It may be to the purpose to quote here some undated statements of Luther’s which paint in lurid style his frequent struggles of mind and his manner of resistance.
Jerome, Augustine and Ambrose had “carnal and childish temptations”; “these are nothing compared with Satan who strikes us, the [Greek: skolops], that, as it were, fastens us to the gallows; then Jerome’s and the others’ child-temptations are chased away entirely.”[1418]—“On one occasion I was greatly tempted in my garden near the bush of lavender, whereupon I sang the hymn ‘Now praise we Christ the Holy One,’ otherwise I should have expired on the spot. Hence, when you feel such a thought, say, ‘This is not Christ.’ ... This I preach and write, but I am not yet at home in this art when tempted in this way.”[1419]
The worst temptations of all are those when “one does not know whether God is the devil or the devil God.”[1420] “The Apostle Judas, when the hour [of temptation] came, walked into the snare and knew not how to get out. But we who have taken the field against him [the devil] and are at grips with him know, by God’s grace, how to meet and resist him.”[1421]—“The devil can affright me to such an extent that in my sleep the sweat breaks out all over me; otherwise I do not trouble about dreams or signs.... Sad dreams are the work of the devil. Often has he driven me from prayer and put such thoughts into my head that I have run away; the best fights I have had with him were in my bed by the side of my Katey.”[1422]
Elsewhere, however, he says: “I have found the nocturnal encounters far harder than the daylight ones”; “but, that Christ is master, this I can show not merely by Holy Scripture but also by experience”; “God gives richly of both. But all has become bitter to me through these temptations.”[1423]—“I know from my own experience what we read of in the Psalms (vi. 7): ‘Every night I will wash my bed: I will water my couch with my tears.’ In my temptations I have often wondered and asked myself whether I had any heart left in my body, so great a murderer is Satan; but he will not long keep the upper hand, for he has indeed burnt his fingers on Christ.”[1424]
To add to the terrors of such struggles came thoughts of suicide. When Leonard Beyer, an Augustinian, who had become pastor of Guben, spoke to Luther of his temptations to take his own life, and of the voice which occasionally whispered to him “Stick a knife into yourself,” Luther answered: “This used to be the same with me. No sooner did I take a knife in my hand, than such thoughts came to me; nor could I kneel down to pray without the devil driving me out of the room. We have to suffer from the great devils, the ‘theologiæ doctores’; but the Turks and Papists have only the little devils” to tempt them.[1425] It would indeed be no wonder if Luther in his excited frame of mind was for a while troubled by such thoughts of suicide. By thoughts of the sort sufferers of gloomy disposition are often tormented quite involuntarily and without any fault of their own. It is hardly worth our while to prove that another passage, which occurs in Cordatus, is not at all to the point though it has been quoted against Luther as showing his inclination to suicide. There, in his usual vein of exaggeration, he says that he “would hang himself on the nearest tree” were Satan to succeed in dragging down Christ from heaven. Surely there was just as little likelihood of his being his own hangman as of the enemy succeeding in this.[1426] And yet some Catholic polemists who believed in the fable that Luther killed himself, seized on such passages in order to show that Luther had long been bent on suicide.
How to find Peace of Conscience
If, towards the end of the ‘thirties, Luther was more successful in countering his inward anxieties, this may have been due to the means he used and the efficacy of which he frequently extols. Some of the remedies to which he had recourse appear comparatively innocent, and had even been recommended by Catholic spiritual writers to be used when the circumstances demanded. Others, however, must be described as doubtful and even dangerous, particularly considering what his moral position was.
Above all he recommends distraction; people tempted should engage in cheerful intercourse, or in games; in his own case he had urgently desired the return of his friends, “in order that Satan may no longer rejoice that we are so far apart.”[1427] He also bears witness to the improvement which resulted from cheerful, animated conversation.