15. What mischief arose out of Luther's doctrine?
16. What did Luther himself say respecting the danger of his doctrine?
17. What were the teachings of the Roman church on justification?
18. To what extreme did the church of Rome go in the matter of good works?
19. What was the nature of the works in which Roman Catholics trusted too much? (Note 6.)
20. What influence on morals did the doctrine have that substitutes could be employed to receive punishment for sins?
SECTION III.
1. The Growth of Luther's Rebellion.—The thing most important, the one which drew with it the gravest consequences, and which led to the greatest good produced by the Reformation, was the rebellion of Luther against the authority of the pope. He did not come out in open rebellion at the first, but arrived at that state by gradual and imperceptible steps. When his opposition to the sale of indulgences met with reproof from the pontiff, he appealed from the pope ill-informed to the pope better-informed. When that pope better-informed still held him to be in error and refractory, he appealed to a general, free council of the whole church; but when no heed was taken of this appeal, and Leo, pressed by Eckius, Cajetan and others, excommunicated him, he then answered by burning the pope's bull of excommunication, and stood in open rebellion to the authority of the pontiff. When the pope appealed to Emperor Charles to make the excommunication of some force by the power of the secular authority vested in him, the emperor, contrary to the protests of the pope's legates, resolved to give the Reformer a hearing before proceeding against him. Accordingly Luther was summoned before the diet at Worms, where he not only insisted upon having a hearing before a free, general council of the church, but a council that would accept the Bible as the final authority upon the questions at issue between himself and the pontiff.
2. The Catholic Rule of Faith.—This was demanding more than the pope could grant; for the Catholics have never exalted the Bible above the church, but have always held that the scriptures must be accepted as construed by the church, and in the days of Luther the pope was the church. The Catholic rule of faith in respect to the laws by which the church is to be governed is: "The word of God, at large, whether written in the Bible or handed down from the apostles by tradition, and as it is understood and explained by the Catholic church."[[33]] Besides their rule of faith, which is scripture and tradition, "Catholics acknowledge an unerring judge of controversy, or sure guide in all matters relating to salvation—viz., the church."[[34]]