[3. Some Sayings of Luther’s on the Council and his own Authority]
“They now seek to get at us under cover of a nominal Council,” says Luther, “in order to be able to shriek at us.... This is Satan’s wisdom as against the foolishness of God. How will God extricate Himself from their cunning schemes? Still, he is the Lord Who will mock at His contemners. If we are to submit to this Council we might as well have submitted twenty-five years since to the lord of the Councils, viz. the Pope and his Bulls. We shall not consent to discuss the matter until the Pope admits that the Council stands above him, and until the Council takes sides [with us] against the Pope, for even the Pope’s own conscience already reproaches him. They are mad and crazy. ‘Deo gratias.’”[1544]
A series of similar utterances may be quoted.
“The Papists are ashamed of themselves and stand in fear of their own conscience. Us they do not fear because, like Virgil of old, they console themselves with having already survived worse things. The paroxysm will cease suddenly.... They put to death the pious John Hus, who never departed in the least from the Papacy but only reproved moral disorders.”[1545] “For it was then not yet the time to unmask the [Roman] beast” (this having been reserved for me). “I, however, have not attacked merely the abuses but even the doctrine, and have bitten off the [Pope’s] heart. I don’t think the Pope will grow again.... The article of Justification has practically taken the shine out of the Pope’s thunderbolts.”[1546]
“Our Church by the grace of God comes quite near to that of the Apostles, because we have the pure doctrine, the catechism, the sacraments and the [right] use of government, both in the State and in the home. If the Word, which alone makes the Church, stands and flourishes, then all is well. The Papists, however, who seek to erect a Church on conciliar decrees and decretals will only arouse dissensions among themselves and ‘wash the tiles’—however much they may pride themselves on their reason and wisdom.”[1547]
“I must for once boast, for it is a long while since I did so last. A Council whereby the Church might be reformed has long been clamoured for. I think I have summoned such a Council as will make the ears of the Papists tingle and their heart burst with malice: for I take it, that, even should the Pope hold a General Council, he will not be able to effect so much by it. First, I have driven the Papists to their books, particularly to Scripture, and deposed the heathen Aristotle and the ‘Summists.’ ... Secondly, I have made them to be more reserved about their indulgences. Thirdly, I have almost put an end to the pilgrimages and field-devilry.” Only look, he says, at the reduction of the monasteries and the many other things which no Council could ever have achieved but which have been brought about by “our people.” Everything had been lost, the “Our Father, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, Penance, Baptism, Prayer [etc., he enumerates twenty-one similar things].” “No institution, no monastery, university or presbytery” taught even one of these articles aright; now, however, “I have set all things in order.”[1548]
I can “write books as well as the Fathers and the Councils,” and this I may say “without pride.”[1549] This is because I have “exercised myself” in the Word of God by “prayer, meditation and temptations” (“oratio, meditatio, tentatio”).[1550] In my “temptation” the devil raged against me in every way, but God in a wonderful manner “kept alight His torch so that it did not go out.”[1551] Persecution overtook me “like the Apostles,” who “fared no better than their Lord and Master.”[1552] But the devil has entered into His foes the Papists, to whom, “in spite of all our good and well-meant admonitions, prayers and entreaties,”[1553] they have surrendered themselves; and rightly so, for the Papists (as I know from my own youthful experience when I did the same myself) refuse even to recognise the Gospel as a mystery.[1554] They simply make an end of all religion.
But, all this notwithstanding, as the Council shall learn “I am really a defender and prop of the Pope. After my death the Pope will suffer a blow which he will be unable to withstand. Then they will say: Would that we now had Luther to give some advice; but if anyone offers advice now they refuse it; when the hour is passed God will no longer be willing.”[1555]
After “God had given me that splendid victory which enabled me to get the better of my monkish vocation, the vows, masses and all the other abominations ... Pope and Emperor were alike unable to stop me.” It is true that I still have temptations to humble me, “but we remain victorious and shall conquer.”[1556]
“These Italians [at Trent they were present in large numbers] are profane men and Epicureans. No Pope or cardinal for the last six hundred years has read the Bible. They understand less of the catechism than does my little daughter. May God preserve us from such blindness and leave us His divine Word.”[1557]