# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 02 23_S71
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

The Lutheraner.

"God's Word and Luther's teaching shall pass away neither now nor nevermore."

Published by C. F. W. Walther.

Volume 3.

St. Louis, Mo., February 23, 1847.

No. 13.

Terms: The Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at a subscription price of one dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who must pay half of this in advance and bear the postage. — In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 cents.

The Jesuit Morality.

The "Wahrheitsfreund" ["Friend of Truth"], in several recently published issues, shares the judgments of a Protestant concerning the Jesuits, which must astonish every Protestant. For these are nothing less than the most eloquent apology for the Jesuit order. From this one sees, first, what dreadful darkness has again gained ground among the so-called Protestants, and further, how the antichristian papacy has recovered from the wounds it received through the Reformation, how it has grown stronger and stronger again, and now rises up anew, dreadfully threatening. For, alas, that Protestant's judgments do not stand alone. Not only is nearly the entire Episcopal Church in England infected, through a certain Pusey, with a decided inclination toward Rome, but even in Germany, precisely among the so-called believers, there is increasingly forming again a notion of a visible church, by which one must finally and necessarily arrive at the thought: if there is still any true church in the world, it would have to be the Roman one—a notion which, if pursued strictly, must sooner or later lead back to the Roman Church.

This was precisely what once made Luther and the witnesses to the truth who arose with him so joyful in their struggle against the Roman hierarchy (priest-kingdom): that they knew the church was not a visible, well-ordered spiritual state with its prelates, and that they could say: "We do not grant them that they are the church, and we will not listen to what they command or forbid under the name of the church. For, thank God, a child of seven years knows what the church is, namely, the holy believers, and the little sheep who hear the voice of their shepherd. For thus the children pray: 'I believe in one holy Christian church.'" (Smalcald Articles, Part III, 12).

This concept of the church has now been almost entirely abandoned as a fanatical notion by many Protestants who wish to be churchly, and they have repeatedly returned to the concept of an outward, organized institution. Therefore, so many Protestants have now not only lost the old dread of the Roman priest-kingdom, but they even look with envious admiration at the splendid form of this so-called church, and indeed, amid the fragmentation of the Protestants, are gripped by a secret homesickness for the great old cathedral.

So it indeed had to come, both with respect to the Protestants and with respect to the papacy. Regarding the former, what St. Paul writes had to be fulfilled: "Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved: for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." 2 Thessalonians 2:10–12. But it must also go with the antichristian papacy as it does; for according to the prophecies of Scripture, the Antichrist (that is, the pope) was only to be revealed through the Reformation and dealt a deadly wound, but only through the appearing of Christ on the Last Day is he to be brought to a complete end. 2 Thessalonians 2:8; compare verses 1–10.

This is also attested by our public confessions. Among other things, the Apology of the Augsburg Confession says: "Although the Antichrist, with his false worship (Baaliticus cultus una cum regno Pontificio), will in part remain until Christ the Lord shall come openly and judge, yet all Christians should be warned to guard themselves against such idolatry. . . For this very reason God has graciously caused his gospel to shine, that we might be warned and saved." (Article on the Abuses, no. 3.)

The more powerful, brazen, and shameless the Roman church now rises up, as though she had never troubled a drop of water, and the more powerless, faint-hearted, and ashamed the Protestants now appear in confronting her, the more necessary it is that everyone to whom God has granted knowledge of the evangelical truth not allow himself to be dazzled by an outward, imposing form which the Roman church presents to the Christians who stand opposed to her, and which is now so often mistakenly held to be the true form of the church. Important here, among other things, is that one come to know the Jesuits. They form an order which arose shortly before Luther's death (confirmed in 1540 by Pope Paul III), whose chief purpose is to shore up the pope's authority, which had been shaken by the Reformation, and his entire priest-kingdom.

In order to attain this its highest, indeed its only purpose, this order has of course always had to follow the most disgraceful maxims, and it went so far in this that even a pope himself, in order not to lose all credibility, once found himself compelled to abolish this order. This was done by Clement XIV (Ganganelli), who, among other things, in his bull against them (of July 21, 1773, Dominus ac Redemptor noster) writes the following: that "right from their origin manifold seeds of discord and jealousy sprang up, not only within the society itself, but also against the secular clergy, against academies, universities, public schools, indeed even against the princes in whose states they had been received. — There was never lacking," it continues, "the gravest accusations made against this society, which disturbed the peace and quiet of Christendom not a little." This is substantiated in the bull with facts. It also expressly mentions "the use and propagation of such doctrines as the Apostolic See had rightly condemned as dangerous and manifestly offensive to good discipline and morals." Finally it states "that it is scarcely or not at all possible that, so long as the Society of Jesuits continues to exist, the true and lasting peace of the church can be restored." — Thus wrote a pope. — Yet even before this, a general of the Jesuits, Francis Borgia, had spoken the remarkable and, as it were, prophetic word about the Jesuits: "Intravimus ut agni, regnavimus ut lupi, expellimur ut canes, renovabimur ut aquilae," that is: "We entered as lambs, we ruled as wolves, we are driven out as dogs, we shall be renewed as eagles." And so indeed it happened. After Napoleon had fallen, Pope Pius VII believed that he could strengthen the weakened power of his realm by nothing better than by restoring the Jesuit order. This restoration was then in fact accomplished by a bull of August 7, 1814 (Sollicitudo omnium). Since then the Jesuits have everywhere again been carrying on their sinister work.