Before this, the young Professor (at Christmas, 1515) had told his hearers, that, just as the Prophets, wise men and scribes had been persecuted, so he was being persecuted now:
“Sed state firmiter, neque moveatur ullus contradictionibus; sic enim oportet fieri. Prophetæ, Sapientes, Scribæ, dum mittuntur ad iustos, sanctos, pios, non recipiuntur ab ipsis sed occiduntur.”
The supposed “saints” he goes on to describe in their true character. What they were bent on persecuting was really Grace, viz. what he preaches under the figure of “Christ our mother-hen”:
“Superbi semper contra iustitiam Dei pugnant et stultitiam æstimant, quæ sapientia [sic] eis mittitur; similiter veritas eis mendacium videtur. Imo persequuntur et occidunt eos, qui veritatem dicunt. Sic enim et ego semper prædico de Christo, gallina nostra. Efficitur mihi errans et falsum dictum: ‘Vult Dominus esse gallina nostra ad salutem, sed nos nolumus’.… Nolunt audire, quod iustitiæ eorum peccata sint, quæ gallina egeant, imo quod peius est, versi in vultures etiam ipsi alios a gallina rapere nituntur et persequuntur reliquos pullos.… Sicut Iudæi … iustitiam statuentes quod sibi placuit, ita isti hoc gratiam vocant quod ipsi somniant.” (Weim. ed., 1, p. 31.)
A few pages further on, the new Lutheran teaching on Grace is clearly seen in its process of growth:
“Ecce impossibilis est lex propter carnem; verumtamen Christus impletionem suam nobis impertit, dum se ipsum gallinam nobis exhibet, ut sub alas eius confugiamus et per eius impletionem nos quoque legem impleamus. O dulcis gallina, o beatos pullos huius gallinæ!” (P. 35.)
To the “vultures,” i.e. his opponents, he returns again in the same lectures. They build only on their “sapientia carnis” when they set out to gain what they consider to be virtue and the gifts of grace. (Weim. ed., 1, pp. 61, 62, 70.)
“In his maxime pereunt [peccant?] hæretici et superbi, dum ea pertinaciter diligunt, quasi ideo Deum diligant, quia hæc diligunt. Inde enim zelant et furiunt, ubi reprehenduntur in istis, et defendunt se ac zelum Dei sine scientia exercent.… Quantumlibet sapiant et bene vivant, recte adhuc de sapientia carnis vivere dicendi sunt.… Servi [superbi?] sine timore et occultissime superbi.… Talis est stultitia hypocritarum de virtutibus et gratiis Dei, præsumentium se esse integros et iustos.”
A trace of the antagonism within the Order is also found in the notes of the sermons preached in the summer of 1516. On July 6, Luther speaks of the greatest plague now rampant in the Church:
“Prosequimur, quæ incepimus, nam singularem illi tractatum quærunt, cum non sit hodie pestis maior per ecclesiam ista peste hominum, qui dicunt, ‘bonum oportet facere,’ nescire volentes, quid sit bonum vel malum. Sunt enim inimici crucis Christi i.e. bonorum Dei.”