[2297] Cp. above, p. 181 ff.
[2298] See above, p. 191.
[2299] “Werke,” Erl. ed., 46, p. 184.
[2300] To Tileman Schnabel, etc., June 26, 1533, “Briefwechsel,” 9, p. 317.
[2301] P. Drews, ib., p. 101 f.
[2302] P. 580.
[2303] Wilhelm Hans, quoted in full, vol. ii., p. 312. What he says is corroborated by Emil Friedberg, the authority of law, who, speaking of the work of Carl Müller so often quoted above, says, that it is a “difficult business to determine Luther’s views,” since they are not always the same in his various writings, and since, under stress of circumstances, Luther sometimes said things that went directly against the principles elsewhere advocated by him. “Deutsche Zeitschr. f. KR.,” 20, 1911, p. 414.
[2304] The vacillation which characterised Luther’s attitude towards the State-Church system and which came from his early ideas concerning the true Christians who had no need of any authority over them, has recently been set forth as follows by the Protestant lawyer and historian Gustav v. Schulthess-Rechberg: “Luther’s true Christians were Utopian persons and hence his Church was the same. In his idealistic confidence in God he had expected too much from them. And thus there came for his Reformation an era of hesitancy and groping, which refused for a while to make way for more stable conditions. The Church which Luther had characterised as a necessary expedient for furthering the kingdom of God on earth now itself needed to be assisted and supported from without, if it was to suffice for its task. To achieve this we find Luther leaving no means untried. But his schemes were not very satisfactory. He put a patch here and another one there, appealed to the princes and then to the peasants, seeking to curry favour of one and the other simply for the sake of some small concession and in order to interest them in his Church.... At last Luther thought he had found a remedy: this was that the Church should seek support in the secular power. When quite at the end of his resources he had begun to remind the princes of their duties as rulers. From mere occasional allusions he soon passed on to energetic admonitions addressed to the ‘great ones,’ accompanied by his customary threats and abuse. It had indeed gone against the grain to summon the authorities to carry out his wishes, hence, at every opportunity, he insists on his independence of them.... Luther had in the event to submit to reproaches which he could not always honestly shift on to the shoulders of the ‘false priestlings and factious spirits.’”
Of Luther’s later years Schulthess-Rechberg says: “An era dawns when Luther can no longer see an ounce of good in the State; when he even tells the unworthy servant of God [the prince] to mind his own business. It is then that we find Luther declaring that the secular authorities have no power to watch over souls or to exercise the teaching office, that they have no authority over the clergy, etc. Here we see plainly how he, more than any other reformer, was driven by force of circumstances, and this again is a proof that Luther’s work was really more than he had bargained for. Luther ... never succeeded in viewing the relations between Church and State objectively. This and his constant efforts to disengage himself from Rome frequently gave an unexpected turn to his views. For instance, when he insists at times that heresy and unbelief do not concern the authorities (Erl. ed., 22, pp. 90, 93). Hardly has he said this than he finds himself compelled to hedge and practically to eat his words.” “Luther, Zwingli und Calvin,” etc (above, p. 573, n. 4), pp. 170-172.
[2305] In an article against P. Drews (“Zeitschr. f. KG.,” 29, 1908, p. 478 ff.), p. 488. Hermelink adds: (p. 489) “It is true that the system of an established Church did not correspond with Luther’s ideal, but it was a political necessity and therefore seemed to him willed by God.” Hermelink’s reference to the false ideals and eschatology which influenced Luther’s theory of Church and State may be admitted as in part correct. He is also right when he says: Luther, according to his frequent statement, wished to assemble the Christians from the kingdom of Antichrist before the end of the world. Ib., p. 313.