The first and chief part of the work was to prove, that it was both wrong and presumptuous for the Popes to style themselves heads of Christendom, and that it was the devil alone who had put such a notion into their heads. In the second part it is demonstrated that in particular the claim made by the Popes that no one had the right to judge or to depose them was of fiendish origin. Finally, in the third, it is shown that the alleged handing over of the Roman Empire by the Greeks to the Germans through the instrumentality of the Popes was also a mere hellish lie.
Sincere admirers of Luther read with amazement this book, which, for all its ferocity, is so reminiscent of the gutter. Some, even of his followers, again openly expressed the opinion that by it he had harmed himself more than any foe could have done—so unmeasured are his words and so utterly crazy the things he propounds. At times the pages seem to have been written in nothing short of a paroxysm of hate, and can only be understood by bearing in mind the author’s frightful state of inward turmoil.
The very first words give us a glimpse of what is to come: “The most hellish Father, St. Paulus Tertius, as though he were Bishop of the Roman Churches, has written two briefs to Carolus Quintus, our Lord Emperor.... He has also, to speak by permission, issued a Bull almost for the fifth time, and now once more the Council is to meet at Trent; no one, however, may attend it but only his own brew, the Epicureans and those who please him.” Luther proceeds to ask whether this can really be a Council, which is ruled by the “gruesome abomination at Rome, who styles himself Pope,” and not rather some “puppet-show got up during the Carnival to tickle the Pope’s fancy.”
The fury of the writer increases as he proceeds and he goes on to make the following demands: “Now let Emperor, kings, princes, lords and whoever can, set the axe to the root, and may God give no luck to hands that hang idle. First of all let them take from the Pope, Rome, Romandiol, Urbino, Bononia and all that he holds as Pope.... He won them by blasphemy and idolatry, and has laid waste the kingdom of Christ, wherefore he is termed the abomination of desolation [Mt. xxiv. 15]. After this the Pope himself, the Cardinals and the whole scoundrely train of his idolatrous Popish Holiness should be seized, and, as blasphemers, have their tongues torn from their throats and nailed in a row on the gallows-tree, in like manner as they affix their seals in a row to their Bulls; though even this would be but slight punishment for all their blasphemy and idolatry. After this let them hold as many Councils as they please on the gallows, or in hell with all the demons.... They are criminal, shameless, obstinate creatures.”[1532]
The gloomy fancy that inspires his furious pen has, however, another kind of death in readiness for such opponents. “Were I Emperor I know full well what I should do: I would couple together all the blasphemous knaves, Pope, Cardinals and all the Popish crew, bind them and take them down to Ostia where there is a little stretch of water called in Latin the Mare Tyrrhenum.... Into it I would drop the lot and give them a good bath, along with the keys with which they bind and loose everything.... They might also take their pastoral staves so as to be able to smite the face of the waters.... And, lastly, as refreshing fodder and drink, they might have all the decrees, decretals, bulls, indulgences, etc. What do you wager that after half an hour in this healing bath all their diseases would cease?... On it I would risk Christ our Lord.”[1533]
“The Pope,” so he exclaims on the same page, “is the head of the accursed Churches of all the worst knaves upon earth, a Vicar of the devil, a foe of God, an adversary of Christ and a destroyer of His Churches, a teacher of all lies, blasphemy and idolatry, an arch-church-thief and robber of the Church’s keys, a murderer of kings and an inciter to all kinds of bloodshed, a whoremonger above all whoremongers and the author of every kind of immorality, even of that which may not be mentioned, an antichrist, a man of sin, a child of destruction, a real werewolf. Whoever refuses to believe this, let him fare away with his God, the Pope.”[1534]
“As an elect teacher and preacher to the Churches of Christ bound to speak the truth, I have herewith done my part. He who is set on stinking may go on stinking.... Let a Church be where it may throughout the world it can have no other Gospel ... than we have here in our Churches at Wittenberg.”[1535]
As to how high Luther as a preacher and man of learning set himself and his Church above the Pope and his, we can see from what follows: “The whole Roman mob is nothing else but a stable full of great, rude, loutish, shameless donkeys, who know nothing of Holy Scripture, or of God, or of Christ, or what a bishop is, what God’s Word, or the Spirit, or baptism is, or what are sacraments, the keys and good works.... I, Dr. Martin, am still living, and having been brought up in the Pope’s school and donkey’s stable became a Doctor of Theology, and was even accounted a good and learned Doctor, which I assuredly was, so that I can truly testify how deep, and high, and broad, and long is their skill in Holy Scripture.”[1536]—And lest someone should object: “Have you any right to judge?” he replies lightheartedly: “It is enough for us to know that the Pope-Ass has been condemned by God Himself and all the angels.” “We cannot be heretics, for we have believed and confessed the Scriptures.”[1537]
An earlier saying of his to the effect that: “I am carried away and know not by what spirit” (“rapior nescio quo spiritu”), comes before the mind of the reader when Luther describes yet a third form of death for the Pope and his courtiers. He would fain see him, the Cardinals and the whole court, dealt with according “to fox-law, their hides being dragged over their heads, that they may thus be taught to pay with their skins; after this the hides may be thrown into the healing bath of Ostia, or into the fire.” “See and behold,” he exclaims, “how my blood boils! How it longs to see the Papacy punished though my spirit is well aware that no temporal penalty can make amends, even for one single Bull or decree!”[1538]
Luther’s defenders have, strange to say, thought it necessary to lay stress on the fact that these three proposals cannot have been seriously meant.[1539] Everyone will admit that they are not a settled plan, for the carrying out of one would have rendered the others difficult or unfeasible. But does this fact modify in any way the revolting character of these words or cancel the invitation to make use of violence? It would be better to argue, that, owing to his fanatism about which only a pathologist can judge, he was not fully aware of what he was doing.—Some Catholics have suggested that the abnormal virulence of many pages of this book was due to the excitement caused by intoxicating liquors. Of this unfortunately there is no proof. That the reason for his horrible language must be sought rather in mental overstrain, in the preponderance just then of an abnormal side of his spiritual life, seems fairly clear also from the other quotations from this work which we were obliged to adduce elsewhere.[1540]