The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1883, Page 23

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. The Lutheran Pioneer.

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23

Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses.

In the centre of our picture, Luther nails to
the church-dooy his ninety-five theses; on the
left, Tetzel sells indulgences, and commits Lu-
ther’s writing to the flames; and on the right,
the Wittenberg Students are handling his own
writing against Luther in the same way. This
occurred in the year 1517. In that year Pope
Leo X., an infidel and ridiculer of Bible doc-
trines, instituted the sale of indulgences, in
order to get as much money as possible from
the people. An indulgence was a written cer-
tificate which promised to the holder, who had
paid in money the price asked
for it, freedom from all punish-
ment of sin in this life and in
purgatory. John Tetzel, a bold
and reckless fellow, was em-
ployed as the principal salesman
of these indulgences in Ger-
many. He carried on this bus-
iness in a most scandalous man-
ner. He told the people that
as soon as the money, paid for
the deliverance of a soul from
purgatory, rang in his box, the
soul would leap up to heaven;
he told them that sorrow on ac-
count of sin and repentance
were not needed by him who
would buy a letter of indul-
gence. Luther soon found out
the consequences of this indul-
gence business. Many of his
people, on coming to confession,
declared that they would not
leave off sinning, and appealed
to their letters of indulgence.
With a sorrowful heart Luther
saw the people cheated, not only
out of their money, but out of
their souls’ salvation. He wrote
a letter to the Archbishop of
Mainz, beseeching him, by his authority, to put
a stop to the scandalous and immoral proceedings
of Tetzel and others. But in vain! Luther now
felt it his duty as pastor of the congregation at
Wittenberg and as Doctor of the Holy Scrip-
tures to lift up his voice against the abuse of in-
dulgences. He drew up 95 Theses and, on the
31st of October, 1517, he nailed these Theses
to the door of the church at Wittenberg, de-
claring himself ready to dispute with any one
upon the truth of the doctrine contained in
these 95 propositions. In these Theses Luther
struck the keynote of the Reformation—salva-
‘tion through Christ alone. They were there-
fore hailed with joy by thousands of anxious
souls as the dawn ofa bright Gospel day after
the long dark night of Romish superstition and
corruption. In a few days they had spread
over all Germany, and in a few weeks they
were read throughout all Europe. When Dr.
Fleck rend them, he cried out in the height of
his joy: ‘Ho, ho! this man will do it: he
comes, upon whom we have waited so long.”

| pered in spite of all enemies.

He then told Luther to go on in good cheer
since God and all the prayers of the captives |
in the Romish Babylon would be with him. |
Others again were alarmed and frightened. }
But Luther said, ‘If the work is not begun in |
God’s name, it will soon come to naught; but |
if it is begun in His name, let Him do as seems |
‘to Him good.’”? Again he said, “Let Christ
see to it whether the cause be mine or His.’’|
But it was Christ’s cause, and therefore it pros-|
God’s appointed |
time for the Reformation of His Church had |
come, and Luther, without knowing it, was
God’s chosen -instrument for the accomplish-

ah it

ment of this great and blessed work. In after
years Luther himself said: ‘*Who was I,a
miserable and despised brother, looking then
more like a corpse than a man, that I should
set myself against the majesty of the pope, who
was a terror not only to the kings of the earth
and to the whole world, but also to heaven
and hell, if I may so speak, and at whose nod
all must obey. What and how my heart suf-
fered in that first and second year, and in what
humility, which was not false nor feigned, but
most real, I would almost say in what despair,
I labored, about this the secure spirits who
afterwards with great pride and presumption
attacked the majesty of the pope, know, alas!
but little.”

A Martyr of our Lutheran Faith.

The City of Paderborn had accepted the Re-
formation, but the Roman Catholic bishop was
very anxious to reclaim it. In the year 1585

the mayor of the city was Liborius Wichart, «
?

man unswerving in the faith, against whose
firmness were dashed all the efforts of the
bishop to take away the religious liberty and

civil rights of the city. Finally, after a siege,

the bishop was successful in taking the city,

and then executed bloody vengeance against

his opponents. All the principal Lutherans
were at once condemned to death; of the rest,
those who would not turn Roman Catholics,
were banished from the city; but Wichart was
retained, in order by a terrible example to

| frighten others—he was to be put to a horrible

death. From early morning, all day long,
throughout the entire night and a portion of
the following day, Wichart stood
at the stake. His enemies and
those whom he had formerly
punished on account of their
wickedness, as well as the Span-
ish soldiers, now came, mocked
him and spit in his face. The
priest carried on worst of all.
The day was extremely hot, but
the soldiers knocked off his hat
and raised it on a spear before
the stake, so that Wichart was
compelled to stand bare-headed
under the burning rays of the
sun. He received neither food
nor drink. When faint and
weary, and about to sink down,
he was stirred up again. On
. the second day he was released
from the stake, but only in or-
der at once to be tortured.
Holes were cut into his breast
and boiling oil poured in. Then
he was hung up hy the feet and
brandy poured into his nose, so
that for two hours he lay there
as if dead. From these tortures
he was dragged into the common
prison, where the Jesuits tested
their arts of conversion. But
he steadfastly endured them all. When led to
death, and again urged to become a Roman
Catholic, he said: ‘I have a faith and an as-
surance and a portion, of which I have told you
that it shall not be taken from me forever. You
know that I do not adhere to you and the Rom-
ish faith; what I now suffer is on account of the
Evangelical [Lutheran] faith and the liberty
of the city. May God have mercy on the city.””
In a garden, near the place of execution, he
saw Bishop Dietrich anxiously awaiting the
bloody spectacle. He said to him: “Come

lnow, Bishop Dietrich, and drink your fill of
my blood, for which you have thirsted so long!”

e then undressed and allowed himself to be
tied fast. Seeing the flash of the executioner’s
sword, he cried with a loud voice: ‘Lord Jesus
receive my spirit!’’ Then the executioner cut
a bloody cross in his abdomen, and perpetrated
other atrocities which cannot be related. Wi-
chart suffered and died without a sigh.

How is it with our faithfulness and stead-
fastness, dear reader? Would you be ready
thus to confess Christ and your Lutheran faith?

—From the German.