birth.
There were living at the time many eminent men who might be thought of
for this office had it not been assigned to Luther. Reuchlin, Erasmus,
Huetten, Sickingen, and others have been named, but the list might be
extended, and yet no one be found endowed with the qualities to
accomplish the work that was needed and that was accomplished.
FREDERICK THE WISE.
The Saxon Elector, Frederick the Wise, was the worthiest, most
popular, and most influential ruler then in Europe. He could have been
emperor in place of Charles V. had he consented to be. The history of
the world since his time might have been greatly different had he
yielded to the general desire. His principles, his attainments, his
wisdom, and his spirit were everything to commend him. He founded the
University of Wittenberg in hope that it would produce preachers who
would leave off the cold subtleties of Scholasticism and the
uncertainties of tradition, and give discourses that would possess the
nerve and power of the Gospel of God. He sought out the best and most
pious men for his advisers. He was the devoted friend of learning,
truth, and virtue. By his prudence and foresight in Church and State
he helped the Reformation more than any other man then in power. Had
it not been for him perhaps Luther could not have succeeded. But it
was not in the nature of things for the noble Elector to give us such
a Reformation as that led by his humble subject. It is useless to
speculate as to what the Reformation might have become in his hands;
but it certainly could never have become what we rejoice to know it
was, while the probabilities are that we would now be fighting the
battles which Luther fought for us three and a half centuries ago.
REUCHLIN.
Reuchlin was a learned and able man, and deeply conscious of the need
of reform. When the Greek Argyrophylos heard him read and explain
Thucydides, he exclaimed, "Greece has retired beyond the Alps." He was
the first Hebrew scholar of Germany, and served to restore the Hebrew
Scriptures to the knowledge of the Church. He held that popes could
err and be deceived. He had no faith in human abnegations for
reconciliation with God. He saw no need for hierarchical mediations,
and discredited the doctrine of Purgatory and masses for the dead. He
bravely defended the cause of learning against the ignorant monks,
whom he hated and held up to merciless ridicule. He was a brilliant
and persuasive orator. He was an associate and counselor of kings. He
gave Melanchthon to the Reformation, and did much to promote it.
Luther recognized in him a great light, of vast service to the Gospel
in Germany. But Reuchlin could never have accomplished the
Reformation. The vital principles of it were not sufficiently rooted
in him. He was a humanist, whose sympathies went with the republic of
letters, not with the wants of the soul and the needs of the people.
When he got into trouble he appealed to the pope. And though he lived
to see Luther in agonizing conflict with the hierarchy of Rome, he
refrained from making common cause with him, and died in connection
with the unreformed Church, whose doctrines he had questioned and
whose orders he had so unsparingly ridiculed.
ERASMUS OF ROTTERDAM.
Erasmus was a notable man, great in talent and of great service in
preparing the way for the Reformation. He turned reviving learning to
the study of the Word. He produced the first, and for a long time the
only, critical edition of the New Testament in the original, to which
he added a Latin translation and notes. He paraphrased the Epistle to
the Romans--that great Epistle on which above all, the Reformation
moved. Though once an inmate of a monastery, he abhorred the monks and
exposed them with terrible severity. He had more friends, reputation,
and influence than perhaps any other private man in Europe. And he was
deep in the spirit of opposition to the scandalous condition of things
in the Church. But he never could have given us the Reformation. He
said all honest men sided with Luther, and as an honest man his place
would have been by Luther's side; but he was too great a coward. "If I
should join Luther," said he, "I could only perish with him, and I do
not mean to run my neck into the halter. Let popes and emperors
settle matters."--"Your Holiness says, Come to Rome; you might as well
tell a crab to fly. If I write calmly against Luther, I shall be
called lukewarm; if I write as he does, I shall stir up a hornet's
nest.... Send for the best and wisest men in Christendom, and follow
their advice."--"Reduce the dogmas necessary to be believed to the
smallest possible number. On other points let every one believe as he
likes. Having done this, quietly correct the abuses of which the world
justly complains."
So wrote Erasmus to the pope and to the archbishop of Mayence. Such
was his ideal of reformation--a thing as impossible to bring into
practical effect as its realization would have been absurd. It is easy
to tell a crab to fly, but will he do it? As well propose to convert
infallibility with a fable of AEsop as to count on bringing
regeneration to the hierarchy by such counsels.
The waters were too deep and the storms too fierce for the vacillating
Erasmus. He did some excellent service in his way, but all his
counsels and ideas failed, as they deserved. Once the idol of Europe,
he died a defeated, crushed, and miserable man. "Hercules could not
fight two monsters at once," said he, "while I, poor wretch! have
lions, cerberuses, cancers, scorpions, every day at my sword's
point.... There is no rest for me in my age, unless I join Luther; and
that I cannot, for I cannot accept his doctrines. Sometimes I am stung
with desire to avenge my wrongs; but my heart says, Will you in your
spleen raise hand against your mother who begot you at the font? I
cannot do it. Yet, because I bade monks remember their vows; because I
told persons to leave off their wranglings and read the Bible; because
I told popes and cardinals to look to the apostles and be more like
them,--the theologians say I am their enemy."
Thus in sorrow and in clouds Erasmus passed away, as would the entire
Reformation in his hands.
ULRIC VON HUeTTEN.
Ulric von Huetten, soldier and knight, equally distinguished in letters
and in arms, and called the Demosthenes of Germany, was a zealous
friend of reform. He had been in Rome, and sharpened his darts from
what he there saw to hurl them with effect. All the powers of satire
and ridicule he brought to bear upon the pillars of the Papacy. He
helped to shake the edifice, and his plans and spirit might have
served to pull it down had he been able to bring Europe to his mind;
but it would only have been to bury society in its ruins.
ULRICH ZWINGLI.
Ulrich Zwingli is ranked among Reformers, and he was energetic in
behalf of reform. But he fell a victim to his own mistakes, and with
him would have perished the Reformation also had it depended upon him.
Even had he lived, his radical and rationalistic spirit, his narrow
and fiery patriotism, his shallow religious experience, and his
eagerness to rest the cause of Reformation on civil authority and the
sword, would have wrecked it with nine-tenths of the European peoples.
MELANCHTHON.
Philip Melanchthon was a better and a greater man, and did the
Reformation a far superior service. Luther would have been much
disabled without him, and Germany has awarded him the title of its
"Preceptor." But no Reformation could have come if the fighting or
directing of its battles had been left to him. Even with the great
Luther ever by his side, he could hardly get loose from Rome and
retain his wholeness, and when he was loose could hardly maintain his
legs upon the ground that had been won.
CALVIN.
John Calvin was a man of great learning and ability. Marked has been
his influence on the theology and government of a large portion of the
Reformed churches. But the Reformation was twelve years old before he
came into it. It had to exist already ere there could be a Calvin,
while his repeated flights to avoid danger prove how inadequate his
courage was for such unflinching duty as rendered Luther illustrious.
He was a cold, hard, ascetic aristocrat at best, more cynical, stern,
and tyrannical than brave. The organization for the Church and civil
government which he gave to Geneva was quite too intolerant and
inquisitorial for safe adoption in general or to endure the test of
the true Gospel spirit. Under a regime which burnt Servetus for
heresy, threw men into prison for reading novels, hung and beheaded
children for improper behavior toward parents, whipped and banished
people for singing songs, and dealt with others as public blasphemers
if they said a word against the Reformers or failed to go to church,
the cause of the Reformation could never have commanded acceptance by
the nations, or have survived had it been received. The famous "Blue
Laws" of the New England colonies have had to be given up as a scandal
upon enlightened civilization; but they were largely transcribed from
Calvin's code and counsels, including even the punishing of witches.
For the last two hundred years the Calvinistic peoples have been
reforming back from Calvin's rules and spirit, either to a better
foundation for the perpetuation and honor of the Church or to a
rationalistic skepticism which lets go all the distinctive elements of
the genuine Christian Creed--the natural reaction from the hard and
overstrained severity of a legalistic style of Christianity.
With all the great service Calvin has rendered to theological science
and church discipline, there was an unnatural sombreness about him,
which linked him rather with the Middle Ages and the hierarchical rule
than with the glad, free spirit of a wholesome Christian life. At
twenty-seven he had already drawn up a formula of doctrine and
organization which he never changed and to which he ever held. There
was no development either in his life or in his ideas. The evangelic
elements of his system he found ready to his hand, as thought out by
Luther and the German theologians. They did not originate or grow with
him. And had the Reformation depended upon him it could never have
become a success. So too with any others that might be named.
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