To the measure of their viciousness, stupidity and obstinacy must be added vulgar impudence of the worst sort: “They shamelessly and scandalously relieve themselves of their filth in front of all the world.” “Such rude fellows remind me of a coarse clod-hopper who would ease himself in the marketplace before everyone, all the while pointing to a house where a little child is modestly and privily relieving nature, and who would imagine that he had thereby excused himself and provoked everybody to laugh at the child.” “Ought not such rascals to be hunted down with hounds and driven out with rods.... Let them go, blind leaders of the blind that they are! God’s endless wrath has come upon them so that now they can no longer see anything.”[1373]
According to recent research it is to this trying time of inward conflict, after his recovery from his illness in 1527, that Luther’s famous Hymn “A safe stronghold our God is still” (“Ein’ feste Burg”) belongs. This “great hymn of the evangelical community,” as Köstlin termed it, proclaims, in the words of the Psalmist, that God is the strong bulwark and sure refuge of Luther’s cause.
“The ancient Prince of Hell
Hath risen with purpose fell;
Strong mail of Craft and Power
He weareth in this hour,
On Earth is not his fellow.
••••••••
And were this world all devils o’er,
And watching to devour us,
We lay it not to heart so sore,
Not they can overpower us.
••••••••
God’s Word, for all their craft and force,
Shall not one moment linger.”[1374]