# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1846 12 22_S50
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

judge, nor a defender of Luther. As to this man's spirit, I dare pass no judgment, for it is very difficult to do so, especially an unfavorable one; and yet, were I to be favorable to him as to a good man — which even his enemies admit — were I to be favorable to him as to one accused, which the laws permit even to sworn judges, or as to one who is oppressed, which humanity demands, how great would be the envy of those who, with feigned humility, take the field against learning, only so that they might not implicate me in the matter."

When the orators Marino Caracciolo and Girolamo Aleandro, in the year 1520, promised Erasmus a bishopric in the Pope's name if he would take up his pen against Luther in defense of the Pope's authority, he replied: "Luther is too great for me to write against him. Luther is too great to be understood by me. Indeed, Luther is so great that by reading a single page of his I learn more than from the whole of Thomas [Aquinas]."

Finally, Philip Melanchthon, in the preface to the third volume of Luther's Latin writings, cites a judgment of Erasmus of Rotterdam concerning Luther, which he was accustomed to pronounce: "Among all those whose writings exist after the Apostles, none is a more accurate interpreter of Scripture than Luther." (As for this judgment of Erasmus, we refer once more back to the anecdote of Luther's two greatest sins, which we already related in No. 5 of the second volume.)

Andreas Masius, a great scholar of languages (died 1573 at Zevenar in Cleves), declared in a numerous assembly of papists and Lutherans in the monastery of Weingarten:

"On a single page of Luther's writings there is more sound theology than is sometimes found in an entire book of any church father."

John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester — this otherwise zealous persecutor of the Lutherans (died 1535, executed by order of Henry VIII) — writes in a letter to Erasmus:

"He wishes he might once meet with him (Luther), if it could be arranged, in order to question him about certain things which he too (within the Roman Church) does not find pleasing"; he adds also, "Luther is so well versed in Scripture that it borders on a miracle"; he wishes only "that he had kept silent about the Pope."

Antoine Varillas (a Roman Catholic historian, died at Paris 1696):

It seems that nature had united in his (Luther's) person an Italian spirit with a German body: so lively, so energetic, so cheerful, so vigorous was he. No one surpassed him in the knowledge of secular learning and scholastic theology, and no one was to be reckoned his equal in the art of preaching. He possessed lofty eloquence to perfection; he knew where the human mind was weak or strong; he knew the point at which an attack was surest;

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however varied and stubborn the inclinations of his hearers might be, he had fathomed them all; he knew how to arouse or suppress the movements of the heart as was needful, either giving free course to their effects or checking them, and when a discourse was too difficult for the understanding to grasp, he did not fail to make it intelligible through imaginative power and the vividness and force of his imagery. Never did he leave the lecturer's chair, where he had, according to his will, either stirred or calmed the emotions of his hearers, without increasing his general reputation in social intercourse . . . In the end he won a complete victory, through the elegance of his German style of writing, over those whom his eloquence had moved and whose company he delighted; and just as at that time no one spoke and wrote his mother tongue better than he, so too has no one since spoken and written it with more grace. (Hist. des hérésies, lib. III.)

To the foregoing we add the following, which shows how Luther's own adversaries within the Roman Church judged him and — even if they do not always admit it — still think of him even now. Mathesius relates, among other things, this: when, through Luther's appearance, great commotion arose among the people and the authority of the priests threatened to sink, a distinguished man proposed "that a few hundred gulden should be stuffed down his (Luther's) throat"; but another, an Italian who knew Luther's character better, replied: "It is no use with him; the German beast cares nothing for money and takes none, even if it is offered to him." — Finally, Spener writes in his "Glaubenstrost," part 2, p. 522: "As I have learned from distinguished papists, who themselves have admitted in the presence of eminent clergy of their own, that they too had much to thank Luther for; for had he not come, the clergy would in the end have forced the nobility, the burghers, and the peasants to eat oat-straw." (To be continued.)

The Pure Doctrine of Justification, a Sure Touchstone of All Sects.
(See Luther's exposition of Psalm 117, from 1530.)

I give instruction to seek out and treat everywhere in Scripture the chief article of our Christian doctrine, namely, that without any merit of our own, by God's grace alone, given to us in Christ, we must become righteous, alive, and blessed, and that no other way or path, no other manner or work, can help us to this. For I see and experience all too well, day by day, how manifold are the ways in which the wretched devil lies in wait for this chief article, in order to root it out again.

And though the weary saints regard it as an unnecessary thing to press this so constantly and continually (for they imagine that they know it fairly well already and have long since finished learning it), yet I know full well how far their presumption falls short, and they know nothing at all of how much depends on this article. For where this one article remains pure and standing firm in the field, there Christendom also remains pure and finely united, and free of all factions; since this article, and nothing else, makes and preserves Christendom. All other articles may also put on a show of splendor among false Christians and hypocrites; but where this one does not remain, it is not possible to withstand any error or factious spirit. This I know for certain, and have tested it so thoroughly, that I could not refute the faith of either the Turks or the Jews if I had to proceed without this article.

And if factions do arise or spring up, have no doubt that they have certainly fallen away from this chief article — notwithstanding that they chatter a great deal about Christ with their mouths and otherwise deck and adorn themselves. For this article allows no factions to arise; since it cannot be otherwise: the Holy Spirit must also be present, who does not let factions arise, but gives and preserves unity.

And especially, when you hear a premature and unripe saint boasting that he knows quite well that we must be saved without our works, by God's grace alone, and acting as though this were, for him, a trifling art — then have no doubt whatsoever that this same person does not know what he is saying, and perhaps will never experience or taste it at all. For it is not an art that can be fully learned, nor one that a person can boast of mastering: it is an art that means to keep us as pupils, and itself to remain the master.

And all who rightly know and understand it do not boast that they can do it all; rather, they perceive something of it, as a sweet savor and fragrance, after which they strive and run; they marvel at it and cannot fully grasp it or take hold of it to the end, however much they would like to, but thirst, hunger, and yearn for it ever more and more, and never grow weary of hearing it or practicing it — just as St. Paul himself confesses in Philippians 3:12 that he has not yet attained it; and Christ, in Matthew 5:6, "calls blessed those who hunger and thirst after righteousness."

And whoever desires it may think of me in connection with this example, which I will now confess. The devil has caught me several times when I was not thinking of this chief article, and has tormented me so with sayings of holy Scripture that heaven and earth grew narrow for me. Then human works and laws were all in the right, and in the whole papacy there was no error. In short, no one had ever erred except Luther alone; all my best works, teaching, preaching, and books had to be condemned. I very nearly came to regard the shameful Mahomet as a prophet, and both Turks and Jews as nothing but saints.

Therefore, dear brother, be not proud, nor all too secure and certain that you know Christ well. You now hear how I confess and admit to you what the devil has been able to do
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