On the very same page he vents his anger against the supreme Imperial Court of Justice, because, “in matters pertaining to the Gospel and the Church,” its sentences did not accord with his. “I shan’t be a hypocrite, but shall speak the truth and say: See what a devil’s strumpet reigns in the Imperial Kammergericht, which ought to be a heavenly jewel in the German land, the one consolation of all who suffer injustice.”
Particularly effective was his incitement of the people to hate Popery. “We Germans must remain Germans and the Pope’s own donkeys and victims, even though we are brayed in the mortar like sodden barley, as Solomon says (Prov. xxvii. 22); we stick fast in our folly. No complaints, no instruction, no beseeching, no imploring, not even our own daily experience of how we have been fleeced and devoured opens our eyes.”[277]—“The Emperor and the Princes,” he had already said, “openly go about telling lies of us”;[278] “pigs and donkeys,” “mad and tipsy Princes,” such are the usual epithets with which he spices his language here and later.
“Out of deep sympathy for us poor Germans”[279] it is that he ventures to speak thus in the name of all.
He boldly holds up his Evangel as the German preaching par excellence. He declares: “I seek the welfare and salvation of you Germans.”[280]—“We Germans have heard the true Word of God for many years, by which means God, the Father of all Mercy, has enlightened us and called us from the horrible abominations of the Papal darkness and idolatry into His holy light and Kingdom. But with what gratitude and honesty we have accepted and practised it, it is terrible to contemplate.”
Formerly, he says, we filled every corner with idolatries such as Masses, Veneration of the Saints, and good works, but now we persecute the dear Word, so that it would not be surprising should God flood Germany, not only with Turks, but with real devils; indeed, it is a wonder He has not done so already.[281]
However small the hope was of any improvement resulting from his preaching, he fomented the incipient schism by such words as these: “They [the Romans] have always abused our simplicity by their wantonness and tyranny; they call us mad Germans, who allow themselves to be hoaxed and made fools of.... We are supposed to have an Empire, but it is the Pope who has our possessions, honour, body, soul and everything else.... Thus the Pope feeds on the kernel and we nibble at the empty shells.”[282]
Finally, there are some who select certain traits of Luther’s character in order to represent him as the type of a true German. Such specifically German characteristics were certainly not lacking in Luther; it would be strange, indeed, were this not the case in a man of German stock, hailing from the lower class and who was always in close touch with his compatriots. Luther was inured to fatigue, simple in his appearance and habits, persevering and enduring; in intercourse with his friends he was frank, hearty and unaffected; with them he was sympathetic, amiable and fond of a joke; he did not, however, shrink from telling them the truth even when thereby offence might be given; towards the Princes who were well-disposed to him and his party he behaved with an easy freedom of manner, not cringingly or with any exaggerated deference. In a sense all these are German traits.[283] But many of these qualities, albeit good in themselves, owing to his public controversy, assumed a very unpleasant character. His perseverance degenerated into obstinacy and defiance, his laborious endurance into a passionate activity which overtaxed his powers, and he became combative and quarrelsome and found his greatest pleasure in the discomfiture of his opponents; his frankness made way for the coarsest criticism. The anger against the Church which carried him along found expression in the worst sorts of insults, and, when his violence had aroused bitter feelings, he believed, or at least alleged, he was merely acting in the interests of uprightness and love of truth. Had he preserved his heritage of good German qualities, perfected them and devoted them to the service of a better cause, he might have become the acknowledged spokesman of all Germans everywhere. He could have branded vice and instilled into the hearts of his countrymen the love of virtue more strongly and effectively than even Geiler of Kaysersberg; in seasoned and effective satire on matters of morals he would have far excelled Sebastian Brant and Thomas Murner; in depth of feeling and sympathetic expression he could have rivalled Bertold of Ratisbon, and his homely ways would have qualified him to enforce the Christian precepts amongst all the grades and conditions of German life even more effectively than any previous preacher.