CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXIX. ETHICAL RESULTS OF THE NEW TEACHINGpages [3-164]
1. Preliminaries. New Foundations of Morality.
Difficulties involved in Luther’s standpoint; poverty ofhuman reason, power of the devil, etc. How despair mayserve to excite humilitypages [3-7]
2. The Two Poles: the Law and the Gospel.
His merits in distinguishing the two; what he means by“the Gospel”; his contempt for “the Law”; the Lawa mere gallowspages [7-14]
3. Encounter with the Antinomianism or Agricola.
Connection between Agricola’s doctrine and Luther’s.Luther’s first step against Agricola; the Disputations;the tract “Against the Antinomians”; action of the Court;end of Agricola; the reaction of the Antinomian movementon Lutherpages [15-25]
4. The Certainty of Salvation and its relation toMorality.
Psychology of Luther’s conception of this certainty as thevery cause and aim of true morality. Luther’s last sermonsat Eisleben; notable omissions in these sermons on morality;his wavering between Old and Newpages [25-43]
5. Abasement of Practical Christianity.
Faith, praise and gratitude our only duties towards God.“All works, apart from faith, must be for our neighbour’ssake.” There are “no good works save such as God commands.”Good works done without faith are mere sins.Annulment of the supernatural and abasement of thenatural order. The Book of Concord on the curtailment offree-will. Christianity merely inward. Divorce of Churchand World, of Religion and Morals. Lack of obligation andsanctionpages [43-66]
6. The part played by Conscience and Personality.Luther’s Warfare with his old friend CasparSchwenckfeld.
On Conscience and its exercise; how to set it to rest.Help of conscience at critical junctures. Consciencein the religious questions of the day. Schwenckfeldpages [66-84]
7. Self-Improvement and the Reformation of the Church.
Whether Luther founded a school of godly, Christianlife. A Lutheran theologian on the lack of any teachingconcerning emancipation from the world. The means ofself-reform and their reverse side. Self-reform andhatred of the foe. Companion phenomena of Luther’shate. Kindlier traits and episodes: The Kohlhase casein history and legend. The Reformation of the Churchand Luther’s Ethics; His work “Against the new idol andolden devil.” The Reformation in the Duchy of Saxony.The aims of the Reformation and the currents of the agepages [84-133]
8. The Church Apart of the True Believers.
Luther’s earlier theory on the subject; Schwenckfeld;the proceedings at Leisnig; the Popular Church supported bythe State; the abortive attempt to create a Church Apartin Hessepages [133-144]
9. Public Worship. Questions of Ritual.
The “Deutsche Messe”; the liturgy not meant for“true believers”; place of the sermonpages [145-154]
10. Schwenckfeld as a Critic of the Ethical Resultsof Luther’s Life-work.
Schwenckfeld disappointed in his hope of a moral renovation.Luther’s wrong teaching on Law and Evangel;on predestination, on freedom and on faith alone, on theinward and outward Word. Schwenckfeld on the PopularChurch and the new Divine Servicepages [155-164]
CHAPTER XXX. LUTHER AT THE ZENITH OF HISLIFE AND SUCCESS, FROM 1540 ONWARDS. APPREHENSIONSAND PRECAUTIONSpages [165-224]
1. The Great Victories of 1540-1544.
Success met with at Halle and Naumburg; efforts madeat Cologne, Münster, Osnabrück, Brunswick, and Merseburg.Progress abroad; the Turkish danger; the Councilpages [165-168]
2. Sad Forebodings.
False brethren; new sects; gloomy outlook for thefuturepages [169-174]
3. Provisions for the Future.
A Protestant Council suggested by Bucer and Melanchthon.Luther’s attitude towards the Consistories. He seeks to reintroducethe Lesser Excommunication. The want of aHierarchy begins to be feltpages [174-191]
4. CONSECRATION OF NICHOLAS AMSDORF AS “EVANGELICAL BISHOP” OFNAUMBURG (1542).
The Ceremony. Luther’s booklet on the Consecration ofBishops. Excerpts from his correspondence with the new“Bishop”pages [192-200]
5. Some Further Deeds of Violence. Fate of EcclesiasticalWorks of Art.
End of the Bishopric of Meissen. Destruction of ChurchProperty. Luther’s attitude towards pictures and images.Details as to the fate of works of art in Prussia, Brunswick,Danzig, Hildesheim, Merseburg, etc. Protest of theNuremberg artistspages [200-224]
CHAPTER XXXI. LUTHER IN HIS DISMAL MOODS,HIS SUPERSTITION AND DELUSIONSpages [225-318]
1. His Persistent Depression in Later Years. PersecutionMania and Morbid Fancies.
Weariness and pessimism. Grounds of his low spirits;suspects the Papists; and his friends. His single-handedstruggle with the powers of evilpages [225-241]
2. Luther’s Fanatical Expectation of the End of theWorld. His hopeless Pessimism.
Why he was convinced that the end was nigh. Allusionsto the end of the world in the Table-Talkpages [241-252]
3. Melanchthon under the Double Burden, of Luther’sPersonality and his own Life’s Work.
Some of Melanchthon’s deliverances. His state of servitude.His last years. His real character. Unfounded talesabout himpages [252-275]
4. Demonology and Demonomania.
Luther’s devil-lore. On all the evil the devil works in theworld. On the devil’s dwelling-place, his shapes and kinds.Witchcraft. Connection of Luther’s devil-mania with hischaracter and doctrine. The best weapons to use against thedevilpages [275-305]
5. The Psychology of Luther’s Jests and Satire.
His humour in the home and in his writings. He findsrelief in it amidst his troubles. Some instances of his jestspages [306-318]
CHAPTER XXXII. A LIFE FULL OF STRUGGLES OFCONSCIENCEpages [319-375]
1. On Luther’s “Temptations” in General.
Some characteristic statements concerning his “combatsand temptations”pages [319-321]
2. The Subject-matter of the “Temptations.”
“Supposing you had to answer for all the souls thatperish!” “If you do not penance shall you not likewiseperish?” “See how much evil arises from your doctrine!”pages [321-326]
3. An Episode. Terrors of Conscience become Temptationsof the Devil.
Schlaginhaufen falls into a faint at Luther’s house.Luther persuades himself that his remorse of consciencecomes from the devilpages [326-330]
4. Progress of his Mental Sufferings until their Flood-tidein 1527-1528.
“What labour did it not cost me ... to denounce thePope as Antichrist.” The height of the storm; “tossedabout between death and hell”; “I seek only for a graciousGod.” Luther pens his famous hymn, “A safe strongholdour God is still”; the hymn an echo of his strugglespages [330-345]
5. The Ten Years from 1528-1538. How to win back Peaceof Conscience.
At the Coburg. “I should have died without a struggle.”The waning of the “struggles by day and by night”;thoughts of suicide; how to reach peacepages [346-356]
6. Luther on his Faith, his Doctrine, and his Doubts, particularlyin his Later Years.
His notion of faith, (a) the accepting as true, (b) the believingtrust. His picture of himself and his difficulties inlate years; he compares his case with that of St. Paul andwith that of Christ in the Garden. Some misunderstandingsand false reports as to Luther’s having himself condemnedhis own life-work pages [356-375]
CHAPTER XXXIII. THE COUNCIL OF TRENT IS CONVOKED,1542. LUTHER’S POLEMICS AT THEIRHIGHEST TENSIONpages [376-431]
1. Steps taken and Tracts Published subsequent to 1537against the Council of the Church.
The Schmalkalden meeting in 1537. Luther, after havingasked for a Council, now opposes such a thing. His “Vonden Conciliis.” The Ratisbon Interim. The Council issummonedpages [376-381]
2. “Wider das Bapstum zu Rom vom Teuffel Gestifft.”The Papacy renews its Strength.
Luther is urged by highly placed friends to thwart the plansof Pope Paul III. The fury of his new book. How to dealwith Pope and Cardinals. The “Wittenberg Reformation”drawn up as a counterblast against the Council ofTrentpages [381-389]
3. Some Sayings of Luther’s on the Council and his ownAuthority.
“If we are to submit to this Council we might as well havesubmitted twenty-five years since to the lord of the Councils.”How Luther would have spoken to the Fathers of the Councilhad he attended itpages [389-394]
4. Notable Movements of the Times accompanied by Lutherwith “Abuse and Defiance down to the very Grave.”The Caricatures.
The Brunswick raid and Luther’s treatment of DukeHenry. His wrath against the Zwinglians: “A man that is aheretic avoid.” The exception Luther made in favour of Calvin,the friendly relations between the two, their similaritiesand divergencies. Luther vents his anger on the Jews in his“Von den Jüden” and “Vom Schem Hamphoras” (1543);exceptional foulness of his language in these two screeds.An earlier work of his on the Jews; reason why, in it, he isfairer to the Jews than in his later writings; some specialmotives for his later polemics against the Jews; his “Deultimis verbis Davidis.” His crusade against the Turks;his translation of the work of Richardus against the Alcoran.His last effort against the Papacy: “Popery Pictured”;some of the abominable woodcuts described; the state of soulthey presuppose. Pirkheimer on “the audacity of Luther’sunwashed tongue”pages [394-431]
CHAPTER XXXIV. END OF LUTHER’S LITERARYLABOURS. THE WHOLE REVIEWEDpages [432-556]
1. Towards a Christianity void of Dogma. ProtestantOpinions.
Harnack, etc., on Luther’s abandonment of individualpoints of Christian doctrine and destruction of the olderidea of faith: The Canon and true interpretation of Scripture;speculative theology. Luther’s own admissions thatChristian doctrine is a chain the rupture of any link of whichinvolves the rupture of the whole. Luther’s inconsistenciesin matters of doctrine as instanced by Protestant theologians:Original sin and unfreedom; Law and Gospel; Penance;Justification and good works; his teaching on merit, on thesacraments and the supper; on the Church and Divine worship pages [432-469]
2. Luther as a Popular Religious Writer. The Catechism.
Collected works: Luther’s preface to the Latin andGerman Collections. The Church-postils and Home-postils;advantages and shortcomings of his popularworks; his silence regarding self-denial. Origin and characterof the Larger and Smaller Catechisms. His Catechismscompared with the older catechetic works pages [470-494]
3. The German Bible.
The work of translation completed in 1534; how it waslaunched on the public and the extent of its success. Thevarious revisions of the work and the notes of the meetingsheld under Luther’s presidency. His anxiety to use only thebest German; “Chancery German.” The language of theGerman Bible, its scholarship; its inaccuracies; Luther’s“Sendbrieff” to defend his addition of the word “alone”in Romans iii. 28. The corrections of Emser the Dresden“scribbler.” How Luther belittled certain books of Scripture.Some side-lights into the psychology of Luther’s translation.The Bible in earlier ages; the “Bible in chains.”Luther’s indebtedness to earlier German translatorspages [494-546]
4. Luther’s Hymns.
His efforts to interest his friends in the making of hymns.His best-known hymn, “A safe stronghold our God is still.”Other hymns; their character and musical setting. The“Hymn for the Out-driving of Antichrist” once falselyascribed to Lutherpages [546-556]
CHAPTER XXXV. LUTHER’S ATTITUDE TOWARDSSOCIETY AND EDUCATION (continued in Vol. VI)pages [557-606]
1. Historical Outlines for Judging of his Social Work.
Luther’s “signal services” as they appear to certainmodern Protestants. The fell results of his twin principle:1º, that the Church is alien to the world, and 2º, has nopower to make binding lawspages [557-568]
2. The State and the State Church.
The State de-Christianised and the Church regarded as amere union of souls. Luther as “Founder of the modernState.” The secular potentate assimilated to King David.The New Theocracy. The Established Church. Significanceof the Visitation introduced in the Saxon Electorate. The“Instructions of the Visitors.” Luther to the end theplaything of divergent currentspages [568-606]

VOL. V.

THE REFORMER (III)

LUTHER