9. Prayer at the Wartburg
Against us it has been said that we were too disposed to make of Luther a “prayerless” man. One critic, in proof of Luther’s prayerfulness, points out that, in his Wartburg letters, Luther uses the word “Amen” no less than thirteen times in the text, apart from its use at the end of the letters. Now, in all the Epistles of St. Paul—which cover far more paper than these Wartburg letters—the word “Amen” occurs in the text only eleven times. But, notoriously, Luther was accustomed to use this word in rather unusual connections, as he does for instance when speaking of the wife of the “theologus coniugatus” Johann Agricola (“Dominus det, ut uteri onus feliciter exponat. Amen.” “Briefwechsel,” 3, p. 151).
Moreover, Luther’s prayers were very peculiar. We hear nothing of his having used his enforced stay at the Wartburg to ask of God whether the path he had chosen was the right one, and for the grace to carry out, not his own will, but that of God. In the interests of his new doctrine, he is, however, “paratus ire quo Dominus volet, sive ad vos sive alio.” (“Briefwechsel,” 3, p. 193.) He asks a friend to pray “ut non deficiat fides mea in Domino,” i.e. that his views may not change (ib., p. 214); “commenda, quæso, tuis orationibus Deo causam nostram.” (Ib., p. 324.) Elsewhere he writes:
“Benedictus Deus, qui nobis eam non solum dedit colluctationem adversus spiritualia nequitiæ, insuper revelavit nobis, non esse carnem aut sanguinem, a quibus oppugnamur in ista causa.… Satan furit in sapientibus et iustis suis.…”
above all, in Emser, whom he calls a “vas diaboli proprie obsessum.” (Ib., 3, p. 197.)