[1250] “Briefe,” 6, p. 321, of 1542. See above, vol. iv., p. 292.
[1251] Nov. 6, 1542, “Briefe,” 5, p. 505; cp. 6, p. 320.
[1252] Feb. 10, 1546, ib., 5, p. 789.
[1253] Feb. 7, 1546, ib., p. 787.
[1254] Feb. 1, 1546, ib., p. 784.
[1255] Above, vol. ii., p. 140 f.; also vol. iii., pp. 233 ff., 264 ff., 301; vol. iv., pp. 161 ff., 318 ff.
[1256] Feb. 6, 1546, “Briefe,” 5, p. 786.
[1257] Above, vol. iii., p. 305.
[1258] Ib., p. 268.
[1259] On certain frivolous expressions which Luther was fond of using of holy things his opponents seized as proofs that he was little better than an atheist or blasphemer. There is indeed no doubt that religious reverence suffered by his jests. Do you suppose Christ was drunk, he repeatedly asks, when He commanded this or that? The Son of Man came to save what was lost, but He set about it foolishly enough. Unless Our Lord God understands a joke, then I shouldn’t like to go to heaven. He even has a jest about the feathers of the Holy Ghost, pokes fun at the Saints, etc., etc.—On the occasion of his journey to Heidelberg, in 1518, undertaken at a grave juncture when the penalties of the Church were hanging over his head, he said jestingly, that he had no need of contrition, confession or satisfaction, the hardships of the journey being equal to “contritio perfecta,” etc. (“Briefwechsel,” 1, p. 184). The Pietists were not so far wrong when they asked in their day: “Who would wish to approve all the jests of that holy man, our dearly-beloved Luther?” (Cp. Frank, “Luther im Spiegel seiner Kirche” (“Zeitschr. f. wiss. Theol.,” 1905, p. 473.)) “Some readers may, for instance, be scandalised at the passages where Luther makes fun of Scripture texts or articles of faith, e.g. the Trinity.” Thus in the “Beil. z. M. Allg. Ztng.,” 1904, No. 26.