Luther, vol. 5 of 6

by Hartmann Grisar

After so offensive a rejection of any further attempts at reunion, the armed conflict with the Emperor which had so long been threatening now seemed bound to come. Luther, putting all subterfuge aside, looked this contingency boldly in the face. In a memorandum to his Elector dating from the end of January, 1539, he expressed himself even more strongly than before in favour of the right of armed resistance to the Emperor and the Empire; should the former have recourse to violent measures against the Evangel, then there would be no difference between the Emperor and a hired assassin; if the overlord attempts to impose on his subjects blasphemy and idolatry, he must expect to meet with bloody resistance on the part of those attacked.[1516]

While negotiations on which hung war or peace were in progress at Frankfurt, and while, in consequence of this, the question of the Council receded once more into the background, Luther was putting the finishing touch to his “Von den Conciliis und Kirchen,” which appeared in the spring of 1539.[1517] In spite of being weak and unwell his powers of work seemed inexhaustible; his own troubles and worries were all forgotten when it was a question of entering the lists as the leader of the movement. The work was intended to forestall the Œcumenical Council should it ever become an accomplished fact, and to frustrate as far as possible its harmful effects on himself. In it with the utmost audacity the author pits his own authority against that of the highest secular and ecclesiastical powers; his tone is at once so self-confident and so coarse that here again it provides the psychologist with an enigma.

With his projected Council, so he says at the commencement, the Pope in reality only wanted to deal the Emperor and all Christians “a blow on the snout.” He held out the Council to them just as, in playing with a dog, we offer him a morsel on the point of a knife, and, when he snaps at it, we hit him with the handle. He declares roundly that, “the Papists would not and could not hold a Council unless indeed they first took captive the Emperor, the kings and all the princes.”[1518] If the Emperor and the Princes wished “reprobates to slap their cheeks,” then let them continue to debate about the Council. The alleged impossibility of the Council he proclaims still more rudely, asserting that, the Papists being what they are, the whole world must despair of any amelioration of the Church: “They would rather leave Christendom to perish, and have the devil himself for their God and Lord, than accept Christ and give up even one jot of their idolatry.” Hence we must look for reformation from Christ our Lord, “and let them fare devilwards as they are bent on doing.”[1519]

He then goes on to explain that amendment was impossible on the olden principles of the Fathers and canons, but could come about only by means of Holy Scripture; the Fathers and canons were not at one; even the first four Œcumenical Councils—the history of which he treats summarily though with little real historical knowledge—had only been able to ratify the belief laid down in Scripture; for faith a surer and more stable foundation was necessary than that of ecclesiastical Councils ever subject to make mistakes. At the same time he has nothing but scorn for the claims of the ancient and universal Church to be the permanent infallible teacher on matters of faith; he has no eye for her divinely guaranteed power as it had been exemplified in the General Councils, so solemnly representing the Churches of the whole world. On the other hand, his own pretensions are far above question. He knows, so he asserts, much more about the ancient Councils than all the Papists in a lump. He could instruct the Council, should one actually be summoned, on its procedure and its standards. It has, according to him, no power in the Church save to reject new errors which do not agree with Scripture (as though a Council had ever adopted any other course). Even the office of a clergyman or schoolmaster may, he says, be compared with that of the Councils in so far as, within their own small sphere, they judge human opinions and human rules by the standard of the Word of God, and seek to oppose the devil. But just as, in the case of these, he cannot guarantee that they will always read Holy Scripture aright, so also in the case of the Councils.

If, however, such a solemn Council was convened—and such a thing might conceivably be of some use—then the first requirement, so he declares with surprising frankness, was “that, in the Council, the Pope should not merely lay aside his tyranny of human law, but also hold with us.... The Emperor and the kings must also help in this and compel the Pope should he refuse.”[1520] This he wrote for the disabusal of the infatuated, for at that time, strange to say, some Germans of the greatest influence still fancied it possible to pave the way for a reconciliation by means of negotiations and religious conferences, and were anxious to leave the Lutheran question in suspense until a General Council should meet. Luther further demands, that “the thoroughly learned in Holy Scripture ... and a few prudent and well-disposed laymen ... should also be invited to the Council. Then the abominations of the Pope would speedily be condemned.”

He adds: “Yes, you will say, but of such a Council there is no hope. That is what I think too.”[1521]

He is ready, however, to be content with a Provincial Council of the same sort held in Germany, and expresses the strange hope, that “the other monarchs would in time approve and accept the decisions of such a Council.” With this reference to the Provincial Council he is dallying with a proposal made by some short-sighted imperial advisers, viz. that a “free, German Council” should attempt to settle the controversy.

The author then proceeds to set forth his jumbled theories on the “Church” and finally brings the lengthy work to a conclusion with a protestation that his doctrine forms the very pillars on which the Church rests: “Whoever teaches differently, even were he an angel from heaven, let him be anathema” (Gal. i. 8). “We are determined to be the Pope’s master and to tread him under foot, as Psalm xci.[13] says: Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon.”[1522]

In many parts of the “Von den Conciliis und Kirchen” Luther is inclined to repeat himself, whilst the style exhibits a certain dreariness and monotony often met with in this class of Luther’s productions, at least when the ardour of his polemics begins to fail, or when his object in view is not popular instruction and edification. He himself on its completion wrote of it to Melanchthon who was attending the meeting at Frankfurt: “The book sadly vexes me, I find it weak and wordy.”[1523] At any rate with many who lacked any real discernment it no doubt served to cover Luther’s and his friends’ retreat from a position they had so long and persistently defended, viz. that a Council was the chief thing called for.