Luther's Practical Advice on Honoring the Saints

Here's a snippet from The Festival Sermons of Martin Luther on the best way to honor the saints.

The entire sermon is an interesting read. Luther goes on to describe the proper way to honor departed saints, as well as offering a few tips on how or if one should pray for the dead (he makes similar comments in the treatise, Confession Concerning Christ's Supper, see my discussion here about prayers for the dead).

Luther: The Church Created the Canon of Scripture?

Many of the arguments from Rome's defenders have been around a long time. For instance, ever heard the argument that without the Roman church infallibly declaring the canon of Scripture, one cannot know which books are supposed to be in the Bible? Here's how Luther answered this. Keep in mind, he wasn't directly responding to one of Rome's defenders; Rather, the following comes from a a 1529 sermon:

Further they object: The church has accepted the four gospels, others they have not accepted. Thus the church is master over them. If not, who would know which gospel were true, perhaps Bartholomew's gospel or another? That sounds just as if we had the gospels from the church and not from God. Christianity has accepted the book, they say, therefore Christianity is over the book. I accept the teaching of Paul, therefore I am over his teaching. Oh that they had made the distinction between confessing and having authority! The Christian church confesses that the teaching, the Gospel, the book are true. Bot thereby the church is not given the authority over it. Then I could also say: I accept Christ, therefore I am over Christ. Or I would say of the prince of the land: Duke Hans of Saxony is my prince, not Duke George and the Margrave. I accept the former, not the latter; therefore because he is my prince, I am over him. Would he allow this? Would he allow his command to be changed? Is that indeed consistent?

Similarly, a lawyer could say: This command the emperor has fixed, that one a false teacher has fixed. Therefore this scholar stands over the emperor because he can distinguish between what the emperor has fixed and what another fixes. You've got to be kidding yourself! So they conclude quite foolishly: The Christian church confesses that this book and its teaching are true, therefore it is over them. These are rotten hoaxes. Christ has given the church this authority, to separate between truth and falsehood, as he says in Matthew 7:15: "Beware of false prophets!" When the evangelical teaching spread throughout the world from the apostles, upright teachers saw and received it; but other books that did not correspond to this, they discarded. So we also do. Bot I cannot conclude: Because I accept John's gospel, I am over the same. For this reason say: It is not true; the Christian church does not have the authority to change a single letter. For it is written in Matthew 5:19, "Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven." Add nothing and take nothing away. It should remain as Christ has ordered it.

But here God's ordinance concerns the two kinds of the sacrament, bread and wine, body and blood. Whoever changes this is not of the Christian church, but of the synagogue of the devil. The Christian church has no authority to change anything but only to judge, so that we do not accept false teaching as true. The gospel was not written first, but first the apostles had to preach it orally. Therefore it cannot be said that the church is over the Gospel. Only confession, judgment, recognition of what is false and true, is within the Christian church's authority. Therefore I can indeed recognize whether your wife is upright, but still I have no authority over her. For this reason they are crude buffoons who conclude: I can recognize this and judge it; therefore I am over it. But their desire to have the power to change amounts to nothing. The Christian church has accepted only the Gospel, and the gospel has stood by the church. Whether St. Bartholomew's gospel is right or not, the church has accepted the true Gospel. The church has had the true Gospel from the beginning and from this has judged what is unjust and false.  (The 1529 Holy Week and Easter Sermons of Dr. Martin Luther (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999), pp.40-42)

Luther on the Six Days of Creation and the Church Fathers

"But this also has a bearing on our firmly holding the conviction that there were really six days on which the Lord created everything, in contrast to the opinion of Augustine and Hilary, who believed that everything was created in a single moment. They, therefore, abandon the historical account, pursuing allegories and fabricating I don’t know what speculations. However, I am not saying this to vilify the holy fathers, whose works should be held in high regard, but to establish the truth and to comfort us. They were great men, but nevertheless they were human beings who erred and who were subject to error. So we do not exalt them as do the monks, who worship all their opinions as if they were infallible. To me the great comfort seems to lie rather in this, that they are found to have erred and occasionally to have sinned. For this is my thought: If God forgave them their errors and sins, why should I despair of His pardon? The opposite brings on despair—if you should believe that they did not have the same shortcomings that you have. Moreover, it is certain that between the call of the apostles and that of the fathers there is a great difference. Why, then, should we regard the writings of the fathers as equal to those of the apostles?" [Luther, M. (1999, c1958). Vol. 1: Luther's works, vol. 1 : Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 1-5 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald and H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (1:121). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House].

"Hilary and Augustine, almost the two greatest lights of the church, hold that the world was created instantaneously and all at the same time, not successively in the course of six days [Hilary, On the Trinity, XII, ch. 40, Patrologia, Series Latina, X, 458, 459; Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram libri XII, IV, ch. 33; Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, XXVIII, Sec. III, Part I, p. 133].  Moreover, Augustine resorts to extraordinary trifling in his treatment of the six days, which he makes out to be mystical days of knowledge among the angels, not natural ones. Hence debates are customary in schools and churches concerning evening and morning knowledge, subjects brought up by Augustine and scrupulously propounded by Lyra. Whoever wants to gain a knowledge of them, let him get it from Lyra" [Luther, M. (1999, c1958). Vol. 1: Luther's works, vol. 1 : Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 1-5 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald and H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (1:4). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House].

Addendum: Catholic Answers
"The writings of the Fathers, who were much closer than we are in time and culture to the original audience of Genesis, show that this was not the case [a consensus on literal days of creation]. There was wide variation of opinion on how long creation took. Some said only a few days; others argued for a much longer, indefinite period...Catholics are at liberty to believe that creation took a few days or a much longer period, according to how they see the evidence, and subject to any future judgment of the Church (Pius XII’s 1950 encyclical Humani Generis 36–37). They need not be hostile to modern cosmology." [source]

Men Changed Diapers in the 16th Century

Here's Martin Luther's take on marriage and changing diapers:

Now observe that when that clever harlot, our natural reason (which the pagans followed in trying to be most clever), takes a look at married life, she turns up her nose and says, “Alas, must I rock the baby, wash its diapers, make its bed, smell its stench, stay up nights with it, take care of it when it cries, heal its rashes and sores, and on top of that care for my wife, provide for her, labor at my trade, take care of this and take care of that, do this and do that, endure this and endure that, and whatever else of bitterness and drudgery married life involves? What, should I make such a prisoner of myself? O you poor, wretched fellow, have you taken a wife? Fie, fie upon such wretchedness and bitterness! It is better to remain free and lead a peaceful, carefree life; I will become a priest or a nun and compel my children to do likewise.”

What then does Christian faith say to this? It opens its eyes, looks upon all these insignificant, distasteful, and despised duties in the Spirit, and is aware that they are all adorned with divine approval as with the costliest gold and jewels. It says, “O God, because I am certain that thou hast created me as a man and hast from my body begotten this child, I also know for a certainty that it meets with thy perfect pleasure. I confess to thee that I am not worthy to rock the little babe or wash its diapers, or to be entrusted with the care of the child and its mother. How is it that I, without any merit, have come to this distinction of being certain that I am serving thy creature and thy most precious will? O how gladly will I do so, though the duties should be even more insignificant and despised. Neither frost nor heat, neither drudgery nor labor, will distress or dissuade me, for I am certain that it is thus pleasing in thy sight.”

A wife too should regard her duties in the same light, as she suckles the child, rocks and bathes it, and cares for it in other ways; and as she busies herself with other duties and renders help and obedience to her husband. These are truly golden and noble works. This is also how to comfort and encourage a woman in the pangs of childbirth, not by repeating St. Margaret legends and other silly old wives’ tales but by speaking thus, “Dear Grete, remember that you are a woman, and that this work of God in you is pleasing to him. Trust joyfully in his will, and let him have his way with you. Work with all your might to bring forth the child. Should it mean your death, then depart happily, for you will die in a noble deed and in subservience to God. If you were not a woman you should now wish to be one for the sake of this very work alone, that you might thus gloriously suffer and even die in the performance of God’s work and will. For here you have the word of God, who so created you and implanted within you this extremity.” Tell me, is not this indeed (as Solomon says [Prov. 18:22]) “to obtain favor from the Lord,” even in the midst of such extremity?

Now you tell me, when a father goes ahead and washes diapers or performs some other mean task for his child, and someone ridicules him as an effeminate fool—though that father is acting in the spirit just described and in Christian faith—my dear fellow you tell me, which of the two is most keenly ridiculing the other? God, with all his angels and creatures, is smiling—not because that father is washing diapers, but because he is doing so in Christian faith. Those who sneer at him and see only the task but not the faith are ridiculing God with all his creatures, as the biggest fool on earth. Indeed, they are only ridiculing themselves; with all their cleverness they are nothing but devil’s fools.

Luther, M. (1999, c1962). Vol. 45: Luther's works, vol. 45 : The Christian in Society II (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (45:39). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

Luther: "I know that I have often done many things foolishly and very rashly"

"I know that I have often done many things foolishly and very rashly, so much so that I thought: “Why has God called me to preach when I do not have as much knowledge, discretion, and judgment as the importance of the office demands?” Although I performed everything with a pious and sincere heart, with pious devotion and zeal, yet a great deal of nonsense and many failures arose, with the result that heaven and the whole world seemed about to go to ruin. Then I was compelled to fall on my knees and to ask for help and counsel from God, who is powerful and turns a denouement in a tragedy into a catastrophe in a comedy while we are sleeping. Thus He creates Eve while Adam is sleeping. He takes a rib from him while he is sleeping, closes the place with flesh, and builds the rib which he took from Adam into flesh. Here someone may say that God had silken fingers, because He performs such a great work so nimbly and so easily. In the same manner He also governs His saints. Even if they have erred seriously in their thinking and have been guilty of great folly and rashness, from which countless evils can arise, yet He brings about a happy outcome, like the denouement in a comedy."

  [Luther, M. (1999). Luther's works, vol. 5: Lectures on Genesis: Chapters 26-30 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald and H. T. Lehmann, Ed.) (Ge 27:14). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House].

Luther on Origen, Jerome, and Augustine

Here's an interesting Luther comment from his commending preface to a book by Johann Brenz:

But the gift of God that I particularly love and revere in you [Brenz] above all the rest is that you emphasize the righteousness of faith so faithfully and purely in all your writings. For this article is the head and cornerstone that alone begets, nurtures, builds, preserves, and defends the Church of God. Without it, the Church cannot remain standing for a single hour, as you know and perceive. That is why you insist upon it as you do. For no one can teach correctly in the church or resist any adversary successfully, unless he has grasped this article or, as Paul calls it, "the sound doctrine" [Titus 2:11], one who, as the same Paul says, "holds fast to the doctrine" [cf. Titus 1:9 Vg]. For that reason, I wonder more and more, and almost with indignation, how it is that St. Jerome earned the title "doctor of the church" and Origen that of "teacher of the churches next after the apostles,"since you will not easily find three lines teaching the righteousness of faith in either author, nor could you make anyone a Christian from the collected writings of both —to such an extent do they wander about with their allegories of events or are captivated by the pomp of works. And St. Augustine would not have been any different, if the Pelagians had not finally engaged him and driven him to the righteousness of faith. From this struggle and engagement he emerged as a doctor of the church in truth — nearly the only one after the apostles and earliest fathers of the church. [LW 59:288]

You can buy LW 59 here.

Luther on Cyprian of Carthage (on the Bishop of Rome)

Here's a Luther tidbit from LW 59:275 (You can buy LW 59 here):

"I know a great archbishop, whom I shall not name,* who had a high opinion of St. Cyprian, the holy bishop and martyr, and read a bit in his books [to arm himself] against the Lutherans, intending thereby entirely to overthrow them. But when it was pointed out to him that in the books of the same St. Cyprian it is written that the holy Christian Church is found not only in Rome but in every corner of the world, he said, 'If I had known that Cyprian taught that, I would have had his books burned as those of a heretic.' And when the passage in the book was shown to him,** he threw Cyprian and his book away and would no longer read the heretic."

*Probably Albert of Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mainz

 **Cyprian of Carthage was renowned as a scourge of heretics, but he was equally renowned for his view that the apostolic authority conferred on Peter was shared equally by all bishops and that the bishop of Rome had no right to call himself "bishop of bishops" and exact obedience from all the rest. The passage Luther has in mind was probably On the Unity of the Church 4-5 (PL 4:499-502; ANF 5:422-23), but the point is made elsewhere as well (see, e.g., the acts of the Seventh Council of Carthage [PL 3:1053-54; ANF 5:565]).

Refuting the Hard Arguments of Your Enemey

In the recent edition of Luther's Works, I came across a bit of practical common sense that most of us probably know, yet the way Luther articulated it really made it clear. I think it's a good dose of practical advise for apologists.

 In 1530 Luther wrote a preface to a book written in the previous century by a Christian man who had been in slavery to the Muslims for 20 years. At this time in history, the Muslims were a dire threat to the West, yet very little accurate information on Islam was readily available. Luther had a deep interest in understanding Islam, and had read as much as he could get his hands on. He complained that many of the books refuting Islam "eagerly pick out the most shameful and absurd passages from the Koran, which provoke hostility and are able to move the multitude to hatred" (LW 59:258) while ignoring or concealing "the good passages" in the Koran. Why? Because these are harder to refute. The author of the book Luther wrote the preface for gained Luther's respect because,

 "...he narrates [the details of Islam] in such a way that he not only recites their evils but also sets their best parts alongside, and he preaches those things in such a way as to rebuke and scold our people by comparison with them. Yet he does not approve of them as if they were pious deeds, but he refutes them with courage and vigor, inasmuch as was possible at that time. Indeed, these are sure signs of a candid and sincere heart, which writes nothing from hatred but tells everything from love of the truth. You see, whoever does nothing but find fault with his enemy, denouncing his shameful and absurd aspects, does more harm to his case than good. What is easier than to denounce the manifestly shameful and dishonorable things (which, in any case, refute themselves)? But to refute the good and honorable things, after taking away their splendor, is what benefits one's case; this is what removes stumbling blocks and strips the false form off the angel of light [cf. 2 Cor. 11:14], making him odious by virtue of his own turpitude and his robbery of the light." [LW 59:258-259]

The book by the way, was George of Hungary, Book on the Ceremonies and Customs of the Turks. I searched around a bit a couldn't find a free link, so if anyone can come up with a link, I'd appreciate it. For $35 you can read it here.

Luther's Faith

"Faith is the yes of the heart, a conviction on which one stakes one's life. On what does faith rest? On Christ, born of a woman, made under the Law, who died, etc., as the children pray. To this confession I say yes with the full confidence of my heart. Christ came for my sake, in order to free me from the Law, not only from the guilt of sin but also from the power of the Law. If you are able to say yes to this, you have what is called faith; and this faith does everything... but this faith does not grow by our own powers. On the contrary, the Holy Spirit is present and writes it in the heart."- Martin Luther

Luther, Easter Sunday Morning, March 28, 1529

The book featured on the left presents a series of sermons related to Easter from 1529. Most of these sermons are not included in the English edition of Luther's Works. It's a readable series of sermons, and affordable.
 
Luther recounts the account of the Resurrection of Christ and then states:

"This is the story of Easter. Much could be preached about it, and it is worth dealing with one part at a time.

First, what ought to follow the simple knowledge of this story, is to understand and regard the resurrection of Christ in a truly Christian fashion, because the great majority of people listen to the resurrection of Christ like a story about the Turks. To them it is a story painted on the wall. It must be something better, as we sing in the hymn, "So let our joy rise full and free; Christ our comfort true will be." We must consider that it is ours, that it has to do with you and me. We should not only consider how the resurrection happened, but that you recognize that it happens for you, as the Lord says in the words: "Go and tell my brothers!" (Matthew 28:10). There we hear what he intends with his resurrection.

This is the true teaching of the resurrection: that each person receives the resurrection as his or her own. For there is a great difference between `Christ is a Savior and king,' and `Christ is my Savior and my king.' But just how difficult this is, is indicated by the disciples, who scarcely believe that Christ is raised—not to mention that he is raised for them.

The godless people, who laugh at us when we preach the faith, do not know what faith is and does. They are blind fools and look at the resurrection like a cow staring at a new gate. But when you put your faith in his works, then he is such a champion, giant and hero, who had arrayed against him the gates of hell, all devils with their cunning, and death with all its powers. If they had considered this, they would not laugh so at us. Certainly we must learn it from our own experience that no one on earth, not even the emperor, can withstand death, and yet a Christian can do it. Therefore one must regard the resurrection with other than physical eyes; otherwise one has no comfort from it. Here one must open the eyes of the heart.

You have heard in the Passion how Christ let himself be crucified and buried and how sin and death trampled him underfoot. Satan and the sins of the world lie on him in the tomb. Sin, death and the devil are his lord. Therefore you must look into his tomb and realize that my sins and my death tear him apart and oppress him. There the devil regards himself as secure, and the chief priests boast and rejoice: He is gone and will not return. But in the instant when they believe him destroyed, the Lion tears himself away from sin, death, hell, and the jaws of the devil and rips them to shreds with his teeth. This is our comfort, that Christ comes forth: Death, sin, and the devil cannot hold him. The sin of the entire world is powerless. When he appears to Mary Magdalene, one sees in him neither death nor sin nor sadness but sheer life and joy. There I see that the Lord is mine and treads on the devil. Then I find my sins, torment, and devil where I ought to find them. There is the seed of the woman, who has struck the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15), and says: Death, you shall die; Hell, you shall be defeated! Here is the victor.

It is a Christian art when a person can regard the Lord Jesus as the one whose business it is to deal with our sins. But if a sermon comes along that goes like this: You have sinned; you must do this and that and by your own works take action against those sins! Then they pit us against death and sin and call us to struggle against them with our works. Look how they teach us to regard sin and death: namely, that they are the strongest and rule in my conscience. There they lead me, a wretched person, so miserably alone against the devil.

Is this not a devil's sermon and a blasphemy against God and Christ? So if my works do it, I do not need Christ who died and is raised. When Satan and sin are there and you regard them as I have just described, then you are lost. Whenever you feel sin, death, plague, and attack of the devil, you can be given no assistance, save that you abandon what your conscience says and turn to Christ. You must say: Flesh and devil do not lay my sins in the right place; there they are too strong for me. But Christ is not raised for himself but for me, and the Scripture says that the sins of all people are laid on him, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). There they lie! And let them lie there, where the Scripture puts them! If the devil wants to convince you otherwise, then just remember this sermon!

When the sins lie on Christ, then I see what the world, the devil, and sin do to him in the grave and in death: they hang on him and crush him; thus they are strong and devour him. But because today he now comes forth from the grave and remains in honor and glory, everything that the devil, sin, and death have done is destroyed. It is easy to say such words, but still no one believes it. It is truly a difficult article to believe, to stand with certainty on what I say, that all sins that I feel are not mine, that the fear of death is not mine. This is said contrary to all reason. But the Scripture certainly does not lie when it says that my sins lie on him. If this is true then they do not lie on me. Thus I must follow the logic of these utterances and say: I know nothing of sin, death, or the devil, for I look upon Christ. If they have not strangled him, then they must be dead. For when sin and death were capable of something, then I would expect to detect it in Christ. But they do nothing to him. He lives, I see no marks on him. For this reason they must be blown away like dust by the wind. Therefore a Christian ought to feel nothing of sin and death but look only upon Christ. Whoever can believe this article is a Christian." (pp. 123-125).

Addendum
From a reviewer of this book on Amazon.com:

"What a collection! The 18 Holy Week sermons that Luther preached in 1529. And to think that a preacher today might have to preach seven or so sermons in this same period, given that most of us do not preach on the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of Holy Week as Luther did. Also, contributing to this load was the fact that his fellow preacher there in Wittenberg, Bugenhagen was on the road with Visitation. So the task left to Luther."

Happy New Year

Here's a quote from Luther to ponder this New Year's Eve:

"For through much practice, I have now come to the point (God be praised) that I am just now really beginning to believe that God is the Creator of heaven an earth. Everyone now and at all times understands, has understood, and will understand this text all too well- except for myself alone and a few other poor sinners and fools, like Moses, David, Isaiah, and such people (among whom I can only boastfully place myself by saying: Nos poma natamus ["I am floating along with the other apples"] - [that is,] like horse dung among apples). These people consider God to be a man of wonders and say that His creation  is nothing but wondrous works. Yet very few see God's wondrous works, though everyone sees His creation and cannot help but grasp and feel it, as St. Paul says in Acts 17 [26:-27]. However, I, too, am one of the course fellows who do not yet comprehend His creation and (as I said), I have just begun to believe this, so that, as an old student and a doctor now almost at the end of my days, I must rightly wonder at how the people in our time know everything that the Holy Spirit knows as soon as they have so much sniffed at a book. Yet they go off on their way and see nothing of the things God does daily before our eyes, which are both terrifying and comforting. They give it no heed, as if it were all a charlatan's trick. Through Adam's sin human nature has fallen so far from God and His image- that is, from knowing Him [cf. Col. 3:10]- that we do not understand our own body and life, how wonderfully these are daily created, granted, and preserved by God. Therefore, is it any wonder if we are obstinate, stubborn, utterly blind, and [insensible] logs toward His other wondrous works, which He reveals to us in all creatures, besides our own body and life?" [LW 60:119]

The Quotable Luther #10: Be Armed With Scripture

Therefore it is necessary for simple people to understand this passage and similar passages well and to contrast the pope’s rule with these statements when one wants to question and examine them. Then they can answer and say: “Thus Christ spoke and did. But the pope teaches and does the very opposite. Christ says yes. But the pope says no. Now because they are at loggerheads, one of them must surely be lying. Now Christ surely does not lie. Therefore I conclude that the pope is a liar and, in addition, is the real Antichrist.” Thus you must be so well armed with Scripture that you not only can call the pope an antichrist but know how to give clear proof of this, that you can confidently stake your life on this and prevail against the devil when you die.[LW 30:137]

The Quotable Luther #9 Heresy

I found the following quote allocated to my blogger drafts. It's been there for quite a while, and now, months later, I don't remember putting it there. It must've been something I planned on writing on, but I've since forgotten what I intended to do with it. Now here's the irony: I forgot to include the source from where I got it. It definitely came from one of my books, not the Internet, and it was probably a sermon.

A heretic must be trapped by clear, strong passages, else they wriggle away from us and escape like fish that squirm through a net. Heretics are very slippery. It’s very difficult to hold them and they treat the divine Scriptures recklessly. That means all that they will use is everything in Scripture that bears their opinions, and the rest of Scripture must let itself be directed, bow down and defer to their noggins and understanding. That is why we must hear God’s Word with fear, and treat it in humility and not prod around in it with our own opinions.You’d do well to prefer falling into all kinds of sins rather than into your own darkness, so dangerous and destructive. For God’s Word is nothing to play around with. If you cannot understand it, then leave it alone. It will not suffer itself to be diminished nor defined by man, but rather it must be taken seriously. It must be respected and rightly handled. For that reason guard yourself that you don’t impose your own darkness onto Scripture, as if your life depended on it. When this malady takes root, then not I, but the devil is in charge. That is why it is good St.Paul says in Titus 3.10: “Depart from a divisive man after he is admonished once or twice, and know that such a man is perverted and sins as one who is self-condemned.” Therefore guard yourselves from the sects. It is easy to join them but very difficult to get out again. Believe me, you will have a harder time leaving them than joining.

The Quotable Luther #8 "The Fathers, the Fathers"

(Dedicated to my dear friend, Skyman- thanks for all your work!)

WITH such blindness and madness has our Lord Jesus Christ stricken the whole kingdom of the papist abomination, that for three years now the Cyclops of their infinite host, warring on Luther alone, are still at a loss to understand for what reason I am at war with them. In vain do all the books that I have edited and published testify that I seek this one thing only, which is that the divine Scriptures be given the pre-eminence, as is right and just, and that all human inventions and traditions be taken out of the way as most hurtful stumbling blocks. Or, having cut out their poison and plucked out their sting, that is, their power of forcing and commanding and snaring consciences being taken away, let them be freely and indifferently tolerated as in this world we have to tolerate any other pest or unhappiness.

For afflicted with chronic insanity they bring nothing against me but the statutes of men, the glosses of the Father and the acts, or ritual, of past centuries, those very things which I deny and impugn and which they themselves confess to be untrustworthy and often erroneous. I dispute de iure, and they answer me de facto. I seek a cause; they show a work. I ask, By what authority do ye do this? They reply, Because we do it and have done it. So for reason they give their will, for authority their ritual. For right they allege their custom, and that in the things of God.

There is in their schools a most vicious method of arguing, which they call begging the question. This they learn and teach till grey-headed,--in fact, till burial,--with infinite sweat, with infinite trouble, poor unhappy men. But when they come to apply their teaching, they do nothing except viciously beg the question. And so when I exclaim: The Gospel, the Gospel, Christ, Christ; they reply, The Fathers, the Fathers, use, use, statute, statute!

When I say, the Fathers, use, statute have often erred; we must have a stronger and surer authority--Christ cannot err; then they are like the mute fishes, and become as the Scripture saith, like deaf adders that shut their ears lest they hear the voice of the charmer. Or they reply thus to me, in words which they always have on the tip of their tongue: Ambrose saith so; art thou wiser than Ambrose? Do you alone know? And this is all they have to say. As though the question was between Ambrose's teaching and mine; or as though I could not answer: You misunderstand and misinterpret Ambrose. What is gained, I ask, by disputing with those who are blind and bad-tempered and utterly senseless? [source]

Alternate translation:

Our Lord Jesus Christ has smitten the whole realm of papal abomination with blindness and maddness. For three years now, the mad giants have been struggling against Luther and they still do not grasp what my fight with them is all about. It seems, in vain have I published so many writings which testify openly that I seek to demonstrate that Scripture should count as the exclusive authority, as is right and fair; that human contrivances and doctrines should be given up as evil scandals or, at least, that once their poison is extracted (that is, the power to enforce them and to make them obligatory for the conscience), they should be regarded as a matter for free investigation just as any other calamity or plague in the world. Because they fail to understand this, they quote against me exclusively man-made laws, glosses on the writings of the fathers and from the history of old customs, in short: precisely what I reject and what I am contesting. They themselves know very well that all those things are unreliable and that frequently they contain errors. My struggle concerns principles, they answer stressing usage and custom. I ask: "By what authority do you do this?" They answer; "Because we are doing it, and have always done so." Instead of discussing the basic cause, they discuss intentions instead of Scripture, usages instead of my principal concern,custom—and all this in things pertaining to God!

'They have in their schools a questionable method in disputations, called the repetition of the question (i.e. reverting to the point under dispute). Thus, they study and teach until they turn grey—right to their grave—with endless labour and at great cost, the miserable men. They themselves cannot do anything else with their teaching, it is the only way they can dispute. And that is the reason why it happens that, if I always cry: "Gospel! Gospell Gospel!", they can only answer; "Fathers! Fathers! Custom! Custom! Decretals!Decretals!" If then I answer that customs, fathers and decretals have often erred, that reform must be based upon sounder foundation because Christ cannot err, then they are silent like the fishes, or as the Scripture says: "Like deaf adders they stop their ears, lest they should hear the voice of the charmer."'

[Henry VIII and Luther by Erwin Doernberg (California: Stanford University Press, 1961), pp. 27-28].

The Quotable Luther #7 Easter

Know ye then- sin, death, devil, and everything that assails me- that you are missing the mark. I am not one of those who are afraid of you. For Christ, my dear Lord, has presented to me that triumph and victory of his by which you were laid low. And from this very gift of His I derive my name and am called a Christian. There is no other reason. My sin and death hung about His neck on Good Friday, but on the day of Easter they had completely disappeared. This victory He has bestowed on me. This is why I do not worry about you.

Source: Easter sermon, 1530, Mark 16:1-8 (What Luther Says, 3881)

The Quotable Luther #6 Waiting for a Council to Clarify

Councils may make decisions and pass decrees in matters that are temporal or that have not yet been clearly set forth. But when we can plainly see what is God’s Word and will, we will wait neither for councils nor for the decrees and decisions of the Church, but rather fear God and boldly do according to that Word and will of God without stopping to think whether councils shall be called or not.

For I am not willing to wait until councils decide whether we are to believe in God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth, in His only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, in the Holy Ghost, etc. And just so with all other manifest, clear and certain portions of the Scriptures which it is necessary and profitable for me to believe. For, suppose the councils should delay, and I should have to die before they reached a decision, where should my soul stay meanwhile, since it is not to know what to believe, but await the decision of the Councils, and yet I need faith here on earth?

Source: Works of Martin Luther Vol. III (Philadelphia Edition), p. 417

The Quotable Luther #5: "Opponents Using the Early Church Fathers"

Here are a few quotes from Luther responding to a 16th Century Catholic apologist (Jerome Emser) who used quotes from the early church fathers against him:

"...they are afraid of Scripture, for they realize what unfamiliar ground it is to them. Therefore they labor painfully, with many turns and twists, to make it unnecessary for them to attack me with the Scriptures and to be defeated by the Scriptures. So they invent new lies, find daggers and spears and other fools’ weapons and declare the Scriptures are so obscure that they cannot be understood apart from the interpretation of the holy fathers, and that we must, therefore, not follow the text, but the glosses of the fathers. This is what Emser calls fighting with the blade and not with the scabbard. And when they are able to bring one saying of the fathers against me, they ring all their bells, beat all their drums, and shout aloud that they have won, stop their ears and shut their eyes, and imagine they have closed and sealed all the Scriptures for me."

"In order that these word-jugglers may be seen in their true light, I ask them, who told them that the fathers are clearer and not more obscure than the Scriptures? How would it be if I said that they understand the fathers as little as I understand the Scriptures? I could just as well stop my ears to the sayings of the fathers as they do to the Scriptures. But in that way we shall never arrive at the truth. If the Spirit has spoken in the fathers, so much the more has He spoken in His own Scriptures. And if one does not understand the Spirit in His own Scriptures, who will trust him to understand the Spirit in the writings of another? That is truly a carrying of the sword in the scabbard, when we do not take the naked sword by itself, but only as it is encased in the words and glosses of men. This dulls its edge and makes it obscurer than it was before, though Emser calls it smiting with the blade.The naked sword makes him tremble from head to foot. But I cannot help him, he must take his punishment.

Be it known, then, that Scripture, without any gloss, is the sun and the sole light from which all teachers receive their light, and not the contrary. This is proved by the fact that when the fathers teach anything they do not trust their teaching, but fearing it to be too obscure and uncertain, they go to the Scriptures and take a clear passage out of it to shed light on their teaching, just as we place a light in a lantern, and as we read in Psalm 18:28 “Thou wilt light my lamp, O Lord.” And when they expound a passage of Scripture, they do not rely upon their own words and interpretation (for where they do that, which happens often, they usually err), but they bring another passage of Scripture which is clearer, and thus they interpret and explain Scripture by Scripture. My goats would soon find this to be true if they would read their fathers carefully, but since they simply skim over them and study neither the Scriptures nor the fathers, it is no wonder that they do not know what the Scriptures or the fathers teach.

I lose my patience when they thus revile and blaspheme the Scriptures and the fathers. They accuse the Scriptures of being obscure, while all the fathers deem them the light of lights, even as David says, “Thy word is my light”; and they ascribe to the fathers the light with which Scripture must be illumined, whereas all the fathers concede their own obscurity and illumine Scripture by Scripture alone. And that is the true method of interpretation which puts Scripture alongside of Scripture in a right and proper way; the father who can do this best is the best among them. And all the books of the fathers must be read with discrimination, not taking their word for granted, but looking whether they quote clear texts and explain Scripture by other and clearer Scripture. How should they have overcome the heretics, if they had fought with their own glosses? They would have been regarded as fools and madmen. But when they brought forward clear texts which needed no glosses, so that reason was brought into captivity, the evil spirit himself with all his heresies was completely routed."

Source: Martin Luther, Dr. Martin Luther's Answer to the Superchristian, Superspiritual, and Superlearned Book of Goat Emser of Leipzig, With a Glance at his Comrade Murner 1521, Works of Martin Luther III (Philadlephia: Muhlenberg Press, 1930) pp.332-335.

The Quotable Luther #4

Is it not true that money, property, body, wife, child, friends, and the like, are good things created and given by God Himself? Since, then, they are God’s gifts and not your own, suppose He were to try you, to learn whether you were willing to let them go for His sake and to cleave to Him rather than to such gifts of His. Suppose He raised up an enemy, who deprived you of them in whole or in part, or you lost them by death or some other mischance. Do you think you would have just cause to rage and storm, and to take them again by force, or to sulk impatiently until they were restored to you? And if you said that they were good things and God’s creatures, made with His own hands, and that, since all the Scriptures called such things good, you were resolved to fulfill God’s Word and defend or get back such goods at cost of life and limb, or not willingly to suffer their loss nor let them go with patience — what a farce would that be! To do right in this case, you should not rush in pellmell, but fear God and say, “Dear Lord, they are good things and gifts of Thine, as Thine own Word and Scripture saith; nevertheless I know not whether Thou wilt permit me to keep them. Did I know I was not to have them, I would not move a finger to get them back. Did I know that Thou wouldst rather have them remain in my possession than in that of others, I would serve Thy will by taking them back at risk of life and property. But now, since I know neither, and see that for the present Thou sufferest them to be taken from me, I commit the case to Thee. I will await what I am to do, and be ready to have them or to do without them.”

source

The Quotable Luther #3- 486 Year-Old Advice on "Doing" Apologetics

Source: Works of Martin Luther Vol. III (Philadelphia Edition) pp.218-222 "AN EARNEST EXHORTATION FOR ALL CHRISTIANS, WARNING THEM AGAINST INSURRECTION AND REBELLION" (1522)

...If you want to tell others about the Gospel in a Christian way, you must consider the persons with whom you are speaking. For you will meet two kinds. There are some who are hardened and will not hear, but with their lies deceive and poison others. To this class belong the pope, Eck, Emser, and some of our bishops, priests and monks. To these men you are not to tell anything about the Gospel at all, but do as Christ says in Matthew 7:6, “Give not that which is holy to dogs; neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and the dogs turn and tear you.”

Let them remain dogs and swine; your efforts are wasted in any case. Solomon also says, “Where there is none who listens, pour not out words.” (Ecclus. 32:6 [Vulgate]) But when you see that these liars instill their lies and poison into other people, then you are to oppose them boldly and fight against them, just as Paul opposed Elymas with hard and sharp words, ( Acts 13:10 f.) and as Christ calls the Pharisees a generation of vipers. ( Matthew 23:33) This you are to do not for their sake, for they will not listen to you, but for the sake of those whom they are poisoning. For so St. Paul commands Titus to rebuke sharply such vain talkers and deceivers of souls. (Titus 1:10,13)

But there are others who have so far heard only this and might be willing to learn if some one taught them, or who are so weak that they cannot readily understand it. These you must not bully and startle, but instruct them in a kindly and gentle manner, point out to them the evidence and the proof, and if they cannot immediately grasp it, have patience with them for a time. St. Paul speaks of this in Romans 14:1; 15:1, “Him that is weak in the faith, receive ye”; and St. Peter in 1 Peter 3:15, “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with gentleness and fear.” Here you see that we are to give instruction in our faith with gentleness and in the fear of God to any man who desires or needs it.

If, in dealing with such people, you want to display your great learning, pounce upon them with the bare assertion that their way of praying, fasting and celebrating mass is wrong, and insist upon eating meat, eggs and other things they regard as forbidden on the fast-day, and with it all do not with gentleness and fear explain to them the why and wherefore, these simple souls cannot help thinking that you are a proud, impudent and wicked man, as in truth you are. They will get the impression that men are not to pray nor to do good, that the mass is nothing, and so on. You have led them into this error and put this stumbling block in their way, and you will be held accountable for it. That is why they think and speak ill of the holy Gospel and imagine that you have been taught monstrous things. What does it profit you thus to give offense to your neighbor and to lay obstacles in the way of the Gospel? You have cooled your inconsiderate ardor, and men say, “Well, I will keep my old faith,” and shut their hearts against the genuine truth.

But if you would tell them your reasons with fear and gentleness, as St. Peter teaches you, (1 Peter 3:16) and say, “ My dear man, fasting, the eating of eggs, meat and fish are matters of such a nature that salvation does not depend on them; both the doing of these things and the leaving of them undone may be either right or wrong according to circumstances; faith alone saves,” and whatever else ought to be said in such a case, as, for example, that the mass would be a good thing if it were properly celebrated, etc.: this method would draw them to you, they would listen and at last learn what you know. But now that you are so insolent, pride yourself on your superior knowledge, act like the Pharisee in the Gospel, ( Luke 18:11, John 7:49) and base your pride on the fact that they do not know what you know, you fall under the judgment of St. Paul in Romans 14:15, Jam non secundum caritatem ambulas, and you despise your neighbor whom you ought to serve with meekness and fear. Consider an analogous case. If an enemy had tied a rope about your brother’s neck so that he was in danger of his life, and you were so foolish as to rage against the rope and the enemy, and ran up and with all your energy pulled the rope toward you or lunged at it with a knife, you would most likely strangle your brother or stab him, and do more harm than the rope and the enemy had done. If you really want to help your brother, this is what you must do: the enemy you may punish or beat as hard as he deserves, but the rope you must handle gently and with fear until you get it away from your brother’s neck, lest you strangle him.

In the same way you may be harsh in dealing with the liars, the hardened tyrants, and be bold to do things contrary to their teachings and their works, for they are unwilling to listen to you. But the simple people, whom they have bound with the ropes of their teachings and whose lives are endangered, you must treat quite differently. You must with fear and gentleness undo the teachings of men, tell your reasons, and in this way gradually set them free. This is what St. Paul did when, in defiance of all the Jews, ( Galatians 2:3) he would not have Titus circumcised, and yet circumcised Timothy. ( Acts 16:3) You must treat dogs and swine differently from men, and wolves and lions differently from the weak sheep. With the wolves you cannot be too severe, with the weak sheep you cannot be too gentle. Living as we do among the papists, we must act just as if we lived among the heathen. Indeed, they are sevenfold heathen, and therefore, as St. Peter teaches, we are to have our conversation honest among the Gentiles, that they may not be able to speak any evil of us truthfully, though they would like to do so. ( 1 Peter 2:12) It gives them great pleasure to hear that you make a boast of this teaching and give offense to weak hearts; because it gives them an opportunity to decry the whole of the teaching as one that gives offense and does harm, and they have no other way of resisting it, but must acknowledge that it is true.

The Quotable Luther #2

Looking over his life’s work, Luther, the alleged infallible-interpreter-super-pope, said:

“I would have been quite content to see my books, one and all, remain in obscurity and go by the board. Among other reasons, I shudder to think of the example I am giving, for I am well aware how little the church has been profited since they have begun to collect many books and large libraries, in addition to and besides the Holy Scriptures, and especially since they have stored up, without discrimination, all sorts of writings by the church fathers, the councils, and teachers. Through this practice not only is precious time lost, which could be used for studying the Scriptures, but in the end the pure knowledge of the divine Word is also lost, so that the Bible lies forgotten in the dust under the bench (as happened to the book of Deuteronomy, in the time of the kings of Judah)…I cannot, however, prevent them from wanting to collect and publish my works through the press (small honor to me), although it is not my will. I have no choice but to let them risk the labor and the expense of this project. My consolation is that, in time, my books will lie forgotten in the dust anyhow, especially if I (by God’s grace) have written anything good. Non ere melior Patribus meis.  He who comes second should indeed be the first one forgotten. Inasmuch as they have been capable of leaving the Bible itself lying under the bench, and have also forgotten the fathers and the councils—the better ones all the faster—accordingly there is a good hope, once the overzealousness of this time has abeted, that my books also will not last long. There is especially good hope of this, since it has begun to rain and snow books and teachers, many of which already lie there forgotten and moldering. Even their names are not remembered any more, despite their confident hope that they would eternally be on sale in the market and rule churches.” (LW 34:283-284).


"For a long time I strenuously resisted those who wanted my books, or more correctly my confused lucubrations, published. I did not want the labors of the ancients to be buried by my new works and the reader kept from reading them. Then, too, by God’s grace a great many systematic books now exist, among which the Loci communes of Philip excel, with which a theologian and a bishop can be beautifully and abundantly prepared to be mighty in preaching the doctrine of piety, especially since the Holy Bible itself can now be had in nearly every language. But my books, as it happened, yes, as the lack of order in which the events transpired made it necessary, are accordingly crude and disordered chaos, which is now not easy to arrange even for me.

Persuaded by these reasons, I wished that all my books were buried in perpetual oblivion, so that there might be room for better ones. But the boldness and bothersome perseverance of others daily filled my ears with complaints that it would come to pass, that if I did not permit their publication in my lifetime, men wholly ignorant of the causes and the time of the events would nevertheless most certainly publish them, and so out of one confusion many would arise. Their boldness, I say, prevailed and so I permitted them to be published. At the same time the wish and command of our most illustrious Prince, Elector, etc., John Frederick was added. He commanded, yes, compelled the printers not only to print, but to speed up the publication.

But above all else, I beg the sincere reader, and I beg for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, to read those things judiciously, yes, with great commiseration. May he be mindful of the fact that I was once a monk and a most enthusiastic papist when I began that cause. I was so drunk, yes, submerged in the pope’s dogmas, that I would have been ready to murder all, if I could have, or to co-operate willingly with the murderers of all who would take but a syllable from obedience to the pope. So great a Saul was I, as are many to this day. I was not such a lump of frigid ice in defending the papacy as Eck and his like were, who appeared to me actually to defend the pope more for their own belly’s sake than to pursue the matter seriously. To me, indeed, they seem to laugh at the pope to this day, like Epicureans! I pursued the matter with all seriousness, as one, who in dread of the last day, nevertheless from the depth of my heart wanted to be saved.

So you will find how much and what important matters I humbly conceded to the pope in my earlier writings, which I later and now hold and execrate as the worst blasphemies and abomination. You will, therefore, sincere reader, ascribe this error, or, as they slander, contradiction to the time and my inexperience. At first I was all alone and certainly very inept and unskilled in conducting such great affairs. For I got into these turmoils by accident and not by will or intention. I call upon God himself as witness." [LW 34: 327-328].